Sample Essay Proposal – HIST101
Name: Student Name
Topic: Major-General Edward Braddock’s Defeat at Battle of the Monongahela
Research Questions:
1. What was the purpose of Braddock’s 1755 advance into the area known as the Forks of the
Ohio?
2. Why was Braddock’s command defeated?
3. What was the political result of Braddock’s defeat?
Thesis Statement: In July 1755, a hand-picked force of some 1,300 British regulars and
provincial recruits under Major-General Edward Braddock, while advancing on the French Fort
Duquesne, was ambushed and routed by a mixed ad hoc group of 900 French and Indian
combatants. Braddock's defeat emerges as one of the most dramatic politico-military events of
the prerevolutionary period.
Sources:
1. Anderson, Fred. The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian
War. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. [secondary source]
Anderson’s The War That Made America presents an effective narrative style that examines the
French and Indian War. The initial confrontation was sparked in a remote Allegheny glen when a
small colonial militia and Indian scouting party had a brief firefight with a French
reconnaissance force. From this spark events were set in train that would see early French
successes but eventually lead to a “most unequivocal” Anglo-American victory. In the end, the
war overturned the balance of power on two continents, essentially subjugated the Native
Americans and lit the “long fuse” of the American Revolution.i If there is a weakness in the text,
it would be that Anderson might have examined, in considerably more detail, how the costs of
the war were calculated and how these costs were directly related to the subsequent levels of
British taxation of the American colonies.
2. Fowler, William M. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for
North America, 1754-1763. New York, NY: Walker, 2006. [secondary source]
Fowler’s Empires at War begins with an examination of the tensions over control of the Ohio
River valley between France and Great Britain during 1753 and early 1754. The French stymied
a British attempt to construct a fort at the Forks of the Ohio in February 1754 and began
constructing the more elaborate Fort Duquesne. Now the Virginians hoped to turn the tables. In
the early morning of May 28, 1754, the Virginians and their Indian allies opened fire on
encamped French-Canadian militia and their Indian allies. In a matter of minutes most of the
French were dead or wounded, precipitating an escalating conflict that swept around the globe, a
war known as the French and Indian War in North America.ii With respect to a weakness, the
Sample Essay Proposal – HIST101
author puts forth a seemingly limitless cast of characters, events and venues – both in North
America and Europe – that may prove to be difficult for the reader to place in their proper
political, cultural or military contexts.
3. Edgar, Matilda. A Colonial Governor in Maryland: Horatio Sharpe and His Times 1753-
1773. London: Longmans, Green, 1912. [primary source]
Edgar’s A Colonial Governor in Maryland is of considerable historical significance. Horatio
Sharpe was the Proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1753 to 1768 and, thanks to the thorough
examination of his primary source correspondence, the reader is provided a first-hand glimpse of
frontier diplomacy, political intrigues, and the beginnings of the French and Indian War. The
first fourteen chapters examine with the war, with two discrete chapters that deal exclusively
with Braddock's Arrival and Braddock’s Defeat therein reflecting the comprehensive treatment
of this aspect of the Braddock’s story.iii If there is to be a weakness in the text, it is that Edgar
has failed to give a clear idea of the governor with respect to his relations with the assembly, the
proprietor and, of course, the Crown. While these relationships appear incidentally in the
material given, it is left mainly for the reader to pursue additional research in order to fully
appreciate Sharpe’s – as colonial governor – relationship with Braddock.
i Excerpted from William Calhoun (Review). Naval War College Review 60, no. 1 (2007): 156-57. ii Excerpted from Richard Strum (Review). New York History 87, no. 1 (2006): 152-54. iii Excerpted from E.I. McCormac (Review). The American Historical Review 18, no. 3 (1913): 597-98.
