Poor man: very brave, they say; but without knowledge, except of field-drill; a heart of iron, but brain mostly of pipe-clay quality. A man severe and rigorous in regimental points;contemptuous of the Colonial Militias, that gathered to help him;thrice-contemptuous of the Indians, who were a vital point in the Enterprise ahead. Chaos is very strong,--especially if within oneself as well! Poor Braddock took the Colonial Militia Regiments, Colonel Washington as Aide-de-Camp; took the Indians and Appendages, Colonial Chaos much presiding: and after infinite delays and confused hagglings, got on march;--2,000 regular, and of all sorts say 4,000 strong.
Got on march; sprawled and haggled up the Alleghanies,--such a Commissariat, such a wagon-service, as was seldom seen before.
Poor General and Army, he was like to be starved outright, at one time; had not a certain Mr. Franklin come to him, with charitable oxen, with 500 pounds-worth provisions live and dead, subscribed for at Philadelphia,--Mr Benjamin Franklin, since celebrated over all the world; who did not much admire this iron-tempered General with the pipe-clay brain. [Franklin's AUTOBIOGRAPHY; <italic>
Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> xxv. 378.] Thereupon, however, Braddock took the road again; sprawled and staggered, at the long last, to the top; "at the top of the Alleghanies, 15th June;"--and forward down upon FORT DUQUESNE, "roads nearly perpendicular in some places," at the rate of "four miles" and even of "one mile per day." Much wood all about,--and the 400 Indians to rear, in a despised and disgusted condition, instead of being vanward keeping their brightest outlook.
July 8th, Braddock crossed the Monongahela without hindrance.
July 9th, was within ten miles of FORT DUQUESNE; plodding along;marching through a wood, when,--Ambuscade of French and Indians burst out on him, French with defences in front and store of squatted Indians on each flank,--who at once blew him to destruction, him and his Enterprise both. His men behaved very ill;sensible perhaps that they were not led very well. Wednesday, 9th July, 1755, about three in the afternoon. His two regiments gave one volley and no more; utterly terror-struck by the novelty, by the misguidance, as at Prestonpans before; shot, it was whispered, several of their own Officers, who were furiously rallying them with word and sword: of the sixty Officers, only five were not killed or wounded. Brave men clad in soldier's uniform, victims of military Chaos, and miraculous Nescience, in themselves and in others: can there be a more distressing spectacle?
Imaginary workers are all tragical, in this world; and come to a bad end, sooner or later, they or their representatives here:
but the Imaginary Soldier--he is paid his wages (he and his poor Nation are) on the very nail!
Braddock, refusing to fall back as advised, had five horses shot under him; was himself shot, in the arm, in the breast; was carried off the field in a death-stupor,--forward all that night, next day and next (to Fort Cumberland, seventy miles to rear);--and on the fourth day died. The Colonial Militias had stood their ground, Colonel Washington now of some use again;--who were ranked well to rearward; and able to receive the ambuscade as an open fight.
Stood striving, for about three hours. And would have saved the retreat; had there been a retreat, instead of a panic rout, to save. The poor General--ebbing homewards, he and his Enterprise, hour after hour--roused himself twice only, for a moment, from his death-stupor: once, the first night, to ejaculate mournfully, "Who would have thought it!" And again once, he was heard to say, days after, in a tone of hope, "Another time we will do better!" which were his last words, "death following in a few minutes."Weary, heavy-laden soul; deep Sleep now descending on it,--soft sweet cataracts of Sleep and Rest; suggesting hope, and triumph over sorrow, after all:--"Another time we will do better;" and in few minutes was dead! [Manuscript JOURNAL OF GENERAL BRADDOCK'SEXPEDITION IN 1755 (British Museum: King's Library, 271 e, King's Mss. 212): raw-material, this, of the Official Account (<italic> London Gazette, <end italic> August 26th, 1755), where it is faithfully enough abridged. Will perhaps be printed by some inquiring PITTSBURGHER, one day, after good study on the ground itself? It was not till 1758 that the bones of the slain were got buried, and the infant Pittsburg (now so busy and smoky) rose from the ashes of FORT DUQUESNE.]
The Colonial Populations, who had been thinking of Triumphal Arches for Braddock's return, are struck to the nadir by this news.
French and Indians break over the Mountains, harrying, burning, scalping; the Black Settlers fly inward, with horror and despair: