110 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 



were there whose names have become historic : 

 Gage, who, twenty years later, saw his routed 

 battalions recoil in disorder from before the breast- 

 work on Bunker Hill ; Gates, the future conqueror 

 of Burgoyne ; and one destined to a higher fame, 

 — George Washington, a boy in years, a man in 

 calm thought and self-ruling wisdom. 



With steady and well ordered march, the troops 

 advanced into the great labyrinth of woods which 

 shadowed the eastern borders of the river. Rank 

 after rank vanished from sight. The forest swal- 

 lowed them up, and the silence of the wilderness 

 sank down once more on the shores and waters of 

 the Monongahela. 



Several engineers and guides and six light horse- 

 men led the way ; a body of grenadiers under Gage 

 was close behind, and the army followed in such 

 order as the rough ground would permit, along a 

 narrow road, twelve feet wide, tunnelled through 

 the dense and matted foliage. There were flank- 

 ing parties on either side, but no scouts to scour 

 the woods in front, and with an insane confidence 

 Braddock pressed on to meet his fate. The van 

 had passed the low grounds that bordered the river, 

 and were now ascending a gently rising ground, 

 where, on either hand, hidden by thick trees, by 



out the ford where the army crossed the Monongahela (below Turtle 

 Creek, 800 yards). A finer sight could not have been beheld, — the 

 shining barrels of the muskets, the excellent order of the men, the clean- 

 liness of their appearance, the joy depicted on every face at being so near 

 Fort du Quesne — the highest object of their wishes. The music re- 

 echoed through the hills. How brilliant the morning — how melancholy 

 the evening!" — Letter of Judge YecUes, dated August, 1776. See Haz., 

 Pa. Reg., VI. 104. 



