FROM ALEXANDRIA TO FORT CUMBERLAND
What it was that proved to be "extraordinary in the way of the Service"
General Braddock soon discovered, and it is a fair question whether,
despite all that has been written concerning his unfitness for his
position, another man with one iota less "spirit" than Braddock could
have done half that Braddock did.
The Colonies were still quite asleep to their danger; the year before,
Governor Dinwiddie had been at his wits' end to raise in Virginia a few
score men for Fry and Washington, and had at last succeeded by dint of
drafts and offers of bounty in western lands. Pennsylvania was
hopelessly embroiled in the then unconstitutional question of equal
taxation of proprietary estates. The New York assembly was, and not
without reason, clannish in giving men and money for use only within
her own borders. It is interesting to notice the early flashes of
lurking revolutionary fire in the Colonies when the mother-country
attempted to wield them to serve her own politic schemes. Braddock was
perhaps one of the first Englishmen to suggest the taxation of America
and, within a year, Walpole wrote concerning instructions sent to a New
York Governor, that they "seemed better calculated for the latitude of
Mexico and for a Spanish tribunal than for a free rich British
Settlement, and in such opulence and of such haughtiness, that suspicion
had long been conceived of their meditating to throw off their
dependence on their mother country."[11] It would have been well for the
provinces if they had postponed for a moment their struggle against
English methods, and planned as earnestly for the success of English
arms as they did when defeat opened the floodgates of murder and pillage
all along their wide frontiers. But it is not possible to more than
mention here the struggles between the short-sighted assemblies and the
short-sighted royal governors. The practical result, so far as Braddock
was concerned, was the ignoring, for the greater part, of all the
instructions sent from London. This meant that Braddock was abandoned to
the fate of carrying out orders wretchedly planned under the most trying
circumstances conceivable. Instead of having everything prepared for
him, he found almost nothing prepared, and on what had been done he
found he could place no dependence. Little wonder the doomed man has
been remembered as a "brute" in America! To have shouldered the blame
for the lethargy of the Colonies, for the jealousy of their governors,
and for the wretchedness of the orders given Braddock, would have made
any man brutish in word and action. Pennsylvanians have often accused
Washington of speaking like a "brute" when, no doubt in anger, he
exclaimed that the officials of that Province should have been flogged
for their indifference; they were, God knows,--but by the Indians after
Braddock's defeat.
The desperateness of Braddock's situation became very plain by the
middle of April, when the Governors of the Colonies met at his request
at the camp at Alexandria to determine upon the season's campaigns. But
it was not until later that he knew the full depths of his unfortunate
situation. As early as March 18 Braddock wrote Sir Thomas Robinson a
most discouraging letter, but on April 19, after the Governors' Council,
another letter to Robinson shows the exact situation. As to the fund
which the Colonies had been ordered to raise, the Governors "gave it as
their unanimous opinion that such a Fund can never be establish'd in the
Colonies without the Aid of Parliament."[12] They were therefore
"unanimously of the Opinion that the Kings Service in the Colonies, and
the carrying on of the present Expedition must be at a stand, unless the
General shall think proper to make use of his Credit upon the Government
at home to defray the Expense of all the Operations under his
Direction."[12] In Braddock's letter of April 19 he affirms "The
£20,000 voted in Virginia has been expended tho not yet collected;
Pennsylvania and Maryland still refuse to contribute anything; New York
has raised £5,000 Currency for the use of the Troops whilst in that
province, which I have directed to be applied for the particular Service
of the Garrison at Oswego.... I shall march from this place for
Frederick tomorrow Morning in my Way to Will's Creek, where I should
have been before this time, had I not been prevented by waiting for the
artillery, from which I still fear further delays, I hope to be upon the
mountains early in May and some time in June to have it in my power to
dispatch an Express with some Account of the Event of our operations
upon the Ohio."[13] The disappointed man was not very sanguine of
success, but adds, "I hope, Sir, there is good prospect of success in
every part of the plan I have laid before you, but it is certain every
single attempt is more likely to succeed from the Extensiveness of
it."[13] By this he meant that the French, attacked at several points
at once, would not be able to send reinforcements from one point to
another.
But more serious disappointments awaited Braddock--a great part of the
definite promises made by Governor Dinwiddie were never to be realized.
The governor and Sir John St. Clair had promised Braddock that
twenty-five hundred horses and two hundred wagons would be in readiness
at Fort Cumberland to transport the army stores across the mountains,
and that a large quantity of beeves and other provisions would be
awaiting the army through July and August. Braddock was also promised
the support of a large force of Indians and, conformably to his orders,
had been careful to send the usual presents to the tribes in question.
He soon learned, however, that the short-sighted Assemblies of both
Virginia and Pennsylvania had already alienated the Indians whom they
should have attached to their cause, and but a handful were faithful now
when the crisis had come; for the faithfulness of these few Braddock was
perhaps largely in debt to Washington, whom they followed during the
campaign of the preceding year. As to the details of his miserable
situation, nothing is of more interest than the frank letter written by
Braddock to Sir John Robinson from Fort Cumberland, June 5:
"I had the Honor of writing to you from Frederick the latter end of
April.
"On the 10th of May I arrived at this place, and on the 17th the train
join'd me from Alexandria after a March of twenty seven days, having met
with many more Delays and Difficulties than I had even apprehended, from
the Badness of the Roads, Scarcity of Forage, and a general Want of
Spirit in the people to forward the Expedition.
"I have at last collected the whole Force with which I propose to march
to the Attack of Fort Duquesne, amounting to about two thousand
effective Men, eleven hundred of which Number are Americans of the
southern provinces, whose slothful and languid Disposition renders them
very unfit for Military Service. I have employ'd the properest officers
to form and discipline them and great pains has and shall be taken to
make them as useful as possible.
"When I first came to this place I design'd to have refresh'd the Troops
by a few days Rest, but the Disappointments I have met with in procuring
the Number of Wagons and Horses necessary for my March over the
Mountains have detained me near a Month.
"Before I left Williamsburg I was informed by the Deputy Quarter Master
general, who was then at this Fort, that 2500 Horses and 200 Wagons
might be depended upon from Virginia and Maryland, but as I had the
utmost reason to fear a Disappointment from my daily Experience of the
Falsehood of every person with whom I was concern'd, I therefore before
I left Frederick, desired Mr. Franklin, postmaster of Pennsylvania, and
a Man of great Influence in that Province, to contract for 150 Waggons
and a Number of Horses, which he has executed with great punctuality and
Integrity, and is almost the only Instance of Ability and Honesty I have
known in these provinces; His Waggons and Horses have all joined me, and
are indeed my whole Dependence, the great promises of Virginia and
Maryland having produc'd only about twenty Waggons and two hundred
Horses: With the Number I now have I shall be enabled with the utmost
difficulty to move from this place, marching with one half of the
provision I entended and having been oblig'd to advance a large
Detachment in order to make a Deposite of provisions upon the Alliganey
Mountains about five days March from me.
[Illustration: MAP OF BRADDOCK'S ROAD (ABOUT 1759)
[_From original in British Museum_]]
"It would be endless, Sir, to particularize the numberless Instances of
the Want of public and private Faith, and of the most absolute Disregard
of all Truth, which I have met with in carrying on of His Majesty's
Service on this continent. I cannot avoid adding one or two Instances to
what I have already given.
"A Contract made by the Governor of Virginia for 1100 Beeves was laid
before me to be delivered in July and August for the subsistence of the
Troops, which Contract he had entered into upon the Credit of twenty
thousand pounds Currency voted by the Assembly for the Service of the
Expedition. Depending upon this I regulated my Convoys accordingly, and
a few days since the Contractors inform'd me that the Assembly had
refus'd to fulfill the Governors Engagements, and the Contract was
consequently void: as it was an Affair of the greatest Importance, I
immediately offer'd to advance the Money requir'd by the Terms of the
Contract, but this the Contractor rejected, unless I would pay him one
third more; and postpone the Delivery of the Beeves two Months, at which
time they would have been of no use to me.
"Another Instance is the Agent employ'd in the Province of Maryland for
furnishing their Troops with provision, who delivered it in such
Condition that it is all condemn'd upon a Survey, and I have been
obliged to replace it by sending to the Distance of an hundred Miles.
"This Behavior in the people does not only produce infinite Difficulty
in carrying on His Majesty's Service but also greatly increases the
Expense of it, the Charge thereby occasion'd in the Transportation of
provision and Stores through an unsettled Country (with which even the
Inhabitants of the lower parts are entirely unacquainted) and over a
continued succession of Mountains, is many times more than double the
original Cost of them; for this reason I am obliged to leave a Quantity
of provision at Alexandria, which would be of great Service to use at
this place. The Behaviour of the Governments appears to me to be without
excuse, but it may be some Extenuation of the Guilt of the lower Class
of people, that upon former occasions their assistance in publick has
been ill rewarded, and their payments neglected; the bad Effects of
which proceeding we daily experience.
"As I have His Majesty's Orders to establish as much as possible a good
understanding with the Indians, I have gathered some from the Frontier
of Pennsylvania chiefly of the Six Nations, with whom I have had two or
three Conferences, and have given them proper Presents; the Number
already with me is about fifty, and I have some hopes of more: Upon my
first Arrivall in America, I received strong assurances of the
assistance of a great Number of Southern Indians, which I have entirely
lost through the Misconduct of the Government of Virginia: And indeed
the whole Indian Affairs have been so imprudently and dishonestly
conducted, that it was with the greatest difficulty I could gain a
proper Confidence with those I have engag'd, and even that could not be
attain'd, nor can be preserv'd without a great Expense.
"The Nature of the Country prevents all Communication with the French
but by Indians, and their Intelligence is not much to be depended upon;
they all agree the Number of French now in Fort Duquesne is very
inconsiderable, but that they pretend to expect large Reinforcements.
"I have an Account of the arrival of the two thousand Arms for the New
England Forces, and that they are sailed for Nova Scotia. Batteaus and
Boats are preparing for the Forces destined to the Attacks of Niagara
and Crown Point, but the province of New York, which by its situation
must furnish the greater part, do not act with so much vigor as I could
wish.
"In order to secure a short and easy Communication with the province of
Pensilvania, after the Forces have pass'd the Alligany Mountains, I
have apply'd to Governor Morris to get a Road cut from Shippensburg in
that Province to the River Youghyaughani; up which he informs me he has
set a proper Number of Men at work, and that it will be compleated in a
Month: This I look upon to be an Affair of the greatest Importance, as
well for securing future Supplies of Provisions, as for obtaining more
speedy Intelligence of what passes in the Northern Colonies.[14]
"I wait now for the last Convoy and shall, if I do not meet with further
Disappointments, begin my March over the Alleghaney Mountains in about
five days. The Difficulties we have to meet with by the best Accounts
are very great; the Distance from hence to the Forts is an hundred and
ten miles, a Road to be cut and made the whole way with infinite Toil
and Labor, over rocky Mountains of an excessive Height and Steepness,
and many Stoney Creeks and Rivers to cross."
Braddock's army under Halket and Dunbar proceeded to Fort Cumberland
from Alexandria by various routes. Governor Sharpe had had a new road
built from Rock Creek to Fort Cumberland;[15] this was probably Dunbar's
route and is given as follows in Braddock's Orderly Books:[16]
MILES
To Rock Creek[17] --
To Owen's Ordinary 15
To Dowdens 15
To Frederick 15
From Fred^k on y^e road to Conogogee 17
From that halting place to Conogogee 18
From Conogogee to John Evens 16
To the Widow Baringer 18
To George Polls 9
To Henry Enock's 15
To Cox's at y^e mouth of little Cacaph 12
To Col. Cresaps 8
To Wills Creek 16
----
174
Halket's regiment went from Alexandria to Winchester, Virginia by the
following route as given in Braddock's Orderly Books:
MILES
To y^e old Court House 18
To M^r Colemans on Sugar Land Run where there is Indian Corn &c. 12
To M^r Miners 15
To M^r Thompson y^e Quaker wh is 3000 wt corn 12
To M^r They's y^e Ferry of Shanh 17
From M^r They's to Winchester 23
--
97
At Winchester Halket was only five miles distant from "Widow Baringer's"
on Dunbar's road from Frederick to Fort Cumberland.
One of the few monuments of Braddock's days stands beside the Potomac,
within the limits of the city of Washington. It is a gigantic rock, the
"Key of Keys," now almost lost to sight and forgotten. It may still be
found, and efforts are on foot to have it appropriately marked. It is
known in tradition as "Braddock's Rock"--on the supposition that here
some of Braddock's men landed just below the mouth of Rock Creek en
route to Frederick and Fort Cumberland. It is unimportant whether the
legend is literally true.[18] A writer, disputing the legend, yet
affirms that the public has reason "to require that the destructive hand
of man be stayed, and that the remnants of the ancient and historic rock
should be rescued from oblivion." The rock may well bear the name of
Braddock, as the legend has it. Nothing could be more typical of the
man--grim, firm, unreasoning, unyielding.