On August 6th, 1763, at the top of Edge Hill, soldiers under Col. Bouquet stacked flour bags in a circle to protect the wounded and moved pack animals and supplies into a natural ravine, while the rest of the men took defensive positions on the brow of the hill to repulse the attack. Bouquet wrote, "We took Post last night on the Hill. There we encircled the whole and covered our wounded with Flour Bags." An officer at the battle portrayed the wider ordeal of campaigning in America as harsh and perilous, with terrible country, climate, and enemy, no refreshment for the healthy or relief for the sick, and an inhospitable, unsafe, and treacherous wilderness where victories were not decisive, defeats were ruinous, and simple death was the least misfortune that could happen.
