After placing garrisons in the forts, the effective number of the army, including militia, amounted to rather less than two thousand men.

With this force, the general continued his march, which was rendered both slow and laborious by the necessity of opening a road.

Small parties of Indians were frequently seen hovering about them, and some unimportant skirmishes took place.

As the army approached the country in which they might expect to meet an enemy, about sixty of the militia deserted in a body.

This diminution of force was not, in itself, an object of much concern.