In Pennsylvania, the inhabitants were driven as far as Carlisle; and in Maryland, Fredericktown, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, became a frontier.

With the Virginia regiment, which did not yet amount to one thousand men, aided occasionally by militia, Colonel Washington was to defend a frontier of near four hundred miles in extent, and to complete a chain of forts.

He repeatedly urged the necessity and propriety of abandoning fort Cumberland, which was too far in advance of the settlements, and too far north, to be useful, while it required for its defence a larger portion of his force than could be spared with a proper regard to the safety of other and more advantageous positions.

The governor, however, thought the abandonment of it improper, since it was a "_king's fort_;" and Lord Loudoun, on being consulted, gave the same opinion.
Among the subjects of extreme chagrin to the commander of the Virginia troops, was the practice of desertion.

The prevalence of this crime was ascribed, in a considerable degree, to the ill-judged parsimony of the assembly.