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Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 263
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Points I presume they will soon be dismissed as heretofore
in that case I shall not meet our People at all but if the Pensil-
vanians prepare such a Bill as the Governor can accept I shall
immediately convene our Assembly in hopes that as they have
heretofore been they will continue Imitators of the Quakers
Conduct. Inclosed you have an Exact & proper Return of
the Officers & Men that fell in the Action of the gth of July of
those that were wounded & of them that escaped unhurt,
since that time some have died of their wounds at Fort
Cumberland where the Hospital is still kept. It was as sur-
prizing a Defeat I think as has been heared of, for 'tis supposed
that the Indians that that Day opposed General Braddock were
not less than 1 500 or 2000 & yet none of the English that were
engaged will say they saw a hundred & many of the Officers
who were in the Heat of the Action the whole time will not
assert that they saw one Enemy, it seems they had most
advantageously posted themselves behind the large Trees that
grew on the Eminences or Hills that were on the Right Flank
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Letter Bk. I.
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&in the Front of our Troops, thence they fired irregularly on the
English beneath them who being in a compact Body became a
fair mark to their Enemies against whom they fired in platoons
almost as fast as they could load, without doing as I conceive
any great Execution. The men had not been used to nor had
any Idea of this kind of fighting, which disperited them & soon
threw them into Confusion they refused to obey the Voice of
their Officers & having wasted all their Ammunition retired in
great Disorder leaving the Enemy Masters of the Field & of
all the Artillery Ammunition Baggage & every thing that had
passed the River, it is supposed that 800 or 900 Stand of
Arms have fallen into the Enemies hands & that what Colonel
Dunbar by the General's Orders destroyed was worth at that
place ^100000 Sg this Loss of all the Artillery except four 6
Lbers which Colo Dunbar has taken with him together with the
Loss of so many Officers & the Disability of many that survive
to enter again on Action as also the present Condition of the
Troops who have been harrassed almost to death by the
Laborious Campaign they have made has determined Colo
Dunbar to retire from Fort Cumberland which Step I think the
present Temper & Disposition of the Troops must incline any
one who saw & conversed with them to approve I have not
lately received any Lett/ from the Northwd but the Gazetts
inform us that the Troops in Nova Scotia have succeeded
to their Wishes having dispossessed the French of all the
Forts that they had built in that part of the Continent. I
flatter myself with hopes that Colo Johnson will reduce Crown
Point which is I hear but weakly garrisoned at this time but I
confess I am not quite so sanguine in my Expectations con-
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p. 147
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