The Braddock Expedition, also known as Braddock's Campaign or Braddock's Defeat, was a British military expedition which attempted to capture Fort Duquesne from the French in 1755 during the French and Indian War. The expedition, named after its commander General Edward Braddock, was defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9 and forced to retreat; Braddock was killed in action along with more than 500 of his troops. It ultimately proved to be a major setback for the British in the early stages of the war; the historian John Mack Faragher claimed the expedition was one of the most disastrous defeats suffered by British forces during the 18th century.
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Braddock Expedition in the context of Virginia Regiment
The Virginia Regiment was an infantry unit of the Virginia Provincial Forces raised in 1754 by the Virginia General Assembly and Governor Robert Dinwiddie for service in the French and Indian War. The sole provincial unit raised by the British colony of Virginia during the conflict, it initially consisted of 300 men under the command of Colonel George Washington and fought in the battles of Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity. After the Virginia Regiment's defeat at Fort Necessity, the General Assembly voted to double the size of the unit, which participated in the failed Braddock Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne from the French.
Under orders from General Edward Braddock, the unit was re-organized into two carpenter companies, six ranger companies, and one troop of mounted rangers, fighting at the Battle of the Monongahela in 1755. The Virginia Regiment was subsequently expanded into two regiments for the 1758 Forbes Expedition. As a result of the outbreak of the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1762, the unit remained on the Virginia frontier for longer than expected, but was disbanded by Governor Francis Fauquier in 1762. Although Washington resigned from the regiment in 1758, upset over not being made an officer in the British Army, the experience he gained in the conflict greatly helped him during the American Revolutionary War.
Braddock Expedition in the context of Edward Braddock
Major-General Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British Army officer who served in the War of the Austrian Succession and French and Indian War. He is best known for his command of a disastrous expedition against French forces in the Ohio River Valley in 1755 which led to his death.
Braddock Expedition in the context of Battle of the Monongahela
The Battle of the Monongahela (also known as the Battle of Braddock's Field and the Battle of the Wilderness) took place on July 9, 1755, at the beginning of the French and Indian War at Braddock's Field in present-day Braddock, Pennsylvania, 10 miles (16 km) east of Pittsburgh. A British force under General Edward Braddock, moving to take Fort Duquesne, was defeated by a force of French and Canadian troops under Captain Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu with its American Indian allies.
The defeat marked the end of the Braddock Expedition, by which the British had hoped to capture Fort Duquesne and gain control of the strategic Ohio Country. Both Braddock and Beaujeu were killed in action during the battle. Braddock was mortally wounded in the fight and died during the retreat near present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He specifically asked for George Washington, who accompanied him on the march, to oversee his burial. The remainder of the British column retreated south-eastwards. Fort Duquesne and the surrounding region remained in French hands until its capture in 1758.