1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Braddock, Edward

BRADDOCK, EDWARD (1695?–1755), British general, was born in Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695. He was the son of Major-General Edward Braddock (d. 1725), and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1710. In 1747 as a lieutenant-colonel he served under the prince of Orange in Holland during the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1753 he was given the colonelcy of the 14th foot, and in 1754 he became a major-general. Being appointed shortly afterwards to command against the French in America, he landed in Virginia in February 1755. After some months of preparation, in which he was hampered by administrative confusion and want of resources, he took the field with a picked column, in which George Washington served as a volunteer officer, intended to attack Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg, Pa.). The column crossed the Monongahela river on the 9th of July and almost immediately afterwards fell into an ambuscade of French and Indians. The troops were completely surprised and routed, and Braddock, rallying his men time after time, fell at last mortally wounded. He was carried off the field with difficulty, and died on the 13th. He was buried at Great Meadows, where the remnant of the column halted on its retreat to reorganize. (See Seven Years' War.)