The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-09-01
General Braddocks Arrival In America
Responsible For George Washington
Again Turning To A Military Career

region of the Middle West and out to
the Mississippi. Nemacolin had blazed
virtually what became the first great
national highway, and Braddock was
to travel it in the thrust into the in
terror.
The army made nineteen encamp-
ments following the choppers. 1t was
terrible experience for European
trained soldiers. 1t was June and
July. Woodticks were even worse
than rattlesnakes and scalping In
dians. At what is now Braddock,
where the steel mills of Pittsburgh
cover the ground, seven miles from
the French fort at the forks, the
French, actually desparing, inspired
600 Indians with sufficient courage to
strike blow July 9.
For a second Braddock had his de-
served success in his hands. The gal
liant Beaujeu and Dumas rallied their
panicky red allies. Thereafter it was
warfare as one side knew it and the
other did not.
There was the massacre and the
flight of the supply teams and The re-
serves. Daniel Boone was one of the
teamsters who cut his traces and fled.
The dying Braddock was carried off
the field back the melancholy road
which had been cut with so much
hardship. There is bronze tablet in
the steel town of Braddock marking
the farthest advance of this army for
the conquest of the West for English
speaking people. Braddock sleeps by
his road, the National road. His grave
is between Stone House and Farming
ton, not far from Uniontown and close
by the tablet along the road which
calls attention to the site of Washing
toms Fort Necessity.
Braddock was better soldier than
he has lived in American tradition.
No British general in America ever
had a harder task. None showed more
courage. He died saying, "Who
would have thought it?"
Franklin thought Braddock was
over-confident and did not compre-
bend his danger. He told Franklin
| he would move north from Fort Du-
| quesne to take the French fort at
Niagara, His military judgment was
against the Ohio expedition, and he
| was right.
Niagara was accessible, and it was
the hook by which the French forts
dropping down to the Forks were
held. Niagara was the controlling
| position, but Braddock was sent into
the wilderness because the Ohio land
company of Virginia and London
wanted its grants made available.
Franklin thought the general would
have his long column, trailing along
| its 12-foot cut through the forest,
ambushed and destroyed. 1t wasn't.
He encountered the enemy, seeking it
| with an advanced detail, at Washing
toms suggestion, and his first volleys
WSlc dlulOoG UGClSlVe.
He has lived in American history as
the blockhead martinez who would not
permit his men to scatter and fight in
Indian and frontier fashion under
cover. They wouldn't. They didn't
know how, and he knew they didn't.
They were terrified out of mind and
discipline. They would or could not
obey orders. Washington thought
they were poltroons, and Franklin
said the colonies had new idea of
the British regular. He could be
made to run.
The officers whom Washington had
thought effeminate sprigs of English
fashion died charging where they
could not lead their men, and their
| bewildered men did not bolt until
Braddock had lost four horses under
him and himself was shot off the fifth.
Washington lost two horses and had
bullets through his clothing.
Braddock had begun his military
life as an ensign in the Coldstream
| guards. The guards sent detail in
| 1918, when the Braddock monument
was dedicated. The great monument
is the old buffalo trace, Nemacolin's
trail, Washington's swivel trace,
Braddock's road, and the National
highway of today.