Young Daniel Boone
Wearing a Coonskin Hat
(which his
descendants say he never wore; he liked wide-brimmed hats)
The Pennsylvania
Gazette
PHILADELPHIA,
23 May 1755
‘We hear from
the Camp at Wills Creek, (Fort Cumberland)
that his Excellency General Braddock, and all his Forces, were arrived there.
That Capt. Dobbs, Son of Governor Dobbs, was also arrived from North
Carolina, with a fine Company of 100 men: And that
Scarroyady had likewise got to the Camp, with a Number of Indians.’
Monocatootha (Scarroyady) was the Half King who succeeded Tanacharison in 1754. (He represented the Six Nations on the upper Ohio
River.)
The number of Indians warriors with him in Logstown may have been fewer than three
dozen.
In all, General
Edward Braddock had about two thousand four hundred men in his small army, between
army regulars, colonial militiamen, Indians, and ax men and wagoneers. One of his aides, Lieutenant Colonel George
Washington, was a Virginia
volunteer. (Braddock is supposed to have invited Washington
along because the latter had experience in the area--see my entries on 'How George Washington Became Famous.) Among the officers in Braddock’s command were
Thomas Gage, one of Braddock’s later successors as Commander-in-Chief of the
Royal Army in North America, and Charles Lee and Horatio
Gates, both former English army officers who became Revolutionary War generals. Among the wagoneers were Daniel Boone and
Daniel Morgan (Morgan Rifle Companies, Revolutionary War).
Braddock had
military experience, but had never before planned a campaign on his own. He had been in the army more than forty
years, but had only fought in Europe. He had never been to the colonies. He was a political appointee. He was promoted from being Colonel of the
Prince of Wales’ Own Regiment to being a Major General and sent to Virginia. His father had been a Major General.
At the Council
of Alexandria (Virginia) in April 1755, General Braddock explained his plan to
five colonial governors. Governors
Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia and
Horatio Sharpe of Maryland were
there. The major military campaign would be
launched from their counties. (An easier
road could have been developed through Pennsylvania,
but Braddock’s orders said he was to start at Fort
Cumberland, Maryland.) The Governor of Pennsylvania was there,
Robert Hunter Morris, as were the governors of New York
and Massachusetts, William
Shirley and James DeLancey. (Shirley was
to lead a separate force and attack two French forts on Lake
Ontario. Indian Commissioner William Johnson would
attack a fort on Lake Champlain. A separate naval attack
would be made in Nova Scotia. It was the only part of the plan that worked.)
Braddock was
going to attack a series of French forts in the Ohio
Valley and work his way north. The cannons that the general had in his
command would guarantee his success.
However, hauling cannons through the forest was not going to go rapidly. They had to have a road to travel on. (The Royal Army told Braddock to start in Fort
Cumberland because Major George
Washington had built a road from there to Fort
Necessity, only a year
before.)
An army of more
than two thousand men marching through the woods requires a lot of supplies to
keep going. General Braddock asked the
governors for money to buy supplies and they turned him down. They explained that if the Royal Army was
going to capture Fort Duquesne
in western Pennsylvania, then it
should have money already budgeted to it for the campaign. They didn’t have any to give.
Sometime in
early May, General Braddock made his way to Fort
Cumberland. He had already let it be known that he
regarded his regular soldiers as invincible, that no Indians were going to
defeat his men in battle, and that he needed every wagon in about four colonies
to move his army. He had also discovered
that Washington’s road to Fort
Necessity was too narrow for the
cannons and supply wagons. It would have
to be widened, every single foot of every single mile of its length.
Apparently,
Benjamin Franklin and his illegitimate son, William (later Royal Governor of New
Jersey), scrounged through Pennsylvania
business shops and farms, and gathered about one hundred fifty wagons for
General Braddock’s campaign. They also
collected about two hundred fifty horses.
Ben pledged to pay for the wagons and animals, if the Royal Army or government
didn’t come through with money for them.
(Braddock’s successor paid for them, even though the wagons had been
destroyed.)
The Pennsylvania
Gazette
PHILADELPHIA,
23 May 1755 (continued)
The new Post
between Philadelphia and Winchester,
in Virginia, set out from the
Post office in Philadelphia this
Morning to continue his weekly Stages, setting out every Thursday Morning,
during the Summer. Letters for Lancaster,
York, or Cumberland
Counties, in Pennsylvania,
for the back Parts of Virginia, or for the Army, should be brought to the
Office before Nine a Clock on Thursday Morning.
The Pennsylvania
Gazette
Lancaster,
May 26, 1755.
Deserted from
his majesty’s company of soldiers from North Carolina,
commanded by Edward Brice Dobbs; when on their march to Wills Creek, on the
19th instant, the five following recruits:
John Giggs, a
Dutchman, about 33 years of age, 6 feet high, and is strong made: He wore his
hair when he went off, and had on long trousers, and a brown jacket. Jeptha Hetherington, born in Carolina,
is about 20 years of age, 6 feet 3 inches high, well made, and a little marked
with the smallpox. William Riely, born
in England, about 28 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches and a half high, is smooth
faced, and has short black hair. John
Maxedon, born in Carolina, about 28 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches and a half
high, is smooth faced, and has short black hair.
John Rawlins,
born in the Jerseys, about 29 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches and a half high,
has a brown freckled face, and is marked with the smallpox: Had on an old brown
coat, a red waistcoat, and leather breeches: The rest had on their Regimentals,
which is blue coats, with red lapels, and blue breeches. Whoever takes up and
secures said deserters in any of his majesty’s jails, and sends a speedy
account thereof by the Post to their commanders, or brings them to Wills Creek,
shall have Two Pistoles [£24?] reward for each, and reasonable charges, paid by
EDWARD BRICE DOBBS.
N.B. The above
deserters stole and took with them five wagon horses, and their arms, and it is
supposed are gone into Pennsylvania.
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