Washington had now reached Fort Cumberland and was soon in correspondence with Bouquet at Raystown thirty-four miles to the northward. July 16 he wrote: "I shall direct the officer, that marches out, to take particular pains in reconnoitring General Braddock's road, though I have had repeated information, that it only wants such small repairs, as could with ease be made as fast as the army would march."[65] On the twenty-first he wrote: "The bridge is finished at this place, and tomorrow Major Peachey, with three hundred men, will proceed to open General Braddock's road. I shall direct them to go to George's Creek, ten miles in advance. By that time I may possibly hear from you ... for it will be needless to open a road, of which no use will be made afterwards."[66] Thus it is clear that, as late as July 20, Washington at Fort Cumberland, Bouquet at Raystown, and Forbes at Carlisle were all in doubt as to the army's route. On July 21 Bouquet wrote General Forbes: "I waited for the return of Captain Ward before replying [to Forbes's letters of the 14th and 17th inst]. He arrived yesterday evening, his journal being so vague and confused that I could not understand anything from it. Captain Gordon is making an extract from it which I send with this. They are convinced that a waggon road could be made across Laurell Hill, not so bad as that from Fort Littleton to this place, & that there is water and grass all the way, but little forage between the two mountains. The slope of the Alleghany is the worst, the country between that and Laurell Hill is passable, and this last mountain, (of which they have made a sample--) is very easy to cross: all the guides & officers who were on the Ohio agree that from Lawrell Hill onwards there are no further difficulties; it is a chain of hills easy to cross. They have thought it impracticable to continue the road cut by Colonel Burd to join the Braddock road, except by following the whole length of Lawrell Hill, which would make the road longer than if taken through Cumberland; the rest of the country is rendered impassable by marshes, &c. The pack horses have just arrived. We must give them a day's rest, & on the day after tomorrow Major Armstrong will set out with a party of 100 volunteers to mark out the road, and will send me a man every day (or every two days) to inform me of his progress & observations. There is no spot suitable for the making of a depot until one comes to the foot of the other slope of Lawrell Hill, which may be about 45 miles from here; there is sufficient water there, and forage, but as it would entail too great a risk to leave his party on the other side of Lawrell Hill, I shall give him instructions to reconnoitre, & to mark out the site of the depot, & then return to Edmund's Swamp, where I will in the first place send him a reinforcement with provisions, so that he may make an entrenched camp there, which will serve as flying base; and if the report he makes of