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| John Kennedy Lacock |
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John Kennedy Lacock's Braddock Road
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The following article combines Harvard
professor John Kennedy Lacock's thorough research on
Braddock's Road with his photography on the subject.
Actually, the photography is that of Ernest K. Weller,
however I classify these photographs as Lacock's since
he hired Weller to do the work. As far as I know, this
is the first time this much of Lacock's work has ever
been assembled in one place.
Besides writing the most in-depth article
on the route of Braddock's Road, he also published about
80-100 postcards on the historic thoroughfare. There
are at least two different versions of the Lacock postcards
- black and white and hand tinted color cards. For this
edition, I am using the color postcards whenever possible.
My collection of Lacock's postcards
is considerable, but no means complete - I have 26 of
the ~50 postcards in the Braddock Road series and only
three in the Cumberland Road series. View
my list of Lacock cards. As I acquire other cards
I will add them to this page. If you have a Lacock postcard
(either series), please
contact me. I am missing a few of the cards show
here and a few of the cards I have are in terrible condition.
I also have a few duplicates and would be willing to
trade.
Lacock's postcards and article photos
are captioned as such. I have also included some of
the photographs from the original article. I did not
include all of the article's photographs for graphical
reasons. As soon as I can locate an original of high
enough quality, I will add those pictures. In addition
to Lacock's photos, I have added a few other illustrations
that compliment the text. The one element missing from
this piece are detailed maps showing the path of Braddock's
Road. I hope to have those included here before too
long.
As a man of letters, Lacock's writing
is scholarly and his sources of information are painstakingly
noted. The footnotes are indicated by numbers in backets
[1]. Due to its excessive length, I've
take a minor liberty with the first footnote and broken
it out as an introduction.
Many placenames have changed since Lacock's
day. For example, Lacock uses Pittsburg instead of Pittsburgh.
I have left the text in its original form and have not
corrected any of the place name spellings.
Braddock Road
By
John Kennedy Lacock
[Originally published
in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography,
XXXVIII, 1 (1914), pp. 1-38.]
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| Lacock Postcard No.
1: General Edward Braddock |
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During the months of August, 1908, the
writer conducted the following party over Braddock Road:
Charles Francis Abbott of Somerville, Mass., a sub-master
in the Somerville English High School; Henry Temple
of Washington, Pa., professor of history at Washington
and Jefferson College, and his son John, a student at
Washington and Jefferson Academy; Clause S. Larzelere
of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, professor of history in
the Michigan State Normal School; Ernest K. Weller of
Washington, Pa., photographer; Edward B. Murdock, Esq.,
and his brother, John H. Murdock, a senior at Washington
and Jefferson College. During the months of June and
July, 1909, he conducted a second party over the road:
Andrew Jackson Waychoff, professor of history at Waynesburg
College; Rev. George P. Donehoo of Connellsville, Pa.;
Charles P. McCormick of Bentleyville, Pa., principal
of the Bentleyville Public School; Edward Westlake of
Washington, Pa.; and Ernest K. Weller of Washington,
Pa., photographer.
For constant interest and the stimulus
of frequent discussions, for many helpful suggestions
in regard to the preparation of this paper, and for
valuable criticism of the manuscript, the writer is
under the deepest obligation to Professor Albert Bushnell
Hart of Harvard University; for helpful criticism of
the manuscript he is indebted also to Professor Edward
Channing and to Professor William Bennett Munro of Harvard
University; for conscientious and efficient service
in the preparation of the manuscript for the press he
owes a peculiar debt of gratitude to Miss Addie F. Rowe
of Cambridge; and for practical help at every step of
the way he again offers his hearty thanks to the scores
of persons who have given him valued and appreciated
assistance, some of them at great expense and labor.
The accompanying map, made on the ground,
but afterwards drafted under the supervision of J. Sutton
Wall, chief draughtsman, and William A. Moore, assistant-chief
draughtsman of the Interior Department, Harrisburg,
Pa., gives a pretty clear idea of the course of the
road and the location of the encampments. Of Middleton's
map (originally published in Olden Times, II,
op. 528) Lowdermilk says, "The map as now given
may be confidently accepted as perfect in every respect"
(Lowdermilk, History of Cumberland, 137). To
one who has followed the course of the road for himself,
however, the fallacy of such an assertion is apparent:
for, though Middleton's map may be fairly regarded as
altogether the best yet published, it does not show
the route through the Narrows of Wills Creek at all,
nor does it indicate all of the deviations from the
Cumberland (National) Road. Not that any sweeping claim
to absolute accuracy is made for the accompanying map.
The writer may be permitted to say, however, that he
exercised great care in laying down the road on the
topographic sheets, and that from many trustworthy sources
he has gained information which has helped to fix definitely
points long since obliterated.
Lacock's map of Braddock's Road. View
a high resolution version of this map.
Middleton's map of Braddock's Road (and challenged by
Lacock). View a
high resolution version of this map.
On September 24, 1754, Major-General
Edward Braddock was appointed by the Duke of Cumberland,
captain-general of the British Army, to the command
of the British troops to be sent to Virginia, with the
rank of generalissimo of all of his Britannic Majesty's
forces on the American continent. Before his expedition
could start, however, many weeks had to be spent in
extensive preparations, a delay which became so irksome
to Braddock that he determined to wait no longer on
the tardy movement of the transports. Accordingly, on
December 21, 1754, accompanied by Captain Robert Orme,
one of his aides, and William Shirley, his military
secretary, he set sail for Virginia with Commodore Augustus
Keppel, and on February 20, 1755, anchored in Hampton
Roads. It was not until January 14, 1755, that the rest
of the ships were actually under sail, and not until
about March 15 that the entire fleet arrived at Alexandria,
Virginia, where the troops were disembarked and temporarily
quartered.[1]
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| Robert
Orme, a painting by Joshua Reynolds |
William Shirley |
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| Augustus Keppel, a painting
by Joshua Stevens |
Sir Peter Halket |
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Meanwhile General Braddock had been busy
making the necessary preparations against Fort Duquesne.
As a matter of first importance, he had written to the
governors of the several provinces asking them to meet
him at council at Alexandria; and to the five who responded
to his invitation on April 14 he submitted various proposals,
to which they in turn made formal answer.[2]
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| Fort Duquesne |
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| Braddock Spring, Braddock
Heights, Maryland. Dunbar's troops stopped by this
spring as they marched west. |
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Already, however, two days prior to
the conference with the governors, the advance column
of the army, after much delay caused by the lack of
horses and wagons, had set out from Alexandria. The
first objective point was Wills Creek,[3]
to which two regiments of the army proceeded by different
routes, Sir Peter Halket's through Virginia via Rock
Creek and Winchester, Colonel Thomas Dunbar's through
Maryland via Fredericktown and thence across Conogogee
and into a road five miles north of Winchester. From
this point both divisions seem to have marched over
the same road to Fort Cumberland.[4] Still further delays were
occasioned by the want of wagons and horses for transportation,
as well as by the lack of provisions; but by the 19th
of May practically all the forces were encamped at the
fort, a total of some 2100 men. It had thus taken twenty-seven
days to march from Alexandria to Fort Cumberland, a
distance of 180 miles; and, one may remark in passing,
all the delays up to this point had been occasioned
by circumstances over which Braddock had practically
no control. He did not reach Fort Cumberland himself
till May 10.[5]
Then he lost no time giving his attention to three matters
which were of great significance to the success of his
expedition, – (1) the Indian question, (2) the arrangements
about wagons and provisions, (3) the construction of
a road through Pennsylvania to serve as a means of connection
with the base of supplies.
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Footnotes
[1] Charles C. Coffin, Old Times in the Colonies,
377.
[2] The five governors were William Shirley of
Massachusetts, James De Lancey of New York, Robert
Hunter Morris of Pennsylvania, Robert Dinwiddie of
Virginia, and Horatio Sharpe of Maryland. The council
was held at the Carlisle House, often called the Braddock
House, which is still standing. For the answers of
the governors, see Documentary History of New York,
II. 648-651.
[3] Fort Cumberland, situated on the west side
of Wills Creek, was erected and garrisoned during
the winter of 1754-5 under the supervision of Colonel
James Innes, who called it Fort Mount Pleasant. The
name was changed to Fort Cumberland in 1755 by order
of General Braddock. Today the Emanuel Episcopal church
occupies part of the ground of the old fort, which
was situated on a bluff rising from the creek.
[4] See Winthrop Sargent, History of an Expedition
against Fort Du Quesne, 366-373. This monograph
was published by the United States in1855 by the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania. The first 280 pages contain
an introductory memoir by Sargent; pages 281-358 include
the journal of Robert Orme, one of Braddock's aides-de-camp
(this is the only American edition of Orme's record),
and pages 359-389 the journal of a naval officer which
is very frequently referred to as the Seaman's Journal.
Of this second journal there seem to be two texts,
one preserved in the Royal Artillery Library at Woolwich,
England (printed in Hulbert's Historic Highways
of America, IV, 83-107), the other in the possession
of Rev. Francis-Orpen Morris of Newburnholm Rectory,
Yorkshire, to whose father it was given by Captain
Hewitt. The second text is the one published by Sargent,
but the variations between the two manuscripts are
unimportant for the present purpose. This paper refers
to the Sargent edition of the second journal under
the caption Seaman Journal; and in citing the
Orme Journal it will also use the pagination
of Sargent.
[5] On this day Washington was appointed an aide-de-camp
to Braddock.
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