Braddock’s March: How the Man Sent to Seize a Continent Changed American History

(Westholme Publishing) In 1755, Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock led the largest armed expeditionary force ever sent to North America. With orders from Great Britain to drive France completely out of the New World, the soldiers landed in Alexandria, Va., and marched 250 miles through the wilderness to Fort Duquesne in the Forks of the Ohio. Intending to capture it before marching on to the Canadian border, Braddock and his troops were instead attacked by French and Indian forces just shy of the fort. While a young Col. George Washington escaped death, Braddock was mortally wounded and over two-thirds of his troops suffered casualties. In Braddock’s March , Crocker tells the story of the expedition that would ultimately open the first major road for westward expansion, anoint a national hero in George Washington, and help to fuel what would become the American Revolution. Crocker is a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm.