Disdained Provincials

Colonial provincial troops and local militia fought the opening battles of the war against the French and their Indian allies. Colonials continued to fight when regular British soldiers under the command of General Edward Braddock were dispatched from England to conduct the war in 1755. After initial setbacks, including a British rout in which Braddock was killed, combined British forces successfully ousted the French from the Ohio River valley in 1758. Throughout the war, the British disparaged colonial forces: Braddock’s aide labeled them “languid, spiritless, and unsoldierlike in appearance.”

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