Military Conflicts

Even though I'm a newbie to this genealogy stuff, I really do love it all... well, all except for the military stuff. I'm conflicted about it. Have to keep asking my husband which rank is higher than which and so on. It's way beyond me to keep up with campaigns and battles. Picket's Charge is like algebra to me... and that's so obscure I haven't a chance with it.

I only bring this up because I have a little side project going to write up my notes on the life of my Revolutionary War ancestor, Nehemiah Newans. I have the first couple of sections done and am up to his service in General Braddock's British Regulars, either the 44th or the 48th. As of yet I have no proof that he served there. Would very much like to find my way around the British Archive to see him on a muster roll. That hasn't happened but it's not keeping me from plugging in some framework for that section of my project.

Thing of it is that my mind goes mush when I get to the details of the Braddock Campaign or any military campaign. I get it that it was pretty much of a disaster and then Braddock went and got himself killed, so it didn't end well.

As a kid I remember going on rides past Fort Necessity and the memorial near where Braddock was buried and hearing the story of how Braddock's men buried him under the roadway so the French troops wouldn't dig him up. Cool then, cool now. Check it out at http://www.nps.gov/fone/index.htm

But I'd like a better understanding of exactly what happened in the Braddock Campaign. And how George Washington came to take over from Braddock. And then after all was over and done, how and why my ancestor ended up settled in York Pennsylvania. Guess I'm going over to the San Diego Genealogical Society and crack open the books. Hey, San Diego is a military town ... there should be someone around to explain this to me:)

Enoch Clise, married in to the family, and served in the Civil War.