Page:1758, being a sketch of the founding of Pittsburgh.djvu/16

 on the elevation described to him by Boquet, and which, for a century afterward, bore Grant's name. Everything was in darkness; a dense fog hung over the landscape; the Indian fires were burnt out. Grant ordered Major Lewis of the Virginians to go forward with two hundred Highlanders, one hundred Royal Americans and one hundred Virginians, and attack any force that he might find about the fort, draw their fire and then retreat to the main body, who were to lie in ambush and surprise the enemy, should they pursue. In a short time Major Lewis returned, reporting that in the intense darkness it was impossible to proceed; that there were logs across the road; that it was blocked up by fences; that his force had made so much noise that he felt sure they must have been discovered, but that they had seen no one and had not been challenged.

Grant was determined to do something, so he sent Lieutenants Robinson and MacDonald with fifty men to make an attack on a place where two or three camp-fires had been seen by his scouts the night before. "I desired them to kill a dozen of Indians, if possible, and I would be satisfied," he says with easy sangfroid. This force found nothing but an empty block house, which they set fire to and returned. At break of day, Grant sent Major Lewis with the Royal Americans and Virginians, to reinforce Captain Bullet, whom he had left with fifty men to guard the horses and provisions, two miles in the rear. As if an explanation of this incomprehensible order in weakening his force by two hundred men were necessary, Grant states in his report to General Forbes, "I was afraid the enemy might possibly send a detachment that way to take possession of some passes to harass us in our march or perhaps to cut us off in case we were forced to make a retreat."

Two hundred Highlanders, one hundred Marylanders and one hundred Pennsylvanians were retained on the elevation. In his superficial way, Grant observes "The troops were in an advantageous post and I must own I thought we had nothing to fear." Yet it was known that the commandant of the fort was DeLigneris, who had been one of the two captains under DeBeaujeu when Braddock's army was destroyed, and was a soldier of ability, who, with the numerous Indians about him, could not help having knowledge of the approach of the English army. With a recklessness beyond belief, Grant had the reveille sounded, and to the music of the bagpipes and the drums, he sent Captain MacDonald with one hundred Highlanders straight to the