After such unfortunate essays I began to give over all thoughts of the army, when Col. Byrd was appointed to the command of the old regiment, in the room of Col. Washington, who resigned; on which I was unfortunately induced to accept another commission. I served another campaign in the year 1759, under General Stanwix, in the same quarter; but on our arrival at Pittsburg, formerly Fort Du Quesne, I had little employment, except looking over the men at work, till the fall of the leaf, when the General gave me the command of Fort Burd, about sixty miles to the eastward of Pittsburg, where I continued about nine months at a very great expence, partly through hospitality to those who passed to and from Pittsburg, and the dearness of necessaries, and partly by building myself a house, and making several improvements, and finishing the half-constructed fort, for which I never received any gratuity. I was relieved by a company of the Pensylvania regiment in the spring, and returned to Pittsburg, but found Col. Byrd with one half of the regiment ordered against the Cherokees, now become our most inveterate enemies; while the remainder under Col. Stephen were destined to serve on the Ohio. I will not fatigue the reader with an account of campaigns wherewith all our news-papers were filled, but confine myself to what more immediately concerned me. I remained at Pittsburg till autumn, when I obtained permission to pass the winter at home. I accordingly set out in company with an Ensign named Seayres, who had obtained the same permission: we found great difficulties from the badness of the road, of which I may quote the following instance. After marching three whole days from Pittsburg to the place where General Braddock first crossed the Yawyawgany river (little better than sixty miles), and leaving one of my horses fast in the mire, we found, to our great surprise, the river about twelve feet high. We waited a whole day in hopes of its falling, but had the mortification to find it had rather rose a foot; our provisions beginning to run short, we hunted to recruit them, but without any success, which obliged us to come to an immediate determination. We at last resolved to look for some other crossing-place; we found about two miles lower, a part of the river, which by its breadth we judged to be fordable; but as the water was muddy, and the bottom could not be seen, there was a considerable risk in attempting it, especially as it lay under a fall, from whence the current darted with great impetuosity. After some deliberation, we resolved to venture it; pushed on by the fears of starving, if we remained any longer where we were, Mr. Seayres proposed himself to try it first; mounting therefore the best of our horses, he plunged into the stream: for the first hundred yards the water reached little higher than the horse’s belly, but before he got to a small island in the middle, which we had resolved to rest at, he was