Every American schoolchild was taught of the humiliating defeat of General Braddock's British redcoats by the French and Indians at the battle of the Monongahela; and the able Pennsylvania colonial military historian William A. Hunter on these pages told the tale of the bedraggled withdrawal of the remnants of Braddock's task force down the Cumberland Valley to Philadelphia in August 1755.1 This characterization by the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania will do for a summary:
My intelligence from the army is that they are in a very bad order, the officers disagreeing with one another & most of them having a contempt for the colonel that commands them, that the men are in a poor and ragged condition & don't relish another campaign, as it is called. I also find the scheme is to loiter as much rime and make as many difficulties as possible [so] that these troops may nor move from this place [Philadelphia] . .. 2
Doubtless for lack of time, Hunter did not discuss the personnel of the little army of redcoats. Sort-of in command was Colonel Thomas Dunbar. Braddock exhibited good judgment by leaving Dunbar behind when making the final push to Fort Duquesne. Alas, the deaths of General Braddock and Colonel Halkett left Dunbar the senior officer. He is not ranked among the great captains of the British army. Service in the wilderness persuaded him that "This climate by no means agrees with my time of life and bad constitution. I was willing to try and hoped I should be able to go through all that came in my way, but find it otherwise, therefore beg your interest [influence] to get me leave to go home." As soon as word could get back and forth to England, he was relieved, lost his regiment, and home he went.3
The second-ranking soldier was Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage, the apotheosis of the smooth officer-politician who climbs to the stars without any noticeable military achievements. As chief of Braddock's vanguard, Gage properly must be assigned primary responsibility for the debacle on the Monongahela; nonetheless, eight years later he became commander in chief of all of His Majesty's forces in North America, and he is best remembered for dispatching his troops to disarm an illegal militia at Concord, Massachusetts, in April 1775, with less than satisfactory results.4
A wounded officer was Captain Horatio Gates, who resigned his commission after the Seven Years War, settled in Virginia, joined the insurrection in 1775, and commanded the rebel forces on the northern and southern fronts. Also in the Braddock force was Lieutenant Charles Lee, who found solace for the disaster in the boudoirs of Pennsylvania's capital: "Philadelphia is charming, and really very sociable people; the women there are extremely pretty, and most passionately fond of redcoats, which is for us a most fortunate piece of absurdity." Lee was another regular army drop-out who subsequently held high command in the North American rebellion.5
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