[55] Orme Journal, 343. This orchard, situated about two miles from Fort Necessity and referred to by many writers, must have consisted of crab apple trees at that time. In this camp Braddock died, July 13, 1755.
[56] Owned by Henry Harrison Wiggins.
[57] “This Indian camp was in a strong position, being upon a high rock with a very narrow and steep ascent to the top. It had a spring in the middle, and stood at the termination of the Indian path to the Monongahela, at the confluence of Red Stone Creek” (Orme Journal, 343). By the aid of this description the writer was able to identify the Half King’s Rocks even to the minutest detail.
[58] Jumonville marks the northernmost point reached by Dunbar’s regiment. Near the grave is the ledge of rocks on which Washington and the Half King took position in their attack on Jumonville, May 28, 1754, in what proved to be the initial battle of the French and Indian War. As Francis Parkman tersely puts it, “This obscure skirmish began the war that set the world on fire” (Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, 1905, I. 156).
[59] Orme Journal, 344.
[60] Orme Journal, 344. James Veech says in his Monongahela of Old (p. 60) that this encampment was “a short half mile below New Haven,” on land then (1858) owned by Daniel Rogers; but Judge Veech is confused by Orme’s entry of June 28, which says, “The troops marched about five miles to a camp on the east [west] side of Yoxhio Geni” (Orme Journal, 344). It is worthy of note that Orme uses the term “the troops marched” and not his customary phrase “we marched,” a circumstance from which it seems reasonable to infer that the advance column halted a day at this encampment, and that on June 29 the officers and the rest of the army at Gist’s Plantation joined it here.
[61] See Shippen’s drafts, to which reference has already been made. Through the courtesy of J. Sutton Wall, chief draughtsman of the Interior Department, Harrisburg, Pa., who has made a draft connecting a number of tracts lying southward from Stewart’s Crossing along the line of Braddock Road to Gist’s place and the foot of Laurel Ridge, the writer has been greatly aided in the preparation of his own sketch. In the connected draft a few of the tracts do not show the road; but a sufficient number do show it to corroborate the conclusions reached by him relative to the course of the road from Gist’s place to Stewart’s Crossing, and hence to enable him, on the accompanying map, to lay down the road between these two points with greater accuracy.
[62] Olden Time, II. 543; Veech, The Monongahela of Old, 60-61.
[63] Orme Journal, 345; Veech, The Monongahela of Old, 61.
[64] Mr. Truxell writes to me, under date of November 30, 1908, that this farm has been owned by the Truxells since 1806, and that in the course of his life he has ploughed up at least a quart of bullets, sometimes as many as a dozen at a single ploughing.