Nine days from now, Andy Serkis plays General Braddock on the big screen.
But here is what was happening on this exact date 271 years ago.
From Bear Camp to the Monongahela
June 24th, 1755. General Braddock’s flying column was crossing the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny River in what is now Somerset County, Pennsylvania, pushing hard toward Fort Duquesne. His army had been hacking a road through the wilderness for weeks, dragging artillery through terrain that had never seen a wagon wheel.
George Washington was not with them.
He was at Bear Camp, Fayette County, Maryland, flattened by dysentery and fever. Braddock had ordered him to stay behind with Colonel Dunbar’s slower rear detachment while the flying column pushed ahead. Washington spent several days there recovering, desperate not to miss the campaign’s culmination. He wrote to aide-de-camp Robert Orme that he would not miss being at Fort Duquesne “for 500 pounds.” He eventually rejoined the column and made it in time.
Fifteen days later, on July 9th, Braddock’s column walked into an ambush on the banks of the Monongahela. Within hours, the most powerful British force on the continent was shattered. Braddock lay dying. Washington had two horses shot out from under him and found bullet holes in his coat afterward.
And somewhere in the chaos, a fortune in British Army gold vanished.
That is where The Search for Braddock’s Lost Gold begins. I grew up a few miles from where that battle happened. I have walked that ground.
Young Washington · July 3, 2026
Angel Studios releases Young Washington on July 3rd. Andy Serkis plays General Braddock. The film follows a twenty-two-year-old George Washington into the wilderness of western Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. The same campaign. The same forest. The same disaster.
The movie will show you the battle. The book will show you what was never recovered.
In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, The Search for Braddock’s Lost Gold is $0.99 on Kindle from June 28th through July 5th only.
Get It Before the Price Goes Up
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I am giving away a limited number of free audiobook codes for The Search for Braddock’s Lost Gold in exchange for an honest review. If you are an audiobook listener, grab a code below while supplies last.
A Note About a Fellow Author
I read on planes. Give me a window seat and 90 minutes, and I will devour a book before we land. This one arrived as an author-to-author recommendation. I read it.
Andy Morisseau spent years as an officer in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. It shows. This prequel follows a cop whose marriage is falling apart and whose grip on the rules is loosening, and a kid from the wrong part of town whose choices keep narrowing. Both are heading toward the same moment. Written by someone who lived this world, not researched it. Free download. Includes the opening of his full novel Justice.
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David R Leng
Echoes of Fortune. The Past Never Ends. It Echoes into the Present.