Monongahela River, battle of (1755). This was an incident in the French and Indian war where some 224 French troops accompanied by approximately 600 Indian warriors enveloped the front of a British column of 1, 400 regulars and 700 colonials, commanded by Maj Gen Edward Braddock with Washington as his ADC. The British were marching on Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania when ambushed. It is taken as a classic example of the unwisdom of employing European tactics in the forests of North America, but it was really a failure of scouting and intelligence, in both senses of the word, for Braddocks's firepower might have proved decisive if sensibly deployed. In the crossfire over 400 men, including Braddock, were killed and a similar number wounded. Washington rallied the survivors and, although still outnumbering the French, the demoralized survivors retreated to Fort Cumberland in Maryland.
— Matthew C. Ward
