170 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



settlers on the frontier fled in consternation to the interior, and so great 

 was the panic that of 3,000 able-bodied men, who were in 1755 in the 

 country west of the Susquehaunah, there remained in 1756 less than 100. 



The necessity of a militia law was,^ in a great measure, obviated by 

 ^^ the forces raised by the Governor and Provincial Commissioners. They 

 consisted of twenty-five companies amounting to fourteen hundred men. 

 Eight companies under the command of Major James Burd, called the 

 Augusta regiment, were stationed at Fort Augusta ; eight companies on 

 the west side of the Susquehannah, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel 

 Armstrong, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, 

 were thus divided: two companies at Fort Lyttleton, on Aughwick 

 creek, which empties into the Juniata river ; two companies on Conoco- 

 cheague creek, which communicates with the Potomac ; two companies 

 at Fort Morris, in Shippensburg, and two companies at Carlisle. Nine 

 companies, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, 

 commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Conrad Weiser, were thus distributed : 

 one compan}^ at Fort Augusta; one at Hunter's mill, seven miles above 

 Harrisburg, on the Susquehannah; one half company on the Swatara, at 

 the foot of the North Mountain ; one company and a half at Fort Henry, 

 close to the gap of the mountain, called the Tothea gap; one company 

 at Fort William, near the forks of the Schuylkill river, six miles beyond 

 the mountain; one company at Fort Allen, at Gnadenhutten, on the 

 Lehigh; the other three companies were scattered between the rivers 

 Lehigh and Delaware, at the disposition of the captains, some at farm- 

 houses, others at mills, from three to twenty in a place.^ 



The negotiations for peace, which had been commenced with Teedy- 

 uscung, the chief of the Delaware and Shawanese tribes on the Susque- 

 hannah, had neutralized these, but the Province was still exposed to con- 

 tinued devastation, from the French and Western Indians, who roamed 

 in small parties over the country, avoiding or attacking the forts and 

 armed Provincialists as they judged most safe. The counties of Cumber- 

 land, Berks, Northampton, and Lancaster, were, during the spring and 

 summer months of 1757, kept in continual alarm, and some of the savage 

 scalping parties were pushed on to within thirty miles of Philadelphia. 

 Many of these wretches paid with their lives the just penalty of their 

 temerity. But their sufferings bore no comparison with those of the 

 unfortunate inhabitants. Incessant anxiety pervaded every family in 

 the counties Ave have mentioned; their slumbers were broken by the 

 yell of demons, or by the dread of an attack, scarce less horrid than their 

 actual presence. The ground was ploughed, the seed sown, and the 

 harvest gathered, under the fear of the tomahawk and rifle. Scarce any 

 outdoor labor was safely executed, unless protected by arms in the hands 

 1 Proud. 2 Gordon. 



