On the 10th the officers who remained with General Braddock marched with him until 10 o’clock at night, when they halted and met the convoy sent by Dunbar. Braddock never ceased to give calm, skillful and humane orders. He reached Dunbar’s camp on the 11th, where the news of his rout had already reached the soldiers under Dunbar, and they were fleeing in wild panic.
Braddock by this time realized that any further attempt to pursue the expedition was futile, and he must have known his wounds were fatal, for he ordered the stores destroyed lest they fall into the enemy’s hands, saving only sufficient for a flying march. He then proceeded with the remnant of his army toward Great Meadows, where he died and was buried in the center of the road. The entire army marched over the spot in order that the remains of the unfortunate general might not be desecrated by the savages. In 1802, his body was reinterred at the foot of a large white oak tree.
After the retreat of Braddock’s army, the savages, unwilling to follow the French in pursuit, fell upon the field and preyed on the rich plunder which lay before them. Three years later (1758) by direction of General Forbes, the remains of many of the slain in Braddock’s army were gathered up and buried.
Of 1460 men in the battle, 456 were killed and 421 wounded; 63 of the 89 commissioned officers, and every field officer, were killed or wounded. The enemy’s casualties were only about sixty.
The entire borders were left defenseless and this defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French and their Indian allies, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the scene of a predatory warfare in which every section was severely scourged.
“Sawdust War” in Williamsport Lumber
Regions Began July 10, 1872
In the decade from 1870 to 1880, Williamsport was the largest lumbering center in the United States. Everywhere Williamsport was known as “The Lumber City.”
It was customary to send gangs into the woods in winter to cut down the trees, saw them into logs and pile them on the banks of small streams and afterward, when the water was at flood height in the spring, to roll them into the streams whence they floated down the river to Williamsport, where they were caught in the big boom and rafted to the various mills to be sawed and manufactured into lumber.