Madonna of the Trail and Braddock's Road
Near Dc Northern Virginia, Maryland
The statue you're passing is one of twelve Madonna of the Trail monuments placed across the country by the Daughters of the American Revolution to honor the pioneer mothers of the westward migration. But this particular location carries an older story beneath it. Along this very road in April of seventeen fifty-five, the army of British General Edward Braddock marched westward toward Fort Duquesne, in what is now Pittsburgh.
It was the first major military road cut through this part of America, hacked through wilderness to move troops, artillery, and supplies. Braddock's expedition ended in catastrophe. French forces and their Native allies met the column near the Monongahela River, mortally wounding Braddock himself and nearly destroying his army.
A young Virginia militia officer named George Washington helped organize the retreat. The road Braddock built became the National Old Trails Road, the same highway this monument guards today.
