To George Washington from Roger Morris, 23 June 1755
From Roger Morris
[Squaw’s Fort, Pa., 23 June 1755]
Dear Washington
I am desird by the General, to let you know that he marches, to morrow, & next day, but that he shall halt, at the Meadows two or three days,1 It is the Desire of every particular in the Family, & the Generals positive Commands to you, not to stirr, but by the Advice of the Person under whose Care you are, till you are better, which we all hope will be very soon—This I can personally assure you, that you may follow the Advice of Dr Murdoch Surgeon to Col: Dunbarr,2 to whom I know you are recommended as a proper Man, by Dr Stephen.3 Yours &c.
Roger Morris
Camp at this Side of the Youghangany—Monday five o’Clock in the Afternoon.
ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW.
For background to this letter, see GW to John Augustine Washington, 28 June–2 July 1755. Weakened by illness, GW reluctantly remained at Bear Camp, near present-day Oakton, Md., on the morning of 23 June, while Braddock’s advanced division proceeded into Pennsylvania, marching 8 miles this day to a camp in the forks of Braddock Run about a mile east of the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny River. The camp was called Squaw’s fort by Robert Orme apparently because of its nearness to “a small Log Fort” that Indian women had built the previous year “to secure themselves & children” during the Fort Necessity campaign (“The Journal of a British Officer,” in , 44).
1. Braddock and his men crossed the Youghiogheny River at the Great Crossing on the morning of 24 June and camped that night about 4 miles east of the Great Meadows. The next day they marched through the meadows to a camp about 1½ miles west of the site of Fort Necessity, but no halt was ordered there. The troops were not given another day to rest and bake bread until 30 June, by which time they were at Stewart’s Crossing of the Youghiogheny.
2. Dr. Murdoch may be Robert Murdoch of Ireland who received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1754.
3. Adam Stephen, who had been GW’s lieutenant colonel at Fort Necessity the preceding summer, received training in medicine in Scotland before coming to Virginia. He was now captain of a company of Virginia rangers in Col. Thomas Dunbar’s rear detachment of the army. Stephen joined Braddock’s advanced force on 5 July and was wounded at the Battle of the Monongahela.