A SURVEY OF BOUQUET'S ROAD, 1764: SAMUEL FINLEY'S FIELD NOTES Part Two Edward G. Williams early trails traced by the British armies were probably first Thecarved out by wild game and long had been used by the Indians when the pioneers first arrived in frontier North America. The settlers of Western Pennsylvania, in their forays into the wilderness, used the trails, which, whenever possible, ran along the tops of the long, interconnected ridges of the region west of the Alleghenies. 1 Fortunately for the settlers and their commerce, the native Ameri- cans appreciated the dry hilltop routes that avoided the lowland swamps. (Fortunate, too, for the farmers who productively exploited the fertile lowlands when the woods were cleared, introduced drainage, and later created valley roads.) Because the early trails accommodated only foot and packhorse travel, they typically were accessible only by difficult scrambles up steep ascents. Roads graded for wheeled vehicles came when the section of Ohio served by the Tuscarawas Road was subdivided and opened for settlement in 1800, but shortcuts were un- doubtedly made previous to that time. The road served to support and supply Fort Laurens in the war of the Revolution by packtrains. 2 Terrain affected tactics as well as travel. Modern historians have been quick to censure military operations conducted within four hundred to five hundred yards of an overlooking eminence. Many writers have, for example, criticized the location of Fort Pitt at the point of the rivers (which was at a distance of at least 880 to one thousand yards from the nearest high ground), evidently basing their judgment on the range of modern rifles and forgetting the re- Mr. Williams continues his series of articles on Samuel Finley's notes of the Bouquet expedition.—Editor 1 Wallace, Indian Paths of Pennsylvania, 2. 2 Brodhead to Washington, Fort Pitt, May 22, 1779, Pa. Archives, 1st ser., 12: 114. "Ihave found a short route to Fort Lawrence [Laurens] over which a great road can soon be made to move on a piece of artillery. .. ." Artillery never passed over either the Great Trail or the Brodhead Road during the Revolution, but it is clear that Brodhead and perhaps others were considering improvements as early as the 1770s. 238 EDWARD G. WILLIAMS JULY stricted range of the firearms of the eighteenth century. Muskets had a practical range of little more than sixty yards, an effective range of one hundred yards ;only by elevating the—piece was it possible to increase the range to three hundred yards a distance at which the musket was completely ineffective. As for rifles, which were fast com- ing into general use, the usual distance to the target was one hundred yards with almost pinpoint accuracy. 3 Trials produced nearly as accurate results at two hundred yards, and Timothy Murphy from Northumberland, Pennsylvania, of Morgan's Rifle Corps, mortally wounded General Simon Fraser at the Battle of Stillwater 4 in the Revolution at four hundred yards. This was still an unusual shot. Early routes through the western wilderness often followed the banks of the major rivers, whose depths and widths have been much increased over the centuries. Before dams in the rivers were built, these water courses would have appeared to us, if we could be trans- ported back to the milieu and atmosphere of two centuries ago, much like winding creeks alternately racing over ripples and stagnating in indolent pools with hidden, hazardous sandbars, all bordered on both sides by wide, pebbly beaches which became part of the riverbeds at times of high water. These beaches at low water were convenient avenues for armies on the march. After the raising of the dams and the improvement of navigation, there was no more dread of the Horse-tail Ripple or of Woolery's or Deadman's ripples, but at the same time, these wilderness streamside routes were inundated. 5 To a spectator standing at the water's edge upon one of these beaches, there appeared along both banks high, nearly perpendicular cliffs. Islands in midstream were high ridges with steep sides, topped by a lush undergrowth and richly timbered. At high water, or after the pools had been formed by the dams, the same islands appeared to be floating gardens. It must also be realized by the outdoor historian 3 See Bouquet's orders, Sept. 19, 1764, Bouquet's March —to the Ohio, 117: "They [the riflemen] willEach fire Six Charges at mark A separate Target for this purpose ... the Rifflemen fire 100 Yards from the mark. ..." See also, John G. W. Dillin, The Kentucky Rifle (New York, 1924), 69-75. A series of targets are there reproduced, actual size, made at the standard distance of one hundred yards at trials of many different flintlock rifles during 1921-1923, one also recorded at two hundred yards. Edward Shippen of Lancaster wrote Governor Morris, Apr. 24, 1756: "there is such a difference between these sorts of Guns and Smooth bored, that if Iwas in an Engagement with the Savages, that Iwould rather stand my chance with one of the former Sort. ..." 4 Benson J. Lossing, The PictorialField-Book of the Revolution, 2 vols. (New York, 1855), 2: 62. 5 Zadok Cramer, The Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi (Pittsburgh, 1814), 74. 1983 A SURVEY OF BOUQUET'S ROAD, 1764 239 or conservationist that practically all small streams and creeks have shrunk inboth width and depth since the cutting away of the forests. The springs that fed them were replenished with water retained in the soil by the luxuriant forest vegetation on the hillsides. Several springs that have been drained come to mind :on the Forbes Road, Stephen's Spring, atop Allegheny Mountain ;the spring at Cock-Eye's Cabin ; one of the two springs at Washington's entrenched camp ;several on this very march into Ohio, to which attention will be directed as Samuel Finley reached them. Springs and small streams have been drained by coal stripping operations and industrial or municipal de- velopment. Rivers are now filled from bank to bank and are deeper due to high dams and channel dredging. Because of all the changes to the landscape, retracing Bouquet's road through the interesting terrain in Western Pennsylvania into eastern Ohio and over the watersheds of the branches of the Muskingum that interlock with the tributaries of the central Ohio rivers can be a challenging business. Surprisingly, there remain many visible scars and traces of these eighteenth-century routes. Many miles of the original tracks of both the Braddock Road and the Forbes Road, which Bouquet also cut over the mountains to Fort Pitt, can be followed on foot, and historically-minded groups of people have hiked these trails, particularly during this century when the public became increasingly aware that these witnesses of past movement of civilization,of armies, of pioneers, of traders, and of commerce were fast disappearing amid urban and industrial development. Interest has escalated as knowledge about the implication of these old thorough- fares of communications, Indian, British, French, American, and of ethnic settlements, and about personalities associated with them has expanded through research. Boy Scout organizations now award merit badges to scouts who complete hikes over sections of the Forbes and Braddock roads; two university professors, one in Georgia, one in West Virginia, and the head of one of the most prestigious Americana libraries have expressed sincere desires to retrace with us this same route through Pennsylvania and Ohio that is the subject of present study. Bouquet's Dislocated Schedule Bouquet's force was poised at Fort Pitt in the early fall of 1764 for the march westward into the Ohio country. There is, however, an appearance of disagreement among the eyewitness accounts of the 240 EDWARD G. WILLIAMS JULY operations of the army's crossing of the Allegheny River. Dr. William Smith's account obviously reproduced general information from Thomas Hutchins's description of "The Route from Fort Pitt to Sandusky and thence to Detroit," 6 written upon his tour of the Indian towns in 1762, the journal of which was mentioned in the preceding sketch of Hutchins. 7 To this route description Smith added data pertaining to the campsites of the 1764 expedition from some sort of notes or from his journal which has long been the object of search. Smith completely ignored Camp No. 1 on the north side of the Allegheny River and passed to Camp No. 2, dating the departure from Fort Pitt on October 3. Hutchins, however, depicted both camps on his map; and Lt. Bernard Ratzer, a British army engineer, carefully copying the former's map, depicted both locations. Bouquet's letter to General Gage was dated "Camp near Fort Pitt 2nd October 1764 . the Army crossed the Ohio yesterday [October 1 ?]." 8 Bouquet's orders of September 30 called for "all men off duty to be employed today in transporting Provisions in Batteaus across the River. ... The Troops Encampt on this side to be in readyness to march tomorrow afternoon [October 1]. ..." At the end of the orders (the orders for the next day were read at evening roll call and retreat beating) :9 "Allmen off duty ... to parade at Eight tomorrow morning to transport the remaining provisions. .. ." Then, on October 1, the orders were :"Allthe Troops proceeding on the Expedition Encamp tomorrow [October 2] on the other side of the Ohio. Batteaux will then be ready at the beach to transport them to the Opposite Landing place." 10 It seems evident, since it took two days to transport the provisions instead of the one intended, that Bouquet's schedule was dislocated.