Braddock's Road

“ Could New England and New York and Pennsylvania have produced the fruits the nineteenth century saw blossom in the Old Northwest if France had maintained her hold within that mighty empire? The rough track of Braddock's Road, almost forgotten and almost obliterated, is one of the best memorials of the earliest struggle of the Colonies for the freedom which was indispensable to their progress. There was not an hour throughout the Revolutionary struggle when the knowledge of the great West that was to be theirs was not a powerful inspiration to the bleeding colonies ”

“ It was a portage path from [Pg 25] the Hudson to Lake Ontario; the old landward trail to Niagara not being opened by an army. [2]
Yet Braddock’s Road, cut in 1755, was quite filled up with undergrowth in 1758 as we have noted. It was “a brush wood, by the sprouts from the old stumps.” [3] In those primeval forests a road narrowed very fast, and quickly became impassable if not constantly cared for. The storms of a single fall or spring month and the heavy clouds of snow on the trees in winter kept the ground beneath well littered with broken limbs and branches. ”

“ They suggest in their deep outline what the old wagon roads must have been; yet it must be remembered that only what we may call the main road is visible today—the innumerable side-tracks being obliterated because not so deeply worn. In a number of instances on Braddock's Road plain evidence remains of these side-tracks. Judging then from this evidence, and from accounts which have come down to us, the introduction of the freighter with its heavier loads and narrower wheels turned the wide, deeply worn bridle-paths and cart tracks into far wider and far deeper courses. ”

“ The traveller at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, is within striking distance of Braddock’s Road at its most interesting points. A six-mile climb to the summit of Laurel Hill brings one upon the old-time route which will be found near Washington’s Spring. A delightful drive along the summit of the mountain northward brings one near the notorious “Dunbar’s Camp” where so many relics of the campaign have been found and of which many may be seen in the museum of the nearby Pennsylvania Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home. ”

“ However, time, usage and common consent unite in calling it Braddock’s Road, and, as a rule, we hold it to be very unwise, not to say downright foolishness, to undertake to change old and familiar names. It is difficult to do, and ought not to be done.
From the time it was thrown open to the public, in the year 1818, until the coming of railroads west of the Allegheny mountains, in 1852, the National Road was the one great highway, over which passed the bulk of trade and travel, and the mails between the East and the West. ”

“ We have spoken of the width of old-time bridle-paths; with the advent of the heavy freighter these wide routes were doubled and trebled in width. And, so long as the roadbeds remained in a “state of nature,” the heavier the wagon traffic, the wider the roads became. We have described certain great tracks, like that of Braddock’s Road, which can be followed today even in the open by the lasting marks those plunging freighters made in the soft ground. They suggest in their deep outline what the old wagon roads must have been ”

“ Many years of cultivation have not destroyed it, and for many years yet the plow will jolt and swing heavily when it crosses the track of Braddock's Road. I was astonished to find that at many points in Fayette and neighboring counties the old course of the road can be distinctly traced in fields which have for half a century and more been under constant cultivation. ”

“ This Franklin who secured Braddock horses and wagons was a prophet. And once he predicted that this “slender line” of an army would be greatly in danger of Indian ambuscade “and be cut, like a thread, into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up in time to support each other.” Braddock laughed at the prophecy, but his army had not been swallowed up in the gloom of the forests two days before its line was thinner and longer than Braddock could ever have believed. ”

“ It is well known, that, on both routes, the rich valleys between the mountains abound with good forage, and that those, which are stony and bushy, are destitute of it. Colonel Byrd and the engineer, who accompanied him, confirm this fact. Surely the meadows on Braddock's road would greatly overbalance the advantage of having grass to the foot of the ridge, on the Raystown road; and all agree, that a more barren road is nowhere to be found, than that from Raystown to the inhabitants, which is likewise to be considered. ”

“ As a rule, the tracks are very plain in the case of trails which became pioneer routes. On Braddock's Road, for instance, great gorges are still to be found, five feet in depth, plowed by hundreds of pioneer wagons. On a hundred hilltops may be found a slight, gently rounding depression which, on the longer ranges, can be followed for miles. These old thoroughfares are most plain where the forests are still standing on the hilltops, for here, among the trees, the explorer finds a great aisle which was once the ancient thoroughfare. ”

“ One of these was a central road; the Cumberland Road may have been built on the bed of this central track only a short distance, but on one of the almost innumerable side-tracks, detours, and cut-offs, for many miles. At Great Meadows, for instance, it would seem that the Cumberland Road was separated from Braddock's by the width of the valley; yet as you move westward you cross the central track of Braddock's Road just before reaching Braddock's Grave. May not an old route have led from Great Meadows thither on the same hillside where we find the Cumberland Road today? ”

“ It is surprising that having reached this high ground, the [Pg 184] favorable spur by which the National Road accomplishes the ascent of the Great Savage Mountain, did not strike the attention of the engineers, as the labor requisite to surmount the barrier from the deep valley of George’s Creek, must have contributed greatly to those bitter complaints which Braddock made against the Colonial Governments for their failure to assist him more effectively in the transportation department. ”

“ Nowhere in America can the evolution of [Pg 192] road-building be studied to such advantage as between Cumberland, Maryland and Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
For some years after Braddock’s defeat his route to and fro between the Monongahela and Potomac was used only by scouting parties of whites and marauding Indians, and many were the swift encounters that took place upon its overgrown narrow track. In 1758 General Forbes built a new road westward from Carlisle, Pennsylvania rather than follow Braddock’s ill-starred track, for reasons described in another volume of the present series. ”

“ From the Henry Blocher farm the line follows the general course of a private road westward for about a mile, crosses Mudlick Run to Read Anderson’s house, and thence leads up a rather formidable hill, on which Braddock’s engineers appear for the first time to have made use of a winding path as a means of ascent. From this hill the road runs by very favorable ground in a nearly straight line to the corner of a wood, and then on through the woods to a township road, which it crosses at a point about a quarter of a mile from the National turnpike. ”

“ It is known in tradition as "Braddock's Rock"—on the supposition that here some of Braddock's men landed just below the mouth of Rock Creek en route to Frederick and Fort Cumberland. It is unimportant whether the legend is literally true. [8] A writer, disputing the legend, yet affirms that the public has reason "to require that the destructive hand of man be stayed, and that the remnants of the ancient and historic rock should be rescued from oblivion." The rock may well bear the name of Braddock, as the legend has it. ”

“ When encamped at night, the line of wagons compactly drawn together was half a mile long; in marching order by day the army was often spread out to a length of four miles. And even in this fashion it could only creep along. Halket with the first division made only five miles in three days. In ten days Braddock had only covered the twenty-four miles to Little Crossings. The road makers followed implicitly the Indian path where it was possible; when on the high ground the road [Pg 110] was so rugged that many wagons were entirely demolished and more temporarily disabled ”

“ Even the suspicion of such treachery as sending Braddock to Virginia to indulge the purse of a favorite is the more revolting because of the suggestion in the letter from the Duke of Cumberland that Braddock, personally, favored an attack on Fort Niagara—which, it has been universally agreed, was the thing he should have done. ”

“ The Difficulties we have to meet with by the best Accounts are very great; the Distance from hence to the Forts is an hundred and ten miles, a Road to be cut and made the whole way with infinite Toil and Labor, over rocky Mountains of an excessive Height and Steepness, and many Stoney Creeks and Rivers to cross."
Braddock's army under Halket and Dunbar proceeded to Fort Cumberland from Alexandria by various routes. Governor Sharpe had had a new road built from Rock Creek to Fort Cumberland ”

“ A short distance westward from his house the line runs to the north of the house of A. M. Thomas, thence into a township road, then on past Charles Umble’s residence to that of B. F. Miller, and a little way from this place enters the woods on Division Ridge. No other part of the old Braddock Road presents such difficulties as this section of it over Division Ridge, for the underbrush is so thick in places that one is compelled to crawl on hands and knees in order to keep the road. The slopes are very rocky and the passes are exceedingly difficult, but with plainly marked scars. ”

“ The traces are very distinct on the east and west slopes, the modern road crossing it frequently. From the western foot, the route continued up Braddock's Run to the forks of the stream, where Clary's tavern now stands, nine miles from Cumberland, when it turned to the left, in order to reach a point on the ridge favorable to an easy descent into the valley of George's Creek. ”

“ For a mile and a half from the James Bishop house the road can be very accurately followed to the point at which it intersects the National turnpike,—a point, it may be noted, about a stone’s throw south of the spot where lie the mortal remains of General Braddock. [54] At this intersection the road leaves the turnpike never again to rejoin it, and turns somewhat to the northwest in order to gain a favorable pass over Chestnut Ridge, the last mountain ridge to be crossed. ”

“ It was General Braddock’s intention to cross Turtle Creek, and approach Fort Duquesne on the other side; but the banks were so precipitous, and [Pg 170] presented such obstacles to crossing with his artillery and heavy baggage that he hesitated, and Sir John St. Clair went out with a party to reconnoitre. On his return, before night, he reported that he had found the ridge which led to Fort Duquesne but that considerable work would be necessary to prepare a road for crossing Turtle Creek. ”

“ The indomitable Beaujeu, however, went and examined the ground at the ford of the Monongahela, which Braddock would pass on the next day. On the ninth, however, the Indians brought word that they would not join in the unequal contest.
But even as they spoke an Indian scout came running down the narrow trail toward the fort. He brought the news of Braddock's advance on the Monongahela fords. Beaujeu, cunning actor, played his last card desperately and well:
"I am determined," he cried, "to go out against the enemy; I am certain of victory. What! will you suffer your father to depart alone?" ”

“ At Clarysville the road turns into the valley of Flaggy Run, apparently following the west bank of the stream, [30] along which there is a deep depression formed by an old mill race that might easily be mistaken for the road itself. About half a mile southwest of Clarysville the road turns almost at a right angle, keeping approximately the course of the present county road for three-quarters of a mile up Hoffman Hollow. Here again, running parallel to the present road, is an old tramway roadbed which might readily be taken for Braddock’s path. ”

“ On the opposite side smaller ravines also lay nearly parallel with the trail. On the high ground between these hidden ravines, and not more than two hundred feet from them, Braddock's engineers and woodchoppers widened their road for Gage's advance guard which was ordered to march on until three o'clock. ”

“ The Shades of Death are dreary looking valleys, growing up with tall cypress and other trees and has a dark gloomy appearance. Tumblestones, or the Little Meadows is a fine plantation with beautiful meadow ground. Crossing of Yoh, is a pretty good ford. There is some very bad road about here. It is said Gen Braddock was buried about 8 miles forward from this, near a little brook that crosses the road. ”

“ Already Braddock's deputy quartermaster-general, Sir John St. Clair, had passed through Maryland and Virginia and had decided upon the route of the army to Fort Cumberland, the point of rendezvous. Four days after Braddock reached Alexandria, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania received a letter from St. Clair asking him to "open a road toward the head of Youghheagang or any other way that is nearer the French forts," in order that the stores to be supplied by the northern colonies might take a shorter course than by way of the roads then being opened through Maryland and Virginia. ”