the excessively heavy artillery and the wagons; the 

 pack horses were weakened l)y the extra service they 

 were required lu perform; and due lo his lack ol 

 horses, Dunbar had been left too far JK-hind/'' While 

 other factors contributed to the outcome of the 

 expedition, many of the officers learned, as had 



Washington in 1754, the importance of proj)er 

 transportation. 



'" Ihitl., p. yo. As wagons had been stuitllcd bark in .April, 

 it was also necessary for Dunbar to shutllc horses, drawing up 

 the first of his wagons one day and returning with his few 

 horses on the following day to bring up llie balanee of the 

 wagons. 



THE CONESTOGA WAGON AND THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 



Styles hi farm equipment change sloivly, 

 and it is ptobable that the farm-type 

 Conestoga wagon of about 1850 shown in fig- 

 ure 7 is similar in many respects to the 

 Pennsylvania ivagons used by Braddock a 

 century earlier. The praitie schooner, too, 

 bore many of the characteristics of these early 

 farm ivagons. It was about the same length 

 as the Conestoga wagon, but the lines of the 

 bed were straight rather than curved and the 

 bows supporting the cloth cover were upright 

 rather than slanting fore and aft. Also, the 

 prairie schooner had a seat where the driver, 

 or at least his family , could ride during the 

 seemingly endless days of the journey . 



In this respect the prairie schooner differed 

 not only from the early farm wagons, but also 

 frotn the large freighting Conestogas, like that 

 in figure 6 , which dates from about 1830 . In 



the years following the Revolution and before 

 the coming of the railroad these freighters were 

 used to carry all types of merchandise to 

 Pittsburgh from Philadelphia by ivay of 

 present route U.S. 30 and from Baltimore by 

 way of present route U.S. 40. 



The freighting Conestoga had no inside 

 seats, and the teamster, ivhen not walking by 

 his team, either rode the left wheel horse or 

 the "laZ}' board" projecting from the left 

 side of the wagon, just in front of the rear 

 wheel. It is distinguished by its distinc- 

 tive, overhanging end bows, from which 

 swept down the chatacteristic homespun 

 cover, and by its lines, which are longer and 

 more graceful than those of either the later 

 prairie schooner or the earlier Pennsylvania 

 farm wagon. 



150 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECHNOLOGY 



