Braddock Road

by John Kennedy Lacock

FOOTNOTES:

[1] During the month of August, 1908, the writer conducted the following party over the Braddock Road: Charles Francis Abbott of Somerville, Mass., a sub-master in the Somerville English High School; Henry Temple of Washington, Pa., professor of history at Washington and Jefferson College, and his son John, a student at Washington and Jefferson Academy; Claude S. Larzelere of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, professor of history in the Michigan State Normal School; Ernest K. Weller of Washington, Pa., photographer; Edward B. Murdoch, Esq., and his brother, John H. Murdock, a senior at Washington and Jefferson College. During the months of June and July, 1909, he conducted a second party over the road: Andrew Jackson Waychoff, professor of history at Waynesburg College; Rev. George P. Donehoo of Connellsville, Pa.; Charles P. McCormick of Bentleyville, Pa., principal of the Bentleyville Public School; Edward Westlake of Washington, Pa., principal of the Fifth Ward School at Washington, Pa.; and Ernest K. Weller of Washington, Pa., photographer.

For constant interest and the stimulus of frequent discussions, for many helpful suggestions in regard to the preparation of this paper, and for valuable criticism of the manuscript, the writer is under the deepest obligation to Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University; for helpful criticism of the manuscript he is indebted also to Professor Edward Channing and to Professor William Bennett Munro of Harvard University; for conscientious and efficient service in the preparation of the manuscript for the press he owes a peculiar debt of gratitude to Miss Addie F. Rowe of Cambridge; and for practical help at every step of the way he again offers his hearty thanks to the scores of persons who have given him valued and appreciated assistance, some of them at great expense of time and labor.

The accompanying map, made on the ground, but afterwards drafted under the supervision of J. Sutton Wall, chief draughtsman, and William A. Moore, assistant-chief draughtsman of the Interior Department, Harrisburg, Pa., gives a pretty clear idea of the course of the road and the location of the encampments. Of Middleton’s map (originally published in Olden Time, II. op. 528) Lowdermilk says, “The map as now given may be confidently accepted as perfectly accurate in every respect” (Lowdermilk, History of Cumberland, 137). To one who has followed the course of the road for himself, however, the fallacy of such an assertion is apparent; for, though Middleton’s map may fairly be regarded as altogether the best yet published, it does not show the route through the Narrows of Wills Creek at all, nor does it indicate all the deviations from the Cumberland (National) Road. Not that any sweeping claim to absolute accuracy is made for the accompanying map. The writer may be permitted to say, however, that he has exercised great care in laying down the road on the topographic sheets, and that from many trustworthy sources he has gained information which has helped to fix definitely points long since obliterated.

[2] Charles C. Coffin, Old Times in the Colonies, 377.

[3] The five governors were William Shirley of Massachusetts, James De Lancey of New York, Robert Hunter Morris of Pennsylvania, Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, and Horatio Sharpe of Maryland. The council was held at the Carlisle House, often called the Braddock House, which is still standing. For the answers of the governors, see Documentary History of New York, II. 648-651.

[4] Fort Cumberland, situated on the west side of Wills Creek, was erected and garrisoned during the winter of 1754-5 under the supervision of Colonel James Innes, who called it Fort Mount Pleasant. The name was changed to Fort Cumberland in 1755 by order of General Braddock. Today the Emanuel Episcopal church occupies part of the ground of the old fort, which was situated on a bluff rising from the creek.

[5] See Winthrop Sargent, History of an Expedition against Fort Du Quesne, 366-373. This monograph was published in the United States in 1855 by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The first 280 pages contain an introductory memoir by Sargent; pages 281-358 include the journal of Robert Orme, one of Braddock’s aides-de-camp (this is the only American edition of Orme’s record), and pages 359-389 the journal of a naval officer which is very frequently referred to as the Seaman’s Journal. Of this second journal there seem to be two texts, one preserved in the Royal Artillery Library at Woolwich, England (printed in Hulbert’s Historic Highways of America, IV. 83-107), the other in the possession of the Rev. Francis-Orpen Morris of Newburnholm Rectory, Yorkshire, to whose father it was given by Captain Hewitt. The second text is the one published by Sargent, but the variations between the two manuscripts are unimportant for the present purpose. This paper will refer to the Sargent edition of the second journal under the caption of Seaman Journal; and in citing the Orme Journal it will also use the pagination of Sargent.

[6] On this day Washington was appointed an aide-de-camp to Braddock.

[7] Braddock to Sir Thomas Robinson, Olden Time, II. 237. See also Hulbert, Historic Highways, IV. 68; and Franklin, Works (Bigelow ed.), I. 251, 257.