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.
[8] _Orme Journal_, 315; see also Thomas Balch, _Letters and Papers
relating to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania_, 34-35.
[9] See _Burd Papers_ (Mss.) in the library of the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania. At the time of Braddock's defeat this Pennsylvania
road was completed to the summit of the Alleghany mountain, some 20
miles beyond Raystown, now Bedford, Pa. (see _Pennsylvania Colonial
Records_, VI. 484-485). In 1758 General Forbes constructed a road (now
commonly known as the Forbes Road) from Bedford to Fort Duquesne. This
route runs about parallel to the Braddock Road, though many miles
north of it.
[10] Hulbert, _Historic Highways_, II. 89-91. In 1753 the Ohio Company
had opened up this path or trail at great expense; and in 1754
Washington had repaired the road as far west as Gist's Plantation (Mt.
Washington). See Washington, _Writings_ (Sparks ed.), II. 51.
[11] _Orme Journal_, 323-324.
[12] The construction of the Cumberland Road was authorized by an
act of Congress, approved March 29, 1806, and entitled "An Act to
regulate the laying out and making a Road from Cumberland, in the
State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio" (United States, _Statutes
at Large_, II. 357). By the provisions of the act the President was
required to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,
three discreet and disinterested citizens to constitute a board of
commissioners to lay out the road. The men selected were Thomas Moore
and Eli Williams of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr of Ohio.
In their second report, under date of January 15, 1808, the
commissioners show that the new road followed only a very small
portion of the Braddock Road. "The law," runs the document, "requiring
the commissioners to report those parts of the route as are laid on
the old road, as well as those on new grounds, and to state those
parts which require the most immediate attention and amelioration, the
probable expense of making the same _passable_ in the most difficult
parts, and through the whole distance, they have to state that, from
the crooked and hilly course of the road now traveled, the new route
could not be made to occupy any part of it (except an intersection
on Wills Mountain [Sandy Gap], another at Jesse Tomlinson's [Little
Meadows], and a third near Big Youghioghana [Somerfield], embracing
not a mile of distance in the whole) without unnecessary sacrifices of
distance and expense" (_Executive Document_, 10 Cong., 1 sess., Feb.
19, 1808, 8 pp.).
On November 11, 1834, the new road through the Narrows was opened
for travel, the citizens of Cumberland, Frostburg, and the vicinity
celebrating the occasion in an enthusiastic and elaborate manner
(Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_, 336).
[13] This was formerly the building of the Mount Nebo School for Young
Ladies.
[14] This point of intersection may be further verified by reference
to the first report (of December 30, 1806) made by the commissioners
who laid out the Cumberland Road: "From a stone at the corner of lot
No. 1, in Cumberland, near the confluence of Wills Creek and the north
branch of Potomac River, thence extending along the street westwardly
to cross the hill lying between Cumberland and Gwynn's Six Mile House,
at the gap where Braddock's Road passes it" (_Executive Document_, 9
Cong., 2 sess., Jan. 31, 1807, 16 pp.).
[15] It probably follows the turnpike here in order to avoid a very
deep hollow. This conclusion of the writer is confirmed by the
resurvey of Pleasant Valley patented to Evan Gwynne on October 5,
1795, which calls for "a water oak standing above the three springs
that break out in Braddock's Road" (Deed from Evan Gwynne to Joseph
Everstein, May 27, 1834, recorded in Liber R, folios 95-96, in the
office of the clerk of Alleghany County, at Cumberland, Maryland).
These springs are a few rods west of James H. Percy's tenant house,
which is on the old Cumberland Road.
[16] The Honorable Augustus Keppel, commodore of the fleet, had
furnished Braddock with a detachment of thirty sailors and some
half-dozen officers to assist in the rigging, cordages, etc. These
seamen proved of valuable aid to the expedition in getting the wagons
and the artillery down the mountain.
[17] _Orme Journal_, 324.
[18] _Orme Journal_, 324; also _Seaman Journal_, 381-382. For reasons
not easy to understand, the Cumberland Road was laid out along the
more westerly deflection over Wills Mountain by the way of Sandy
Gap, instead of by the natural and more favorable route through the
Narrows of Wills Creek. In 1834, however, it was changed to the latter
location, and remains the line of the present National turnpike.
[19] The writer has interviewed many of the reliable and trustworthy
citizens of Cumberland on this point. To Robert Shriver and J. L.
Griffith, respectively president and cashier of the First National
Bank of Cumberland, and to the late Robert H. Gordon, one of the
leading attorneys of the town, he owes special thanks for their
painstaking interest, given at the expense of much valuable time,
in aiding him in his attempt to discover the route of the army out
of Cumberland. Mr. Shriver, who has made an extensive study of the
course of the road from Fort Cumberland to the Narrows, thinks that
the weight of evidence favors a route from Fort Cumberland along the
gradually sloping ground northwestward to a point on Wills Creek
about where the cement mill now stands. From here the road would have
been easy, comparatively short, and almost level for the greater part
of the distance to the eastern end of the gap, where there would
evidently have been a favorable opportunity to ford Wills Creek near
the mouth of one of its tributaries. Much might be said in favor
of this contention; but, unfortunately, it has thus far failed to
yield any results that look toward a definite and authoritative
identification of Braddock's line of march.
[20] It is worthy of note that the bridge was in course of
construction at least twelve days before the road through the Narrows
was completed (_Seaman Journal_, 379).
[21] See Shippen's manuscript draft of 1759, in the library of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania; map in Orme's Journal, op. 282;
and a map in Hulbert, _Historic Highways_, IV. op. 20. These maps,
though necessarily drawn on a small scale, give color to the theory of
this route.
[22] See Washington's manuscript sketch of Fort Cumberland made in
1758, in E. M. Avery, _History of the United States_, IV. 207.
[23] In 1863 Mr. Robert Shriver made a most excellent photograph of
this point, which shows the stratum in its primitive condition.
[24] See Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_, 137; also Searight, _The
Old Pike_, 64, 71 ff. G. G. Townsend of Frostburg, road engineer for
Alleghany County, Maryland, has an old blue print, made before the
railroads were built, which shows on the left, or eastern, bank of
Wills Creek a wagon road running through the Narrows and crossing the
creek near the mouth of Braddock Run.
[25] The three engineers who accompanied Braddock's expedition
(_Seaman Journal_, 364) made striking use of a series of absolutely
straight lines in laying out the road, except where the fording of
a river required a tortuous route, or where the topography of the
country was such as to render their plan utterly impracticable. This
device, which impressed itself upon the writer and his party as they
were crossing Wills Mountain, afterwards proved of great value to
them in their efforts to pick up the road where traces of it were
completely obliterated for rods at a time in cultivated fields.
[26] _Orme Journal_, 327. In fixing the several encampments the
writer has been aided to some extent by the maps already published,
but chiefly by Orme's journal, which records the number of miles of
each day's march with great accuracy, and by the topographic sheets,
without the aid of which neither the road nor the encampments could
have been so definitely located.
[27] From this point to Clarysville the route is through a gap between
Dans Mountain and Piney Mountain.
[28] This spring is about one-third of a mile west of the tollgate on
the National turnpike.
[29] Although many misstatements and untenable notions as to the
location of the road, the places of encampment, etc., are prevalent in
the country adjacent to the line of march, yet local tradition is in
many cases surprisingly accurate.
[30] See Middleton's map.
[31] _Orme Journal_, 333.
[32] See Lowdermilk's _History of Cumberland_, 257. This stone,
sometimes designated Braddock's Stone, bears the following
inscription: "11 mile To Ft Cumberland 29 Ms To Captn Smyth's
Inn and Bridge Big Crossings & The Best Road To Redstone Old Fort 64
M." This is fairly legible. The other side reads, "Our countrys rights
we will defend." There is no reason for supposing that this stone was
erected by Braddock's command.
[33] On the summit of the mountain, a few hundred yards to the north
of the road, is St. John Rock, 2930 feet above sea level, from which a
magnificent view of the surrounding country is to be had.
[34] Three wagons were entirely destroyed in passing this mountain,
and several more were shattered (_Orme Journal_, 335).
[35] It is an interesting fact that throughout the route the fording
of a stream was in every case at or slightly below the mouth of a
tributary. At such a place there is usually a riffle caused by the
formation of a bar of sand, gravel, and mud, the crest of which
offers a very practical opportunity for fording. Some of the apparent
deviations of the road from what would seem to have been the natural
course may have been made for the sake of avoiding a depth of water
which might have rendered the streams impassable except by bridging.
In other instances a circuitous route may have been the most
practicable way of passing a swamp or a bog.
[36] _Orme Journal_, 335.
[37] Orme mentions no encounter with the Indians at this place of
encampment.
[38] According to Orme, the first brigade encamped about three
miles west of Savage River (_Orme Journal_, 335), a location which
corresponds with that suggested above. This spot, furthermore, is the
only advantageous ground in the vicinity.
[39] Dense forests of white pine formerly covered this region, which,
from the deep gloom of the summer woods and the favorable shelter
that the pines gave to the Indian enemy, came to be spoken of as the
"Shades of Death." The writer's party was told that the old wagoners
who used to drive from Baltimore to Zanesville dreaded this locality
as the darkest and gloomiest place along the entire route. Of the
former gloomy forest, however, nothing now remains except the stumps.
The trees were cut down years ago, sawed up, and shipped to market.
[40] From Mrs. Henry Meerbach the writer secured two English pennies
bearing date of 1724 and 1753 respectively, which, she said, were
picked up on Braddock Road on the eastern slope of Meadow Mountain.
[41] This is doubtless the bog to which Orme refers as having "been
very well repaired by Sir John St. Clair's advanced party with
infinite labour" (_Orme Journal_, 335).
[42] This mountain, it may be noted, constitutes the dividing ridge
between the waters that flow into the Atlantic and those that enter
the Gulf of Mexico.
[43] _Orme Journal_, 335. The Little Meadows farm at present consists
of over 1200 acres. At the time the National turnpike was laid out
Jesse Tomlinson owned the land at this point and kept a tavern on
Braddock Road. The Tomlinson estate was, indeed, one of the objective
points for the turnpike as specified in the first report of the
commission appointed to lay out the National road, then uniformly
known under the legal name of Cumberland Road (_Executive Document_, 9
Cong., 2 sess., Jan. 31. 1807, 16 pp.). On June 15, 1755, the entire
force had reached Little Meadows, where at a council of war it was
determined that General Braddock and Colonel Halket, with a detachment
of the best men of the two regiments (in all about 1400, lightly
encumbered), should move forward. Colonel Dunbar with the residue
(about 900), and the heavy baggage, stores, and artillery, was to
advance by slow and easy marches.
[44] At this point it may be well to clear up an obscurity likely to
arise from a confusion of the following names: Little Meadows is at
the western slope of Meadow Mountain, twenty miles from Cumberland;
Great Meadows, which marks the site of Fort Necessity, is about
thirty-one miles farther west; Little Crossings is a ford of the
Castleman River just east of Grantsville and two miles west of Little
Meadows; Great Crossings is the passage of the Youghiogheny about half
a mile above Somerfield and sixteen miles west of Little Crossings.
[45] This is the only region on the entire route in which pine trees
in any considerable quantity still remain.
[46] Orme very accurately and tersely describes this day's march over
Keyser Ridge: "We could not reach our ground till about 7 of the
clock, which was three hours later than common, as there was no water,
nor even earth enough to fix a tent, between the great Mountain and
this place" (_Orme Journal_, 338).
[47] At this camp, Washington, prostrated by a violent attack of
fever, was left under a guard to await the arrival of Dunbar with the
rest of the army. That it was really here, and not, as is usually
asserted, at Little Meadows or Little Crossings that Washington was
left, is clear from his own words. "We set out [from Little Meadows],"
he wrote to his brother on June 28, "with less than thirty carriages
including those that transported the ammunition for the howitzers,
twelve-pounders, and six-pounders, and all of them strongly horsed;
which was a prospect that conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though
I was exceedingly ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded,
and my hope brought very low indeed, when I found that, instead of
pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, they
were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every
brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles.
At this camp I was left by the Doctor's advice, and the General's
positive orders" (Washington, _Writings_, Sparks ed., II. 82-83).
What Washington says about the length of time spent in marching from
Little Meadows helps to fix the location of the camp; for it agrees
with Orme's assertion that they left Little Meadows on June 19 and
marched from the camp on June 23 (_Orme Journal_, 336-340). Even in
the matter of distance there is a difference of only a mile between
the two accounts, and this difference may be accounted for by the fact
that Orme always uses the phrase "we marched _about_" so many miles.
See also _Pennsylvania Gazette_, July 3, 1755.
[48] See Shippen's manuscript draft of 1759, in the library of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
[49] _Orme Journal_, 340. This camping-ground was reached June 23,
1755. Shippen's draft would seem to confirm the foregoing statements
as to the course of the road from Addison to the Youghiogheny. On
file, however, in the land office of the Interior Department at
Harrisburg, under date of Oct. 8, 1788 is the survey of a tract (also
marked Braddock's Old Road) situated near the headwaters of the south
branch of Braddock's Run, about one mile south of Addison. This
discovery, recently made, necessitates a further examination of the
ground in order, if possible, to determine the exact location of the
road between the state line and the Youghiogheny.
[50] According to Orme, the Youghiogheny is at this point "about one
hundred yards wide, about three feet deep, with a very strong current"
(_Orme Journal_, 340).
[51] The writer secured from Mr. Thomas an old axe that was found near
Braddock Road. There is every reason to believe that it was used by
one of Braddock's wood-choppers.
[52] _Orme Journal_, 341. This camp was about four miles east of Great
Meadows, on land now occupied by Albert Landman. Formerly one Job
Clark kept a hotel at Twelve Springs on Braddock Road, one mile south
of the National turnpike.
[53] _Orme Journal_, 341. Although the day was fast waning when
the cortege passed Fort Necessity,--the place where Washington had
the previous year capitulated with the honors of war to Coulon de
Villiers,--no stop was made there. This fort, of which some of the
outlines still remain, is situated on Meadow Run in Great Meadows, a
few hundred yards south of the National turnpike. In 1767 Washington
acquired, under the name of Mt. Washington, a tract of 334 acres
embracing Fort Necessity. That portion of Great Meadows which includes
the old fort is now owned by Lewis Fazenbaker. On July 4, 1908, a very
suitable marker was erected to commemorate the battle there.
[54] The grave is enclosed by a board fence, within which are a
number of beautiful pine trees. A marker was erected at this point
on July 4, 1908. In 1909 a number of spirited citizens of Uniontown,
Pa., organized an association known as "The General Edward Braddock
Memorial Park Association." They have purchased twenty-four acres
of land, including Braddock's grave, and, in order to preserve to
posterity this historic spot, they propose to erect a suitable
monument to his memory and otherwise embellish the grounds.
[55] _Orme Journal_, 343. This orchard, situated about two miles from
Fort Necessity and referred to by many writers, must have consisted of
crab apple trees at that time. In this camp Braddock died, July 13,
1755.
[56] Owned by Henry Harrison Wiggins.
[57] "This Indian camp was in a strong position, being upon a high
rock with a very narrow and steep ascent to the top. It had a spring
in the middle, and stood at the termination of the Indian path to the
Monongahela, at the confluence of Red Stone Creek" (_Orme Journal_,
343). By the aid of this description the writer was able to identify
the Half King's Rocks even to the minutest detail.
[58] Jumonville marks the northernmost point reached by Dunbar's
regiment. Near the grave is the ledge of rocks on which Washington and
the Half King took position in their attack on Jumonville, May 28,
1754, in what proved to be the initial battle of the French and Indian
War. As Francis Parkman tersely puts it, "This obscure skirmish began
the war that set the world on fire" (Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_,
1905, I. 156).
[59] _Orme Journal_, 344.
[60] _Orme Journal_, 344. James Veech says in his _Monongahela of
Old_ (p. 60) that this encampment was "a short half mile below New
Haven," on land then (1858) owned by Daniel Rogers; but Judge Veech is
confused by Orme's entry of June 28, which says, "The troops marched
about five miles to a camp on the east [west] side of Yoxhio Geni"
(_Orme Journal_, 344). It is worthy of note that Orme uses the term
"the troops marched" and not his customary phrase "we marched," a
circumstance from which it seems reasonable to infer that the advance
column halted a day at this encampment, and that on June 29 the
officers and the rest of the army at Gist's Plantation joined it here.
[61] See Shippen's drafts, to which reference has already been made.
Through the courtesy of J. Sutton Wall, chief draughtsman of the
Interior Department, Harrisburg, Pa., who has made a draft connecting
a number of tracts lying southward from Stewart's Crossing along
the line of Braddock Road to Gist's place and the foot of Laurel
Ridge, the writer has been greatly aided in the preparation of his
own sketch. In the connected draft a few of the tracts do not show
the road; but a sufficient number do show it to corroborate the
conclusions reached by him relative to the course of the road from
Gist's place to Stewart's Crossing, and hence to enable him, on the
accompanying map, to lay down the road between these two points with
greater accuracy.
[62] _Olden Time_, II. 543; Veech, _The Monongahela of Old_, 60-61.
[63] _Orme Journal_, 345; Veech, _The Monongahela of Old_, 61.
[64] Mr. Truxell writes to me, under date of November 30, 1908, that
this farm has been owned by the Truxells since 1806, and that in the
course of his life he has ploughed up at least a quart of bullets,
sometimes as many as a dozen at a single ploughing.
[65] In regard to Braddock's movements on July 1st and 2d, the writer
desires to offer a plausible solution of some statements in Orme's
journal that have led to no little confusion and inaccurate assertion
on the part of those who have written on the subject.
"On the first of July," says Orme, "we marched about five miles, but
could advance no further by reason of a great swamp which required
much work to make it passable." This bivouac, as has already been
said, is undoubtedly on the farm of John Truxell. The army, which was
close at the heels of the advance or working party, had to halt there
till a corduroy road could be thrown across the swamp, a process that
required time.
"On the 2d July," continues Orme, "we marched to Jacob's Cabin,
about 6 miles from the camp." Notice the words "from the camp." The
preceding stop was then a _bivouac, not a camp_. The camp referred
to was the encampment one mile on the east side of the Youghiogheny,
at Stewart's Crossing. This day's march would be about one mile, and
the place of encampment Jacob's Cabin. The two halting places were
evidently both on the east side of Jacob's Creek. What is commonly
known as the Great Swamp Camp was only the bivouac to which reference
has been made.