Braddock's Defeat

The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution

By: David L. Preston

Narrated by: Michael Quinlan

On July 9, 1755, British and colonial troops under the command of General Edward Braddock suffered a crushing defeat to French and Native American enemy forces in Ohio Country. Known as the Battle of the Monongahela, the loss altered the trajectory of the Seven Years' War in America, escalating the fighting and shifting the balance of power. An unprecedented rout of a modern and powerful British army by a predominantly Indian force, Monongahela shocked the colonial world - and planted the first seeds of an independent American consciousness. The culmination of a failed attempt to capture Fort Duquesne from the French, Braddock's Defeat was a pivotal moment in American and world history. While the defeat is often blamed on blundering and arrogance on the part of General Braddock - who was wounded in battle and died the next day - David Preston's gripping new work argues that such a claim diminishes the victory that Indian and French forces won by their superior discipline and leadership. In fact the French Canadian officer Captain Beaujeu had greater tactical skill, reconnaissance, and execution, and his Indian allies were the most effective and disciplined troops on the field. Preston also explores the long shadow cast by Braddock's defeat over the 18th century and the American Revolution two decades later. The campaign had been an awakening to empire for many British Americans, spawning ideas of American identity and anticipating many of the political and social divisions that would erupt with the outbreak of the revolution. Braddock's Defeat was the defining generational experience for many British and American officers, including Thomas Gage, Horatio Gates, and, perhaps most significantly, George Washington. A rich battle history driven by a gripping narrative and an abundance of new evidence, Braddock's Defeat presents the fullest account yet of this defining moment in early American history.

©2015 David L. Preston (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A Colonial history must listen

While it could drone on from time to time, Braddock’s Defeat expertly lays out the causes, effects, and minutiae of the most significant Indian victory over European forces in colonial American history. Good narration as well.

Great story, great backdrop to the American Revolution

Have read much about the revolution and this account of Braddock's journey adds to the depth of the struggle for the Americas by natives and foreigners alike, laying additional layers to the conflict and lives of those who lived during this epoch. This story was well told and the performance was in line with the sober subject.

Dry Narration

Really great history of the French and Indian war, the military and strategic aspects of Braddock's mission, and its importance to the future of America. Near ration is very dry and monotone and makes this difficult to get through. I think I would've enjoyed the book more.

One of the best books I’ve read

This book is OUTSTANDING! The painstaking research into first hand accounts from both British and French sources really helps to analyze and understand Braddock’s defeat in a new light.
The authors writing style is very descriptive and paints and vivid picture of the realities of the conflict in such a way that would rival the most seasoned storyteller. The chapter on the actual battle was so vivid I could close my eyes and picture it as described.
For anyone interested in military history particularly the French and Indian War or military logistics this is a MUST read!
I hope the author is working on his next book!

exceptional layout of a confusing important battle

exceptional backstory on Washington's rise during French and Indisn War a little known and neglected period of history..lays out Battle or Monagahela with expertise and precision....must read

Butchered French words like they were redcoats on the Monogehela

mispronounced most French place names and a few of the people's names. But the history itself is excellent

Great American history

This was a great insight into pre-revolutionary war history. Living in Baltimore I have crossed Braddock's road traveling Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania and didn't even know it. It brings history alive for me and is a great way to connect past with present. Highly recommend!

History told correctly

Thoroughly researched, beautifully written, judiciously presented history of one of the world's pivotal events. Great job by author and reader.

Truly Great

Excellent read. It’s a legitimate shame that Americans generally know very little about this part of our own history. A must read to truly understand American history.

Important historical work poorly read

Braddock's defeat has always presented a bit of a paradox. On one hand is the astonishing logistical achievement of getting an army with artillery from the Chesapeake to the Forks of the Ohio in 1755. On the other, the equally astonishing military disaster that befell that army just as it appeared to have passed through the most arduous and dangerous stages of its march. The conventional explanations, almost from the immediate aftermath, have focused on Braddock's personal failings: his arrogance, his rigidity, his tactlessness towards British colonials and Native Americans, and his lack of experience, in terms of both North America and even combat. The odd picture is of a doddering, blundering, incompetent who somehow manages, apparently by accident, to first get several thousand troops, with the heaviest artillery train ever seen in North America, to the far fringes of British settlement and then lead a strike force of 1,500 a further 110 miles through unsettled, mountainous terrain, cutting old-growth forest and building a road as they go while successfully fending off French and Indian attacks. All this in the face of an utter breakdown of needed support from colonial governments at odds with each other and rent by bitter contention between royal governors and their respective assemblies.

David Preston has compiled and synthesized previously unexamined or misinterpreted sources from British, American, Canadian, and French archives to produce a much more balanced picture of the campaign and of Braddock himself. Preston presents evidence and arguments that Braddock (1) understood the need for Native American support and displayed a rather deft touch in trying to get it, (2) along with his oft-maligned quartermaster Sir John St. Clair, had a firm grasp of logistics and the movement of troops and supplies, even in the grueling environment of the Appalachian frontier, (3) up to the final debacle had been diligent about guarding his flanks, routing several French and Indian scouting parties and attempted ambushes, and (4) proved himself a "soldier's general" whose commitment to military discipline was tempered by a profound concern for the welfare of his troops, reflected in his popularity among the ranks.

Preston examines important factors largely ignored or downplayed in many previous treatments of the campaign. Perhaps the most significant of these is the extreme logistical vulnerability of Fort Duquesne, at the far end of a supply line longer and no less daunting than that of Braddock himself. He shows that Braddock had the misfortune of completing his epic march at exactly the moment when the size of the French and Indian forces was at an unsustainable peak: a few weeks earlier or later would have found a much reduced force and might have seen a very different result.

Preston also aligns with other recent works on the colonial frontier in acknowledging the agency and independent geopolitical and diplomatic interests of various Native American leaders and communities. He argues that the massive imbalance of the Indian support for the two sides in the campaign was not a simple reflection of Braddock's tone-deaf cultural ineptness but due to a range of factors, including (1) the far greater breadth and depth of French-Indian alliances, (2) the success of French intelligence in discerning British intentions, (3) the proactive mobilization of Indian forces from across New France's far-flung trading network, (4) the failure of colonial governors, especially James Glen of South Carolina, in fulfilling their promises to mobilize large numbers of Cherokee and Catawba allies, and (5) the uncertainty and caution of the upper Ohio country Indians, many of whom stepped aside to see how things turned out.

Unfortunately, the Audible audiobook is marred by an indefensibly inept narration. The central event is a military clash between the French and British empires. Predictably, the book is peppered with French place, personal, and organizational names and terms. There is simply no excuse in failing to engage a narrator who is comfortable reading French aloud. Michael Quinlan's obvious struggles produce a grating series of inconsistent manglings--Beaujeu becomes "Buh-jew," Vaudreuil "Voo-droh'" etc., etc. Extended quotations from French correspondence will have anyone with the most fleeting acquaintance of La Belle Langue cringing. Nor are the mispronunciations confined to French. "Lichens" are "litchens," and we hear twice of a British officer's indulgence in "Gloster-shy-er cheese," even though other British counties are pronounced correctly.

Narration aside, this is an important study of a critical event in the colonial relations between Britain and France and ultimately between Britain and her American colonies. Readers with an interest in colonial history generally, and especially in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, will find much of value in this accessible, groundbreaking book.