Brumbaugh was a Scout with another German immigrant, Capt. Jonathan Hager, During the French & Indian War

Jacob Brumbaugh was a member of Jonathan Hager’s scout patrol in the Maryland militia in the 1756-1757 time frame. He and Hager and Andrew Rentch also quartered (housed) soldiers during the French & Indian War and were compensated for it. There were several stories written by twentieth-century church historians who said that Jacob became a friend and nurse to Col. George Washington on the Braddock Campaign in 1755. Washington, serving merely as an aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, was actually very sick, sick enough to be carried in a litter for days before the British soldiers were subjected to a surprise attack by a smaller force of French and Indians near present-day Pittsburgh. Washington suffered four bullet holes in his uniform and lost two horses underneath him during the fray, but eventually garnered praise for his resourcefulness in leading a retreat. In the aftermath of the defeat on July 9, 1755, he was again ill for several days and the book goes into some of the details. Those stories about Jacob Brumbaugh’s role at that time are squarely addressed in the book.After Braddock’s defeat, for the next eight years there were nearly constant Indian attacks on the frontier in the Conococheague district of Frederick County. The illustration shows the wounding of General Braddock on July 9th. He died of his wounds July 13th and Washington oversaw his burial, which was hidden so that the Indians would not find and take his scalp.   Braddock's_death_at_the_Battle_of_Monongahela_9-July-1755