Horace Walpole's characterization of Braddock is particularly graphic and undoubtedly just--"desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in his sentiments, intrepid and capable."[9] The troops given him for the American expedition were well suited to bring out every defect in his character; these were the fragments of the 44th and 48th regiments, then stationed in Ireland. Being deficient (even in time of peace), both had to be recruited up to five hundred men each. The campaign was unpopular and the recruits secured were of the worst type--"who, had they not been in the army, would probably have been in Bridewell [prison]." Walpole wrote, "the troops allotted to him most ill-chosen, being draughts of the most worthless in some Irish regiments, and anew disgusted by this species of banishment."[10] "The mutinous Spirit of the Men encreases," wrote an officer of Braddock's army during the march to Fort Duquesne, "but we will get the better of that, we will see which will be tired first, they of deserving Punishments, or we of inflicting them ... they are mutinous, and this came from a higher Spring than the Hardships here, for they were tainted in _Ireland_ by the factious Cry against the L-- L-- Ld G--, and the Primate; the wicked Spirit instilled there by Pamphlets and Conversation, got amongst the common Soldiers, who, tho' they are _Englishmen_, yet are not the less stubborn and mutinous for that." Thus the half-mutinous army, and its "brutal," "obstinate," "intrepid," and "capable" commander fared on across the sea to Virginia during the first three months of the memorable year of 1755. By the middle of March the entire fleet had weighed anchor in the port of Alexandria, Virginia. The situation could not be described better than Entick has done in the following words: "Put all these together, what was extraordinary in his [Braddock's] conduct, and what was extraordinary in the way of the Service, there could be formed no good idea of the issue of such an untoward expedition." CHAPTER III FROM ALEXANDRIA TO FORT CUMBERLAND What it was that proved to be "extraordinary in the way of the Service" General Braddock soon discovered, and it is a fair question whether, despite all that has been written concerning his unfitness for his position, another man with one iota less "spirit" than Braddock could have done half that Braddock did.