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This article is about the expedition. You may be looking for the memory of the same name.

The Braddock Expedition, or Braddock's Defeat, was the name given to the expedition led by Major General Edward Braddock during the Seven Years' War. This expedition aimed to capture the French Fort Duquesne in an attempt to expand the territory controlled by the British Crown. However, these efforts ended in disaster when the French Army, aided by a party of Native Americans led by the Templar Haytham Kenway, ambushed and decimated the British formation, killing Braddock in the process.

Background[]

Prior to the expedition, the French and British forces were in negotiations for a possible truce. The Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in the colonies, Edward Braddock, refused the offer and planned an expedition to defeat the French once and for all. He claimed that the French would only temporarily abide by the peace treaty, breaking it whenever they had an advantage, and so he drew up plans to capture Fort Duquesne. [citation needed] A copy of these plans were stolen by the Templar Haytham Kenway, in preparation for his ambush on Edward's army.[4]

Braddock's defeat[]

In July 1755, Braddock began the march to the fort with nearly 2,000 men and a sizable amount of artillery. To try and maintain the element of surprise, Braddock marched his men through the thick forest, foolishly believing that no one would detect them there, and completely oblivious to the French who were waiting within. [citation needed]

Haytham's party, composed of his Templars and natives from the Abenaki, Lenape, and Shawnee peoples, arrived at a point very close to the marching force and prepared their ambush, during which Haytham stole the attire of a Redcoat soldier in an attempt to sneak up on Braddock. When he had Braddock at the end of his pistol barrel, a small regiment of French regulars ignited the ambush, followed by the collaborating natives.[2]

Charles Lee shot and killed[2] the French commander Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu[5] as he charged on horseback at Haytham and Braddock. Braddock then fled towards the river with the Haytham in close pursuit. As the Templar gained on Braddock, French marksmen who were hiding in the thick of the trees shot at the several British wagons holding gunpowder, causing them to explode and create chaos along the path. Seeing that Braddock was in danger, George Washington killed Haytham's horse in an attempt to aid his commanding officer's escape. Despite this, Kaniehtí:io knocked Washington off his horse and pinned him to the ground with a knife to his neck, giving Haytham the time to chase down and confront Braddock.[2] Meanwhile, the far more prepared and organized French troops ended the expedition, after having inflicted devastating blows to the British regulars' numbers, causing the rest of the redcoats to flee. The natives then took to eliminating the remaining wounded and dead.[5]

Aftermath[]

As a result of the expedition, a large part of Braddock's forces were decimated during the battle, with at least one French and unspecified Native American casualties.[5] Although Haytham believed he had killed Braddock in their confrontation[2] by stabbing him in the heart, in truth, the Major-General had barely survived his wound, though it ultimately proved fatal and he lingered for four days before dying.[1] To keep the French from capturing the body, Washington ordered that it be buried in an undisclosed location and had the army march over the grave to erase all evidence of the burial.[6]

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