[64] _History of an Expedition Against Fort DuQuesne in 1755_, by Winthrop Sargent p. 193.
Had the supreme command of the expedition been vested in Halkett, rather than Braddock, one may reasonably believe that there would have been a very different outcome. A trained and able soldier, no less courageous than his chief, he was more cautious, more susceptible to new ideas and methods and far less arbitrary than lay in Braddock's nature to be. He learned to respect the dearly bought and superior knowledge of Indian fighting traits possessed by the provincials and wished to follow their recommendations that to Braddock, with his unbounded confidence in iron discipline, simply savoured of colonial ignorance and lack of military courage. Loudoun should remember Halkett not only as the commander of the march through her domain but as a brave and devoted soldier as well.
"Sir Peter Halkett of Pitferran, Fifeshire, a baronet of Nova Scotia," writes Sargent, "was the son of Sir Peter Wedderburne of Gosford, who, marrying the heiress of the ancient family of Halkett, assumed her name."[65] Our Sir Peter had married Lady Amelia Stewart, second daughter of Francis, 8th Earl of Moray, by whom he had three sons. Of these, James, the youngest, was a subaltern in his father's regiment and accompanied him on the expedition.
Of the Virginia troops serving in this campaign an effort has been made to identify such as came from the incipient Loudoun. All the Virginians were directly under the command of Captain Waggoner. As Loudoun was then a part of Fairfax her men were, of course, listed as from the latter county.
In March, 1756, the Virginia Legislature passed as its first act[66] an emergency measure from which we learn the names of certain soldiers from the then undivided Fairfax but from which side of Difficult Run each man came does not appear, or as to whether they went on Braddock's expedition or served nearer home, then or subsequently. The small amount of compensation awarded to each indicates a period of active service too short to have permitted them to be at the battle. Probably they were used east of the Blue Ridge.
That not all of the Virginia soldiers of the expedition of 1755 were enthusiastic volunteers is suggested by the passage of Chapter II of the session of 1754 which states in its preamble that as the King had instructed his lieutenant governor to raise soldiers for the expedition against the French on the Ohio and that there were "in every county and corporation within this Colony, able bodied persons, fit to serve his majesty, and who follow no lawful calling or employment" the justices of the peace, through the sheriffs, were ordered to forcibly enlist them, provided they were not voters or indentured servants![67] To raise money for the campaign an act was passed in May, 1755, instituting a public lottery with a first prize of £2,000 "current money" and many other prizes amounting altogether to £20,000 "current money."[68]