That day Dave and Henry were duly mustered in and given their first drill. Only the officers were in uniform and the privates, for the greater part, carried their own rifles. The service, it must be confessed, was not a strict one and volunteers sometimes did largely as they pleased. It was not until the War of the Revolution that the colonies boasted of an army worthy of the name, although the raw, undisciplined troops fought as bravely as any highly trained set of men.
Washington had sent a small body of men ahead, to clear a road through the wilderness for Colonel Fry with the artillery. On the 29th of April the young commander marched forth from Will’s Creek to join this advance guard and hasten the work of making some sort of a highway. His troops numbered a hundred and sixty, all strong, hardy fellows, used to a life in the open, and handy with axe as well as gun.
But the trails were in a wretched condition, overgrown with brush and vines and often so narrow that trees had to be chopped down to make the path wide enough for a gun carriage to pass. All hands labored day after day, clearing the trails, yet it was seldom that they could make over four miles’ progress from sunrise to sunset.
“This is soldiering truly!” declared Henry, as he wiped the heavy perspiration from his brow. “I should call this road building and nothing else.”
“It’s all a part of the game, Henry,” answered Dave. “But I wish myself we could get ahead a little faster.”
At length the little army reached the Youghiogheny River, and while some of the men were building a bridge across the stream, Washington went down the watercourse on a scouting expedition, taking with him several of his command and an Indian guide, the latter promising to do his best for the young commander if the latter would present him with a ruffled shirt and a coat to match! The scouting expedition kept on until some rapids were reached which could not be crossed, and then Washington returned to camp.
Soon came in reports of the French. They were eight hundred strong and were marching to meet the English. Another report, from the Indian half-chief, followed, stating he would be with Washington in a few days. That night it was learned that the French were within eighteen miles. At once Washington placed his men at Great Meadows, had them dig an entrenchment and placed them on strict guard. There was an alarm during the night, but it amounted to nothing excepting that it made several cowardly volunteers desert.
While Washington was at Great Meadows considering what he had best do next, Mr. Gist arrived with information concerning a body of fifty of the enemy, under La Forge, that had been seen within five miles of the present camp. That same night came word from the half-king that more tracks of the French had been seen and that the Indians were certain the whole body of the enemy could not be far away.
“They intend to surprise us,” said Washington, grimly. “Well, we will try to turn the tables on them.” Then he sent off a detachment of seventy-five men in quest of La Forge’s command, and with forty others started to join the half-king and learn, if possible, what the larger part of the French army was doing.