General
Braddock's instructions to Colonel Dunbar in 1755 give a valuable
picture of the winding route through the Virginia mountains to Will's
Creek (named Fort Cumberland by General Braddock). To accommodate
their heavy wagons and guns, the British soldiers had to enlarge this
packhorse trail used by early settlers and the Ohio Company to reach
Cresap's fort at Oldtown.
Note
that Dunbar's regiment had proceeded through Maryland to this point,
but the road west had proven unsuitable. Thus the first few days of
the march are from Frederick, Maryland, through Conococheague (today's
Williamsport), to the Widow
Barringer's (near today's Winchester). Braddock's other regiment,
commanded by Peter Halkett, took the more natural route for Virginians,
from Alexandria along the Potomac Road (today's Leesburg Pike), and
crossing the Blude Ridge through Key's Gap to reach Frederick, Virginia
(today's Winchester).
Northern
Virginia historian Ross Netherton identifies the modern landmarks
for the way-stations on the rest of route as: Widow
Barringer's near the intersection
of VA 672 and 739, Babb's Run
at Lake St. Clair, Pott's Camp near Gainesboro, Enoch's Camp just west of the
forks of Cacapon, Cox's
at the mouth of the Little Cacapon, Cresap's
at Oldtown in Maryland.
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Primary
S ources:
- Braddock's
Defeat: The Journal of Captain Robert Cholmley's Batman, The Journal
of a British Officer, and Halkett's Orderly Book, edited by
Charles Hamilton, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 1959
[Captain Cholmley's batman was with Dunbar's 48th Regiment; Halkett's
Orderly Book, kept by Lieutenant Daniel Disney, chronicles
the movements of Halkett's 44th Regiment--it is now in the Library
of Congress.]
- History
of Cumberland, Maryland: from the time of the Indian town, Caiuctucuc,
in 1728, up to the present day, by Will H. Lowdermilk, Washington,
DC, J. Anglim, !878. [Available in reprint, this includes as an
appendix the transcribed text of Braddock's Orderly Books, kept
under the direction of George Washington up to June 17, 1755.
The original copies of the Orderly Books are in the Library of
Congress.]
Articles:
- "Braddock
Road," by John Kennedy Lacock, in The Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography, Vol. XXXVII, 1914. [This is a very
detailed tracing of Braddock's route across the Appalachians,
starting at Fort Cumberland and proceeding west.]
- "Blunder
Camp," by Paul A.W. Wallace, in The Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography, 1963. [While paying homage to Lacock's
work, Wallace provides more detail on the camps used by Braddock's
expedition from July 1-7, based on the new information provided
by the discovery of two maps made by Christopher Gist, and the
journals edited and published by Charles Hamilton in 1959.]
- "The
Organization of Braddock's Army," by Franklin T. Nichols,
in the William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, Volume 4,
1947
- "An
Assessment of the Cholmley's Batman and British A Journals of
Braddock's Campaign" by Paul E. Kopperman, in the Western
Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Volume 62, July 1979
- "A
British Officer's Journal of the Braddock Expedition - Et Cetera,"
by Paul E. Kopperman, in the Western Pennsylvania Historical
Magazine, July 1981.
- Fighting
for a Continent, Newspaper Coverage of the English and French
War For Control of North America, 1754-1760, David A. Copeland,
in the Early American Review, Spring 1997 issue.
Books
and Pamphlets:
- Braddock's
Campaign and the Potomac Route West,
Ross Netherton, Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society,
Higher Education Publishing, Falls Church, Virginia, 1989
- Braddock's
Road Through the Virginia Colony, by Walter S. Hough, Winchester-Frederick
Historical Society, Winchester, Virginia, Printed by Shenandoah
Publishing House, Inc. Strasburg, Virginia, 1970.
- Braddock's
Road Chronicles, 1755, Andrew J. Wahl, Heritage Books, Inc.,
Bowie, Maryland, 1999. [A compilation of accounts, organized chronologically
to give a day-by-day account of the expedition.]
- Ill-Starred
General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards, Lee McCardell,
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958.
Also
on the Web:
- See
the National Park Service site for the Fort
Necessity National Battlefield (and Jumonville Glen and Braddock's
Grave). [This site also has information on the National Road.]
- Fort
Pitt Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Web site. [Braddock's
goal was to capture Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio--when
the British finally accomplished this objective, they renamed
the fortifications Fort Pitt, after the Prime Minister.]
- For
way-stations on Braddock's route, see Williamsport,
Cox's Fort, Oldtown,
Fort Cumberland, and
Routes West in this collection.
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