The army marched from Ludlow's Station under the command of General Butler and reached the Miami September 17. St. Clair returned to Fort Washington to hurry up the contractor's agents and muster in the militia he had called from Kentucky. From September 17 to October 4 the army was busy building a fort at "Camp Miami," which St. Clair named Fort Hamilton.[98] On October 3 Butler made the last preparations for the march, Fort Hamilton being nearly completed. All the artillery cartridges (except sixty rounds) were distributed, and one half of the stock of musket cartridges. A body of contractor's stores was thrown across the Miami, under cover, to join the army on its march. Concerning the route and the road, little was known. At the outset of the campaign St. Clair in his instructions was ordered "to appoint some skillful person to make actual surveys of your march, to be corrected, if the case will admit of it, by proper astronomical observations, and of all posts you may occupy."[99] The first settlers in the Miami purchase[100] had spread inland a few miles at this time; one settlement, Ludlow's Station, was made five miles up Mill Creek and another twelve miles up the Great Miami. Butler's route from Ludlow's Station to the site of Fort Hamilton was undoubtedly already an open trail that far. The day before he advanced from Fort Hamilton, Butler wrote St. Clair: "I have just received a verbal report from Captain Ginnon, the surveyor, who is returned. He has been seven miles, and says the face of the country is level but very brushy, and in his opinion it is impracticable for loaded horses to get on without a road.[101] Of this I will be a better judge as I advance and try the present order of march, &c. Should I find it impracticable to execute, I feel confident that any directions that may be necessary to facilitate the movements will meet your approval. The road is cut one and a-half miles to a good stream of water and ground to encamp on. Five miles advanced of that is a large creek, which is three feet deep at the place he crossed, but a little below is a ford, ..."