BAA000 Background on Monongahela
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Description
John Jenkins - The Battle of the Monongahela 1755
The Battle of the Monongahela took place on 9 July 1755 ten miles upstream from Pittsburgh during the French and Indian war. A British force under General Edward Braddock, moving to take Fort Duquesne, was defeated by a force of French troops, with its Native American allies.
The defeat marked the end of the expedition by which the British had hoped to capture Fort Duquesne and gain control of the strategic Ohio Country. Braddock was mortally wounded in the battle and died during the retreat. The remainder of the column retreated southwards and the fort remained in French hands until its capture in 1758.
The battle has often been incorrectly portrayed as an ambush by the French and Indian forces; they were in fact as surprised as the British were at the start of the engagement.
Of the approximately 1,300 men Braddock led into battle, 456 were killed outright and 422 wounded. Commissioned officers were prime targets and suffered greatly: out of 86 officers, 26 were killed and 37 wounded. Also, of the 50 or so women that accompanied the British column as maids and cooks, only 4 returned with the British—with around half being taken as captives. The French and Canadians reported 8 killed and 4 wounded; their Indian allies lost 15 killed and 12 wounded.
The battle was a devastating defeat, one of the most disastrous in British colonial history
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