Reconsidering Braddock's Road to Martin's - Paperback

by Lannie Dietle (Author)

Few events in America's colonial history have spurred as much interest as English General Edward Braddock's ill-fated expedition from Fort Cumberland in Western Maryland to Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian war in 1755. Famously accompanied by Virginia militia Colonel George Washington, Braddock's forces struggled over a harried and difficult route that has been mapped and studied many times in the centuries since. Early maps exist in the British Archives and major interpretations comparing these maps to features on the ground were written in 1847 and 1908. Despite this intense and continuous study, some questions still remain - including a question raised in this book by history author Lannie Dietle. As in his other works about colonial roads along the Allegheny Front, Mr. Dietle conducted an exhaustive study, not only of Braddock's route, but extensive history of Nemacolin's Trail and the Ohio Company Road through this same region. The fascinating alternative theory presented here involves the route between Braddock's first and second camps, ending with his arrival at a mysterious, now lost, location called Martin's Plantation. This book presents significant and harmonious evidence that Braddock did not turn southwest at the confluence of Porter Run and Braddock Run, but instead followed the existing Ohio Company Road through an area later known as Eckhart Mines. This theory continues, drawn from the same sources, that Martin's Plantation was located west of George's Creek, not to the east of the drainage as previous authors have surmised. The evidence thoughtfully presented here is already stimulating new efforts by other Braddock scholars and hobbyists to begin a new search for evidence on the ground of a more northerly route to Martin's - which could lead to a major revision in this historic narrative of George Washington's only military service with a regular British army unit.

Author Biography

Originally from the Wellersburg area, near Cumberland, Maryland, Lannie Dietle's interest in history began as a youth. He descends from the earliest settlers in southern Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and has pursued a lifelong study of the history of the region. His interest in primitive roads traces back to a youthful encounter with an abandoned road on Savage Mountain, and finding a broken wagon axle at a fording site. His first book was a genealogy. That led to creation of a regional history website, and collaboration with historian Michael McKenzie. Together, they researched the previously unwritten history of Southampton Township, Somerset County, and published it on the website. Eventually, they identified a new objective: To study nearby parts of Allegany County, Maryland that were underrepresented in published literature. This steered the collaborative research effort in a direction that ultimately led to joint publication of the groundbreaking book "In Search of the Turkey Foot Road," which reveals the history and route of a road that was opened from Fort Cumberland in 1779 to rush sorely needed provisions to Fort Pitt in support of American Colonel Brodhead's summer campaign. That provided the background needed to write "Fort Cumberland: The Missing Years," a book about the Cumberland region before the founding of the town. This book, "Reconsidering Braddock's Road to Martin's," began with the realization that the conventional wisdom about Braddock's expedition doesn't match core documentary evidence. Mr. Dietle graduated from California University of Pennsylvania at age 20. He has worked 43 years in the petroleum industry, and has been awarded 35 U.S. patents related to oilfield technology. His rigorous approach to industrial research guides his evidence-based study of history. Mr. Dietle has donated all proceeds from this book to the Cumberland Heritage Foundation, an organization dedicated to the discovery and interpretation of historic resources in western Maryland.