Nemacolin’s Path In November 1753, 21-year-old George Washington first traveled an old Native American path over the rugged Appalachian Mountains. It was called “Nemacolin’s Path,” and began at the junction of Wills Creek and the Potomac River, at the site of present-day Cumberland, Maryland.
The path then traversed a series of mountain peaks through endless forest to the Forks of the Ohio, the meeting place of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Washington traveled as an emissary on behalf of Virginia. He carried an order for the French military to withdraw from the fertile Ohio Country, which had been claimed by both the British and French crowns. Many tribes of Native Americans, primarily the Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Delawares, also claimed these lands. All sides were willing to shed blood to secure their rights.Washington’s MarchWhen negotiations between Washington and his French counterparts failed, the three empires prepared for war. Washington traveled Nemacolin’s Path a second time in the spring of 1754, leading a band of Virginia militia in an effort to forcefully expel the French military, which had seized the Forks of the Ohio.Washington fought the French twice in 1754, at the Jumonville Glen, and at the battle of Great Meadows or Fort Necessity. In the latter engagement, Washington surrendered to the French after taking heavy casualties.Nemacolin’s Path Renamed “Braddock’s Road”In 1755 the Nemacolin Path became “Braddock’s Road” in honor of British Gen. Edward Braddock, who led a costly expedition against the French Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. Gen. Braddock widened the path into a 110-mile road for his army of siege guns, field pieces, 200 wagons, and 2,200 troops. It was an epic maneuver in a summer plagued by heat and drought.Participants in the campaign included:
Source: The Story | BRPA