Bj Don H. Berkehile 



CONESTOGA WAGONS 

 IN BRADDOCK'S CAMPAIGN, 1755 



More tbdu 200 years have passed since the 

 Pennsylvania farm wagon, the ancestral form of 

 the Conestoga wagon, first won attention through 

 tnilitary service in the French and India>i War. 

 These early ivagons, while not generally so well 

 known, were the forerunners of the more popular 

 Conestoga freighter of the post-Revolutionary period 

 and also of the swaying, jolting prairie schooners 

 that more recently carried hopeful immigrants to 

 the western territories . 



The Author: Don H. Berkehile is on the ex- 

 hibits staff of the Smithsonian Institution s United 

 States National Museum. 



IN A SPEECH to the Pennsylvania Assembly on De- 

 cember 19, 1754, Governor Morris suggested a 

 law that would "settle and establish the wages" to be 

 paid for the use of the wagons and horses which 

 soon were to be pressed into military service for the 

 expedition against Fort DuQuesne.' His subsequent 

 remarks on the subject were all too indicative of the 

 difficulties which were later to arise. The Assembly 

 however, neglected to pass such an act, and the 

 Maryland and Virginia Assemblies were equally lax 

 in making provision for General Braddock's trans- 

 portation. 



Sir John St. Clair had told Braddock, shortly after 

 his arrival in the colonies in late February 1755, "of 

 a great number of Dutch settlers, at the foot of a 

 mountain called the Blue Ridge, who would under- 

 take to carry by the hundred the provisions and 

 stores ...."' St. Clair was confident he could have 

 200 wagons and 1,500 pack horses at Fort Cumber- 

 land by early May. On April 21 Braddock reached 

 Frederick, in Maryland. There he found that only 



' Pennsylvania Archives, scr. 8, vol. 5, Morris to the House, Dec. 

 19, 1754. 



2 Robert Orme's Journal, in VVintlirop .Sargent, Tlie 

 history nf an expedition against Fort DuQtiesne, p. 288, Phila- 

 delphia, 1855. 



25 wagons had come in and several of these were 

 unserviceable. Furiously the General swore that the 

 expedition was at an end. At this point, Benjamin 

 Franklin, who was in Frederick to placate the wrath of 

 Braddock and St. Clair against the Pennsylvanians, 

 commented on the advantages the expedition might 

 have gained had it landed in Philadelphia instead 

 Alexandria,' and pointed out that in eastern Penn- 

 sylvania every farmer had a wagon. Braddock then 

 suggested that Franklin try to raise the needed 150 

 wagons and the 1,500 pack honses. Asking that the 

 terms to be offered be first drawn up, Franklin 

 agreed to the undertaking and was accordingly com- 

 missioned. On his return to Pennsylvania, Franklin 

 published an advertisement at Lancaster on April 

 26, setting forth the terms offered (the full text of 

 this advertisement is found in Franklin's autobi- 

 ograpliy). 



Although eventually successful, Franklin was beset 

 by many difficulties in collecting the wagons. Farmers 

 argued that they could not spare teams from the work 

 of their farms. Others were not satisfied with the 

 terms offered. Furthermore, the Quaker-controlled 

 Assemblv had little interest in the w.ir and did noth- 



' Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, p. 166, New York, 1939. 



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BULLETIN 218: CONTRIbUTIONS FROM THE .ML'SEU.M OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOOY 



