*** It was during this campaign that the colonial convention was held at Albany, noticed on pages 302 and 303, vol. i., of this work, where a plan for a political union of all the colonies, similar in some of its features to that proposed by Governor Nicholson fifty years before, was submitted.
**** All the officers were named in the resolution of thanks, except those of the major of the regiment, who was charged with cowardice, and Captain Vanbraam, who was believed to have acted a treacherous part in falsely interpreting the terms of capitulation, which were written in French, by which Washington was made to acknowledge that Jumonville was assassinated. A pistole (about three dollars and sixty cents) was given as a gratuity to each soldier engaged in the campaign.
Loss at Fort Necessity.—French Duplicity.—General Braddock.—Provincial Governors.—March toward Fort Duquesne.
exact loss of the provincials in this engagement is not known. There were twelve killed, and forty-three wounded, of the Virginia regiment; the number of killed and wounded belonging to Captain Mackay's Carolinians is not recorded. The number of provincials in the fort was about four hundred; the assailants were nearly one thousand strong, five hundred of whom were Frenchmen. The loss of the latter was supposed to be more than that of the former.
When the British ministry called the attention of the French court to the transactions in America, the latter expressed the most pacific intentions and promises for the future, while its actions were in direct opposition to its professions. The English, therefore, resolved to send to America a sufficient force to co-operate with the provincial troops in driving the French back to Canada. On the twentieth of February, 1755, General Braddock arrived at Alexandria, in Virginia, with two regiments of the British army from Ireland, eaeh consisting of five hundred men, with a suitable train of artillery, and with stores and provisions. His colonels were Dunbar and Sir Peter Halket. At a meeting of colonial governors, * first called at Annapolis, and afterward convened at Alexandria, three expeditions were planned, one against Fort Duquesne, under Braddock; a second against Niagara and Frontenac (Kingston, U. C.), under General William Shirley; and a third against Crown Point, under General William Johnson. The last two expeditions have been fully considered in the first volume of this work.
General Braddock, with the force destined to act against Fort Duquesne, left Alexandria on the twentieth of April, and, marching by the way of Winchester, reached Will's Creek about the tenth of May. Here a fortification was thrown up, and named Fort Cumberland. Washington had left the service on account of a regulation by which the colonial officers were made to rank under those of the regular army, but being earnestly urged by General Braddock to accompany him, he consented to do so in the character of aid, and as a volunteer. The great delay in procuring wagons for transporting the baggage and stores, and in furnishing other supplies, gave the French an opportunity to arouse the Indians, and prepare for a vigorous defense.
On numbering his troops at Will's Creek, Braddock ascertained that his force consisted of a little more than two thousand effective men, about one half of whom belonged to the royal regiments.
