Braddock Expedition
Shippensburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1755 supplies for Braddock's army were stored here in Edward Shippen's strong stone house "at the back Run." James Burd, the son-in-law of Shippen, opened a road to carry these supplies to the west. After Braddock's defeat remaining supplies were given to sufferers from Indian attacks.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1755, as General Edward Braddock's army marched toward the French at Fort Duquesne, supplies for the expedition were stockpiled in Edward Shippen's stout stone house at Shippensburg. His son-in-law James Burd cut a road westward to move those provisions toward the front. After Braddock's crushing defeat, the goods that remained were handed out to settlers fleeing Indian raids along the exposed Pennsylvania frontier.
Why it matters
The episode shows how ordinary frontier towns became supply bases for the French and Indian War, and how Braddock's defeat exposed the backcountry to years of devastating raids.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1755, the long rivalry between Britain and France had reached the forests of North America. Both empires claimed the rich lands of the Ohio Valley, and the collision of those claims helped ignite the French and Indian War — the American theater of a struggle that would eventually span the globe. The Pennsylvania frontier suddenly found itself on the road to war.
Shippensburg, in the Cumberland Valley, sat at a strategic spot: a frontier town poised between the settled east and the contested west. As armies prepared to strike deep into the wilderness toward the French strongholds, towns like this became the places where the war was supplied and staged.
Moving an 18th-century army through dense forest was a monumental task. Roads had to be cut, wagons loaded, and provisions gathered and guarded. Before a single shot was fired at the front, campaigns were won or lost on the strength of the supply lines feeding them — and that work began in places like Shippensburg.
People & events
In 1755, supplies for General Edward Braddock's army were stored here in Edward Shippen's strong stone house, described as standing "at the back Run." Shippen was a prominent figure of the region, and his sturdy stone home made an ideal depot for the provisions an army on the march would need.
The task of getting those supplies westward fell in part to James Burd, Shippen's son-in-law, who opened a road to carry them toward the front. Cutting a road through frontier country was grueling, essential work — the difference between an army that could advance and one that would stall in the wilderness.
Then came disaster. Braddock's expedition met a catastrophic defeat, and the general himself did not survive the campaign. With the army broken, the provisions that remained stored here took on a new and grimmer purpose: they were given out to settlers suffering from the Indian raids that swept the exposed frontier in the wake of the defeat.
Its place in the American story
This local episode captures how deeply the French and Indian War reached into ordinary frontier life. A private stone house became a military depot; a settler cut a road that an army would march on; and when the campaign failed, the same storehouse that had supplied soldiers became a lifeline for terrified civilians. War, supply, and survival were all bound together in one small Pennsylvania town.
Braddock's defeat was a shock felt throughout the colonies. It shattered the assumption of easy British victory and left the backcountry dangerously exposed, opening years of devastating raids along the frontier. Towns like Shippensburg went almost overnight from staging grounds for conquest to refuges for the displaced.
The war that ran through this valley would reshape the continent, driving France from much of North America — and its enormous cost would help set in motion the tensions between Britain and her colonies that led, a generation later, to revolution.
If you visit
Stand here and think of this quiet valley as a place where a great campaign was outfitted — wagons loading, provisions stacked in a stone house, a road being hacked westward toward a distant fort. The drama of 1755 played out not only at the battlefront but right here, in the logistics of getting an army moving.
The Cumberland Valley is beautiful driving country, and that gentle landscape makes a striking contrast with the hard history the marker records: a war effort, a shattering defeat, and frightened families seeking help. Let that contrast sharpen your sense of the past.
For a road trip tracing the French and Indian War across Pennsylvania, Shippensburg is a meaningful stop — the supply end of the story rather than the battle end. From here, you can imagine the long road west that Braddock's army took, and the fear that traveled back east after it fell.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Appalachian Trail Museum11.7 mi away
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Related people
- · Edward Shippen
- · James Burd
- · Edward Braddock
Related events
- · Braddock Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Southampton Township, PA · est. 1952
At Shippensburg the old Raystown Path split, and in 1758 General John Forbes had to choose his army's line of march west. One branch climbed directly over three steep mountains toward Burnt Cabins; Forbes instead took the southern fork around Parnells Knob to Fort Loudon, crossing the Tuscarora Mountain at Cowan Gap to avoid the punishing grades. The choice shaped where his military road—and later settlement—would run.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Carlisle, PA · est. 1952
In 1758, during the French and Indian War, General John Forbes set out from his base at Carlisle to seize Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. Rather than follow Braddock's ill-fated earlier route, Forbes drove a new road westward, keeping as close as army wagons allowed to the old Raystown Indian and Traders Path. Axemen under Colonel Henry Bouquet widened the trail into a military road that ended with the French abandoning and burning the fort.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Dublin Township, PA · est. 1952
The Raystown Path was one of the great Indian trails threading the Allegheny ridges of central Pennsylvania, and in 1758 it became a corridor of war. During the French and Indian War, General John Forbes cut a military road westward toward the French stronghold at the forks of the Ohio, throwing up a chain of forts to guard his slow, methodical advance. The towns strung along his line of march — Littleton, Bedford, Ligonier, and finally Pittsburgh — still carry the names of those wilderness garrisons.
Fort McDowell - PLAQUE
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Fort McDowell grew up around a frontier gristmill before 1754, then became a supply base and munitions store as the French and Indian War closed in, holding that role until Fort Loudon was raised in 1756. From this point in 1755 Col. James Burd pushed a military road westward to link with Braddock's ill-fated route at Turkey Foot. Standing at the edge of settled country, the little fort saw its share of the war's frontier alarms.