On July 9, 1755, during the French and Indian War, Colonel George
Washington took part in the Battle of Monongahela, in which General
Braddock was killed and his army routed. Washington had advised Braddock
to push on rapidly towards the French-held Fort Duquesne and to leave
behind his artillery and baggage wagons so that he could move through
the wilderness as fast as possible. Washington feared the consequences
of moving too slowly and wrote his brother a few days before the battle
that the army “instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a
little rough road” was “halting to level every mold hill and to erect
bridges over every brook; by which means we were four days getting
twelve miles.” Washington’s fear of disaster was only too well-founded.
The following letter is his account of the battle, written to his mother
nine days later: