The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

474 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [APrENDIX.
and all the artillery, ammunition, provisions, and baggage of the English army. The Indians gave themselves up to pillage, which prevented them from pursuing the English in their flight.
Such is the substance of the accounts written at the time by the
French officers, and sent home to their government. In regard to
the numbers engaged, there are some slight variations in the three
statements. The largest number reported is two hundred and fifty
French and Canadians, and six hundred and forty-one Indians; and
the smallest, two -hundred and thirty-three French and Canadians,
and six hundred Indians. If we take a medium, it will make the
whole number led out by M. de Beaujeu at least eight hundred and
fifty. In an imperfect return, three officers were stated to be killed,
and four wounded; about thirty soldiers and Indians killed, and as
many wounded.
When these facts are taken into view, the result of the action will
appear much less wonderful, than has generally been supposed. And
this wonder will be still diminished, when another circumstance is
recurred to, worthy of particular consideration, and that is, the shape
of the ground on which the battle was fought. This part of the description, so essential to the understanding of military operations, and
above all in the present instance, has never been touched upon, it is
believed, by any writer. We have seen that Braddock's advanced
columns, after crossing the valley extending for nearly half a mile
from the margin of the river, began to move up a hill, so uniform in
its ascent, that it was little else than an inclined plane of a somewhat
crowning form. Down this inclined surface extended two ravines,
beginning near together, at about one hundred and fifty yards
from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions till
they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the French
and Indians were concealed and protected. At this day they are
from eight to ten feet deep, and sufficient in extent to contain at least
a thousand men. At the time of the battle, the ground was covered
with trees and long grass, so that the ravines were entirely hidden
from view, till they were approached within a few feet. Indeed, at
the present day, although the place is cleared from trees, and converted into pasture, they are perceptible only at a very short distance.
By this knowledge of the local peculiarities of the battle-ground, the
mystery, that the British conceived themselves to be contending with
an invisible foe, is solved. Such was literally the fact. They were
so paraded between the ravines, that their whole front and right flank
were exposed to the incessant fire of the enemy, who discharged their
muskets over the edge of the ravines, concealed during that operation