ropes and pulleys. It is also significant that Gordon, from first to last, was near the seamen and had all the necessary information for composing a journal of which one of them might have been the author. He was in Dunbar's regiment on the march from Alexandria—as were the seamen. He, with the carpenters, was possibly brigaded in the Second Brigade, with the seamen, and in any case he was with the van of the army on the fatal ninth as were the seamen.
As to the authorship of the original journal the document gives no hint. From Mr. Gordon's attempt to cover his own identity by introducing the word "self" in the latter part of the entry of June 3, it might be supposed the original manuscript was written by the "Midshipman" referred to under that date in the original journal. But the two midshipmen given as naval officers in the expedition, Haynes and Talbot, were killed in the defeat.[1]
The original journal which follows is of interest because of the description of the march of Dunbar's brigade through Maryland and Virginia to Fort Cumberland.
- ↑ History of Braddock's Expedition, p. 365.
