|
This Site:
Discovery of America
The Explorers
Post Columbian Exploration
Thirteen Original Colonies
Colonization of America
Colonial Life
Colonial Days and Ways
Independence Movement
The Patriots
Prelude to War
Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War Battles
Overview of Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War
Timeline
Civil War
American Flag
Mexican War
Republic of Texas
Indians
|
 Braddock, EDWARD,
military officer; born in Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695; entered
the army as ensign in the Cold-stream Guards; served in the wars in
Flanders; received a commission as brigadier-general in 1746, and
major-general in March, 1754. He arrived in
Virginia in February,
1755, and, placed in command of an expedition against Fort Duquesne,
began his march from Will's Creek (Cumberland,
Maryland), June 10, with
about 2,000 men, regulars and provincials. Anxious to reach his
destination before Fort Duquesne should receive reinforcements, he
made forced marches with 1,200 men, leaving Colonel Dunbar, his
second in command, to follow with the remainder and the wagontrain.
On the morning of July 9 the little army forded the Monongahela
River, and advanced in solid platoons along the southern shores of
that stream. George Washington
saw the perilous arrangement of the troops after the fashion of
European tactics, and he ventured to advise Braddock to disperse his
army in open order and employ the Indian mode of fighting in the
forests. The haughty general angrily replied, "What! a provincial
colonel teach a British general how to fight!" The army moved on,
recrossed the river to the north side, and were marching in fancied
security at about noon, when they were suddenly assailed by volleys
of bullets and clouds of arrows on their front and flanks. They had
fallen into an ambush, against which Washington had vainly warned
Braddock. The assailants were French regulars, Canadians, and
Indians, less than 1,000 in number, under De Beaujeu, who had been
sent from Fort Duquesne by Contrecoeur (see DUQUESNE, FORT), and who
fell at the first onslaught. The suddenness of the attack and the
horrid war-whoop of the Indians, which the British regulars had
never heard before, disconcerted them, and they fell into great
confusion. Braddock, seeing the peril, took the front of the fight,
and by voice and example encouraged his men. For more than two hours
the battle raged fearfully. Of eighty-six English officers
sixty-three were killed or wounded; so, also, were one-half the
private soldiers. All of Braddock's aides were disabled excepting
Washington, who, alone unhurt, distributed the general's orders.
Braddock had five horses shot under him, and finally he, too, fell,
mortally wounded. Competent testimony seems to prove that he was
shot by Thomas Faucett, one of the provincial soldiers. His plea in
extenuation of the crime was self-preservation. Braddock, who had
spurned the advice of Washington about the method of fighting
Indians, had issued a positive order that none of the English should
protect themselves behind trees, as the French and Indians did.
Faucett's brother had taken such a position, and when Braddock
perceived it, he struck him to the earth with his sword. Thomas, on
seeing his brother fall, shot Braddock in the back. The provincials
fought bravely, and nearly all were killed. The remnant of the
regulars broke and fled when Braddock fell. Washington, who was left
in chief command, perceiving the day was lost, rallied the few
provincial troops, and, carrying with him his dying general,
gallantly covered the retreat. The enemy did not pursue. The British
left their cannon and their dead on the battlefield. Three days
after the battle, Braddock died (July 13, 1755) , and was buried in
the forest more than 50 miles from Cumberland. Washington,
surrounded by sorrowing officers, read the funeral service of the
Church of England by torch-light at his grave. General Braddock was
haughty and egotistical, and his private character was not good, he
being known as a gambler and a spendthrift. |
