Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Virtual War Museum >> Hall of American Wars and Conflicts >> Edward Braddock





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial

For More Information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday


 


Edward Braddock -- Major General -- French and Indian War -- Braddock's Defeat -- A Stan Klos Company

Edward Braddock
British Major General

Photos of the Edward Braddock Landmark and Fort Necessity outside plaque by: Christopher, Fort Couch Middle School, Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.

General Edward Braddock's original burial site

General Edward Braddock's death scene

While on an expedition in 1755 to capture Fort Duquesne, General Braddock and his 2400 British regulars were surprised by a force of 900 French and Native Americans at the Monongahela River. Most of his troops panicked and over 1200 men were killed or seriously wounded. Braddock, himself, was mortally shot through the arm and into his chest. He died during the British retreat to Virginia. General Braddock was buried in the middle of the road near Fort Necessity to avoid his body's detection by the Indians.

 

Click Here for the Actual 1755 London Account Of Braddock's Defeat Courtesy of Estoric.com

BRADDOCK, Edward, British soldier, born in Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695; died near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 13 July, 1755. He had attained the grade of major general after more than forty years' service in the British guards, when on the eve of the French war he was sent here as generalissimo of all the British forces in the colonies. He landed, 20 February, 1755, at Hampton, Virginia, and debarked his troops at Alexandria, to which point the Virginia levies had also been directed. The house that was his headquarters in Alexandria, shown in the engraving, is still standing.

The general was a good tactician, but a very martinet, proud, prejudiced, and conceited. Horace Walpole describes him as "a very Iroquois in disposition," and tells an anecdote that sheds light on his character.

"He once had a duel with Col. Glumley, who had been his great friend. As they were going to engage, Glumley, who had good humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said: ' Braddock, you are a poor dog! here, take my purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to run away, and then you will not have a shilling to support you.' Braddock refused the purse, insisted on the duel, was disarmed, and would not even ask for his life."

When Braddock heard that not more than twenty-five wagons could be procured for the use of the army, he declared that the expedition should not start. Washington was made his aide-de-camp. At Frederick-town, Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster-general, with his usual sagacity and energy, undertook to provide the necessary conveyances, and records the conversation with Braddock in which he unfolded his intentions.

"After taking Fort Duquesne," said the general, "I am to proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac if the season will allow time, and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four days; and then I can see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara."

Franklin thought the plan excellent, provided he could take his fine troops safely to Fort Duquesne, but apprehended danger from the ambuscades of the Indians, who might destroy his army in detail. The intimation struck Braddock as absurd, and he said: "These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to raw American military, but upon the king's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an impression."

Similar warnings by Washington met with similar replies. The expedition made slow progress, but at last drew near the fort, and crossed the Monongahela in regular order ; the drums were beating, the fifes playing, the colors flying, and their bayonets glittered in the sun. Suddenly, as the van was ascending a slope with underbrush and ravines on both sides, it was exposed to a murderous fire from an invisible foe. Braddock ordered the main body to halt, the firing continued, and the British for the first time heard the terrible war-whoop. The effect of the Indian rifles, directed by the French, was deadly; most of the grenadiers and many of the pioneers were shot down, and those who escaped the bullets were compelled to fall back. The British were ordered to form in line, but the men were so frightened by the demoniac yells of the hidden savages that they refused to follow their officers in small divisions.

The Virginians, familiar with Indian warfare, separated, and from behind sheltering rocks or trees picked off the enemy. Washington suggested to the general to pursue the same course with the regulars; but he scorned the advice, and is reported to have said that a British general might dispense with the military instruction of a Virginia colonel. He insisted that his men should be formed in regular platoons; they fired by platoons at random at the rocks, into the ravines and the bushes, and killed a number of Americans -- as many as fifty by one volley -- while they themselves fell with alarming rapidity.

The officers behaved splendidly, and Braddock's personal bravery was conspicuous; five horses had been killed under him, when at last a bullet passed through his right arm and lodged in his lungs. He fell from his horse, and was with difficulty removed from the ground. The defeat was total, and the rout complete.

Washington's escape was almost miraculous; sixty-four out of eighty-five officers were killed or wounded. There is little doubt that, but for the obstinacy and self-sufficiency of Braddock, the disaster might have been averted; for the crushing and sanguinary defeat of 9 July was inflicted by a handful of men, who intended only to molest his advance.

Washington covered the retreat, and the remnant of the army went into camp at the Great Meadows four days later. Braddock said nothing, but exclaimed in the evening after the engagement, "Who would have thought it?" Then he relapsed into silence, unbroken until a few minutes before his death at the Great Meadows on the evening of 13 July, when he said: "We shall better know how to deal with them another time."

He was buried before break of day, Washington reading the burial service, for the chaplain had been wounded. His grave (though now well known, and pointed out seven miles east of Uniontown) was at the time leveled with the ground to prevent Indian outrage. See "The History of an Expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1755, under Major-General Edward Braddock. Edited from the Original Manuscripts by Winthrop Sargent, 31. A." (Philadelphia, 1855).


Click on an image to view full-sized


Start your search on Edward Braddock.


The Congressional Evolution of the United States Henry Middleton


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum