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Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 253
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their Service there shall be necessary & I am apt to think I
shall be joined by as many as I want before the Rear of the
Army is ready to move from Rays Town which perhaps if the
General can get thither it might be in about a week from this
time. I learn from a Person that left Rays Town the 24th Inst.
that Sr I St Clair had opened a Road from that place to a
River called the Laurel hannon which is about 70 Miles beyond
Rays Town & not more than 35 to the Eastward of Fort Du
Quesne, that he was building a Fort just on this side the
River & that about 3000 men including the working & Cov-
ering Parties that Sr Iohn had with him were gone on to take
Post there. The Troops left at Rays Town with Colo Bou-
quet amount to about 1800 & there are some Detachments
still employed in convoying up Provisions & Stores to Rays
Town & from thence to the advanced Post. I do not find
that the General has been hitherto able to get any Intelligence
of the Enemy's Strength on the Ohio but a Company of 40
Voluntiers that I have lately raised on the Frontiers of this
Province & who are all what we call Woodsmen & excellent
marksmen went from the Laurel hannon the 22d in order to
make Discoveries, All the Indians that were with our Troops
except 6 are returned home, it is said that about 40 others
are coming thro Virginia to join the Army but I hope the
General does not depend at all on Indian Assistance. You
have I presume by this time received Advice of General Aber-
cromby's being repulsed in an Attempt to force the French
Lines before Ticonderoga, & perhaps a more just Account of
that Affair than the Gazetteers have communicated to us, by
what I can find the General is exceedingly blamed to the
northward for not having taken time to reconnoitre the
Enemy & the Adjacent Country before he attacked them,
also for having marched his whole Army up to the Intrench-
ment when he might have landed a Part of them & some of
his Artillery on the N. E. Side of Lake George & by that
means have annoyed the Enemy & divided their Force, he
is likewise censured for having ordered the whole to retreat
immediately after they that had made the first Attack were
repulsed, but above all he is condemned for having brought
his Army back to this Side of the Lake when he was much
superiour to the Enemy & when he might have as well
remained & entrenched himself on the other Side & thereby
have at least kept the Enemy in Awe & have prevented their
sending any Detachments to the Ohio which it is expected
they have now done. What the General can offer in his Vin-
dication I cannot tell but I suppose you will soon hear as one
of his Aid De Camps has taken his Passage for England in a
Packett that sailed from N York a few Days after the Action.
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Letter Bk. III
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