Braddock expedition

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of the Monongahela


caption=Route of the Braddock Expedition
partof=the French and Indian War
date=July 9, 1755
place=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
result=Decisive French & Indian victory
combatant1=flagicon|France|restauration [George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, "The American Cyclopaedia", New York, 1874, p. 250, "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis...". * [http://www.anyflag.com/history/fleur23.htm] The original Banner of France was strewn with fleurs-de-lis. * [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdisplaylargemeta.cfm?strucID=585779&imageID=1236061&parent_id=585395&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&total=98&pos=1&snum=] :on the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)." [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Flag] from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour."] France
Indian Tribes
combatant2=flagicon|United Kingdom|1606 Britain
commander1=flagicon|France|restauration Liénard de Beaujeu †
flagicon|France|restaurationJean-Daniel Dumas flagicon|France|restauration Charles de Langlade
commander2=flagicon|United Kingdom|1606 Edward Braddock †
flagicon|United Kingdom|1606 George Washington
strength1=637 natives, 105 regulars, 147 militia
strength2=1,500 regulars and militia
10 cannon ["History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery", Duncan, Major Francis, London, 1879, Vol. 1, p.58, Fifty Royal Artillerymen, 4 brass 12 pounders, 6 brass 6 pounders, 21 civil attendants,10 servants and six "necessary women". ]
casualties1=23 killed,
16 wounded
Total: 39
casualties2=456 killed,
422 wounded
Total: 878The Braddock expedition (also called "Braddock's campaign") was a failed British attempt to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755 during the French and Indian War. The expedition takes its name from General Edward Braddock, who led the British forces and died in the effort. Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela was a major setback for the British in the early stages of the war with France.

Background

Braddock's expedition was just one part of a massive British offensive against the French in North America that summer. As commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, General Braddock led the main thrust, commanding two regiments (about 1,350 men) and about 500 regular soldiers and militiamen from several British American colonies. With these men Braddock expected to seize Fort Duquesne easily, and then push on to capture a series of French forts, eventually reaching Fort Niagara. Twenty-three year-old George Washington, who knew the territory, served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock. [Some accounts state that Washington commanded the Virginia militia on the Braddock Expedition, but this is incorrect. (Though it is true that Washington commanded Virginia militia before and after the expedition.) As a volunteer aide-de-camp, Washington essentially served as an unpaid and unranked gentleman consultant, with little real authority, but much inside access.]

Braddock's attempt to recruit Native American allies from those tribes not yet allied with the French proved mostly unsuccessful; he had but eight Mingo Indians with him, serving as scouts. A number of Indians in the area, notably Delaware leader Shingas, remained neutral. Caught between two powerful European empires at war, the local Indians who were committed to their lands could not afford to be on the side of the loser. Braddock's success or failure would influence their decisions.

Braddock's Road

Setting out from Fort Cumberland in Maryland on May 29, 1755, the expedition faced an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment, provisions, and (most importantly for the task ahead) heavy cannon, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania, a journey of about 110 miles. Braddock had received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition. Among the wagoners, incidentally, were two young men who would later become legends of American history: Daniel Boone, and Daniel Morgan. Other members of the expedition were Ensign William Crawford (soldier) and Charles Scott (governor of Kentucky). Among the British were Thomas Gage; Charles Lee and Horatio Gates.

The expedition progressed slowly because Braddock insisted in making a road to Fort Duquesne, in some cases moving as few as two miles a day, creating Braddock's Road—an important vestige of the march—as they went. To speed up movement, Braddock split his men into a "flying column" of about 1,300 men (commanded by him), and a supply column with most of the baggage (commanded by Colonel Thomas Dunbar), which lagged far behind. They passed the ruins of Fort Necessity along the way, where the French had defeated Washington the previous summer. Small French and Indian war bands harried Braddock's men during the march, but these were minor skirmishes.

Meanwhile, at Fort Duquesne, the French garrison consisted of only about 250 regulars and Canadian militia, with about 640 Indian allies camped outside the fort. The Indians were from a variety of tribes long associated with the French, including Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomis. The French commander, after receiving reports from Indian scouting parties that the British were on their way to besiege the fort, realised that his fort could not withstand Braddock's cannon, decided to launch a preemptive strike: an ambush of Braddock's army as he crossed the Monongahela River. The Indian allies were initially reluctant to attack such a large British force, but the French commander Liénard de Beaujeu, who dressed himself in full war regalia complete with war paint, convinced them to follow his lead.

Battle of the Monongahela

On July 9, 1755, Braddock's men crossed the Monongahela without opposition, about nine miles south of Fort Duquesne. The advance unit under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage began to move ahead, and unexpectedly came upon the French and Indians, who were hurrying to the river, behind schedule and too late to set an ambush. In the furious skirmish that followed between Gage's soldiers and the French, the French commander was killed, although apparently his death did not have a negative effect on French morale as the French and their Indian allies continued to advance. The battle, which came to be known as the Battle of the Monongahela (or the Battle of the Wilderness, or just Braddock's Defeat), was officially begun. Braddock's impressive column of approximately 1,300 men (although this number included "fighting effectives", e.g. wagoneers, teamsters, and other auxiliaries who were expected to stand and fight, but who in this case, mostly preferred to quickly depart the field) faced a French and Indian force, estimated to number just under 900. [The Battle of the Monongahela has often been mistakenly described as an ambush. The encounter was actually a "meeting engagement", where two forces clash at an unexpected time and place. The quick and effective response of the French and Indians - despite the early loss of their commander - led many of Braddock's men to believe they had been ambushed. However, French documents reveal that the French and Indian force was too late to prepare an ambush, and had been just as surprised as the British.]

After an initial defense, Gage's advance group fell back. In the narrow confines of the road, they collided with the main body of Braddock's force, which had advanced rapidly when the shots were heard. The entire column dissolved in disorder as the Canadian militamen and Indians enveloped them and continued to snipe at the British from the woods on the sides of the road. At this time, the French regulars began advancing from the road and began to push the British back.

Following Braddock's example, the officers kept trying to reform units into regular order within the confines of the road, mostly in vain and simply providing targets for their concealed enemy. In a fruitless attempt, cannon was used, but in such confines of the forest road, it was ineffective. The colonial militia accompanying the British either fled or took cover and returned fire. In the confusion, some of the militiamen who were fighting from the woods were mistaken for the enemy and fired upon by the British regulars.

Finally, after around an hour of intense combat, Braddock was shot off his horse, and effective resistance collapsed. However, Colonel Washington, with no official position in the chain of command, was able to impose and maintain some order and formed a rear guard, which allowed the force to evacuate and eventually disengage. This earned him the sobriquet "Hero of the Monongahela", by which he was toasted, and established his fame for some time to come. By sunset, the surviving British and American forces were fleeing back down the road they had built. Braddock died of his wounds during the long retreat, on July 13, and is buried within the Fort Necessity parklands.

Of the approximately 1,300 men Braddock had led into battle, 456 were killed and 422 wounded. (Commissioned officers were prime targets and suffered greatly: out of 86 officers, 26 were killed and 37 wounded.) Also, of the 50 or so women that accompanied the British column as maids and cooks, only 4 survived. The roughly 250 French and Canadians reported 8 killed and 4 wounded; their 637 Indian allies lost 15 killed and 12 wounded.

Colonel Dunbar, with the rear supply unit, took command when the survivors reached his position. He ordered the destruction of supplies and cannon before withdrawing, burning about 150 wagons on the spot. Ironically, at this point the demoralised and disorganised British forces still outnumbered their opponents, who had not even dared to pursue.

It is claimed that the retreat did not begin until three to four hours after the opening shots. This seems unlikely. The British soldiers carried 24 rounds into battle. It seems more likely that, being shot at from hidden positions, they began to retreat after these were expended, or the officers became casualties.

Aftermath

Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela was a momentous event for the people of the region. The French and their Indian allies gained the upper hand in the struggle for control of the Ohio Country, and a ferocious frontier war quickly escalated. Indians in the area who had been inclined to remain neutral now found it nearly impossible to do so. And the colonists of "backcountry" Pennsylvania and Virginia now found themselves without professional military protection, scrambling to organize a defense. This brutal frontier war would continue until Fort Duquesne was finally abandoned by the French as a result of the successful approach of the Forbes Expedition in 1758.

Another notable outcome of Braddock's defeat was the effect it had on the reputation of George Washington. Washington, despite being in poor health before the battle, distinguished himself as being calm and courageous under fire. He emerged from the disaster as Virginia's military hero.

Debate

The debate on how Braddock—with professional soldiers, superior numbers, and bigger guns—could fail so miserably began soon after the battle, and continues to this day. Some blamed Braddock, some blamed his officers, some blamed the British regulars or the colonial militia. George Washington, for his part, supported Braddock and found fault with the British regulars.

Braddock's tactics are still debated. One (older) school of thought holds that Braddock's reliance on time-honoured European methods, where men stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the open and fire mass volleys in unison, was not appropriate for frontier fighting and cost Braddock the battle. Skirmish tactics that American colonials had learned from frontier fighting, where men take cover and fire individually ("Indian style"), was the superior method in the American environment, so the argument goes. [See, for example, Armstrong Starkey's "European and Native American Warfare, 1675-1815" (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).]

However, in more detailed studies, the more popular interpretation of "Indian style" superiority has been proven to be a myth by several military historians. European regular armies already employed irregular forces of their own and had extensive theories of how to use and counter guerilla warfare. In fact, it was Braddock's failure to rely on the time-honoured European methods that cost him the battle. [See the in-depth study of Peter Russel: "Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740 to 1760", "The William and Mary Quarterly" > 3rd Ser., Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 629-652] The British had already waged war on the irregular forces of the Scots, and Balkan irregulars, such as Pandours and Hussars, had already made their impact on European warfare and theory by the 1740's. Braddock's failure, according to proponents of this theory, was not that he did not use frontier tactics. He failed because he did not adequately apply traditional military doctrine, particularly by not using distance reconnaissance. [ This argument is most recently presented in Guy Chet's "Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northwest" (University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).] Peter Russel, in his study, shows that on several occasions before the Battle of the Monongahela, Braddock successfully adhered to standard European tactics to counter ambushes, and as a result had been nearly immune to earlier French and Canadian attacks.

Footnotes

References

*Chartrand, Rene. "Monongahela, 1754-1755: Washington's Defeat, Braddock's Disaster". United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-84176-683-6.
*Jennings, Francis. "Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America". New York: Norton, 1988. ISBN 0-393-30640-2.
*Kopperman, Paul E. "Braddock at the Monongahela". Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973. ISBN 0-8229-5819-8.
*O'Meara, Walter. "Guns at the Forks". Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1965. ISBN 0-8229-5309-9.
*Russel, Peter. "Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740 to 1760", "The William and Mary Quarterly" > 3rd Ser., Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 629-652

External links

* [http://www.route40.net/history/braddock-lacock.shtml Braddock's Road]
* [http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/FRENCH_ARMY.htm The French Army 1600-1900]
* [http://wikitravel.org/en/Braddock_Expedition WikiTravel Itinerary] tracing the route of the expedition