Part 3

For constant interest and the stimulus of frequent discussions, for many helpful suggestions in regard to the preparation of this paper, and for valuable criticism of the manuscript, the writer is under the deepest obligation to Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University; for helpful criticism of the manuscript he is indebted also to Professor Edward Channing and to Professor William Bennett Munro of Harvard University; for conscientious and efficient service in the preparation of the manuscript for the press he owes a peculiar debt of gratitude to Miss Addie F. Rowe of Cambridge; and for practical help at every step of the way he again offers his hearty thanks to the scores of persons who have given him valued and appreciated assistance, some of them at great expense of time and labor.

The accompanying map, made on the ground, but afterwards drafted under the supervision of J. Sutton Wall, chief draughtsman, and William A. Moore, assistant-chief draughtsman of the Interior Department, Harrisburg, Pa., gives a pretty clear idea of the course of the road and the location of the encampments. Of Middleton's map (originally published in _Olden Time_, II. op. 528) Lowdermilk says, "The map as now given may be confidently accepted as perfectly accurate in every respect" (Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_, 137). To one who has followed the course of the road for himself, however, the fallacy of such an assertion is apparent; for, though Middleton's map may fairly be regarded as altogether the best yet published, it does not show the route through the Narrows of Wills Creek at all, nor does it indicate all the deviations from the Cumberland (National) Road. Not that any sweeping claim to absolute accuracy is made for the accompanying map. The writer may be permitted to say, however, that he has exercised great care in laying down the road on the topographic sheets, and that from many trustworthy sources he has gained information which has helped to fix definitely points long since obliterated.

[2] Charles C. Coffin, _Old Times in the Colonies_, 377.

[3] The five governors were William Shirley of Massachusetts, James De Lancey of New York, Robert Hunter Morris of Pennsylvania, Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, and Horatio Sharpe of Maryland. The council was held at the Carlisle House, often called the Braddock House, which is still standing. For the answers of the governors, see _Documentary History of New York_, II. 648-651.

[4] Fort Cumberland, situated on the west side of Wills Creek, was erected and garrisoned during the winter of 1754-5 under the supervision of Colonel James Innes, who called it Fort Mount Pleasant. The name was changed to Fort Cumberland in 1755 by order of General Braddock. Today the Emanuel Episcopal church occupies part of the ground of the old fort, which was situated on a bluff rising from the creek.

[5] See Winthrop Sargent, _History of an Expedition against Fort Du Quesne_, 366-373. This monograph was published in the United States in 1855 by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The first 280 pages contain an introductory memoir by Sargent; pages 281-358 include the journal of Robert Orme, one of Braddock's aides-de-camp (this is the only American edition of Orme's record), and pages 359-389 the journal of a naval officer which is very frequently referred to as the Seaman's Journal. Of this second journal there seem to be two texts, one preserved in the Royal Artillery Library at Woolwich, England (printed in Hulbert's _Historic Highways of_ _America_, IV. 83-107), the other in the possession of the Rev. Francis-Orpen Morris of Newburnholm Rectory, Yorkshire, to whose father it was given by Captain Hewitt. The second text is the one published by Sargent, but the variations between the two manuscripts are unimportant for the present purpose. This paper will refer to the Sargent edition of the second journal under the caption of _Seaman Journal_; and in citing the _Orme Journal_ it will also use the pagination of Sargent.

[6] On this day Washington was appointed an aide-de-camp to Braddock.

[7] Braddock to Sir Thomas Robinson, _Olden Time_, II. 237. See also Hulbert, _Historic Highways_, IV. 68; and Franklin, _Works_ (Bigelow ed.), I. 251, 257.

[8] _Orme Journal_, 315; see also Thomas Balch, _Letters and Papers relating to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania_, 34-35.

[9] See _Burd Papers_ (Mss.) in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the time of Braddock's defeat this Pennsylvania road was completed to the summit of the Alleghany mountain, some 20 miles beyond Raystown, now Bedford, Pa. (see _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, VI. 484-485). In 1758 General Forbes constructed a road (now commonly known as the Forbes Road) from Bedford to Fort Duquesne. This route runs about parallel to the Braddock Road, though many miles north of it.

[10] Hulbert, _Historic Highways_, II. 89-91. In 1753 the Ohio Company had opened up this path or trail at great expense; and in 1754 Washington had repaired the road as far west as Gist's Plantation (Mt. Washington). See Washington, _Writings_ (Sparks ed.), II. 51.

[11] _Orme Journal_, 323-324.

[12] The construction of the Cumberland Road was authorized by an act of Congress, approved March 29, 1806, and entitled "An Act to regulate the laying out and making a Road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio" (United States, _Statutes at Large_, II. 357). By the provisions of the act the President was required to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three discreet and disinterested citizens to constitute a board of commissioners to lay out the road. The men selected were Thomas Moore and Eli Williams of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr of Ohio.

In their second report, under date of January 15, 1808, the commissioners show that the new road followed only a very small portion of the Braddock Road. "The law," runs the document, "requiring the commissioners to report those parts of the route as are laid on the old road, as well as those on new grounds, and to state those parts which require the most immediate attention and amelioration, the probable expense of making the same _passable_ in the most difficult parts, and through the whole distance, they have to state that, from the crooked and hilly course of the road now traveled, the new route could not be made to occupy any part of it (except an intersection on Wills Mountain [Sandy Gap], another at Jesse Tomlinson's [Little Meadows], and a third near Big Youghioghana [Somerfield], embracing not a mile of distance in the whole) without unnecessary sacrifices of distance and expense" (_Executive Document_, 10 Cong., 1 sess., Feb. 19, 1808, 8 pp.).

On November 11, 1834, the new road through the Narrows was opened for travel, the citizens of Cumberland, Frostburg, and the vicinity celebrating the occasion in an enthusiastic and elaborate manner (Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_, 336).

[13] This was formerly the building of the Mount Nebo School for Young Ladies.

[14] This point of intersection may be further verified by reference to the first report (of December 30, 1806) made by the commissioners who laid out the Cumberland Road: "From a stone at the corner of lot No. 1, in Cumberland, near the confluence of Wills Creek and the north branch of Potomac River, thence extending along the street westwardly to cross the hill lying between Cumberland and Gwynn's Six Mile House, at the gap where Braddock's Road passes it" (_Executive Document_, 9 Cong., 2 sess., Jan. 31, 1807, 16 pp.).

[15] It probably follows the turnpike here in order to avoid a very deep hollow. This conclusion of the writer is confirmed by the resurvey of Pleasant Valley patented to Evan Gwynne on October 5, 1795, which calls for "a water oak standing above the three springs that break out in Braddock's Road" (Deed from Evan Gwynne to Joseph Everstein, May 27, 1834, recorded in Liber R, folios 95-96, in the office of the clerk of Alleghany County, at Cumberland, Maryland). These springs are a few rods west of James H. Percy's tenant house, which is on the old Cumberland Road.

[16] The Honorable Augustus Keppel, commodore of the fleet, had furnished Braddock with a detachment of thirty sailors and some half-dozen officers to assist in the rigging, cordages, etc. These seamen proved of valuable aid to the expedition in getting the wagons and the artillery down the mountain.

[17] _Orme Journal_, 324.

[18] _Orme Journal_, 324; also _Seaman Journal_, 381-382. For reasons not easy to understand, the Cumberland Road was laid out along the more westerly deflection over Wills Mountain by the way of Sandy Gap, instead of by the natural and more favorable route through the Narrows of Wills Creek. In 1834, however, it was changed to the latter location, and remains the line of the present National turnpike.

[19] The writer has interviewed many of the reliable and trustworthy citizens of Cumberland on this point. To Robert Shriver and J. L. Griffith, respectively president and cashier of the First National Bank of Cumberland, and to the late Robert H. Gordon, one of the leading attorneys of the town, he owes special thanks for their painstaking interest, given at the expense of much valuable time, in aiding him in his attempt to discover the route of the army out of Cumberland. Mr. Shriver, who has made an extensive study of the course of the road from Fort Cumberland to the Narrows, thinks that the weight of evidence favors a route from Fort Cumberland along the gradually sloping ground northwestward to a point on Wills Creek about where the cement mill now stands. From here the road would have been easy, comparatively short, and almost level for the greater part of the distance to the eastern end of the gap, where there would evidently have been a favorable opportunity to ford Wills Creek near the mouth of one of its tributaries. Much might be said in favor of this contention; but, unfortunately, it has thus far failed to yield any results that look toward a definite and authoritative identification of Braddock's line of march.

[20] It is worthy of note that the bridge was in course of construction at least twelve days before the road through the Narrows was completed (_Seaman Journal_, 379).

[21] See Shippen's manuscript draft of 1759, in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; map in Orme's Journal, op. 282; and a map in Hulbert, _Historic Highways_, IV. op. 20. These maps, though necessarily drawn on a small scale, give color to the theory of this route.

[22] See Washington's manuscript sketch of Fort Cumberland made in 1758, in E. M. Avery, _History of the United States_, IV. 207.

[23] In 1863 Mr. Robert Shriver made a most excellent photograph of this point, which shows the stratum in its primitive condition.

[24] See Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_, 137; also Searight, _The Old Pike_, 64, 71 ff. G. G. Townsend of Frostburg, road engineer for Alleghany County, Maryland, has an old blue print, made before the railroads were built, which shows on the left, or eastern, bank of Wills Creek a wagon road running through the Narrows and crossing the creek near the mouth of Braddock Run.

[25] The three engineers who accompanied Braddock's expedition (_Seaman Journal_, 364) made striking use of a series of absolutely straight lines in laying out the road, except where the fording of a river required a tortuous route, or where the topography of the country was such as to render their plan utterly impracticable. This device, which impressed itself upon the writer and his party as they were crossing Wills Mountain, afterwards proved of great value to them in their efforts to pick up the road where traces of it were completely obliterated for rods at a time in cultivated fields.

[26] _Orme Journal_, 327. In fixing the several encampments the writer has been aided to some extent by the maps already published, but chiefly by Orme's journal, which records the number of miles of each day's march with great accuracy, and by the topographic sheets, without the aid of which neither the road nor the encampments could have been so definitely located.

[27] From this point to Clarysville the route is through a gap between Dans Mountain and Piney Mountain.

[28] This spring is about one-third of a mile west of the tollgate on the National turnpike.

[29] Although many misstatements and untenable notions as to the location of the road, the places of encampment, etc., are prevalent in the country adjacent to the line of march, yet local tradition is in many cases surprisingly accurate.

[30] See Middleton's map.

[31] _Orme Journal_, 333.

[32] See Lowdermilk's _History of Cumberland_, 257. This stone, sometimes designated Braddock's Stone, bears the following inscription: "11 mile To Ft Cumberland 29 Ms To Captn Smyth's Inn and Bridge Big Crossings & The Best Road To Redstone Old Fort 64 M." This is fairly legible. The other side reads, "Our countrys rights we will defend." There is no reason for supposing that this stone was erected by Braddock's command.

[33] On the summit of the mountain, a few hundred yards to the north of the road, is St. John Rock, 2930 feet above sea level, from which a magnificent view of the surrounding country is to be had.

[34] Three wagons were entirely destroyed in passing this mountain, and several more were shattered (_Orme Journal_, 335).

[35] It is an interesting fact that throughout the route the fording of a stream was in every case at or slightly below the mouth of a tributary. At such a place there is usually a riffle caused by the formation of a bar of sand, gravel, and mud, the crest of which offers a very practical opportunity for fording. Some of the apparent deviations of the road from what would seem to have been the natural course may have been made for the sake of avoiding a depth of water which might have rendered the streams impassable except by bridging. In other instances a circuitous route may have been the most practicable way of passing a swamp or a bog.

[36] _Orme Journal_, 335.

[37] Orme mentions no encounter with the Indians at this place of encampment.

[38] According to Orme, the first brigade encamped about three miles west of Savage River (_Orme Journal_, 335), a location which corresponds with that suggested above. This spot, furthermore, is the only advantageous ground in the vicinity.

[39] Dense forests of white pine formerly covered this region, which, from the deep gloom of the summer woods and the favorable shelter that the pines gave to the Indian enemy, came to be spoken of as the "Shades of Death." The writer's party was told that the old wagoners who used to drive from Baltimore to Zanesville dreaded this locality as the darkest and gloomiest place along the entire route. Of the former gloomy forest, however, nothing now remains except the stumps. The trees were cut down years ago, sawed up, and shipped to market.

[40] From Mrs. Henry Meerbach the writer secured two English pennies bearing date of 1724 and 1753 respectively, which, she said, were picked up on Braddock Road on the eastern slope of Meadow Mountain.

[41] This is doubtless the bog to which Orme refers as having "been very well repaired by Sir John St. Clair's advanced party with infinite labour" (_Orme Journal_, 335).

[42] This mountain, it may be noted, constitutes the dividing ridge between the waters that flow into the Atlantic and those that enter the Gulf of Mexico.

[43] _Orme Journal_, 335. The Little Meadows farm at present consists of over 1200 acres. At the time the National turnpike was laid out Jesse Tomlinson owned the land at this point and kept a tavern on Braddock Road. The Tomlinson estate was, indeed, one of the objective points for the turnpike as specified in the first report of the commission appointed to lay out the National road, then uniformly known under the legal name of Cumberland Road (_Executive Document_, 9 Cong., 2 sess., Jan. 31. 1807, 16 pp.). On June 15, 1755, the entire force had reached Little Meadows, where at a council of war it was determined that General Braddock and Colonel Halket, with a detachment of the best men of the two regiments (in all about 1400, lightly encumbered), should move forward. Colonel Dunbar with the residue (about 900), and the heavy baggage, stores, and artillery, was to advance by slow and easy marches.

[44] At this point it may be well to clear up an obscurity likely to arise from a confusion of the following names: Little Meadows is at the western slope of Meadow Mountain, twenty miles from Cumberland; Great Meadows, which marks the site of Fort Necessity, is about thirty-one miles farther west; Little Crossings is a ford of the Castleman River just east of Grantsville and two miles west of Little Meadows; Great Crossings is the passage of the Youghiogheny about half a mile above Somerfield and sixteen miles west of Little Crossings.

[45] This is the only region on the entire route in which pine trees in any considerable quantity still remain.

[46] Orme very accurately and tersely describes this day's march over Keyser Ridge: "We could not reach our ground till about 7 of the clock, which was three hours later than common, as there was no water, nor even earth enough to fix a tent, between the great Mountain and this place" (_Orme Journal_, 338).

[47] At this camp, Washington, prostrated by a violent attack of fever, was left under a guard to await the arrival of Dunbar with the rest of the army. That it was really here, and not, as is usually asserted, at Little Meadows or Little Crossings that Washington was left, is clear from his own words. "We set out [from Little Meadows]," he wrote to his brother on June 28, "with less than thirty carriages including those that transported the ammunition for the howitzers, twelve-pounders, and six-pounders, and all of them strongly horsed; which was a prospect that conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though I was exceedingly ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my hope brought very low indeed, when I found that, instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles. At this camp I was left by the Doctor's advice, and the General's positive orders" (Washington, _Writings_, Sparks ed., II. 82-83).

What Washington says about the length of time spent in marching from Little Meadows helps to fix the location of the camp; for it agrees with Orme's assertion that they left Little Meadows on June 19 and marched from the camp on June 23 (_Orme Journal_, 336-340). Even in the matter of distance there is a difference of only a mile between the two accounts, and this difference may be accounted for by the fact that Orme always uses the phrase "we marched _about_" so many miles. See also _Pennsylvania Gazette_, July 3, 1755.

[48] See Shippen's manuscript draft of 1759, in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

[49] _Orme Journal_, 340. This camping-ground was reached June 23, 1755. Shippen's draft would seem to confirm the foregoing statements as to the course of the road from Addison to the Youghiogheny. On file, however, in the land office of the Interior Department at Harrisburg, under date of Oct. 8, 1788 is the survey of a tract (also marked Braddock's Old Road) situated near the headwaters of the south branch of Braddock's Run, about one mile south of Addison. This discovery, recently made, necessitates a further examination of the ground in order, if possible, to determine the exact location of the road between the state line and the Youghiogheny.

[50] According to Orme, the Youghiogheny is at this point "about one hundred yards wide, about three feet deep, with a very strong current" (_Orme Journal_, 340).

[51] The writer secured from Mr. Thomas an old axe that was found near Braddock Road. There is every reason to believe that it was used by one of Braddock's wood-choppers.

[52] _Orme Journal_, 341. This camp was about four miles east of Great Meadows, on land now occupied by Albert Landman. Formerly one Job Clark kept a hotel at Twelve Springs on Braddock Road, one mile south of the National turnpike.

[53] _Orme Journal_, 341. Although the day was fast waning when the cortege passed Fort Necessity,--the place where Washington had the previous year capitulated with the honors of war to Coulon de Villiers,--no stop was made there. This fort, of which some of the outlines still remain, is situated on Meadow Run in Great Meadows, a few hundred yards south of the National turnpike. In 1767 Washington acquired, under the name of Mt. Washington, a tract of 334 acres embracing Fort Necessity. That portion of Great Meadows which includes the old fort is now owned by Lewis Fazenbaker. On July 4, 1908, a very suitable marker was erected to commemorate the battle there.

[54] The grave is enclosed by a board fence, within which are a number of beautiful pine trees. A marker was erected at this point on July 4, 1908. In 1909 a number of spirited citizens of Uniontown, Pa., organized an association known as "The General Edward Braddock Memorial Park Association." They have purchased twenty-four acres of land, including Braddock's grave, and, in order to preserve to posterity this historic spot, they propose to erect a suitable monument to his memory and otherwise embellish the grounds.

[55] _Orme Journal_, 343. This orchard, situated about two miles from Fort Necessity and referred to by many writers, must have consisted of crab apple trees at that time. In this camp Braddock died, July 13, 1755.

[56] Owned by Henry Harrison Wiggins.

[57] "This Indian camp was in a strong position, being upon a high rock with a very narrow and steep ascent to the top. It had a spring in the middle, and stood at the termination of the Indian path to the Monongahela, at the confluence of Red Stone Creek" (_Orme Journal_, 343). By the aid of this description the writer was able to identify the Half King's Rocks even to the minutest detail.

[58] Jumonville marks the northernmost point reached by Dunbar's regiment. Near the grave is the ledge of rocks on which Washington and the Half King took position in their attack on Jumonville, May 28, 1754, in what proved to be the initial battle of the French and Indian War. As Francis Parkman tersely puts it, "This obscure skirmish began the war that set the world on fire" (Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_, 1905, I. 156).

[59] _Orme Journal_, 344.

[60] _Orme Journal_, 344. James Veech says in his _Monongahela of Old_ (p. 60) that this encampment was "a short half mile below New Haven," on land then (1858) owned by Daniel Rogers; but Judge Veech is confused by Orme's entry of June 28, which says, "The troops marched about five miles to a camp on the east [west] side of Yoxhio Geni" (_Orme Journal_, 344). It is worthy of note that Orme uses the term "the troops marched" and not his customary phrase "we marched," a circumstance from which it seems reasonable to infer that the advance column halted a day at this encampment, and that on June 29 the officers and the rest of the army at Gist's Plantation joined it here.