On July 9, 1755, during the French and Indian War, Colonel George Washington took part in the Battle of Monongahela, in which General Braddock was killed and his army routed. Washington had advised Braddock to push on rapidly towards the French-held Fort Duquesne and to leave behind his artillery and baggage wagons so that he could move through the wilderness as fast as possible. Washington feared the consequences of moving too slowly and wrote his brother a few days before the battle that the army “instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road” was “halting to level every mold hill and to erect bridges over every brook; by which means we were four days getting twelve miles.” Washington’s fear of disaster was only too well-founded. The following letter is his account of the battle, written to his mother nine days later: Fort Cumberland, July 18, 1755 Honored Madam: As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat, and perhaps have it represented in a worse light (if possible) than it deserves; I have taken this earliest opportunity to give you some account of the engagement, as it happened within seven miles of the French fort, on Wednesday the ninth. We marched on to that place without any considerable loss, having only now and then a straggler picked up by the French scouting Indians. When we came here, we were attacked by a body of French and Indians whose number (I am certain) did not exceed 300 men; ours consisted of about 1,300 well-armed troops, chiefly of the English soldiers who were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to encourage their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being nearly 60 killed and wounded, a large proportion out of the number we had! The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery and were near all killed, for I believe out of three companies that were there, there is scarce 30 men left alive. Capt. Peyrouny and all his officers down to a corporal was killed. Capt. Polson shared near as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In short the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others that were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death, and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they broke and run as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them.