Forbes Road - Washington and Brouquet meeting Traditional Geocache
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Forbes Road - Washington and Brouquet meeting
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easiest find you'll ever make. cache is an ammo can with lots of room for Trackables and loaded with Swag. Cache is located at a Church so be mindful of services
Colonel Henry Bouquet, a Swiss mercenary commissioned in the Royal American Regiment. From the beginning of the campaign, Bouquet proved himself to be a competent and resourceful officer. He was a keen observer of wilderness warfare who wished to avoid the pitfalls that hampered Braddock’s command. As such, he advocated the use of tactics better suited for irregular combat against Indians. Joseph Shippen, an officer in the Pennsylvania Regiment, observed Bouquet drilling the troops during the campaign and wrote, "Every afternoon he exercises his men in the woods and bushes in a particular manner of his own invention which will be of great service in an engagement with the Indians."
While General Forbes remained behind to complete the organization of his army, Colonel Bouquet led the advance across Pennsylvania. Taking the road from Philadelphia, through Lancaster and on to the Susquehanna River, travel was uneventful since the line of communication into the interior had been developed some years before. Bouquet crossed the river at Harris Ferry (present-day Harrisburg) and continued on to Carlisle, which served as the forwarding point for men and supplies. At Carlisle, the colonel suffered his first disappointment when wagons needed to haul supplies westward, failed to arrive. The Pennsylvania farmers were reluctant to lease their transports to the army fearing they would not be paid. An angry Bouquet fired off a letter to the magistrates in Berks County demanding that the wagons be immediately forwarded to the frontier.
Departing Carlisle on June 5, Colonel Bouquet headed for Shippensburg, the last settlement in the west. The road became more difficult to negotiate and the colonel declared that the "sharp stones will very soon wear out the 3 pairs of shoes that each soldier is to have." The Pennsylvania troops were sent forward to repair the highway and open the trail between Forts Loudon and Littleton, two provincial outposts to the west. This trail, which had first been cut by James Burd in 1755, ran up Path Valley and crossed over Tuscarora Mountain through a notch later known as Cowans Gap. At this point the going became increasingly difficult. Bouquet informed General Forbes, "Of all the roads where it is possible for a wagon to go, this is the worst... It is of rock, partly solid, partly loose and sharp stones. The rains have carried away all the earth... Our wagons are breaking down; our horses are losing their shoes. It is a wretched state of affairs." Little did the colonel know that greater challenges would face him as he drove forward toward Fort Duquesne.
By June 28, Bouquet’s advance force reached a small trading village known as Raystown, named for the Indian trader John Wray who had trekked the western hills as early as 1732. It was here that Bouquet set about building a large compound named Fort Bedford. He then sent orders directing the troops from Maryland and the Virginia forces under the command of Colonel George Washington to cut a trail northward from Fort Cumberland. It was also at Fort Bedford that the question arose regarding which route the army should take to reach Fort Duquesne. Washington and the Virginians proposed that Forbes’ men drop south from Raystown to Cumberland and then use Braddock’s old road. Colonel Bouquet, on the other hand, favored cutting a new road directly across the Allegheny and Laurel Ridges, thereby saving nearly fifty miles while avoiding several treacherous river crossings. The question remained, however, was it possible to even build a new road over the mountains? Bouquet sent out several scouting parties who returned to inform him that, while difficult, it was indeed possible to secure a passage over the mountains. In the end, General Forbes sided with Bouquet and construction began on the new route.
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