From Father Abraham’s Almanac, 1761. Key: 1, Monongahela River; 2, Fort Du Quesne, or Pittsburgh; 3, the small fort; 4, Alleghany River; 5, Alleghany Indian town; 6, Shanapins; 7, Yauyaugany River; 8, Ohio, or Alleghany, River; 9, Logs Town; 10, Beaver Creek; 11, Kuskaskies, the chief town of the Six Nations; 12, Shingoes Town; 13, Alleguippes; 14, Sennakaas; 15, Tuttle Creek; 16, Pine Creek. The arrows show the course of the river.
A “Plan of Fort le Quesne, built by the French at the fork of the Ohio and Monongahela in 1754,” was published by Jefferys, and is included in his General Topography of North America and the West Indies, London, 1768. I suppose this to be based upon the MS. plan noted in the Catal. of the King’s Maps (Brit. Mus.), ii. 184. Cf. the plan (1754) in the Memoirs of Robert Stobo, Pittsburgh, 1854, which is repeated in Sargent’s Braddock’s Exped., p. 182, who refers to a plan published in London in 1755, mentioned in the Gentleman’s Mag., xxv. P. 383. Stobo’s plan is also engraved in Penna. Archives, ii. 147, and the letters of Stobo and Croghan respecting it are in Penna. Col. Rec., vi. 141, 161. Parkman refers (i. 208) to a plan in the Public Record Office, London, and (p. 207) describes the fort as does Sargent (p. 182). See the plan in Bancroft, orig. ed., iv. 189, and Gay’s Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 260.
Duquesne was finished in May, 1755. Cf. Duquesne’s Memoir on the Ohio and its dependencies, addressed to Vaudreuil, dated Quebec, July 6, 1755, and given in English in Penna. Archives, 2d ser., vi. 253. M’Kinney’s Description of Fort Duquesne (1756) is in Hazard’s Penna. Reg., viii. 318; and letters of Robert Stobo, who was a hostage there after the surrender of Fort Necessity, are in Col. Rec. of Penna., vi. 141, 161. Cf. notice of Stobo by L. C. Draper in Olden Time, i. 369. Parkman also refers to a letter of Captain Hazlet in Olden Time, i. 184.
Sargent says (p. 184) that in 1854 the magazine was unearthed, which at that time was all remaining visible of the old fort. (Hazard’s Penna. Register, v. 191; viii. 192.) There is a view of the magazine in John Frost’s Book of the Colonies, N. Y., 1846.
The enemy occupying the fort consisted of a few companies of French regulars, a force of Canadians, and about 800 Indians,—all under Contrecœur, with Beaujeu, Dumas, and Ligneres as lieutenants. They knew from scouts that Braddock was approaching, and Beaujeu was sent out with over 600 Indians and 300 French, to ambush the adventurous Briton.
As Braddock reached the ford, which was to put him on the land-side of the fort, Colonel Thomas Gage, some years later known in the opening scenes of the American Revolution,[1132] crossed in advance, without the opposition that was anticipated. Beaujeu had intended to contest the passage, but his Indians, being refractory, delayed him in his march.
Gage, with the advance, was pushing on, when his engineer, laying out the road ahead, saw a man, apparently an officer, wave his cap to his followers, who were unseen in the woods. From every vantage ground of knoll and bole, and on three sides of the column, the concealed muskets were levelled upon the English, who returned the fire. Beaujeu soon fell.[1133] Dumas, who succeeded in command, thought the steady front of the redcoats was going to carry the day, when he saw his Canadians fly, followed by the Indians, after Gage had wheeled his cannon upon the woods. A little time, however, changed all. The Indians rallied and poured their bullets into the massed, and very soon confused, British troops.
Braddock, when he spurred up, found everybody demoralized except the Virginians, who were firing from the tree-trunks, as the enemy did. The British general was shocked at such an unmilitary habit, and ordered them back into line. No one under such orders could find cover, and every puff from a concealed Indian was followed by a soldier’s fall. No exertion of Braddock, or of Washington, or of anybody, prevailed.[1134] The general had four horses shot under him; Washington had two. Still the hillsides and the depths of the wood were spotted with puffs of smoke, and the slaughter-pen was in a turmoil. Young Shirley fell, with a bullet in his brain.[1135] Horatio Gates and Thomas Gage were both wounded. Scarce one Englishman in three escaped the bullets. The general had given the sign to retreat, and was wildly endeavoring to restore order, when a ball struck him from his horse. The flight of the survivors became precipitous, and when the last who succeeded in fording the river stopped to breathe on the other side, there were thirty Indians and twenty Frenchmen almost upon them. The French, however, pursued no farther. They had enough to do to gather their plunder, while the Indians unchecked their murderous instincts as they searched for the wounded and dying Britons. The next morning a large number of the Indians left Contrecœur for their distant homes, laden with their booty. The French general feared for a while that Braddock, reinforced by Dunbar, would return to the attack. He little knew the condition of his enemy. The British army had become bewildered fugitives. Scarce a guard could be kept for the wounded general, as he was borne along on a horse or in a litter. When they met Dunbar the fright increased. Wagons and munitions were destroyed, for no good reason, and the mass surged eastward. The sinking Braddock at last died, and they buried him in the road, that the tramp of the men might obliterate his grave.[1136] Nobody stopped till they reached Fort Cumberland, which was speedily turned into a disordered hospital. The campaign ended with gloomy forebodings. Dunbar, the surviving regular colonel, instead of staying at Cumberland and guarding the frontier, retreated to Philadelphia, leaving the Virginians to hold Cumberland and its hospitals as best they could.