Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 4).djvu/42

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38
BRADDOCK'S ROAD

probably conducted himself with courage in the Vigo expedition and in the Low Countries, and was a survivor of bloody Dettingen, Culloden, Fontenoy, and Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1753 he was stationed at Gibraltar where, "with all his brutality," writes Walpole, "he made himself adored, and where scarce any governor was endured before."[1]

Two months and one day after Braddock's commission was signed he received two letters of instructions, one from the King and one from the Duke of Cumberland. "For your better direction in discharge of ye Trust thereby reposed in You," reads the King's letter, "We have judged it proper to give You the following Instructions." The document is divided into thirteen heads:

1. Two regiments of Foot commanded by Sir Peter Halket and Colonel Dunbar, with a train of artillery and necessary ships were ordered to "repair to North America."

2. Braddock ordered to proceed to America and take under his command these

  1. Letters of Walpole, (edited by Cunningham, London 1877), vol. ii., p. 461.