The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne.
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Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%--Braddock took command of this last expedition and made Washington one of his aids.

For a while he found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or drag his cannon.

At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to the general.
All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort Duquesne.

The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort, when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of Indians and French.