All night these continued their flight, expecting every moment to hear
the dreaded war whoop burst out again in the woods round them.
Colonel Washington had been ordered, by the dying general, to press on
on horseback to the camp of Dunbar, and to tell him to forward waggons,
provisions, and ammunition; but the panic, which had seized the main
force, had already been spread by flying teamsters to Dunbar's camp.
Many soldiers and waggoners at once took flight, and the panic was
heightened when the remnants of Braddock's force arrived. There was no
reason to suppose that they were pursued, and even had they been so,
their force was ample to repel any attack that could be made upon it;
but probably their commander saw that, in their present state of utter
demoralization, they could not be trusted to fight, and that the first
Indian war whoop would start them again in flight. Still, it was clear
that a retreat would leave the whole border open to the ravages of the
Indians, and Colonel Dunbar was greatly blamed for the course he took.
A hundred waggons were burned, the cannon and shells burst, and the
barrels of powder emptied into the stream, the stores of provisions
scattered through the woods, and then the force began its retreat over
the mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixty miles away.
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