Ill Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards

By Lee McCardell

Book Overview

A rare combination of documented fact and good storytelling, Ill-Starred General is the biography of a much maligned man from one of history's most vital eras. The career of Edward Braddock began during the court intrigues of Queen Anne and George I, gained momentum in continental military campaigns in the early 1750s, and ended abruptly in the rout of his American army near present-day Pittsburgh in 1755. This highly acclaimed biography reveals the man--and the politics--behind his defeat, one of the major setbacks to British imperial power in the American colonies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822959038
• ISBN13: 9780822959038
• Release Date: August 1986
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

General Edward Braddock

Published in 1958, McCardell's biography of General Edward Braddock is an excellent account of his life and ultimate disaster in the forests of western Pennsylvania in 1755 near the outset of the French and Indian War. Braddock was born in Scotland in 1695 and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1710. Moving up through the ranks of the Guards, he served in Holland, Flanders, and Gibraltar before being appointed major general in 1754. In February of that year he came to America to lead the British forces against the French. The greatest interest in Braddock's life occurs from this point on for most readers. Although there were many administrative problems to be ironed out, eventually matters were set right enough for an expedition against Ft. Duquesne (Pittsburgh), a French stronghold, to proceed. Leaving what is today Cumberland, MD, on the Potomac River, Braddock's forces cut a road over the Allegheny Mountains to the Monongahela River; after crossing the river they advanced to within eight miles or so of Ft. Duquesne before being ambushed by about 250 French and 600 Indians. It was a total rout, and the British retreated; Braddock himself, after having four horses shot from under him, was wounded and died a few days later at the Great Meadows (where Washington had engaged the French the year before, raising the curtain on the French and Indian War), where he was buried. The defeat was a disaster for the British, and 1755-56 witnessed tremendous bloodshed for the settlers in the central and western parts of PA. Braddock was characterized by Benjamin Franklin as being "a brave man, ... but he had too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians." The British army received an important lesson from Braddock's defeat, though the attitudes and prejudices (if Franklin's opinion is correct) of officers like Braddock carried over into the Revolutionary War, to similar results. McCardell writes exceedingly well and is scholarly in his approach (there are hundreds of footnotes). His story about Braddock, especially after he arrives in America, is swift and compelling. Highly recommended.