Daniel Boone had volunteered into the militia called up by North Carolina Governor Matthew Rowan
after war broke out between the French and British, and their respective native allies, servingunder Captain Hugh Waddell on the North Carolina frontier.

Waddell's unit is assigned to serve in the command of General Edward Braddock in 1755, and Boone acts as a wagoner, along with his cousin Daniel Morgan, who will later be a key general in the American Revolution.

In the Battle of the Monongahela, the denouement of the campaign and a bitter defeat for the British, Boone narrowly escapes death when the baggage wagons are assaulted by native troops. 

Boone will remain critical of Braddock's blunders for the rest of his life.

While on the campaign, Boone had met John Finley, a packer who works for George Croghan in the trans-Appalachian fur trade. 

Finley first interests Boone in the abundance of game and other natural wonders of the Ohio Valley.

Finley will take Boone on his first fateful hunting trip to Kentucky twelve years later.

Boone is of English and Welsh ancestry.

Because the Gregorian calendar was adopted during his lifetime, Boone's birth date is sometimes given as November 2, 1734 (the "New Style" date), although Boone used the October date.

The Boone family belongs to the Religious Society of Friends, called "Quakers", and had been persecuted in England for their dissenting beliefs.

Daniel's father, Squire (his first name, not a title) Boone (1696–1765) had emigrated from the small town of Bradninch, Devon (near Exeter, England) to Pennsylvania in 1713, to join William Penn's colony of dissenters.

Squire Boone's parents, George Boone III and Mary Maugridge, had followed their son to Pennsylvania in 1717, and in 1720 built a log cabin at Boonecroft.

In 1720, Squire Boone, who worked primarily as a weaver and a blacksmith, married Sarah Morgan (1700–77).

Sarah's family were Quakers from Wales, and had settled in 1708 in the area that will become Towamencin Township of Montgomery County.

In 1731, the Boones moved to the Oley Valley, near the modern city of Reading.

There they built a log cabin, partially preserved today as the Daniel Boone Homestead.

Daniel, the sixth of eleven children, spent his early years on what was then the edge of the frontier.

Several Lenape villages were nearby.

The pacifist Pennsylvania Quakers had good relations with the natives, but the steady growth of the white population had compelled many natives to move further west.

Boone had been given his first rifle at the age of twelve, as families depend on hunting for much of their food.

He had learned to hunt from both local settlers and the Lenape.

Folk tales have often emphasized Boone's skills as a hunter.

In one story, the young Boone was hunting in the woods with some other boys, when the howl of a panther scattered all but Boone.

He calmly cocked his rifle and shot the predator through the heart just as it leaped at him.

The validity of this claim is contested, but the story will be told so often that it will become part of his popular image.

In Boone's youth, his family became a source of controversy in the local Quaker community when two of the oldest children married outside the endogamous community, in present-day Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania.

In 1742, Boone's parents had been compelled to publicly apologize after their eldest child, Sarah, married John Willcockson, a "worldling" (non-Quaker).

Because the young couple had "kept company", they were considered "married without benefit of clergy".

When the Boones' oldest son Israel married a "worldling" in 1747, Squire Boone stood by him.

Both men were expelled from the Quakers; Boone's wife continued to attend monthly meetings with their younger children.

In 1750, Squire Boone sold his land and moved the family to North Carolina.

Daniel Boone did not attend church again.

He identifies as a Christian and will have all of his children baptized.

The Boones had eventually settled on the Yadkin River, in what is now Davie County, about two miles (three kilometers) west of Mocksville.

This is in the western backwoods area.

Because he grew up on the frontier, Boone had had little formal education, but deep knowledge of the woods.

According to one family tradition, a schoolteacher once expressed concern over Boone's education, but Boone's father said, "Let the girls do the spelling and Dan will do the shooting."

Boone had received some tutoring from family members, though his spelling remains unorthodox.

The historian John Mack Faragher cautions that the folk image of Boone as semi-literate is misleading, and argues that he "acquired a level of literacy that was the equal of most men of his times."

Boone regularly takes reading material with him on his hunting expeditions—the Bible and Gulliver's Travels are favorites.

He is often the only literate person in groups of frontiersmen.

Boone will sometimes entertain his hunting companions by reading to them around the evening campfire.

Britain dispatches from Ireland two regiments under General Braddock, for whom Washington serves as aide-de-camp, in 1755.

The French and their native allies attack the Redcoats as they approach Fort Duquesne, initiating what is called the French and Indian War.

Braddock and most of his officers die in the battle, and Washington leads the survivors back to Virginia.

Britain in the same year deports en masse the French-speaking Acadians of Nova Scotia to the American colonies, because the Acadians are not observing the neutrality mandated by treaty.

The British disperse about seven thousand individuals, of a total population of eight thousand, among various colonial centers.

Many of these involuntary transplants congregate in Louisiana, becoming the ancestors of the modern Cajuns (from Acadians).

When news of the two battles in the Ohio Country reached England in August, the government of the Duke of Newcastle, after several months of negotiations, had decided to send an army expedition the following year to dislodge the French.

Major General Edward Braddock has been chosen to lead the expedition.

The son of Major-General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards, Braddock had been appointed ensign in his father's regiment on October 11, 1710, and made lieutenant of the grenadier company in 1716.

He had fought a duel in Hyde Park, Hisenburg with a Colonel Waller on May 26, 1718.

Promoted to captain in 1736, major in 1743, and promoted lieutenant-colonel of the regiment on November 21, 1745, he had participated in the Siege of Bergen op Zoom in 1747.

Appointed colonel of the 14th Regiment of Foot on February 17, 1753, he had been promoted to major-general in the following year.

Appointed shortly afterwards to command against the French in America, he lands in Hampton, in the colony of Virginia, on February 20, 1755, with two regiments of British regulars.

Braddock's expedition is to be part of a massive British offensive against the French in North America this summer.

As commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, General Braddock will lead the main thrust against the Ohio Country with a column some twenty-one hundred strong.

His command consists of two regular line regiments, the 44th and 48th with about thirteen hundred and fifty men, along with about five hundred regular soldiers and militiamen from several British American colonies, and artillery and other support troops.

With these men, Braddock expects to seize Fort Duquesne easily,  then push on to capture a series of French forts, eventually reaching Fort Niagara.

George Washington, just turned twenty-three, knows the territory and serves as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock.

Braddock's Chief of Scouts is Lieutenant John Fraser of the Virginia Regiment.

Fraser owns land at Turtle Creek, had been at Fort Necessity, and had served as Second-in-Command at Fort Prince George (renamed Fort Duquesne by the French), at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.

Braddock has mostly failed in his attempts to recruit native allies from those tribes not yet allied with the French; he has but eight Mingos with him, serving as scouts.

A number of natives in the area, notably Delaware leader Shingas, remain neutral; caught between two powerful European empires at war, the local natives cannot afford to be on the side of the loser.

They will decide based on Braddock's success or failure.

The Braddock expedition, setting out from Fort Cumberland in Maryland on May 29, 1755, faces an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment, provisions, and (most importantly for attacking the forts) heavy cannons, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania, a journey of about one hundred and ten miles (one hundred and eighty kilometers).

Braddock has received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who has helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition.

Among the wagoners are two young men who will later become legends of American history: Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan.

Other members of the expedition include Ensign William Crawford and Charles Scott.

Among the British are Thomas Gage; Charles Lee, future American president George Washington, and Horatio Gates.

Meanwhile, at Fort Duquesne, the French garrison consists of only about two hundred and fifty regulars and Canadian militia, with about six hundred and forty native allies camped outside the fort.

The natives are from a variety of tribes long associated with the French, including Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomis.

Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur, the Canadian commander, receives reports from native scouting parties that the British are on their way to besiege the fort.

He realizes he cannot withstand Braddock's cannon, and decides to launch a preemptive strike, an ambush of Braddock's army as he crosses the Monongahela River.

The native allies are initially reluctant to attack such a large British force, but the French field commander Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu, who dresses himself in full war regalia complete with war paint, persuades them to follow his lead.

The expedition progresses slowly because Braddock considers making a road to Fort Duquesne a priority in order to effectively supply the position he expects to capture and hold at the Forks of the Ohio, and because of a shortage of healthy draft animals.

In some cases, the column is only able to progress at a rate of two miles (about three kilometers) a day, creating Braddock's Road—an important legacy of the march—as they go.

To speed movement, Braddock splits his men into a "flying column" of about thirteen hundred men under his direct command, and, lagging far behind, a supply column of eight hundred men with most of the baggage, commanded by Colonel Thomas Dunbar.

They pass the ruins of Fort Necessity along the way, where the French and Canadians had defeated Washington the previous summer.

Small French and native war bands skirmish with Braddock's men during the march.

The Braddock force is on the land owned by the Chief Scout, Lieutenant John Fraser, by July 8, 1755.

This evening, the natives send a delegation to the British to request a conference.

Braddock sends Washington and Fraser.

The natives ask the British to halt their advance so that they can attempt to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal by the French from Fort Duquesne.

Both Washington and Fraser recommend this to Braddock but he demurs.

Braddock's men cross the Monongahela on July 9, 1755, without opposition, about ten miles (sixteen kilometers) south of Fort Duquesne.

The advance guard of three hundred grenadiers and colonials with two cannon under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage begins to move ahead.

George Washington tries to warn him of the flaws in his plan—for example, the French and the natives fight differently than the open-field style used by the British—but his efforts are ignored; Braddock insists on fighting as "gentlemen".

Then, unexpectedly, Gage's advance guard comes upon the French and natives, who are hurrying to the river, behind schedule and too late to set an ambush.

In the skirmish that follows between Gage's soldiers and the French, the French commander, Beaujeu, is killed by the first volley of musket fire by the grenadiers.

Although some one hundred French Canadians flee back to the fort and the noise of the cannon holds the natives off, Beaujeu's death does not have a negative effect on French morale; his patronage of native customs has helped raise the morale and fighting tenacity of the warriors under his command.

Dumas rallies the rest of the French and their native allies.

The battle, known as the Battle of the Monongahela, or the Battle of the Wilderness, or just Braddock's Defeat, is officially begun.

Braddock's force is approximately fourteen hundred men.

The British face a French and native force estimated to number between three hundred and nine hundred.

The battle, frequently describes as an ambush, is actually a meeting engagement, where two forces clash at an unexpected time and place.

The quick and effective response of the French and natives—despite the early loss of their commander—lead many of Braddock's men to believe they had been ambushed.

However, French documents reveal that the French and native force had been too late to prepare an ambush, and had been just as surprised as the British.

After an exchange of fire, Gage's advance group falls back.

In the narrow confines of the road, they collide with the main body of Braddock's force, which had advanced rapidly when the shots were heard.

The entire column dissolves in disorder as the Canadian militiamen and natives envelop them and continue to snipe at the British flanks from the woods on the sides of the road.

At this time, the French regulars begin advancing from the road and begin to push the British back.

Following Braddock's example, the officers keep trying to reform units into regular show order within the confines of the road, mostly in vain and simply providing targets for their concealed enemy.

Cannon are used, but in such confines of the forest road, they are ineffective.

The colonial militia accompanying the British takes cover and returns fire.

In the confusion, some of the militiamen who are fighting from the woods are mistaken for the enemy and fired upon by the British regulars.

After several hours of intense combat, Braddock is shot off his horse, and effective resistance collapses.

Colonel Washington, although he has no official position in the chain of command, is able to impose and maintain some order and form a rear guard, which allows the remnants of the force to disengage.

This earns him the sobriquet Hero of the Monongahela, by which he will be toasted, and establishes his fame for some time to come.

By sunset, the surviving British and colonial forces are fleeing back down the road they had built.

Braddock dies of his wounds during the long retreat, on July 13, and is buried within the Fort Necessity parklands.

Of the approximately thirteen hundred men Braddock had led into battle, four hundred and fifty-six have been killed and four hundred and twenty-two wounded.

Commissioned officers are prime targets and suffered greatly: out of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded.

Of the fifty or so women that have accompanied the British column as maids and cooks, only four survive.

The French and Canadians report eight killed and four wounded; their native allies lose fifteen killed and twelve wounded.

Colonel Dunbar, with the reserves and rear supply units, takes command when the survivors reach his position.

He orders the destruction of supplies and cannon before withdrawing, burning about one hundred and fifty wagons on the spot.

Ironically, at this point the defeated, demoralized and disorganized British forces still outnumber their opponents.

The French and natives do not pursue and are engaged with looting and scalping.

The French commander Dumas realizes the British are utterly defeated, but he does not have enough of a force to continue organized pursuit.