Famous Last Words

"These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia; but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression."

General Edward Braddock, in reply to Benjamin Franklin, shortly before being mortally wounded in the Battle of Monongahela in 1755 (Franklin devoted several pages of his autobiography to his dealings with the general. Regarding the general's downfall, Franklin noted, "The whole transaction gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars had not been well founded."