July 9, 1755. The forests of western Pennsylvania echoed with musket fire, panic, and the cries of wounded men as the mighty British Empire came face to face with a kind of war it didn’t understand. At the center of it all was a proud general who wouldn’t listen, an outnumbered enemy who knew the terrain, and a young Virginian named George Washington who refused to break. The Battle of the Monongahela should have been a victory. Instead, it became one of the most humiliating defeats in British colonial history. In this episode of Dave Does History, we’ll walk you through the bloody path to Fort Duquesne, unravel the leadership failures of General Edward Braddock, and witness the moment Washington’s legend truly began. This wasn’t just a battle. It was a brutal lesson in arrogance, terrain, and the unforgiving nature of frontier warfare. Stick around. This one gets personal.