104 The Winning of the West 



the column without getting lost in the woods 16 

 the mountain training of the highlanders apparently 

 standing them in no stead whatever, and were only 

 able to get around at all when convoyed by back- 

 woodsmen. In fight they fared even worse. The 

 British regulars at Braddock's battle, and the high- 

 landers at Grant's defeat a few years later, suffered 

 the same fate. Both battles were fair fights ; neither 

 was a surprise; yet the stubborn valor of the red- 

 coated grenadier and the headlong courage of the 

 kilted Scot proved of less than no avail. Not only 

 were they utterly routed and destroyed in each case 

 by an inferior force of Indians (the French taking 

 little part in the conflict), but they were able to 

 make no effective resistance whatever; it is to this 

 day doubtful whether these superb regulars were 

 able in the battles where they were destroyed to so 

 much as kill one Indian for every hundred of their 

 own men who fell. The provincials who were with 

 the regulars were the only troops who caused any 

 loss to the foe ; and this was true in but a less degree 

 of Bouquet's fight at Bushy Run. Here Bouquet, 

 by a clever stratagem, gained the victory over an 

 enemy inferior in numbers to himself ; but only after 

 a two days' struggle in which he suffered a fourfold 

 greater loss than he inflicted. 17 



16 See Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pontiac"; also "Mont- 

 calm and Wolfe." 



17 Bouquet, like so many of his predecessors, and succes- 

 sors, greatly exaggerated the numbers and loss of the Indians 

 in this fight. Smith, who derived his information both from 



