Eyewitness 1913: Brits and Fayette locals remember Gen. Braddock
Share with others:
Less than a year before the start of World War I, British officers came to southwestern Pennsylvania to honor one of their own. Major Gen. Edward Braddock had played a tragic role during what has been called the first global conflict.
He had been mortally wounded on July 9, 1755, in what would become the borough named for him. Accompanied by 23-year-old George Washington, who was serving as a military aide, Braddock was leading a British and Colonial army in a failed attempt to drive the French and their Indian allies from what is now Pittsburgh's Point.
He died July 13, about seven miles southeast of present-day Uniontown, and was buried in an unmarked grave.
The battle in which Braddock was killed was part of the Seven Years' War, which saw armed forces clash in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and North America.
On Oct. 15, 1913, Fayette County residents, state officials and members of Braddock's old regiment, the Coldstream Guards, gathered to dedicate a granite monument and bronze plaque to his memory. Braddock's remains had been reburied there in 1804.
About 1,000 people met the noon train carrying British officers when it arrived at Uniontown's Pennsylvania Station, according to the next day's edition of the Pittsburgh Gazette. Correspondent George A. Campsey reported that someone in the crowd yelled, "The Red Coats are coming" as the train pulled in.
The new monument had been erected along Route 40 in what was called Braddock Memorial Park. Getting there from Uniontown required a hike or slow ride up Chestnut Ridge, and the Gazette's reporter wrote that some people had started out for the afternoon ceremony as early as 5 a.m. "Many entire families took a holiday to attend the dedicatory exercises and the park took the form of a sort of picnic ground early in the day," he wrote. About 5,000 people made the trek.
First Published February 14, 2011 5:09 pm
