Military officer; born in
Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695; entered the army as ensign in the Cold-stream Guards; served in the wars in
Flanders; received a commission as brigadier-general in 1746, and major-general in March, 1754.
He arrived in
Virginia in February, 1755, and, placed in command of an expedition against
Fort Duquesne, began his march from
Will's Creek (
Cumberland, Md.), June 10, with about 2,000 men, regulars and provincials.
Anxious to reach his destination before
Fort Duquesne should receive reinforcements, he made forced marches with 1,200 men, leaving
Colonel Dunbar, his second in command, to follow with the remainder and the wagon-train.
On the morning of July 9 the little army forded the
Monongahela River, and advanced in solid platoons
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along the southern shores of that stream.
Washington saw the perilous arrangement of the troops after the fashion of
European tactics, and he ventured to advise
Braddock to disperse his army in open order and employ the
Indian mode of fighting in the forests.
The haughty general angrily replied, “What!
a provincial colonel teach a British general how to fight!”
The army moved on, recrossed the river to the north side, and were marching in fancied security at about noon, when they were suddenly assailed by volleys of bullets and clouds of arrows on their front and flanks.
They had fallen into an ambush, against which
Washington had vainly warned
Braddock.
The assailants were French regulars, Canadians, and
Indians, less than 1,000 in number, under
De Beaujeu, who had been sent from
Fort Duquesne by
Contrecoeur and who fell at the first onslaught.
The suddenness of the attack and the horrid war-whoop of the Indians, which the
British regulars had never heard before, disconcerted them, and they fell into great confusion.
Braddock, seeing the peril, took the front of the fight, and by voice and example encouraged his men. For more than two hours the battle raged fearfully.
Of eighty-six English officers sixty-three were killed or wounded: so, also, were one-half the private soldiers.
All of
Braddock's aides were disabled excepting
Washington, who, alone unhurt, distributed the general's orders.
Braddock had five horses shot under him, and finally he, too, fell, mortally wounded.
Competent testimony seems to prove that he was slot by
Thomas Faucett, one of the provincial soldiers.
His plea in extenuation of the crime was self-preservation.
Braddock who had spurned the advice of
Washington about the method of fighting
Indians, had issued a positive order that none of the
English should protect themselves behind trees, as the
French and
Indians did.
Faucett's brother had taken such a position, and when
Braddock perceived it, he struck him to the earth with his sword.
Thomas, on seeing his brother fall, shot
Braddock in the back.
The provincials fought bravely, and early all were killed.
The remnant of the regulars broke and fled when
Braddock fell.
Washington, who was left in chief command, perceiving the day was lost, rallied the few provincial troops, and carrying with him his dying general, gallantly covered the retreat.
The enemy did not pursue.
The
British left their cannon
and their dead on the battle-field.
Three days after the battle,
Braddock died (July 13, 1755), and was buried in the forest more than 50 miles from
Cumberland.
Washington, surrounded by sorrowing officers, read the funeral service of the
Church of
England by torch-light at his grave.
General Braddock was haughty and egotistical, and his private character was not good, he being known as a gambler and spendthrift.
