PREFACE. DURING the term of Mr. J. R. Ingersoll's official residence at London, he procured, for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, copies of the three jour. nals which constitute the basis of this volume. A few months since, these were committed by the Society to the hands of the editor, with a request to prepare therefrom such a work as he now has the honour to lay before it and the public. It is a matter of reasonable surprise, that the narrative of what Mr. Sparks has justly styled "one of the most remarkable events in American history," has never before been formally and circumstantially related. Perhaps the secret rests in the fact that much of the original material necessary to such an undertaking has hitherto slumbered in undisturbed repose, its very existence almost forgotten, upon the shelves of State-Paper Offices and public libraries in various parts of the world. A sketch of the combat, brief, but admirably exact, is given by the distinguished author before cited in the Appendix to the second volume of the Writings of Washington; and other notices, incidental and of less value, are to be found in numerous historical works. There are also two obscure and obsolete contemporaneous pamphlets, professing to give an account of Braddock's defeat, which, although not so rare as to be unknown to Rich, are hardly possessed of sufficient worth to save them from the limbo of Ariosto. The first of these is "A Letter to a Friend; giving a concise but just Account, according to the Advices hitherto received, of the Ohio Defeat," &c. (Boston, printed; Bristol, reprinted, 1755; 8vo., pp. 30.) The second, to which the editor has had access only since the body of his volume was stereotyped, is entitled "The Expedition of Major-General Edward Braddock to Virginia, with the two Regiments of Hacket and Dunbar. Being Extracts of Letters from an Officer in one of those Regiments to his Friend in London," &c. (London, 1755; 8vo., pp. 29.) This seems to be a mere catch-penny production, made up, perhaps, from the reports of some ignorant camp-follower. The privations and insubordination of the army, and the paltry and despicable character of the colonists and their country form the burthen of his strain. The only facts he relates concerning the expedition that we do not find elsewhere, are that the General was somewhat of a bon vivant, and had with him "two good Cooks who could make an excellent Ragout out of a pair of Boots, had they but Materials to toss them up with;" and that the soldiers, for lack of ovens, were compelled to bake their maize bread in holes in the ground. Of a very different value are the copies of the French official reports of the action of the 9th of July, 1755, so kindly placed at the editor's disposal by Mr. Sparks; to whom the Society is also indebted for the use of the copper-plate from which the plan of the battle-field is taken. To Mr. Neville B. Craig, of Pittsburg, it is under like obligations for the plate of Braddock's route; and to Mr. Paul Weber, of Philadelphia, for the drawing of the wood-cut of Braddock's grave, and for the elegant original landscape painting engraved as a frontispiece to this volume. To these gentlemen, and to Mr. John Jordan, junior, of Philadelphia, the Rev. Mr. Francis-Orpen Morris, of Nunburnholme Rectory, Yorkshire, England, Dr. William M. Darlington, of Pittsburg, and Mr. Edward D. Ingraham, of Philadelphia, both the Society and the editor must confess their obligations. To Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. Buchanan, the late and present Ministers to England, and to Mr. Townsend Ward, the Librarian of the Society, acknowledgments are also due for the valuable assistance they have, in various ways, rendered him. So far as regards the manner in which the editor has accomplished his task, he has only to say that, within the limits prescribed him, he has carefully endeavored to fulfil his duty. The Introductory Memoir was considered, by those whose views he felt called upon to regard, desirable to bring clearly before the reader's mind the origin and ulterior causes of this campaign; which was, in fact, but the prologue to the Seven Years' War. An Appendix is also added, in which will be found much matter bearing more or less directly upon the subject in hand. It may be objected that the notes abound too much in "matter needless, of importless burthen;" yet in such a place, it is submitted that no unimportant part of an editor's duty consists in elucidating neglected facts; nor should he spare to dwell upon the personal history of the obscurest name upon the roll: il figlio Del tale, ed il nipote del cotale |