The Captain enquiring our success, I gave him the melancholy detail of our unfortunate expedition; upon which, an express was immediately sent to the Governor with the account, who ordered 1600 men to march the next morning for the same place, under the command of General Franklin, not only to bury the dead and build a fort there, but to extirpate the savages who infested these parts, and were too powerful for our small number under Captain Davis.

The remainder of our little party were now building a fort at the place where we lay for our defence, until more assistance should arrive; for we were under continual apprehensions of the Indians pursuing and attacking us again.

On the 9th of January 1756, we were reinforced by General Franklin and his body, and the next day set out again for Kennorton-head; where, when we arrived, to our great consternation, we found little occasion to bury our unhappy comrades, the swine (which in that country are vastly numerous in the woods) having devoured their bodies, and nothing but bones strewed up and down were to be seen.

We there built a fort in the place where the old church had stood, and gave it the name of Fort Allen; this was finished in six days, and in so good a manner, that 100 men would make great resistance against a much greater number of Indians.

On the 18th, 1400 of us were ordered about fifteen miles distant from thence, on the frontiers of the province, where we built another fort called Fort Norris. In our way thither we found six men scalped and murdered in a most cruel manner. By what we could discern, they had made a vigorous defence, the barrels and stocks of their guns being broke to pieces, and themselves cut and mangled in a terrible manner.

From thence we were ordered to march towards a place called the Minnisinks, but this journey proved longer than we were aware of, the Indians committing great outrages in these parts, having burnt and destroyed all the houses, etc. in our way. These tragic actions caused us to divide ourselves into several parties, who were ordered divers ways, to cut off as many of these savages as possible.

The day after this scheme was put into execution, we met with a small party which we put to the rout, killing fourteen of them. We then made all possible dispatch to save some houses we saw on fire, but on our nearer approach found our endeavour in vain; John Swisher and his family having been before scalped and burnt to ashes in his own house.

On the following night, the house of James Thallis underwent the same fate, himself, wife, seven children, and the rest of the family, being scalped, and burnt therein. The houses and families of Philip Green and Abraham Nairne suffered in the like manner.

Nor did the cruelty of these barbarians stop here, but attacked the dwelling-house of George Hunter, Esq. a gentleman of considerable wealth, and a justice of the peace, who made a brave resistance, and rather than fall into the hands of these miscreants, chose to meet death in the flames, which he, his wife, and all his household, consisting of sixteen in number, did with the utmost bravery, before any assistance could be received from our General, who had dispatched 500 of us for that purpose, on an express being sent to him that morning.

From thence we marched to the Minnisinks, and built Fort Norris. On the 9th of March we set out with 1000 men to the head of the Minnisinks, and built another fort, which we named Franklin, in honour of our General. All which forts were garrisoned with as many men as we could possibly spare.

After this we were daily employed in scouring the woods, from fort to fort, of these noxious creatures the Indians, and in getting as much of the corn together as we could find, to prevent the savages from having any benefit there from.

Notwithstanding our vigilance, these villains, on the 15th, attacked the house of James Graham, but by Providence, he with his wife, who had just lain in, and the young infant in her arms, (with nothing about her but her shift) made their escape to Fort Allen, about fifteen miles distant. The child perished by the way, and it was matter of wonder to the whole garrison to find either of them alive; indeed, they were in a deplorable condition, and we imagined they would expire every moment. The wife, however, to our great astonishment recovered, but the husband did not survive above six hours after their arrival.

The house of Isaac Cook suffered by the flames; himself, his wife, and eight children being scalped and burnt in it.

Tedious and shocking would it be to enumerate half the murders, conflagrations, and outrages committed by these hellish infidels; let it suffice, therefore, that from the year 1753, when they first began their barbarities, they had murdered, burned, scalped, and destroyed above 3500; above 1500 whereof were unhappy inhabitants of the western part of Philadelphia. Men, women, and children, fell alike a prey to the savages; no regard being had by them to the tender entreaties of an affectionate parent for a beloved child, or the infant's prayers in behalf of his aged father and mother. Such are the miserable calamities attendant on schemes for gratifying the ambition of a tyrannic monarchy like France, or the weak contrivances or indolent measures of blundering ministers or negotiators.

General Franklin’s strategy of building a chain of forts and patrolling the resulting littoral would be the dominant white military strategy for dealing with hostile tribes from Pennsylvania to Texas and Montana, over the next century and a half. In dealing with the better-supplied and more numerous whites, Indian warriors typically prevailed in small actions and were able to choose when to engage in major actions. However, the building of a fort was the ideal method for using the superior white manpower to advance the superior material advantage [supplies for sustained operations] like a spear into the heart of the enemy’s operational zone. Indians were rarely able to take fortified positions as they lacked artillery. Therefore the crux of frontier warfare remained the beleaguered fort thrust like a spear point into the wilderness, which enabled the staging of supplies for use by large operational units attempting to expand territorial influence, and small garrisons and patrols attempting to maintain lines of supply.