Page:History of Cumberland, Maryland 2.djvu/159

1755.] vain. After numerous delays, and a conference with the Royal Governors, we find General Braddock en rouUe on the 24th of April, when he had reached Fredericktown in Maryland. Passing thence through Winchester, Va., he reached Fort Cumberland about the 9th of May. Sir John St. Clair, Deputy Quarter- master General, had preceded him to this point about two weeks.

"The army struck the Little Cacapehon (though pronounced Cacapon, I have used for the occasion the spelling of Washington, and various old docu- mentB,) about six miles above its mouth, and following the stream, encamped on the Virginia side of the Potomac, preparatory to crossing into Maryland. The water is supposed to have been high at the time, as the spot is known as the Ferry Fields, from the army having been ferried over. This was about the 4th or 5th of May.

"The army thence pursued the banks of the river, with a slight deviation of route at the mouth of the South Branch, to the village of Old Town, known at that time as the Shawnee Old Town, modern use having dropped the most characteristic part of the name. This place, distant about eight miles from the Ferry Fields, was known at that early day as the residence of Col. Thomas Cresap, an English settler, and the father of the hero of Logan's speech. The road proceeded thence parallel with the river and at the foot of the hills, till it passes the Narrows of Will's Mountain, when it struck out on a shorter