In the late spring of 1755, men from General Edward Braddock's army of 2,400 British and colonial soldiers built this stretch of the Braddock Road while marching to capture Fort Duquesne, the French fort at present-day Pittsburgh. Because the advance was slow, Braddock left heavy artillery and wagons at a camp here under Colonel Thomas Dunbar and moved on with a flying column of about 1,400 men. On July 9, 1755, that force was routed by French and Indian forces in the Battle of the Monongahela a few miles from the fort, and Braddock was mortally wounded. The remnants of his column retreated here in haste on July 12. What followed remains controversial, but either on Braddock's orders before his death the next day or on Dunbar's authority, the camp was broken up, provisions, more than 150 wagons, artillery, stores, and even some officers' baggage were destroyed, and the army retreated to Fort Cumberland.
