Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-07-14

them of those April days should burst
INTO the fullpess If leaves and branches.
Not till the 20 h Of May diG Bad
deck and his suite reach Wills
creek, now Cumberland, Maryland
one hundred mites from Alexandria.
Here tn Y found strong fort just COM
pleted 10y some provincial troops as d
part of system Of frontier detences.
The little garrison in their isolated Sit
uation hailed their coming with delight
and welcomed it by salute of seven
teen guns. In few days the regiments
of Halket, Dunbar and Gates arrived
by W, y OF Winchester, through wbicc
settlement the commander also had
passed, ard "a camp WAS established for
rest, insI rnction and further prepara.
tions for continuing the march. Here
il vas that Washington first joined the
command and was appointed by the
general TO be his aide with the rank OF
colonel. In this camp the severest mil
itaiy discipline was enforced. BY geb-
eral orders the most trivial offences
were punished by from one to five hun-
dred lashes, aud the deserter was to be
'nanged without mercy, although re-
turning to his post"
After three weeks of encampment,
during which they had Jared bountiful-
ly from supplies which had been sent
them from P.nns ylvania, the army con-
sisting all told OF twenty-one hundred
men was again on their march to the
n,,iA nd Z ri loo
beyond. Owing to the extreme difficu'-
ties Of this ioarch over rugged mount
aus and deep ravines, through dense
forests, swamps and swollen streams,
the OHIO was not reached until the close
of the first week of July. On the 9,h
of that month occurred the disastrous
engagement with the French and their
allies.
For his obstlnacy in refusing to listen
to advice as to the mode of conducting
the battle, given to him by old Indian
fighters which, later, he vainly regretted,
he paid tine penalty wi h his life. With
him were slain twenty-six out of eighty
six of his officers, among them Sir Peter
Halket, and 81 were wounded, in
cludiDg Col. Gage and other field Of
ficers. OF the men one-half were killed
or wounded. Braddock braved every
danger. His secretary, Shirley, was shol
dead aud both his English aides were
disa bled. 1t was rout. The regulars
were panic stricken and fled even fired
upon the provincias mistaki G them in
the smoke for the enemy.
Braddock had five horses disabled
under him; at last a bullet entered his
right 81 &c and he fell mortally wound
ed. He was with difficulty brought of
the field and borne in the train Of the
fugiiives. All the first day he wa.
silent: out at night he reused himself to
say, WHO would have thought it ~
Dunbar was now in command. On the
u OF July he destroyed the remain
ing artillery and burned the public
stores and The heavy baggage to the
value of a hundred thousand pounds,
pleading in excuse that he had the
orders of the dying general, and being
himself resolved in midsummer to
evacuste Fort Cumberland and hurry
to Phla elphia for winter quarters.
Accor' ingly the next day they all re
treated. At night Braddock roused
again ron his letharey to say, "We
shall know better how to deal with
them another time" and died. His
grave was made near Fort Necessity,
and the place is still poiuted out. Thus
ended the famous expedition of Brad
dock against the French and Indians
ard the first days of military glory at
Alexandra.
Since the occurrence of the events
we have narrated hardly century and
a half has passed. The circumstances
seem dim TO US now and very far away,
for the succeeding years have wrought
so many changes among the nations.
But they are not so distant after all,
when measured by the allotted Gura-
ton of a life time. The struggling
hamlet of Bellhaven, then frontier
post in the midst of alarms and perils
from Indian incursions, has grown to
be pretentious town and the wave of
civilization has rolled westward two
thousand miles -.yond it and encom-
passed with its blessings the realms OF
q continent. w. b. 5.