The remainder were furnished by the colonies, among whom were portions of two independent companies, contributed by New York, under Captain Horatio Gates, unto whom Burgoyne surrendered twenty-two years later. Braddock separated his army into two divisions. The advanced division, consisting of over twelve hundred men, he led in person; the other was intrusted to the command of Colonel Dunbar, who, by slower marches, was to remain in the rear. Braddock reached the junction of the Voughiogheny and Monongahela Rivers, within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne, on the eighth of July, where he was joined by Colonel Washington, who had just recovered from an attack of fever.
On the morning of the ninth, 1755 the whole army crossed the Monongahela, and marching five miles along its southwestern banks, on account of rugged hills on the other side, they again crossed to the northeastern shore, and proceeded directly toward Fort Duquesne. Lieutenant Colonel Gage, afterward the commander of the British forces at Boston when besieged by the Americans under Washington, led the advanced guard of three
* Six colonial governors assembled on this occasion, namely: Shirley, of Massachusetts; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; James Delaney, of New York; Sharpe, of Maryland; Morris, of Pennsylvania; and Dobbs, of North Carolina. Admiral Keppel, then in command of his majesty's fleet in America, was also present.
Alarm of the French.—Passage of the Monongahela.—The Battle.—Washington's Advance.—Death of Braddock.
hundred men in the order of march. Contrecoeur, the commandant of Fort Duquesne, had been early informed of the approach of Braddock, and his Indian scouts were out in every direction. He had doubts of his ability to maintain the fort against the English, and contemplated an abandonment, when Captain De Beaujeu proposed to head a detachment of French and Indians, and meet them while on their march. The proposition was agreed to, and on the morning of the ninth of July, 1755 at the moment when the English first crossed the Monongahela, the French and Indians took up their line of march, intending to make the attack at the second crossing of the river. Arriving too late, they posted themselves in the woods and ravines, on the line of march toward the fort.
It was one o'clock, and the sun was pouring its rays down fiercely, when the rear of the British army reached the north side of the Monongahela. A level plain extended from the river to a gentle hill, nearly half a mile northward. This hill terminated in higher elevations thickly covered with woods, and furrowed by narrow ravines. * Next to Gage, with his advanced party, was another division of two hundred men, and then came Braddock with the column of artillery and the main body of the army. Just as Gage was ascending the slope and approaching a dense wood, a heavy volley of musketry poured a deadly storm into his ranks. No adversary was to be seen. It was the first intimation that the enemy was near, and the firing seemed to proceed from an invisible foe. The British fired in return, but at random, while the concealed enemy, from behind trees, and rocks, and thick bushes, kept up rapid and destructive volleys. Beaujeu, the commander of the French and Indians, was killed at the first return fire, and M. Dumas took his place. Braddock advanced with all possible speed to the relief of the advanced guard; but so great was their panic, that they fell back in confusion upon the artillery and other columns of the army, and communicated their panic to the whole. The general tried in vain to rally his troops. Himself and officers were in the thickest of the fight, and exhibited indomitable courage. Washington ventured to suggest the propriety of adopting the Indian mode of skulking, and each man firing for himself, without orders; but Braddock would listen to no suggestions so contrary to military tactics. ** For three hours he endeavored to form his men into regular columns and platoons, as if in battle with European troops upon a broad plain, while the concealed enemy, with sure aim, was slaying his brave soldiers by scores. Harassed on every side, the British huddled together in great confusion, fired irregularly, and in several instances shot down their own officers without perceptibly injuring their enemies. The Virginians under Washington, contrary to orders, now adopted the provincial mode of fighting, and did more execution than all the rest of the troops. The carnage was dreadful. More than half of Braddock's whole army, which made such a beautiful picture in the eyes of Washington in the morning, *** were killed and wounded. General Braddock received a wound which disabled him, and terminated his life three days afterward. **** Through the
* Mr. Sparks visited this battle-field in 1830. He says the hill up which Gage and his detachment were marching is little more than an inclined plain of about three degrees. Down this slope extended two ravines, beginning near together, at about one hundred and fifty yards from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions, until they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the enemy were concealed and protected. In 1830, they were from eight to ten feet deep, and capable of holding a thousand men. It was between these ravines that the British army was slaughtered.—See Sparks's Washington, ii., 474. Although nearly one hundred years have elapsed since the battle, grape-shot and bullets are now sometimes cut out of the trees, or, with buttons and other metallic portions of military equipage, are turned up by the plowmen.
** It was on this occasion that the haughty and petulant Braddoek is said to have remarked contemptuously, "What, a Virginia colonel teach a British general how to fight!" It is proper to remark that this anecdote rests upon apocryphal authority.
*** Washington was often heard to say, during his lifetime, that the most beautiful spectacle he had ever beheld was the display of the British troops on that morning. Every man was neatly dressed in full uniform; the soldiers were arranged in columns, and marched in exact order; the sun gleamed from the burnished arms; the river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on the left.—Sparks.
**** General Braddock had five horses shot under him before he was mortally wounded himself. He was conveyed first in a tumbril, then on horseback, and finally by his soldiers in their flight toward Fort Cumberland after the defeat. He was attended by Dr. James Craik. * He died on the night of the 15th, and was buried in the road, to prevent his body being discovered by the Indians. Colonel Washington read the impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church over it, by torch-light. The place of his grave is a few yards north of the present National Road, between the fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from Cumberland, and about a mile west of the site of Fort Necessity, at the Great Meadows. It is said that a man named Thomas Faucett, who was among the soldiers under Braddock, shot his general. Faucett resided near Uniontown. Fayette county, Pennsylvania, toward the close of the last century, and never denied the accusation. He excused his conduct by the plea that by destroying the general, who would not allow his men to fire from behind trees, the remnant of the army was saved.