Historic Highways of America/Volume 4/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
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."[1] 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."[2] 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."[2] 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."[3] 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."[3] 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 arriv'd 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 _-_IV.png)
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.[4]
"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;[5] this was probably Dunbar's route and is given as follows in Braddock's Orderly Books:[6]
| MILES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 174 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Halket's regiment went from Alexandria to Winchester, Virginia by the following route as given in Braddock's Orderly Books:
| MILES | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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.[8] 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.
- ↑ Walpole's Memoirs of George II, vol. i., p. 397; Sargent's History of Braddock's Expedition, p. 153, note.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Minutes taken "At a Council at the Camp at Alexandria in Virginia, April 14, 1755." Public Records Office, London: America and West Indies, No. 82.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Braddock's MS. Letters, Public Records Office, London: America and West Indies, No. 82.
- ↑ For these early routes through Pennsylvania, partially opened in 1755, see Historic Highways of America, vol. v., chap. I.
- ↑ Maryland Archives; Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. i., pp. 77 and 97.
- ↑ Preserved at the Congressional Library, Washington.
- ↑ Eight miles from Alexandria. See Note 26.
- ↑ Arguments pro and con have been interestingly summed up by Dr. Marcus Benjamin of the U. S. National Museum, in a paper read before the Society of Colonial Dames in the District of Columbia April 12, 1899, and by Hugh T. Taggart in the Washington Star, May 16, 1896. For a description of routes converging on Braddock's Road at Fort Cumberland see Gen. Wm. P. Craighill's article in the West Virginia Historical Magazine, vol. ii, no. 3 (July, 1902), p. 31. Cf. pp. 179–181.