Plan of the Campaign for 1755 Arranged

Each government, evidently playing false toward the other, made friendly propositions for mutual concessions that were simply impossible; and so the matter stood when Braddock arrived in Chesapeake Bay, with his two regiments borne by vessels under Admiral Keppel. He first visited Governor Dinwiddie, at Williamsburgh, and then repaired to Alexandria, on the Potomac, with the admiral, where, at the middle of April, he held a council with royal governors at the fine house of Jonathan Carey. The governors present were Shirley, of Massachusetts; De Lancey, of New York; Sharpe, of Maryland; Morris, of Pennsylvania; Dobbs, of North Carolina; and Dinwiddie, of Virginia. These crown-officers told Braddock at the outset that the Assemblies would not comply with his demand for a revenue, nor the wishes of the king for a general fund for military purposes; and they agreed that it would be proper to recommend the government to take measures to force the colonies to bear their share of the expenses of the regular troops sent here. A communication to that effect, signed by the governors and the general, was sent to the ministers; but events would not wait on governors nor legislation. The council at Alexandria were compelled to take immediate action, or all would be lost. The warm weather was coming, and so were the French and Indians. So the council planned the campaign for 1755, depending upon the imperial government and the free-will of the colonists for the necessary supplies in executing it. Three separate expeditions were planned. One was to proceed against Fort Du Quesne, led by General Braddock; a second was to attack Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River, and Fort Frontenac at the foot of Lake Ontario on the site of Kingston, and was to be led by General Shirley. A third expedition, led by William Johnson (a nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, and then the government superintendent of Indian affairs among the Six Nations), was to attempt the seizure of Crown Point on Lake Champlain. A fourth expedition had already been planned in the East, for the expulsion of the French from Nova Scotia, and possibly the recapture of Louisburg.

The colonists were delighted by evidences that the imperial government intended to help them in their unequal contest with the French and Indians. They laid aside their grievances, and with zeal and patriotism joined the government in preparations for war. All of the colonial legislatures, excepting Pennsylvania and Georgia, voted men and supplies for the impending conflict. The Quaker Assembly of Pennsylvania were conscientiously opposed to military movements, and Georgia was too indigent in men and money to do anything.