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Braddock Sash

Sash
Silk
c. 1700-1750
Braddock Sash
Sash
Silk
c. 1700-1750
Sash Silk c. 1700-1750
Status
Not on view
Label Text

At the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755, every officer on Major General Edward Braddock's staff was injured or killed, with the exception of his aide-de-camp, George Washington. Braddock also sustained a fatal wound and is said to have been carried from the field in this, his officer's sash. Washington alone brought order to the fray, forming a rear guard to enable retreat. Family tradition maintains that Braddock presented the sash to Washington prior to his death four days later. In 1846, the sash was presented to another war hero and future President of the United States, Zachary Taylor.

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Datec. 1709
Geography Probably made - England
Medium/TechniqueSilk
DimensionsOverall (H x W): 129 7/8 in. × 19 1/4 in. (329.88 cm × 48.9 cm)
Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of Prince Yoshihisa Tokugawa, 1918
Object numberW-86
DescriptionSprang-woven military sash terminating in long tassels; body of the sash features five major designs mirrored at the center seam: a 6-inch field of diamond-diaper pattern, a 3 ½-inch band consisting of eight rows of circles flanking an openwork, rectangular field displaying the year "1709", a 8 ¼-inch row of ten, hat-wearing men, 7 inches of five offset rows of outward-facing triangles, and a 5 13/16-inch field of small diamonds; rows of two, four, or six petaled flowers separate the five designs; 12 ½-inch-long knotted tassels are woven into each end.
Published ReferencesThomas E. Crocker, Braddock's March (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2009), 25, 225, n280-81.

Fred Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers: Reflections on the French and Indian War (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004), 55.

James C. Rees, Treasures from Mount Vernon: George Washington Revealed (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1999), 32.

Paul E. Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), 140.

Elswyth Thane, Mount Vernon: The Legacy (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967), 92.

Mount Vernon Ladies Association, General Washington's Military Equipment (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1963), 8-10.

Mount Vernon Ladies Association, General Washington's Swords and Campaign Equipment (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1944), 26-27.

Clarinda Huntington Pendleton Lamar, A History of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, from 1891 to 1933 (Atlanta: The Walter W. Brown Pub. Co., 1934), 232.

Harrison Howell Dodge, Mount Vernon and its Owner and its Story (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1932), 143-144.

Katherine Glass Greene, Winchester, Virginia and its Beginnings, 1743-1814 (Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, 1926), 73-77.

Trist Wood, "Braddock's Sash: Memories that Cluster Around an Old Relic," The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 21, 1916.

"Braddock's Sash will be kept at West Point, Miss Mary S. Buchanan Sketches History of Famous Relic Now in Winchester," Winchester Evening Star, Winchester, Virginia, June 1, 1915.

Richard Henry Spencer, "The Caryle House and its Associations - Braddock's Headquarters - Here the Colonial Governors met in Council, April, 1755," William and Mary Quarterly 18 (July 1909): 12-13.

William Price Craighill, "Braddock's March through West Virginia," Winchester, VA. Historical Magazine (July 1902): 32.

"Gen Braddock's Sash," Shepherdstown Register 29/35, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, June 14, 1894.

Winthrop Sargent, The History of an Expedition Against Fort Du Quesne, in 1755; Under Major-General Edward Braddock, Generalissimo of N. B. M. Forces in America (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & co., 1855), 278.

Wills De Hass, History of the Early Settlement and Indian Wars of Western Virginia; Embracing an Account of the Various Expeditions in the West, Previous to 1795 (Wheeling: H. Hoblitzell, 1851), 112, 129-130.

The Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Note Book, 4 (1851): 218-220.
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