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294 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.
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Letter Bk. IV
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being almost exhausted & it being out of the Power of the
Agent Victualler to replenish them for Want of Waggons.
If Your Ldp should ask whether the General was not apprized
of this before he desired me to march from Fort Frederick I
can give Your Ldp no satisfactory answer but if the Road
between Fort Loudoun & Raes Town & a great Part of that
which has been opened this Summer from Raes Town to Loy-
alhanning is so bad as it has been represented to me it is no
Wonder that almost all the Horses & Waggons which were
first taken into the Service should have been destroyed or
rendered useless in three Months. On my Arrival at Fort
Cumberland the Virginians evacuated it & encamped but
they did not march towards Raes Town till late in Septr the
27th of that month I had the misfortune to lose one of our Militia
Captains & a Young Gentleman that I had appointed Ad-
jutant by the following Accident; Some of the People who
were sick being in great want of Bedding the abovementioned
Gentlemen went into a Store Room for some old Tents &c.
which had been heretofore left there by the Virginia Troops,
it happened that among a great many other Stores which had
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p. 6
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been deposited in this Place there were three or four Barrells
or Parts of Barrells of Powder & some useless Arms some of
which were probably loaded, while the Gentln were pulling
out the Tents I imagine that one of the Firelocks must
have fallen down & gone off otherwise I cannot account
for the unhappy Accident. All that we know for certain
is that the Store was blown up the Captain & Adjutant
killed & the Fort in an Instant set on fire in several Places
particularly in one a very few Yards only from the grand
Magazine of Powder, the Door of which was burst open.
When the Virginians marched they left more than a hundred
Men sick in the Hospital, these dying very fast sometimes
three or four in a Day & many of the Militia being taken ill
they begun to be uneasy & I foresaw that it would not be in
my Power to keep them there a Day longer than they had
engaged to remain with me when they first went up, I per-
ceived likewise that I could not do the General much Service
by continuing there untill that time as I was well informed
that Sr I St Clair could not before the Middle of Octr return to
Raes Town with the Waggons which he had gone down the
Country to collect & in which the General expected to receive
his last Supply of Provisions, however as the General
appeared more sanguine in his Expectations than I thought
he had reason to be I stayed at Fort Cumberland untill the
10th of Octr when about 50 of the Virginians who had been
left in the Hospital being pretty well recovered & able to do
Duty I resigned up the Fort to their Commanding Officer
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