Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,806

This is the grave of Edward Braddock.

Born in 1695 in London, Braddock grew up in the British military world. His father, of the same name, was a major general in the Coldstream Guards. He joined his father’s regime as an ensign in 1710, only 15 years old. He became a lieutenant in 1716. He stayed at that point for a very long time, not being promoted to captain until 1736, though he was still only 41 years old. He made major in 1743 and lieutenant colonel in 1745. The most significant battle he fought in before he came to North America was the Siege of Bergen op Zoom in 1747, where he was involved in the defense of the Dutch fort against Austrian forces during the Austrian War of Succession. He earned a reputation for bravery in this battle and this supercharged his career. In 1753, Braddock was promoted to colonel and in 1754, brigadier general.

Shortly after that final promotion, Braddock was sent to North America to fight against the French. Skirmishes had started on the frontier of North America between the British on one side and French and Native Americans on the other. This would soon become the Seven Years War, but it wasn’t that yet. Braddock’s job was to lead British troops. When he arrived in Virginia, he faced a British-American leadership that really wanted an aggressive war. Excitement over fighting spread to Braddock and he agreed to an aggressive plan. That included a four front campaign, attacks at Niagara, Lake Champlain, the Bay of Fundy, and Fort Duquesne. Braddock would lead the latter himself.

But Braddock’s plan faced a challenge that he had not anticipated but that would later define late eighteenth century America–the colonists wanted an aggressive attack but would not give over the resources to undertake it. The colonies were cheap and they hated the idea of taxation and they just wouldn’t fork over what was needed for a real attack. Pennsylvania for instance refused to help at all, despite the fact that their colonial leaders claimed Fort Duquesne. But that would cost money and the Quakers of course didn’t like war. But Braddock was a soldier and he was ambitious and he was determined to proceed.

Now, there has long been speculation that Braddock blew this all by not taking advantage of divisions between Native nations and gaining some allies. That was a bad idea and it seems like he simply didn’t take this need seriously. While most of the Tribes were united with the French because they very well understood what it meant if the English were able to expand beyond the Appalachian Mountains (i.e. genocide), there were some that would have worked with the English. So Braddock lost out on this critical set of allies that didn’t just provide men, but intelligence and an understanding of the landscape that British soldiers simply did not have.But thing about understanding Braddock and the failure to come is that the British didn’t really care, which left the Americans to write the history about it and they were completely full of bias as they were writing it after the American Revolution.

By the time Braddock’s men set out from Virginia in the late spring of 1755, he didn’t really have much of a fighting force. He had a young George Washington as a volunteer officer and that surely didn’t hurt, but the 20 years between this and the start of the American Revolution would see a changed and more experienced Washington, so it’s not like the future general and president brought the level of gravitas in your mind to this campaign.

Then Braddock decided to leave most of his men behind when he crossed the Monongahela River on his campaign to take Fort Duquesne. This was a very bad idea. It’s not as if the French’s Native allies hadn’t told them everything that was coming. So they all came out from Fort Duquesne and shortly after the crossing, they attack.

Braddock’s force was totally overwhelmed. He had severely underestimated both French and Native forces. As this was his first time fighting in the American wilderness, his British racism toward Native Americans probably played a role in underestimating how they could fight. The first exchange of fire actually went the British way and the French’s leading officer was killed. But it was soon a huge disaster. The British were soon surrounded and facing a crossfire. They had no discipline at all, trying to flee but mostly failing. They ran into the soldiers they had left behind at the crossing and rallied them to fight. Braddock tried to get them moving to fight back but then he took a ball in the chest and died four days later. He was 60 years old.

Luckily for the future of the United States, George Washington did not die here. I am very much of the “individuals don’t matter much” school of history–the civil rights movements happens more or less the same way if Martin Luther King doesn’t take that job in Montgomery at that exact time, for instance. But to not have Washington in the 1770s-1790s, I don’t know, I guess I do so wonder if the American Revolution could have been won.

Much later, Benjamin Franklin, in his Autobiography from 1791, claimed that he had personally advised Braddock against his campaign. But it seems that Franklin didn’t quite understand the conditions under which Braddock had lost the battle and described it in a way that made him look right about everything and Braddock wrong about everything, which does sum up Franklin pretty well.

Edward Braddock is buried at Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Farmington, Pennsylvania. He was buried on the spot by the retreating troops, which George Washington took over commanding. They buried along the road he had constructed while hacking the trail west. The body was lost for a long time–it wasn’t really marked as the troops feared its desecration by the Indians, so they covered it up. It was discovered in 1904 by people building a road and wasn’t hard to identify given his uniform remains. The workers moved the remains nearby and now marked the spot. In 1913, they were moved again to the current monument, which was placed up at that time.

Evidently, Braddock is played as a bad guy in some video game called Assassin’s Creed, which I’ve heard of, but then I don’t waste my last remaining moments on the planet away on the most pointless activity ever created.

If you would like this series to visit other figures from 18th century America, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Patrick Henry is in Red Hill, Virginia and Peyton Randolph is in Williamsburg, Virginia. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.