Braddock's Defeat
North Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
July 9, 1755 Gen. Braddock's British forces en route to capture Fort Duquesne were ambushed and routed by French and Indians within present limits of Braddock and North Braddock, forcing retreat and failure of the expedition.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On July 9, 1755, a British column under General Edward Braddock marched through this ground toward the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio. A smaller force of French soldiers and their Native allies caught the redcoats in the woods and shattered them, killing Braddock and sending the survivors reeling in retreat. The disaster was one of the worst British defeats of the French and Indian War — and a young colonial aide named George Washington helped rally the broken army.
Why it matters
Braddock's rout exposed the limits of European tactics in the American forest and became a formative lesson for the frontier officers, Washington among them, who would one day lead a revolution.
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Related people
- · Edward Braddock
Related events
- · Braddock's Defeat
- · Battle of the Monongahela
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Braddock's Crossing
West Mifflin, PA · est. 1964
About midday on July 9, 1755, General Edward Braddock's British army of some 1,300 men forded the Monongahela here on its march to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. Hours later that expedition was shattered in the woods beyond, Braddock mortally wounded and his troops routed by a smaller force of French and their Native allies. The battered survivors—among them a young officer named George Washington—recrossed the river in retreat.
Pittsburgh
Forest Hills, PA · est. 1946
The forks of the Ohio, where the Allegheny and Monongahela join, were among the most fought-over ground in colonial America. After General John Forbes forced the French to abandon Fort Duquesne in 1758, the point was renamed for William Pitt, laid out as a town in 1764, and chartered as a city in 1816. From that frontier outpost grew the steelmaking colossus that supplied the nation's rails, bridges, and armaments.
Queen Aliquippa
McKeesport, PA · est. 2003
In the years before the French & Indian War, the forks of the Ohio were contested ground where the Seneca and other nations navigated the rivalry between Britain and France. Queen Aliquippa was a respected leader whose favor the British colonies actively courted — so much so that a young George Washington detoured to pay his respects to her in 1753 during his mission to the Ohio Country. Her death the following year came just as the frontier war she had aligned with was erupting.
Bouquet Camp
Penn Hills, PA · est. 1946
In 1758, British and colonial forces under General John Forbes cut a road across Pennsylvania to strike at French-held Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio. Bouquet Camp served as a supply base along that campaign, named for Colonel Henry Bouquet, Forbes's able second-in-command and the builder of the Forbes Road. The French abandoned and burned Fort Duquesne rather than face the advancing army, opening the gateway to the Ohio Country.