Braddock advanced carefully through the dense and silent forest, when suddenly this silence was broken by the war-whoop of the savages, of whom not one was visible. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line and fired; and at first the English seemed to carry everything before them, for the Canadians were seized by a panic and fled; but the scarlet coats of the English furnished good targets for their invisible enemies. The Indians, yelling their war-cries, swarmed in the forest, but were so completely hidden in gullies and ravines, behind trees and bushes and fallen trunks, that only the trees were struck by the volley after volley fired by the English, who at last broke ranks and huddled together in a bewildered mass. Both men and officers were ignorant of this mode of warfare. The Virginians alone were equal to the emergency and might have held the enemy in check, but when Braddock found them hiding behind trees and bushes, as the Indians, he became so furious at this seeming want of courage and discipline, that he ordered them with oaths, to join the line, even beating them with his sword, they replying to his threats and commands that they would fight if they could see any one to fight with. The ground was strewn with the dead and dying, maddened horses were plunging about, the roar of musketry and cannon, and above all the yells that came from the throats of six hundred invisible savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror indescribable.
Braddock saw that all was lost and ordered a retreat, but had scarcely done so when a bullet pierced his lungs. It is alleged that the shot was fired by one of his own men, but this statement is without proof. The retreat soon turned into a rout, and all who remained dashed pell-mell through the river to the opposite shore, abandoning the wounded, the cannon, and all the baggage and papers to the mercy of the Indians. Beaujeu had fallen early in the conflict. Dumas and Ligneris did not pursue the flying enemy, but retired to the Fort, abandoning the field to the savages, which soon became a pandemonium of pillage and murder. Of the eighty-six English officers all but twenty-three were killed or disabled, and but a remnant of the soldiers escaped.
When the Indians returned to the Fort, they brought with them twelve or fourteen prisoners, their bodies blackened and their hands tied behind their backs. These were all burned to death on the bank of the Allegheny, opposite the Fort. The loss of the French was slight; of the regulars there were but four killed or wounded, and all the Canadians returned to the Fort unhurt except five.
The miserable remnant of Braddock's army continued their wild flight all that night and all the next day, when before nightfall those who had not fainted by the way reached Christopher Gist's farm, but six miles from Dunbar's camp. The wounded general had shown an incredible amount of courage and endurance. After trying in vain to stop the flight, he was lifted on a horse, when, fainting from the effects of his mortal wound, some of the men were induced by large bribes to carry him in a litter. Braddock ordered a detachment from the camp to go to the relief of the stragglers, but as the fugitives kept coming in with their tales of horror, the panic seized the camp, and soldiers and teamsters fled.
The next day, whether from orders given by Braddock or Dunbar is not known, more than one hundred wagons were burned, cannon, coehorns, and shells were destroyed, barrels of gunpowder were saved and the contents thrown into a brook, and provisions scattered about through the woods and swamps, while the enemy, with no thought of pursuit, had returned to Fort Duquesne. Braddock died on the 13th of July, 1755, and was buried on the road; men, horses and wagons passing over the grave of their dead commander as they retreated to Fort Cumberland, thus effacing every trace of it, lest it should be discovered by the Indians and the body mutilated. Thus ended the attempt to capture Fort Duquesne, and for about three years, while the storm of blood and havoc raged elsewhere, that point was undisturbed.
Henry Bouquet.
Brigadier General Forbes.