The French and Indian War - Braddock's Defeat

American Political History · Mar 1, 2023 · 24m

On July 9, 1755, the largest army ever assembled in North America crossed the Monongahela River in perfect order, ten miles from its objective and certain of victory. Three hours later, two-thirds of it was dead or wounded, its general dying, and its survivors running for the river. This is the Battle of the Monongahela — the day a European army met the American forest and could not understand what was killing it. We trace how 18th-century war actually worked, why the finest infantry in the world bunched into neat ranks on a wooded road and were shot down where they stood by an enemy they…