=111. Braddock’s Defeat.=—General Braddock decided to take charge of the last-named expedition. His European training had not qualified him to command in an unsettled country, and in spite of his personal efforts he found great difficulty in moving regular troops and artillery through the wilderness. He could hardly have moved at all if Franklin had not persuaded the Pennsylvania farmers to hire out their horses and wagons. In June, 1755, the army began to cut its way through the forest. All went well, though slowly, until the fort was nearly reached, when suddenly (July 9, 1755) the advanced guard came upon a large body of French and Indians. These wily foes immediately adopted border habits of warfare, and picked off their enemies from behind trees. Braddock, who had all an Englishman’s contempt for colonial ways, pronounced this method of fighting barbarous, and would not allow his men to imitate it. He insisted on using the same tactics in the backwoods of America that he had been accustomed to employ on the battlefields of Europe. There could be but one result. His men offered themselves as targets until so many were killed that a retreat had to be sounded. Even this would have been unavailing but for the fact that Washington, who was present as an aid-de-camp and had vigorously protested against his superior’s hard-headedness, used his Virginians, who had fought their enemies in backwoods fashion, to cover the retreat of the regulars. Washington performed many feats of valor throughout the day, and had several narrow escapes. Braddock, quite as brave, but entirely out of place in such a situation, was wounded just before the retreat, and died a few days later. Thus the most important of the four expeditions was a failure. =112. Acadia, Crown Point, and Niagara.=—The second expedition succeeded in dispersing several thousands of the poor inhabitants of Acadia among the colonies;[52] that against Crown Point resulted in a victory over the French on the shores of Lake George, but that against Niagara did not even reach its destination.