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| "The Soldier" Lermercier, Life of George Washington 1854 |
The battle took place on Iroquois hunting land which gave the French and Indians a distinct advantage. The British stood strong for about 3 hours, but General Braddock was shot from his horse and his troops began to withdraw from the fight. The French and Iroquois pursued the fleeing battalion killing over 500 troops and wounding over 400 more in the battle. A young Virginian surveyor serving as Braddock's aide-to-camp, George Washington, reorganized the troops after the defeat. General Braddock died from his wounds several days later.
A short time after the battle, Jacob Hoover gave an eyewitness account of the ordeal under oath to the Pennsylvania Provincial Council:
The Examination of Jacob Huber, a wagoner, belonging to the Army under the immediate Command of General Braddock, taken under Oath before the Honorable Robert Hunger Morris, Esq., Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, at Carlisle, in the Country of Cumberland, the 17th July, 1755.
"This Examinant saith that he was in Col. Dunbar's Camp the tenth of July, Instant, and was inform'd that Two Officers who had come from the Fort Cumberland, returned to the camp about three hours after the set out, and rumor spread that there was bad news, and that the officers could not pass the to the general by reason of the Indians. That bout nine or ten p'clock the same days this Examinant saw and spoke with several wagoners who were come into Col. Dunbar's Camp from General Braddock's, and who informed this Examinant that General Braddock with his advanced party of fifteen-hundred men had been attached on the ninth instant within five miles of Fort Duquesne by a great many French and Indians, who surrounded them; That the action lasted three hours; that the most part of the English were killed; that General Braddock was wounded and put into a wagon and afterwards killed by the Indians that Sr. Peter Hacket and Captain Orme were also killed. And this Examinant further saith that he saw some soldiers return into Colonel Dunbar's Camp, whom he was informed had been of General Braddock's advanced party, some of whom were wounded, some not; also saw two officers carried on sheets, one of whom was said to be Sir John St. Clair, whom the Examinant was informed had received two wounds; that about noon of the same day Col. Dunbar's drums beat to arms, and both before and after that many soldiers and wagoners, with other attendants upon the camp, took to flight, and amongst other Examinant; and further saith not."
JACOB HOOVER
"Sworn the day and Year above written before ROBERT H. MORRIS."Source: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania: From the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government. Vol. VI, Containing the Proceedings of Council from April 2nd, 1754 to January 29th, 1756.
