A Short History of Pittsburgh | Page 4

indeed be a
formidable enemy to your raw American militia; but upon the king's
regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make
any impression." Some of his English staff-officers urged him to send
the rangers in advance and to deploy his Indians as scouts, but he
rejected their prudent suggestions with a sneer. On July 9 his army,
comprising twenty-two hundred soldiers and one hundred and fifty
Indians, was marching down the south bank of the Monongahela. The
variant color and fashion of the expedition,--the red-coated regulars, the
blue-coated Americans, the naval detachment, the rangers in deerskin
shirts and leggins, the savages half-naked and befeathered, the glint of
sword and gun in the hot daylight, the long wagon train, the lumbering
cannon, the drove of bullocks, the royal banner and the Colonial
gonfalon,--the pomp and puissance of it all composed a spectacle of

martial splendor unseen in that country before. On the right was the
tranquil river, and on the left the trackless wilderness whence the
startled deer sprang into a deeper solitude. At noon the expedition
crossed the river and pressed on toward Fort Duquesne, eight miles
below, expectant of victory. What need to send out scouts when the
king's troops are here? Let young George Washington and the rest urge
it all they may; the thing is beneath the dignity of his majesty's general.
Meanwhile, all was not tranquil at the French fort. Surrender was talked
of, but Captain Beaujeu determined to lead a force out to meet the
approaching army. Taking with him a total effective of thirty-six
officers and cadets, seventy-two regular soldiers, one hundred and
forty-six Canadians, and about six hundred Indian warriors, a command
less than half the number of the enemy, he sallied out to meet him.
How insignificant were the armed forces with which the two empires
were now challenging each other for the splendid prize of a new world!
Beaujeu, gaily clad in a fringed hunting dress, intrepidly pressed on
until he came in sight of the English invaders. As soon as the alert
French commander felt the hot breath of his foe he waved his hat and
his faithful followers disappeared behind rocks and trees as if the very
earth had swallowed them.
The unsuspecting English came on. But here, when they have crossed,
is a level plain, elevated but a few feet above the surface of the river,
extending nearly half a mile landwards, and then gradually ascending
into thickly wooded hills, with Fort Duquesne beyond. The troops in
front had crossed the plain and plunged into the road through the forest
for a hundred feet when a heavy discharge of musketry and arrows was
poured upon them, which wrought in them a consternation all the
greater because they could see no foe anywhere. They shot at random,
and not without effect, for when Beaujeu fell the Canadians began to
flee and the Indians quailed in their covers before the cannon fire of the
English. But the French fighters were rallied back to their hidden
recesses, and they now kept up an incessant and destructive fire. In this
distressing situation the English fell back into the plain. Braddock rode
in among them, and he and his officers persistently endeavored to rally
them, but without success. The Colonial troops adopted the Indian

method, and each man fought for himself behind a tree. This was
forbidden by Braddock, who attempted to form his men in platoons and
columns, making their slaughter inevitable. The French and Indians,
concealed in the ravines and behind trees, kept up a cruel and deadly
fire, until the British soldiers lost all presence of mind and began to
shoot each other and their own officers, and hundreds were thus slain.
The Virginia companies charged gallantly up a hill with a loss of but
three men, but when they reached the summit the British soldiery,
mistaking them for the enemy, fired upon them, killing fifty out of
eighty men. The Colonial troops then resumed the Indian fashion of
fighting from behind trees, which provoked Braddock, who had had
five horses killed under him in three hours, to storm at them and strike
them with his sword. At this moment he was fatally wounded, and
many of his men now fled away from the hopeless action, not waiting
to hear their general's fainting order to retreat. Washington had had two
horses killed and received three bullets through his coat. Being the only
mounted officer who was not disabled, he drew up the troops still on
the field, directed their retreat, maintaining himself at the rear with
great coolness and courage, and brought away his wounded general.
Sixty-four British and American officers, and nearly one thousand
privates, were killed or wounded in this battle, while the total French
and