To George Washington from Henry Bouquet, 8 July 1758
From Henry Bouquet
Camp near Reas Town 8th July 1758
Sir
The only Reason I had to desire you to march wth your Troops to Reas Town was the Scarcity of your Provisions, as it would otherwise not be adviseable to move you, till the General is fully determined upon the different Roads.
As I See that you can be Subsisted for a Sufficient time, you will Stay at Cumberland till further orders.1
All your Waggons must be Sent immediatly back for the other Convoy. Keeping only with you the number wanted to carry Provisions to the 300 men who are cutting this Road taking the Same precaution for the 200 Marylanders who are to cut towards Fort Frederic.
As I have not here a Number of Troops sufficient for all the different Services, of Partys, Escorts, & Works, You will be pleased to Send me to morrow a detachment of 200 Men by the Path, and as your Troops are allowed Bat Money, I Suppose that you may provide them with the necessary Carrying Horses for their Tents. I Shall in the beginning of next Week open our Communication on this Side to meet your 300 Men.
I have ordered a Party of 100 Men on the other Side of the Allegheny.2
Mr Fraser the Capt. of the Guides, and Jo. Walker being best acquainted wth the different Path, I Shall be obliged to you to Send them both to me to morrow.3
General Abercrombie has taken Possession of the Lakes: Genl Forbes was expected at Carlisle the first Inst. No Letters from him.4 I am Sir Your most obedt & hble Servant.
Henry Bouquet
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. See Bouquet to GW, 27 June, and GW to Bouquet, 7 July.
2. The party of one hundred men headed by captains Asher Clayton and Edward Ward and lieutenants James Baker, Campbell, James Hay, and George Craighead left Raystown on 8 July. They returned on 20 July with extensive reports on their search for a route for a new road to Fort Duquesne. See , 2:234–46, for the reports. Lieutenant Campbell was probably John Campbell of the 1st Virginia Regiment.
3. Mr. Fraser was GW’s longtime associate John Fraser, a gunsmith and Indian trader in Pennsylvania. St. Clair called John Walker “the best Woods man I ever knew” (St. Clair to Bouquet, 9 June 1758, ibid., 60–62). In his “A List of Guides Employed in His Majesties Service,” John Fraser noted that Walker “knows all the roads, a good woods man & a hunter” (n.d., ViU: Forbes Papers).
4. Forbes arrived in Carlisle from Philadelphia on 4 July and wrote Bouquet a letter on 6 July which Bouquet received on 11 July. On 15 July Bouquet reported that he had received Forbes’s letter of 11 July on 13 July and Forbes’s letter of 27 June not until 15 July.