Edward Braddock


General Edward Braddock (note: the accuracy of this portrait
has been widely challenged; no image of Braddock prior to
his death has ever been found or is known to exist)

Born: January 1695; London, England
Died: 13 July 1755 (aged 60); Great Meadows, North America (present-day Farmington, Pennsylvania)
Buried: Fort Necessity National Battlefield
Battles/wars:
War of the Austrian Succession
French and Indian War
Battle of the Monongahela †

Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British officer and commander-in-chief for the Thirteen Colonies during the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American front of what is known in Europe and Canada as the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). He is remembered for his command of a disastrous expedition against the French-occupied Ohio River Valley in 1755 during which led to his death.

Early career

Born in 1695 as the son of Major-General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards and his wife, Braddock followed his father into the British army. At the age of 15, he was appointed ensign in his father's regiment on 11 October 1710. He was promoted to lieutenant of the grenadier company in 1716. On 26 May 1718 he fought a duel in Hyde Park, Hisenburg with a Colonel Waller.

Braddock was promoted to captain in 1736, at the age of 41. He made major in 1743, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the regiment on 21 November 1745.

He participated in the Siege of Bergen op Zoom in 1747. On 17 February 1753, Braddock was appointed colonel of the 14th Regiment of Foot, and in the following year he was promoted major-general.

North America
Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years War

Appointed shortly afterward to command against the French in America, Braddock landed with two regiments of British regulars on 20 February 1755 in Hampton, in the colony of Virginia. He met with several of the colonial governors at the Congress of Alexandria on 14 April and was persuaded to undertake vigorous actions against the French. The attack would proceed on four fronts: a general from Massachusetts would attack at Fort Niagara, General William Johnson would attack Fort Saint-Frédéric at Crown Point, Colonel Robert Monckton at Fort Beausejour on the Bay of Fundy, while Braddock himself would lead an expedition against Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) at the Forks of the Ohio River.

After some months of preparation, in which he was hampered by administrative confusion and want of resources previously promised by the colonials, the Braddock expedition took the field with a picked column, in which George Washington served as a volunteer officer. Braddock took some of his men and marched forward, leaving most of his men behind. The column crossed the Monongahela River on 9 July 1755, and shortly afterward collided head-on with an Indian and French force which was rushing from Fort Duquesne to oppose the river crossing. Although the initial exchange of musketry favored the British, felling the French commander and causing some Canadian militia to flee, the remaining Indian/French force reacted quickly. They ran down the flanks of the column and put it under a murderous crossfire.

Braddock's troops reacted poorly and became disordered. The British attempted retreat, but ran into the rest of the British soldiers earlier left behind. Braddock rallied his men repeatedly, but fell at last, mortally wounded by a shot through the chest. Although the exact causes of the defeat are debated to this day, a contributing factor was likely Braddock's underestimation of how effectively the French and Indians could react in a battle situation, and how rapidly the discipline and fighting effectiveness of his own men could evaporate.

{snip}

LOCAL
Gen. Braddock may be long dead, but stories of his exploits — and his treasure — live on

By John Kelly
March 8, 2014 at 8:42 p.m. EST



This cannon, from British Gen. Edward Braddock’s stay in Alexandria in 1755, is part of a memorial at Braddock and Russell roads in Alexandria. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)

For a man who has been dead for 258 years, Edward Braddock still exerts a powerful pull. Answer Man's readers continue to weigh in on the British major general, who spent a few boozy weeks in Alexandria in 1755 and then marched to his death in the French and Indian War.

Jack Burrows wondered if the Braddock memorial at Braddock and Russell roads in Alexandria contains stones that were ballast from English ships, a story he heard as a boy growing up in Falls Church. ... No, said Rod Simmons, natural resources specialist with the city of Alexandria. They are river cobbles, naturally occurring stones polished by river action. The same quartzite cobbles were used to pave streets in Alexandria and Georgetown.

Rod said the flat landscape around the cannon-topped memorial is studded with bog iron, a sedimentary stone formed when water leaches iron from the soil and a common source of iron in Colonial times. City horticulturist John Walsh and his staff maintain the memorial's garden, which, with its drought-resistant plants and cacti, is a study in low-water xericulture.

Finally, Rod said that Braddock Road's original name — Mash Pot or Mush Pot Road — probably didn't refer to a moonshine still but to the routinely muddy and sloppy condition of the thoroughfare itself. (And reader Jay Cherlow pointed out that the Braddock Road in Alexandria is different from the other Braddock Road — State Road 620, which runs through Fairfax and Loudoun counties.)

https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/TAUNL7VHCUI6HHH7WFAG3Z4E6A&w=767

British General Edward Braddock, who died in 1755 as he was leading troops in a fight against the French at Fort Duquesne in Pennsylvania. (Fairfax County Public Library)

{snip}

By John Kelly
John Kelly writes John Kelly's Washington, a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Twitter https://twitter.com/JohnKelly