Braddock's disaster: Ohio 1755
Braddock's disaster: Ohio, La Belle Rivière, 1755
All around the cities and village of Nouvelle-France, bells were ringing and feast were organised. Cheering crowd gathered to greet any soldiers who were marching in the streets. The news were that good! The happiest man was probably the governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil. He had received conflicting reports during all summer before receiving a full report from what would become known as "Braddock's disaster". It all began with the news of massive concentration of troops directed toward Fort Duquesne. General Edward Braddock, known as the Bulldog, assembled a large army, complete with elite redcoats, trained colonial regulars, rangers and enough canons and supplies to besiege even Québec or Louisbourg. Knowing the strategic importance of Fort Duquesne, he was planning to take it from France and sever the link between Louisiana and Canada and force many indians tribes into submission. This threat had caused to Vaudreuil many sleepless night during the spring and summer. Listening to the cheers in the streets, he sat at his desk, reading again the reports. It all began in april, when the massive army of Braddock started to march toward Fort Cumberland, their last post before Duquesne...
Forward elements of the Braddock's expedition
Having received full power from Vaudreuil, the french forces started to gather their indian allies, while irregulars were rushing toward Duquesne from Fort Niagara. Knowing that there could be no victory in an open siege, commander Claude Pécaudy de Contrecoeur ordered his advance force to advance toward Fort Cumberland and ambush any forces they found isolated, until the main force was ready or Braddock's expedition arrived. June 5th saw the first blood spilled. Commander de Contrecoeur's raider found an inexplicably vulnerable ranger force heading toward Cumberland. This force was the answer the british colonials devised to block french and indians continued success on the frontiers. They were about to learn a lesson or two in irregular warfare. As they were camping before their last day of march, french and indians launched a surprise attack.
Colonial raiders composed of the best men of the Milices Canadiennes.
Nearly 3000 men shouted their warcries while charging the Ranger's camp, butchering them to the last men, while losing only 30 mens.
American rangers getting butchered
Braddock soon learned of this defeat and reacted swiftly, sending his canons back to safety and doubling the pace of his columns, fearing that the French would burn Fort Cumberland before he could use it as the base of his operation against Fort Duquesne. He was still convinced that his well drilled army would overcome any opposition.
Braddock with his aide-de-camp, the promising Georges Washington. His first taste of french warfare forced him to surrender, the second one, only to flee while watching is army being butchered. Next time, maybe he will just loose a battle?
But it was exactly what the French wanted him to do. Contrecoeur fell back, letting the british relieve the besieged, and somewhat panicked, garrison of Fort Cumberland. He met with the numerous reinforcement that had just arrived at Duquesne and came back, with a 3500 strong force of indians and canadians raiders. He besieged Fort Cumberland, effectivly trapping Braddock inside the wooden wall of the small fort and the nearby entrenchement his force digged. For nearly a month, Contrecoeur and his men litteraly dissected Braddock's force, one patrol at a time, skirmishing permanently with the isolated redcoats.
Braddock was getting desesperate. He ordered a discrete breakout operation, aiming to evacuate the english regular and head back toward his launching base, to get some reinforcement and supplies before counterattacking to relieve the colonials. July the first, he launched his operation. Under the cover of darkness, his forces began to move out of the fort, groups of volonteers silently attacking the sentinels around the fort. But just as the regulars were reaching the cover of the woods, warrior from the Abenakis tribe spotted them and raised the alarm.
Redcoats trying to break the "siege" of Fort Cumberland
One, two, ten muskets then opened fire, arrows began to fall on the massed redcoats as the french and indians realised what was happening. Braddock and Washington ordered their men to charge in the woods, wishing to overcome any defender and break the encirclement. For a moment, it seemed they would succeed, as they killed many indians defenders. As Braddock looked at Washington with a triumphant smile, the french irregulars began to deploy, shooting without pause on the bright target of the redcoats in a morning dawn. The vanguard compagny around Braddock was entirely destroyed in a matter of minutes. Washington and Braddock took command of the two following compagnies and tried to disperse the french, only to find that their glorious charge in the wood had reached empty positions. Indian warcries then erupted, as hundreds of warriors charged on the redcoats, butchering two entire compagnies. General Braddock rallied the redcoats around him and pushed back the native's attack. But as the casualities mounted, he was forced to fall back to the Fort, leaving his wounded behind him. On his left flank, Washington's attack met with success. He overwhelmed the french and indians trying to hold him and breaked throught, running toward the 13 colonies with less than 400 exhausted redcoats. The remnants of the expedition retreated in disorder inside Fort Cumberland, having lost 319 men. The french and indians suffered only 87 casualities, mainly during the opening attack of Braddock volonteers.
Braddock was now in an even more dangerous position. Without his best troops, he had to defend the fort with soldier he despised: colonial infantry and militias. 2400 men against more than 5000. Using the fort canons to the best effect and keeping the french occupied with small raids, Braddock kept the fight on for a whole month. Holding the fort itself and the trench lines around it, he should never had had the possibility of doing that before a french army. But Contrecoeur's forces were all irregular, with no siege material or even siege training. The native insisted on launching quick attack, retreating when met with a stiff resistance. Without siegework, artillery, approach trench or even an engineer in his whole force, Contrecoeur was forced to wait for hunger to make the siege for him. But at the end of the month, the situation worsened: his allies were getting restless, wanting to go back to their village or at least to make some raid deeper in english territory. He had no choice, he planned an all-out assault to end all this.
At dawn, August 1st, a thousand indians silently advanced toward the northern trenches. They surprised the foward post and captured many soldier until one sounded the alarm. The fort erupted of fire, canons and muskets firing on the massed indians. They started to fall back but Contrecoeur sended 500 hundred more attacking the west side. Then, a thousand more attacking southside. Then the french attacked the west side. It continued all day, casualities mounting rapidly in the bloodiest battle yet seen in the war. At the end of the day, Braddock sounded the retreat from the outer defenses. He had made the french and indians pay dearly for his trenches, but they were now bleeding him dry in close combat. The day had costed him half the garrison: 1250 men lost, a majority of them scalped after furious hand to hand fight with frenzied indians that fought to send them away from their lands. The french has lost around a thousand of their own, but they now outnumbered him by 4 time, at least. Munition were getting low and so was morale. The french commander then sent a letter to the general, with a surrender proposition that could not be refused:
"Monsieur le Général, if you haven't surrended by tomorrow morning, I will lift the siege with my french forces and leave you to the indians. The same indians you vowed to destroy. Bien à vous, Claude Pécaudy, Sieur de Contrecoeur, Capitaine du Roy". Braddock could already feel the cold of the blade cutting his scalp. His soldiers looked mutinious when they heard of the offer. He didn't have any choice. In the morning, he came to parley with the french under a white flag. He saw the Sieur de Contrecoeur coming to him, followed by the chiefs of the numerous tribes who fought with him: Mingo, Delaware, Shawnee, Miami, Fox, Pottawatomi, Illinois, Nippising, Objibas and even some Iroquois or tribes the english didn't even knew they existed. French officers in uniform and Canadiens officers in natives clothes closed the march. He was forced to sign a harsh capitulation
As Braddock was being sent to Fort Duquesne, Fort Cumberland was the burned to the ground. Claude Pécaudy de Contrecoeur would then use the rest of the summer to consolidate his victory. He sent most of his men under his second in command, Capitaine Daniel Liénard, Sieur de Beaujeu, toward Fort Allen, hoping to catch the few regular who escaped the siege while Contrecoeur himself consolidated Fort Duquesne's defenses with the spoils of Fort Cumberland. (I captured a supply wagon). De Beaujeu arrived with his troops september 15th. He relentlessy assaulted the fortification, killing much of the garrison until the survivors mutined and forced their commander to surrender. Beaujeu was surprised to learn that the disciplined soldier who had killed more than 200 of his men were in fact colonial militiamen and that the able and cunning commander who matched his assault was an old scottish highlander retired officer. After 3 days, the survivors refused to continue to fight and sent a surrender offer to Beaujeu, who accepted it. The term were lenient: the colonials could go home without weapons and their officers would be exchanged for future french prisonners. With Fort Allen burned, 640 more ennemies defeated, Fort Duquesne was now out of the reach of any regular force. The victory was complete. Just in time to go back for the harvest.
French soldiers and natives looting Fort Allen before burning it.
Historian's Corner: la Bataille de Monongahéla: Braddock's defeat.
This battle is an excellent illustration of Canadien's warfare: french and colonial forces fighting indian style. As i wrote in another entry, the Nouvelle-France was a very militarised society. Nearly each men, and a good part of the women too, by the way, were trained to use muskets and knew the hardness of the frontier's life. The coureurs des bois lifestyle gave to Nouvelle-France an ample number of men able to form the irregular forces and raiding force that gave Nouvelle-France his best weapon. The colonial regular forces, the Compagnie Franche de la Marine were even more dangerous: commanded by canadien's officers, able to fight as regulars or the indian way, they gave the english many hard defeats.
Learning about Braddock's advance too late to summun many indians allies (like I did in the game), De Beaujeu, the french commander, knew he would not be able to sustain a siege against Braddock's canons. He decided to go out of the fort and fight Braddock in the wilderness. The battle was a textbook battle: the regular blocked the front of Braddock's expedition while Canadien and Natives were skirmishing all around the collumn. The redcoat's volley fire were ineffective, the canon fire even more so while the massed groups of english were perfect target for the french and indians snipers. The redcoats began to fall back, disorganising their reinforcement as they went, making the unable to react to the mounting ennemy pressure. Small units, initiative and surprise were the base of the "petite guerre" way of war and it worked. Braddock's force were trashed, the general killed, Washington barely escaped with his life. The french and indian lost less than a hundred men. Remember this way of war, you will see it collide with Montcalm's idea when he finally arrive in America, with my reinforcement!
This first major engagement of the french and indian war is very well known, serving as background in the last Assassin's Creed, inspiring a large part of the battles in "The last of the Mohicans"...and having MANY videos on it on you tube. I can only recommend this one to you, it is the best description I ever read or watched.
http://www.videopediaworld.com/video/59490/Québec-History-9--Battle-of-the-Monongahela
. I cannot attack the French either, as the terrain is very good for the sort of troops they have. Thus, I am going to attempt a move on the East of the Champlain to surprise my opponent. In the unlikely case where the weather stays good, I could actually reach the French port North of the Champlain. At worse, all the units doing that move are militias, expected to go home at the end of the year, so...
