This general [Braddock] was, I think, a brave man, and might probably
have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had
too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of
regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians.
George Croghan,[19] our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march
with one hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to
his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but
he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him.
[Footnote 18: From Chapter X of the "Autobiography."]
[Footnote 19: Croghan afterward became associated closely with Sir
William Johnson in the Mohawk and Upper Susquehanna Valleys. He
acquired title to a large tract of land at the foot of Otsego Lake,
but, while settling it, mortgaged the land heavily, and eventually
lost it through foreclosure. William Cooper, father of the novelist,
subsequently obtained title to these lands and went into the country
to settle them. In the course of his labors, he founded the village of
Cooperstown, and made it his home. It was this circumstance which led
to Fenimore Cooper's knowledge of Indian and frontier life as depicted
in his writings. The home of William Cooper had previously been in
Burlington, N. J.]
In conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his
intended progress. "After taking Fort Duquesne,"[20] says he, "I am to
proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac,[21] if the
season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly
detain me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can
obstruct my march to Niagara." Having before revolved in my mind the
long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to
be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read
of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois
country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of
the campaign. But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if you
arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided
with artillery, that place, not yet completely fortified and as we
hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short
resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march
is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practise, are dextrous
in laying and executing them; and the slender line, near four miles
long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by
surprize in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several
pieces, which, from their distance, can not come up in time to support
each other."
[Footnote 20: Now Pittsburg.]
[Footnote 21: In early times commonly called Fort Frontenac, but now
Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The name was changed to Kingston by
Loyalists who settled at the fort after the American Revolution.]
He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These savages may, indeed, be
a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's
regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make
any impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing
with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more.
The enemy, however, did not take advantage of his army which I
apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance
without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then,
when more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front
had halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the
woods than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by a heavy
fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence
the general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being
disordered, the general hurried the troops up to their assistance,
which was done in great confusion, through wagons, baggage, and
cattle; and presently the fire came upon their flank: the officers,
being on horseback, were more easily distinguished, picked out as
marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded together in a
huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till
two-thirds of them were killed; and then, being seized with a panic,
the whole fled with precipitation.
The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and scampered; their
example was immediately followed by others; so that all the wagons,
provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general,
being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr.
Shirley, was killed by his side; and out of eighty-six officers,
sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men
killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked
men from the whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel
Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores,
provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, arrived at
Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them instantly seized
him and all his people; and, tho he had now above one thousand men,
and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed four
hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding, and
endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the
stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more
horses to assist his flight toward the settlements, and less lumber to
remove. He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia,
Maryland and Pennsylvania that he would post his troops on the
frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants; but he
continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking
himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants
could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first
suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars
had not been well founded.
In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the
settlements, they had plundered and stript the inhabitants, totally
ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining
the people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put us out of
conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different
was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, during a march
through the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode Island to
Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest
complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple.