The working party on the Pennsylvania road was attacked early in July and needed every one of the five score men whom Braddock had been able to spare for their protection.[36] Burd replied[37] from the "Top of the Alleghanies" on July 17, while still in ignorance of Braddock's utter rout: "At present I can't form any Judgment where I shall cut the General's Road, further than I know our Course leads us to the Turkey Foot, By the Information of Mr. Croghan when we run the Road first. Mr. Croghan assured me he wou'd be on the Road with me in order to pilott from the Place where we left off blaizeing. Instead of that he has never been here, nor is there one Man in my Company that ever was out this Way to the Turkey Foot, But the Party I send will discover the Place where we shall cut the Road and inform the General, and upon their return I will order 'em to blaize back to me." The news of Braddock's defeat came slowly to the cutters of this historic roadway from central Pennsylvania to the Youghiogheny. On Tuesday night, July 15, a messenger was sent to them from Fort Cumberland, who arrived the night of the day the above letter was written.[38] Dunbar wrote Morris from "near ye great Crossings" on the sixteenth: "I have sent an Express to Captain Hogg, who is covering the People cutting Your New Road, as I can't think his advancing that Way safe, to retire immediately."[39] Burd reported to Morris from Shippensburg July 25, that his party had retreated to Fort Cumberland from the top of Allegheny Mountain July 17; "St Clair told Me," he added, tentatively, "that I had done my Duty." He had left before Dunbar's messenger had arrived.[40] Such is the first chapter of the story of the white man's occupation of the Old Trading Path and the Old Glade Road--the name commonly applied to the portion which Burd opened from the main path from where it diverged four miles west of Bedford to the summit of Allegheny Mountain. This branch was also known as the "Turkey Foot Road."[41] The Old Trading Path was now a white man's road from Carlisle to Bedford and four miles beyond. But the tide of war now set over the mountains after Braddock's defeat, putting an end to any improvement of the new rough road that was opened. Yet not all the ground gained was to be lost. Governor Shirley, now in command, wildly ordered Dunbar to move westward again to retrieve Braddock's mistakes, but sanely added, that, in the case of defeat "You are to make the most proper Disposition of his Majesties' Forces to cover the Frontiers of the Provinces, particularly at the Towns of Shippensburg and Carlisle, and at or near a place called McDowell's Mill, where the New Road to the Allegheny Mountains begins in Pennsylvania, from the Incursions of the Enemy until you shall receive further orders."[42] Was this a hint that Braddock had been sent by a wrong route and that his successor would march to Fort Duquesne over the Old Trading Path? CHAPTER II A BLOOD-RED FRONTIER