Conestoga Wagons in Braddock's Campaign, 1755

Part 1

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: PAPER 9

CONESTOGA WAGONS IN BRADDOCKS CAMPAIGN, 1755

Don H. Berkebile

By Don H. Berkebile

CONESTOGA WAGONS IN BRADDOCK'S CAMPAIGN, 1755

More than 200 years have passed since the Pennsylvania farm wagon, the ancestral form of the Conestoga wagon, first won attention through military service in the French and Indian War. These early wagons, while not generally so well known, were the forerunners of the more popular Conestoga freighter of the post-Revolutionary period and also of the swaying, jolting prairie schooners that more recently carried hopeful immigrants to the western territories.

THE AUTHOR: Don H. Berkebile is on the exhibits staff of the Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum.

In a speech to the Pennsylvania Assembly on December 19, 1754, Governor Morris suggested a law that would "settle and establish the wages" to be paid for the use of the wagons and horses which soon were to be pressed into military service for the expedition against Fort DuQuesne. His subsequent remarks on the subject were all too indicative of the difficulties which were later to arise. The Assembly however, neglected to pass such an act, and the Maryland and Virginia Assemblies were equally lax in making provision for General Braddock's transportation.

Sir John St. Clair had told Braddock, shortly after his arrival in the colonies in late February 1755, "of a great number of Dutch settlers, at the foot of a mountain called the Blue Ridge, who would undertake to carry by the hundred the provisions and stores...." St. Clair was confident he could have 200 wagons and 1,500 pack horses at Fort Cumberland by early May. On April 21 Braddock reached Frederick, in Maryland. There he found that only 25 wagons had come in and several of these were unserviceable. Furiously the General swore that the expedition was at an end. At this point, Benjamin Franklin, who was in Frederick to placate the wrath of Braddock and St. Clair against the Pennsylvanians, commented on the advantages the expedition might have gained had it landed in Philadelphia instead Alexandria, and pointed out that in eastern Pennsylvania every farmer had a wagon. Braddock then suggested that Franklin try to raise the needed 150 wagons and the 1,500 pack horses. Asking that the terms to be offered be first drawn up, Franklin agreed to the undertaking and was accordingly commissioned. On his return to Pennsylvania, Franklin published an advertisement at Lancaster on April 26, setting forth the terms offered (the full text of this advertisement is found in Franklin's autobiography).

Although eventually successful, Franklin was beset by many difficulties in collecting the wagons. Farmers argued that they could not spare teams from the work of their farms. Others were not satisfied with the terms offered. Furthermore, the Quaker-controlled Assembly had little interest in the war and did nothing to regulate the hire of wagons, in spite of the repeated pleas of the governor. Franklin published new advertisements more strongly worded than the first, threatening an impress of wagons and drivers if better cooperation could not be had. Finally the governor found it necessary to issue threatening warrants to the magistrates of four of the more reluctant counties. This action brought in the wagons but caused new difficulties to arise, for in order to prevent trouble the townships had contributed, in addition to the fifteen shillings per day offered in Franklin's terms, from five to fifteen pounds to each owner who would hire out his wagon.

This practice caused others to demand more for their services. Governor Morris wrote to Richard Peters that he was "preparing to send sixty waggon loads of oats and corn from hence (Philadelphia), for which I am sorry to say, that I shall be obliged to give more for the transporting of it, than the thing is worth, such advantages are taken by the people of the Public wants...." Two weeks later Edward Shippen, explaining the teamsters side of the argument, told how they had to pay ferriage at the Susquehannah and make the return trip with empty wagons. It would be well to mention here that not all of the wagons were to accompany the expedition; many were to transport supplies only to Conococheague or to Wills Creek, and it was the owners of these wagons who, since they did not feel bound by the same terms offered the 150 accompanying the expedition, most often took advantage of the situation. In addition, wagons were needed to supply Colonel James Burd and his party, who were building the Pennsylvania road from Shippensburg to the forks of the Youghiogheny, where it was to meet with Braddock's road. When word came back to the settlements that Indians had killed several of Burd's wagoners, recruiting became still more difficult. The alarm became so great that the road builders threatened to leave if protection was not sent them. Accordingly, Captain Hogg was sent with his company from Braddock's army to cover them.

The farm wagons used in these operations were often referred to as Conestoga wagons. This term was apparently in general use at least as early as 1750, when the term "Dutch Wagon" was also used in referring to this particular type of vehicle. The Conestoga, deriving its name from the Conestoga valley near Lancaster, was apparently a Pennsylvania adaptation of the English wagon. Unfortunately there are no existing specimens of early wagons of whose age we can be certain, and the few wagon fragments that have been unearthed are insufficient to justify any conclusions. A number of strakes were found in Edmund's Swamp (figs. 2-5), on the route of the Forbes expedition in 1758. These indicate a wheel diameter of 64 inches and a tire 2 inches wide. The 2-inch tires are undoubtedly relics of a farmer's wagon, since the various military vehicles had tires no less than 3 inches and often on the heavier types 4 inches wide. The use of strakes also indicates that these early wagons had no brakes such as the large Conestogas of a later era had. From all indications it would appear that these early farm wagons differed from the larger freighters of the 1790's and were probably similar to the lighter, farm-type Conestogas of the 19th century. Farm wagons are somewhat smaller than road wagons, generally bear less ornamentation and lack the more graceful lines of the latter.

Contemporary letters and newspaper advertisements attest to the fact that farm wagons were the type used by Braddock. For example, Franklin's advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 22, 1755, noted that "several Neighbors may conveniently join in fitting out a Waggon, as was lately done in the Back Counties." Had these wagon owners been other than farmers of poor means, such a notation would have been unnecessary. In another communication to the inhabitants of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland Counties Franklin said, "three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the business of their Plantations a Wagon and four Horses and a Driver, may do it together, one furnishing the Waggon, another one or two Horses, and another the Driver, and divide the pay proportionably between you." Many letters describe the owners of the wagons with such phrases as "the Poorer sort," and "narrow circumstances of the Country People, who are to supply the waggons...." These remarks indicate that farm wagons were used and suggest that the larger Conestogas, such as were driven by professional teamsters, probably had not yet been developed.

That Braddock's wagons were small is evidenced by the loads carried. Governor Morris seems to indicate loads as small as thirty-five bushels when he sent a dispatch to Braddock informing him that he had bought "one thousand bushels of Oats and one thousand bushels of Indian Corn in this town [Philadelphia], and have directed sixty waggons to be taken up." This is substantiated by a remark in Captain Orme's journal, in which he states that "The loads of all waggons were to be reduced to fourteen hundred weight...." Under the same date, June 11, he indicated that the farmers wagons were smaller than the English wagons when he wrote "all the King's waggons were also sent back to the fort, they being too heavy and requiring large horses for the shafts...." Another communication from Morris states that he "dispatched fifty-two waggons from this town, each carrying fifty bushels of grain, one half oats the ether Indian Corn." This makes a load of about 2,200 pounds, quite in agreement with the statement in the Gentlemen's Magazine of August 1755, that loads were commonly around one ton. A load of one ton is small in comparison to those hauled by later wagons that sometimes carried as much as five or even six tons.

An approximate description of the size of the wagon, taken from the earliest existing specimens of the same type shows a bed about 12 feet long on the bottom and 14 feet on the top. Depth of the bed ran about 32 inches and the width was approximately 42 to 46 inches. Though there was little standardization in most features, eight bows usually supported the dull white homespun cover. The diameter of the front wheels varied from 40 to 45 inches, while the rear wheels ran 10 to 20 inches larger.

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