432 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
FIFTH SESSION.
At the Saturday afternoon session, under
the direction of
Professor A. E. Morse, of Marietta
College, the following pa-
pers were read and at the conclusion the
members of the Asso-
ciation extended a most hearty vote of
thanks to the President
and officers of instruction of Marietta
College, where the meet-
ings were held, and to the people of the
city of Marietta, whose
thoughtful care and attention had
resulted in so successful a
gathering and had secured for them the
opportunity to enjoy the
many spots of historic interest in this
famous communited.
BRADDOCK'S ROAD.
HENRY TEMPLE,
Washington, Pennsylvania
The purpose of this paper is to give
some account of Braddock's
road before General Braddock's
expedition passed over it and to add a
few notes on the traces that still mark
the route which he followed.1
The interest attracted by the highway
cross the Alleghenies which long
bore the unfortunate general's name is
of various kinds. Like other
pioneer roads it was first an Indian
trail and a traders' path. It was
the earliest road laid out and opened
west of the mountains by the
English in conscious rivalry with the
French for commercial and military
control of the great west. When the
country was opened to settlement,
1. That portion of the following paper
which contains a brief de-
scription of General Braddock's route
and of the traces of the road
that remain to the present time is taken
from notes made along the
line of the road in August. 1908, when,
in company with seven others,
the writer tramped over all but a few
miles of it from Cumberland to the
battlefield. The expedition was proposed
and managed by Mr. John Ken-
nedy Lacock, formerly of Washington,
Pa., now of Harvard. The re-
maining members of the party were:
Professor Clarence S. Larzelere of
Mount Pleasant, Michigan; Mr. C. F.
Abbott of Somerville, Massachu-
setts; Mr. Em. K. Weller, photographer
for the expedition; Messrs.
Edgar B. Murdoch, John H. Murdoch, Jr.,
John Parr Temple and my-
self. The five last named members of the
party are all of Washington,
Pennsylvania.
For a more detailed description of the
route than I intend to give
in this paper those interested must be
referred to the article which Mr.
Lacock is preparing, and which, he
informs me, will be published in an
early number of the "American
Historical Review."
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 433
after the French and Indian war was
ended and Pontiac's conspiracy was
crushed, this road was the great
immigrant route to the Ohio Valley.
Barges built at Brownsville on the
Monongahela, or at points on the
Youghiogheny, received the immigrants
after their difficult land journey
over the mountains and floated them down
these rivers and the Ohio
to their future homes on either of its
banks.
Very interesting, too, it is to note
that the existence of this road
between the waters of the Potomac and
those of the Ohio had some in-
fluence in determining a matter of
importance to the whole country.
Thomas Scott of Washington,
Pennsylvania, a member of the First Con-
gress of the United States, introduced
in the first session of that Con-
gress (August 27, 1789) the earliest
resolution looking toward the choice
of a location for the National Capital.
That resolution declared that "a
permanent residence ought to be fixed
for the General Government of
the United States at some convenient
place as near the center of wealth,
population and extent of territory as
may be consistent with convenience
to the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean
and having due regard to the
particular situation of the Western
Country."2 Richard Henry Lee soon
afterward introduced a modification of
this resolution which called for a
location as nearly central "as
communication with the Atlantic and easy
access to the Western country will
permit."3
This demand that the "particular
situation of the Western Country"
should have an influence in fixing the
site of the National Capital, and
even that the location should be only as
nearly central as the navigation
of the Atlantic and easy access to the
West would permit astonished
certain members from New
England. They perceived that a choice
governed by these considerations would
fix the capital on one of the
rivers rising in the "Western
Country." Fisher Ames protested
that
"west of the Ohio is an almost
unmeasurable wilderness; when it will
be settled or how it will be possible to
govern it is past calculation.
.
Probably it will be near a century before these people will be
considerable."4
The debate thus precipitated lasted in
one House or the other until
July, 1790, and the proposals were of
various sorts. Ease of access to
the western country was claimed for the
rival sites. The chief struggle
was between the advocates of a location
on the Susquehanna and those
who preferred the banks of the Potomac.
Mr. Vining, of Delaware said:
"I declare that I look on the
Western Territory in an awful and striking
point of view. To that region the
unpolished sons of earth are flowing
from all quarters, men to whom the
protection of the laws and the con-
trolling force of government are alike
necessary. From this great con-
2. Annals of Congress, First Congress,
vol. I., 786.
3. Same vol. page 836.
4. Same vol. page 869.
Vol. XVIII- 28.
434 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
sideration I conclude that the banks of
the Potomac are the proper
station."5
Mr. Scott, the mover of the original
motion, spoke again. He said:
"The Potomac offers itself under
the following coircumstances: From
the falls up the main river to Wills
Creek, it is about 200 miles: From
thence is a portage to the Youghioheny,
down which you descend to the
Monongahela which meets the Allegheny at
Fort Pitt and forms the
great river Ohio. This is a direct
communication between the Atlantic
and the Western Country."6
The portage between Wills Creek and the
Youghiogheny was made
by way of the Braddock road which passed
near Mr. Scott's early home
in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. This
congressman at first voted for a
site on the banks of the Susquehanna,
though he frankly said that the
interests of his constituents would be
better served if the site on the
Potomac were chosen. This being his
belief, his vote was one which
Alexander Hamilton had little difficulty
in delivering to Jefferson for the
Potomac in return for votes influenced
by Jefferson in favor of Hamil-
ton's project for the national
assumption of the State debts. The dust of
this almost forgotten man lies in a
neglected grave in the Franklin Street
graveyard in Washington, Pennsylvania,
his former home.
The Braddock road is of interest
therefore as a relic of Indian
days;
because of its association with the military struggle between
France and England for colonial empire;
as a reminder of the influence
of the Ohio country on the location of
the National Capital, and as the
route afterward followed by the nation's
great work of internal improve-
ment, the National Pike.
As "Braddock's Road," however,
its chief interest is that of Brad-
dock's expedition and the smaller
military movements which preceded
his and determined the route by which he
marched.
The Ohio Company of Virginia was
organized in 1748. Early in the
following year it presented a petition
to the King in Council. setting forth
"the vast advantage it would be to
Britain and the Colonies to anticipate
the French by taking possession of that Country
Southward of the Lakes,
to which the French had no Right, nor
had then taken possession ex-
cept a small Block house Fort among the
six Nations below the Falls
of Niagara."7 In the
Mercer Papers, which belonged to the Ohio Com-
pany, it is declared that the company
opened a road from Wills Creek to
Turkey Foot in 1751,8 though
the minutes of the company for April 28,
1752. show that the members had some
doubt whether "the road from
Wills Creek to the Fork of
Mohongaly" had yet been properly opened
5. Same vol. page 848.
6. Annals of Congress, vol. II, page
860.
7. Quoted in the Ohio Company's second
petition Darlington's
Gist's Journals, pages 226-230.
8. Gist's Journals, page 225.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 435
according to the instruction previously
given to Colonel Cresap.9 How-
ever, the company's second petition to
the King in Council asserts that
the petitioners had "laid out and
opened a wagon road thirty feet wide
from their Store house at Wills Creek to
the three branches of the
Ganyangaine, computed to be near eighty
miles."10
This assertion is so startling that it
is well to inquire into it a
little. The date of the document
containing it is not given in the copy
referred to, but it may be fixed
approximately from the known dates of
certain things referred to in the paper
itself. The petition contains a
statement that "the fort on
Chartiers Creek" is "now building." Now
the building of this fort was authorized
at a meeting of the committee
of the Ohio Company held at Stratford,
Westmoreland County, Vir-
ginia, July 25, 1753.11 The fort was not
built that year, however, for
Washington records in his journal,
January 6, 1754, on that day, as he
was returning from his mission to the
French forts, he "met seventeen
horses loaded with material and stores
for the fort."12 In February,
Governor Dinwiddie sent a company of
troops to aid the men of the
Ohio Company in the erection of the
Fort.13 Work had not been begun
on the fort on January 6, 1754, when
Washington, having recently stood
on the spot "where the Ohio Company
intended to erect a fort," now
met the expedition going out for that
purpose. By May 4th, it was
known in the Virginia capital that the
French had driven the troops
and the Ohio Company's people away from
the unfinished fort,14 which
had been placed not on Chartiers Creek
but some distance above at the
point between the Allegheny and the
Monongahela. The document which
asserts that the fort is "now
building" must therefore have been written
in 1754, between January 6th and May
4th. It is the same document
which declares that a wagon road thirty
feet wide had already been
"laid out and opened" between
Wills Creek and the Youghiogheny.
That some kind of a road had been opened
by the company in 1753 "at
considerable expense" is asserted
by Washington"15 in a letter in which
he also says that in 1754 the troops
which he commanded had greatly
repaired it as far as Gist's plantation,
but that a wagon road thirty
feet wide had been completed for any
considerable portion of that dis-
tance is highly improbable. Washington reported to Governor Din-
widdie16 in 1754 that the work required
to "amend and alter" the first
twenty miles of the road, from the mouth
of Wills Creek to Little
9. Gist's Journals, page 237.
10. "The Turkey Foot Forks" of
the Youghiogheny.
11. Extracts from minutes of Ohio
Company, Darlington's Gist, ap-
pendix, page 236.
12. Sparks, "Writings of
Washington," II, 446.
13. Dinwiddie Papers. I, 136. Dinwiddie
to the Earl of Halifax.
14. Dinwiddie Papers, I, 148.
15. Sparks, Writings of Washington, II,
302. Washington to Bou-
quet.
436 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Meadows, had occupied a detachment of
sixty men from April 25th to
May 1st, after which date the main body,
160 effective men, continued
the work until May 9th. An analysis of
these figures will show that
it took, on an average, eighty-seven men
to "amend and alter" one mile
of road in a day. John Armstrong's
experience a year later in building
the road through Pennsylvania to
intersect Braddock's road near the
Turkey Foot fork showed, according to
Armstrong's report to Governor
Morris,17 that sixty men could make one
mile of entirely new road in
one day through the mountain wilderness.
The suspicion seems to be
justified that the assertion contained
in the Ohio Company's second peti-
tion that the company had "laid out
and opened a wagon road thirty
feet wide" from their storehouse at
Wills Creek eighty miles to the three
forks was an overstatement of the
improvements they had made, pos-
sibly intended to influence the King in
Council to grant the requests made
in this petition.
In a letter quoted above18 Washington
reports to Governor Din-
widdie that his men have spent two days
making a bridge at Little
Meadows. This evidently does not mean a
bridge over Castleman River,
the only nearby stream that would
require two days to bridge, but to
a bridge of corduroy across the swamp--a
portion of the road which
Captain Orme, who accompanied Braddock's
army a year later, says has
been "very well repaired by Sir
John St. Clair's advance party."19 If the
word "repaired" is to be taken
in its ordinary meaning it is probably a
reference to the work formerly done by
Washington at this place.
By May 18th, 1754, Washington's little
army had reached the Great
Crossings, now Somerfield, Pennsylvania,
and from that place he wrote
to Governor Dinwiddie: "The road to
this place is made as good as it
can be, having spent much time and great
labor upon it. I believe wagons
may now travel with 15 or 1800 w't in
them by doubling at one or
two pinches only".20
Not to prolong further this part of the
paper, suffice it to say that
Washington opened the road as far as
Christopher Gist's plantation,
about twenty-three miles beyond the
Great Crossings. He withdrew after-
wards about twelve miles to Fort
Necessity, advanced again about six
miles to attack Jumonville, and a few
weeks later surrendered to 900
French and Indians who permitted him to
march his defeated troops to
Wills Creek.
The following summer Braddock's forces
were assembled at Wills
Creek, or Fort Cumberland as the place
was now called, and by May
30th the expedition for the recovery of
the Ohio country was ready to
start. On that day a detachment of 600
men under Major Chapman set
17. Penna. Colonial Records, VI, 401
Armstrong to Gov. Morris.
18. Dinwiddie Papers, I, 151.
19. Captain Orme's journal, entry for
June 16, 1755.
20. Dinwiddie Papers, I, 170.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 437
out, following Washington's road over
Wills Mountain. The road, which
Washington had said a year earlier might
be traversed by wagons carry-
ing 15 or 18 hundredweight, proved too
steep for the heavy and clumsy
army wagons, or king's wagons, as
Captain Orme's journal calls them.
Three of these were destroyed and other
were shattered on the mountain-
side. All the heavy wagons were sent
back to the fort ten days later
from Little Meadows, country wagons
being substituted for them.21
After Major Chapman's experience of the
difficulties of the way over
Wills Mountain, Lieutenant Spendelow, of
the detachment of seamen
from Commodore Keppel's fleet, found a
way to avoid the mountain by
following the old road less than a mile
from the fort, then swinging to
the right to Wills Creek and following
up that stream to the mouth of
a rivulet still known as Braddock's Run,
thence up the run, joining
Major Chapman's route at the western
foot of Wills Mountain about
five miles from the fort. In Winsor's
"Narrative and Critical History"
there is a reduced copy of a map which
shows the road leading from
the fort and separating into two
branches, one leading to Wills Creek
and the other towards the mountain. The
original has on the back an
endorsement in Washington's handwriting:
"Sketch of the situation of
Fort Cumberland".22 This sketch
shows the road crossing to the left
bank of Wills Creek.
Major Chapman's advance party had
marched on to Little Meadows
while the main body of the army waited
at the fort for the opening
of the new road. The army moved in three
columns from the fort on
June 7th, 8th and 10th, but was reunited
and encamped together on the
night of June 10th at the point where
the new route joined the old.23
The National Pike now follows Wills
Creek and Braddock's Run,
as did the Spendelow route, but the
original line of the pike, like the
pioneer road which was the main highway
to the waters of the Ohio
before the pike was built, took the way
over Wills Mountain. It is now
impossible to find on the ground any
certain trace of the Spendelow
loop. Perhaps an old packtrail still
distinguishable on the hillside along
Braddock's Run followed the old line of
march. Over the mountain,
however, the old route followed by Major
Chapman's advance party,
and afterwards by the pioneer road, is
still marked by a well defined
scar to where it joins the old route of
the National Pike in Sandy Gap.
It must be remembered, however, here and
elsewhere in this paper iden-
tified with the route of General
Braddock's army is a mark left by many
years' travel on the pioneer road long
called by Braddock's name. That
it followed everywhere exactly upon
Braddock's trace cannot be ascer-
tained. Yet it is not a wholly
unwarranted assumption that the early
21. Captain Ormes Journal entry for June
10, 1755.
22. Winsor's Narrative and Critical
History, vol. V, 577.
23. Braddock's Orderly Book, page LIII.
438 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
travelers would in general follow that
trace rather than cut a new way
through the forest.
Descending from Sandy Gap the old road
leads to the grove now
occupied by the summer cottages and
auditorium of the Alleghany Camp
Ground. Near this place was General
Braddock's first camp, which in
his orderly book is called "the
camp in the grove," but in Captain Orme's
journal it is called "Spendelow
Camp." The old road crosses the run
at a ford and proceeds westerly three
and a half miles to Clarysville,
lying most of the way north of the pike
and distant from it sometimes
only a few yards. At Clarysville the two
roads separate and do not
touch again for nearly ten miles, the
Braddock road passing through a
gap at the Hoffman mines, sometimes
coinciding with the modern public
road and sometimes showing a plain scar
through the fields. It passes
through the southern outskirts of
Frostburg, Maryland. It was in this
neighborhood that General Braddock made
his second camp, at a place
called in Captain Orme's journal
"Martin's Plantations." Martin's place
is shown in Shippen's draft, of 1759,
reproduced in Hulbert's "Historic
Highways." 24
Just beyond Frostburg the steep ascent
of Big Savage mountain
begins.
Here as elsewhere the road climbs squarely up the grade.
Though there is an ascent of 1,000 feet
in about two miles, some por-
tions of which are remarkably steep,
there is no movement along the
mountainside to make the slope more
gradual. Fronting the ascent
squarely the wagons would be higher, of
course, in front than at the
rear, but one side of the wagon would be
no higher than the other and
the danger of overturning would be
reduced to a minimum. The army
had no time to make a "side hill
cut" over every steep mountain it must
cross.
About four miles west of the top of Big
Savage mountain the old
road crosses to the north of the present
National Pike, and from that
point leads westerly, the old trace
following more nearly in a straight
line than the modern road but never
distant from it more than from a
half to three-quarters of a mile. Before
reaching Little Meadows the
road crosses Red Ridge, Meadow Mountain
and Chestnut Ridge. A short
distance west of Little Meadows the
trace passes again to the south of
the pike and crosses Castleman River.
About two miles west of Grants-
ville, Maryland, it crosses again to the
north of the pike on the steep
side of Negro Mountain. Two miles
farther west both turn southward,
but as the old trace turns more sharply
it crosses once more to the
south of the pike and follows on that
side until both roads have left
the soil of Maryland. A few hundred
yards north of the Maryland-Penn-
sylvania line, on Winding Ridge, the
trace crosses to the north of the
pike. Just south of the boundary line is
the site of Braddock's sixth
camp, called in Captain Orme's journal,
and in many accounts written
24. Hulbert, Historic Highways, vol. V,
28.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 439
by early travelers, "Bear
Camp".25 The trace again crosses to the south
of the pike before reaching Somerfield,
and fords the Youghiogheny
(Great Crossings) near the mouth of
Braddock's Run, about a mile
above Somerfield. Keeping still to the
south of the pike, but never more
than one mile from it, the road leads
westward over Briery Mountain,
or Woodcock Hill, and at a distance of
about twelve miles from Great
Crossings comes to Fort Necessity, where
it is within sight of the pike.
Two miles farther west, at Braddock's
grave, it crosses once more to
the north and the two roads never touch
again. The pike leads north-
west to Uniontown, thence to Brownsville
where it crosses the Monon-
gahela, thence through Washington,
Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West
Virginia, to the West. The Braddock
trace also leads to the northwest
from the Old Orchard Camp near
Braddock's grave to the Rock Fort
where was the Half King's camp when he
led Washington's little force
along the mountain path to attack
Jumonville in his hiding place. From
the Rock Fort the trace leads almost due
north seven miles to Christo-
pher Gist's plantation, then inclining a
little to the northeast to Stewart's
Crossing of the Youghiogheny, just below
Connellsville. Thence pass-
ing along "the narrows"
between Mounts Creek and the Youghiogheny,
the old road passed through Prittstown,
across Jacobs Creek to the town
of Mount Pleasant and to Jacobs Cabins,
about two and a half miles
farther north. This point is mentioned
and called Jacobs Cabins in the
journals of Christopher Gist26 and
others before Captain Orme mentions
it as the site of Braddock's fifteenth
camp.
From Jacobs Cabins the route of
Braddock's army inclined a little
more to the northwest. Crossing
Sewickley Creek, five miles, little Se-
wickley, nine miles, the army came to
the precipitous bluff on Brush
Creek, a branch of Turtle Creek, fifteen
miles from Jacobs Creek and
about one mile west of Larimer. Unable
to pass farther in the desired
direction, the army turned almost at a
right angle toward the south-
west into the valley of Long Run, and on
reaching the stream turned
again to the right. The route followed
Long Run to its junction with
Jacks Run, thence passed over White Oak
Level to the site within the
present city of McKeesport where the
army encamped on the night of
July 8th. On the morning of the 9th the
army moved down the steep
hill into the valley of Crooked Run and
followed that stream to the
Monongahela. Just below the bridge which
now connects McKeesport
with Duquesne the army forded the river
and marched down on the
Duquesne flats to avoid the narrow pass
on the right bank where the
25. Atkinson says (Olden Time II, 543
that he had not been able
to identify Bear Camp. The map in Sargent's
"Braddock's Expedition"
is manifestly wrong in this as in other particulars. It
locates Bear Camp
at the Great Crossings, while Orme's Journal says that
the army marched
six miles from Bear Camp to reach Great
Crossings. See the journal,
entry for June 23, 1755.
26. Gist's Journal, entry for November
19, 1753.
440 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
bluff crowds close to the river. Shortly
after the army had passed over
General Braddock received a messed from
Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, the
commander of the advance party, saying
he had passed the second ford
and was safe on the right bank of the
river once more. While the
choppers, covered by a strong guard,
were opening the road beyond the
second ford Braddock's army marched down
the left bank, posted strong
guards on both sides of the ford and
passed over.
Some knowledge of the last section of
the road may be had from
maps or sketches drawn by contemporaries
and participants in the battle.
Among these the most valuable are the
two furnished by Patrick Mackel-
lar, chief engineer of the expedition,
who was with Gage in the advance
column when the fight began.27
They were drawn by Mackellar at the
request of Governor Shirley who sent
them to the War Office with a
letter dated November 5th, 1755. Others
are Captain Orme's plan of
the battle, accompanying his journal,28
a plan in the Harvard library, re-
produced in Winsor's "Narrative and
Critical History,"29 and an unpub-
lished plan in the Library of Congress.
Each of the two last mentioned
has a scale of distances. Though the two
plans seem to be sketches,
and not maps accurately drawn to scale,
and the distances are estimated
and not measured, they are of value in
interpreting all the others, since
all agree in the essential topographical
features of the ground and in
the position of the marching column when
the French and Indians were
first seen coming down the trail from
Fort Duquesne. All these sketches
show the vanguard of the advance party
of Braddock's army just passing
the head of a small stream which flows
into into the Monongahela. This
may doubtless be identified with the
stream mentioned by Colonel Burd
in a letter of July 25th to Governor
Morris. He says: "On Wednesday
the 9th current there was a small body
of French and Indians (about
five hundred, and never was any more on
the ground) discovered by
the guides at a small run called
Frazer's Run, about seven miles on this
side of the French Fort."30
It is still possible to identify
Frazer's Run within the limits of the
town of Braddock. Its location and
surroundings correspond with the
distance from the ford and the
topographical features indicated in the
sketch-maps mentioned above, and it is
now possible to say that the
vanguard of General Braddock's advance
party had reached a point
about a mile and a quarter from the ford
when it was attacked by the
French and Indians. The advance party
was driven back about a quarter
of a mile to a point near the
Pennsylvania Railroad station in Braddock,
to which the main body had advanced on
hearing the firing in front.
27. Parkman. Montcalm and Wolfe, library
edition, 1897, vol. I,
page 229, note. See Mackellar's maps in
the same volume.
28. See Sargent's "Braddock's
Expedition."
29. Winsor. Narrative and Critical
History, V. 499.
30. James Burd to Governor Morris, July
25, 1755. Penna. Col.
Rec. vol. VI, page 501.
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 441
Here they held their ground for about
two hours, until the General was
wounded, when they retreated in
disorder, pursued by a small number of
Indians as far as the ford. While the
main body was engaged near the
site of the present railroad station the
guard of several hundred men
left with the baggage was also engaged
with Indians who had crept
around both flanks after the advance
guard had been driven back and the
flanking groups which General Braddock
had thrown out to some dis-
tance on both sides of the army had run
in to join the main body.31
This baggage guard action was at a point
considerably more than half
a mile from the main fight and a little
more than a quarter of a mile
from the ford.
Three of the above mentioned plans of
the battle were drawn by
men who were present and participated in
the fighting. The advanced
party had been several hours on the
ground before the battle began
and had covered the choppers while they
opened a mile and a quarter of
road through the precise territory on
which the fighting took place.
Patrick Mackellar was with this advanced
party.32 Being the chief en-
gineer of the expedition, he may be
presumed to have observed the
ground with some care. His sketch maps
of the field should be con-
sidered trustworthy in all essential
features, and particularly in indicating
the road. The plan given by Captain Orme agrees with those of
Mackellar. None of them can be
reconciled with the map given by
Sparks in his account of the battle.33
The Sparks map shows the road
lying between two ravines, crossing
neither but roughly parallel with
both, and shows the French and Indians
posted in the ravines. Mac-
kellar's sketches show the road crossing
these ravines almost at right
angles, and his explanatory notes say
that the Indians "did most of the
execution" not from ravines but
from a hill on the right of the army.
Captain Orme also mentions a
"rising ground" on the right, to face which
Colonel Burton was forming his command.
The belief sprang up early and has
persisted long that Braddock had
fallen into an ambuscade and that the
French and Indians had fought
either from intrenchments thrown up
beforehand or from ravines which
concealed them. There was no ambuscade.
According to the report of
the French officer who commanded during
most of the battle, the attack
was made by the French troops when they
were not yet in order of
battle, and they fired the first volley
when they were not yet within
range.34
31. "The advanced flank parties
which were left for the security
of the baggage, all but one, ran in. The
baggage was then warmly
attacked." Captain Orme's Journal,
entry for July 9th.
32. Parkman. "Montcalm and
Wolfe." I., 229, note.
33. Sparky "The Writings of Washington." II., 90.
34. "Il attaqua avec beaucoup
d'audace mais sans nulle disposition;
notre premiere decharge fut faite hors
de portee." Dumas au Ministre,
25 Juillet, 1756. Parkman.
"Montcalm and Wolfe." II.,
440. Ap-
pendix.
442 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
General Braddock did not live to realize
all the evil consequences
which his defeat brought upon the
frontiers. The road which he had
opened from the Potomac to within seven
miles of Fort Duquesne be-
came again an Indian warpath. In the
three years following this battle
it was used by a few small parties of
French and many bands of Indians
as an open road to the Potomac, whence
they ravaged the English set-
tlements in Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania. General Braddock's
expedition was a failure. The road which
he left through the wilder-
ness proved throughout the war a benefit
to the enemy and an injury
to his own countrymen; but in later
years as a route for immigrants
coming to settle in the Upper Ohio
Valley and afterwards as a com-
munication between the Potomac and the
Monongahela, it proved to be
this unfortunate man's most useful and
most lasting work.
Professor C. L. Martzolff, of Ohio
University, Athens,
Ohio, gave a most interesting account of
the History of "Zane's
Trace." As Mr. Martzolff gave his
address without manuscript
we are unable to reproduce it here, but
for the benefit of our
readers, we refer them to the article on
this subject by Professor
Martzolff published in the Ohio State
Archaeological and His-
torical Publications Vol. XIII, pgs
287-331.
THE OLD MAYSVILLE ROAD.
SAMUEL M. WILSON.
Lexington, Ky.
In this paper we shall deal
exclusively with that part of the ex-
tension of Zane's Trace which is known
in history, as it is commonly
known to this day, as the Maysville Road
or Maysville Pike.
In its main outlines the story of the
old Maysville Road has been
frequently told, and the present writer,
with somewhat limited time for
investigation, can hardly hope to do
more than embellish with a few mat-
ters of detail the somewhat scanty
record.
This Kentucky division of the Maysville
and Zanesville turnpike,
leading from Maysville on the Ohio River
through Washington, Paris
and Lexington, became famous in that it
was made a test case to deter-
mine whether or not the government had
the right to assist in the build-
ing of purely state and local roads by
taking shares of stock in local turn-
pike companies. Congress, in 1830,
passed an Act authorizing a sub-
scription to its capital stock, but
President Jackson promptly vetoed the