It is not possible to give in detail the various incidents which befell these three expeditions, but a few words will suffice to describe what happened. Braddock's force, consisting of regulars from England, and of a few rangers from New York, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina, marched for Fort Duquesne through the woods, and after meeting with great difficulties and serious delays at length came within a dozen miles of the fort. What followed will for ever be an illustration of the futility of attacking a guerilla force as if it were a European army encamped in the open, or drawn up in serried ranks to oppose the coming of the enemy. Braddock's men were met after they had crossed a river by a fierce and stinging fire which belched from the thick forest and brush. Occasionally a blue or white uniform was seen, or the feathered head of an Indian, and at these our guns were discharged with some effect. Indeed, for a while the French flinched, and but for the courage of their officer might have fled. They rallied, took up their stations in the bush, and kept up a constant musketry fire upon our columns drawn up in close order in the open. Then the Indians crept through the forest to either flank, and presently our hapless men were being raked by a stinging hail of bullets. Pack animals dashed madly amongst them. The war-whoop of the Indians deafened the combatants and increased the disorder. At this moment, when the British were standing their ground with magnificent courage, replying to a fire delivered by an invisible foe with searching volleys, a little common-sense might have gained the day for us and sent the Indians and the French in full flight to their fort. But there was no one in authority possessed of that common-sense. The Government of that day had done as those of following Governments have done without fail. They had sent a British officer to command, who knew nothing of the backwoods and the men who inhabited them, who was ignorant of Indian warfare, despised cover, and thought that there was no glory in a fight in which the combatants did not stand shoulder to shoulder, in the full blast of the cannon. An order to the men to break ranks and take cover might have altered the sad event entirely. But our soldiers were kept in the open, and at length, after facing a terrible fire for two hours, they fled on seeing Braddock mortally wounded.