BRADDOCK, Edward, British general: b. Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695; d. Great Meadows, Pa., 13 July 1755. Through his father, an officer in the Coldstream Guards, he became in 1710 an ensign in that famous regi ment. Appointed captain in 1736, he rose to' lieutenant-colonel by service on the Continent 1742-45, including the battle of Fontenoy in 1745, where the Coldstreams covered themselves with glory; and in 1754 was made major-general of the line. In that year an expedition to de stroy the French power in America was resolved on; and on 24 September Braddock was made generalissimo of all the forces there. But his experience made him overrate formal dis cipline, and underrate (not only in action but in expert counsel) both foes and allies who lacked it; he could not fully realize new dangers nor appreciate methods of meeting them; he was hot of temper, rough of speech, over bearing in argument, obstinate in opinion; and these defects, with the martinetism natural enough in an officer of 60 after 43 years of the Coldstreams, and which were not vital in a drilled service, fatally alienated those in the new land on whom he had to depend for safety. Yet he was quick to recognize ability and warm in acknowledging it; he regarded Washington and Franklin, the former but 22, as the greatest men in the colonies; and when the royal order of 1754 ranking colonial commissions below English ones prevented Washington from join ing him, he sent a handsome letter asking the latter to be one of his military family, and promised to use his influence in securing him a regular English commission. Landing at Hamp ton Roads, Va., 20 Feb. 1755, he attempted to collect men and stores for his expedition against Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), but was baffled for many weeks by the sloth, rapacity and unpatriotic local factions of the colonists, who did their best to justify the contempt with which he heartily if injudiciously visited them. The lack of men, supplies, transportation and money delayed the expedition to its ruin. He tried to secure a large body of Indians for scouts and allies, but only obtained 40 or 50. He let all but eight of them go through bad judgment, and disgusted those who remained so greatly by his manners that one of them deserted, and the rest warned their friends against coming near. The famous Indian hunter, Captain Jack, wished to join him, but Braddock refused un less he would conform to military discipline, which the old scout would not do. Finally the expedition started from Fort Cumberland (now Cumberland, Md.). the first week in June, with 2,150 men. The march was most toilsome and slow, involving cutting roads, bridging streams, making causeways, passing through swamps, etc.; and on the 18th, at Little Meadows, 1,200 picked men were chosen to continue the expe dition, the rest being left behind under Dunbar. On the night of 4 July he halted two days about 25 miles from his destination, to await the re ports of his Indian scouts and convoy of pro visions from Dunbar's camp— to his destruc tion but not to his blame. Reaching Turtle (now Rush) Creek the road suddenly ended at a precipice impassable for artillery and wagons, and he decided to quit the ridge, where ambuscade was impossible, and make a double fording across an elbow of the Monongahela. Meantime the French commander, Contrecceur, had decided to withdraw without a blow, but a Captain Beaujeu asked leave to take a detach ment and resist the passage of the second ford, eight miles off. He was given about 200 white troops, and by a brilliant appeal on the morning of the 9th to the Indians, who at first hung back, obtained several hundred of them also.
When he came in sight of the English, they had already crossed and advanced so that both their flanks were exposed for some 200 yards to an enemy who occupied the deep ravines, thick with tangled forest growth and vines, that seamed the river bluff. Braddock's ruinous er ror was in not beating up ahead on his flanks, as Col. Sir Peter Halket urgently besought him to do the night before; and he thereby marched straight into the worst of ambushes. Into these the Indians glided, while the white troops barred the English path in front down and the head of the advance column went down under a storm of lead. Shaken for a moment, the van guard moved against the concentric ring; and after another terrible discharge, returned it with a volley that swept away every enemy in sight, and struck Beaujeu and a dozen others dead. The Indians turned to fly; rallied by the other French officers, they returned to cover, and under their unerring fire the English ad vance broke and retreated; mixing with the rear in the narrow path, both became mingled in a mob which Braddock could not restore to order. Huddled into a 12-foot road, shut in by a forest resounding with yells and filled with an invisible foe, they lost all sense of perception, and twice shot down bodies of their own men who had gained slight vantage points, taking their smoke for the enemy's. Fifty Virginians were thus slain at one volley. The regulars refused to charge, though Braddock, with four horses shot successively under him, and the other officers strove to hearten them to invade the wood; the provincials sought to fight Indian fashion behind trees and logs, but Braddock with furious threats and blows drove them back into rank again, where they fell in scores. Washington and Halket begged to have them allowed to leave the ranks, but Braddock still refused. The ammunition began to fail; the baggage was attacked; all Braddock's aides but Washington were shot down, three-fourths of the officers and three-fifths of the entire army; and only then would the ill-judging but heroic Braddock give the signal for retreat. Shortly afterward Braddock received a ball through the lunge ; not one of the English soldiery would stay to carry him off the field, but one English and two American officers took him from the field to a spot half a mile across the river. Here the dying hero tried to establish a camp for a rallying place, and to care for the wounded and wait for Washington's return from Dunbar; but although the French and Indians had not fol lowed them across, the 100 English soldiers he had induced to stop there stole away again and fled. The officers with their commander marched on till 10 P.m. on the 10th, when they halted and met the convoy from Dunbar, Brad dock never ceasing to give calm, skilful and humane orders; on the 11th he reached Dun bar's camp, where the news of the rout had set his soldiers also deserting and fleeing in wild panic. Giving up all hope of the expedi tion in any hands now, he had the stores destroyed to keep them from the enemy, save enough for a flying march; and the remnant of the army proceeded toward Great Meadows, where Braddock expired, leaving his favorite horse and body servant to Washington. Of 1,460 men in the battle, 456 were killed and 421 wounded; 63 out of 89 commissioned officers were killed or injured, and every field officer. The enemy's casualties were about 60. The en tire borders were left defenseless and desolated by a fearful Indian war. Consult Winthrop Sargent, of the Expedition against Fort Du Quesne in 1755,> edited from the original manuscript (Philadelphia 1855).