Following thirty years of official peace, the struggle for empire resumed in earnest during the 1750s. In the spring of 1755, a strong army of British regulars and American Provincials, 2,200 men in all snaked its cumbrous way over the Appalachian Mountains in the direction of Fort Duquesne. Their general, Edward Braddock, who had no experience in wilderness fighting and abided meticulously by regulations, posted adequate flankers and sentinels and marched his men to the rhythm of fifes and drums. At times his bright red columns extended four miles along the narrow wilderness trail. The redcoats' progress towards Fort Duquesne was carefully observed by New France's Amerindian allies who hovered under the cover of the forest.
