In May 1755, he worked on the Braddock Road, a road built west from Alexandria, Virginia in support of General Edward Braddock's ill-fated expedition against the French. He was captured by Delaware Indians and brought to Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio River, where he was forced to run a gauntlet before being given over to the French. He was adopted by a Mohawk family, ritually cleansed, and made to practice tribal ways – ultimately gaining respect for Indian culture. He escaped near Montreal, but was jailed by the French for four months until his release in a prisoner exchange with the British. He returned to the Conococheague Valley in Pennsylvania and took up farming, marrying Anne Wilson in May 1763.