In the spring of 1755, Braddock began his march from Virginia to Fort Du Quesne, He had a force of two thousand men, regulars and colonial militia, but his movements were hampered by taking a train of baggage-waggons and artillery. One hundred men with axes went before to cut down trees and make a road for these to pass over. The journey was a slow and weary one, and the French garrison at Fort Du Quesne was well aware of Braddock’s movements. As he neared the fort, an ambuscade of French and Indians was formed, with the hope of checking his march. In spite of repeated warnings from Washington and othexs, Braddock neglected to take the most ordinary percautions against surprise. Passing through a thickly wooded defile, a sudden hail of bullets was poured into the astonished and dismayed ranks of the British regulars. On all sides was heard the terrible war-whoop of the Indians, and the work of destruction began. The British soldiers huddled together and tired their muskets into the air or into their own ranks. They were mown down by the bullets of the concealed French and Indians—without being able to offer any defence. Braddock had five horses shot under him, and was mortally wounded. Fotunately for the regulars, the colonial forces, used to Indian modes of fighting, took shelter behind the trees and fought the enemy in their own fashion, and kept them at bay. This enabled the terror-stricken soldiers who survived, to escape from the defile. More than one-half had fallen the remainder, panic-stricken, fled, and paused not till they had put forty miles between them and the dreaded enemy. Braddock was carried in a dying condition on a litter from the field, and that night with his life paid the penalty of his folly.
Fort Niagara, the forts on Lake Champlain, and Beauséjour in Acadia, were also marked out for attack by the English. The expedition against Niagara never reached its destination; Beauséjour was not able to make any defence and was easily taken; and Baron Dieskau was defeated and made prisoner near Lake George by Colonel William Johnson, at the head of a body of colonial militia and Mohawk Indians. This Colonel Johnson was a remarkable man in many respects. He had acquired a wonderful influence over the Mohawks, and was made one of their great chiefs. He built two great strongly fortified houses in the Mohawk valley, and made them headquarters for the surrounding Indians—one of whose daughters the famous Molly Brant, sister of Joseph Brant, he
