“Pennsylvania is in a huff,” he said, “because General Braddock’s army has been landed at Alexandria instead of Philadelphia.  Truth to tell, for an expedition against Fort Duquesne, Philadelphia would have been a nearer and better place, but I hear that one John Hanbury, a powerful merchant who trades much in Virginia, wanted the troops to come this way that he might sell them supplies, and he persuaded the Duke of Newcastle to choose Alexandria.  ’Tis a bad state of affairs, Lennox, but you and I can’t remedy it.  The chief trouble is between the general and the Pennsylvanians, many of whom are Quakers and Germans, as obstinate people as this world has ever produced.”

The differences and difficulties were soon patent to all.  A month of spring was passing, and the army was far from having the necessary supplies.  Neither Virginia nor Pennsylvania responded properly.  In Pennsylvania there was a bitter quarrel between the people and the proprietary government that hampered action.  Many of the contractors who were to furnish equipment thought much more of profit than of patriotism.  Braddock, brave and honest, but tactless and wholly ignorant of the conditions predominant in any new country, raged and stormed.  He denounced the Virginia troops that came to his standard, calling shameful their lack of uniforms and what he considered their lack of discipline.

Robert heard that in these turbulent days young Washington, whom Braddock had taken on his staff as a colonel and for whom he had a warm personal regard, was the best mediator between the testy general and the stubborn population.  In his difficult position, and while yet scarcely more than a boy, he was showing all the great qualities of character that he was to display so grandly in the long war twenty years later.

“Tis related,” said Willet, “that General Braddock will listen to anything from him, that he has the most absolute confidence in his honesty and good judgment, and, judging from what I hear, General Braddock is right.”

But to Robert, despite the anxieties, the days were happy.  As he had affiliated readily with the young Virginians he was also quickly a friend of the young British officers, who were anxious to learn about the new conditions into which they had been cast with so little preparation.  There was Captain Robert Orme, Braddock’s aide-de-camp, a fine manly fellow, for whom he soon formed a reciprocal liking, and the son of Sir Peter Halket, a lieutenant, and Morris, an American, another aide-de-camp, and young William Shirley, the son of the governor of Massachusetts, who had become Braddock’s secretary.  He also became well acquainted with older officers, Gladwin who was to defend Detroit so gallantly against Pontiac and his allied tribes, Gates, Gage, Barton and others, many of whom were destined to serve again on one side or other in the great Revolution.