“From Ray’s Town to the Shawana Cabbins8 M
To Edmund’s Swamp8 M
To Stoney Creek6 M
To Kickener Paulin’s House, (Indian)6 M
To the Clear Fields7 M
To the other side of the Laurel Hill5 M
To Loyal Haning6 M
To the Big Bottom8 M
To the Chestnut Ridge8 M
To the parting of the Road[22]4 M
Thence one Road leads to Shannopin’s Town the other to Kisscomenettes, old Town.”[23]

So much for the Old Trading Path before the memorable year of 1755. It is significant that the route had already been “surveyed”; Pennsylvania herself desired a share of the Indian trade which Virginia hoped to monopolize through her Ohio Company, which already had storehouses built at Wills Creek on the Cumberland and at Redstone Old Fort on the Monongahela. But with the beginning of hostilities with the French, precipitated by Washington and his Virginians in 1754, the Indian trade was now completely at a standstill.

General Braddock and his army which was destined to march westward and capture Fort Duquesne arrived at Alexandria, Virginia, February 20, 1755. Already Braddock’s deputy quartermaster-general, Sir John St. Clair, had passed through Maryland and Virginia and had decided upon the route of the army to Fort Cumberland, the point of rendezvous. Four days after Braddock reached Alexandria, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania received a letter from St. Clair asking him to “open a road toward the head of Youghheagang or any other way that is nearer the French forts,” in order that the stores to be supplied by the northern colonies might take a shorter course than by way of the roads then being opened through Maryland and Virginia.[24] Morris immediately replied “... there is no Waggon Road from Carlisle West through the Mountains but only a Horse Path, by which the Indian Traders used to carry their Goods and Skins to and from the Ohio while that Trade remained open.”[25] Though Morris usually made requests of the assembly in vain, the request concerning this road was granted, and Morris was empowered, in the middle of March, to open a road “through Carlisle and Shippensburg to the Yoijogain, and to the camp at Will Creek.”[26] He immediately appointed George Croghan, John Armstrong, James Burd, William Buchannan, and Adam Hoops to find a road to the three forks of the Youghiogheny—or “Turkey Foot” as the spot was familiarly known on the frontier. On April 29 Burd reported as follows to Morris: “... We have viewed and layed out the Roads leading from hence to the Yohiogain and the camp at Will’s Creek, and enclosed You have the Draughts thereof.... We have dispersed our Advertisements through the Counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, to encourage Labourers to come to Work, and We intend to set off to begin to clear up on Monday first.”[27] Thus, slowly, the Old Trading Path was widened into a rough roadway westward from Carlisle. On May 26, John Armstrong wrote Governor Morris that there were over a hundred choppers at work.[28] Five days later Burd wrote Richard Peters that there were one hundred and fifty at work; but he adds, ominously: “The People are all anxious to have arms, and if You can procure me arms I would not trouble the General for a cover; but if you can’t they will not be willing to go past Ray’s Town without a guard.”[29] Little wonder: the van of Braddock’s army had struck westward into the Alleghenies the day before this was written, and already the woods were full of spies sent out by the French, and many massacres had been reported. The horses and wagons which Franklin had secured for Braddock comprised almost his whole equipment. These had gone to Fort Cumberland by the old “Monocasy Road” and Watkins Ferry.[30]

On the twelfth of June Allison and Maxwell wrote Richard Peters that “Sideling Hill,” sixty-seven miles west of Carlisle, and thirty miles east of Raystown, “is cut very artificially, nay more so than We ever saw any; the first waggon that carried a Load up it took fifteen Hundred without ever stopping;” there were, however, many discouragements—“for four Days the Labourers had not one Glass of Liquor!”[31] On June 15 William Buchannan reported that the road was cleared to Raystown.[32] But some of the wagons were “pretty much damnified.” On the seventeenth Edward Shippen wrote Morris from Lancaster: “I understand Mr. Burd has cut the Road 5 Miles beyond Ray’s Town, which is 90 Miles from Shippensburg.”[33] On the twenty-first General Braddock wrote as follows to Governor Morris from Bear Camp (seven miles west of Little Crossings): “As it is perfectly understood here in what Part the Road making in your Province is to communicate wth that thro’ wch I am now proceeding to Fort Du Quesne, I must beg that you and Mr Peters will immediately settle it, and send an express on Purpose after me with the most exact Description of it, that there may be no Mistake in a Matter of so much Importance.”[34] On July 3 Morris wrote Burd, who was in command of the working party, concerning this request of Braddock’s. He takes it “for granted ... that the Road must pass the Turkey Foot ... and that there cou’d be no Road got to the Northward.” Under such circumstances he affirmed that the nearest course to Braddock’s Road would be a straight line from Turkey Foot (Confluence, Pennsylvania) to the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny (Smithfield, Pennsylvania). He asked Burd to settle this point and send his decision immediately to Braddock.[35]

[Click here for larger image size]

(Great Crossings was the intended junction of Paddock’s Road and Burd’s)
(From the original in possession of Pennsylvania Historical Society)

The working party on the Pennsylvania road was attacked early in July and needed every one of the five score men whom Braddock had been able to spare for their protection.[36]

Burd replied[37] from the “Top of the Alleghanies” on July 17, while still in ignorance of Braddock’s utter rout: “At present I can’t form any Judgment where I shall cut the General’s Road, further than I know our Course leads us to the Turkey Foot, By the Information of Mr. Croghan when we run the Road first. Mr. Croghan assured me he wou’d be on the Road with me in order to pilott from the Place where we left off blaizeing. Instead of that he has never been here, nor is there one Man in my Company that ever was out this Way to the Turkey Foot, But the Party I send will discover the Place where we shall cut the Road and inform the General, and upon their return I will order ’em to blaize back to me.”