Braddock's Defeat - The Battle of Monongahela 1755

"...At around 1pm on Wednesday 9th July 1755 the army formed up around Frazier’s Cabin on the western bank of the Monogahela for the final 7 mile march to the fort. The troops set off apparently without the previous elaborate system of outlying pickets, as it was assumed there was to be no resistance and the fort would be found abandoned. All were in high spirits and the drummers played the Grenadier’s March.

They were wrong. A party of some 300 Indians and around 30 French colonial troops came down the path and attacked the advanced party of Lieutenant Colonel Gage and three companies of foot. Firing broke out and the Indians fanned out down the flanks of the army in a horse shoe attack..."

Casualties:
British and American: 26 officers killed, 37 wounded. 430 soldiers killed and 385 wounded.
French and Indians: probably less than 30 killed. Wounded unknown.

A number of the participants in Braddock’s expedition to Fort Duquesne went on to achieve fame or notoriety, among them:
• George Washington.
• Lt Colonel Gage became British Commander in Chief in America on the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
• Captain Horatio Gates became a major general in the American Continental Army and was in command at Saratoga.
• Captain Charles Lee of Halkett’s 44th became a major general in the Continental Army.
• James Craik became Washington’s surgeon.
• Captain William Mercer became a major general in the Continental Army.
• Lieutenant Hotham of Dunbar’s 48th commanded at Detroit in Pontiac’s war.