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diff --git a/41152-0.txt b/41152-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4b5c22 --- /dev/null +++ b/41152-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3514 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41152 *** + +HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA + +VOLUME 4 + + + + + [Illustration: BRADDOCK'S GRAVE + + [_The depression on the right is the ancient track of Braddock's + Road; near the single cluster of gnarled apple trees in the meadow + beyond, Braddock died and was first buried_]] + + + + + HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA + VOLUME 4 + + Braddock's Road + AND + THREE RELATIVE PAPERS + + BY + ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT + + _With Maps and Illustrations_ + + [Illustration] + + THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY + CLEVELAND, OHIO + 1903 + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1903 + BY + THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + PREFACE 11 + I. ROUTES OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WESTWARD 15 + II. THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN 30 + III. FROM ALEXANDRIA TO FORT CUMBERLAND 61 + IV. A SEAMAN'S JOURNAL 79 + V. THE BATTLE OF THE MONONGAHELA 108 + VI. A DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKWOODS 136 + VII. SPARKS AND ATKINSON ON BRADDOCK'S ROUTE 166 + VIII. BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN HISTORY 191 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + I. BRADDOCK'S GRAVE _Frontispiece_ + II. ENGLISH AND FRENCH ROUTES TO THE OHIO; 1756 21 + III. PLAN OF FORT CUMBERLAND; FEBRUARY 1755 27 + IV. VIEW OF FORT CUMBERLAND; 1755 45 + V. MAP OF BRADDOCK'S ROAD; ABOUT 1759 69 + VI. BRADDOCK'S ROAD NEAR FROSTBURG, MARYLAND 148 + VII. MIDDLETON'S MAP OF BRADDOCK'S ROAD; 1847 174 + VIII. BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN THE WOODS NEAR FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA 200 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The French were invariably defeated by the British on this continent +because the latter overcame natural obstacles which the former blindly +trusted as insurmountable. The French made a league with the +Alleghenies--and Washington and Braddock and Forbes conquered the +Alleghenies; the French, later, blindly trusted the crags at Louisbourg +and Quebec--and the dauntless Wolfe, in both instances, accomplished the +seemingly impossible. + +The building of Braddock's Road in 1755 across the Alleghenies was the +first significant token in the West of the British grit which finally +overcame. Few roads ever cost so much, ever amounted to so little at +first, and then finally played so important a part in the development of +any continent. + + A. B. H. + +MARIETTA, O., December 8, 1902. + + + + +Braddock's Road + +and + +Three Relative Papers + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ROUTES OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WESTWARD + + +If Providence had reversed the decree which allowed Frenchmen to settle +the St. Lawrence and Englishmen the middle Atlantic seaboard, and, +instead, had brought Englishmen to Quebec and Frenchmen to Jamestown, it +is sure that the English conquest of the American continent would not +have cost the time and blood it did. + +The Appalachian mountain system proved a tremendous handicap to Saxon +conquest. True, there were waterways inland, the Connecticut, Hudson, +Delaware, James, and Potomac rivers, but these led straight into the +mountains where for generations the feeble settlements could not spread +and where explorers became disheartened ere the rich empire beyond was +ever reached. + +The St. Lawrence, on the other hand, offered a rough but sure course +tempting ambitious men onward to the great lake system from which it +flowed, and the Ottawa River offered yet another course to the same +splendid goal. So, while the stolid English were planting sure feet +along the seaboard, New France was spreading by leaps and bounds across +the longitudes. But, wide-spread as these discoveries were, they were +discoveries only--the feet of those who should occupy and defend the +land discovered were heavy where the light paddle of the voyageur had +glistened brightly beneath the noon-day sun. It was one thing to seek +out such an empire and quite another thing to occupy and fortify it. The +French reached the Mississippi at the beginning of the last quarter of +the seventeenth century; ten years after the middle of the eighteenth +they lost all the territory between the Atlantic and Mississippi--though +during the last ten years of their possession they had attempted +heroically to take the nine stitches where a generation before the +proverbial one stitch would have been of twenty-fold more advantage. The +transportation of arms and stores upstream into the interior, around +the foaming rapids and thundering falls that impeded the way, was +painfully arduous labor, and the inspiration of the swift explorers, +flushed with fevered dreams, was lacking to the heavy trains which +toiled so far in the rear. + +There were three points at which the two nations, France and England, +met and struck fire in the interior of North America, and in each +instance it was the French who were the aggressors--because of the easy +means of access which they had into the disputed frontier region. They +came up the Chaudière and down the Kennebec or up the Richelieu and Lake +Champlain, striking at the heart of New England; they ascended the St. +Lawrence and entered Lake Ontario, coveted and claimed by the Province +of New York; they pushed through Lake Ontario and down the Allegheny to +the Ohio River, which Virginia loved and sought to guard. The French +tried to guard these three avenues of approach by erecting fortresses on +the Richelieu River, on Lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie, and on the +Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. These forts were the weights on the net +which the French were stretching from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to +the mouth of the Mississippi. And when that net was drawn taut New +England and New York and Virginia would be swept into the sea! + +It was a splendid scheme--but the weights were not heavy enough. After +interminable blunders and delays the English broke into the net and then +by desperate floundering tore it to fragments. They reached the line of +forts by three routes, each difficult and hazardous, for in any case +vast stretches of forests were to be passed; and until the very last, +the French had strong Indian allies who guarded these forests with valor +worthy of a happier cause. New England defended herself by ascending the +Hudson and crossing the portage to Lake George and Lake Champlain. New +York ascended the Mohawk and, crossing the famous Oneida portage to +Odeida Lake, descended the Onondaga River to Oswego on Lake Ontario. +Virginia spreading out, according to her unchallenged claims, across the +entire continent, could only reach the French on the Ohio by ascending +the Potomac to a point near the mouth of Wills Creek, whence an Indian +path led northwestward over a hundred miles to the Monongahela, which +was descended to its junction with the Ohio. The two former routes, to +Lake Champlain and to Lake Ontario, were, with short portages, +practically all-water routes, over which provisions and army stores +could be transported northward to the zone into which the French had +likewise come by water-routes. The critical points of both routes of +both hostile nations were the strategic portages where land travel was +rendered imperative by the difficulties of navigation. On these portages +many forts instantly sprang into existence--in some instances mere posts +and entrepôts, in some cases strongly fortified citadels. + +The route from Virginia to the Ohio Valley, finally made historic by the +English General Braddock, was by far the most difficult of all the ways +by which the English could meet the French. The Potomac was navigable +for small boats at favorable seasons for varying distances; but beyond +the mountains the first water reached, the Youghiogheny, was useless for +military purposes, as Washington discovered during the march of the +Virginia Regiment, 1754. The route had, however, been marked out under +the direction of Captain Thomas Cresap, for the Ohio Company, and was, +at the time of Washington's expedition, the most accessible passageway +from Virginia to the "Forks of the Ohio." The only other Virginian +thoroughfare westward brought the traveller around into the valley of +the Great Kanawha which empties into the Ohio two hundred odd miles +below the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was over +this slight trail by Wills Creek, Great Meadows, and the Forks of the +Ohio that Washington had gone in 1753 to the French forts on French +Creek; and it was this path that the same undaunted youth widened, the +year after, in order to haul his swivels westward with the vanguard of +Colonel Fry's army which was to drive the French from the Ohio. +Washington's Road--as Nemacolin's Path should, in all conscience, be +known--was widened to the summit of Mount Braddock. From Mount +Braddock Washington's little force retraced their steps over the road +they had built in the face of the larger French army sent against them +until they were driven to bay in their little fortified camp, Fort +Necessity, in Great Meadows, where the capitulation took place after an +all-day's battle. Marching out with the honors of war, the remnant of +this first English army crawled painfully back to Wills Creek. All this +took place in the summer of 1754. + +[Illustration: ENGLISH AND FRENCH ROUTES TO THE OHIO (1756) +[_From the original in the British Museum_]] + +The inglorious campaign ending thus in dismay was of considerably more +moment than its dejected survivors could possibly have imagined. Small +as were the numbers of contestants on both sides, and distant though the +scene of conflict might have been, the peace between England and France +was at this moment poised too delicately not to be disturbed by even the +faintest roll of musketry in the distant unknown Alleghenies. + +Washington had been able neither to fight successfully nor to avoid a +battle by conducting a decent retreat because the reinforcements +expected from Virginia were not sent him. These "reinforcements" were +Rutherford's and Clarke's Independent Companies of Foot which Governor +Dinwiddie had ordered from New York to Virginia but which did not arrive +in Hampton Roads until the eighth of June. On the first of September +these troops were marched to Wills Creek, where, being joined by Captain +Demerie's Independent Company from South Carolina, they began, on the +twelfth of September, the erection of a fort. The building of this fort +by Virginia nearly a hundred miles west of Winchester (then a frontier +post) is only paralleled by the energy of Massachusetts in building two +forts in the same year on the Kennebec River--Fort Western and Fort +Halifax. New York had almost forgotten her frontier forts at Saratoga +and Oswego, and the important portage between the Hudson and Lake George +was undefended while the French were building both Fort Ticonderoga and +Fort Frederick (Crown Point) on Lake Champlain. New York and New England +could have seized and fortified Lake Champlain prior to French +encroachment as easily as Virginia could fortify Wills Creek. Virginia, +however, had been assisted from the royal chest, while the assemblies of +the other colonies were in the customary state of turmoil, governor +against legislature. The intermediate province of Pennsylvania, home of +the peaceful Quakers, looked askance upon the darkening war-clouds and +had done little or nothing for the protection of her populous frontiers. +As a result, therefore, the Virginian route to the French, though +longest and most difficult, was made, by the erection of Fort Cumberland +at Wills Creek, at once the most conspicuous. + +Fort Cumberland, named in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, +Captain-general of the English Army, was located on an eminence between +Wills Creek and the Potomac, two hundred yards from the former and about +four hundred yards from the latter. Its length was approximately two +hundred yards and its breadth nearly fifty yards; and "is built," writes +an eye-witness in 1755, "by logs driven into the ground, and about 12 +feet above it, with embrasures for 12 guns, and 10 mounted 4 pounders, +besides stocks for swivels, and loop holes for small arms." As the +accompanying map indicates, the fort was built with a view to the +protection of the store-houses erected at the mouth of Wills Creek by +the Ohio Company. This is another suggestion of the close connection +between the commercial and military expansion of Virginia into the Ohio +basin. Wherever a storehouse of the Ohio Company was erected a fort soon +followed--with the exception of the strategic position at the junction +of the Allegheny and Monongahela where English fort building was brought +to a sudden end by the arrival of the French, who, on English +beginnings, erected Fort Duquesne in 1754. A little fort at the mouth of +Redstone Creek on the Monongahela had been erected in 1753 but that, +together with the blasted remains of Fort Necessity, fell into the hands +of the French in the campaign of 1754. Consequently, at the dawning of +the memorable year 1755, Fort Cumberland was the most advanced English +position in the West. The French Indian allies saw to it that it was +safe for no Englishman to step even one pace nearer the Ohio; they +skulked continually in the neighboring forests and committed many +depredations almost within range of the guns of Fort Cumberland. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT CUMBERLAND, AND VICINITY; DATED FEBRUARY, +1755 [_Showing buildings of the Ohio Company across the Potomac River_] +(_From the original in British Museum_)] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN + + +Governor Dinwiddie's zeal had increased in inverse ratio to the success +of Virginian arms. After Washington's repulse at Fort Necessity he +redoubled his energies, incited by a letter received from one of +Washington's hostages at Fort Duquesne. Colonel Innes was appointed to +command the Virginia troops and superintend the erection of Fort +Cumberland, while Washington was ordered to fill up his depleted +companies by enlistments and to move out again to Fort Cumberland. +Indeed it was only by objections urged in the very strongest manner that +the inconsiderate Governor was deterred from launching another destitute +and ill-equipped expedition into the snow-drifted Alleghenies. + +But there was activity elsewhere than in Virginia during the winter of +1754-5. Contrecoeur, commanding at Fort Duquesne, sent clear reports of +the campaign of 1754. The French cause was strengthening. The success of +the French had had a wonderful effect on the indifferent Indians; +hundreds before only half-hearted came readily under French domination. +All this was of utmost moment to New France, possibly of more importance +than keeping her chain of forts to Quebec unbroken. As Joncaire, the +drunken commander on the Allegheny, had told Washington in 1753, the +English could raise two men in America to their one--but not including +their Indians. + +It is, probably, impossible for us to realize with what feelings the +French anticipated war with England on the American continent. The long +campaigns in Europe had cost both nations much and had brought no return +to either. Even Marshal Saxe's brilliant victories were purchased at a +fabulous price, and, at the end, Louis had given up all that was gained +in order to pose "as a Prince and not as a merchant." But in America +there was a prize which both of these nations desired and which was +worth fighting for--the grandest prize ever won in war! Between the +French and English colonies lay this black forest stretching from Maine +through New York and Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico. It +seemed, to the French, the silliest dream imaginable for the English to +plan to pierce this forest and conquer New France. To reach any of the +French forts a long passage by half-known courses through an +inhospitable wilderness was necessary; and the French knew by a century +of experience what a Herculean task it was to carry troops and stores +over the inland water and land ways of primeval America. But for the +task they had had much assistance from the Indians and were favored in +many instances by the currents of these rivers; the English had almost +no Indian allies and in every case were compelled to ascend their rivers +to reach the French. However, the formation of the Ohio Company and the +lively days of the summer of 1754 in the Alleghenies aroused France as +nothing else could; here was one young Virginian officer who had found +his way through the forests, and there was no telling how many more +there might be like him. And France, tenfold more disturbed by +Washington's campaign than there was need for, performed wonders during +the winter of 1754-5. The story of the action at Fort Necessity was +transmitted to London and was represented by the British ambassadors at +Paris as an open violation of the peace, "which did not meet with the +same degree of respect," writes a caustic historian, "as on former +occasions of complaint: the time now nearly approaching for the French +to pull off the mask of moderation and peace."[1] As if to confirm this +suspicion, the French marine became suddenly active, the Ministry +ordered a powerful armament to be fitted at Brest; "in all these +armaments," wrote the Earl of Holderness's secret agent, "there appeared +a plain design to make settlements and to build forts; besides, that it +was given out, they resolved to augment the fortifications at Louisburg, +and to build more forts on the Ohio."[2] + +But there was activity now in England, too. Governor Sharpe of +Maryland, but lately appointed Commander-in-chief in America, had only a +hint of what was being planned and was to have even less share in its +accomplishment; in vain his friends extolled him as honest--"a little +less honesty," declared George II, characteristically, "and a little +more ability were more to be desired at the moment." And the rule worked +on both sides of the Atlantic. American affairs had long been in the +hands of the Secretary of the Board of Trade, the Duke of Newcastle, as +perfect an ass as ever held high office. He had opposed every policy +that did not accord with his own "time serving selfishness" with a +persistency only matched by his unparalleled ignorance. Once thrown into +a panic, it is said, at a rumor that a large French army had been thrown +into Cape Breton, he was asked where the necessary transports had been +secured. + +"Transports," he shrieked, "I tell you they marched by land!" + +"By land, to the island of Cape Breton?" was the astonished reply. + +"What, is Cape Breton an island? Are you sure of that?" and he ran away +with an "Egad, I will go directly and tell the King that Cape Breton is +an island!" It is not surprising that a government which could ever have +tolerated such a man in high office should have neglected, then abused, +and then lost its American colonies. + +But Newcastle gave way to an abler man. The new campaign in North +America was the conception of the Captain-general of the British Army, +the Duke of Cumberland, hero of Culloden. + +On November 14, 1754, King George opened Parliament with the statement +that "His principal view should be to strengthen the foundation, and +secure the duration of a general peace; to improve the present +advantages of it for promoting the trade of his good subjects, and +protecting those possessions which constitute one great source of their +wealth and commerce." Only in this vague way did His Majesty refer to +the situation in America, lest he precipitate a debate; but Parliament +took the cue and voted over four million pounds--one million of which +was to be devoted to augmenting England's forces "by land and sea." +Cumberland's plan for the operations against the French in America had, +sometime before, been forwarded to the point of selecting a +Generalissimo to be sent to that continent. Major-General Edward +Braddock was appointed to the service, upon the Duke of Cumberland's +recommendation, on September 24. + +Edward Braddock was a lieutenant-colonel of the line and a major of the +Foot Guards, the choicest corps of the British army--a position which +cost the holder no less than eighteen thousand dollars. He was born in +Ireland but was not Irish, for neither Scot, Irish, nor Papist could +aspire to the meanest rank of the Foot Guards. He was as old as his +century. His promotion in the army had been jointly due to the good name +of his father, Edward Braddock I, who was retired as Major-general in +1715, to his passion for strict discipline, and to the favor of His +Grace the Duke of Cumberland. Braddock's personal bravery was +proverbial; it was said that his troops never faced a danger when their +commander was not "greedy to lead." In private life he was dissolute; in +disposition, "a very Iroquois," according to Walpole. Yet certain of +his friends denied the brutality which many attributed to him. "As we +were walking in the Park," one of Braddock's admirers has recorded, "we +heard a poor fellow was to be chastized; when I requested the General to +beg off the offender. Upon his application to the general officer, whose +name was Dury, he asked Braddock, How long since he had divested himself +of brutality and the insolence of his manner? To which the other +replied, 'You never knew me insolent to my inferiors. It is only to such +rude men as yourself that I behave with the spirit which I think they +deserve.'"[3] And yet, when his sister Fanny hanged herself with a +silver girdle to her chamber door, after losing her fortune at the +gaming tables, the brute of a brother observed, "I always thought she +would play till she would be forced to tuck herself up." On the other +hand it need not be forgotten that Braddock was for forty-three years in +the service of the famed Coldstream Guards; that he probably conducted +himself with courage in the Vigo expedition and in the Low Countries, +and was a survivor of bloody Dettingen, Culloden, Fontenoy, and +Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1753 he was stationed at Gibraltar where, "with all +his brutality," writes Walpole, "he made himself adored, and where +scarce any governor was endured before."[4] + +Two months and one day after Braddock's commission was signed he +received two letters of instructions, one from the King and one from the +Duke of Cumberland. "For your better direction in discharge of y^e Trust +thereby reposed in You," reads the King's letter, "We have judged it +proper to give You the following Instructions." The document is divided +into thirteen heads: + +1. Two regiments of Foot commanded by Sir Peter Halket and Colonel +Dunbar, with a train of artillery and necessary ships were ordered to +"repair to North America." + +2. Braddock ordered to proceed to America and take under his command +these troops, cultivating meanwhile "a good understanding & +correspondence with Aug. Keppel Esq^r." who was appointed commander of +the American squadron. + +3. Orders him also to take command of and properly distribute 3000 men +which the Governors of the provinces had been ordered to raise to serve +under Governor Shirley and Sir William Pepperell; informs him that Sir +John St. Clair, deputy Quarter Master General, and Jas. Pitcher Esq^r., +"our commissary of y^e musters, in North America," had been sent to +prepare for the arrival of the troops from Ireland and for raising the +troops in America. Upon Braddock's arrival he should inform himself of +the progress of these preparations. + +4. Provisions for the troops from Ireland had been prepared lest, upon +arrival in America, they should be in want. + +5. "Whereas, We have given Orders to our said Gov^{rs} to provide +carefully a sufficient Quantity of fresh victuals for y^e use of our +Troops at their arrival, & y^t they should also furnish all our officers +who may have occasion to go from Place to Place, with all necessaries +for travelling by Land, in case there are no means of going by Sea; & +likewise, to observe and obey all such orders as shall be given by You +or Persons appointed by you from time to time for quartering Troops, +impressing Carriages, & providing all necessaries for such Forces as +shall arrive or be raised in America, and y^t the s^d several Services +shall be performed at the charge of y^e respective Governments, wherein +the same shall happen. It is our Will & Pleasure y^t you should, +pursuant thereto, apply to our s^d Governors, or any of them, upon all +such Exigencies." + +6. The Governors had been directed "to endeavor to prevail upon y^e +Assemblies of their respective Provinces to raise forthwith as large a +sum as can be afforded as their contribution to a common Fund, to be +employed provisionally for y^e general Service in North America." +Braddock was urged to assist in this and have great care as to its +expenditure. + +7. Concerns Braddock's relations with the colonial governors; especially +directing that a Council of War which shall include them be formed to +determine, by majority vote, matters upon which no course has been +defined. + +8. "You will not only cultivate y^e best Harmony & Friendship possible +with y^e several Governors of our Colonies & Provinces, but likewise +with y^e Chiefs of y^e Indian Tribes ... to endeavor to engage them to +take part & act with our Forces, in such operations as you shall think +most expedient." + +9. Concerns securing the alliance and interest of the Indians and giving +them presents. + +10. Orders Braddock to prevent any commerce between the French and the +English provinces. + +11. Concerning the relative precedency of royal and colonial +commissions. + +12. Describes the copies of documents enclosed to Braddock concerning +previous relations with the colonies for defense against French +encroachment; "... And as Extracts of Lieut Gov^r Dinwiddie's Letters of +May 10^{th}, June 18^{th}, & July 24^{th}, relating to the Summons of +the Fort which was erecting on y^e Forks of y^e Monongahela, and y^e +Skirmish y^t followed soon after, & likewise of y^e action in the Great +Meadows, near the River Ohio, are herewith delivered to you, you will be +fully acquainted with what has hitherto happened of a hostile Nature +upon the Banks of that River." + +13. Concerns future correspondence between Braddock and the Secretaries +of State to whom his reports were to be sent. + + +The communication from the Duke of Cumberland written by his Aide, +Colonel Napier, throws much light upon the verbal directions which +Braddock received before he sailed: + +"His Royal Highness the Duke, in the several audiences he has given you, +entered into a particular explanation of every part of the service you +are about to be employed in; and as a better rule for the execution of +His Majesty's instructions, he last Saturday communicated to you his own +sentiments of this affair, and since you were desirous of forgetting no +part thereof, he has ordered me to deliver them to you in writing. His +Royal Highness has this service very much at heart, as it is of the +highest importance to his majesty's American dominions, and to the +honour of his troops employed in those parts. His Royal Highness +likewise takes a particular interest in it, as it concerns you, whom he +recommended to his majesty to be nominated to the chief command. + +"His Royal Highness's opinion is, that immediately after your landing, +you consider what artillery and other implements of war it will be +necessary to transport to Will's Creek for your first operation on the +Ohio, that it may not fail you in the service; and that you form a +second field train, with good officers and soldiers, which shall be sent +to Albany and be ready to march for the second operation at Niagara. You +are to take under your command as many as you think necessary of the two +companies of artillery that are in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as soon +as the season will allow, taking care to leave enough to defend the +Island. Captain Ord, a very experienced officer, of whom his Royal +Highness has a great opinion, will join you as soon as possible. + +"As soon as Shirley's and Pepperel's regiments are near complete, his +Royal Highness is of opinion you should cause them to encamp, not only +that they may sooner be disciplined, but also to draw the attention of +the French and keep them in suspense about the place you really design +to attack. His Royal Highness does not doubt that the officers and +captains of the several companies will answer his expectation in forming +and disciplining their respective troops. The most strict discipline is +always necessary, but more particularly so in the service you are +engaged in. Wherefore his Royal Highness recommends to you that it be +constantly observed among the troops under your command, and to be +particularly careful that they be not thrown into a panic by the +Indians, with whom they are yet unacquainted, whom the French will +certainly employ to frighten them. His Royal Highness recommends to you +the visiting your posts night and day; that your Colonels and other +officers be careful to do it; and that you yourself frequently set them +the example; and give all your troops plainly to understand that no +excuse will be admitted for any surprise whatsoever. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF FORT CUMBERLAND IN 1755] + +"Should the Ohio expedition continue any considerable time, and +Pepperell's and Shirley's regiments be found sufficient to undertake in +the mean while the reduction of Niagara, his Royal Highness would have +you consider whether you could go there in person, leaving the command +of the troops on the Ohio to some officer on whom you might depend, +unless you shall think it better for the service to send to those troops +some person whom you had designed to command on the Ohio; but this is a +nice affair, and claims your particular attention. Colonel Shirley is +the next commander after you, wherefore if you should send such an +officer he must conduct himself so as to appear only in quality of a +friend or counsellor in the presence of Colonel Shirley: and his Royal +Highness is of opinion that the officer must not produce or make mention +of the commission you give him to command except in a case of absolute +necessity. + +"The ordering of these matters may be depended on, if the expedition at +Crown Point can take place at the same time that Niagara is besieged. + +"If after the Ohio expedition is ended it should be necessary for you to +go with your whole force to Niagara it is the opinion of his Royal +Highness that you should carefully endeavour to find a shorter way from +the Ohio thither than that of the Lake; which however you are not to +attempt under any pretense whatever without a moral certainty of being +supplied with provisions, &c. As to your design of making yourself +master of Niagara, which is of the greatest consequence, his Royal +Highness recommends to you to leave nothing to chance in the prosecution +of that enterprize. + +"With regard to the reducing of Crown Point, the provincial troops being +best acquainted with the country, will be of the most service. + +"After the taking of this fort his Royal Highness advises you to consult +with the Governors of the neighboring provinces, where it will be most +proper to build a fort to cover the frontiers of those provinces. + +"As to the forts which you think ought to be built (and of which they +are perhaps too fond in that country), his Royal Highness recommends the +building of them in such a manner, that they may not require a strong +garrison. He is of opinion that you ought not to build considerable +forts, cased with stone, till the plans and estimates thereof have been +sent to England and approved of by the Government here. His Royal +Highness thinks that stockaded forts, with pallisadoes and a good ditch, +capable of containing 200 men or 400 upon an emergency, will be +sufficient for the present. + +"As Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence, who commands at Nova Scotia, hath long +protracted the taking of Beau-Sejour, his Royal Highness advises you to +consult with him, both with regard to the time and the manner of +executing that design. In this enterprise his Royal Highness foresees +that his majesty's ships may be of great service, as well by +transporting the troops and warlike implements, as intercepting the +stores and succors that might be sent to the French either by the Baye +Françoise, or from Cape Breton by the Baye Verte on the other side of +the Isthmus. + +"With regard to your winter quarters after the operations of the +campaign are finished, his Royal Highness recommends it to you to +examine whether the French will not endeavor to make some attempts next +season and in what parts they will most probably make them. In this case +it will be most proper to canton your troops on that side, at such +distances, that they may easily be assembled for the common defence. But +you will be determined in this matter by appearances, and the +intelligence, which it hath been recommended to you to procure by every +method immediately after your landing. It is unnecessary to put you in +mind how careful you must be to prevent being surprised. His Royal +Highness imagines that your greatest difficulty will be the subsisting +of your troops. He therefore recommends it to you to give your chief +attention to this matter, and to take proper measures relative thereto +with the Governors and with your quartermasters and commissaries. + +"I hope that the extraordinary supply put on board the fleet, and the +1000 barrels of beef destined for your use, will facilitate and secure +the supplying of your troops with provisions. + +"I think I have omitted nothing of all the points wherein you desired +to be informed: if there should be any intricate point unthought of, I +desire you would represent it to me now, or at any other time; and I +shall readily take it upon me to acquaint his Royal Highness thereof, +and shall let you know his opinion on the subject. + +"I wish you much success with all my heart; and as this success will +infinitely rejoice all your friends, I desire you would be fully +persuaded that no body will take greater pleasure in acquainting them +thereof, than him, who is, &c." + + +If excuse is needed for offering in such detail these orders, it is that +few men have ever suffered more heavily in reputation and in person +because of the failures, misconceptions, and shortcomings of others than +the man who received these orders and attempted to act upon them. + +These instructions and the letter from the Duke of Cumberland make two +things very clear: it is clear from the King's instructions (item 12) +that the campaign to the Ohio Valley from Virginia was to be the +important _coup_ of the summer; the documents mentioned were to acquaint +Braddock "with what has hitherto happened of a hostile Nature upon the +Banks of that River." This is made more certain by one of the first +sentences in the Duke of Cumberland's letter, "that immediately after +your landing, you consider what artillery and other implements of war it +will be necessary to transport to Will's Creek for your first operation +on the Ohio." It is also clear that Braddock was helplessly dependent +upon the success with which the American governors carried out the royal +orders previously sent to them. They had been ordered to raise money and +troops, provide provisions, open the necessary roads, supply carriages +and horses, and conciliate and arm the Indian nations on the frontier. +How far they were successful it will be proper to study later; for the +moment, let us consider the destination of the little army that set +sail, after innumerable delays, from the Downs December 21, 1754, led by +the famed "Centurian" whose figure-head adorns Greenwich Hospital +today. + +Sending Braddock and his army to Virginia against the French on the Ohio +was a natural blunder of immeasurable proportions. It was natural, +because all eyes had been turned to Virginia by the activity of the Ohio +Company, Washington's campaign of the preceding year, and the erection +of Fort Cumberland on the farthest frontier. These operations gave a +seeming importance to the Virginia route westward which was all out of +harmony with its length and the facilities offered. "Before we parted," +a friend of Braddock wrote concerning the General's last night in +London, "the General told me that he should never see me more; for he +was going with a handful of men to conquer whole nations; and to do this +they must cut their way through unknown woods. He produced a map of the +country, saying, at the same time, 'Dear Pop, we are sent like +sacrifices to the altar.'" This gloomy prophecy was fulfilled with a +fatal accuracy for which the choice of the Virginia route was largely +responsible. Braddock's campaign had been fully considered in all its +bearings in the royal councils, and the campaign through Virginia to +Fort Duquesne seems to have been definitely decided upon. Even before +Braddock had crossed half of the Atlantic his Quartermaster-General, St. +Clair, had passed all the way through Virginia and Maryland to Fort +Cumberland in carrying out orders issued to him before Braddock had +reached England from Gibraltar. "Having procured from the Governors of +Pennsylvania and Virginia and from other sources," writes Mr. Sargent, +"all the maps and information that were obtainable respecting the +country through which the expedition was to pass, he [St. Clair] +proceeded in company with Governor Sharpe of Maryland upon a tour of +inspection to Will's Creek." He inspected the Great Falls of the Potomac +and laid plans for their being made passable for boats in which the army +stores were to be shipped to Fort Cumberland, and had made contracts for +the construction of the boats. He laid out a camp at Watkin's Ferry. It +is doubtful whether Braddock had ever had one word to say in connection +with all these plans which irrevocably doomed him to the almost +impossible feat of making Fort Cumberland a successful base of supplies +and center of operations against the French. Moreover the Virginia +route, being not only one of the longest on which Braddock could have +approached the French, was the least supplied with any manner of wagons. +"For such is the attention," wrote Entick, "of the Virginians towards +their staple trade of tobacco, that they scarce raise as much corn, as +is necessary for their own subsistence; and their country being well +provided with water-carriage in great rivers an army which requires a +large supply of wheel-carriages and beasts of burden, could not expect +to be furnished with them in a place where they are not in general +use."[5] "Their Produce is Tobacco," wrote one of Braddock's army, of +the Virginians, "they are so attached to that, and their Avarice to +raise it, makes them neglect every Comfort of Life." As has often been +said, Carlisle in Pennsylvania would have made a far better center of +operations than Fort Cumberland, and eventually it proved to be +Pennsylvania wagons in which the stores of the army were +transported--without which the army could not have moved westward from +Fort Cumberland one single mile. "Mr. Braddock had neither provisions +nor carriage for a march of so considerable a length, which was greatly +increased and embarrassed by his orders to take the rout of Will's +Creek; which road, as it was the worst provided with provisions, more +troublesome and hazardous, and much more about, than by way of +Pennsylvania."[6] + +Not to use superlatives, it would seem that the American colonial +governors and St. Clair might have presented to Braddock the +difficulties of the Virginia route as compared with the Pennsylvania +route early enough to have induced the latter to make Carlisle his base +for the Ohio campaign; but there is no telling now where the blunder was +first made; a writer in _Gentleman's Magazine_ affirmed that the +expedition was "sent to _Virginia_ instead of _Pennsylvania_, to their +insuperable disadvantage, merely to answer the lucerative views of a +friend of the ministry, to whose share the remittances would then fall +at the rate of 2-1/2 _per cent_ profit."[7] + +Even the suspicion of such treachery as sending Braddock to Virginia to +indulge the purse of a favorite is the more revolting because of the +suggestion in the letter from the Duke of Cumberland that Braddock, +personally, favored an attack on Fort Niagara--which, it has been +universally agreed, was the thing he should have done. "As to _your +design_ of making yourself master of Niagara"--the italics are +mine--wrote Cumberland; and, though he refers at the beginning to their +numerous interviews, this is the sole mention throughout the letter of +any opinion or plan of Braddock's. "Had General _Braddock_ made it his +first business to secure the command of lake Ontario, which he might +easily have done soon enough to have stopt the _force_ that was sent +from _Canada_ to _Du Quesne_, that fort must have been surrendered to +him upon demand; and had he gone this way to it, greater part of that +vast sum might have been saved to the nation, which was expended in +making a waggon road, through the woods and mountains, the way he +went."[8] Yet Cumberland's orders were distinct to go to Niagara by way +of Virginia and Fort Duquesne. + +Horace Walpole's characterization of Braddock is particularly graphic +and undoubtedly just--"desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behavior, +obstinate in his sentiments, intrepid and capable."[9] The troops given +him for the American expedition were well suited to bring out every +defect in his character; these were the fragments of the 44th and 48th +regiments, then stationed in Ireland. Being deficient (even in time of +peace), both had to be recruited up to five hundred men each. The +campaign was unpopular and the recruits secured were of the worst +type--"who, had they not been in the army, would probably have been in +Bridewell [prison]." Walpole wrote, "the troops allotted to him most +ill-chosen, being draughts of the most worthless in some Irish +regiments, and anew disgusted by this species of banishment."[10] "The +mutinous Spirit of the Men encreases," wrote an officer of Braddock's +army during the march to Fort Duquesne, "but we will get the better of +that, we will see which will be tired first, they of deserving +Punishments, or we of inflicting them ... they are mutinous, and this +came from a higher Spring than the Hardships here, for they were +tainted in _Ireland_ by the factious Cry against the L-- L-- Ld G--, +and the Primate; the wicked Spirit instilled there by Pamphlets and +Conversation, got amongst the common Soldiers, who, tho' they are +_Englishmen_, yet are not the less stubborn and mutinous for that." + +Thus the half-mutinous army, and its "brutal," "obstinate," "intrepid," +and "capable" commander fared on across the sea to Virginia during the +first three months of the memorable year of 1755. By the middle of March +the entire fleet had weighed anchor in the port of Alexandria, Virginia. + + +The situation could not be described better than Entick has done in the +following words: "Put all these together, what was extraordinary in his +[Braddock's] conduct, and what was extraordinary in the way of the +Service, there could be formed no good idea of the issue of such an +untoward expedition." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FROM ALEXANDRIA TO FORT CUMBERLAND + + +What it was that proved to be "extraordinary in the way of the Service" +General Braddock soon discovered, and it is a fair question whether, +despite all that has been written concerning his unfitness for his +position, another man with one iota less "spirit" than Braddock could +have done half that Braddock did. + +The Colonies were still quite asleep to their danger; the year before, +Governor Dinwiddie had been at his wits' end to raise in Virginia a few +score men for Fry and Washington, and had at last succeeded by dint of +drafts and offers of bounty in western lands. Pennsylvania was +hopelessly embroiled in the then unconstitutional question of equal +taxation of proprietary estates. The New York assembly was, and not +without reason, clannish in giving men and money for use only within +her own borders. It is interesting to notice the early flashes of +lurking revolutionary fire in the Colonies when the mother-country +attempted to wield them to serve her own politic schemes. Braddock was +perhaps one of the first Englishmen to suggest the taxation of America +and, within a year, Walpole wrote concerning instructions sent to a New +York Governor, that they "seemed better calculated for the latitude of +Mexico and for a Spanish tribunal than for a free rich British +Settlement, and in such opulence and of such haughtiness, that suspicion +had long been conceived of their meditating to throw off their +dependence on their mother country."[11] It would have been well for the +provinces if they had postponed for a moment their struggle against +English methods, and planned as earnestly for the success of English +arms as they did when defeat opened the floodgates of murder and pillage +all along their wide frontiers. But it is not possible to more than +mention here the struggles between the short-sighted assemblies and the +short-sighted royal governors. The practical result, so far as Braddock +was concerned, was the ignoring, for the greater part, of all the +instructions sent from London. This meant that Braddock was abandoned to +the fate of carrying out orders wretchedly planned under the most trying +circumstances conceivable. Instead of having everything prepared for +him, he found almost nothing prepared, and on what had been done he +found he could place no dependence. Little wonder the doomed man has +been remembered as a "brute" in America! To have shouldered the blame +for the lethargy of the Colonies, for the jealousy of their governors, +and for the wretchedness of the orders given Braddock, would have made +any man brutish in word and action. Pennsylvanians have often accused +Washington of speaking like a "brute" when, no doubt in anger, he +exclaimed that the officials of that Province should have been flogged +for their indifference; they were, God knows,--but by the Indians after +Braddock's defeat. + +The desperateness of Braddock's situation became very plain by the +middle of April, when the Governors of the Colonies met at his request +at the camp at Alexandria to determine upon the season's campaigns. But +it was not until later that he knew the full depths of his unfortunate +situation. As early as March 18 Braddock wrote Sir Thomas Robinson a +most discouraging letter, but on April 19, after the Governors' Council, +another letter to Robinson shows the exact situation. As to the fund +which the Colonies had been ordered to raise, the Governors "gave it as +their unanimous opinion that such a Fund can never be establish'd in the +Colonies without the Aid of Parliament."[12] They were therefore +"unanimously of the Opinion that the Kings Service in the Colonies, and +the carrying on of the present Expedition must be at a stand, unless the +General shall think proper to make use of his Credit upon the Government +at home to defray the Expense of all the Operations under his +Direction."[12] In Braddock's letter of April 19 he affirms "The +£20,000 voted in Virginia has been expended tho not yet collected; +Pennsylvania and Maryland still refuse to contribute anything; New York +has raised £5,000 Currency for the use of the Troops whilst in that +province, which I have directed to be applied for the particular Service +of the Garrison at Oswego.... I shall march from this place for +Frederick tomorrow Morning in my Way to Will's Creek, where I should +have been before this time, had I not been prevented by waiting for the +artillery, from which I still fear further delays, I hope to be upon the +mountains early in May and some time in June to have it in my power to +dispatch an Express with some Account of the Event of our operations +upon the Ohio."[13] The disappointed man was not very sanguine of +success, but adds, "I hope, Sir, there is good prospect of success in +every part of the plan I have laid before you, but it is certain every +single attempt is more likely to succeed from the Extensiveness of +it."[13] By this he meant that the French, attacked at several points +at once, would not be able to send reinforcements from one point to +another. + +But more serious disappointments awaited Braddock--a great part of the +definite promises made by Governor Dinwiddie were never to be realized. +The governor and Sir John St. Clair had promised Braddock that +twenty-five hundred horses and two hundred wagons would be in readiness +at Fort Cumberland to transport the army stores across the mountains, +and that a large quantity of beeves and other provisions would be +awaiting the army through July and August. Braddock was also promised +the support of a large force of Indians and, conformably to his orders, +had been careful to send the usual presents to the tribes in question. +He soon learned, however, that the short-sighted Assemblies of both +Virginia and Pennsylvania had already alienated the Indians whom they +should have attached to their cause, and but a handful were faithful now +when the crisis had come; for the faithfulness of these few Braddock was +perhaps largely in debt to Washington, whom they followed during the +campaign of the preceding year. As to the details of his miserable +situation, nothing is of more interest than the frank letter written by +Braddock to Sir John Robinson from Fort Cumberland, June 5: + +"I had the Honor of writing to you from Frederick the latter end of +April. + +"On the 10th of May I arrived at this place, and on the 17th the train +join'd me from Alexandria after a March of twenty seven days, having met +with many more Delays and Difficulties than I had even apprehended, from +the Badness of the Roads, Scarcity of Forage, and a general Want of +Spirit in the people to forward the Expedition. + +"I have at last collected the whole Force with which I propose to march +to the Attack of Fort Duquesne, amounting to about two thousand +effective Men, eleven hundred of which Number are Americans of the +southern provinces, whose slothful and languid Disposition renders them +very unfit for Military Service. I have employ'd the properest officers +to form and discipline them and great pains has and shall be taken to +make them as useful as possible. + +"When I first came to this place I design'd to have refresh'd the Troops +by a few days Rest, but the Disappointments I have met with in procuring +the Number of Wagons and Horses necessary for my March over the +Mountains have detained me near a Month. + +"Before I left Williamsburg I was informed by the Deputy Quarter Master +general, who was then at this Fort, that 2500 Horses and 200 Wagons +might be depended upon from Virginia and Maryland, but as I had the +utmost reason to fear a Disappointment from my daily Experience of the +Falsehood of every person with whom I was concern'd, I therefore before +I left Frederick, desired Mr. Franklin, postmaster of Pennsylvania, and +a Man of great Influence in that Province, to contract for 150 Waggons +and a Number of Horses, which he has executed with great punctuality and +Integrity, and is almost the only Instance of Ability and Honesty I have +known in these provinces; His Waggons and Horses have all joined me, and +are indeed my whole Dependence, the great promises of Virginia and +Maryland having produc'd only about twenty Waggons and two hundred +Horses: With the Number I now have I shall be enabled with the utmost +difficulty to move from this place, marching with one half of the +provision I entended and having been oblig'd to advance a large +Detachment in order to make a Deposite of provisions upon the Alliganey +Mountains about five days March from me. + +[Illustration: MAP OF BRADDOCK'S ROAD (ABOUT 1759) +[_From original in British Museum_]] + +"It would be endless, Sir, to particularize the numberless Instances of +the Want of public and private Faith, and of the most absolute Disregard +of all Truth, which I have met with in carrying on of His Majesty's +Service on this continent. I cannot avoid adding one or two Instances to +what I have already given. + +"A Contract made by the Governor of Virginia for 1100 Beeves was laid +before me to be delivered in July and August for the subsistence of the +Troops, which Contract he had entered into upon the Credit of twenty +thousand pounds Currency voted by the Assembly for the Service of the +Expedition. Depending upon this I regulated my Convoys accordingly, and +a few days since the Contractors inform'd me that the Assembly had +refus'd to fulfill the Governors Engagements, and the Contract was +consequently void: as it was an Affair of the greatest Importance, I +immediately offer'd to advance the Money requir'd by the Terms of the +Contract, but this the Contractor rejected, unless I would pay him one +third more; and postpone the Delivery of the Beeves two Months, at which +time they would have been of no use to me. + +"Another Instance is the Agent employ'd in the Province of Maryland for +furnishing their Troops with provision, who delivered it in such +Condition that it is all condemn'd upon a Survey, and I have been +obliged to replace it by sending to the Distance of an hundred Miles. + +"This Behavior in the people does not only produce infinite Difficulty +in carrying on His Majesty's Service but also greatly increases the +Expense of it, the Charge thereby occasion'd in the Transportation of +provision and Stores through an unsettled Country (with which even the +Inhabitants of the lower parts are entirely unacquainted) and over a +continued succession of Mountains, is many times more than double the +original Cost of them; for this reason I am obliged to leave a Quantity +of provision at Alexandria, which would be of great Service to use at +this place. The Behaviour of the Governments appears to me to be without +excuse, but it may be some Extenuation of the Guilt of the lower Class +of people, that upon former occasions their assistance in publick has +been ill rewarded, and their payments neglected; the bad Effects of +which proceeding we daily experience. + +"As I have His Majesty's Orders to establish as much as possible a good +understanding with the Indians, I have gathered some from the Frontier +of Pennsylvania chiefly of the Six Nations, with whom I have had two or +three Conferences, and have given them proper Presents; the Number +already with me is about fifty, and I have some hopes of more: Upon my +first Arrivall in America, I received strong assurances of the +assistance of a great Number of Southern Indians, which I have entirely +lost through the Misconduct of the Government of Virginia: And indeed +the whole Indian Affairs have been so imprudently and dishonestly +conducted, that it was with the greatest difficulty I could gain a +proper Confidence with those I have engag'd, and even that could not be +attain'd, nor can be preserv'd without a great Expense. + +"The Nature of the Country prevents all Communication with the French +but by Indians, and their Intelligence is not much to be depended upon; +they all agree the Number of French now in Fort Duquesne is very +inconsiderable, but that they pretend to expect large Reinforcements. + +"I have an Account of the arrival of the two thousand Arms for the New +England Forces, and that they are sailed for Nova Scotia. Batteaus and +Boats are preparing for the Forces destined to the Attacks of Niagara +and Crown Point, but the province of New York, which by its situation +must furnish the greater part, do not act with so much vigor as I could +wish. + +"In order to secure a short and easy Communication with the province of +Pensilvania, after the Forces have pass'd the Alligany Mountains, I +have apply'd to Governor Morris to get a Road cut from Shippensburg in +that Province to the River Youghyaughani; up which he informs me he has +set a proper Number of Men at work, and that it will be compleated in a +Month: This I look upon to be an Affair of the greatest Importance, as +well for securing future Supplies of Provisions, as for obtaining more +speedy Intelligence of what passes in the Northern Colonies.[14] + +"I wait now for the last Convoy and shall, if I do not meet with further +Disappointments, begin my March over the Alleghaney Mountains in about +five days. The Difficulties we have to meet with by the best Accounts +are very great; the Distance from hence to the Forts is an hundred and +ten miles, a Road to be cut and made the whole way with infinite Toil +and Labor, over rocky Mountains of an excessive Height and Steepness, +and many Stoney Creeks and Rivers to cross." + +Braddock's army under Halket and Dunbar proceeded to Fort Cumberland +from Alexandria by various routes. Governor Sharpe had had a new road +built from Rock Creek to Fort Cumberland;[15] this was probably Dunbar's +route and is given as follows in Braddock's Orderly Books:[16] + + MILES + To Rock Creek[17] -- + To Owen's Ordinary 15 + To Dowdens 15 + To Frederick 15 + From Fred^k on y^e road to Conogogee 17 + From that halting place to Conogogee 18 + From Conogogee to John Evens 16 + To the Widow Baringer 18 + To George Polls 9 + To Henry Enock's 15 + To Cox's at y^e mouth of little Cacaph 12 + To Col. Cresaps 8 + To Wills Creek 16 + ---- + 174 + +Halket's regiment went from Alexandria to Winchester, Virginia by the +following route as given in Braddock's Orderly Books: + + MILES + To y^e old Court House 18 + To M^r Colemans on Sugar Land Run where there is Indian Corn &c. 12 + To M^r Miners 15 + To M^r Thompson y^e Quaker wh is 3000 wt corn 12 + To M^r They's y^e Ferry of Shanh 17 + From M^r They's to Winchester 23 + -- + 97 + +At Winchester Halket was only five miles distant from "Widow Baringer's" +on Dunbar's road from Frederick to Fort Cumberland. + +One of the few monuments of Braddock's days stands beside the Potomac, +within the limits of the city of Washington. It is a gigantic rock, the +"Key of Keys," now almost lost to sight and forgotten. It may still be +found, and efforts are on foot to have it appropriately marked. It is +known in tradition as "Braddock's Rock"--on the supposition that here +some of Braddock's men landed just below the mouth of Rock Creek en +route to Frederick and Fort Cumberland. It is unimportant whether the +legend is literally true.[18] A writer, disputing the legend, yet +affirms that the public has reason "to require that the destructive hand +of man be stayed, and that the remnants of the ancient and historic rock +should be rescued from oblivion." The rock may well bear the name of +Braddock, as the legend has it. Nothing could be more typical of the +man--grim, firm, unreasoning, unyielding. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SEAMAN'S JOURNAL + + +One of the most interesting documents relative to Braddock's expedition +is a _Journal_ kept by one of the thirty seamen sent with Braddock by +Commodore Keppel. The original manuscript was presented by Colonel +Macbean to the Royal Artillery Library, Woolwich, and is first published +here. + +An expanded version of this document was published in Winthrop Sargent's +_History of Braddock's Expedition_, entitled "The Morris Journal"--so +called because it was in the possession of the Rev. Francis-Orpen +Morris, Nunburnholme Rectory, Yorkshire, who had published it in +pamphlet form.[19] Concerning its authorship Mr. Sargent says, "I do +not know who was the author of this Journal: possibly he may have been +of the family of Capt. Hewitt. He was clearly one of the naval officers +detached for this service by Com. Keppel, whom sickness detained at Fort +Cumberland during the expedition."[20] + +A comparison of the expanded version with the original here printed +shows that the "Morris Journal" was written by Engineer Harry Gordon of +the 48th Artillery. The entry in the expanded version for June 2 reads: +"Col. Burton, Capt. Orme, Mr Spendlowe and self went out to reconnoitre +the road."[21] In the original, under the same date, we read: "Colonel +Burton, Capt. Orme, Mr Engineer Gordon & Lieut Spendelow were order'd to +reconnoitre the Roads." Why Mr. Gordon desired to suppress his name is +as inexplicable as the failure of the Rev. Francis-Orpen Morris, who +compared the expanded and the original manuscripts, to announce it. The +proof is made more sure by the fact that Mr. Gordon usually refers to +himself as an "Engineer," as in the entry for June 3: "This morning an +Engineer and 100 men began working on the new road...." In the original +the name is given: "Engineer Gordon with 100 Pioneers began to break +Ground on the new Road...."[22] He refers to himself again on July 9 as +"One of our Engineers": "One of our Engineers, who was in the front of +the Carpenters marking the road, saw the Enemy first."[23] It is well +known that Gordon first caught sight of the enemy and the original +journal affirms this to have been the case: "Mr Engineer Gordon was the +first Man that saw the Enemy." Mr. Sargent said the author "was clearly +one of the naval officers detached ... by Com. Keppel." Though Mr. +Gordon, as author, impersonated a seaman, there is certainly very much +more light thrown on the daily duties of an engineer than on those of a +sailor; there is far more matter treating of cutting and marking +Braddock's Road than of handling ropes and pulleys. It is also +significant that Gordon, from first to last, was near the seamen and had +all the necessary information for composing a journal of which one of +them might have been the author. He was in Dunbar's regiment on the +march from Alexandria--as were the seamen. He, with the carpenters, was +possibly brigaded in the Second Brigade, with the seamen, and in any +case he was with the van of the army on the fatal ninth as were the +seamen. + +As to the authorship of the original journal the document gives no hint. +From Mr. Gordon's attempt to cover his own identity by introducing the +word "self" in the latter part of the entry of June 3, it might be +supposed the original manuscript was written by the "Midshipman" +referred to under that date in the original journal. But the two +midshipmen given as naval officers in the expedition, Haynes and Talbot, +were killed in the defeat.[24] + +The original journal which follows is of interest because of the +description of the march of Dunbar's brigade through Maryland and +Virginia to Fort Cumberland. The remainder was evidently composed from +descriptions given by officers after their return to Fort +Cumberland:[25] + + +Extracts from + +A Journal of the Proceedings of the Detachment of Seamen, ordered by +Commodore Kepple, to Assist on the late Expedition to the _Ohio_ with an +impartial Account of the late Action on the Banks of the _Monongohela_ +the 9^{th} of July 1755, as related by some of the Principal Officers +that day in the Field, from the 10^{th} April 1755 to the 18^{th} +Aug^{st}. when the Detachment of Seamen embark'd on board His Majisty's +Ship Guarland at Hampton in Virginia + +April 10^{th} Orders were given to March to Morrow with 6 Companies of +S^r P. Halket's Regiment for _Winchester_ towards _Will's Creeks_; April +11^{th} Yesterdays Orders were Countermanded and others given to furnish +Eight days Provisions, to proceed to _Rock's Creek_[26] (8 Miles from +Alexandria) in the Sea Horse & Nightingale Boats; April 12^{th}: Arrived +at _Rock's Creek_ 5 Miles from the lower falls of _Potomack_ & 4 Miles +from the Eastern branch of it; where we encamped with Colonel Dunbars +Regiment + +April 13^{th}: Employed in loading Waggon's with Stores Provisions and +all other conviniences very dear _Rock's Creek_ a very pleasant +Situation. + +April 14^{th}: Detachment of Seamen were order'd to March in the Front: +arrived at M^r. Lawrence Owen's: 15 Miles from _Rock's Creek_; and +encamp'd upon good Ground 8 Miles from the Upper falls of _Potomack_ + +April 15^{th}: Encamp'd on the side of a Hill near M^r. Michael +Dowden's;[27] 15 Miles from M^r. Owen's, in very bad Ground and in 1-1/2 +foot Snow + +April 16^{th}: Halted, but found it extreamly difficult to get either +Provisions or Forrage. + +April 17^{th}: March'd to _Fredericks Town_; 15 Miles from Dowden's, the +road very Mountanious, March'd 11 Miles, when we came to a River call'd +_Monskiso_, which empties itself into the _Potomack_; it runs very +rapid; and is, after hard Rain, 13 feet deep: We ferried over in a Float +for that purpose. This Town has not been settled Above 7. Years; there +are 200 Houses & 2 Churches 1 Dutch, 1 English;[28] the inhabitants +chiefly Dutch, Industrious, but imposing People; Provisions & Forrage in +Plenty. + +April 18^{th}: Encamp'd with a New York Company under the Command of +Captain Gates, at the North End of the Town, upon very good Ground + +April 19^{th}: Exercising Recruits, & airing the Tents: several Waggons +arrived with Ordnance Stores, heavy Dews at Night occasion it to be very +unwholsome + +April 20^{th}: Nothing Material happen'd + +April 21^{st}: The General attended by Captains Orme, Morris and +Secretary Shirley; with S^r John S^t Clair; arrived at Head Quarters. + +April 24^{th} inactive[29]. + +April 25^{th}: Ordnance Stores Arrived, with 80 Recruits for the 2 +Regiments + +April 27^{th}: Employ'd in preparing Harness for the Horses + +April 29^{th}: March'd to M^r. Walker's 18 Miles from _Fredericks Town_; +pass'd the South Ridge, commonly called the Blue Ridge or _Shanandoh +Mountains_ Very easy Ascent and a fine Prospect ... no kind of +Refreshment + +April 30^{th}: March'd to _Connecochiag_; 16 Miles from M^r. Walker's, +Close by the _Potomack_, a very fine Situation, where we found all the +Artillery Stores preparing to go by Water to Wills Creek + +May 1^{st}: Employed in ferrying (over the _Potomack_) the Army Baggage +into Virginia in 2 Floats and 5 Batteaux; The Army March'd to M^r. John +Evans, 16 Miles from y^e _Potomack_ and 20 Miles from Winchester, where +we Encamp'd, and had tolerable good living with Forrage; the roads begin +to be very indifferent + +May 2^{nd}: Halted and sent the Horses to Grass + +May 3^d: March'd to Widdow Barringers 18 Miles from M^r. Evans; the day +was so excissive hot, that many Officers and Men could not Arrive at +their Ground until Evening, this is 5 Miles from Winchester and a fine +Situation + +May 4^{th}: March'd to M^r. Pots 9 Miles from the Widdow's where we were +refresh^t with Vinison and wild Turkeys the Roads excessive bad. + +May 5^{th}: March'd to M^r. Henry Enocks, a place called the _forks of +Cape Capon_, 16 Miles from M^r. Pots; over prodigious Mountains, and +between the Same we cross'd a Run of Water in 3 Miles distance, 20 times +after marching 15 Miles we came to a River called _Kahepatin_ where the +Army ferried over, We found a Company of S^r Peter Halkets Regiment +waiting to escort the Train of Artillery to _Wills Creek_ + +May 6^{th}: Halted, as was the Custom to do every third day, The +Officers for passing away the time, made Horse Races and agreed that no +Horse should Run over 11 Hands and to carry 14 Stone + +May 7^{th}: March'd to M^r. Coxs's by the side of y^e _Potomack_ 12 +Miles from M^r. Enock's, and Encamped we cross'd another run of Water 19 +Times in 2 Miles Roads bad. + +May 8^{th}: Ferried over the River into _Maryland_; and March'd to M^r. +Jacksons, 8 Miles from M^r. Coxs's where we found a Maryland Company +encamp'd in a fine Situation on the Banks of the _Potomack_; with +clear'd ground about it; there lives Colonel Cressop, a Rattle Snake, +Colonel, and a D--d Rascal; calls himself a Frontierman, being nearest +the _Ohio_; he had a Summons some time since from the French to retire +from his Settlement, which they claim'd as their property, but he +refused it like a man of Spirit;[30] This place is the Track of Indian +Warriours, when going to War, either to the N^{o}ward, or S^{o}ward He +hath built a little Fort round his House, and is resolved to keep his +Ground. We got plenty of Provisions &c^a. The General arrived with +Captains Orme and Morris, with Secretary Shirley and a Company of light +Horse for his Guard, under the Command of Cap^t. Stewart, the General +lay at the Colonels. + +May 9^{th}: Halted and made another Race to amuse the General + +D^o. 10^{th}: March'd to _Will's Creek_; and Encamp'd on a Hill to the +E^{t}ward of the Fort, when the General past the Troops; Colonel Dunbar +informed them, that there were a number of Indians at _Will's Creek_, +that were Friends to the English therefore it was the Generals positive +Orders, that they should not be Molested upon any account, upon the +Generals Arrival at the Fort, He was Saluted with 17. Guns, and we found +100 Indian Men, Women & Children with 6 Companies of S^r Peter Halkets +Regiment, 9 Virginian Companies and a Maryland Company. + +May 11^{th}: _Fort Cumberland_, is Situated within 200 Yards of _Wills +Creek_ on a Hill 400 Yards from the _Potomack_, it's greatest length +from East to West is 200 Yards, and breadth 40 it is built with Loggs +drove into the Ground: and 12 feet above it Embrazures are cut for 12 +Guns which are 4. Pounders, though 10 are only Mounted with loopholes +for small Arms; The Indians were greatly surprised at the regular way of +our Soldiers Marching and our Numbers. + +I would willingly say something of the customs & manners of them, but +they are hardly to be described. The Men are tall, well made and Active, +but not strong; The Women not so tall yet well proportion'd & have many +Children; they paint themselves in different Manners; Red, Yellow & +Black intermixt, the Men have the outer Rim of their Ears cut; and +hanging by a little bit at Top and bottom: they have also a Tuft of Hair +left at Top of their Heads, dress'd with Feathers.... Their Match Coat +which is their chief Cloathing, is a thick Blanket thrown round them; +and instead of Shoes wear Mekosins, which laces round the foot and +Ankle ... their manner of carrying Children are by lacing them on a +Board, and tying them with a broad Bandage with a place to rest their +feet, and Boards over their Heads to keep the Sun off and this is Slung +to the Womens backs. These people have no Idea of a Superior Being or of +Religion and I take them to be the most ignorant, as to the Knowledge of +the World and things, of any Creatures living. When it becomes dark they +Return to their Camp, which is [nigh] Woods, and Dance for some Time +with making the most hidious Noise. + +May 12^{th}: Orders for a Council of War at the Head Quarters when the +Indians came, and were received by the Guard with Rested Arms, an +Interpreter was directed to tell them that their Brothers, the English, +who were their friends were come to assist them, that every +misunderstanding in past times, should now be buried under that great +Mountain (which was close by) and Accordingly the Ceremony was perform'd +in giving them a string of Wampum or Beads; and the following speech was +made, to Assure them that this string or Belt of Wampum was a suriety of +our Friendship; and likewise a Declaration, that every one, who were +Enemies to them, were consequently so to us. The Interpretor likewise +assured them, the we had a Considerable Number of Men to the N^{o}Ward, +under the Commands of our great War Captains Generals, Shirley, Pepperel +& Johnson that were making preparations for War to settle them happily +in their Countries, and make the French both ashamed & hungry, however, +should any Indians absent themselves they would be deem'd our Enimies & +treated as such; The Generals moreover told them, he should have +presents for them soon, and would then make them another Speech, after +which he parted with giving a Dram round. + +May 13^{th}: The Indian Camp were 1/4 Miles from the Fort which I went +to visit their Houses are composed of 2 Stakes, drove into the Ground, +with a Ridge Pole & Bark of Trees laid down the sides of it, w^{ch}. is +all they have to Shelter them from the Weather.... The Americans & +Seamen Exercising. + +May 14^{th}: Inactive in our Camp. I went to the Indian to see them +Dance which they do once or twice a Year round a Fire, first the Women +dance, whilst the Men are Sitting, and then every Women takes out her +Man; dances with him; lays with him for a Week, and then Returns to her +proper Husband, & lives with him.[31] + +May 15^{th}: 22 Casks of Beef were Surveyed and condemn'd[32] + +D^o. 16^{th}: Arrived L^t. Col^o. Gage with 2 Companies, and the last +Division of the Train, consisting of 8 Field Pieces; 4 Howitzers and a +Number of Cohorns, with 42 Store Waggons Cap^t. Bromley of S^r P. +Halkets Regim^t. died May 17^{th}: Orders for the Funeral. + +May 18^{th}: Cap^t. Bromley was interred with great +Solemnity[33]--19^{th}: the Indians came to the Generals Tent when he +made them a speech to this Effect; that they would send away immediately +their Wives & Children to Pensilvania, and take up the Hatchet against +the French, that the great King of England their Father had sent their +Wives & Children such & such presents, and he had Ordered Arms, +Ammunition &c^a. to be delivered to their Warriors, and expressd a +Concern for their 1/2 King killed last year--the presents consisted of +Shrouds; Rings, Beads, Linnen, Knives, Wire & paint, they seem'd +pleased, received their presents with 3 Belts & String of Wampum, and +promised an Answer the next day in the Evening they Danced and made a +most terrible Noise to shew were mightily pleased. + +May 20^{th}: Cap^t. Gates March'd into Camp with his New York Comp^y. +The Indians met at the Generals Tent, and told him they were highly +Obliged to the Great King their Father, for sending such Numbers of Men +to fight for them, and they moreover promise to Join them, and do what +was in their power by reconnoitring the Country, & bringing +Intelligence, they were likewise oblidged to the General for expressing +his Concern for the loss of their 1/2 King his Brother, and for the +Presents he had made their Families. Their Chiefs Names were as follows + +1^{st}: Monicatoha their Mentor, 2^d Belt of Wampum, or white Thunder, +who always keep the Wampum, and has a Daughter call'd bright Lightning +3^d: The great Tree and Silver Heels, Jimy Smith and Charles all +belonging to the 6 Nations, The General Assured them of his Friendship +and gave his Honour, that he never would deceive them, after which they +sung their Song of War, put themselves into odd postures, w^{th} +Shouting and making an uncommon Noise, declaring the French to be their +pepetual Enemies, which they never had done before, then the General +took the Indians to the Park of Artillery, Ordered 3 Howtz^{rs}. 3:12 +pounders to be Fired, the Drums beating & Fifes playing the point of +War, which astonish^t but pleased the Indians greatly. They afterwards +Retired to their own Camp to eat a Bullock and Dance in their usual +manner, with shewing how they fight and Scalp, and expressing in their +Dance, the exploits & Warlike Actions of their Ancestors and +themselves--Arrived 80 Waggons from Pensylvania with Stores; and 11 +likewise from Philidelpha with Liquors, Tea, Sugar, Coffe &c. to the +Amount of 400£ With 20 Horses, as presents to the Officers of the 2 +Regiments--An Indian came in 6 days from the French Fort, and assured us +they have only 50 Men in the Fort, however they expected 900 more soon, +yet they purpose blowing it up whenever the Army Appears--as this Indian +was one of the Delawars, who never were our Friends he was suspected to +be a Rogue--100 Carpenters were Employed in making a Float, building a +Magazine & squaring Timber to make a Bridge over _Wills Creek_, The +Smiths were making Miners Tools, The Bakers were baking Biscuit, and +every thing was getting ready for a March. + +May 21^{st}: A Troop of light Horse & 2 Companies of S^r P. Halkets +Regim^t. under the Command of Major Chapman came in from Winchester + +May 22^d: The Indians had Arms & Cloaths delivered to them + +D^o. 23^d: The 2 Regiments were Exercised & went through their Formings + +D^o. 24^{th}: Employed in Transporting the large Timber to the Fort, The +Army consists of 2 Regiments, Each 700 Men; 2 _New York_, 1 Independent +_Carolina_ Companies of 100 Men, 9 _Virginia_ 1 _Maryland_ Companies of +50 Men; 1 Comp^y. of Artillery of 60 & 30 Seamen + +May 25^{th}: Preparations for Marching: 2 Men of S^r P. Halkets were +Drum'd out, and received 1000 lashes Each for Theft. + +May 27^{th}: The Companies employed in loading 100 Waggons w^{th}. +Provisions, A Captains Guard March'd for _Winchester_ to Escort +Provisions to Camp--several _Delawar_ Indians came into Camp. + +May 28^{th}: The _Delawar_ Indians Assembled at the Generals Tent and +told him they were come to Assist him, but desired to know his Intention +the General thank'd them, and said that he should March in a few days +for Fort Dec Quisne, The Indians then replyed, they would return home, +Collect their Warriors and meet them on his March. + +May 29^{th}: Major Chapman with a Detachment of 600 Soldiers March'd +with 2 Field Pieces and 50 Waggons full of Provisions when S^r John S^t +Clair, 2 Engineers, Lieut. Spendelow & 6 Seamen with some Indians were +Order'd to clean the Roads for them. + +May 30^{th}: March'd in, Cap^t. Dobbs with a _North Carolina_ Company + +June 1^{st}: The Detachment got 15 Miles though the Roads were very bad; +Lieu^t. Spendelow returned with his 6 Seamen. + +June 2^d: Colonel Burton, Cap^t. Orme, M^r. Engineer Gordon[34] & +Lieu^t. Spendelow were order'd to reconnoitre the Roads, the latter +reported that he had found a tolerable Road, which might avoid the bad +Mountain that they would otherwise be obliged to pass; and accordingly +it was determined to March the Army that way, it being only 2 Miles +about. + +June 3^d: Engineer Gordon[35] with 100 Pioneers began to break Ground on +the new Road, when Lieu^t. Spendelow, 1 Midshipman[36] & 10 Men were +sent to the Place that leads into the Old Road, cleard away and +compleated 1 Mile, + +June 4^{th}: 1 Midshipman & 20 Men cleard 3/4 of a Mile + +5^{th}: continued working on the Roads + +6^{th}: Compleated the new Road & Return'd to Camp. + +7^{th}: S^r P. Halkets Brigade March'd with 2 Field Pieces and some +Waggons with Provisions 1 Midshipman & 12 Seamen were Orderd to Assist +the Train June 9^{th}. Inactive June 10^{th}: The General March'd +w^{th}. the remaining part of the Army. + +25^{th}: it was reported that a party of Indians had Surprized Kill'd, +and Scalp'd 2 families to the Number of 12 within 4 Miles of y^e Fort + +June 26^{th}: Accounts of another family's Scalp'd within 3 Miles of us. +The Governor detach'd a party to bury the Dead, and to look for the +Indians, they found a Child standing in the Water scalp'd, which had 2 +holes in its Skull, they brought it to the Doctor, who dressed it but +Died in a Week.[37] + +June 10^{th}: the last Division of His Majesty's Forces March'd from +_Wills Creek_ with General Braddock, when the General Arrived at the +little Meadows 22 Miles from the _Creek_, and having all his Forces +w^{th}. him, found that the Carriages, Pack horses &c^a. he had with +him, retardid his Marches greatly, insomuch that in all probability, the +French would be renforced, before he could possibly get there, provided +he kept the whole Army together--he therefore selected 1200 of the +Choicest Men besides Artillery & Seamen with the most Necessary Stores +that might be wanted, which compleated 51 Carriages, and left the heavy +Baggage Provisions &c^a. with Col^o. Dunbar and the rest of the Forces +w^{th}. Orders to follow as fast as possible: then March'd & continued +untill 8^{th}. July without Interruption save 8 or 9 Scalps on the March +a Number much inferior to the Expectations, he Encamp'd within 8 Miles +of _Fort Dec Quisne_ where he held a Councill of War, when it was +unaimously agreed that they should pass the _Monongohela_ River in the +Morning twice and that the advanced Party should March at 2 o'Clock in +the Morning to secure that pass (the River being very broad and easily +defended as the Fort was very near they thought it advisable to take +that oppertunity, that the Enemy might not have a View of them, +Therefore the General order'd that the Army should March over with fixt +Bayonets to make a show. + +On the 9^{th}. July the advanced party of 400 Men March'd about +7. o'Clock some Indians Rush'd out of the Bushes, but did no Execution, +the Party went on & secured both passes of the River, and at 11 the Main +Body began to cross with Colours flying, Drums beating, & Fifes playing +the Granadier's March, and soon formed, when they thought that the +French would not Attack them, as they might have done it w^{th}. such +advantages in crossing the _Monogohela_, The advanced party was 1/4 Mile +before the Main Body, the Rear of which was just over the River, when +the Front was attacked The 2. Granadier Comp^{ys}. formed the Flank The +Piquets with the rest of the Men were Sustaining the Carpenters while +they were cutting the Roads. The first Fire the Enemy gave was in Front, +& they likewise gaul'd the Piquets in Flank, so that in few Minutes the +Granadiers were nearly cut to pieces and drove into the greatest +Confusion as was Cap^t. Polsons Comp^y. of Carpent^{rs}. As soon as the +Main Body heard that the Front was Attack'd they instantly advanced to +secure them but found them retreating Upon which, the General Orderd the +Artillery to draw up, & the Battalion to form, by this time the Enemy +had Attacked the Main Body, which faced to the Right & left and engaged +them, but could not see whom they Fired at, it was in an open Road, that +the Main Body were drawn up, but the Trees were excessive thick round +them, And the Enemy had possession of a Hill to the Right, which +consequently was a great advantage to them, Many Officers declare, that +they never saw above 5 of the Enemy at one time during the whole Action +Our Soldiers were Encouraged to make many Attempts by the Officers (who +behaved Gloriously) to take the Hill, but they had been so intimidated +before by seeing their Comrades Scalp'd in their sight and such Numbers +falling, that as they advanced up towards the Hill and there Officer's +being pict off which was generally the Case; they turn'd to their R^t. +About & retired down the Hill. When the General perceived & was +convinced that the Soldiers would not fight in a regular Manner without +Officers, he devided them into small parties, and endeavour'd to +surround the Enemy, but by this time the Major part of the Officers were +either Kill'd or Wounded, and in short the Soldiers were totally deaf to +the Commands & persuasions of the few Officers that were left unhurt. +The General had 4 Horses shot under him before he was wounded, which was +towards the latter part of the Action, when he was put into a Waggon +with great dificulty as he was very Sollicitious for being left in the +Field. The Retreat now became general, and it was the opinion of many +people that had we greater Numbers, it would have been just the same +thing, as our advanc'd party never regained the Ground they were first +Attacked upon, it was extreamly lucky they pursued no farther than the +first Crossing the River but they kill'd & Scalp'd every one they met +with, The Army March'd all Night & Join'd Colonel Dunbar the next Day, +50 Miles distance from the Field of Battle, when the General order'd +Col^o. Dunbar to prepare for a Retreat in Order for which, they were +Obliged to destroy great quantities of Stores and Provisions, to +furnish the Wounded Officers & Soldiers with Waggons The Generals Pains +encreased hourly, and on the 12^{th} of July he Died greatly lamented by +the whole Army, was decently though privately buried the next Morning. + +The Numbers kill'd; Wounded & left in the Field as appeared by the +Returns of the different Companies were 896 besides Officers The 2 +Companies of the Grenadiers and Carpenters sufferd most Col^o. Dunbars +Grenadiers were 79 Compleat out of which 9 Returned untouch'd. S^r P. +Halkets, were 69 & only 13 came out of y^e Field Every Grenadier Officer +was either kill'd or Wounded The Seamen had 11 Kill'd & wounded out of +33 it was impossible to tell the exact Nunbers of the Enemy but it was +premised by the continual smart Fire the kept during the whole Action, +that they must have at least Man for Man M^r. Engineer Gordon[38] was +the first Man that saw the Enemy, being in the Front of the Carpenters, +making & Picketing the Roads for them, and he declared where he first +descover'd them, that they were on the Run, which plainly shews they +were just come from _Fort Dec Quesne_ and that their principal Intention +was to secure the pass of _Monnongohela River_ but the Officer who was +their leader, dressed like an Indian, w^{th}. a Gorgeton, waved his +Hatt, by way of Signal to disperse to y^e Right and left forming a half +Moon Col^o. Dunbar continued his Retreat and Arrived with the Remains of +the Army at _Fort Cumberland_ the 20^{th}. July, and the 21^{st}. the +Wounded Officers & Soldiers were brought in.... 30^{th}. July Orders +were given for the Army to March the 2^{nd}. August 1^{st}. August +Col^o. Dunbar received a Letter from Commodore Kepple to send the Seamen +to _Hampton_ and accordingly the 2^d. they March'd with the Army & on +the 3^d. August left them August 5^{th}. Arrived at _Winchester_ August +11^{th}. March'd into _Fredericksburgh_ and hired a Vessel to carry the +Seamen to _Hampton_ where they embarked on board his Majesty's Ship +Guarland the 18^{th}. August 1755. + +4:6 pounders. 2. 12 pounders, 3 Howitzers, 8 Cohorns, 51 Carriages of +Provisions Ammunition Hospital Stores, The Generals private Chest which +had about 1000£ in it with 200 Horses loaded with Officers Baggage.[39] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BATTLE OF THE MONONGAHELA + + +Sir Peter Halket moved out from Fort Cumberland on June 7 with a brigade +comprising the 44th Regiment, two Independent Companies of New York, two +companies of Virginia Rangers, one of Maryland Rangers, a total of nine +hundred and eighty-four men, six hundred woodchoppers under Sir John St. +Clair having been sent forward to widen and improve Washington's road. +The next day but one Colonel Thomas Dunbar marched away with another +brigade comprising the 48th Regiment, a company of carpenters, three +companies of Virginia Rangers, and one from South and North Carolina +each, a total of nine hundred and ninety-three men. On the tenth, +Braddock and his aides and the rest of the army which was approximately +two thousand two hundred strong--a force powerful enough to have razed +Duquesne, Venango, La Boeuf, Presque Isle, and Niagara to the ground--if +it could have reached them. + +This Franklin who secured Braddock horses and wagons was a prophet. And +once he predicted that this "slender line" of an army would be greatly +in danger of Indian ambuscade "and be cut, like a thread, into several +pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up in time to support +each other." Braddock laughed at the prophecy, but his army had not been +swallowed up in the gloom of the forests two days before its line was +thinner and longer than Braddock could ever have believed. When encamped +at night, the line of wagons compactly drawn together was half a mile +long; in marching order by day the army was often spread out to a length +of four miles. And even in this fashion it could only creep along. +Halket with the first division made only five miles in three days. In +ten days Braddock had only covered the twenty-four miles to Little +Crossings. The road makers followed implicitly the Indian path where it +was possible; when on the high ground the road was so rugged that many +wagons were entirely demolished and more temporarily disabled; when off +this track in the ravines they were buried axle deep in the bogs. + +To haul the wagons and cannon over this worst road ever trod Braddock +had the poorest horses available. All the weak, spavined, wind-broken, +and crippled beasts in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were palmed +off on Braddock by unscrupulous contractors. And horses, dead or dying, +were always left with the demolished wagons. "There has been vile +management in regard to horses," wrote Washington; before the army had +covered one third of its journey there were not enough to draw all the +wagons, the strongest being sent back each day to bring up the wagons +left behind the morning before. The continuous diet of salt meat brought +an epidemic of bloody flux on the army; some died, many were sick. +Washington's strong system was in the grasp of a fever before Little +Crossings was reached. + +The situation now was desperate and would have appalled a less stubborn +man than Edward Braddock. Acting on Washington's advice he here divided +his army, preparing to push on to Fort Duquesne with a flying column of +fourteen hundred men. Washington found the first western river almost +dry and reasoned that Riviere aux Boeufs would be too dry to transport +southward the reinforcements that were hurrying from Canada. + +On the nineteenth, Braddock advanced with Colonel Halket and Lieutenant +Colonels Burton and Gage and Major Sparks, leaving Colonel Dunbar and +Major Chapman--to their disgust--to hobble on with the sick and dying +men and horses, the sorry line of wagons creaking under their heavy +loads. The young Virginian Colonel was left at the very first camp in a +raging fever. Though unable to push on further with the column that +would capture Duquesne, yet Braddock considerately satisfied the +ambition of Washington by promising that he should be brought up before +the attack was made. Washington wrote home that he would not miss the +capture of Duquesne "for five hundred pounds!" + +With the flying column were taken the Indians that were with the army +but which numbered less than a dozen. Braddock has been severely blamed +for his neglect of the Indians, but any earnest study of this campaign +will assure the student that the commanding general was no more at fault +here than for the failure of the contractors and the indifference of the +colonies. He had been promised Indians as freely as stores and horses +and wagons. The Indian question seems to have been handled most +wretchedly since Washington's late campaign. Through the negligence of +the busy-body Dinwiddie (so eager for so many unimportant matters) even +the majority of the Indians who served Washington faithfully and had +followed his retreating army back to Virginia were allowed to drift back +to the French through sheer neglect. As none of Dinwiddie's promises +were fulfilled in this respect Braddock turned in despair to Morris for +such Ohio Indians as were living in Pennsylvania. There had been at +least three hundred Indians of the Six Nations living in that province, +but in April the Pennsylvania Assembly had resolved to "do nothing more +for them"; accordingly they went westward and most of them joined the +French. Morris, however, urged George Croghan to send word to the +Delawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, etc., bidding them come and join +Braddock's army. But Croghan brought less than fifty and Braddock was +not destined to keep all of these, for Colonel Innes, commanding at Fort +Cumberland, not desiring the Indian families on his hands during the +absence of the fathers, persuaded Braddock that there were not enough to +add to the fighting strength of the army and that a few would be as +serviceable for spies as many. Nor was this bad reasoning: Braddock +would have been no better off with thirty than with ten. The fact is, he +was in nothing deceived more by false promises and assurances than in +the matter of Indian coöperation. And was he more at fault for the lack +of frontiersmen? True, he refused the services of Captain Jack and his +company, but only because the latter refused to be governed by the +discipline to which the rest of the army was subject; Braddock could not +agree to such an arrangement and it is doubtful if Washington would have +acted differently under similar circumstances. At least the Virginian +had nothing to do with Captain Jack's renowned company the year before. +To other border fighters Braddock gave a warm reception; Gist and +Croghan, the two best known men on the frontier, held important offices +in the army. It is as easy as common to lay at the door of a defeated +and dead commander all the misfortunes of a campaign; whatever +Braddock's errors, the fact remains that the colonies failed absolutely +to make the least move to provide an Indian army for Braddock's use. +Nothing could have more surely promised defeat and disgrace. + +The flying column flew like a partridge with a broken wing. "We set +out," wrote Washington who started with it but was compelled to stop, +"with less than thirty carriages, including those that transported the +ammunition for the howitzers, and six-pounders, and all of them strongly +horsed; which was a prospect that conveyed infinite delight to my mind, +though I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospect was soon +clouded, and my hopes brought very low indeed, when I found, that, +instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, +they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over +every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." + +On the third of July the flying column had passed the Youghiogheny and +were encamped ten miles north of it, forty miles from Fort Duquesne. It +had not averaged three miles a day since leaving Little Crossings! Here +a Council of War was held to decide whether to push on alone or await +the coming of Dunbar and the wagons. Could the Grenadiers and their +officers have seen through that narrow path to their destination, how +quickly would their decision have been made, how eagerly would they have +hurried on to the Ohio! Contrecoeur at Fort Duquesne was in a miserable +plight; every returning red-skin told of the advance of the great +British army in the face of Governor Duquesne's proud boast to Vaudreuil +that it was impossible for the English to cross the Alleghenies in +sufficient force to cause uneasiness! Braddock, despite the utter lack +of proper support from the colonies, was accomplishing the eighth +wonder of the world. It was desperate work. But a Bull-dog was creeping +nearer each day. + +Throughout the winter the British ministry and the Court of Versailles +had been exchanging the most ridiculous pretenses of peace while +secretly preparing for war with dispatch. For every ill-recruited +regiment King George sent to Virginia, King Louis sent two famous +regiments to Canada, and they arrived there despite Boscawen, the +English admiral, who captured two unimportant ships. Yet that was enough +to precipitate the struggle and save more fables from the respective +ambassadors; "I will not pardon the piracies of that insolent nation," +exclaimed Louis--and open war was inevitable. + +At his landing at Quebec Vaudreuil found not less than twelve thousand +soldiers in Canada to defend the claims of his King. But that was a long +frontier to man, from Quebec to New Orleans, and in April only about one +thousand men were forwarded to defend the Ohio river. Of these +Contrecoeur had not more than three hundred, probably less. The summer +before he had two thousand defenders, but Duquesne, blindly trusting to +the ephemeral league he had made with the Alleghenies, had not been +liberal again. In vain Contrecoeur sent messages northward to Venango +and Presque Isle. Riviere aux Boeufs was as dry as the Youghiogheny. +Inevitable surrender or capitulation stared the French commander in the +face. Even the crowds of Indians within hail were not to be reckoned on; +they were terrified at the proportions of Braddock's army. + +Accordingly, Contrecoeur made his arrangements for a capitulation, as +Washington had done one year ago. Braddock had accomplished the +impossible; the Indians were demoralized and took to "cooking and +counciling"; Fort Duquesne was as good as captured. + +On the seventh Braddock reached Brush Fork of Turtle Creek, but the +country immediately between him and the Ohio was so rough that the army +turned westward and pitched its nineteenth encampment in Long Run valley +two miles from the Monongahela. Here Washington came up with the army +in a covered wagon, still weak but ready to move with the army in the +morning and sleep in Duquesne that night. The whole army was infused +with this hope as the ninth of July dawned. + +For no one questioned Braddock's success if he could once throw that +army across the mountains. No one knew the situation better than +Washington, and early in the campaign he wrote his brother: "As to any +danger from the enemy, I look upon it as trifling." In London profane +wits cited Scripture (Ezekiel xxxv: 1-10) to justify the conquest of the +Ohio valley: "Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of +man, set thy face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it, and say +unto it, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O mount Seir, I am against +thee and I will stretch out mine hand against thee and I will make thee +most desolate.... Because thou hast said, These two nations and these +two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it." Already +subscription papers were being passed about in Philadelphia to provide +festal fires to illumine the Quaker City when the news of Braddock's +victory came. + +"Why, the d--l," exclaimed one of the enthusiasts to that odd man +Franklin who did not sign his name at once, "you surely don't suppose +the fort will not be taken?" "I don't know it will not be taken," +replied the Postmaster-General, "but I know that the events of war are +subject to great uncertainty." A jingling ballad in Chester County, +Pennsylvania, was spreading throughout the frontier. It ran, in part: + + To arms, to arms! my jolly grenadiers! + Hark, how the drums do roll it along! + To horse, to horse, with valiant good cheer; + We'll meet our proud foe, before it is long. + Let not your courage fail you: + Be valiant, stout and bold; + And it will soon avail you, + My loyal hearts of gold. + Huzzah, my valiant countrymen!--again I say huzzah! + 'Tis nobly done--the day's our own--huzzah, huzzah! + + March on, march on, brave Braddock leads the foremost; + The battle is begun as you may fairly see. + Stand firm, be bold, and it will soon be over; + We'll soon gain the field from our proud enemy. + A squadron now appears, my boys; + If that they do but stand! + Boys, never fear, be sure you mind + The word of command! + Huzzah, my valiant countrymen!--again I say huzzah! + 'Tis nobly done--the day's our own--huzzah, huzzah! + +Before daybreak on the morning of the fatal ninth Lieutenant Colonel +Gage moved to the Monongahela to secure the two fords the army was to +use on the last day's march. At four o'clock Sir John St. Clair with two +hundred and fifty men went forward to prepare the roads. At five +Braddock advanced and made the first crossing at eight o'clock. He then +formed his army for a triumphant march to the second ford and on to Fort +Duquesne. It had been feared that, however weak, Contrecoeur would +attempt to defend this ford of the Monongahela. But this fear was +dissipated on receipt of the news that Gage held the second ford. + +Contrecoeur knew it would be foolhardy to give Braddock battle. He was +in no mind to waste his men futilely. He knew an honorable capitulation +was all for which he could hope. But on the 8th a captain of the +regulars, M. de Beaujeu, asked leave to go out with a band to oppose +Braddock's passage of the Monongahela. Reluctantly, it is said, +Contrecoeur gave his permission and, the whole garrison desiring to +attend Beaujeu, the commander detailed him selected troops on the +condition that he could obtain the assistance of the Indians who were +about the fort. + +The impetuous Beaujeu hurried off to the Indians and unfolded his plan +to them. But they were afraid of Braddock; some of them had even gone +into the English camp, at Cumberland, or in the mountains, on pretense +of joining the English army; they had seen the long lines of grenadiers +and wagons laden with cannon. + +"How, my Father," they replied, "are you so bent upon death that you +would also sacrifice us? With our eight hundred men do you ask us to +attack four thousand English? Truly, this is not the saying of a wise +man. But we will lay up what we have heard, and tomorrow you shall know +our thoughts." + +Baffled, Beaujeu withdrew while the redskinned allies of the French +frittered away the hours in debate--and the spies brought word that +Braddock was encamped in Long Run valley. The indomitable Beaujeu, +however, went and examined the ground at the ford of the Monongahela, +which Braddock would pass on the next day. On the ninth, however, the +Indians brought word that they would not join in the unequal contest. + +But even as they spoke an Indian scout came running down the narrow +trail toward the fort. He brought the news of Braddock's advance on the +Monongahela fords. Beaujeu, cunning actor, played his last card +desperately and well: + +"I am determined," he cried, "to go out against the enemy; I am certain +of victory. What! will you suffer your father to depart alone?" + +The reproach stung the savage breasts. In a moment hundreds of hoarse +voices were drowning the long roll of the drums. A mad scene followed; +wild with enthusiasm, casks of bullets and flints and powder were +rolled to fort gates and their heads knocked out. About these the +savages, even while painting themselves for the fray, came in crowds, +each one free to help himself as he needed. Then came the race for the +ford of the Monongahela. Down the narrow trail burst the horde of +warriors, led by the daring Beaujeu dressed in savage costume, an Indian +gorget swinging from his neck for good fortune. Behind him poured +Delawares, Ojibways, Pottawattamies, Abenakis, Caughnawagas, Iroquois, +Ottawas, led by their young King Pontiac; Shawanese, Wyandots, Hurons, +led by Athanasius from the mission of Lorette, who gloried in a name +"torn from the most famous page of Christian history." With the six +hundred savages ran two hundred Canadians and four score French +regulars. + +This rabble could not have left Fort Duquesne before high noon; no +wonder Beaujeu ran--fearing Braddock had passed the battle-ground he had +chosen last night. In that case he despaired of delaying the advance +even a single day; yet in one day the expected reinforcements might +arrive from the north! + +Washington rode with Braddock today, though he rode on a pillow in his +saddle. In after life he often recalled the sight of Braddock's +grenadiers marching beside the Monongahela in battle array, a fine +picture with the thin red line framed in the fresh green of the forests. +With the receipt of Gage's note, the fear of ambuscade which had been +omnipresent since the army left Fort Cumberland, vanished. During that +month the Indian guides, flanking squads, and woodchoppers had rushed +into camp time and again calling the companies to arms; each alarm had +been false. As Fort Duquesne was neared Braddock grew doubly cautious. +He even attempted to leave the Indian trail which ran through the +"Narrows" and which crossed the Monongahela at the mouth of Turtle +Creek. When another course was found impossible for the wagons he turned +reluctantly back to the old thoroughfare, but had passed the "Narrows" +safely and his advance guards now held the fords. All was well. + +By two o'clock Braddock was across the river, bag and baggage. Beyond, +the Indian trail wound along to the uplands, skirting the heads of +numerous ravines and clinging persistently, like all the trails of the +Indians and buffalo, to the high ground between the brook and swamp. The +ridge which the trail followed here to the second terrace was twenty +rods in width, with the path near the center. On the west a deep ravine, +completely hidden in the deep underbrush, lay almost parallel with the +trail for a distance of over five hundred feet. On the opposite side +smaller ravines also lay nearly parallel with the trail. On the high +ground between these hidden ravines, and not more than two hundred feet +from them, Braddock's engineers and woodchoppers widened their road for +Gage's advance guard which was ordered to march on until three o'clock. + +As the engineers reached the extremity of the second terrace Beaujeu +came bounding into sight, the pack of eight hundred wolves at his heels. +Seeing the English, the daring but dismayed Frenchman stopped still in +his tracks. He was an hour too late. Attempting to surprise Braddock, +Beaujeu was himself surprised. But he waved his hat above his head and +the crowd of warriors scattered behind him like a partridge's brood into +the forest leaves. + +The French captain knew the ground and Braddock did not, and the ground +was admirably formed for a desperate stand against the advancing army. +Burton, who was just leaving the river shore, was ordered up to support +Gage on the second upland after the first fire. This brought the whole +army, save four hundred men, to the second terrace between the unseen +ravines on the east and west. Into these ravines poured the Indian +rabble. The ravine on the east being shorter than that on the west, many +savages ran through it and posted themselves in the dense underbrush on +the hillside. + +Thus, in a twinkling of an eye, the Indians running southward in the two +ravines and the British northward on the high ground between them, the +fatal position of the battle was quickly assumed.[40] No encounter has +been more incorrectly described and pictured than the Battle of the +Monongahela.[41] Braddock was not surprised; his advance guard saw the +enemy long before they opened fire; George Croghan affirmed that the +grenadiers delivered their first charge when two hundred yards distant +from the Indians, completely throwing it away. Nor did Braddock march +blindly into a deep ravine; his army was ever on the high ground, caught +almost in the vortex of the cross-fire of the savages hidden on the +brink of the ravines on either side, or posted on the high ground to the +right.[42] + +The road was but twelve feet in width. Even as Burton came up, Gage's +grenadiers were frightened and retreating. The meeting of the advancing +and retiring troops caused a fatal confusion and delay in the narrow +road. The fire from the Indians on the high ground to the right being +severe, Braddock attempted to form his bewildered men and charge. It +was futile. The companies were in an inextricable tangle. Finally, to +reduce things to order, the various standards were advanced in different +directions and the officers strove to organize their commands in +separate detachments, with a hope of surrounding the savages. This, too, +proved futile. The Indians on either side completely hidden in the +ravines, the smoke of the rifles hardly visible through the dense +underbrush, poured a deadly fire on the swarm of red-coats huddled in +the narrow track. Not a rifle ball could miss its mark there. As the +standards were advanced here and there, the standard bearers and the +officers who followed encouraging their men to form again were shot down +both from behind and before.[43] As once and again the paralyzed +grenadiers broke into the forest to raid the ravines, in the vain hope +of dislodging the enemy, they offered only a surer mark for the thirsty +rifles toward which they ran. + +The Virginians took to the trees like ducks to water, but the sight +enraged Braddock, mad to have the men form in battle line and charge in +solid phalanx. In vain Washington pleaded to be allowed to place his men +behind the trees; Braddock drove them away with the flat blade of his +sword. Yet they came back and fought bravely from the trees as was their +habit. But it availed nothing to fight behind trees with the enemy on +both flanks; the Virginians were, after all, no safer there than +elsewhere, as the death-roll plainly shows. The provincial portion of +the army suffered as heavily, if not more heavily, than any other. No +army could have stood its ground there and won that battle. The only +chance of victory was to advance or retreat out of range of those hidden +rifles. The army could not be advanced for every step brought the men +nearer the very center of that terrible cross-fire. And the Bull-dog +Braddock knew not the word "retreat." That was the secret of his +defeat.[44] + +Soon there were not enough officers left to command the men, most of +whom were hopelessly bewildered at seeing half the army shot down by a +foe they themselves had never seen. Many survivors of the battle +affirmed that they never saw above five Indians during the conflict. +Braddock was mortally wounded by a ball which pierced his right arm and +lung. Sir Peter Halket lay dead, his son's dead corpse lying across his +own. Of twenty-one captains, seven were dead and seven wounded; of +thirty-eight lieutenants, fifteen were wounded and eleven were dead; of +fourteen second lieutenants or ensigns, five were wounded and three were +dead; of fifty-eight sergeants, twenty were wounded and seventeen dead; +of sixty-one corporals and bombardiers, twenty-two were wounded and +eighteen dead; of eighteen gunners, eight were wounded and six were +dead; of twelve hundred privates, three hundred and twenty-eight were +wounded and three hundred and eighty-six were dead. Each Frenchman, +Canadian, and Indian had hit his man and more than every other one had +killed his man. Their own absolutely impregnable position can be +realized when it is known that not twenty-five French, Canadians or +Indians were killed and wounded. Among the first to fall was the hero of +the day, Beaujeu; his Indian gorget could not save his own life, but it +delayed the capture of Fort Duquesne--three years. + +Yet the stubborn, doomed army held its ground until the retreat was +ordered. The wounded Braddock, who pleaded, it is said, to be left upon +the ground, and even begged for Croghan's pistol with which to finish +what a French bullet had begun, was placed in a cart and afterwards in a +wagon and brought off the field.[45] No sooner was retreat ordered than +it became an utter rout. Some fifty Indians pursued the army into the +river, but none crossed it. Here and there efforts were made to stem the +tide but to no purpose. The army fled back to Dunbar, who had now +crawled along to Laurel Hill and was encamped at a great spring at the +foot of what is now Dunbar's Knob, half a mile north of Jumonville's +hiding place and grave. Dunbar's situation was already deplorable, even +Washington having prophesied that, though he had crossed the worst of +the mountain road, he could never reach Fort Duquesne. + +But as Braddock's demoralized army threw itself upon him, Dunbar's +condition was indescribably wretched. A large portion of the survivors +of the battle and of Dunbar's own command, lost to all order, hurried on +toward Fort Cumberland. Dunbar himself, now senior officer in command, +ordered his cannons spiked and his ammunition destroyed and, with such +horses as could be of service, began to retreat across the mountains. +For this he was, and has often been, roundly condemned; yet, since we +have Washington's plain testimony that he could never have hauled his +wagons and cannon over the thirty comparatively easy miles to Fort +Duquesne, who can fairly blame him for not attempting to haul them over +the sixty difficult miles to Fort Cumberland? To fortify himself, so far +removed from hopes of sustenance and succor, was equally impossible. +There was nothing Dunbar could do but retreat. + +The dying Braddock, tumbling about in a covered wagon on the rough road, +spoke little to the few men who remained faithfully beside him. Only +once or twice in the three days he lived did he speak of the battle; and +then he only sighed to himself softly: "Who would have thought it?" +Once, turning to the wounded Orme, he said: "We shall better know how to +deal with them another time." During his last hours Braddock seems to +have regarded his young Virginian aide, Washington, whose advice he had +followed only indifferently throughout the campaign, with utmost favor, +bequeathing him his favorite charger and his servant. On the night of +the twelfth of July, in a camp in an Indian orchard, near what is now +Braddock's Run, a mile and more east of Fort Necessity, in Great +Meadows, Edward Braddock died. In the morning he was buried in the +center of the roadway. Undoubtedly Washington read the service over the +Briton's grave. When the army marched eastward it passed over the grave, +obliterating its site from even an Indian's keen eye. In 1823, when the +Braddock's Road was being repaired, what were undoubtedly his bones +were uncovered, together with military trappings, etc. These were placed +in the dry ground above the neighboring run, the spot being now marked +by solemn pines. + +Whatever Braddock's faults and foibles, he accomplished a great feat in +leading a comparatively powerful army across the Alleghenies, and had he +been decently supported by the colonies, there would have been no doubt +of his success. As it was, shamefully hampered and delayed by the +procrastinating indifference of the colonies, deceived and defrauded by +wolfish contractors, abandoned by the Indians because of the previous +neglect of the Colonial governors and assemblies, nevertheless the +campaign was a distinct success, until at the last moment, Fate +capriciously dashed the chalice from Braddock's lips. + +The shattered army reached Fort Cumberland on July 20. The tale of +disaster had preceded it. The festal fires were not kindled in +Philadelphia. Now, for the first time the colonies were awakened to the +true situation, and in the months following paid dearly for their +supine indifference. + +For with Beaujeu's victory the French arms became impregnable on the +Ohio. Braddock's defeat brought ten-fold more wretchedness than his +victory could ever have brought of advantage. After that terrible scene +of savagery at Fort Duquesne on the night of the victory, when the few +prisoners taken were burned at the stake, there were no wavering +Indians. And instantly the frontier was overrun with marauding bands +which drove back to the inhabited parts of the country every advanced +settlement. All the Virginian outposts were driven in; and even the +brave Moravian missionaries in Pennsylvania and New York gave up their +work before the red tide of war which now set eastward upon the long +frontiers. + +For Shirley had likewise been beaten back from Fort Niagara, and Johnson +had not captured Fort Crown Point. Two of the campaigns of 1755 were +utter failures. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKWOODS + + +The clearest insight into the days when Braddock's Road was built, and +the most vivid pictures of the country through which it wound its +course, are given in certain letters of a British officer who +accompanied Braddock. No treatise on Braddock's expedition could be in +any measure complete without reproducing this amusing, interesting, yet +pitiful testimony to the difficulties experienced by these first English +officers to enter the backwoods of America. This is given in a volume +entitled _Extracts of Letters from an officer in one of those Regiments +to his friend in London_, published in London in the year of Braddock's +Defeat: + +"You desire me to let you know the Particulars of our Expedition, and an +Account at large of the Nature of the Country, and how they live here; +also of the Manner of the Service, and which Corps is the most +agreeable to serve in, because it has been proposed to you to strive to +buy a Commission here, and that you awaited my Advice to determine. Dear +Sir, I love you so well that I shall at once tell you, I reckon the Day +I bought my Commission the most unhappy in my Life, excepting that in +which I landed in this Country. As for the Climate, it is excessive hot +in Summer, and as disagreeably cold in Winter, and there is no Comfort +in the Spring; none of those Months of gentle genial Warmth, which +revives all Nature, and fills every Soul with vernal Delight; far from +this, the Spring here is of very few Days, for as soon as the severe +Frosts go off, the Heat of the neighbouring Sun brings on Summer at +once, one Day shall be Frost, and the next more scorching or sultry and +faint than the hottest Dog-Day in _England_. What is excessively +disagreeable here is, that the Wealth of the Country consists in Slaves, +so that all one eats rises out of driving and whipping these poor +Wretches; this Kind of Authority so Corrupts the Mind of the Masters, +and makes them so overbearing, that they are the most troublesome +Company upon Earth, which adds much to the Uncomfortableness of the +Place. You cannot conceive how it strikes the Mind on the first Arrival, +to have all these black Faces with grim Looks round you, instead of +being served by blooming Maid Servants, or genteel white Livery Men: I +was invited to Supper by a rich Planter, and the Heat of the Climate, +the dim Light of the Myrtle Wax-Candles, and the Number of black +half-naked Servants that attended us, made me think of the infernal +Regions, and that I was at Supper with _Pluto_, only there was no +beautiful _Proserpine_, for the Lady of the House was more like one of +the Furies; she had passed through the Education of the College of +_Newgate_, as great Numbers from thence arrive here yearly; Most being +cunning Jades, some pick up foolish Planters; this Lady's Husband was +far from a Fool, but had married, not only for the Charms of her Person, +but because her Art and Skill was Quite useful to him in carrying on his +Business and Affairs, many of which were worthy of an adept in the +College she came from. Among others he made me pay for my Supper by +selling me a Horse upon Honour, which, as soon as it was cool, shewed +itself Dog-lame and Moon-blind. + +"As for eating, they have the Names of almost every Thing that is +delicious, or in Fashion in _England_, but they give them to Things as +little like as _Cæsar_ or _Pompey_ were to the _Negroes_ whom they call +by those _Names_. For what they call a Hare is a Creature half Cat, half +Rabbet, with white strong Flesh, and that burrows in rotten Trees; they +call a Bird not much bigger than a Fieldfare, with hard, dry, strong +Flesh, hardly eatable, a Partridge. The best Thing they have is a wild +Turky, but this is only in Season one Month in the Year; the rest it is +hard, strong, and dry. As for Beef, the Months of _October_ and +_November_ excepted, it is Carrion; that is to say, so lean as it would +not be called Meat in _England_; their Mutton is always as strong Goats' +Flesh; their Veal is red and lean, and indeed the Heat of the Summer and +the pinching Frost of Winter, makes all like _Pharaoh's_ lean Kine. They +brag of the Fruits, that they have such plenty of Peaches as to feed +Hogs; and indeed that is true, they are fit for nothing else; I do not +remember, among the Multitudes I have tasted, above one or two that were +eatable, the rest were either mealy or choaky. Melons grow in Fields, +and are plentier than Pumpkins in _England_, as large and as tasteless; +there are such Quantities that the Houses stink of them; the Heat of the +Country makes them at once mellow, so that they hardly ever have the +fine racy Taste of an _English_ good Melon, for in _England_ you have +many bad Melons to one good; but here the Heat makes all Fruits like us +young fellows, rotten before they are ripe. With respect to Fish, they +have neither Salmon, Carp, Trout, Smelts, nor hardly any one good Kind +of Fish. They give the Name of Trout to a white Sea-fish, no more like a +Trout than a Cat to a Hare; they have one good, nay excellent Kind of +Fish, I mean a Turtle; but as Scarce as in _England_. With respect to +public Diversions, the worst _English_ Country Town exceeds all they +have in the whole Province. As to Drink, _Burgundy_ and _Champaign_ were +scarce ever heard of; _Claret_ they have but poor Stuff, tawny and +prick'd, for it cannot stand the Heat of the Summer, which also spoils +the _Port_; the _Madeira_ is the best Wine they have, but that only of +the worst Growths, for the best are sent to _Jamaica_ or _England_; +their only tolerable Drink is Rum Punch, which they swill Morning, Noon, +and Night. Their Produce is Tobacco; they are so attached to that, and +their Avarice to raise it, makes them neglect every Comfort of Life; But +the Intemperance of the Climate affects not only all the Cattle, Fruits, +and Growths of the Country, but the human Race; and it is rare to see a +native reach 50 Years of Age. I have heard from the best Judges, I mean +the kind hearted Ladies most in Vogue, that a _Virginian_ is old at 30, +as an _Englishman_ is at 60. The Ladies I speak of are well experienced, +and for most of them the Public have for peculiar Merit paid the +Passage, and honoured with an Order for Transportation on Record. I +would not deceive you so have told you the truth; I have not +exaggerated, but have omitted many disagreeable Circumstances, such as +Thunder Storms, Yellow Fevers, Musketoes, other Vermin, _&c_ with which +I shall not trouble you. The Ship is just going." + + * * * * * + +"I Sent a Letter to you by Captain _Johnson_ bound for _Bristol_, with a +full Account of the Country, by which you will see the Reasons why it +will be highly improper for you to buy into the Troops here; I send this +by a Ship bound for _London_. + +"They make here a Division between the Settlements and the Woods, though +the Settlements are what we should call very woody in _Europe_. The Face +of the Country is entirely different from any Thing I ever saw before; +the Fields have not the Appearance of what bears that Name in _Europe_, +instead of ploughed Grounds or Meadows, they are all laid out in +Hillocks, each of which bears Tobacco Plants, with Paths hoed between. +When the Tobacco is green it looks like a Coppice; when pulled the +Ground looks more like Hop-Yards than Fields, which makes a very +disagreeable Appearance to the Eye. The Indian Corn also, and all their +Culture runs upon hilling with the Hoe, and the _Indian_ Corn grows +like Reeds to eight or nine Feet high. Indeed in some Parts of the +Country Wheat grows, but Tobacco and _Indian_ Corn is the chief. + +"From the Heart of the Settlements we are now got into the Cow-Pens, the +Keepers of these are very extraordinary Kind of Fellows, they drive up +their Herds on Horseback, and they had need do so, for their Cattle are +near as wild as Deer; a Cow-Pen generally consists of a very large +Cottage or House in the Woods, with about four-score or one hundred +Acres, inclosed with high Rails and divided; a small Inclosure they keep +for Corn, for the Family, the rest is the Pasture in which they keep +their Calves; but the Manner is far different from any Thing you ever +saw; they may perhaps have a Stock of four or five hundred to a thousand +Head of Cattle belonging to a Cow-Pen, these run as they please in the +great Woods, where there are no Inclosures to stop them. In the Month of +_March_ the Cows begin to drop their Calves, then the Cow-Pen Master, +with all his Men, rides out to see and drive up the Cows with all their +new fallen Calves; they being weak cannot run away so as to escape, +therefore are easily drove up, and the Bulls and other Cattle follow +them; then they put these Calves into the Pasture, and every Morning and +Evening suffer the Cows to come and suckle them, which done they let the +Cows out into the great Woods to shift for their Food as well as they +can; whilst the Calf is sucking one Tit of the Cow, the Woman of the +Cow-Pen is milking one of the other Tits, so that she steals some Milk +from the Cow, who thinks she is giving it to the Calf; as soon as the +Cow begins to go dry, and the Calf grows Strong, they mark them, if they +are Males they cut them, and let them go into the Wood. Every Year in +_September_ and _October_ they drive up the Market Steers, that are fat +and of a proper Age, and kill them; they say they are fat in _October_, +but I am sure they are not so in _May_, _June_ and _July_; they reckon +that out of 100 Head of Cattle they can kill about 10 or 12 Steers, and +four or five Cows a Year; so they reckon that a Cow-Pen for every 100 +Head of Cattle brings about 40£ Sterling per Year. The Keepers live +chiefly upon Milk, for out of their vast Herds, they do condescend to +tame Cows enough to keep their Family in Milk, Whey, Curds, Cheese and +Butter; they also have Flesh in Abundance such as it is, for they eat +the old Cows and lean Calves that are like to die. The Cow-Pen Men are +hardy People, are almost continually on Horseback, being obliged to know +the Haunts of their Cattle. + +"You see, Sir, what a wild set of Creatures our _English_ Men grow into, +when they lose Society, and it is surprising to think how many +Advantages they throw away, which our industrious Country-Men would be +glad of: Out of many hundred Cows they will not give themselves the +trouble of milking more than will maintain their Family." + + * * * * * + +"Since my last, we are got out of the Settlements and into the Woods. +The Scene is changed, but not for the better. I thought we were then so +bad that we had the Consolation of being out of Danger of being worse, +but I found myself mistaken. The mutinous Spirit of the Men encreases, +but we will get the better of that; we will see which will be tired +first, they of deserving Punishments, or we of inflicting them. I cannot +but say the very Face of the Country is enough to strike a Damp in the +most resolute Mind; the Fatigues and Wants we suffer, added, are enough +to dispirit common Men; nor should I blame them for being low spirited, +but they are mutinous, and this came from a higher Spring than the +Hardships here, for they were tainted in _Ireland_ by the factious Cry +against the L-- L-- Ld G--, and the Primate; the wicked Spirit instilled +there by Pamphlets and Conversation, got amongst the common Soldiers, +who, tho' they are _Englishmen_, yet are not the less stubborn and +mutinous for that. They have the Impudence to pretend to judge of and +blame every Step, not only of the Officers, but of the Ministry. They, +every now and then, in their Defence say they are free _Englishmen_, and +Protestants, and are not obliged to obey Orders if they are not fed with +Bread, and paid with Money; now there is often only Bills to pay them +with, and no Bread but _Indian_ Corn. In fine, in _Europe_ they were +better fed than taught; now they must be better taught than fed. +Indeed the Officers are as ill off about Food as they, the General +himself, who understands good eating as well as any Man, cannot find +wherewithal to make a tolerable Dinner of, though he hath two good Cooks +who could make an excellent Ragout out of a Pair of Boots, had they but +Materials to toss them up with; the Provision in the Settlements was +bad, but here we can get nothing but _Indian_ Corn, or mouldy Bisket; +the fresh Bread we must bake in Holes in the Ground having no Ovens, so +besides the Mustiness of the Flour, it is half Sand and Dirt. We are +happy if we can get some rusty salt Pork, or Beef, which hath been +carried without Pickle; for as we cannot carry Barrels on Horses, we are +forced to take out the Meat and put it in Packs on Horses Backs; +sometimes we get a few live Cattle from the Cow-Pens, but they are so +lean that they are Carion and unwholesome. To this is added, the Heat of +the Country, which occasions such Faintness, that the Men can hardly +carry their Arms; and sometimes when these Heats are a little relaxed, +there comes such Storms of Rain, Thunder and Lightening, that all the +Elements seems on Fire; Numbers of Pine Trees struck to Shivers, and +such Effects of Lightening, that if not seen one could hardly believe; +yet we have not as yet had one Man killed by Lightening, but we have had +several died by the Bite of Snakes, which are mortal, and abound +prodigiously in the Swamps, through which we are often forced to march; +there is another Inconveniency, which, tho it seems small, has been as +teasing to me as the greater, that is a Kind of Tick, or Forest Bug, +that gets into the Legs, and occasions Inflammations and Ulcers, so that +the wound itches and makes one ready to tear off the Flesh; this hath +greatly distressed both Men and Officers, and there is no Help nor Cure +for it but Patience: Indeed they seldom occasion Lameness, tho' +sometimes they do; a Soldier of our Company was forced to have his Leg +cut off, for the Inflammation caused by the many Bites mortifying. We +have nothing round us but Trees, Swamps, and Thickets. I cannot conceive +how we must do if we are attacked, nor how we can get up to attack; but +the best is what the General said, to reassure the old Soldiers who are +all uneasy for Fear of being attack'd on the long March in Defiles, his +Excellency with great Judiciousness says, that where the Woods are too +thick so as to hinder our coming at them, they will hinder their coming +at us. + +[Illustration: BRADDOCK'S ROAD NEAR FROSTBURG, MARYLAND] + +"Just as I write this we hear the best News I ever heard in my Life, the +General hath declared to the _Virginians_, that if they do not furnish +us with Waggons and Provisions in two Days, he will march back; he has +justly upbraided them for exposing the King's Troops, by their Bragging +and false Promises. They undertook to furnish us with Horses, Bread and +Beef, and really have given nothing but Carion for Meat, _Indian_ Corn +for Bread, Jades for Horses which cannot carry themselves. These +Assurances of furnishing every Thing has deceived the General hitherto, +and he, out of Zeal for the Service, hath undergone the utmost +Difficulties; but now it is impossible to go farther without they comply +with the Promises, they were weak, or wicked enough to make, for +certainly they were never able to perform them; it is surprizing how +they bragged before we left the Settlements, of what Plenty they would +furnish us with at the Cow-Pens, and in the Woods; these Assurances has +brought the General into the present Difficulties, and he has very +justly told them, that if he marched any farther without a Supply, he +should be justly charged with destroying his Majesty's Troops in the +Deserts, and thereby occasion the Destruction of _Virginia_ by +encouraging the French; that if he was not supplied in two Days, he +would march back, and lay their Breach of Faith before his Majesty. + +"I now begin to hope that I shall once more have the Pleasure of seeing +you, and the rest of my Friends. Pray acquaint my dear Mr. M--, that I +desire he would not sell my Farm at --, since I hope soon to be over." +[The rest relates to private affairs]. + + * * * * * + +"As the Intention of marching back continues, another Courier is to be +sent, which Opportunity I take, not only to let you know I am well, but +to desire my Cousin -- would not send any Money to Mr. -- to be +remitted to me in _Virginia_. As the Pen is in my Hand, I will give you +an Account of a Diversion we had some Nights ago, it was an _Indian_ +Dancing, which I cannot call a Ball, though it was a Kind of Masquerade, +the Habits being very antick; but this as every Thing in this Country +is, was in the Stile of the Horrible; the Sal de Ball was covered with +the Canopy of Heaven, and adorned with the twinkling Stars, a large +Space of Grass was mark'd out for the Dancing-Place, round which we the +Spectators stood, as at a Cricket-match in _England_, in the Centre of +it was two Fires, at a small Distance from each other, which were +designed as an Illumination to make the Dancers visible; near the Fires +was seated the Musick, which were a number of Men and Women, with a Kind +of Timbrels or small Kettle-Drums, made of real brass Kettles, covered +with Deer Skins made like Parchment by the _Indians_, and these they +beat, and keep good Time, although their Tunes are terrible and savage; +they also sing much in the same Stile, creating Terror, Fear, and all +dreadful Passions, but no pleasing ones. After this Noise had gone on +for some Time, at once we heard a most dreadful Shout, and a Band of +horrid Figures rushed into the Ring, with a Nimbleness hardly +conceivable; they struck the Ground in exact Measure, answering the +rough Musick; at once all the Descriptions of the Fawns and Satyrs of +the _Latin_ Poets came into my Mind, and indeed the _Indians_ seemed to +be the same Kind of brown dancing People, as lived under King _Faunus_, +some 3000 Years ago in _Italy_; they are most chearful and loving to +their Friends, but implacable and cruel to their Enemies. They drink and +act when drunk much like _Silenus_ and his Satyrs; their whole Life is +spent in Hunting, War, and Dancing, what they now perform'd was a War +Dance; as soon as this Surprize ceased the Dancers followed one another, +treading a large Ring, round the two Fires and Music, and ceased +Singing; the Timbrels and Voices in the Centre set up a Tune to which +they continued dancing, and follow'd one another in the Ring with a very +true Measure, antick Postures, and high Bounds, that would puzzle our +best Harlequins to imitate; soon after, to every five Dancers came out +a Boy, carrying in their Hands flaming Splinters of light Wood instead +of Torches, which cast a glim Light that made Things as distinguishable +as at Noon-Day; and indeed the Surprisingness and Newness of the +Spectacle made it not unpleasing; the Indians being dress'd, some in +Furrs, some with their Hair ornamented with Feathers, others with the +Heads of Beasts; their Bodies naked, appearing in many Places, painted +with various Colours, and their Skins so rubbed with Oyl as to glitter +against the Light; their Waists were girded round with Bear or Deer +Skins with the Hair on, and artificial Tails fixed to many of them that +hung down near unto the Ground. After they had danced some Time in a +Ring, the Music ceased, the Dancers divided into two Parties, and set up +the most horrid Song or Cry, that ever I heard, the Sound would strike +Terror into the stoutest Heart. They then formed themselves into two +Bodies, four deep, all which they did, still dancing to the Tune and +Measure; they ceased singing, and the Music began, on which the two +Bodies run in at each other, acting all the Parts the _Indians_ use in +their Manner of Fight, avoiding Shot, and striving to surround their +Enemies. Some Time past in this Manner, and then at the Signal of a +dismal Cry the Dancers all at once rushed out again, leaving one only +behind them, who was supposed to have mastered his Enemy; he struck the +Ground with his Tomohawk or Club, as if he was killing one lying there, +then acting the Motions of scalping, and then holding up a real dried +Scalp, which before hung upon him amongst his Ornaments; he then sung +out the great Achivements which some of their Nation had performed +against the _French_, told the Names of the _Indian_ Warriors, and how +many of _French_ each had scalped, and then the Dance ended, _&c_." + + * * * * * + +"In my last I acquainted you with the joyful News that our General +resolved not to be any longer deceived by the _Virginians_, Orders were +given for our March back, but the Day before that was appointed there +arrived five Quakers decently dressed, they were pure plump Men, on +brave fat Horses, which, by the way, were the first plump Creatures I +had seen in this Country. Then, as I told you before, I believed +_Virginia_ was peopled by _Pharaoh's_ lean Kine, but these Quakers seem +to come from the Land of _Goshen_, they looked like Christian People; +they went directly to his Excellence, and Curiosity carried us all to +the general Quarters. They came with Thanks to the General from the +People of Pensilvania, for the great Labour he had gone through in +advancing so far into the Wilderness for the Protection of his Majesty's +dutiful Subjects. They acquainted him further, that they had been +cutting Roads to meet him with a Number of Waggons loaded with Flour, +Cheese, Bacon, and other Provision; though this was good News I did not +half like it, I fear'd it would occasion our Stay, and prevent our +marching back; besides it was ominous, your Cheese and your Bacon being +the Baits that draw Rats to Destruction, and it proved but too true; +this Bait drew us into a Trap where happy was he that came off with the +Loss of his Tail only. This Evening we saw the Road and Waggons, and +the Men eat, this was a Duty so long disused, that it was a Tour of +Fatigue to the Teeth. The Fellows who drove the Waggons, tho' they would +have made but a shabby Figure amongst our _Hampshire_ Carters, yet here +they looked like Angels, compared with the long, lank, yellow-faced +_Virginians_, who at best are a half-starved, ragged, dirty Set; if by +Accident they can clear enough by their Tobacco to buy a Coat, they +rather chuse a half-wore gaudy Rag, than a substantial coarse Cloth, or +Kersey; they are the very Opposites to the _Pensilvanians_, who buy +Coats of Cloth so strong as to last as long as the Garments of the +_Israelites_ in their March through the Desert; a Coat serves a Man for +his Life and yet looks fresh, but this comes from their never wearing +them at Home; when out of Sight they work half naked. They are a very +frugal People, and if they were not so would be as beggarly as their +Neighbours the _Virginians_. The Ground does not bear half the Crops as +in _England_; they have no Market but by Sea, and that very dull, if you +consider they are forced to put their Flour in Barrels after grinding +and sifting, all at their own Charge, and no Consideration thereof in +the Price; whilst the _English_ Farmer only threshes his Wheat, and +sends it to Market. Tho' _Pensilvania_ is a Paradise to _Virginia_, it +is a very poor Country compared to _England_, and no Man in his Senses +can live with Comfort in _England_ stays here; as soon as they get +Estates they come over to _England_. The Proprietor, a most worthy +Gentleman, and universally admired, went over, and out of Complaisance +staid a little Time with them, but soon returned back to _England_, +where he resides. If _Pennsylvania_ could be agreeable to any one, it +would be so to him, who is one of the most amiable Men living, and the +whole People used their utmost Endeavors to make the Place agreeable; +but alas, the Intemperature of the Climate, the Nearness and Frugality +in their Manner of Living, necessary to carry on the Cultivation; the +Labor that most are forced to undergo to live, prevent their giving Way +to Pleasure, and the rest, as soon as they by Labor and Frugality get +enough to come to _England_, leave that Country, so there are not People +enough at Ease to make an agreeable Society; nor to occasion those +Improvements in Gardens, Buildings, and Parks, as would make Life +agreeable, much less is their Numbers enough of Rich to afford +encouragement to support public Diversions; so that _America_ is a very +disagreeable Place, the least Shire-Town in _England_ has more Pleasures +than the best Town in _North America_. + +"But to return to our Quakers, the Chief of them told the General that +he feared greatly for the Safety of the Army; that the Woods, the +farther we went, would be the more dangerous, and the _French_ were a +subtle and daring Enemy, and would not neglect any Opportunity of +surprising us; that the further we went the more difficult it would be +to supply us with Provisions, and that the Country was not worth +keeping, much less conquering. The _French_ not yet knowing our Force +were in Terror, and if he sent would perhaps come into a Treaty; that +Peace was a heavenly Thing; and as for the Country in Dispute it was +misrepresented by those Projectors, who had some private Advantage; for +it was fit for none but _Indians_, the Soil bad, far from the Sea, and +Navigation; therefore he thought if the _French_ would abandon and +destroy their Forts, and we do the same, and leave the Lands to their +rightful Owners the _Indians_, on Condition that that Nation should pay +some Furrs and Deer Skins, by Way of Tribute, to our most gracious King +_George_, a Pacification might be established till the Matter was made +up before his Majesty. That General _Oglethorp_ had in that Manner +settled all Differences with the _Spaniards_ on the Southern Frontiers, +towards _Florida_, and the Accord lasted to this Day; on the other Hand, +he said, that if the _French_ refused, then the _Indians_, who are a +free and warlike Nation, and much too powerful to be despised, would +probably take our Side; if we would pull down the _French_ Forts, and +our own also, they would be the guard of our Colonies with very small +Expense to _England_. + +"The General not only heard this Proposal with Pleasure, and +communicated it to most of the Officers, but doubted if he had Power to +execute it. Some of the Braggadocio _Virginians_, who last Year ran away +so stoutly, began to clamor against the Quakers and the General; so we +marched on; the General got as far as the Meadows, where, to hasten our +March, he fortified and intrenched a Camp, and left the heavy Baggage, +sick Men, and spare Provision _&c_, and to cover our Communication, he +left Colonel _Dunbar_ with 800 Men. This place was the only one where +regular Troops could make Use of their Discipline and Arms, and it is +all open Ground, therefore the General made this Camp as a Place of +Arms, where a Fortification being erected would supply the Army as they +should want, and might receive, and lay up the Provisions in Safety, as +they arrived from _Pennsylvania_; the General also said, that as this +Place was on the West Side of the _Allegane_ Mountains, it preserved his +Majesty's Rights against the _French_, who pretended that those +Mountains bounded his Majesty's Dominions. Here we halted and refreshed +ourselves bravely, by the Help of the _Pensilvania_ Provisions, and of +Deer, wild Turkeys, and Game of several other Kinds brought in by the +_Indians_, which though we should deem it bad enough in _England_, for +there is not above one Deer in ten that is fat, yet here our former +Wants made these delicious. + +"On the 4th of _July_ our _Indians_ were defeated in the Woods by the +_French_ Parties; a few only was killed, but their chief Man was taken; +the _French_ have treated them very kindly, and declare they intend no +War against the _Indians_. The General is apprehensive this will make an +ill Impression on them, therefore does not care to trust them any +further; he has publickly said he will advance himself with 1200 Men, +drive the Enemy out of the Woods, and invest _Fort Du Quesne_; he is +resolved to be prepared for all Accidents, therefore leaves Colonel +_Dunbar_ with a strong Party to make good this Camp. The Ground round +the Camp is open, and the Situation so advantageous, that this Camp is +defensible against all the Efforts the _French_ can make, if any +Accident, should happen to the General; and he has declared, he has put +it in this Condition, that his Majesty's Affairs may not suffer if he +should miscarry. + +"The General seems very anxious about marching through the Woods, and +gave very particular Orders; Powder and Bullet were given out, and +every Thing fit for Action; two Lieutenant-Colonels were ordered to +command the advanced Party. The General followed with the Gross of the +two Regiments from _Europe_, the _Americans_ followed, and the Rear was +brought up by Captain _Dumary's_, and another Independent Company. We +marched on in this Manner without being disturbed, and thought we had +got over our greatest Difficulties, for we look'd upon our March through +the Woods to be such: We were sure we should be much above a Match for +the _French_, if once we got into the open Ground near the Forts, where +we could use our Arms. We had a Train, and a gallant Party of Sailors +for working our Guns, full sufficient to master better works than those +of the _French_ Forts, according to the Intelligence we had of them. +Then we march'd on, and when within about ten Miles of Fort _Du Quesne_, +we were, on a sudden, charged by Shot from the Woods. Every Man was +alert, did all we could, but the Men dropped like Leaves in _Autumn_, +all was Confusion, and in Spight of what the Officers and bravest Men +could do, Numbers run away, nay fired on us, that would have forced them +to rally. I was wounded in one Leg, and in the other Heel, so could not +go, but sat down at the Foot of a Tree, praying of every one that run +by, that they would help me off; an _American Virginian_ turned to me, +Yes, Countryman, says he, I will put you out of your Misery, these Dogs +shall not burn you; he then levelled his Piece at my Head, I cried out +and dodged him behind the Tree, the Piece went off and missed me, and he +run on; soon after Lieutenant _Grey_, with a Party of _Dumary's_ Company +came by, who brought up the Rear; the Firing was now Quite ceased, he +told me the General was wounded, and got me carried off. When we arrived +at the _Meadows_, we found Colonel _Dunbar_ did not think it expedient +to wait for the _French_ there, but retired, and carried us, the +wounded, with him to _Will's Creek_. I have writ till I am faint." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SPARKS AND ATKINSON ON BRADDOCK'S ROUTE[46] + + +Several months ago we received from that indefatigable delver in the +early annals of our country, Jared Sparks, Esq., of Salem, +Massachusetts, a letter containing some valuable information as to the +route of General Braddock after leaving Gist's farm, not far from where +Connelsville now stands. That letter we, for reasons which it is +unnecessary to mention, have withheld from publication; but those +reasons no longer existing, we now publish it--premising only a few +introductory remarks. + +Mr. Sparks, as the biographer of Washington and as the collator of his +papers, and as a most indefatigable searcher after the whole truth in +our early history, enjoyed extraordinary advantages, so that his +statements in all such matters should always command the utmost +confidence. There is in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical +Society a draught of "the Monongahela and Youghiogany rivers" taken by +Joseph Shippen, Jr., in 1759.[47] On this draught the route of General +Braddock is distinctly laid down from Cumberland to Stewart's Crossings, +now Connelsville, and thence to a point about twelve or fourteen miles, +nearly due north, and of course some four or five miles east of the +Youghiogany. From that point the line of march is not laid down until +within about six miles of the Monongahela river, at Braddock's first +ford, about one mile and a half below McKeesport; from that point it is +distinctly traced across the Monongahela twice to the field of battle. +As Mr. Shippen was Brigade Major in General Forbes' army, and in that +capacity visited this place within four years after Braddock's defeat, +we may well suppose that he had accurate information as to the route of +that unfortunate General. + +Extract of a letter from Jared Sparks, Esq., to the editor of the _Olden +Time_. + + "Salem, Mass., Feb. 18th, 1847. + +"Dear Sir:--There is a copy of the 'Memorial' which you mentioned in the +Library of Harvard College which I believe is complete. I shall obtain +it soon, and will have the missing pages copied and forward to you the +manuscript. I suppose you wish it sent by mail. I once compared this +translation with the original[48] and found it clumsily executed, but +the substance is probably retained. + +"Having heretofore examined with care the details of Braddock's +expedition, I am persuaded that the following, as far as it goes, is a +correct account of his march from Gist's plantation: + +"On the 30th of June the army forded the Youghiogany at Stewart's +Crossings and then passed a rough road over a mountain. A few days +onward they came to a great swamp which detained them part of a day in +clearing a road. They next advanced to Salt Lick Creek, now called +Jacob's Creek, where a council of war was held on the 3d of July to +consider a suggestion of Sir John St. Clair that Colonel Dunbar's +detachment should be ordered to join the main body. This proposal was +rejected on the ground that Dunbar could not join them in less than +thirteen days; that this would cause such a consumption of provisions as +to render it necessary to bring forward another convoy from Fort +Cumberland; and that in the meantime the French might be strengthened by +a reinforcement, which was daily expected at Fort Duquesne--and +moreover; the two divisions could not move together after their +junction. + +"On the 4th the army again marched and advanced to Turtle Creek, about +twelve miles from its mouth, where they arrived on the 7th inst. I +suppose this to have been the eastern branch or what is now called Rush +Creek, and that the place at which they encamped was a short distance +northerly from the present village of Stewartsville. It was General +Braddock's intention to cross Turtle Creek, and approach Fort Duquesne +on the other side; but the banks were so precipitous, and presented +such obstacles to crossing with his artillery and heavy baggage that he +hesitated, and Sir John St. Clair went out with a party to reconnoitre. +On his return, before night, he reported that he had found the ridge +which led to Fort Duquesne but that considerable work would be necessary +to prepare a road for crossing Turtle Creek. This route was finally +abandoned, and on the 8th the army marched eight miles and encamped not +far from the Monongahela, west of the Youghiogany and near what is +called in an old map 'Sugar Run.' When Braddock reached this place it +was his design to pass through the narrows, but he was informed by the +guides who had been out to explore that the passage was very difficult, +about two miles in length, with a river on the left and a high mountain +on the right, and that much work must be done to make it passable for +carriages. At the same time he was told that there were two good fords +across the Monongahela where the water was shallow and the banks not +steep. With these views of the case he determined to cross the fords the +next morning. The order of march was given out and all the arrangements +were made for an early movement. + +"About eight o'clock on the morning of the 9th the advanced division +under Colonel Gage crossed the ford and pushed forward. After the whole +army had crossed and marched about a mile, Braddock received a note from +Colonel Gage, giving notice that he had passed the second ford without +difficulty. A little before two o'clock the whole army had crossed this +ford and was arranged in the order of march on the plain near Frazer's +house. Gage with the advanced party was then ordered to march, and while +the main body was yet standing on the plain the action began near the +river. Not a single man of the enemy had before been seen. + +"The distance by the line of march from Stewart's Crossing to Turtle +Creek, or Brush Creek, was about thirty miles. At this point the route +was changed almost to a right angle in marching to the Monongahela. The +encampment was probably two or three miles from the bank of the river, +for Colonel Gage marched at the break of day and did not cross the ford +till eight o'clock. During the whole march from the Great Meadows the +pickets and sentinels were frequently assailed by scouting parties of +French and Indians and several men were killed. Mr. Gist acted as the +General's guide. On the 4th of July two Indians went out to reconnoitre +the country toward Fort Duquesne; and Mr. Gist also on the same day, in +a different direction. They were gone two days, and all came in sight of +the fort, but brought back no important intelligence. The Indians +contrived to kill and scalp a French officer whom they found shooting +within half a mile of the fort. + +"The army seldom marched more than six miles a day and commonly not so +much. From Stewart's Crossing to Turtle Creek there were six +encampments. During one day the army halted. + +"I shall be much pleased to see Mr. Atkinson's map. His knowledge of the +ground will enable him to delineate Braddock's route much more +accurately than it can be done from any sources now available. + + I am, Sir, respectfully yours, + Jared Sparks. + Neville B. Craig, Esq., Pittsburgh." + +[Illustration: MIDDLETON'S MAP OF BRADDOCK'S ROAD (1847) + +[_Braddock's Road is shown as dotted line. The double line is the +present route from Cumberland to Ft. Necessity_]] + +Since the foregoing letter was in type we have received from Mr. T. C. +Atkinson of Cumberland, Maryland, lately employed on the Pittsburgh and +Connelsville Rail Road, a very able and interesting article on the +subject of Braddock's route to the Monongahela, with a very beautiful +map of the country, by Mr. Middleton, one of Mr. Atkinson's assistants +on the survey for the railroad. The article of Mr. Atkinson, and the +map, furnish all the information as to the march of General Braddock's +army which can now be hoped for. + +Mr. Atkinson had for years devoted much time to the examination of the +route of the army of Braddock eastward, and some distance westward of +Cumberland, and his late employ along the Youghiogany and Monongahela +afforded him an opportunity to complete his work. + +As a striking evidence of the accuracy of his researches, we will +mention that in tracing the route he was much surprised and puzzled by +what seemed the strange divergence of the army from the Youghiogany +river after passing it at Stewart's Crossings. Yet the traditionary +evidence and marks on the ground seemed to establish beyond doubt the +fact that the army had passed far into the interior of our present +county of Westmoreland, and near to Mount Pleasant, crossing the line of +the Pittsburgh and Greensburg Turnpike road. This seemed so far from the +natural and direct route that even the strong traditionary and other +evidence, could not entirely remove the possibility of doubt. Mr. +Atkinson himself was entirely satisfied as to the correctness of his own +conclusions, but of course would be gratified to receive a confirmation, +in an authentic shape, of his own convictions. + +Just at that crisis we received the letter from Mr. Sparks, which +precedes these remarks, thus settling most conclusively the verity of +many of the traditions current in the country as to the erratic course +of Braddock's army from Stewart's Crossings to the Monongahela river. + +We are, deeply indeed, indebted to Mr. Atkinson, and also to his +assistant, Mr. Middleton, for their very valuable contribution in +illustration of the early history of this country. + +The Pittsburgh and Connelsville Rail Road project cannot be regarded as +an entirely fruitless effort; it has, at least, produced this most +valuable historical essay. + +All additional information in relation to those early scenes must +possess interest to every intelligent American; and we rejoice in the +opportunity of placing Mr. Atkinson's valuable communication and the +accompanying map before the readers of the _Olden Time_: + + +"The interest with which the routes of celebrated expeditions are +regarded, and the confusion which attends them after the lapse of years, +is well exemplified in the case of Hannibal, whose march toward Rome, in +order to divert their army from the siege of Capua, was totally lost in +the course of a few centuries. The constant blunders of Livy in copying +first from one writer, and then from another who made him take a +different path, justify a recent English historian who went to Italy to +see the ground for himself, in saying that the Punic War was almost as +hard in the writing as the fighting. + +"As the time is coming when the road by which the unfortunate Braddock +marched to his disastrous field will be invested with antiquarian +interest akin to that attending Hannibal's route, or rather the _via +scelerata_, by which the Fabian family marched out of Rome, I have +thought it time not idly spent to attempt to pursue its scattered traces +as far as it is in my power, among more pressing occupations. In this +sketch I do not design to pursue it to its extent, but only to identify +it in those parts where it has been convenient for me to visit it and in +others to shadow out its general direction. Where it is obscure I hope +to have opportunities to examine it at a future day. + +"Of the well conducted expedition of Colonel Bouquet and its precise +path, the publications of Mr. Hutchins, the geographer, who was one of +the engineers, leaves us very well informed. It is presumable that +similar details would be found of the march of 1755 if it had had a +successful termination. The three engineers who were in the field were +wounded; and it is probable their papers fell into the hands of the +enemy or were lost in the flight. + +"General Braddock landed at Alexandria on the 20th of February, 1755. +The selection of this port for the debarcation of the troops, was +censured at the time, though it is probable it had the approval of +Washington. The two regiments he brought with him were very defective in +numbers, having but about five hundred men each, and it was expected +their ranks would be recruited in America. It is shown by the repeated +requests on this point made by the General at Cumberland that this +expectation was vain. After numerous delays, and a conference with the +Royal Governors, we find General Braddock _en route_ on the 24th of +April when he had reached Fredricktown in Maryland. Passing thence +through Winchester, Va., he reached Fort Cumberland about the 9th of +May. Sir John Sinclair, Deputy Quarter Master General, had preceded him +to this point about two weeks.[49] + +"The army struck the Little Cacapehon (though pronounced Cacapon, I have +used for the occasion the spelling of Washington and various old +documents), about six miles above its mouth, and following the stream +encamped on the Virginia side of the Potomac preparatory to crossing +into Maryland. The water is supposed to have been high at the time, as +the spot is known as the Ferry-fields, from the army having been ferried +over. This was about the 4th or 5th of May. + +"The army thence pursued the banks of the river, with a slight deviation +of route at the mouth of the South Branch, to the village of Old Town, +known at that time as the Shawnee Old Town, modern use having dropped +the most characteristic part of the name. This place, distant about +eight miles from the Ferry-fields, was known at that early day as the +residence of Col. Thomas Cresap, an English settler, and the father of +the hero of Logan's speech. The road proceeded thence parallel with the +river and at the foot of the hills, till it passes the narrows of Will's +Mountain, when it struck out a shorter line coincident with the present +county road, and lying between the railroad and the mountain, to Fort +Cumberland. + +"From the Little Cacapehon to this point the ground was comparatively +easy, and the road had been generally judiciously chosen. Thenceforward +the character of the ground was altered, not so much in the general +aspect of the country as that the march was about to abandon the +valleys, and now the real difficulties of the expedition may be said to +commence. + +"The fort had been commenced the previous year, after the surrender at +the Great Meadows, by Col. Innes, who had with him the two independent +companies of New York and South Carolina. It mounted ten four pounders, +besides swivels, and was favorably situated to keep the hostile Indians +in check.[50] + +"The army now consisted of 1000 regulars, 30 sailors, and 1200 +provincials, besides a train of artillery. The provincials were from New +York and Virginia; one company from the former colony was commanded by +Captain Gates, afterwards the hero of Saratoga. On the 8th of June, +Braddock having, through the interest and exertions of Dr. Franklin, +principally, got 150 wagons and 2000 horses from Pennsylvania, was ready +to march. + +"_Scaroodaya_, successor to the Half-King of the Senecas, and +_Monacatootha_, whose acquaintance Washington has made on the Ohio, on +his mission to Le Boeuf, with about 150 Indians, Senecas, and Delawares, +accompanied him.... + +"The first brigade under Sir Peter Halket, led the way on the 8th, and +on the 9th the main body followed. Some idea of the difficulties they +encountered, may be had when we perceive they spent the third night only +five miles from the first. The place of encampment which is about one +third of a mile from the toll-gate on the National Road, is marked by a +copious spring bearing Braddock's name. + +"For reasons not easy to divine, the route across Will's Mountain first +adopted for the national road was selected instead of the more favorable +one through the narrows of Will's Creek, to which the road has been +changed within a few years for the purpose of avoiding that formidable +ascent. The traces are very distinct on the east and west slopes, the +modern road crossing it frequently. From the western foot, the route +continued up Braddock's Run to the forks of the stream, where Clary's +tavern now stands, nine miles from Cumberland, when it turned to the +left, in order to reach a point on the ridge favorable to an easy +descent into the valley of George's Creek. It is surprising that having +reached this high ground, the favorable spur by which the National Road +accomplishes the ascent of the Great Savage Mountain, did not strike the +attention of the engineers, as the labor requisite to surmount the +barrier from the deep valley of George's Creek, must have contributed +greatly to those bitter complaints which Braddock made against the +Colonial Governments for their failure to assist him more effectively in +the transportation department. + +"Passing then a mile to the south of Frostburg, the road approaches the +east foot of Savage Mountain, which it crosses about one mile south of +the National Road, and thence by very favorable ground through the dense +forests of white pine peculiar to this region, it got to the north of +the National Road, near the gloomy tract called the _Shades of Death_. +This was the 15th of June, when the dense gloom of the summer woods and +the favorable shelter which those enormous pines would give an Indian +enemy, must have made a most sensible impression on all minds, of the +insecurity of their mode of advance. + +"This doubtless had a share in causing the council of war held at the +Little Meadows[51] the next day. To this place, distant only about +twenty miles from Cumberland, Sir John Sinclair and Major Chapman had +been dispatched on the 27th of May, to build a fort; the army having +been seven days in reaching it, it follows as the line of march was +upwards of three miles long, the rear was just getting under way when +the advance were lighting their evening fires. + +"Here it may be well enough to clear up an obscurity which enters into +many narratives of these early events, from confusing the names of the +_Little Meadows_ and _Great Meadows_, _Little Crossings_ and _Great +Crossings_, which are all distinct localities. + +"The _Little Meadows_ have been described as at the foot of Meadow +Mountain; it is well to note that the _Great Meadows_ are about +thirty-one miles further west, and near the east foot of Laurel Hill. + +"By the _Little Crossings_ is meant the Ford of Casselman's River, a +tributary of the Youghiogheny; and by the _Great Crossings_, the passage +of the Youghiogheny itself. The Little Crossing is two miles west of the +Little Meadows, and the Great Crossing seventeen miles further west. + +"The conclusion of the council was to push on with a picked force of +1200 men and 12 pieces of cannon; and the line of march, now more +compact was resumed on the 19th. Passing over ground to the south of the +Little Crossings, and of the village of Grantsville, which it skirted, +the army spent the night of the 21st at the Bear Camp, a locality I have +not been able to identify, but suppose it to be about midway to the +Great Crossings, which it reached on the 23d. The route thence to the +Great Meadows or Fort Necessity was well chosen, though over a +mountainous tract, conforming very nearly to the ground now occupied by +the National Road, and keeping on the dividing ridge between the waters +flowing into the Youghiogheny on the one hand and the Cheat River on the +other. Having crossed the Youghiogheny, we are now on the classic ground +of Washington's early career, where the skirmish with Jumonville, and +Fort Necessity, indicate the country laid open for them in the previous +year. About one mile west of the Great Meadows and near the spot now +marked as Braddock's Grave, the road struck off more to the north-west, +in order to reach a pass through Laurel Hill that would enable them to +strike the Youghiogheny, at a point afterwards known as Stewart's +Crossing and about half a mile below the present town of Connellsville. +This part of the route is marked by the farm known as Mount Braddock. +This second crossing of the Youghiogheny was effected on the 30th of +June. The high grounds intervening between the river and its next +tributary, Jacob's Creek, though trivial in comparison with what they +had already passed, it may be supposed, presented serious obstacles to +the troops, worn out with previous exertions. On the 3d of July a +council of war was held at Jacob's Creek, to consider the propriety of +bringing forward Col. Dunbar with the reserve, and although urged by Sir +John Sinclair with, as one may suppose, his characteristic vehemence, +the measure was rejected on sufficient grounds. From the crossing of +Jacob's Creek, which was at the point where Welchhanse's Mill now +stands, about 1-1/2 miles below Mount Pleasant, the route stretched off +to the north, crossing the Mount Pleasant turnpike near the village of +the same name, and thence by a more westerly course, passing the Great +Sewickley near Painter's Salt Works, thence south and west of the Post +Office of Madison and Jacksonville, it reached the Brush Fork of Turtle +Creek. It must strike those who examine the map that the route, for some +distance, in the rear and ahead of Mount Pleasant, is out of the proper +direction for Fort Duquesne, and accordingly we find on the 7th of July, +Gen. Braddock in doubt as to his proper way of proceeding. The crossing +of Brush Creek, which he had now reached, appeared to be attended with +so much hazard that parties were sent to reconnoitre, some of whom +advanced so far as to kill a French officer within half a mile of Fort +Duquesne. + +"Their examinations induced a great divergence to the left, and availing +himself of the valley of Long Run, which he turned into, as is supposed, +at Stewartsville, passing by the place now known as Samson's Mill, the +army made one of the best marches of the campaign and halted for the +night at a favorable depression between that stream and Crooked Run and +about two miles from the Monongahela. At this spot, about four miles +from the battle ground, which is yet well known as Braddock's Spring, he +was rejoined by Washington on the morning of the 9th of July. + +"The approach to the river was now down the valley of Crooked Run to its +mouth, where the point of fording is still manifest, from a deep notch +in the west bank, though rendered somewhat obscure by the improved +navigation of the river. The advance, under Col. Gage, crossed about 8 +o'clock, and continued by the foot of the hill bordering the broad river +bottom to the second fording, which he had effected nearly as soon as +the rear had got through the first. + +"The second and last fording at the mouth of Turtle Creek was in full +view of the enemy's position, and about one mile distant. By 1 o'clock +the whole army had gained the right bank, and was drawn up on the bottom +land, near Frazier's house (spoken of by Washington as his stopping +place on his mission to Le Boeuf), and about 3/4 of a mile distant from +the ambuscade." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN HISTORY + + +The narrow swath of a road cut through the darkling Alleghenies by +General Braddock has been worth all it cost in time and treasure. +Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century it was one of the +main thoroughfares into the Ohio valley, and when, at the dawning of the +nineteenth, the United States built our first and greatest public +highway, the general alignment of Braddock's Road between Cumberland and +the last range of the Alleghenies--Laurel Hill--was the course pursued. +In certain localities this famed national boulevard, the Cumberland +Road, was built upon the very bed of Braddock's road, as Braddock's road +had been built partly upon the early Washington's Road which followed +the path of Indian, buffalo, and mound-building aborigines. Nowhere in +America can the evolution of road-building be studied to such advantage +as between Cumberland, Maryland and Uniontown, Pennsylvania. + +For some years after Braddock's defeat his route to and fro between the +Monongahela and Potomac was used only by scouting parties of whites and +marauding Indians, and many were the swift encounters that took place +upon its overgrown narrow track. In 1758 General Forbes built a new road +westward from Carlisle, Pennsylvania rather than follow Braddock's +ill-starred track, for reasons described in another volume of the +present series.[52] Forbes frightened the French forever from the "Forks +of the Ohio" and erected Fort Pitt on the ruins of the old Fort +Duquesne. In 1763 Colonel Bouquet led a second army across the +Alleghenies, on Forbes's Road, relieved Fort Pitt and put an end to +Pontiac's Rebellion. By the time of Forbes's expedition Braddock's Road +was somewhat filled with undergrowth, and was not cut at all through the +last and most important eight miles of the course to Fort Duquesne. +Forbes had some plans of using this route, "if only as a blind," but +finally his whole force proceeded over a new road. However, certain +portions of Braddock's Road had been cleared early in the campaign when +Forbes thought it would be as well to have "two Strings to one Bow." It +was not in bad condition.[53] + +This new northern route, through Lancaster, Carlisle, Bedford +(Reastown), and Ligonier, Pennsylvania, became as important, if not more +so, than Braddock's course from Cumberland to Braddock, Pennsylvania. As +the years passed Braddock's Road seems to have regained something of its +early prestige, and throughout the Revolutionary period it was perhaps +of equal consequence with any route toward the Ohio, especially because +of Virginia's interest in and jealousy of the territory about Pittsburg. +When, shortly after the close of the Revolution, the great flood of +immigration swept westward, the current was divided into three streams +near the Potomac; one went southward over the Virginian route through +Cumberland Gap to Kentucky; the other two burst over Forbes's and +Braddock's Roads. Some pictures of the latter are vividly presented in +early records of pilgrims who chose its rough path to gain the El Dorado +beyond the Appalachian mountain barriers. + +William Brown, an emigrant to Kentucky from Hanover, Virginia, over +Braddock's Road in 1790 has left a valuable itinerary of his journey, +together with interesting notes, entitled _Observances and Occurrences_. +The itinerary is as follows: + + MILES + To Hanover Court House, 16 + To Edmund Taylor's, 16 + To Parson Todd's, Louisa, 20 + To Widow Nelson's, 20 + To Brock's Bridge, Orange Co., 9 + To Garnet's Mill, 5 + To Bost. Ord'y, near Hind's House, 7 + To Raccoon Ford, on Rapidan or Porters, 6 + To Culpepper Co.-House, 10 + To Pendleton's Ford, on Rappahannock, 10 + To Douglass's Tavern, or Wickliffe's House, 13 + To Chester's Gap, Blue Ridge, 8 + To Lehu Town, 3 + To Ford of Shenandore River, Frederick, 2 + To Stevensburg, 10 + To Brown's Mill, 2 + To Winchester, 6 + To Gasper Rinker's, 11 + To Widow Lewis's, Hampshire, 11 + To Crock's Tav., 9 + To Reynold's, on the So. Branch Potowmack, 13 + To Frankford Town, 8 + To Haldeman's Mills, 4 + To North Branch, Potomack, 3 + To Gwyn's Tav., at the Fork of Braddock's + old road, Alleghany Co., Maryland, 3 + To Clark's Store, 6 + To Little Shades of Death, 12 + To Tumblestone Tav., or the Little Meadows, 3 + To Big Shades of Death, 2 + To Mountain Tav., or White Oak Springs, 2 + To Simpson's Tav., Fayette Co., Pennsylvania, 6 + To Big Crossing of Yoh, 9 + To Carrol's Tavern, 12 + To Laurel Hill, 6 + To Beason Town, 6 + To Redstone, Old Fort, 12 + To Washington Town, Washington Co., Penn., 23 + To Wheeling, Old Fort, Ohio Co., Vir., 35 + --- + 359[54] + +Mr. Brown's notes of the journey over the mountains are: + +"Set out from Hanover Friday 6th August 1790 arrived at Redstone Old +Fort about the 25th Inst. The road is pretty good until you get to the +Widow Nelson's, then it begins to be hilly and continues generally so +till you get to the Blue Ridge--pretty well watered. Racoon ford on +Rapidan is rather bad. The little mountains are frequently in view After +you pass Widow Nelson's. Pendleton's ford on Rappahanock is pretty good. +In going over Chester gap you ride about 5 miles among the mountains +before you get clear, a good many fine springs in the Mo. between the +Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mo. appears to be a fine country, altho the +land is pretty much broken. At Shenandore ford there is two branches of +the river to cross and it is bad fording. But there is a ferry a little +below the ford. There is a very cool stream of water about 14 miles +below Winchester. This is a well watered country but springs are rather +scarce on the road, at Winchester there are several fine springs. The +South branch of Potowmack has a good ford, also the North branch. Soon +after you pass Gwyns Tavern in Maryland you enter upon the Alleghany Mo. +and then you have a great deal of bad road, many ridges of Mo.--the +Winding Ridge--Savage, Negro, etc. and Laurel Hill which is the last, +but before you get to the Mount, there is some stony bad road between +the Widow Lewis' and the Mo. after you pass Clark's store in the Mo. you +get into a valley of very pretty oak land. In many places while you are +in the Mo. there is very good road between the ridges. Just before you +get to the Little Shades of Death there is a tract of the tallest pines +I ever saw. The Shades of Death are dreary looking valleys, growing up +with tall cypress and other trees and has a dark gloomy appearance. +Tumblestones, or the Little Meadows is a fine plantation with beautiful +meadow ground. Crossing of Yoh, is a pretty good ford. There is some +very bad road about here. It is said Gen Braddock was buried about 8 +miles forward from this, near a little brook that crosses the road. +Laurel hill is the highest ridge of the Mo. When you get to the top of +it to look forward toward Redstone there is a beautiful prospect of the +country below the Mo. You see at one view a number of plantations and +Beason Town which is six miles off."[55] + +With the growth of Cumberland and the improvement of navigation of the +upper Potomac, and especially the building of the canal beside it, the +importance of the Braddock route across the mountains was realized by +the state of Maryland and the legislature passed laws with reference to +straightening and improving it as early as 1795; acts of a similar +nature were also passed in 1798 and 1802.[56] + +A pilgrim who passed westward with his family over Braddock's Road in +1796 leaves us some interesting details concerning the journey in a +letter written from Western Virginia after his arrival in the +"Monongahela Country" in the fall of that year. Arriving at Alexandria +by boat from Connecticut the party found that it was less expensive and +safer to begin land carriage there than to ascend the Potomac further. +They then pursued one of the routes of Braddock's army to Cumberland and +the Braddock Road from that point to Laurel Hill. The price paid for +hauling their goods from Alexandria to Morgantown (now West Virginia) +was thirty-two shillings and six-pence per hundred-weight "of women and +goods (freight)"--the men "all walked the whole of the way." Crossing +"the blue Mountain the Monongehaly & the Lorral Mountains we found the +roads to be verry bad." + +It is difficult to say when Braddock's Road, as a route, ceased to be +used since portions of it have never been deserted. There are +interesting references to it in the records of Allegheny County, +Maryland, which bear the dates 1807[57] and 1813[58]. A little later it +is plain that "Jesse Tomlinson's" is described "on _National Road_" +rather than on "_Braddock's Road_," as in 1807.[59] From this it would +seem that by 1817 the term "Braddock's Road" was ignored, at least at +points where the Cumberland Road had been built upon the old-time track. +Elsewhere Braddock's route kept its ancient name and, perhaps, will +never exchange it for another. + +[Illustration: BRADDOCK'S ROAD IN THE WOODS NEAR FARMINGTON, +PENNSYLVANIA] + +The rough track of this first highway westward may be followed today +almost at any point in all its course between the Potomac and the +Monongahela, and the great caverns and gullies which mark so plainly its +tortuous course speak as no words can of the sufferings and dangers of +those who travelled it during the dark half century when it offered +one of the few passage-ways to the West. It was a clear, sweet October +day when I first came into Great Meadows to make there my home until +those historic hills and plains became thoroughly familiar to me. From +the Cumberland Road, as one looks southward from Mount Washington across +Great Meadows and the site of Fort Necessity, the hillside beyond is +well-timbered on the right and on the left; but between the forests lies +a large tract of cultivated ground across which runs, in a straight +line, the dark outline of a heavy unhealed wound. A hundred and fifty +years of rain and snow and frost have been unable to remove, even from a +sloping surface, this heavy finger mark. Many years of cultivation have +not destroyed it, and for many years yet the plow will jolt and swing +heavily when it crosses the track of Braddock's Road. I was astonished +to find that at many points in Fayette and neighboring counties the old +course of the road can be distinctly traced in fields which have for +half a century and more been under constant cultivation. If, at certain +points, cultivation and the elements have pounded the old track level +with the surrounding ground, a few steps in either direction will bring +the explorer instantly to plain evidence of its course--except where the +road-bed is, today, a travelled lane or road. On the open hillsides the +track takes often the appearance of a terrace, where, in the old days +the road tore a great hole along the slope, and formed a catchwater +which rendered it a veritable bog in many places. Now and then on level +ground the course is marked by a slight rounding hollow which remains +damp when the surrounding ground is wet, or is baked very hard when the +usual supply of water is exhausted. In some places this strange groove +may be seen extending as far as eye can reach, as though it were the +pathway of a gigantic serpent across the wold. At times the track, +passing the level, meets a slight ridge which, if it runs parallel to +its course, it mounts; if the rising ground is encountered at right +angles, the road ploughs a gulley straight through, in which the water +runs after each rain, preserving the depression once made by the road. +And as I journeyed to and fro in that valley visiting the classic spots +which appear in such tender grace in the glad sunshine of a mountain +autumn, I never passed a spot of open where this old roadway was to be +seen without a thrill; as James Lane Allen has so beautifully said of +Boone's old road through Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, so may the explorer +feelingly exclaim concerning Braddock's old track: "It is impossible to +come upon this road without pausing, or to write of it without a +tribute." + +This is particularly true of Braddock's Road when you find it in the +forests; everything that savage mark tells in the open country is +reëchoed in mightier tones within the shadows of the woods. There the +wide strange track is like nothing of which you ever heard or read. It +looks nothing like a roadway. It is plainly not the track of a tornado, +though its width and straight course in certain places would suggest +this. Yet it is never the same in two places; here, it is a wide +straight aisle covered with rank weeds in the center of the low, wet +course; there, the forests impinge upon it where the ground is drier; +here, it appears like the abandoned bed of a brook, the large stones +removed from its track lying on each side as though strewn there by a +river's torrent; there, it swings quickly at right angles near the open +where the whole width is covered with velvet grass radiant in the +sunshine which can reach it here. In the forests more than elsewhere the +deep furrow of the roadway has remained wet, and for this reason trees +have not come up. At many points the road ran into marshy ground and +here a large number of roundabout courses speak of the desperate +struggles the old teamsters had on this early track a century ago. And +now and then as you pass along, scattered blocks and remnants of stone +chimneys mark the sites of ancient taverns and homesteads. + +In the forests it is easy to conjure up the scene when this old track +was opened--for it was cut through a "wooden country," to use an +expression common among the pioneers. Here you can see the long line of +sorry wagons standing in the road when the army is encamped; and though +many of them seem unable to carry their loads one foot further--yet +there is ever the ringing chorus of the axes of six hundred choppers +sounding through the twilight of the hot May evening. It is almost +suffocating in the forests when the wind does not blow, and the army is +unused to the scorching American summer which has come early this year. +The wagon train is very long, and though the van may have halted on +level ground, the line behind stretches down and up the shadowy ravines. +The wagons are blocked in all conceivable positions on the hillsides. +The condition of the horses is pitiful beyond description. If some are +near to the brook or spring, others are far away. Some horses will never +find water tonight. To the right and left the sentinels are lost in the +surrounding gloom. + +And then with those singing axes for the perpetual refrain, consider the +mighty epic poem to be woven out of the days that have succeeded +Braddock here. Though lost in the Alleghenies, this road and all its +busy days mirror perfectly the social advance of the western empire to +which it led. Its first mission was to bind, as with a strange, rough, +straggling cincture the East and the West. The young colonies were being +confined to the Atlantic Ocean by a chain of forts the French were +forging from Quebec to New Orleans. Had they not awakened to the task of +shattering that chain it is doubtful if the expansion of the colonies +could ever have meant what it has to the western world. Could Virginia +have borne a son in the western wilderness, Kentucky by name, if France +had held the Ohio Valley? Could North Carolina have given birth to a +Tennessee if France had made good her claim to the Mississippi? Could +New England and New York and Pennsylvania have produced the fruits the +nineteenth century saw blossom in the Old Northwest if France had +maintained her hold within that mighty empire? The rough track of +Braddock's Road, almost forgotten and almost obliterated, is one of the +best memorials of the earliest struggle of the Colonies for the freedom +which was indispensable to their progress. There was not an hour +throughout the Revolutionary struggle when the knowledge of the great +West that was to be theirs was not a powerful inspiration to the +bleeding colonies; aye, there was not a moment when the gallant +commander of those ragged armies forgot that there was a West into which +he could retreat at the darkest hour over Braddock's twelve-foot road. + +That is the great significance of this first track through the "wooden +country"--an awakened consciousness. + +The traveller at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, is within striking distance of +Braddock's Road at its most interesting points. A six-mile climb to the +summit of Laurel Hill brings one upon the old-time route which will be +found near Washington's Spring. A delightful drive along the summit of +the mountain northward brings one near the notorious "Dunbar's Camp" +where so many relics of the campaign have been found and of which many +may be seen in the museum of the nearby Pennsylvania Soldiers' Orphans' +Home. Here Dunbar destroyed the quantities of stores and ammunition with +which he could not advance, much less retreat. The visitor here should +find "Jumonville's Grove," about a quarter of a mile up the valley, and +should not miss the view from Dunbar's Knob. + +Less than one mile eastward of Chalk Hill, beside a brook which bears +Braddock's name, beneath a cluster of solemn pines, lies the dust of the +sacrificed Braddock. If there is any question as to whether his body was +interred at this spot, there is no question but that all the good he +ever did is buried here. Deserted by those who should have helped him +most, fed with promises that were never kept, defeated because he could +not find the breath to cry "retreat" until a French bullet drove it to +his throat--he is remembered by his private vices which the whole world +would quickly have forgotten had he won his last fight. He was typical +of his time--not worse. + +In studying Braddock's letters, preserved in the Public Records Office, +London, it has been of interest to note that he never blamed an +inferior--as he boasted in the anecdote previously related. His most +bitter letter has been reproduced, and a study of it will make each line +of more interest. His criticism of the Colonial troops was sharp, but +his praise of them when they had been tried in fire was unbounded. He +does not directly criticise St. Clair--though his successful rival for +honors on the Ohio, Forbes, accused St. Clair in 1758 not only of +ignorance but of actual treachery. "This Behavior in the people" is +Braddock's charge, and no one will say the accusation was unjust. + +With something more than ordinary good judgment Braddock singled out +good friends. What men in America, at the time, were more influential in +their spheres than Franklin, Washington, and Morris? These were almost +the only men he, finally, had any confidence in or respect for. +Washington knew Braddock as well as any man, and who but Washington, in +the happier days of 1784, searched for his grave by Braddock's Run in +vain, desirous of erecting a monument over it? + +Mr. King, editor of the Pittsburg _Commercial-Gazette_, in 1872 took an +interest in Braddock's Grave, planted the pines over it and enclosed +them. A slip from a willow tree that grew beside Napoleon's grave at St. +Helena was planted here but did not grow. There is little doubt that +Braddock's dust lies here. He was buried in the roadway near this brook, +and at this point, early in the last century, workmen repairing the road +discovered the remains of an officer. The remains were reinterred here +on the high ground beside the Cumberland Road, on the opposite bank of +Braddock's Run. They were undoubtedly Braddock's. + +As you look westward along the roadway toward the grave, the significant +gorge on the right will attract your attention. It is the old pathway of +Braddock's Road, the only monument or significant token in the world of +the man from whom it was named. Buried once in it--near the cluster of +gnarled apple-trees in the center of the open meadow beyond--he is now +buried, and finally no doubt, beside it. But its hundreds of great +gorges and vacant swampy isles in the forests will last long after any +monument that can be raised to his memory. + +Braddock's Road broke the league the French had made with the +Alleghenies; it showed that British grit could do as much in the +interior of America as in India or Africa or Egypt; it was the first +important material structure in this New West, so soon to be filled with +the sons of those who had hewn it. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Entick, _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 110. + +[2] Entick, _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 124. + +[3] _Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy_, vol. iii., p. 55. + +[4] _Letters of Walpole_, (edited by Cunningham, London 1877), vol. ii., +p. 461. + +[5] Entick _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 142. + +[6] _History of the Late War_, vol. i., p. 142. + +[7] _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 75, p. 389 (1755); also _A Review of +the Military Operations in North America_, London, 1757, p. 35. + +[8] _A letter relating to the Ohio Defeat_, p. 14. + +[9] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. ii., p. 29. + +[10] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. ii., p. 29; also London +_Evening Post_, September 9-11, 1755. + +[11] Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, vol. i., p. 397; Sargent's +_History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 153, note. + +[12] Minutes taken "At a Council at the Camp at Alexandria in Virginia, +April 14, 1755." Public Records Office, London: _America and West +Indies_, No. 82. + +[13] Braddock's MS. Letters, Public Records Office, London: _America and +West Indies_, No. 82. + +[14] For these early routes through Pennsylvania, partially opened in +1755, see _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v., chap. I. + +[15] _Maryland Archives_; Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. i., +pp. 77 and 97. + +[16] Preserved at the Congressional Library, Washington. + +[17] Eight miles from Alexandria. See Note 26. + +[18] Arguments pro and con have been interestingly summed up by Dr. +Marcus Benjamin of the U. S. National Museum, in a paper read before the +Society of Colonial Dames in the District of Columbia April 12, 1899, +and by Hugh T. Taggart in the _Washington Star_, May 16, 1896. For a +description of routes converging on Braddock's Road at Fort Cumberland +see Gen. Wm. P. Craighill's article in the _West Virginia Historical +Magazine_, vol. ii, no. 3 (July, 1902), p. 31. Cf. pp. 179-181. + +[19] London, Groombridge & Sons, 1854. Mr. Morris, in footnotes, gave +what he considered any important variations of the original manuscript +from the expanded version he was editing; Mr. Sargent reproduced these +notes, without having seen the original. + +[20] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 359, note. + +[21] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 359, note. + +[22] Mr. Gordon evidently used the word "self" in his entry of June 3 to +throw any too curious reader off the track. + +[23] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 387. + +[24] _History of Braddock's Expedition_, p. 365. + +[25] In the Gordon Journal, under the date of June 10, there are two +entries. One seems to have been Gordon's and reads: "The Director of the +Hospital came to see me in Camp, and found me so ill.... I went into the +Hospital, & the Army marched with the Train &c., and as I was in hopes +of being able to follow them in a few days, I sent all my baggage with +the Army." Without doubt this was Gordon's entry, as no sailor could +have had sufficient baggage to warrant such a reference as this, while +an engineer's "kit" was an important item. Then follow two entries (June +24 and 26) evidently recorded by one who remained at Fort Cumberland, +and a second entry under the date of June 10, which is practically the +first sentence of the entry under the same date in the original +manuscript, and which has the appearance of being the genuine record +made by the sailor detained at Fort Cumberland. The confusion of these +entries in the Gordon Journal makes it very evident that one author did +not compose them. The two entries for June 10 are typical of "Mr +Engineer Gordon" and an unknown sailor. + +[26] This form of the name of the modern Rock Creek is significant and +is not given in the expanded form of this journal. "Rock's Creek" +suggests that the great bowlder known as "Braddock's Rock" was a +landmark in 1755 and had given the name to the stream which entered the +Potomac near it. + +[27] The use of full names in this journal is strong evidence that it is +the original. + +[28] The Gordon Journal assiduously reverses every such particular as +this; it reads here: "there are about 200 houses and 2 churches, one +English, one Dutch." + +[29] Though in almost every instance the Gordon Journal gives a more +wordy account of each day's happenings, it _never gives a record for a +day that is omitted by this journal_, as April 22, 23, and 28; at times, +however, a day is omitted in that journal that is accounted for in this; +see entries for May 9 and May 25--neither of which did Mr. Morris give +in his footnotes, though the latter was of utmost significance. + +[30] The words "from the French" are omitted in the Gordon Journal, +which makes the entry utterly devoid of any meaning--unless that Cresap +had been ordered to retire by the Ohio Company! Cresap in that document +is called "a vile Rascal"; cf. Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol. +vi., p. 400. For eulogy of Cresap see _Ohio State Archæological and +Historical Publications_, vol. xi. + +[31] This is given for the 13th in the Gordon Journal. + +[32] The Gordon Journal: "Mr Spendlow and self surveyed 22 casks of +beef, and condemned it, which we reported to the General." + +[33] Two chaplains accompanied the two Regiments Philip Hughes was +chaplain of the 44th and Lieut. John Hamilton of the 48th. The latter +was wounded in the defeat. + +[34] The entry of Gordon Journal reads: "Col. Burton, Capt. Orme, Mr. +Spendlowe and self...." + +[35] The Gordon Journal: "This morning an Engineer and 100 men...." + +[36] The only hint given in the Gordon Journal as to the author of the +original document is under this date. The Gordon Journal reads, "Mr. +Spendlowe and self with 20 of our men went to the place where the new +road comes into the old one...." "Self" here seems to refer to +"Midshipman"; but Mr. Gordon often refers to himself as an engineer and +never once inserts his own name, though he was a most important +official. Gordon probably accompanied or followed Spendlowe. + +[37] Entries written by one while detained at Fort Cumberland. If +written by Gordon he hastened immediately to the front, for he was with +Braddock's advance on July 9. + +[38] The Gordon Journal: "One of our Engineers, who was in front of the +Carpenters marking the road, saw the Enemy first." Who but Gordon would +have omitted his name under these circumstances? + +[39] This last paragraph is evidently an additional memorandum of +British loss. The contents of the chest was undoubtedly £10,000. + +[40] _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 10. +Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol. vi., p. 482. + +[41] This view of Braddock's defeat is given in the late John Fiske's +recent volume, _New France and New England_. + +[42] London _Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755. + +[43] London _Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755. + +[44] Cf. _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 9. +Pennsylvania _Colonial Records_, vol. vi., p. 482. London _Public +Advertiser_, November 3, 1755. + +[45] Cf. _British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock's Defeat_, p. 9; London +_Public Advertiser_, November 3, 1755. + +[46] This chapter is from Neville B. Craig's _The Olden Time_, vol. ii., +pp. 465-468, 539-544. + +[47] See _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v. + +[48] Preserved in the library of Harvard University. + +[49] "Many misstatements are prevalent in the country adjacent to the +line of march, especially east of Cumberland, the traditionary name of +Braddock's route being often applied to routes we know he did not +pursue. It is probable the ground of the application consists in their +having been used by the Quarter Master's men in bringing on those +Pennsylvania wagons and pack horses procured by Dr. Franklin, with so +much trouble and at so great expense of truth. Sir John Sinclair wore a +Hussar's cap, and Franklin made use of the circumstance to terrify the +German settlers with the belief that he was a Hussar who would +administer to them the tyrannical treatment they had experienced in +their own country if they did not comply with his wishes. It is singular +that a small brook and an obscure country road in Berkley County, +Virginia, bear the name of Sir John's Run, and Sir John's Road, supposed +to be taken from the name of this officer. + +[50] "The original name of Cumberland was Cucucbetuc, and from its +favorable position on the Potomac, was most probably the site of a +Shawnee village, like Old Town; moreover, it was marked by an Indian +name, a rare occurrence in this vicinity, if any judgment may be drawn +from the few that have been preserved. + +[51] "This interesting locality lies at the west foot of the Meadow +Mountain, which is one of the most important of the Alleghany Ridges, in +Pennsylvania especially, where it constitutes the dividing ridge between +the eastern and western waters. A rude entrenchment, about half a mile +north of the Inn on the National Road, kept by Mr. Huddleson, marks the +site of this fort. This is most probably the field of a skirmish spoken +of in frontier history, between a Mr. Parris, with a scouting party from +Fort Cumberland, and the Sieur Donville, commanding some French and +Indians, in which the French officer was slain. The tradition is +distinctly preserved in the vicinity, with a misapprehension of +Washington's participation in it, arising probably from the partial +resemblance between the names of Donville and Jumonville. From the +positiveness of the information, in regard to the battle ground, +conflicting with what we know of Jumonville's death, it seems probable +enough that this was the scene of this Indian skirmish; and as such, it +possesses a classic interest, valuable in proportion to the scarcity of +such places. + +[52] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. v., ch. 4. + +[53] _Bouquet Papers, MSS._ Preserved in British Museum: Forbes to Pitt, +July 10; Forbes to Bouquet, August 2; Bouquet au Forbes, July 26, 1758. + +[54] Speed's _The Wilderness Road_, pp. 56-57. + +[55] Speed's _The Wilderness Road_, p. 60. + +[56] Lowdermilk's _History of Cumberland_, p. 275. + +[57] _Land Records of Allegheny County, Md._ Liber E, fol. 191. + +[58] _Id._, Liber G. fol. 251. + +[59] _Id._, Liber I and J, fol. 105. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. + +2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected except +for narratives and letters included in this text. + +3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body. + +4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest +paragraph break. + +5. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original. + +6. Carat character (^) followed by a single letter or a set of letters +in curly brackets is indicative of subscript in the original book. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Highways of America (Vol. 4), by +Archer Butler Hulbert + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41152 *** |