General thereon & given Directions accordingly. I hope our
Assembly will think of returning home the End of this & then
I propose & hope I shall be able to be in Virginia the begin-
ning of the ensuing week.
I am
[Sharpe (to William Sharpe ?)]
Since my Appointment to the Command of the American
Forces I do'nt doubt but every Body on your Side the
Atlantick have been in constant Expectations of hearing of
some Exploit in America in Consequence of his Majesty's
honouring me with such a Commission. On the first Receipt
of it tho the winter was then unhappily just approaching I was
not absolutely without hopes myself of being enabled to satisfy
in some measure my Friends Wishes for my Success & pros-
perity when I was in Virga I proposed to Govr Dinwiddie to
raise 700 Men immediately & with them & the Independant
Companies to have made an Attempt on the Fort that the
Enemy had raised at the Mouth of the Monongahela, but
whatever were my wishes at that time I was soon convinced of
their Vanity when I arrived at Will's Creek, there I learnt that
the Number of the French at their Fort exceeded 600 beside
several Parties of Indians who were at their Devotion & sub-
mitted to their Command. The Fort tho small was rendered
pretty defensible by a Ditch & two Out works before the Cur-
tains that faced the Land on the Side of the Rivers it was
surrounded with Stoccadoes or Palisades & the Garrison had
laid in a sufficient Stock of Provision for at least the whole
winter.
The Troops that I must have commanded were three Inde-
pendant Companies that did not in the least answer the Expec-
tations I had entertained of them, the Remains of the Virga
Forces amounted to about 120 discontented unruly & mutinous;
the Maryland Company was at that time incompleat &
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