Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 4).djvu/63

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VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
59

anew disgusted by this species of banishment."[1] "The mutinous Spirit of the Men encreases," wrote an officer of Braddock's army during the march to Fort Duquesne, "but we will get the better of that, we will see which will be tired first, they of deserving Punishments, or we of inflicting them . . they are mutinous, and this came from a higher Spring than the Hardships here, for they were tainted in Ireland by the factious Cry against the L— L— Ld G—, and the Primate; the wicked Spirit instilled there by Pamphlets and Conversation, got amongst the common Soldiers, who, tho' they are Englishmen, yet are not the less stubborn and mutinous for that."

Thus the half-mutinous army, and its "brutal," "obstinate," "intrepid," and "capable" commander fared on across the sea to Virginia during the first three months of the memorable year of 1755. By the middle of March the entire fleet had weighed anchor in the port of Alexandria, Virginia.

  1. Walpole's Memoirs of George II, vol. ii., p. 29; also London Evening Post, September 9–11, 1755.