Page:History of Cumberland, Maryland 2.djvu/207

1755.] was resumed the horses, wagons and troops passed over the grave, the purpose being to prevent its discovery and desecration by the enemy.

About 1824, a party of workmen engaged in repair- ing the old road, came upon the remains of a human skeleton, which was supposed to be that of Braddock. Numerous insignia of rank were found with it, and there was no knowledge of the burial of any other ofl&cer in that vicinity. Those who were present on the occasion carried away with them, as souvenirs, the buttons and other metal articles which had not been destroyed by corrosion. Some of the party even went so far in the gratification of their passion for relics, as to make way with several of the small bones of the hands.

Mr. James Matthews, a blacksmith, who lived at Mount Washington, as Fort Necessity has since been called, was present on the occasion referred to, and witnessed the disinterment of these remains. They were carried to a point about one hundred and fifty yards Eastward, and buried in a field, at the foot of a large oak tree, some twenty-five yards from the National Boad. In order to mark the spot more clearly to strangers, Hon. Andrew Stewart had prepared a board upon which was inscribed the fact that this was the last resting place of Major Greneral Edward Braddock, and this board was nailed to the tree. For twenty-five years the National Boad was the great highway between the East and West, and thousands of persons passed over it annually. The writer can well remember how, when a boy, each morning and evening long trains of stage coaches