A Short History of Pittsburgh | Page 4

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 Indian loss was not over sixty. A few prisoners captured by the Indians were brought to Pittsburgh and burnt at the stake. Four days after the fight Braddock died, exclaiming to the last, "Who would have thought it!"
VI
Despondency seized the English settlers after Braddock's defeat. But two years afterward William Pitt became prime minister, and he thrilled the nation with his appeal to protect