That Braddock succeeded in getting his unwieldy army, complete with siege artillery and a vast wagon train, up over the Appalachian Mountains was itself no mean feat. By the time he reached the Monongahela River, however, all of this equipment was an encumbrance in the face of the Canadian irregulars. The latter awaited the arrival of the redcoats and ambushed their flanks from the cover of the forest. In the ensuing struggle, the British lost two-thirds of their men and Braddock himself was mortally wounded.
This work by the American artist Edward Dening shows the extent to which the British, despite their careful organization and formal deployment, were vulnerable to the tactics dictated by wilderness conditions: British artillery had little effect against a concealed enemy and, noting that the British reloaded their muskets to ordered drumbeats, the Canadians picked off the officers who gave the orders and the drummers who relayed them. Confusion was followed quickly by panic through the ranks of the redcoats. Note the extent to which General Braddock offers an easy target.
Courtesy: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
