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Episode 6 - Acadia & Braddock's Defeat
246 Plays3 months ago
We are back with another episode! This time, we cover 2 parts of the British 4-pronged assault on New France in 1755, specifically the action in Acadia (Nova Scotia/New Brunswick) and the second British attempt to seize Fort Duquesne. One goes well for the Brits, the other... not so much.
Thanks for your patience with this episode, we hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Topic
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Tales from the French and Indian War. I am your host, Jackson, and back with me again, as always, is... Your wonderful co-host, Matt.
00:00:23
Speaker
Oh, wonderful, are you now? Yeah. Adding some nice adjectives in for yourself, I see. it yeah well, you know, as ah as a British supporter, I have to get the um to get the mood up before we darken it for the listeners.
1755 Battles Overview
00:00:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:37
Speaker
Well, we're covering two big battles or areas of the focus of the conflict in 1755. One of them, indeed, goes horrendously for the British, but the other is positive. So for the British fans out there, it's going to be a 50-50 episode here.
00:00:54
Speaker
Not all dark, don't worry.
Fort Beau Séjour and Monongahela Discussion
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, today we are going to be talking about the front in Acadia, particularly the taking of Fort Beau Séjour by the British.
00:01:07
Speaker
And then also we will be covering the Battle of the Monongahela, also known as Braddock's Defeat. So the... I'll be, we'll be starting chronologically. So we'll cover the action in Acadia first and then go over to what's happening in the Ohio country, that coveted, coveted land.
00:01:27
Speaker
So Matt, are you ready to get started? I'm very ready. This is when i know we probably say this every episode, but this is when the war actually kicks off. This is when the British government starts drawing up actual battle plans. Um,
00:01:41
Speaker
for the purpose of engaging a war with France. So this isn't the, I don't want to say backwood skirmishing that we've seen before, but that is kind of what it was where, you know, two forces acting on defensive orders would encounter each other. We're actually talking about true battle plans now that are drawn up by the crown in England, and we're going to get to see them play out.
00:02:03
Speaker
Yep, exactly.
British Military Build-up
00:02:04
Speaker
yeah Things are much larger scale now, as we discussed in our last episode about a month ago. Both sides, particularly the British spearheading it, are completely ramping up. They're sending thousands of troops over to the New World with some very ambitious goals in mind.
00:02:23
Speaker
think at the end of the last episode, we had just talked about the British capturing a few of the French ships that were coming to reinforce New France, an act of piracy.
00:02:35
Speaker
And ah I know you had mentioned, like we say this every time, oh, things are ramping up. It is true. I think we can add that to our drinking game where when when we say, oh, things are really ramping up this time, that could be one. We also have, of course, whenever I bring up some kind of extremely distant and weak connection to my family tree, just from someone on the French Canadian side, that can be one.
00:03:00
Speaker
And then also as I was ah editing last month's episode, I thought every time we stress and still the two powers are not at war yet. That could also be a drinking game. Cause I think I said that like four times in last month's episode. Well, I think we are going to be getting up to a point now where we will have a declaration of war pretty, pretty soon. So, well, we still got to wait till spring of 1756. So we got to finish all 1755 first. Yeah.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yes, a lot happens in this year too. And I think it is important to remember that these these two sides are not officially at war yet. Although as I...
Geopolitical Delays in War Declaration
00:03:38
Speaker
Take a drink. Yeah, exactly. but As I mentioned before, you know these are actual war plans that the British government is enforcing. So the fact that these there has been no official declaration of war yet is astonishing. But also when we talk about the declaration of war that happens in 1756 in the future. We'll see kind of why they waited so long, because that has a lot of geopolitical ramifications, not only in the North America, but in the rest of the world, which we'll see them the stage of this war also encompass many other regions, not just the North American frontier that we've been talking about.
00:04:20
Speaker
Absolutely. All right, let's get into it
Acadia: Geography and Colonial History
00:04:24
Speaker
for today. So to start off talking about Acadia, to remind our listeners, Acadia refers to the region in what is now considered Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
00:04:38
Speaker
This was a French colony similar to Canada, New France, which is more along the St. Lawrence River, and Louisiana, of course, down in like New Orleans and the territory around there.
00:04:49
Speaker
So several different French colonies. Acadia was in... in it would have been It would have been Queen Anne's War, the result of that one, which was the War of the Spanish Succession.
00:05:02
Speaker
Some of French Acadia was given to the British. So this is most of what is now Nova Scotia was given to the British. But the rest of Acadia is still under French control.
00:05:13
Speaker
They've got the fortress of Louisbourg on i think it's Cape Breton Island on the northeast part of what is now Nova Scotia. And then the Western part, and like New Brunswick, that's still under French control by the Acadians.
00:05:26
Speaker
But since the last war, since King George's War that ended in 1748, Acadia has still been a mess. So if you remember, no one was satisfied with the peace agreement, the Treaty of Ix-la-Chapelle.
00:05:41
Speaker
And one of the reasons no one was satisfied is it did not fully regulate or define the borders that were contested between the British and French colonies. And one of those areas of disagreement was in Acadia, where exactly the British line is, where exactly the French line is. What is now the state of Maine was contested.
00:06:01
Speaker
I think what is now like Eastern Maine was still within... More of the French claim and zone of influence, but of course, there were butting heads there. And after that peace treaty, there were still a lot of smaller scale raids and skirmishes between the Acadians, their Mi'kmaq Native American allies, and then the American colonists in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia.
00:06:23
Speaker
that area. There was still, you know, even though war had ended, there was still a lot of bad blood and some active fighting here and there throughout New England and Acadia.
Conflicts in Acadia Post-War
00:06:35
Speaker
And so as we get into the French and Indian War, There were still some of these small-scale raids, especially going from the Wabanaki Confederacy, which was like the Abenaki, the Mi'kmaq, and I think there was a couple other tribes within that, although I can't remember.
00:06:53
Speaker
oh yeah, there's I have it here. The Penobscot, the Maliseet, and the Passamaquoddy. There were still raids from these tribes. Sometimes French Acadians would join in. but mostly small scale that had slowly but consistently been occurring since the fall of 1754, which, you know, right after Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity, the tensions between France and Britain ramping up.
00:07:17
Speaker
So we're seeing a little bit of an escalation in Acadia, which always was kind of contentious.
British Strategy and Attack Plans
00:07:23
Speaker
So in the summer of 1755, pretty much almost immediately after Admiral Bosquin captured those two French ships, the Alcide and the Lys, Robert Moncton, he is going to sail from Boston with 2,000 provincial soldiers and 280 British regular soldiers.
00:07:42
Speaker
They're going to land in Nova Scotia, and their goal is to take Fort Beaussejour and the Isthmus between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Jackson, a quick question. So, yeah, was this these orders given to Moncton to take Acadia and Fort Beaujolore, I said that right, or close enough? Beaujolore. Beaujolore. There we go. Nice.
00:08:07
Speaker
us So I'm assuming this was part of ah a larger plan from the British government, correct? Yes. so So if you remember from last month, the plan that Newcastle came up with as ah and ah and the Duke of Cumberland was a four-pronged attack. Yeah.
00:08:24
Speaker
What's that? I said William Augustus. Oh, is that his real name? Yes. I had to look that up. So I was trying to look for some of his personal correspondence. And there's a lot of Dukes of Cumberland. so Right. Yeah. because it's totally the actual one so And I believe he and I know he was a a friend of King George II.
00:08:43
Speaker
He was a son, his favorite son. Correct. Yes. Yes. Wait, William mc Augustus was George... was Well, I guess i don't i mean I don't know the Duke of Cumberland's real name from this time. I just know that he was the king's favorite son. Oh, okay.
00:08:59
Speaker
Interesting. I don't think... He probably wasn't the oldest because he didn't take the throne when King George second died, but he must have been the favorite. know. I read that somewhere. But I don't know what his actual name was, just like I don't know the Duke of Newcastle's name at this time because every book just refers to him as Newcastle.
00:09:18
Speaker
Anyway, the plan that they developed together was a four pronged attack. One prong hitting Acadia, which Robert Monkton is in charge of. Two prongs in upstate New York. One was supposed to go up through like the New York Vermont border and the French forts there go up to Montreal.
00:09:36
Speaker
Another upstate New York prong was supposed to go up to Fort Oswego. And then from there attack Fort Niagara, which was in French control. And then the other prong, which we'll cover today, and Braddock and his march back to the Ohio country to take Fort Duquesne.
00:09:54
Speaker
So yes, this is absolutely part of a larger plan. It is the Eastern front of the 1755 campaign.
French Weaknesses at Fort Beau Séjour
00:10:01
Speaker
And then just to set that context too, so the listeners understand the significance of it, these four prongs were all supposed to happen simultaneously in a perfect setting. Although we'll see that some of them were delayed and things didn't happen completely simultaneously, but they all do happen, believe, in 1755.
00:10:22
Speaker
I don't know. ah Okay. i wasn't sure the Fort Niagara campaign carries over. So yeah, we'll cover that next time, but it kind of, to spoil it, it kind of gets aborted. It doesn't really even get close to its objective. There's not like any real battle associated with it. As far as I know, it's just the the logistics, the news from the other fronts, everything kind of piles together and they end up withdrawing or at least stalling their advance at a certain point.
00:10:47
Speaker
Exactly. But these are major battle plans drawn up by ah the Duke of Cumberland in Newcastle. yes And this would be a four-punch knockout, essentially, of ah the French in North America. And I think that's kind of what they were hoping it would be. is Yes, that is what they're hoping. Quick, immediate, um undefendable, overwhelming strike at the key points within New France.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, to be fair, a lot of European warfare this time was focused on quick, hard-hitting knockouts of another power to just take power out of the war because prolonged wars were never supported by the people. So it was just something that I think the British thought that they could get around a declaration of war on the French by just doing four quick attacks to a point where France wouldn't have any fighting power left in North America. So just kind of interesting to see that.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, that was absolutely the hope, but not the reality, unfortunately, for the British.
British Siege and Control
00:11:47
Speaker
Exactly. And they're still not at war. so that's it Take a drink. Yeah.
00:11:52
Speaker
All right. So Moncton sails from Boston with about 2,500 soldiers, give her take. they are trying to seize Fort Beaucejour, which is a recent French installation in one of those disputed, vaguely defined areas. Like, is this British control? Is this French control?
00:12:11
Speaker
You know, the last war didn't really settle this issue. Now, if you're unfamiliar with how Nova Scotia looks, I have a map pulled up here. It would be helpful ah if listeners at some point can pull up a map as well. But Nova Scotia kind of looks...
00:12:26
Speaker
a bit like the number seven a little bit. It's a very like thin, peninsular ah Canadian province. And all the way on the west side, at the you know the top left edge of the seven shape, it's a very, very narrow isthmus.
00:12:41
Speaker
So this is connecting this is all that's connecting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. And in that very narrow part is where the British and the French have built their forts. Fort Beausjour and the nearby Fort Gasparo are right in that area.
00:12:55
Speaker
And then the British have Fort Lawrence, which is not far either. Because this is the only land entrance into Nova Scotia from New Brunswick and vice versa. It's the only land entrance into New Brunswick or the rest of Acadia from the now British controlled Nova Scotia.
00:13:10
Speaker
So it's a very important line to hold for both sides. So the British, they arrived there on June 2nd on the British fort next to pretty just a short march from Fort Beaussejour.
00:13:23
Speaker
They'll begin heading that way. There's some skirmishes along the way, but the ah The French, they don't really have the numbers to engage this British army in the field or to you know really stop their advance.
00:13:39
Speaker
So the British army is going to arrive at the fort and begin to prepare for a siege. The French have about a thousand troops between the Acadian militia and then some regular troops.
00:13:52
Speaker
But their morale is pretty low because like the Acadians that are holed up there who have retreated from the advancing British forces. They're watching the British come through and torch their villages, like probably within sightline of the fort.
00:14:07
Speaker
And they're worried about if the British take over, what are they going to do with us, the people who live here, whereas the French regular soldiers, you know, they're from France. They don't really have as much locally tied in to the action. So morale is a, it's looking a little fraught for the French, even before many shots have been fired.
00:14:28
Speaker
So one thing to note about this battle is i had read several times in some some history books that one of the negatives of the French side in this war, one of their disadvantages was that there was corruption in the colonial government of New France.
00:14:48
Speaker
And I'd read that a few times, but I never saw any examples at first. It just mentioned like, and there was there was corruption within the leadership of New France. And I was, you know, never wondered. I always wondered what to do with that because I didn't know, like, who who was corrupt or how.
00:15:04
Speaker
But I'd finally learned when doing a little bit of research for this battle what some of that corruption looked like. So the person in charge of the fort, ah someone named Louis Dupont Duchambon de Vergore.
00:15:17
Speaker
We'll just call him Vergore. He was the commander Fort Beaussejour. But he is one of these people who was quite corrupt. His secretary, in his memoirs, claimed that Vergor was avaricious in the extreme.
00:15:34
Speaker
extremely greedy. And there's a quote attributed to the intendant of New France. That's like the civilian or the the civil leader of New France. You know, you had the the governor general who was the military and diplomatic leader of New France.
00:15:49
Speaker
then you have the intendant. who was like the more like civil authority in New France, but the civil authority, the Intendant Bigot, he is quoted as writing to this fort commander, profit my dear Virgoire by your opportunity at Beaussejour, trim, cut, you have the power in order that you may soon join me in France and purchase an estate near me.
00:16:14
Speaker
So this is the leader of New France, just outright telling this fort commander, you know, like, Take what money you can trim, you know, what money you can from the budget, save it up, and then you can go live next to me in France, you know, in a few years, once you've kind of skimmed enough of the ah colonial funds from your leadership position.
00:16:33
Speaker
Whoa, it sounds like the French nobility did not place a lot of emphasis on maintaining the the French colonies in North America. That will be a consistent theme, especially as the years go by.
00:16:46
Speaker
But yes, so there are funds, there's effort that is specifically being allocated to shoring up the defenses of this fort and making sure it's ready to resist any British aggression.
00:16:57
Speaker
that is being drained covertly by the leader of the fort himself. So that that contributes to Fort Beaussejour not being quite ready and not being quite strong enough to resist the British.
00:17:11
Speaker
Also, there was a French informant, or rather, a i guess, a British informant, as a Frenchman who ended up kind of deserting and being a spy for the British, and he was actively handing over information about the fort as...
00:17:26
Speaker
Moncton's army approaches. So two big factors, two big ah corruption and espionage already put the French, along with their inferior numbers, on a bad footing for this upcoming battle.
00:17:41
Speaker
So, well, it's not really a ah battle in total. it's It's more of just, it ends up being about two weeks of siege and some intense bombardment of the fort.
00:17:53
Speaker
I think even one of the um One of the like shells from the British cannons hits like the arsenal or some kind of like place where like gunpowder is stored in the fort, causes a huge explosion.
00:18:08
Speaker
The walls are in poor shape, and then some officers were killed in that. And on June 14th, the fort is surrendered, especially after the news comes that Louisbourg, the French fortress to the east, the news has come in that it is being blockaded and reinforcements will not be coming to Fort Beaussejour anytime soon.
00:18:32
Speaker
So by mid-June, Fort Beaus-Ajure is under British control after the surrender. The land route between Louisbourg and Quebec and the rest of New France has now been cut because the British control that narrow isthmus.
00:18:47
Speaker
And the nearby Fort Gasparo is also surrendered up because it doesn't have the manpower, especially, and not the positioning, especially after Fort Beaus-Ajure has just been taken.
00:18:59
Speaker
So it sounds like this battle can not have won any better for the British. Yeah. I mean, they didn't really have to fight for the four. It wasn't really
Acadian Allegiance and Deportation
00:19:06
Speaker
battle. Yeah. It was more just like, I mean, there was some skirmishes beforehand as like the British were approaching, but it was more, i think like hit and run, just trying to like disrupt the supply of the British, but there wasn't a large scale battle between, you know, roughly equal forces. Yeah.
00:19:24
Speaker
sure But yes, so big victory for the British. They did not have to lose many people. Hardly, you know, they just really had to dig in for the siege and then start working, you know, their trenches and their artillery into a position. so it was more of a logistical victory for them than a, you know, actual like blood and sweat victory. But I mean, that's the best kind of victory for a military is, you know, you're planning,
00:19:50
Speaker
And you you may you have some espionage, there's some factors working against the enemy, and you don't really have to do heavy fighting for your wins. You know, ah the best the best outcome for the British. So as a British control over Acadia will start to clamping down with this key taking of these two forts, there's going to be some controversial things that happen along with this consolidation of power.
00:20:17
Speaker
So in July, just a month after taking these forts, the British are going to demand an oath of unconditional allegiance by the Acadians that are now occupied and that are under British control.
00:20:30
Speaker
And the Acadians are going to end up refusing that oath of unconditional allegiance. you know They are scared of being forced to convert to Protestantism by the British government that now oversees them.
00:20:42
Speaker
They're scared of being forced to fight against their fellow French cousins in Quebec, you know New France, and elsewhere. You know, unconditional allegiance is scary.
00:20:54
Speaker
And there had been Akkadians that were previously under British control from the previous wars, and they had you know sworn oaths of neutrality. it was like a conditional allegiance.
00:21:07
Speaker
But this is now unconditional allegiance and they end up refusing. This refusal is used by the British to deport all of the Acadians and then immediately resettle the area with British settlers.
00:21:22
Speaker
An incident which is known in French as Le Grand Dérangement In English, usually it's like the expulsion of the Acadians or the the the deport. and the No, I don't think.
00:21:32
Speaker
yeah i think it would just be the Acadian expulsion in English. But so systematically, sometimes... straightforward. Other times by ruse or by lying, the British gather together as many Acadians as they can. Sometimes they'll assemble, call together all the Acadian men in a village and then confiscate their weapons.
00:21:56
Speaker
And then right after that, tell them that they're being arrested. Or sometimes it was just straight up like attacking towns and you know burning down the the buildings, killing the livestock and capturing people. So sometimes it was...
00:22:10
Speaker
By a decree, sometimes it was by literally attacking and capturing. They start rounding up all of the Akkadian settlers that they are able to find. Then they will often separate them from their families and then ship them off to different British colonies.
00:22:27
Speaker
So within the first month of this expulsion campaign, about 6,000 are exiled from Acadia. And as the war progresses, and especially as the British eventually start getting more victories and really take over and consolidate the control of that kind of Eastern Canada region, then even more will end up being expelled. That's not winning hearts and minds. Yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
No. And so, yeah, this is this is an incident which could be considered, could probably be considered ethnic cleansing.
00:23:06
Speaker
I guess probably not genocide because the goal is to capture and send them somewhere else. But it could be considered ethnic cleansing because you're taking a region and specifically trying to get rid of a a certain people group and then replace it with another people group.
00:23:27
Speaker
So it's a very messy, very dark time, very definitive moment for the Acadians. ah This is kind of like they're in their history. This is kind of like the defining moment, one of, you know, a great crisis that kind of like unites them.
00:23:44
Speaker
um Some Acadians will end up escaping. Some will flee west into areas that are still controlled by the French. Others will flee into the woods of New Brunswick, especially helped by their steadfast Mi'kmaq Indian allies.
00:23:57
Speaker
but And then and there are some small lights in this time for the French in the Battle of Petit Kodiak. I think it's a river a little bit to the west of this area where this action was taking place.
00:24:08
Speaker
The French are able to rescue some captured families and then establish some refugee settlements in the western areas where the British don't yet have control for a few more years. So there are some... ah yeah I was just gonna ask, do you know, like, was this a an order given from the crown that this action was supposed to be taken? Or was this something that, you know, the Acadian, I guess, para government that would be established at at this fort?
00:24:36
Speaker
Is this something they kind of ah took on their own? Or was was it direct order from from the British government? I can't remember if it was from the crown specifically, but I know it has been something that had been talked about by some higher ups in the colonial government for a few years. theyre Because in all the many wars between France and Britain, you know Acadia super close to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Hampshire.
00:25:04
Speaker
you know, those British colonies. So it was a a base for raids into the British colonies and they wanted to get rid of that, that threat. So it had been something that had been talked about by at least some colonial governors.
00:25:16
Speaker
I don't know if it specifically came from like King George himself, but it must've some pretty important support higher up because, know, It wasn't just like the military doing this and that's that. There was also the combined resettlement policy of putting British settlers in that area very shortly after. So there was ah several different mechanisms working together for this.
00:25:41
Speaker
I'm sure some of the animosity too came from the settlement of Queen Anne's War that we had talked about before. um not Queen Anne's War. I'm thinking about the the War of Austrian Succession when that occurred. So at the end of that war, as you talked about before, the borders of Acadia and Nova Scotia were pretty yeah pretty blurry.
00:26:01
Speaker
And I'm sure that... And there were still raids happening happening throughout the years, so there never was quite a a nice peace between the French and British settlers and the Indian allies on this front. It was kind of always a bit bloody, and there was a lot of bad blood being developed for decades and decades.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, and and you see that too, like with a lot of wars where there's a territorial dispute, um and both countries believe that they own a certain portion. When one country takes that area over, they want to expel the the other country citizens that are living there to claim it as their own and say that, hey, you know you never have the right to be here. Yeah. I think that might be something that motivated the British actions when once they took control of Nova Scotia, they're like, okay, we're going to settle this, kick out the French citizens and and
Acadian Dispersal and Cajun Culture
00:26:49
Speaker
resettle it. but
00:26:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah, certainly. And of course, there are there were some Acadians who, although having sworn an oath of neutrality, because they were the ones living under British control before the war, there were, of course, some who would participate in these raids on the British colonies alongside the Mi'kmaq. There were some who would you covertly aid the French during conflicts.
00:27:16
Speaker
So there was some breach of neutrality there, but... I think just wholesale deporting the entire population and especially in such a rough manner is not the way to deal with the inevitable resistance by some people to the new regime.
00:27:34
Speaker
Sure. one of the worst parts about all this isn't just the forced removal from the land, but also the fact that it was done is very rushed and without proper supplies and proper planning.
00:27:47
Speaker
So that of eventually there's going to be about 11,500 Acadians deported throughout the war of the, the total population in the area was 14,000. So this is like 75% of the total population ends up getting deported.
00:28:03
Speaker
But about 5,000 of those deported will end up dying because of it, whether from disease, starvation, shipwrecks, all that kind of thing. So half of the people that are deported essentially end up dying directly because of it.
00:28:19
Speaker
And they're scattered all throughout the the British 13 colonies. i think I remember reading... that like some were sent to Massachusetts, but then Massachusetts like banned all Catholics from the colony. So then they had to leave Massachusetts and,
00:28:34
Speaker
um you know i had a book actually all it was called histoire des acadiens the history of the acadians and i read through it like a few years ago and i was like okay that was neat and then i gave it away because i'm like when am i ever gonna like read this again or when i gonna do this book again and then of course a couple years later i'm like oh i'm gonna do a french and indian war podcast and that would have been a great resource but hey i need that book back who knows where it is yeah So after a few years, all of these Acadians who have kind of been dispersed throughout British colonies, many of them are going to migrate to French Louisiana or it'll become Spanish Louisiana later on.
00:29:15
Speaker
And that is where the Cajun culture comes from in like New Orleans and Louisiana. So have the French word Acadien, which in some accents can be pronounced like Acadien.
00:29:27
Speaker
And then from Acadien will eventually morph into Cajun, like Acadien, Acadien, Cajun, Cajun. Oh, wow. Yes. And that's why there's like so much French influence in Louisiana and that like unique culture is because these Acadians eventually ended up making their way there after a few years from this expulsion.
British Successes in Acadia
00:29:50
Speaker
That's really interesting. I just always assumed that the Cajun culture was just because of you know um basic French settlement in Louisiana. I never ever thought it would be tied to the expulsion of of their citizens from Canada down to Louisiana.
00:30:05
Speaker
It's interesting. Yeah. ye All right. So that pretty much wraps up a the Acadian front for 1755. We may be able to full episode on the deportation some point, but that's just the the basics, the intro to it. And hopefully I've done it justice. But so far, 1755 is looking bright for the British.
00:30:26
Speaker
They've captured a couple of French ships. They've seized their first objective of the campaign.
General Braddock in the Ohio Valley
00:30:32
Speaker
Things are looking good. It's it's only ah mid-June. There's still a lot of the the good weather campaigning season to go.
00:30:39
Speaker
So surely it's just going to keep looking up for the British, right? Yeah. And the reason we told you guys about the expulsion now is because we hoped you would be really mad at the British. And now we can we can talk about the comeuppance that they face not too long after this. So no yes.
00:30:56
Speaker
So yeah. So we now we're shifting our focus um from up north in Acadia head down to the Ohio River Valley that we've been talking about. ah so much in last few episodes. ah The British are not giving up in this area, as you'll see.
00:31:09
Speaker
um And we're talking about now a full military expedition to the Ohio Valley, whereas before it with Washington and the Battle of Fort Necessity... his journey, we could still call that maybe a small scouting party, a skirmish.
00:31:24
Speaker
We'll see this, the scale of the battle ramp up a bit with Braddock's expedition. So just to give a little bit of a preview of, um, the namesake of this. So General Edward Braddock was tapped to lead this expedition to the Ohio Valley um in 1755. And this was right around the same time, as we talked about before, the four prongs of Newcastle's plan were all supposed to happen simultaneously. So this happens a little bit after um acadia and i think one of the reasons of that is i think it was you know travel whereas braddock had to march his way to the ohio valley by foot uh acadia you know the the british troops sailed over and were able to land and and immediately start the yes definitely definitely true braddock had a long march ahead of him he was although he was traveling some of the the same route washington had already made a road for
00:32:18
Speaker
They often had to widen the road because it wasn't quite capable enough for handling the the size of a force with all the artillery and everything that he was bringing. And he had a lot of trouble in the beginning getting wagons and horses from the colonies and lodging for his troops. So yes, Braddock's expedition was absolutely more delayed than he would have liked.
00:32:39
Speaker
Correct, and ah and getting into Braddock too. So one of the reasons he was tapped to lead this is he was a very decorated and experienced British officer. And as we talked about before, these orders are coming from the Crown in England and Braddock was very well known um in England. He had a history in the Coldstream Guard, I believe, which is like ah one of the most elite regiments in and the British military this time.
00:33:04
Speaker
And he was an officer in the Cold String Guard, and he had a lot of battlefield experience, commanding troops, particularly um in structured line formation. and I mean, we're if we're talking about, you know, like George Washington had led the previous expedition in Washington, if anything, compared to Braddock, Washington would have been like, you know, like just a simple militia officer, you know, from the continent, ah kind of backwoodsy, whereas, you know,
00:33:33
Speaker
braddock was an esteemed general like one of the top heads in the british military at this time um who very much looked down on the militia and down on native support we'll see that too he turns away a lot of native support in this this expedition but um yeah so he's he's very high on the british military specifically british line infantry he thinks that the british military is the strongest military in the world and um he doesn't really need to help militia natives even though he is kind of forced to take them uh but he's tapped for this like i said ah orders are coming straight from the crown they tap one of their own essentially to lead this um that'll prove to be a ah very a very major hitch in this expedition is braddock's inability to conform to frontier warfare so yeah jesson you anything to add to that
00:34:25
Speaker
No, that's ah definitely a good intro. i guess I guess one thing I might add is in some of my reading, I had read that, yes, Braddock had quite a long history in the military and experience, but I think I read that a specific like combat experience, you know in actual battles, fighting on the front lines, he actually had somewhat...
00:34:48
Speaker
little experience he was very well versed in the military he had served in many posts and like you said he was in that prestigious unit but i think he didn't have ah ah ton of actual like actual fighting experience which could could have been some reason for some of the negative results of this campaign but uh yeah that's all i had no i appreciate the the clarification yeah so braddock was very well person uh british military strategy but as jackson pointed out he might not have been as accustomed to seeing it in action in the field so while something looks upon paper it might not work in reality and we'll kind of see that so braddock was uh dispensed by uh robert dinwiddie who is still
00:35:34
Speaker
uh still acting as the uh governor of virginia this time uh so as we talked about fort and witty had a lot of uh a lot of investments in the ohio company and the british or the french settlement fort duquesne and the fort there obviously was a huge uh a major pain for din witty and securing his investments so he launches braddock take 2 000 british regulars and militia and i believe he had i think eight natives with him is that right uh let me see i might have that i think that sounds right i want to see if i've written it in my notes at all oh yeah i have only eight indians yeah
00:36:18
Speaker
Which is insane. um it goes to show Braddock just, he generally disapproved of militia support, native support.
Braddock's Strategic Missteps
00:36:26
Speaker
Seeing as unnecessary, nothing could really match the the force of of British line infantry in battle. so um But anyway, so as Jackson said, Braddock follows Washington's road into the Ohio Valley.
00:36:41
Speaker
obviously Washington had a smaller expedition so this expedition had to widen the road it made travel very slow and in addition Braddock took artillery with him um some heavy artillery too Yeah, heavy artillery. And I think, I mean, obviously Fort Duquesne was in a well-fortified position. So if you're in LACs do it, I would understand the need for heavy artillery. But travel was extremely slow. And at some point in the travel, Braddock even breaks off ah from like the rear guard, which which would be more of the heavy artillery and stuff, leaving behind.
00:37:15
Speaker
And I think he did, he take like 1,300 of the 2,000 ahead with him?
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds right. yeah he was getting frustrated ah with the slow progress. you know Often days, they were just going one or two miles a day. i think just before he had split off his force, I think I have a note here. Yeah, they had went 22 miles and just seven days.
00:37:36
Speaker
So very, very slow progress as they're cutting their way, expanding this road. think sometimes the engineers had to like... choose new routes or like really examine the grade of the hills that they were going up and down so that the wagons and the artillery could go up and down them it is very very very slow going with this size of a force and with the equipment that they are bringing so yes Braddock ends up pushing ahead with what was called like a flying column, I think, of about 1,300 troops to kind of get in position, i think maybe even take the fort, or at least like surround it, cut it off, you know begin the preparations while the rest of the army slowly catches up.
00:38:19
Speaker
Sure. And then just what we're talking about before we get into the battle, this expedition by Braddock was kind of a who's who in the British colonial times. So he had a kind of a star cast around him. So I don't know if we mentioned this, but Washington is back with Braddock for this, serving as his aide-de-camp.
00:38:39
Speaker
um And that that is a volunteer role that Washington signed up for. as As I understand, it's not like he's like a personal assistant to Braddock, but he's kind of serving as like an understudy for this.
00:38:50
Speaker
And then also Christopher Gist was there, who just did a special episode on. So if you haven't listened to that, go listen to it. Horatio Gates, Thomas Gage, Daniel Boone, John Frazier, ah and I think a couple other, George Krogan? Yeah, George Krogan. He's a very reputable and famous Indian trader. His name just pops up all the time in anything associated with like Pennsylvania, the Ohio country. He's like always active around there, very skilled in diplomacy.
00:39:21
Speaker
And then also William LaPeroni, who we talked about in that Fort Necessity episode. He was that one friend, one of the two French speakers that Washington had, but then he got too injured to do any interpreting and it was all left up to Jacob Van Bram.
00:39:35
Speaker
Van Bram. I don't know. He might've also been here as well. Although I don't have a specific note on that. I thought reading somewhere he was. ah That sounds right. i just didn't make a note of it though.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. And in some of these names too, like Horatio Gates, Thomas Gage, we're not going to see them play a huge role in the French and Indian indian war and this panel and stuff as it goes on. But, um, these are names that are going, would if we were doing ah an American revolution or American war of independence podcast, these names would come up all the time. So George Washington, like many others kind of, uh,
00:40:09
Speaker
started getting themselves known in North America around this time. um And this is Washington's first like real battle he's going to be a part of. ah So it's a major, a major turning point in his career as well.
00:40:21
Speaker
ah But yeah. So Jackson, do you want to talk a little bit about, you know, what the French were doing at Fort Duquesne at this time? And, you know, if they were notified or not of this large British force coming towards them?
French Defense at Fort Duquesne
00:40:38
Speaker
Yes. so Well, especially with the size and the very slow speed, they definitely knew it was coming. And they had scouts watching pretty much the whole way reporting on the slow and steady progress.
00:40:50
Speaker
I'll back up just a little bit. So 1754 and 1755, the French, the governor generals of New France, so that would have been Duquesne and then eventually Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil,
00:41:05
Speaker
We'll just say Vaudray. He becomes the governor general of New France throughout the war here. He comes in, I think, 1755. They are encouraging Indians to come and camp out around Fort Duquesne and participate help them in you know the the year's combats.
00:41:24
Speaker
There's a Shawnee quote that I found. don't remember exactly where, but it's coming from late 1754. I a Shawnee talking to other Native Americans saying, if all of you come to see us, my brothers, come when the grass is halfway to your knees so we may all assemble together.
00:41:42
Speaker
This is when the French and English are to fight each other and we shall see who is stronger. it kind of shows like the... interesting like ways of working with and preparing for some of the upcoming battles. you know Everyone knows like summer is the main campaigning season.
00:41:58
Speaker
So it's kind of like, hey, next summer when the grass is getting long, you know start trickling in into Fort Duquesne. And you know there's going to be some big action and you're going to want to take part in it in some way or another. But by... not going to specify which side. Right. There's still a lot of Indians, especially ah the Shawnee at this time. We're still kind of Really waiting to see who they, in the last few years, they were more pro-British, but lately, because of the French and of displays of power, they're looking more pro-French, but they still haven't you know really jumped into the conflict.
00:42:31
Speaker
But by the summer of 1755, there's about 15 different tribes represented in some amount of numbers that are kind of camped out around Fort Duquesne. ah The commander of Fort Duquesne at this time is Daniel Hyacinthe Leonard de Beaujeu.
00:42:46
Speaker
We'll just call him Beaujeu. He is one of, he's a captain in the French Marines, the colonial Marines. His father had commanded Fort Michel-A-Mackinac in northern Michigan.
00:42:58
Speaker
ah This is yet another... by the way. Yeah. it's uh have you uh don't think you've been up northern michelle you should go up there and see fort michelle mackinac it's a it's an interesting fort it's very small it reminds me um somewhat of just a larger fort necessity um but it also plays a role in i believe the war of 1812. i think you're right yeah a very small role uh because i the british take over the Mackinac Island pretty handily from ah from the Americans, but the that fort does have a hand. difficult time so
00:43:34
Speaker
i know yes and that four too You were just recently to the site of Braddock's Defeat, but I have been de Fort Michelin Mackinac. Yes. With our geographical spread, we are able to visit many different sites between the two of us, which is fun.
00:43:49
Speaker
But yeah, I know that was a big like trade ah big fur trade hub in the Great Lakes region for the French as well. Beaujolais had served in the previous war, in King George's War, particularly in Acadia. There he had learned what the French called la petite guerre, which is basically just guerrilla warfare, you know, fighting in the Indian style, which the French had adapted to much, much quicker than the British.
00:44:13
Speaker
He relieved Contrecoeur, who we had talked about in some previous episodes as the commander of Fort Duquesne. he is responsible for rallying the Indians around Fort Duquesne to go out and face this British force that is slowly and surely making their way.
00:44:31
Speaker
The Indians are a little unsure because they've been scouting out this force. They see there's, know, there's thousands of British people. like over 2000 and they have heavy cannons and Indians do not like facing cannons. They don't like attacking forts and they don't like attacking artillery. ah That's a ah pretty consistent theme. So they, their confidence is kind of waning.
00:44:55
Speaker
There's a good chance they might pack up and leave. But for Beaujolais and the French in Fort Duquesne, it is absolutely critical that they maintain this Indian support from all these different tribes because without the Indians, they lose on the majority of their numbers.
00:45:12
Speaker
So I'm trying to think if I have a note for how many French were in Fort Duquesne at this time. I don't know the total numbers, but the amount of troops that end up sallying out from the fort to go and fight the advancing British ends up being about 200 French Canadians and then 600 Native Americans.
00:45:33
Speaker
So that just shows that proportion right there just shows you how critical the numbers and the manpower from the Indian side was for this upcoming battle. You know, the vast majority of the force that's about to take part in the battle is going to be composed of Native Americans.
00:45:50
Speaker
So rather than saying this is a French and Indian force, we could very rightly say this is an Indian and French force. Hmm. um But kind of similar to what Matt did for the British, like highlighting some of the the big names, the recurring characters who are showing up on the British side. It's kind of the same thing for the French. So we have Beaujeu.
00:46:09
Speaker
We have our old acquaintance, Charles Langlade, which if you remember, he was the half French-Canadian, half, I think he might have been Ottawa, who led the attack on Piccololani and then ate the heart of the Indian chief Mamesquia.
00:46:26
Speaker
Jean-Daniel Dumas, who we haven't talked about yet, but he's going to come back in several other battles of the war and be like ah ah well-respected and revered French-Canadian soldier.
00:46:39
Speaker
Shingus, who I might do a little short biographical episode on. He was also called Shingus the Terrible by the English because he is going to lead many raids into the British colonies.
00:46:53
Speaker
Gaia Souta, who had met Washington and had good relations with him, but now he's on the French side. Pontiac, who will play a huge role at the end of this war, right after its resolution especially.
00:47:06
Speaker
Joseph Charbonnet, who wrote, i forget the name of his book, but it's like the only writing from a common soldier on the French side, like as his experiences throughout the war.
00:47:18
Speaker
And then when I went to the museum for this battle, I learned about the native Atiatojarongwen. ah He was half black and half Abnaki. So I think, I don't know if its one of his parents was an escaped slave or like a freedman or something like that, but he ends up, he's a very fascinating story, could easily do a solo episode on him.
00:47:44
Speaker
He participated in a lot of battles throughout this war. And then i think he played even played roles in the American Revolution. So, yeah, very fascinating figure. I could talk more about him, but I'll keep i'll keep
Battle of the Monongahela
00:47:56
Speaker
keep it moving. So a lot of interesting French and Indian figures here, a lot of interesting British figures here. It's kind of ah like a crossover episode, all these different people coming together who have played such foundational roles in the history of North America during this time.
00:48:13
Speaker
sure yeah So one thing also to note, ah sorry, before we go back to you for like the, as we get to the opening of the battle, you had mentioned Matt, that Braddock had kind of ah refused Indian support, or he at least did not get along with them.
00:48:30
Speaker
I've got a quote here. So apparently there is this Pennsylvanian, Charles Stewart, who was taken prisoner by Delaware Indians in October, 1755. Yeah. And apparently during his years of captivity, he you know witnessed the Indians' role in the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War.
00:48:48
Speaker
And apparently he had heard Shingas, the Delaware chief, explain why the Ohio Indians went to war against the British. And Braddock played a big role in why some of these Indian tribes ended up going to support the French.
00:49:04
Speaker
and So i have a quote here. Let's see. I think I should be able to read all of it without it being too long. ah So he's writing this, this captive Pennsylvanian. He said, King Shingus made a speech to the English prisoners to the following purpose, rising up from his seat with appearance of deep concern on his countenance.
00:49:23
Speaker
He addressed his prisoners with great solemnity, telling them that he was sorry for what had happened between them and the English, but that the English and not the Indians were the cause of the present war. He then proceeded to give account of those causes and said that he, with five other chiefs of the Delaware, Shawnee, and Mingo nations, being two from each nation, had applied to General Braddock and inquired what he intended to do with the land, referring the to the Ohio country, if he could drive the French and their Indians away.
00:49:52
Speaker
To which Braddock replied that the English should inhabit and inherit the land. on which Shingus asked General Braddock whether the Indians that were friends to the English might not be permitted to live and trade among the English and have hunting ground sufficient to support themselves and their families, as they had nowhere to flee to, but into the hands of the French and their Indians who were their enemies, that is, Shingus's enemies.
00:50:17
Speaker
on which General Braddock said that no savage should inherit the land. On receiving which answer, Shingus and the other chiefs went that night to their own people, to whom they communicated General Braddock's answer, and the next morning returned to General Braddock again in hopes he might have changed his sentiments, and then repeated their former questions to General Braddock again.
00:50:36
Speaker
And General Braddock made the same reply as formerly, on which Shingus and the other chiefs answered that if they might not have liberty to live on the land, they would not fight for it. to which General Braddock answered that he did not need their help and had no doubt of driving the French and their Indians away.
00:50:53
Speaker
I won't read. There's like one more paragraph, but I think that that states it pretty clearly. You know, there's possibility maybe Shingus was exaggerating or trying to put a spin on it, but I mean, this is pretty direct testimony of Braddock's attitude toward the natives, especially with ah maybe his lack of lack of skill or has just way too much like bluntness and not having the delicate diplomatic nature to try to leverage some more Indian support, which he really needed with only eight Indians helping out his force of 2000 plus.
00:51:29
Speaker
Yeah, and most of those Aided Indians were probably interpreters as well. And another thing, too, I just wanted to i wanted to ask you, Jackson. I don't know if you know this because I don't know it. But do you know did Braddock spend any amount of time on the North American soil outside of due outside of this expedition? Or was he sent over like just from mainland land?
00:51:53
Speaker
I think he had been sent over earlier in 1755, like in February. I think he arrived and then he was like met with some of the colonial governors and started making the preparations for his expedition. So I think this was, i don't think he had ever been to North America before. Okay. So yeah, which i think also makes sense with a lot of his, his attitudes and sentiments towards the native Americans. And ah obviously you're not going to encounter native American tribes in any other places.
00:52:22
Speaker
and Not in Europe, no. Not in Europe. So yeah, this is a first for him. So yeah, I mean, I think it's just, you see a lot of ignorance from Braddock in the situation. And ah one more thing before we're back to you.
00:52:33
Speaker
also have a quote from Skarawadi, who was an Indian we had mentioned a couple times before, who ends up going to the French side. No, does he? No, he doesn't end up going to the French hut. He ends up sticking with the British or at least staying neutral. But he also expresses negative feelings about Braddock. And he is quoted as saying, Braddock was a bad man. He looked upon us as dogs and would never hear anything that was said to him.
00:52:58
Speaker
We often tried to tell him of the danger he was in with his soldiers, but he never appeared pleased with us. And that was the reason that a great many of our warriors left him and would not be under his command. So there's more than just one testimony of Braddock's kind of arrogance or dismissal, at least, of native support.
00:53:16
Speaker
It's very much like if a business is failing and that business, instead looking internally, goes and gets an outside hire that has no experience in a certain area to come in and fix the situation.
00:53:28
Speaker
it goes how you might expect that to go. Yeah, pretty much, yeah. I mean, yeah I think, too, i we're not saying either that the British colonists had a fantastic view of the Native Americans or viewed them with respect at all, but they understood the delicate the delicate balance you had to you had to play between their support because as Jackson mentioned, the support, especially for the French, but also the British was crucial into having the manpower to fight this war. And so even though there might've,
00:53:56
Speaker
been a decent amount of racism on the side of the british in this time you know i think the it's going to be magnified by the european british more so than the colonial british exactly exactly and even if the colonial british were um they didn't have the highest respect for them they understood that you had to keep them happy and you'll you're seeing that ignorance kind of play out so yeah um So yeah, so just to kind of get into the battle here, we've led you guys along enough. This is be a major, one of our first major engagements of war. I know we had already talked about ah the Acadia territory, but as Jackson said, there wasn't really much of a battle outside of a few skirmishes. So we're getting into what I would say is almost the first pitch battle.
00:54:45
Speaker
ah that we'll see in the war although yeah I guess yeah I think up to this point unless you count the Jumonville affair as a battle which really it was not huh this would be yeah the first real pitched battle outside of like a fort To kind of set the scene for the listeners, so Braddock is marching towards ah Fort Duquesne, as we mentioned before. He's marching very slowly, marching a very tight column formation.
00:55:12
Speaker
Braddock was, he was keen on following military order and military discipline. So the force is marching a very tight formation. you know, they had an advance guard and a rear guard.
00:55:24
Speaker
I think like in total, this was at least like a mile long column. I don't know the exact length, but it was like, it's very long, like to give the listener an idea of like, just how big this force was and how like spaced out they are at least like the, the kind of the shape of the formation.
00:55:39
Speaker
It was very narrow, too. The roads were very narrow, and they could only cut such a like, ah they could cut very wide road through this country, so a very narrow, tight formation marching out. But they had just crossed the Monongahela River. They're about 10 miles outside of And I have one quick note to put in here.
00:55:59
Speaker
So originally, like Braddock, he's not an incompetent general. I think he's probably out of his depth here and he's not paying attention to some advice that he should be, but he is taking precautions. And that is one of the reasons why he just crossed the Monongahela River.
00:56:15
Speaker
So for those unaware with the geography geography around Pittsburgh, I'm ah You can just buy land without having to cross the river. You can you know march up and then turn west and go straight to Fort Duquesne.
00:56:27
Speaker
However, from some scouting, they would have to cross tora i think it's Turtle Creek, which I haven't been to, but I was looking at it on Google Earth Street View. And the reason they didn't go that way is because it is indeed an excellent place to get ambushed.
00:56:43
Speaker
and know, a steep ravine and then crossing some, uh, waters. And it's just, it looked too risky. So Radek decides, no, I'm not going to go that way. know, we got to keep moving, but we got to be careful.
00:56:56
Speaker
So they end up crossing the Monongahela river once and then crossing it again um later on the same day. And that is what Matt just referred to. So he is taking precautions to try to avoid any ambushes and things like that.
00:57:10
Speaker
But, uh, It does complicate the route and slow things a little bit further. And his cannons are not involved in this either because those, as we mentioned before, this is the, I forget what you call it, Jackson, but it's a type of formation where you just take the flying column. I think they do have at least a small amount of cannons, but most of them I think are still back in the Dunbar's camp.
00:57:34
Speaker
The heavy artillery I think was left behind or not left behind fully. I just know they at least have some artillery with them, but I doubt it was the the full complement. Yeah. Sure. So, and then as Jackson mentioned, so the French, the French force was about, about eight or 900 strong. So um Braddock's force had about 1300. So the the French are going to be outnumbered and the French, this was more of like a, you know, they, they were planning an ambush.
00:58:03
Speaker
So the way the French, deployed per se is they yeah they were in the woods along this route that Braddock was taking. And I mean, essentially, they the the French soldiers and the natives hid behind trees, um any rocks, any cover they could find, and they used guerrilla tactics.
00:58:22
Speaker
So I got to jump in real quick. Sorry. So this battle would actually not technically qualify as an ambush because... The Beaujeu and the French and Indians were marching out, and they actually end up just surprising each other. like the The French are intending to set up an ambush at the Monongahela River.
00:58:45
Speaker
they Of course, the British have already crossed it. So they're still on their way. Their column runs into the British column, and they actually both surprise each other. Now, very quickly, yes, very quickly, the French and especially the Indians are going to do exactly what you just said.
00:59:05
Speaker
But technically, they are both surprised. And in the very opening of the action, within two or three volleys of shots, so within like a minute of fighting, Bourgeois, he ends up getting shot and killed.
00:59:17
Speaker
so the enemy, the French leader is is dead in the opening volleys, which could be very, very fatal blow for the French force. I do remember reading that Braddock was able to order like a few orderly volleys be fired. So that makes sense of how like the columns ran into each other. and I know Bajor got killed super early in the action right away. But yeah, so that makes more sense that they ran it head-on rather than a full ambush.
00:59:42
Speaker
ah And then, yeah as we kind of talked about, both the French Marines and the militia and also the majority of the Native Americans allies they had flanked around to each side of the column.
00:59:53
Speaker
ah And I believe, I believe there were, height were there heights around the column? Yeah. So specifically on the north side. So as this, like the geography of this area, as you crossed Monongahela river, obviously that's low ground because it's right by the river, but pretty quickly as you move north and west, it starts to rise up.
01:00:12
Speaker
And then where these two ah forces met, like I went to the museum and I saw like the map and everything. And I know Matt in the show notes said a really good map pulled up of where the engagement took place ah regarding like the modern layout of the suburb of Braddock.
01:00:28
Speaker
But especially to the north and like northeast, there are some pretty commanding heights. It's kind of like fighting along the sloping, continuous slope, northward getting higher and higher and then on the north and northeast side is where the the more commanding heights were so yeah the french captain jean daniel dumas he's the second in command as beaujeu dies he's now in charge and it this could be a make or break moment for the french uh some of the the canadians are starting to panic and
01:01:01
Speaker
They're, you know, there if if they fall back, this could be the end of Fort Duquesne because they don't really have the strength to to handle a siege with all that heavy artillery. They have to have like a victory now.
01:01:14
Speaker
But Dumas is able to rally the men, Indians, are are moving around, especially to that north side and even to the south. They're getting up into the heights particularly.
01:01:26
Speaker
They're getting behind trees. They start to pour some fire into the British advance guard, who is still, i think, standing in their line formation. except it uh it was helpful for the first minute of fighting when they ran square into the enemy but now as the enemy fans out their line formation is taking some serious heat and it is starting to buckle yeah that's ah that's a that's theme throughout this battle the battle will only last i believe three hours total um But Braddock continually orders his men into lines, ah drills them hard into line formation. So if they were to break it all, you know he was just holding their back into lines.
01:02:06
Speaker
And then I also read, this was kind of interesting, so the militia that was with Braddock were very accustomed to this type of warfare. I believe some of them were even present at the Battle of Fortress. necessity and they had experience fighting ah both British and natives in this terrain and they immediately went to take cover behind like items such just like wagons or rocks or any trees they could find um and then fired back from those positions but Braddock One, not understanding the warfare, but then also two, having mostly disrespect for the militia forces, ordered them out of cover and back into lines, which was ah was very interesting. And also, I read, too, that a lot of the British line infantry that was with Braddock were pretty shaken from just not even...
01:02:57
Speaker
so much the heavy loss as they were suffering, but facing the type of guerrilla warfare that ah that the natives were showing, because this was something they had never seen in battle before, and they never had faced or been drilled or trained to handle something like this.
01:03:12
Speaker
So just the fact that you know there's these... puffs of musket fire coming from the woods, but you can't actually see who's shooting at you because they're not on formation. And you've got to imagine like the the Indian cries, the war cries, just echoing through the woods.
01:03:27
Speaker
Yeah. Just the location of the fight as well. Not just like who you're fighting and how they're fighting, but you know, fighting in a massive old growth forest with trees that could be six feet in diameter. I've never, never been cut down ever.
01:03:41
Speaker
The regular troops on the British side are way out of their element. And we'll see that as this, this fight kicks off, Thomas gauge, who is leading the advanced guard that is now taking heavy fire,
01:03:53
Speaker
ah They lose two of their cannons that they had brought up with them. And so they start retreating under his orders. But Braddock, who's with the main column, he orders them to quickly advance up to get to the fighting that they're hearing up ahead.
01:04:07
Speaker
But this ends up just causing the advance guard to retreat and back up into the main column, which is advancing. And now they're all like pressed together. It's like, you know, shooting fish in a bucket or whatever the term is, because they're all massed together.
01:04:22
Speaker
There's confusion. There's shots everywhere. There's war cries. There's people getting killed. And then adding to this, the the two cannon that Thomas Gage's advance guard lost, the French have now captured it and they are turning it around and proceeding to fire at the British with their own cannons.
01:04:39
Speaker
And is it so just devolves into a slaughter pretty much. And one of those bullets hits Braddock right in the lung. And he is on the field, mortally wounded.
01:04:52
Speaker
I did read, though, so Braddock was going up and down the line, um trying to rally the men, and order them back in the line. He had eight horses shot out from under him in this battle.
01:05:03
Speaker
which i had read at least i think i'd read four or five i didn't some sources say eight well the least that's what i found yeah and the a book that i was reading was eight horses were killed and that is crazy you gotta like how i mean it's almost it happens so it happens so much that you you'd have to think he's like oh come on again really like we're doing this again my horse gets shot out from under me again and this was only the three hour time span too so i mean that yeah it's pretty wild but then eventually one bullet does find bradock and he is shot through the lawn um and he at this point too you know the british lines are kind of breaking um and bradock's bradock's injury or wounds because he hadn't died yet um was a a morale kicker for for the british and he was carried off the field i believe he dies later on yeah i think a couple days later
01:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he was he was only shot through the
Aftermath and Tactical Lessons
01:05:59
Speaker
lung. There was no major ah arteries or anything that were hit. So he, unfortunately, probably had a very slow death. but So Braddock was shot, ah which then I believe, i think that put Washington in charge of of the force.
01:06:15
Speaker
but yeah I don't know the exact like command structure, but at the very least, whether Washington is technically in charge or not, he ends up showing his worth and doing an excellent job at rallying some of the provincials and covering their retreat and keeping the the slaughter from becoming ah complete annihilation.
01:06:35
Speaker
ah So he plays and a very ah starring role in the retreat back across the Monongahela River that they had just so ah tediously crossed earlier that morning. and we'll see this later in the war too, but in these types of battles, you know, i mean, really any battle spanning up until modern times, 90% of the casualties in the battle will happen if there's a route of one force, especially with natives on the battlefield as well.
01:07:00
Speaker
They're going to hunt down and kill any any army that is in a disorderly route. So the fact that Washington was able to order um an orderly retreat off the field uh was huge and i mean ah it's retreat they lost but i think he probably saved hundreds hundreds probably yeah but even though he did save a lot of lives the british still suffered approximately 900 killed or wounded in this fight so Yeah, I think from the sources I had checked about 500 to 600 just straight up dead and then another like four to 500 wounded. So that is like a 66 to 75% casualty rating of that advanced force that Braddock had sent forward.
01:07:43
Speaker
And the French and native forces, I believe, lost less than 40 total. Yeah, I've got, there is I have 39 French and Indian dead and 50 wounded. And there's another source that lists only 24 dead and 16 wounded. But either way, 10% of the British casualties, essentially, were the French casualties.
01:08:03
Speaker
um So yeah, that's a massive route of the numerically superior British force. Spearheaded by a mostly native force and not not even just of one tribe of 15 different tribes.
01:08:20
Speaker
So this is like quite a coalition, all ending up being able to work together, all able to recover quickly from the surprise of running into the British force where they hadn't expected it, adapting to the terrain.
01:08:34
Speaker
pouring down fire into that massed column, adding to the chaos. And yeah, as the British flee and retreat across the Monongahela, the Indians will end up, well, eleven French and Indians will end up capturing there will be lots of scalping ah and then the french are going to capture a lot of great things for them they're going to capture all that artillery that had made it across the monongahela they're going to take a lot of captives both for the indians you know they greatly desired captives and then the french can use them to barter to get their captives back as well but most importantly
01:09:12
Speaker
the French capture Braddock's war plans. And they're going to send them back up to their leadership ah in Quebec or at least Montreal. And that is going to give the French some very useful intel, which will help with some of the action that is to come in this year. So lot of, not just men, but a lot of supplies and lot of intelligence are captured or destroyed by the French and Indians as a result of this.
01:09:42
Speaker
And it's hard to draw any benefits from the British side of this battle. But if if we were looking at it in a positive light, a few things that this affected the British war strategy for is one, the they realized the need to have, I guess, and ah in a way, experienced commanders and not just experienced in military discipline, but experienced in frontier warfare.
01:10:05
Speaker
they i think this was a wake-up call to say, you know, we have esteemed like esteemed generals who... who led the Coldstream Guard and knew everything about military order, but they still got massacred. So they they started putting more of a more of an emphasis on having commanders and generals that under understood the the Ohio Valley and how the British fought.
01:10:27
Speaker
And this also changed a little bit their tactics going forward as well. So we won't see the British... Having so much line infantry and elite infantry as as Braddock took, you you'll see more of a ah focus on lighter infantry tactics, um British light infantry, like even even regular British regular light infantry. So we're not talking about like militia, but we'll see a larger use of them in the future. Just seeing like more mobile agile forces against against the natives.
01:10:59
Speaker
Yes, some very costly lessons have been learned by the British after this defeat. Yes. um And then a negative, one additional negative on the British side. i think Braddock's view towards militia was ah so negative that the the different colonial governments at this time had to ah kind of mend the relationship with the militia forces and the British government. Because I think Braddock treated them so horribly, both in the battle and before, that there was a lot of mistrust there.
01:11:32
Speaker
that was starting to spread and that kind of fueled, i mean, you'll see a lot of revolutionary sentiments going forward. Yeah, yeah exactly ah on that. yeah Braddock didn't just kind of chafe against the militia, but also just the regular citizens of the colonies. Well, one for the huge demands for supplies, wagons, horses, and all that for his campaign, but also...
01:11:55
Speaker
I think the inspiration, or at least a heavy part of the inspiration for the constitutional amendment about you know not quartering troops in people's houses, well, Braddock was one of the British officials who arrived and forced citizens to quarter British troops in their houses as they were preparing for the campaign. So you are absolutely right that these this kind of conflict, this kind of distrust ah did come up again and did contribute towards the later American Revolution.
Native Support for French
01:12:25
Speaker
Definitely. So Jackson, what are we going to talk about on our next episode? Real quick, a couple other aftermath of this battle. So this battle is going to immediately prove to those native tribes who still hadn't quite picked a side, like the Delaware, Shawnee, and Mingo, who still had significant amounts of people who were neutral.
01:12:45
Speaker
But after this battle, they are firmly siding with the French, and there's going to be a massive uptick in frontier raids the the rest of the year, and especially in the next year, 1756.
01:13:00
Speaker
Pretty much the entire Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier is going to be on fire with the amount of raids coming in from Indians along with some French Canadians.
01:13:11
Speaker
And the the British frontier is going to be rolled back hundreds of miles because of this. So another very negative result of the battle outside of just the immediate losses.
Personal Connection and Next Episode Preview
01:13:22
Speaker
And one other thing I have to mention that I forgot to bring it up earlier. If you've got a drink next to you, get ready. So Charles Langlade, who had participated in the battle, that half French Canadian, half Indian, he, i found a distant family connection with him.
01:13:39
Speaker
So my second cousin, 10 times removed, his brother-in-law was Charles Anglade. So I have a my ninth great-grandfather, I think, Louis Gagné. had ah daughter, anne or Agnes Gagné.
01:13:57
Speaker
And she had ah son, Bourassa, whose half-brother, her half-sister was Charlotte Ambroisine Bourassa, who married Charles Anglade.
01:14:09
Speaker
So there is the family connection from Jackson to a French Canadian figure for the episode. I was delighted to discover that one when I was ah hoping to find something for this episode. ah So take a drink if you haven't already.
01:14:24
Speaker
Every French officer is related to Jackson somewhat. Yes. But yeah, so for next episode, I'm thinking we will cover the upstate New York front for 1755. So there's the Battle of Lake George.
01:14:40
Speaker
that happens this year that we'll spend the most of the time covering, I believe. And then we'll also talk about the kind of failed aborted attempt at taking Fort Niagara that doesn't quite materialize.
01:14:53
Speaker
So that'll probably be our focus for the next episode. And then I'm thinking we might cover some of these frontier raids ah that will happen at the end of this year. And then we'll be ready to move into 1756, I think.
01:15:06
Speaker
i would i did want to add to so the death of braddock uh prompted the appointment of william shirley who we'll talk about in the next episode but he is the one that ends up leading the expedition to fort niagara that doesn't yes amount to anything so but just to close the circle there so braddock's his death uh william shirley kind of replaced him and who william shirley this time was the governor of massachusetts so ah Yes. And I think he had been in charge of the expedition in the previous war that took Louis Borg and then they had to return it as part of the peace settlement. So he had some experience commanding, at least expeditions and and fighting in North America.
01:15:45
Speaker
For sure. All right. Well, yeah. Thanks for tuning in listeners. We'll have another episode out soon. i I'm sure. um But feel free to let us know if you have any questions or comments in the comment section on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We're always happy to answer any of those. And um yeah, we'll see you guys next time.
01:16:05
Speaker
Sounds good. See ya.