"June the 6. Took my leave of my Friend Thompson, who bid me farewell. A great Gust of Thunder and Lightning and Rain, so that we were almost drown'd. Extreem bad Roads. We pass'd over the Blue Ridge which was one continual mountain for 3 miles. Forg'd through 2 Rivers. At 7 we halted at Mr. Key's, a fine Plantation. Had for Dinner 2 Chickens. The Soldiers desired my Brother to advance them some Whisky for they told him he had better kill them at once than to let them dye by Inches, for without they could not live. He complied with their Request and it soon began to operate; they all went to dancing and bid defiance to the French. My Friend Gore" (the coachman) "began to shake a Leg. I ask'd him if it was consistent as a member of his Society to dance; he told me that he was not at all united with them, and that there were some of his People who call'd themselves Quakers and stood up for their Church but had no more religion in them than his Mare. I told him I should set him down as a Ranter."
But to return to Halkett and the troops under his immediate command. From Winchester they proceeded to the new fort at Will's Creek which Braddock, upon his arrival, named Fort Cumberland in honour of his captain general. Here the main detachments of the expedition came together again in accordance with the plans made in Alexandria. The troops were given a short rest after their long march, the final plans were developed and on the 7th, 8th and 9th of June the army resumed its march to the west, widening the path through the woods made by Washington and his men the year before and hauling its artillery over the mountains with the utmost difficulty. So slow was their progress that Braddock decided to send on a large advance party, more lightly equipped, leaving the others to bring on the greater part of the supplies and baggage.
The Fall of Braddock. (From a painting by C. Schuessele, published in 1859.)
In contrast to Braddock's unbounded assurance, Halkett seems to have had a strong premonition of the impending disaster and his own tragic fate. Lowdermilk, in his excellent History of Cumberland, describes his dejection the night before the battle:
"Sir Peter Halkett was low spirited and depressed; he comprehended the importance of meeting the wily red skins with their own tactics, and while he urged the General to beat the bushes over every foot of ground from the camp to the Fort, he had little hope of seeing his advice put into effect; when he wrapped his mantle about him that night as he lay upon his soldier's bed his soul was filled with the darkest forebodings for the morrow, which he felt would close his own career as well as that of many another gallant soldier, a presentiment which was sadly realized."
Upon the following day, the 9th of July, the advance party of British, now making better progress, pressed on to a point five or six miles from Fort DuQuesne where they encountered the awaiting French and Indians. Against such British strength of numbers and equipment the French had one chance and well they knew it lay in meeting the attacking force in the forest before it could bring its artillery to play on their fortification. The mass of the scarlet-coated British troops were in close formation in the open; the French and Indians hid themselves behind the surrounding trees. As the first bullets poured into their ranks the British could see no foe and Braddock, deaf to the entreaties of the Virginians, insisted that his troops hold their ranks in the unprotected and open clearing. The provincials scattered and fought the foe in its own manner from behind every tree and mound they could find to shelter them; but Braddock, wholly immune to fear or reason himself, continued to hold his regulars together, in his anger beating back with his sword into the ranks those seeking cover. Even so the situation, impossible though it were rapidly becoming, might have been saved by the desperate and determined efforts of the provincials who had found a small ravine or ditch from which they were able to deliver an effective flanking fire against the French; but as the latter began to waver and the Americans left their protection to charge, the panic-stricken regulars fired upon them, killing and wounding a great number. It was the end. Braddock, who throughout the fighting had shewn the most reckless and obstinate courage and had had his horses killed from under him again and again, now received a mortal wound and the surviving English broke into a wild and disorderly retreat. Had the French and their allies pressed their advantage, hardly one of their foe would have escaped death or capture; but the Indian allies of the French, when the British fled, addressed themselves to killing the wounded and robbing and scalping the dead, thus giving the English their chance of flight, disorderly and panic-stricken, back over the road they had come. Braddock, crushed with the completeness of his defeat, died on the fourth day of the retreat and was buried in the roadway to protect his body from the Indian savages. How overwhelming was the French victory is shewn by the English record that of the 1,386 men who were under Braddock in the fight, only 459 escaped. That the British regulars stood their ground bravely in the face of most difficult conditions and stupid leadership there seems no question. But the greater praise went to the Americans who inflicted far more damage on the foe; and particularly to their leader Washington who with cool courage was everywhere encouraging his men in the fight and though his clothing was pierced repeatedly with rifle balls, he escaped wholly unwounded.
During the battle Halkett was shot and killed and his son James, seeing him fall and rushing to his aid, at once met the same fate. Both bodies were scalped and robbed and then left where they fell. Three years later Halkett's eldest son, the then Sir Peter Halkett, a major in the 42nd Regiment, joined General Forbes' new and successful expedition against Fort DuQuesne, especially to seek some trace of the fate of his father and brother. With friendly Indian help the bodies were found and identified and given a military burial nearby.
As the defeated English retreated to the east, the story of the calamity spread terror and dismay among the more westerly settlers. In Virginia the people in the valley were panic-stricken and in great numbers fled over the Blue Ridge to the Piedmont counties, spreading their terror among the people there. Washington wrote that he learned from Captain Waggoner who, as we have seen, had had command of the Virginia troops and had been wounded in the battle "that it was with difficulty he passed the Ridge for crowds of people, who were flying as if every moment was death." The fear and restlessness continued among the colonists on both sides of the Blue Ridge until General Forbes, as noted, in 1758 led his force to Fort DuQuesne and took possession of what was left by the French who burned and abandoned it at his approach. From then until after the Revolution this former outpost of France, under its new name of Fort Pitt, remained in the hands of the English government.
On the 1st day of September, 1758,[73] an act was passed in Virginia to pay arrears to "forces in the pay of this colony" and to raise money therefor. Section 5 recites: