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Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"

This guard being disordered, the general hurried
the troops up to their assistance, which was done in great confusion,
thro' waggons, baggage, and cattle; and presently the fire came upon
their flank: the officers, being on horseback, were more easily
distinguish'd, pick'd out as marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers
were crowded together in a huddle, having or hearing no orders,
and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of them were killed;
and then, being seiz'd with a panick, the whole fled with precipitation.
The waggoners took each a horse out of his team and scamper'd;
their example was immediately followed by others; so that all
the waggons, provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy.
The general, being wounded, was brought off with difficulty;
his secretary, Mr. Shirley, was killed by his side; and out
of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded,
and seven hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven hundred.
These eleven hundred had been picked men from the whole army;
the rest had been left behind with Colonel Dunbar, who was to follow
with the heavier part of the stores, provisions, and baggage.
The flyers, not being pursu'd, arriv'd at Dunbar's camp,
and the panick they brought with them instantly seiz'd him
and all his people; and, tho' he had now above one thousand men,
and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed
four hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding,
and endeavoring to recover some of the lost honour, he ordered
all the stores, ammunition, etc.


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