, by their own bullets; Sir Peter
Halket was killed on the field; Shirley, Braddock's secretary, was shot
through the head; Colonels Burton, Gage, and Orme, Major Sparks,
Brigade-Major Halket, Captain Morris, etc., were wounded. Out of
eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded.
The whole number of killed was estimated at four hundred and fifty-six,
wounded four hundred and twenty one, the greater part of whom were
brought off; the aggregate loss, eight hundred and seventy-seven. The
enemy's force, variously estimated, did not exceed eight hundred and
fifty men, of whom six hundred, it was conjectured, were Indians. The
French loss was twenty-eight killed, including three officers, one of
whom, Beaujeu, was chief in command; and twenty-nine badly wounded,
including two officers. The French and Indians being covered by ravines,
the balls of the English passed harmless over their heads; while a
charge with the bayonet, or raking the ravines with cannon, would have
at once driven them from their lurking places, and put them to flight,
or, at the least, dispersed them in the woods. Any movement would have
been better than standing still.

During the action, or massacre, of three hours, Braddock had three
horses killed under him, and two disabled. At five o'clock in the
afternoon, while beneath a large tree standing between the heads of two
ravines, and in the act of giving an order, he received a mortal wound.
Falling from his horse, he lay helpless on the ground, surrounded by the
dead. His army having fired away all their ammunition, now fled in
disorder back to the Monongahela. Pursued to the water's edge by a party
of savages, the regulars threw away arms, accoutrements, and even
clothing, that they might run the faster. Many were tomahawked at the
fording-place; but those who crossed were not pursued, as the Indians
returned to the harvest of plunder. The provincials, better acquainted
with Indian warfare were less disconcerted, and retreated with more
composure.

Not one of his British soldiers could be prevailed upon to stay and aid
in bearing off the wounded general. In vain Orme offered them a purse of
sixty guineas. Braddock begged his faithful friends to provide for their
own safety, and declared his resolution to die on the field. Orme
disregarded these desperate injunctions; and Captain Stewart, of the
Virginia Light-horse, (attached to the general's person,) and his
servant, togethe