The Braddock Road was a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

road built in 1755 in what was then

British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...

and is now the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was the first improved road to cross the barrier of the successive ridgelines of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. It was constructed by troops of Virginia militia and British regulars commanded by

General Edward Braddock Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British officer and commander-in-chief for the Thirteen Colonies during the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American f ...

of the Coldstream Guards, part of an expedition to conquer the Ohio Country from the French at the beginning of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, the North American portion of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

was an aide-de-camp to General Braddock (one of his favorites) who accompanied the expedition. The expedition gave him his first field military experience along with other American military officers. A number of these men would profit from this experience during the Revolutionary War.

Construction

In 1755, Braddock was sent to remove the French from

Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne (, ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed a ...

(Pittsburgh). Starting from

Fort Cumberland A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, General Braddock ordered 600 men, commanded by Major Chapman and John St. Clair to cut a military road over Haystack Mountain. The road followed an Indian path known as

Nemacolin's path 450px, Braddock's Road, General Braddock's March (points 1–10) follows or parallels (and improves upon) Chief Nemacolin's Trail from the Potomac River to the Monogahela. The route from the summit to Redstone Creek, which could be used by wago ...

which had been improved by George Washington and Christopher Gist for the Ohio Company. Compton's task was to build the road to Little Meadows, about 20 miles away. After a day of road-building, Maj. Chapman's men had only built two miles of road and had destroyed three wagons trying to get over the treacherous terrain encountered on the mountain. Braddock was about to dispatch 300 more men to the road crew when he was informed, by Lt. Spendlowe of the Navy detachment, of an easier route through the Narrows. Braddock took approximately 1400 men, with accompanying wagons, along Spendlow's route and joined Chapman's road at Spendlow's Camp, in today's LaVale, MD upright=1.6, Lacock's map of the road Braddock met defeat east of

and was fatally wounded. He was buried in the middle of the road he built, and his soldiers marched over the grave, with the hope of concealing the grave's location from the Indians. The grave was found years later by road workers and the grave was moved. The site is now marked by a marble monument erected in 1913. The Forbes Expedition, a more successful British expedition mounted against Fort Duquesne in 1758, used a different route through the mountains west of

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

along what became known as

Forbes' Road The Forbes Road, a historic military roadway in what was then British America, was initially completed in 1758 from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to the French Fort Duquesne at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now dow ...

. The

Cumberland Road The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main tran ...

, which subsequently became part of the National Road and later

U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

, roughly parallel Braddock's Road between Cumberland, Maryland, and Laurel Ridge near Uniontown. In August 1908 and again during June and July 1909, John Kennedy Lacock, a Harvard professor originally from Amity, near Washington, Pennsylvania, was able to identify the path of Braddock's march. He hired Ernest K. Weller to photograph the road. Lacock's commissioned photographs survive in the form of postcards, which he published in 1910, and his written account was published in the ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' in 1914. The road Lacock discovered was a road made by over 30 years of colonial settlers following Braddock's trail.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* John Kennedy Lacock,
Braddock's Road
" ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', XXXVIII, 1 (1914), pp. 1–38. * Will H. Lowdermilk, ''History of Cumberland'', Clearfield Co., October 1997, Paperback,
Full Text Online
*Steve Colby, ''General Braddock's Road Over Haystack Mountain, West of Fort Cumberland", (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151673387202667&id=226549977666) * Cassandra Vivian, ''The National Road in Pennsylvania'', Arcadia Publishing, 2004, * Norman L. Baker, ''Braddock's Road: Mapping the British Expedition from Alexandria to the Monongahela'', The History Press, 2013, .

External links

John Kennedy Lacock Postcards and Photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braddock Road (Braddock Expedition) Historic trails and roads in Maryland Historic trails and roads in Pennsylvania Historic trails and roads in the United States History of Cumberland, MD-WV MSA Pre-statehood history of Maryland Pre-statehood history of Pennsylvania Roads in Pennsylvania Streets in Pittsburgh U.S. Route 40

Construction

See also

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links