230 AMERICAN FRONTIER BLOCKHOUSES. 



but the history of this serious defeat exhibits in the 

 clearest way all these transport troubles to which we 

 have adverted: and it also illustrates in terms which 

 are not to be mistaken the disadvantages under which 

 regular troops fight, especially when trained only to 

 warfare in the open, when called upon to encounter a 

 savage and crafty foe hidden in the dense thickets 

 of a great forest * and as such we respectfully com- 

 mend the eventful history of this expedition to the 

 study of our military friends. We do so because it is 

 a subject never alluded to in our military histories; 

 and we must remember that defeats are sometimes 

 more instructive than victories from an historical point 

 of view. 



In the days of our ancestors, a century and a half 

 ago, with their weak forces and small resources, the 

 problem of how to hold their ground against Indian 

 forays was surrounded by difficulties which at present 

 can hardly be realized; at every point upon the fron- 

 tier there was an urgent call for protection, with but 

 very scanty means of meeting it; the most that could 

 be done was in general to furnish a small party of 15 

 or 20 men under the command of an ensign, or a 

 lieutenant, to hold a blockhouse, or stockade, which 

 was usually erected on the head waters of some stream, 

 or other such point, which was supposed to guard the 

 avenue to far distant wilds. From these places fur 

 traders and other persons employed in trafficking with 

 the savages, took their departure into the wilderness 

 upon their arduous and dangerous expeditions, which 

 sometimes lasted for years. The communications with 



* See History of Braddoctfs Expedition against Fort Duquesne in 

 J 755> b y Winthrop Sargent, Philadelphia 1856. 



