Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology:
Paper 9

Conestoga Wagons In
Braddock's Campaign, 1755

Don H. Berkebile

CONESTOGA WAGONS
IN BRADDOCK'S CAMPAIGN, 1755

More than 200 years have passed since the Pennsylvania farm wagon, theancestral form of the Conestoga wagon, first won attention throughmilitary service in the French and Indian War. These early wagons, whilenot generally so well known, were the forerunners of the more popularConestoga freighter of the post-Revolutionary period and also of theswaying, jolting prairie schooners that more recently carried hopefulimmigrants to the western territories.

The Author: Don H. Berkebile is on the exhibits staff of theSmithsonian Institution's United States National Museum.

In a speech to the Pennsylvania Assembly on December 19, 1754, GovernorMorris suggested a law that would "settle and establish the wages" to bepaid for the use of the wagons and horses which soon were to be pressedinto military service for the expedition against Fort DuQuesne.[1] Hissubsequent remarks on the subject were all too indicative of thedifficulties which were later to arise. The Assembly however, neglectedto pass such an act, and the Maryland and Virginia Assemblies wereequally lax in making provision for General Braddock's transportation.

Sir John St. Clair had told Braddock, shortly after his arrival in thecolonies in late February 1755, "of a great number of Dutch settlers, atthe foot of a mountain called the Blue Ridge, who would undertake tocarry by the hundred the provisions and stores...."[2] St. Clair wasconfident he could have 200 wagons and 1,500 pack horses at FortCumberland by early May. On April 21 Braddock reached Frederick, inMaryland. There he found that only 25 wagons had come in and several ofthese were unserviceable. Furiously the General swore that theexpedition was at an end. At this point, Benjamin Franklin, who was inFrederick to placate the wrath of Braddock and St. Clair against thePennsylvanians, commented on the advantages the expedition might havegained had it landed in Philadelphia instead Alexandria,[3] and pointedout that in eastern Pennsylvania every farmer had a wagon. Braddock thensuggested that Franklin try to raise the needed 150 wagons and the 1,500pack horses. Asking that the terms to be offered be first drawn up,Franklin agreed to the undertaking and was accordingly commissioned. Onhis return to Pennsylvania, Franklin published an advertisement atLancaster on April 26, setting forth the terms offered (the full text ofthis advertisement is found in Franklin's autobiography).

Although eventually successful, Franklin was beset by many difficultiesin collecting the wagons. Farmers argued that they could not spare teamsfrom the work of their farms. Others were not satisfied with the termsoffered. Furthermore, the Quaker-controlled Assembly had little interestin the war and did nothing to regulate the hire of wagons, in spite ofthe repeated pleas of the governor. Franklin published newadvertisements more strongly worded than the first, threatening animpress of wagons and drivers if better cooperation could not be had....