The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving
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Title: The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving
Author: Washington Irving
Release date: June 27, 2010 [eBook #32987]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32987
Credits: Produced by Ron Swanson (This file was produced from images
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF WASHINGTON; CONDENSED FROM THE LARGER WORK OF WASHINGTON IRVING ***
Produced by Ron Swanson (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries)
{Frontispiece: WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR}
_History of the American Revolution_.
THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF WASHINGTON;
CONDENSED FROM THE LARGER WORK OF WASHINGTON IRVING.
FOR YOUNG PERSONS AND FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
NEW YORK:
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
182 FIFTH AVENUE.
1876.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
G. P. PUTNAM & SONS,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
In condensing into one compact volume Mr. Irving's elaborate Life of
Washington, care has been taken to retain, not only all the important
facts connected with Washington's career, but also those circumstances
and incidents which may be supposed to contribute to a full estimate
of his character in all its aspects. Nor have any portion of the great
events connected with the era in which he filled so grand and
controlling a part been unduly neglected or subordinated. The work, in
its present abbreviated form, still presents a continuous and complete
record of American history during the period of Washington's official
life. Mr. Irving's language, as a rule, has been retained; but in
cases where a variation from his sentences has been necessary, in
order to secure the requisite brevity, the paragraphs are enclosed in
brackets.
CONTENTS.
I. Birth of Washington.--His Boyhood, . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. Washington's Youth.--First Surveying Expedition, . . . . 5
III. Rival Claims of the English and the French.--Preparations
for Hostilities, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
IV. Washington's Mission to the French Commander, . . . . . 19
V. Military Expedition to the Frontier, . . . . . . . . . . 30
VI. Misfortunes.--Capitulation of Fort Necessity, . . . . . 39
VII. A Campaign under General Braddock, . . . . . . . . . . . 48
VIII. Braddock's Advance.--His Defeat, . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
IX. Washington in Command.--Panics on the Frontier, . . . . 68
X. Frontier Service, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
XI. Operations against the French.--Washington's Marriage, . 85
XII. Campaigns in the North.--Washington at Mount Vernon, . . 94
XIII. Colonial Discontents, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
XIV. Expedition to the Ohio.--Tea Tax, . . . . . . . . . . . 112
XV. The First General Congress, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
XVI. Military Measures.--Affairs at Lexington, . . . . . . . 125
XVII. Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.--Washington
appointed Commander-in-Chief, . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
XVIII. Battle of Bunker Hill, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
XIX. Washington on his Way to the Camp, . . . . . . . . . . . 148
XX. Siege of Boston, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
XXI. Projects for the Invasion of Canada, . . . . . . . . . . 158
XXII. War along the Coast.--Progress of the Siege, . . . . . . 168
XXIII. Affairs in Canada, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
XXIV. Incidents of the Camp.--Arnold before Quebec, . . . . . 177
XXV. Washington's Perplexities.--New York in Danger, . . . . 183
XXVI. Attack on Quebec.--Affairs in New York, . . . . . . . . 188
XXVII. Movements before Boston.--Its Evacuation, . . . . . . . 196
XXVIII. Reverses in Canada.--The Highlands.--Close of the
Invasion of Canada, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
XXIX. The Army in New York, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
XXX. Proceedings of Lord Howe.--Gates and Schuyler, . . . . . 222
XXXI. The War in the South.--Affairs in the Highlands, . . . . 229
XXXII. Battle of Long Island.--Retreat, . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
XXXIII. Retreat from New York Island, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
XXXIV. Retreat through Westchester County.--Battle of White
Plains, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
XXXV. Washington at Peekskill.--The Northern Army, . . . . . . 271
XXXVI. Capture of Fort Washington and Garrison.--Retreat
through New Jersey, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
XXXVII. Retreat across the Delaware.--Battle of Trenton, . . . . 286
XXXVIII. Washington recrosses the Delaware.--Battle of Princeton, 297
XXXIX. The Army at Morristown.--Attack on Peekskill, . . . . . 308
XL. The Northern Army.--British Expedition to Connecticut, . 316
XLI. The Highlands.--Movements of the Army, . . . . . . . . . 327
XLII. Invasion from Canada, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
XLIII. Exploits and Movements.--Howe in the Chesapeake, . . . . 345
XLIV. Advance of Burgoyne.--Battle of Oriskany.--Battle of
Bennington, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
XLV. Battle of the Brandywine.--Fall of Philadelphia, . . . . 368
XLVI. The Northern Invasion.--Fall of the Highland
Forts.--Defeat and Surrender of Burgoyne, . . . . . . 380
XLVII. Battle of Germantown.--Hostilities on the Delaware, . . 399
XLVIII. The Army on the Schuylkill.--At Valley Forge.--The
Conway Cabal, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
XLIX. Exploits of Lee and Lafayette.--British Commissioners, . 426
L. Evacuation of Philadelphia.--Battle of Monmouth
Court House, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
LI. Arrival of a French Fleet.--Massacre at Wyoming
Valley.--Capture of Savannah, . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
LII. Washington in Philadelphia.--Indian Warfare.--Capture of
Stony Point.--Ravages in Connecticut.--Repulse at
Savannah, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
LIII. Army at Morristown.--Arnold in Philadelphia.--Charleston
Besieged, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
LIV. Discontents in the Army.--Fall of Charleston, . . . . . 489
LV. Marauds in the Jerseys.--The French Fleet at Newport, . 499
LVI. Battle of Camden, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
LVII. The Treason of Arnold.--Trial and Execution of André, . 515
LVIII. Plan to entrap Arnold.--Projects against New York, . . . 535
LIX. The War in the South.--Battle of King's Mountain, . . . 540
LX. Hostilities in the South.--Mutiny, . . . . . . . . . . . 550
LXI. Battle of the Cowpens.--Battle of Guilford Court-house, 557
LXII. The War in Virginia.--Demonstrations against New York, . 576
LXIII. Ravages in Virginia.--Operations in Carolina.--Attack on
New London, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
LXIV. Operations before Yorktown.--Greene in the South, . . . 602
LXV. Siege and Surrender of Yorktown, . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
LXVI. Dissolution of the Combined Armies.--Discontents in the
Army, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
LXVII. News of Peace.--Washington's Farewell to the Army, and
Resignation of his Commission, . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
LXVIII. Washington at Mount Vernon, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
LXIX. The Constitutional Convention.--Washington elected
President, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
LXX. Organization of the New Government, . . . . . . . . . . 643
LXXI. Financial Difficulties.--Party Jealousies.--Operations
against the Indians, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
LXXII. Tour Southward.--Defeat of St. Clair.--Dissensions in
the Cabinet, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
LXXIII. Washington's Second Term.--Difficulties with the French
Ambassador, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
LXXIV. Neutrality.--Whiskey Insurrection.--Wayne's Success
against the Indians, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684
LXXV. Jay's Treaty.--Party Claims.--Difficulties with
France.--Farewell Address, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
LXXVI. Washington's Retirement and Death, . . . . . . . . . . . 708
WASHINGTON AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH OF WASHINGTON.--HIS BOYHOOD.
The Washington family is of an ancient English stock, the genealogy of
which has been traced up to the century immediately succeeding the
Conquest. Among the knights and barons who served under the Count
Palatine, Bishop of Durham, to whom William the Conqueror had granted
that important See, was WILLIAM DE HERTBURN. At that period surnames
were commonly derived from castles or estates; and de Hertburn, in
1183, in exchanging the village of Hertburn for the manor of
Wessyngton, assumed the name of DE WESSYNGTON. From this period the
family has been traced through successive generations, until the name,
first dropping the _de_, varied from Wessyngton to Wassington,
Wasshington, and finally to Washington. The head of the family to
which our Washington immediately belongs sprang from Lawrence
Washington, Esq., of Gray's Inn. He was mayor of Northampton, and
received a grant of the manor of Sulgrave from Henry VIII. [Sir
William Washington of Packington, was his direct descendant. The
Washingtons were attached to the Stuart dynasty. Lieut.-Col. James
Washington perished in defence of that cause. Sir Henry Washington,
son of Sir William, distinguished himself under Prince Rupert, in
1643, at the storming of Bristol; and still more, in 1646, in the
defence of Worcester against the arms of Fairfax. We hear little of
the Washingtons after the death of Charles I. England, during the
protectorate, was an uncomfortable residence for those who had adhered
to the Stuarts, and many sought refuge in other lands. Among many who
emigrated to the western wilds were John and Andrew Washington,
great-grandsons of the grantee of Sulgrave.]
The brothers arrived in Virginia in 1657, and purchased lands in
Westmoreland County, on the northern neck, between the Potomac and
Rappahannock rivers. John married a Miss Anna Pope, of the same
county, and took up his residence on Bridges Creek, near where it
falls into the Potomac. He became an extensive planter, and, in
process of time, a magistrate and member of the House of Burgesses.
Having a spark of the old military fire of the family, we find him, as
Colonel Washington, leading the Virginia forces, in co-operation with
those of Maryland, against a band of Seneca Indians, who were ravaging
the settlements along the Potomac.
The estate continued in the family. His grandson Augustine, the father
of our Washington, was born there in 1694. He was twice married; first
(April 20th, 1715), to Jane, daughter of Caleb Butler, Esq., of
Westmoreland County, by whom he had four children, of whom only two,
Lawrence and Augustine, survived the years of childhood; their mother
died November 24th, 1728, and was buried in the family vault. On the
6th of March, 1730, he married in second nuptials, Mary, the daughter
of Colonel Ball, a young and beautiful girl, said to be the belle of
the northern neck. By her he had four sons, George, Samuel, John
Augustine, and Charles; and two daughters, Elizabeth, or Betty, as she
was commonly called, and Mildred, who died in infancy.
George, the eldest, the subject of this biography, was born on the 22d
of February (11th, O. S.), 1732, in the homestead on Bridges Creek.
This house commanded a view over many miles of the Potomac, and the
opposite shore of Maryland. Not a vestige of it remains. Two or three
decayed fig trees, with shrubs and vines, linger about the place, and
here and there a flower grown wild serves "to mark where a garden has
been." Such at least, was the case a few years since; but these may
have likewise passed away. A stone marks the site of the house, and an
inscription denotes its being the birthplace of Washington.
Not long after the birth of George, his father removed to an estate in
Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg. The house stood on a rising
ground overlooking a meadow which bordered the Rappahannock. This was
the home of George's boyhood; but this, like that in which he was
born, has disappeared.
In those days the means of instruction in Virginia were limited, and
it was the custom among the wealthy planters to send their sons to
England to complete their education. This was done by Augustine
Washington with his eldest son Lawrence. George, as his intellect
dawned, received the rudiments of education in the best establishment
for the purpose that the neighborhood afforded. It was what was
called, in popular parlance, an "old field school-house;" humble
enough in its pretensions, and kept by one of his father's tenants
named Hobby. The instruction doled out by him must have been the
simplest kind, reading, writing, and ciphering, perhaps; but George
had the benefit of mental and moral culture at home, from an excellent
father. When he was about seven or eight years old his brother
Lawrence returned from England, a well-educated and accomplished
youth. There was a difference of fourteen years in their ages, which
may have been one cause of the strong attachment which took place
between them. Lawrence looked down with a protecting eye upon the boy
whose dawning intelligence and perfect rectitude won his regard; while
George looked up to his manly and cultivated brother as a model in
mind and manners.
Lawrence Washington had something of the old military spirit of the
family, and circumstances soon called it into action. Spanish
depredations on British commerce had recently provoked reprisals.
Admiral Vernon, commander-in-chief in the West Indies, had accordingly
captured Porto Bello, on the Isthmus of Darien. The Spaniards were
preparing to revenge the blow; the French were fitting out ships to
aid them. Troops were embarked in England for another campaign in the
West Indies; a regiment of four battalions was to be raised in the
colonies and sent to join them at Jamaica. There was a sudden outbreak
of military ardor in the province. Lawrence Washington, now twenty-two
years of age, caught the infection. He obtained a captain's commission
in the newly-raised regiment, and embarked with it for the West Indies
in 1740. He served in the joint expeditions of Admiral Vernon and
General Wentworth, and acquired the friendship and confidence of both
of those officers. We have here the secret of that martial spirit so
often cited of George in his boyish days. He had seen his brother
fitted out for the wars. He had heard by letter and otherwise of the
warlike scenes in which he was mingling. All his amusements took a
military turn. He made soldiers of his school-mates; they had their
mimic parades, reviews, and sham fights.
Lawrence Washington returned home in the autumn of 1742. He formed an
attachment to Anne, the eldest daughter of the Honorable William
Fairfax, of Fairfax Comity; his addresses were well received, and they
became engaged. Their nuptials were delayed by the sudden and untimely
death of his father, which took place on the 12th of April, 1743,
after a short but severe attack of gout in the stomach, and when but
forty-nine years of age. George had been absent from home on a visit
during his father's illness, and just returned in time to receive a
parting look of affection.
Augustine Washington left large possessions, distributed by will among
his children. To Lawrence, the estate on the banks of the Potomac,
with other real property, and several shares in iron-works. To
Augustine, the second son by the first marriage, the old homestead and
estate in Westmoreland. The children by the second marriage were
severally well provided for, and George, when he became of age, was to
have the house and lands on the Rappahannock.
In the month of July the marriage of Lawrence with Miss Fairfax took
place. He now settled himself on his estate on the banks of the
Potomac, to which he gave the name of MOUNT VERNON, in honor of the
admiral. Augustine took up his abode at the homestead on Bridges
Creek, and married Anne, daughter and co-heiress of William Aylett,
Esq., of Westmoreland County.
George, now eleven years of age, and the other children of the second
marriage, had been left under the guardianship of their mother, to
whom was intrusted the proceeds of all their property until they
should severally come of age. She proved herself worthy of the trust.
Endowed with plain, direct good sense, thorough conscientiousness, and
prompt decision, she governed her family strictly, but kindly,
exacting deference while she inspired affection. George being her
eldest son, was thought to be her favorite, yet she never gave him
undue preference, and the implicit deference exacted from him in
childhood continued to be habitually observed by him to the day of her
death. He inherited from her a high temper and a spirit of command,
but her early precepts and example taught him to restrain and govern
that temper, and to square his conduct on the exact principles of
equity and justice.
Having no longer the benefit of a father's instructions at home, and
the scope of tuition of Hobby being too limited for the growing wants
of his pupil, George was now sent to reside with Augustine Washington,
at Bridges Creek, and enjoy the benefit of a superior school in that
neighborhood, kept by a Mr. Williams. His education, however, was
plain and practical. He never attempted the learned languages, nor
manifested any inclination for rhetoric or belles-lettres. His object,
or the object of his friends, seems to have been confined to fitting
him for ordinary business. His manuscript school-books still exist,
and are models of neatness and accuracy. Before he was thirteen years
of age he had copied into a volume forms for all kinds of mercantile
and legal papers; bills of exchange, notes of hand, deeds, bonds, and
the like. This early self-tuition gave him throughout life a lawyer's
skill in drafting documents, and a merchant's exactness in keeping
accounts. He was a self-disciplinarian in physical as well as mental
matters, and practised himself in all kinds of athletic exercises,
such as running, leaping, wrestling, pitching quoits, and tossing
bars. His frame, even in infancy, had been large and powerful, and he
now excelled most of his playmates in contests of agility and
strength. Above all, his inherent probity and the principles of
justice on which he regulated all his conduct, even at this early
period of life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates; he was
referred to as an umpire in their disputes, and his decisions were
never reversed. As he had formerly been military chieftain, he was now
legislator of the school; thus displaying in boyhood a type of the
future man.
CHAPTER II.
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH.--FIRST SURVEYING EXPEDITION.
The attachment of Lawrence Washington to his brother George seems to
have acquired additional strength and tenderness on their father's
death; he now took a truly paternal interest in his concerns, and had
him as frequently as possible a guest at Mount Vernon. Lawrence had
deservedly become a popular and leading personage in the country. He
was a member of the House of Burgesses, and adjutant-general of the
district, with the rank of major, and a regular salary. A frequent
sojourn with him brought George into familiar intercourse with the
family of his father-in-law, the Hon. William Fairfax, who resided at
a beautiful seat called Belvoir, a few miles below Mount Vernon, and
on the same woody ridge bordering the Potomac.
William Fairfax was a man of liberal education and intrinsic worth. Of
an ancient English family in Yorkshire, he had entered the army at the
age of twenty-one; had served with honor both in the East and West
Indies, and officiated as governor of New Providence, after having
aided in rescuing it from pirates. For some years past he had resided
in Virginia, to manage the immense landed estates of his cousin, Lord
Fairfax, and lived at Belvoir, in the style of an English country
gentleman, surrounded by an intelligent and cultivated family of sons
and daughters. An intimacy with a family like this, in which the
frankness and simplicity of rural and colonial life were united with
European refinement, could not but have a beneficial effect in
moulding the character and manners of a somewhat home-bred school-boy.
Other influences were brought to bear on George during his visit at
Mount Vernon. His brother Lawrence still retained some of his military
inclinations, fostered, no doubt, by his post of adjutant-general.
William Fairfax, as we have shown, had been a soldier, and in many
trying scenes. Some of Lawrence's comrades of the provincial regiment,
who had served with him in the West Indies, were occasional visitors
at Mount Vernon; or a ship of war, possibly one of Vernon's old fleet,
would anchor in the Potomac, and its officers be welcome guests at the
tables of Lawrence and his father-in-law. Thus military scenes on sea
and shore would become the topics of conversation. We can picture to
ourselves George, a grave and earnest boy, with an expanding
intellect, and a deep-seated passion for enterprise, listening to such
conversations with a kindling spirit and a growing desire for military
life. In this way most probably was produced that desire to enter the
navy which he evinced when about fourteen years of age. The great
difficulty was to procure the assent of his mother. She was brought,
however, to acquiesce; a midshipman's warrant was obtained; but at the
eleventh hour the mother's heart faltered. This was her eldest born. A
son, whose strong and steadfast character promised to be a support to
herself and a protection to her other children. The thought of his
being completely severed from her, and exposed to the hardships and
perils of a boisterous profession, overcame even her resolute mind,
and at her urgent remonstrances the nautical scheme was given up.
To school, therefore, George returned, and continued his studies for
nearly two years longer, devoting himself especially to mathematics,
and accomplishing himself in those branches calculated to fit him
either for civil or military service. Among these, one of the most
important in the actual state of the country was land surveying. In
this he schooled himself thoroughly, using the highest processes of
the art; making surveys about the neighborhood, and keeping regular
field books, some of which we have examined, in which the boundaries
and measurements of the fields surveyed were carefully entered, and
diagrams made, with a neatness and exactness as if the whole related
to important land transactions instead of being mere school exercises.
Thus, in his earliest days, there was perseverance and completeness in
all his undertakings. Nothing was left half done, or done in a hurried
and slovenly manner. The habit of mind thus cultivated continued
throughout life. He took a final leave of school in the autumn of
1747, and went to reside with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
Here he continued his mathematical studies and his practice in
surveying. Being a favorite of Sir William Fairfax, he was now an
occasional inmate of Belvoir. Among the persons at present residing
there was Thomas, Lord Fairfax, cousin of William Fairfax, and of
whose immense landed property the latter was the agent. Another inmate
was George William Fairfax, about twenty-two years of age, the eldest
son of the proprietor. He had been educated in England, and since his
return had married a daughter of Colonel Carey, of Hampton, on James
River. He had recently brought home his bride and her sister to his
father's house.
The merits of Washington were known and appreciated by the Fairfax
family. Though not quite sixteen years of age, he no longer seemed a
boy, nor was he treated as such. Tall, athletic, and manly for his
years, his early self-training, and the code of conduct he had
devised, gave a gravity and decision to his conduct; his frankness and
modesty inspired cordial regard. Lord Fairfax was a staunch
fox-hunter, and kept horses and hounds in the English style. The
hunting season had arrived. The neighborhood abounded with sport; but
fox-hunting in Virginia required bold and skilful horsemanship. He
found Washington as bold as himself in the saddle, and as eager to
follow the hounds. He forthwith took him into peculiar favor; made him
his hunting companion; and it was probably under the tuition of this
hard-riding old nobleman that the youth imbibed that fondness for the
chase for which he was afterwards remarked.
This fox-hunting intercourse was attended with important results. His
lordship's possessions beyond the Blue Ridge had never been regularly
settled nor surveyed. Lawless intruders--squatters, as they were
called--were planting themselves along the finest streams and in the
richest valleys, and virtually taking possession of the country. It
was the anxious desire of Lord Fairfax to have these lands examined,
surveyed, and portioned out into lots, preparatory to ejecting these
interlopers or bringing them to reasonable terms. In Washington,
notwithstanding his youth, he beheld one fit for the task. The
proposition had only to be offered to Washington to be eagerly
accepted. It was the very kind of occupation for which he had been
diligently training himself. All the preparations required by one of
his simple habits were soon made, and in the month of March, 1748,
just after he had completed his sixteenth year, Washington set out on
horseback, in company with George William Fairfax.
Their route lay by Ashley's Gap, a pass through the Blue Ridge, that
beautiful line of mountains which, as yet, almost formed the western
frontier of inhabited Virginia. They entered the great valley of
Virginia, where it is about twenty-five miles wide; a lovely and
temperate region, diversified by gentle swells and slopes, admirably
adapted to cultivation. The Blue Ridge bounds it on one side, the
North Mountain, a ridge of the Alleghanies, on the other; while
through it flows that bright and abounding river, which, on account of
its surpassing beauty, was named by the Indians the Shenandoah--that
is to say, "the daughter of the stars."
The first station of the travellers was at a kind of lodge in the
wilderness, where the steward or land-bailiff of Lord Halifax resided,
with such negroes as were required for farming purposes, and which
Washington terms "his lordship's quarter." It was situated not far
from the Shenandoah, and about twelve miles from the site of the
present town of Winchester. In a diary kept with his usual minuteness,
Washington speaks with delight of the beauty of the trees and the
richness of the land in the neighborhood, and of his riding through a
noble grove of sugar maples on the banks of the Shenandoah; and, at
the present day, the magnificence of the forests which still exist in
this favored region justifies his eulogium.
His surveys commenced in the lower part of the valley some distance
above the junction of the Shenandoah with the Potomac, and extended
for many miles along the former river. Here and there partial
"clearings" had been made by squatters and hardy pioneers, and their
rude husbandry had produced abundant crops of grain, hemp, and
tobacco. More than two weeks were passed by them in the wild
mountainous regions of Frederick County, and about the south branch of
the Potomac, surveying lands and laying out lots, camped out the
greater part of the time, and subsisting on wild turkeys and other
game. Having completed his surveys, Washington set forth from the
south branch of the Potomac on his return homeward; crossed the
mountains to the great Cacapehon; traversed the Shenandoah valley;
passed through the Blue Ridge, and on the 12th of April found himself
once more at Mount Vernon. For his services he received, according to
his note-book, a doubloon per day when actively employed.
The manner in which he had acquitted himself in this arduous
expedition, and his accounts of the country surveyed, gave great
satisfaction to Lord Fairfax, who shortly afterwards moved across the
Blue Ridge, and took up his residence at the place heretofore noted as
his "quarters." Here he laid out a manor, containing ten thousand
acres of arable grazing lands, vast meadows, and noble forests, and
projected a spacious manor house, giving to the place the name of
Greenway Court.
It was probably through the influence of Lord Fairfax that Washington
received the appointment of public surveyor. This conferred authority
on his surveys, and entitled them to be recorded in the county
offices, and so invariably correct have these surveys been found that
to this day, wherever any of them stand on record, they receive
implicit credit. For three years he continued in this occupation,
which proved extremely profitable, from the vast extent of country to
be surveyed and the very limited number of public surveyors. It made
him acquainted, also, with the country, the nature of the soil in
various parts, and the value of localities; all which proved
advantageous to him in his purchases in after years.
While thus employed for months at a time surveying the lands beyond
the Blue Ridge, he was often an inmate of Greenway Court. The
projected manor house was never even commenced. On a green knoll
overshadowed by trees was a long stone building one story in height,
with dormer-windows, two wooden belfries, chimneys studded with
swallow and martin coops, and a roof sloping down in the old Virginia
fashion, into low projecting eaves that formed a verandah the whole
length of the house. It was probably the house originally occupied by
his steward or land agent, but was now devoted to hospitable purposes
and the reception of guests.
Here Washington had full opportunity, in the proper seasons, of
indulging his fondness for field sports, and once more accompanying
his lordship in the chase. The conversation of Lord Fairfax, too, was
full of interest and instruction to an inexperienced youth, from his
cultivated talents, his literary taste, and his past intercourse with
the best society of Europe, and its most distinguished authors. He had
brought books, too, with him into the wilderness, and from
Washington's diary we find that during his sojourn here he was
diligently reading the history of England, and the essays of the
"Spectator." Three or four years were thus passed by Washington, the
greater part of the time beyond the Blue Ridge, but occasionally with
his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
CHAPTER III.
RIVAL CLAIMS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH.--PREPARATIONS FOR
HOSTILITIES.
During the time of Washington's surveying campaigns among the
mountains, a grand colonizing scheme had been set on foot, destined to
enlist him in hardy enterprises, and in some degree to shape the
course of his future fortunes. The treaty of peace concluded at
Aix-la-Chapelle, which had put an end to the general war of Europe,
had left undefined the boundaries between the British and French
possessions in America. Immense regions were still claimed by both
nations, and each was now eager to forestall the other by getting
possession of them, and strengthening its claim by occupancy.
The most desirable of these regions lay west of the Alleghany
Mountains, extending from the lakes to the Ohio, and embracing the
valley of that river and its tributary streams. The French claimed all
this country quite to the Alleghany Mountains by the right of
discovery. In 1673, Padre Marquette, with his companion, Joliet, of
Quebec, both subjects of the crown of France, had passed down the
Mississippi in a canoe quite to the Arkansas, thereby, according to an
alleged maxim in the law of nations, establishing the right of their
sovereign, not merely to the river so discovered and its adjacent
lands, but to all the country drained by its tributary streams, of
which the Ohio was one; a claim, the ramifications of which might be
spread, like the meshes of a web, over half the continent.
To this illimitable claim the English opposed a right derived, at
second hand, from a traditionary Indian conquest. A treaty, they said,
had been made at Lancaster, in 1744, between commissioners from
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, and the Iroquois, or Six Nations,
whereby the latter, for four hundred pounds, gave up all right and
title to the land west of the Alleghany Mountains, even to the
Mississippi, which land, _according to their traditions_, had been
conquered by their forefathers. It is undoubtedly true that such a
treaty was made, and such a pretended transfer of title did take
place, under the influence of spirituous liquors; but it is equally
true that the Indians in question did not, at the time, possess an
acre of the land conveyed; and that the tribes actually in possession
scoffed at their pretensions, and claimed the country as their own
from time immemorial.
Such were the shadowy foundations of claims which the two nations were
determined to maintain to the uttermost, and which ripened into a
series of wars, ending in a loss to England of a great part of her
American possessions, and to France of the whole.
As yet in the region in question there was not a single white
settlement. Mixed Iroquois tribes of Delawares, Shawnees, and Mingoes,
had migrated into it early in the century from the French settlements
in Canada, and taken up their abodes about the Ohio and its branches.
The French pretended to hold them under their protection; but their
allegiance, if ever acknowledged, had been sapped of late years by the
influx of fur traders from Pennsylvania. These were often rough,
lawless men, generally in the employ of some trader, who, at the head
of his retainers and a string of pack-horses, would make his way over
mountains and through forests to the banks of the Ohio, establish his
head-quarters in some Indian town, and disperse his followers to
traffic among the hamlets, hunting-camps, and wigwams, exchanging
blankets, gaudy colored cloth, trinketry, powder, shot, and rum, for
valuable furs and peltry. In this way a lucrative trade with these
western tribes was springing up and becoming monopolized by the
Pennsylvanians.
To secure a participation in this trade, and to gain a foothold in
this desirable region, became now the wish of some of the most
intelligent and enterprising men of Virginia and Maryland, among whom
were Lawrence and Augustine Washington. With these views they
projected a scheme, in connection with John Hanbury, a wealthy London
merchant, to obtain a grant of land from the British government, for
the purpose of forming settlements or colonies beyond the Alleghanies.
Government readily countenanced a scheme by which French encroachments
might be forestalled, and prompt and quiet possession secured of the
great Ohio valley. An association was accordingly chartered in 1749,
by the name of "the Ohio Company," and five hundred thousand acres of
land was granted to it west of the Alleghanies; between the
Monongahela and Kanawha rivers; though part of the land might be taken
up north of the Ohio, should it be deemed expedient. The company were
to pay no quit-rent for ten years; but they were to select two-fifths
of their lands immediately; to settle one hundred families upon them
within seven years; to build a fort at their own expense, and maintain
a sufficient garrison in it for defence against the Indians. Mr.
Thomas Lee, president of the council of Virginia, took the lead in the
concerns of the company at the outset, and by many has been considered
its founder. On his death, which soon took place, Lawrence Washington
had the chief management. His enlightened mind and liberal spirit
shone forth in his earliest arrangements.
Before the company had received its charter, the French were in the
field. Early in 1749, the Marquis de la Galisionniere, governor of
Canada, despatched Celeron de Bienville, an intelligent officer, at
the head of three hundred men, to the banks of the Ohio, to make
peace, as he said, between the tribes that had become embroiled with
each other during the late war, and to renew the French possession of
the country. Celeron de Bienville distributed presents among the
Indians, made speeches reminding them of former friendship, and warned
them not to trade with the English. He furthermore nailed leaden
plates to trees, and buried others in the earth, at the confluence of
the Ohio and its tributaries, bearing inscriptions purporting that all
the lands on both sides of the rivers to their sources appertained, as
in foregone times, to the crown of France. The Indians gazed at these
mysterious plates with wondering eyes, but surmised their purport.
"They mean to steal our country from us," murmured they; and they
determined to seek protection from the English.
Celeron finding some traders from Pennsylvania trafficking among the
Indians, he summoned them to depart, and wrote by them to James
Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, telling him the object of his
errand to those parts, and his surprise at meeting with English
traders in a country to which England had no pretensions; intimating
that, in future, any intruders of the kind would be rigorously dealt
with. His letter, and a report of his proceedings on the Ohio, roused
the solicitude of the governor and council of Pennsylvania, for the
protection of their Indian trade. Shortly afterwards, one Hugh
Crawford, who had been trading with the Miami tribes on the Wabash,
brought a message from them, speaking of the promises and threats with
which the French were endeavoring to shake their faith, but assuring
the governor that their friendship for the English "would last while
the sun and moon ran round the world."
Governor Hamilton knew the value of Indian friendship, and suggested
to the assembly that it would be better to clinch it with presents,
and that as soon as possible. An envoy accordingly was sent off early
in October, who was supposed to have great influence among the western
tribes. This was one George Croghan, a veteran trader, shrewd and
sagacious, who had been frequently to the Ohio country with
pack-horses and followers, and made himself popular among the Indians
by dispensing presents with a lavish hand. He was accompanied by
Andrew Montour, a Canadian of half Indian descent, who was to act as
interpreter. They were provided with a small present for the
emergency; but were to convoke a meeting of all the tribes at
Logstown, on the Ohio, early in the ensuing spring, to receive an
ample present which would be provided by the assembly.
It was some time later in the same autumn that the Ohio company
brought their plans into operation, and despatched an agent to explore
the lands upon the Ohio and its branches as low as the Great Falls.
The man chosen for the purpose was Christopher Gist, a hardy pioneer,
experienced in woodcraft and Indian life. He was allowed a woodsman or
two for the service of the expedition. He set out on the 31st of
October, crossed the ridges of the Alleghany, arrived at Shannopin, a
Delaware village on the Alleghany, swam his horses across that river,
and descending along its valley arrived at Logstown, an important
Indian village a little below the site of the present city of
Pittsburg. Here usually resided Tanacharisson, a Seneca chief of great
note, being head sachem of the mixed tribes which had migrated to the
Ohio and its branches. He was generally surnamed the half-king, being
subordinate to the Iroquois confederacy. The chief was absent at this
time, as were most of his people, it being the hunting season. George
Croghan, the envoy from Pennsylvania, with Montour his interpreter,
had passed through Logstown a week previously, on his way to the
Twightwees and other tribes, on the Miami branch of the Ohio. Scarce
any one was to be seen about the village but some of Croghan's rough
people, whom he had left behind--"reprobate Indian traders," as Gist
terms them. He took his departure from Logstown, and at Beaver Creek,
a few miles below the village, he left the river and struck into the
interior of the present State of Ohio. Here he overtook George Croghan
at Muskingum, a town of Wyandots and Mingoes. He had ordered all the
traders in his employ who were scattered among the Indian villages, to
rally at this town, where he had hoisted the English flag over his
residence, and over that of the sachem. This was in consequence of the
hostility of the French, who had recently captured, in the
neighborhood, three white men in the employ of Frazier, an Indian
trader, and had carried them away prisoners to Canada.
Gist was well received by the people of Muskingum. They were indignant
at the French violation of their territories, and the capture of their
"English brothers." They had not forgotten the conduct of Celeron de
Bienville in the previous year, and the mysterious plates which he had
nailed against trees and sunk in the ground. A council of the nation
was now held, in which Gist invited them, in the name of the governor
of Virginia, to visit that province, where a large present of goods
awaited them, sent by their father, the great king, over the water to
his Ohio children. The invitation was graciously received, but no
answer could be given until a grand council of the western tribes had
been held, which was to take place at Logstown in the ensuing spring.
Similar results attended visits made by Gist and Croghan to the
Delawares and the Shawnees at their villages about the Scioto River;
all promised to be at the gathering at Logstown. From the Shawnee
village, near the mouth of the Scioto, the two emissaries shaped their
course north two hundred miles, crossed the Great Moneami, or Miami
River, on a raft, swimming their horses; and, on the 17th of February,
arrived at Piqua, the principal town of the Twightwees or Miamis; the
most powerful confederacy of the West, combining four tribes, and
extending its influence even beyond the Mississippi. A king or sachem
of one or other of the different tribes presided over the whole. The
head chief at present was the king of the Piankeshas. At this town
Croghan formed a treaty of alliance in the name of the governor of
Pennsylvania with two of the Miami tribes. And Gist was promised by
the king of the Piankeshas that the chiefs of the various tribes would
attend the meeting at Logstown to make a treaty with Virginia. [In the
height of these demonstrations of friendship, two envoys from the
French governor of Canada entered the council-house and sought a
renewal of the ancient alliance. But the Piankesha chief turned his
back upon the ambassadors, and left the council-house.]
When Gist returned to the Shawnee town, near the mouth of the Scioto,
and reported to his Indian friends there the alliance he had formed
with the Miami confederacy, there was great feasting and
speech-making, and firing of guns. He had now happily accomplished the
chief object of his mission--nothing remained but to descend the Ohio
to the Great Falls. This, however, he was cautioned not to do. A large
party of Indians, allies of the French, were hunting in that
neighborhood, who might kill or capture him. He crossed the river
attended only by a lad as a travelling companion and aide, and
proceeded cautiously down the east side until within fifteen miles of
the Falls. Here he came upon traps newly set, and Indian footprints
not a day old; and heard the distant report of guns. The story of
Indian hunters then was true. Abandoning all idea, therefore, of
visiting the Falls, and contenting himself with the information
concerning them which he had received from others, he shaped his
course homeward.
While Gist had been making his painful way homeward, the two Ottawa
ambassadors had returned to Fort Sandusky, bringing word to the French
that their friendship had been rejected and their hostility defied by
the Miamis. They informed them also of the gathering of the western
tribes that was to take place at Logstown, to conclude a treaty with
the Virginians.
It was a great object with the French to prevent this treaty, and to
spirit up the Ohio Indians against the English. This they hoped to
effect through the agency of one Captain Joncaire, a veteran of the
wilderness, who had grown gray in Indian diplomacy, and was now sent
to maintain French sovereignty over the valley of the Ohio. He
appeared at Logstown accompanied by another Frenchman, and forty
Iroquois warriors. He found an assemblage of the western tribes,
feasting and rejoicing, and firing off guns, for George Croghan, and
Montour, the interpreter, were there, and had been distributing
presents on behalf of the governor of Pennsylvania.
Joncaire was said to have the wit of a Frenchman, and the eloquence of
an Iroquois. He made an animated speech to the chiefs in their own
tongue, the gist of which was that their father Onontio (that is to
say, the governor of Canada) desired his children of the Ohio to turn
away the Indian traders, and never to deal with them again on pain of
his displeasure; so saying, he laid down a wampum belt of uncommon
size, by way of emphasis to his message. For once his eloquence was of
no avail; a chief rose indignantly, shook his finger in his face, and
stamping on the ground, "This is our land," said he. "What right has
Onontio here? The English are our brothers. They shall live among us
as long as one of us is alive. We will trade with them, and not with
you;" and, so saying, he rejected the belt of wampum.
Joncaire returned to an advanced post recently established on the
upper part of the river, whence he wrote to the governor of
Pennsylvania: "The Marquis de la Jonquiere, governor of New France,
having ordered me to watch that the English make no treaty in the Ohio
country, I have signified to the traders of your government to retire.
You are not ignorant that all these lands belong to the King of
France, and that the English have no right to trade in them." He
concluded by reiterating the threat made two years previously by
Celeron de Bienville against all intruding fur traders. In the
meantime, in the face of all these protests and menaces, Mr. Gist,
under sanction of the Virginia Legislature, proceeded in the same year
to survey the lands within the grant of the Ohio company, lying on the
south side of the Ohio river, as far down as the great Kanawha.
The French now prepared for hostile contingencies. They launched an
armed vessel of unusual size on Lake Ontario; fortified their
trading-house at Niagara; strengthened their outposts, and advanced
others on the upper waters of the Ohio. A stir of warlike preparation
was likewise to be observed among the British colonies. It was evident
that the adverse claims to the disputed territories, if pushed home,
could only be settled by the stern arbitrament of the sword.
In Virginia, especially, the war spirit was manifest. The province was
divided into military districts, each having an adjutant-general, with
the rank of major, and the pay of one hundred and fifty pounds a year,
whose duty was to attend to the organization and equipment of the
militia. Such an appointment was sought by Lawrence Washington for his
brother George, who set about preparing himself, with his usual method
and assiduity, for his new duties. Virginia had among its floating
population some military relics of the late Spanish war. Among these
was a certain Adjutant Muse, a Westmoreland volunteer, who had served
with Lawrence Washington in the campaigns in the West Indies. He now
undertook to instruct his brother George in the art of war; lent him
treatises on military tactics; put him through the manual exercise,
and gave him some idea of evolutions in the field. Another of
Lawrence's campaigning comrades was Jacob Van Braam, a Dutchman by
birth, who had been in the British army, but was now out of service,
and, professing to be a complete master of fence, recruited his
slender purse in this time of military excitement, by giving the
Virginian youth lessons in the sword exercise. Under the instructions
of these veterans Mount Vernon, from being a quiet rural retreat, was
suddenly transformed into a school of arms.
Washington's martial studies, however, were interrupted for a time by
the critical state of his brother's health. The constitution of
Lawrence had always been delicate, and he had been obliged repeatedly
to travel for a change of air. There were now pulmonary symptoms of a
threatening nature, and, by advice of his physicians, he determined to
pass a winter in the West Indies, taking with him his favorite brother
George as a companion. They accordingly sailed for Barbadoes on the
28th of September, 1751. George kept a journal of the voyage with
log-book brevity, recording the wind and weather, but no events worth
citation. They landed at Barbadoes on the 3d of November. The resident
physician of the place gave a favorable report of Lawrence's case, and
held out hopes of a cure.
The brothers had scarcely been a fortnight at the island when George
was taken down by a severe attack of small-pox. Skilful medical
treatment, with the kind attentions of friends, and especially of his
brother, restored him to health in about three weeks; but his face
always remained slightly marked.
The residence at Barbadoes failed to have the anticipated effect on
the health of Lawrence, and he determined to seek the sweet climate of
Bermuda in the spring. He felt the absence from his wife, and it was
arranged that George should return to Virginia, and bring her out to
meet him at that island. Accordingly, on the 22d of December, George
set sail in the "Industry," bound to Virginia, where he arrived on the
1st of February, 1752, after five weeks of stormy winter seafaring.
Lawrence remained through the winter at Barbadoes; but the very
mildness of the climate relaxed and enervated him. He felt the want of
the bracing winter weather to which he had been accustomed. Even the
invariable beauty of the climate, the perpetual summer, wearied the
restless invalid. Still some of the worst symptoms of his disorder had
disappeared, and he seemed to be slowly recovering; but the nervous
restlessness and desire of change, often incidental to his malady, had
taken hold of him, and early in March he hastened to Bermuda. He had
come too soon. The keen air of early spring brought on an aggravated
return of his worst symptoms. He was now afflicted with painful
indecision, and his letters perplexed his family, leaving them
uncertain as to his movements, and at a loss how to act. At one time
he talked of remaining at Bermuda, the next letter, written shortly
afterwards, in a moment of despondency, talks of the possibility of
"hurrying home to his grave!" The last was no empty foreboding. He did
indeed hasten back, and just reached Mount Vernon in time to die under
his own roof. His death took place on the 26th of July, 1752, when but
thirty-four years of age.
Lawrence left a wife and an infant daughter to inherit his ample
estates. In case his daughter should die without issue, the estate of
Mount Vernon, and other lands specified in his will, were to be
enjoyed by her mother during her lifetime, and at her death to be
inherited by his brother George. The latter was appointed one of the
executors of the will; but such was the implicit confidence reposed in
his judgment and integrity, that, although he was but twenty years of
age, the management of the affairs of the deceased was soon devolved
upon him almost entirely.
CHAPTER IV.
WASHINGTON'S MISSION TO THE FRENCH COMMANDER.
The meeting of the Ohio tribes, Delawares, Shawnees, and Mingoes, to
form a treaty of alliance with Virginia, took place at Logstown, at
the appointed time. The chiefs of the Six Nations declined to attend.
Colonel Fry and two other commissioners from Virginia concluded a
treaty with the tribes above named; by which the latter engaged not to
molest any English settlers south of the Ohio. Tanacharisson, the
half-king, now advised that his brothers of Virginia should build a
strong house at the fork of the Monongahela, to resist the designs of
the French. Mr. Gist was accordingly instructed to lay out a town and
build a fort at Chartier's Creek, on the east side of the Ohio, a
little below the site of the present city of Pittsburg. He commenced a
settlement, also, in a valley just beyond Laurel Hill, not far from
the Youghiogeny, and prevailed on eleven families to join him. The
Ohio Company, about the same time, established a trading-post, well
stocked with English goods, at Wills' Creek (now the town of
Cumberland).
The Ohio tribes were greatly incensed at the aggressions of the
French, who were erecting posts within their territories, and sent
deputations to remonstrate, but without effect. There were reports
that the French were ascending the Mississippi from Louisiana. France,
it was said, intended to connect Louisiana and Canada by a chain of
military posts, and hem the English within the Alleghany Mountains.
The Ohio company complained loudly to the lieutenant-governor of
Virginia, the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, of the hostile conduct of the
French and their Indian allies. They found in Dinwiddie a ready
listener; he was a stockholder in the company. A commissioner, Captain
William Trent, was sent to expostulate with the French commander on
the Ohio for his aggressions on the territory of his Brittanic
majesty; he bore presents also of guns, powder, shot, and clothing for
the friendly Indians. Trent was not a man of the true spirit for a
mission to the frontier. He stopped a short time at Logstown, though
the French were one hundred and fifty miles further up the river, and
directed his course to Piqua, the great town of the Twightwees, where
Gist and Croghan had been so well received by the Miamis. All now was
reversed. The place had been attacked by the French and Indians; the
Miamis defeated with great loss; the English traders taken prisoners;
the Piankesha chief, who had so proudly turned his back upon the
Ottawa ambassadors, had been sacrificed by the hostile savages, and
the French flag hoisted in triumph on the ruins of the town. The whole
aspect of affairs was so threatening on the frontier that Trent lost
heart, and returned home without accomplishing his errand.
Governor Dinwiddie now looked round for a person more fitted to fulfil
a mission which required physical strength and moral energy; a courage
to cope with savages, and a sagacity to negotiate with white men.
Washington was pointed out as possessed of those requisites. It is
true he was not yet twenty-two years of age, but public confidence in
his judgment and abilities had been manifested, by renewing his
appointment of adjutant-general, and assigning him the northern
division. He was accordingly chosen for the expedition.
By his letter of instructions he was directed to repair to Logstown,
and hold a communication with Tanacharisson, Monacatoocha, alias
Scarooyadi, the next in command, and the other sachems of the mixed
tribes friendly to the English; inform them of the purport of his
errand, and request an escort to the head-quarters of the French
commander. To that commander he was to deliver his credentials, and
the letter of Governor Dinwiddie, and demand an answer in the name of
his Brittanic majesty; but not to wait for it beyond a week. On
receiving it, he was to request a sufficient escort to protect him on
his return. He was, moreover, to acquaint himself with the numbers and
force of the French stationed on the Ohio and in its vicinity; their
capability of being reinforced from Canada; the forts they had
erected; where situated, how garrisoned; the object of their advancing
into those parts, and how they were likely to be supported. Washington
set off from Williamsburg on the 30th of October, 1753, the very day
on which he received his credentials. At Fredericksburg he engaged his
old "master of fence," Jacob Van Braam, to accompany him as
interpreter.
Having provided himself at Alexandria with necessaries for the
journey, he proceeded to Winchester, then on the frontier, where he
procured horses, tents, and other travelling equipments, and then
pushed on by a road newly opened to Wills' Creek, where he arrived on
the 14th of November. Here he met with Mr. Gist, the intrepid pioneer,
whom he engaged to accompany and pilot him in the present expedition.
He secured the services also of one John Davidson as Indian
interpreter, and of four frontiersmen. With this little band, he set
forth on the 15th of November through a wild country, rendered almost
impassable by recent storms of rain and snow.
As the rivers were all swollen so that the horses had to swim them,
Washington sent all the baggage down the Monongahela in a canoe under
care of two of the men, who had orders to meet him at the confluence
of that river with the Alleghany, where their united waters form the
Ohio. "As I got down before the canoe," writes he in his journal, "I
spent some time in viewing the rivers, and the land at the fork, which
I think extremely well situated for a fort, as it has the absolute
command of both rivers." The Ohio company had intended to build a fort
about two miles from this place, on the south-east side of the river;
but Washington gave the fork the decided preference. French engineers
of experience proved the accuracy of his military eye, by subsequently
choosing it for the site of Fort Duquesne, noted in frontier history.
In this neighborhood lived Shingiss, the king, or chief sachem, of the
Delawares. Washington visited him at his village, to invite him to the
council at Logstown. He was one of the greatest warriors of his tribe,
and subsequently took up the hatchet at various times against the
English, though now he seemed favorably disposed, and readily accepted
the invitation.
They arrived at Logstown after sunset on the 24th of November. The
half-king was absent at his hunting-lodge on Beaver Creek, about
fifteen miles distant; but Washington had runners sent out to invite
him and all the other chiefs to a grand talk on the following day.
About three o'clock the half-king arrived. Washington had a private
conversation with him in his tent, through Davidson, the interpreter.
He found him intelligent, patriotic, and proudly tenacious of his
territorial rights. He stated that the French had built two forts,
differing in size, but on the same model, a plan of which he gave, of
his own drawing. The largest was on Lake Erie, the other on French
Creek, fifteen miles apart, with a wagon road between them. The
nearest and levellest way to them was now impassable, lying through
large and miry savannas; they would have, therefore, to go by Venango,
and it would take five or six sleeps (or days) of good travelling to
reach the nearest fort.
On the following morning at nine o'clock, the chiefs assembled at the
council-house; where Washington, according to his instructions,
informed them that he was sent by their brother, the governor of
Virginia, to deliver to the French commandant a letter of great
importance, both to their brothers, the English, and to themselves;
and that he was to ask their advice and assistance, and some of their
young men to accompany and provide for him on the way, and be his
safeguard against the "French Indians" who had taken up the hatchet.
He concluded by presenting the indispensable document in Indian
diplomacy, a string of wampum.
The chiefs according to etiquette, sat for some moments silent after
he had concluded, as if ruminating on what had been said, or to give
him time for further remark. The half-king then rose and spoke in
behalf of the tribes, assuring him that they considered the English
and themselves brothers, and one people; and that they intended to
return the French the "speech-belts," or wampums, which the latter had
sent them. This, in Indian diplomacy, is a renunciation of all
friendly relations. An escort would be furnished to Washington
composed of Mingoes, Shannoahs, and Delawares, in token of the love
and loyalty of those several tribes; but three days would be required
to prepare for the journey.
Washington remonstrated against such delay; but was informed that an
affair of such moment, where three speech-belts were to be given up,
was not to be entered into without due consideration. Besides, the
young men who were to form the escort were absent hunting, and the
half-king could not suffer the party to go without sufficient
protection. His own French speech-belt, also, was at his
hunting-lodge, whither he must go in quest of it. Moreover, the
Shannoah chiefs were yet absent and must be waited for. Washington
soon found that to urge a more speedy departure would be offensive to
Indian dignity and decorum so he was fain to await the gathering
together of the different chiefs with their speech-belts.
In fact there was some reason for all this caution. Tidings had
reached the sachems that Captain Joncaire had called a meeting at
Venango, of the Mingoes, Delawares, and other tribes, and made them a
speech, informing them that the French, for the present, had gone into
winter-quarters, but intended to descend the river in great force, and
fight the English in the spring. He had advised them, therefore, to
stand aloof, for should they interfere, the French and English would
join, cut them all off, and divide their land between them.
With these rumors preying on their minds, the half-king and three
other chiefs waited on Washington in his tent in the evening, and
after representing that they had complied with all the requisitions of
the governor of Virginia, endeavored to draw from the youthful
ambassador the true purport of his mission to the French commandant.
Washington had anticipated an inquiry of the kind, knowing how natural
it was that these poor people should regard with anxiety and distrust
every movement of two formidable powers thus pressing upon them from
opposite sides; he managed, however, to answer them in such a manner
as to allay their solicitude without transcending the bounds of
diplomatic secrecy.
After a day or two more of delay and further consultations in the
council-house, the chiefs determined that but three of their number
should accompany the mission, as a greater number might awaken the
suspicions of the French. Accordingly, on the 30th of November,
Washington set out for the French post, having his usual party
augmented by an Indian hunter, and being accompanied by the half-king,
an old Shannoah sachem named Jeskakake, and another chief, sometimes
called Belt of Wampum, from being the keeper of the speech-belts, but
generally bearing the sounding appellation of White Thunder.
Although the distance to Venango, by the route taken, was not above
seventy miles, yet such was the inclemency of the weather and the
difficulty of travelling, that Washington and his party did not arrive
there until the 4th of December. The French colors were flying at a
house to which Washington repaired, and inquired of three French
officers whom he saw there where the commandant resided. One of them
promptly replied that he "had the command of the Ohio." It was, in
fact, the redoubtable Captain Joncaire, the veteran intriguer of the
frontier. On being apprised, however, of the nature of Washington's
errand, he informed him that there was a general officer at the next
fort, where he advised him to apply for an answer to the letter of
which he was the bearer.
In the meantime, he invited Washington and his party to a supper at
head-quarters. It proved a jovial one. Joncaire and his brother
officers pushed the bottle briskly. "The wine," says Washington, "as
they dosed themselves pretty plentifully with it, soon banished the
restraint which at first appeared in their conversation, and gave a
license to their tongues to reveal their sentiments more freely."
Washington retained his sobriety and his composure throughout the
bacchanalian outbreak. He took careful note, however, of all their
revelations, and collected a variety of information concerning the
French forces; how and where they were distributed; the situations and
distances of their forts, and their means and mode of obtaining
supplies. If the veteran diplomatist of the wilderness had intended
this revel for a snare, he was completely foiled by his youthful
competitor.
On the following day there was no travelling on account of excessive
rain. Joncaire, in the meantime, having discovered that the half-king
was with the mission, expressed his surprise that he had not
accompanied it to his quarters on the preceding day. Washington, in
truth, had feared to trust the sachem within the reach of the politic
Frenchman. Nothing would do now but Joncaire must have the sachems at
head-quarters. Here his diplomacy was triumphant. He received them
with open arms. He was enraptured to see them. His Indian brothers!
How could they be so near without coming to visit him? He made them
presents; but, above all, plied them so potently with liquor, that the
poor half-king, Jeskakake, and White Thunder forgot all about their
wrongs, their speeches, their speech-belts, and all the business they
had come upon; paid no heed to the repeated cautions of their English
friends, and were soon in a complete state of frantic extravagance or
drunken oblivion.
All that day and the next was the party kept at Venango by the
stratagems of Joncaire and his emissaries to detain and seduce the
sachems. It was not until twelve o'clock on the 7th of December, that
Washington was able to extricate them out of their clutches and
commence his journey. A French commissary by the name of La Force, and
three soldiers, set off in company with him. La Force went as if on
ordinary business, but he proved one of the most active, daring, and
mischief-making of those anomalous agents employed by the French among
the Indian tribes. It is probable that he was at the bottom of many of
the perplexities experienced by Washington at Venango, and now
travelled with him for the prosecution of his wiles. He will be found,
hereafter, acting a more prominent part, and ultimately reaping the
fruit of his evil doings.
After four days of weary travel the party reached the fort. It was
situated on a kind of island on the west fork of French Creek, about
fifteen miles south of Lake Erie. On the death of the late general,
the fort had remained in charge of one Captain Reparti until within a
week past, when the Chevalier Legardeur de St. Pierre had arrived, and
taken command.
The reception of Washington at the fort was very different from the
unceremonious one experienced at the outpost of Joncaire and his
convivial messmates. When he presented himself at the gate,
accompanied by his interpreter, Van Braam, he was met by the officer
second in command and conducted in due military form to his
superior--an ancient and silver-haired chevalier of the military order
of St. Louis, courteous but ceremonious, mingling the polish of the
French gentleman of the old school with the precision of the soldier.
Having announced his errand, Washington offered his credentials and
the letter of Governor Dinwiddie, and was disposed to proceed at once
to business with the prompt frankness of a young man unhackneyed in
diplomacy. The chevalier, however, politely requested him to retain
the documents in his possession until his predecessor, Captain
Reparti, should arrive, who was hourly expected from the next post.
At two o'clock the captain arrived. The letter and its accompanying
documents were then offered again, and received in due form, and the
chevalier and his officers retired with them into a private apartment.
In this letter Dinwiddie complained of the intrusion of French forces
into the Ohio country, erecting forts and making settlements in the
western parts of the colony of Virginia, so notoriously known to be
the property of the crown of Great Britain. He inquired by whose
authority and instructions the French commander-general had marched
this force from Canada, and made this invasion; intimating that his
own action would be regulated by the answer he should receive, and the
tenor of the commission with which he was honored. At the same time he
required of the commandant his peaceable departure.
The two following days were consumed in councils of the chevalier and
his officers over the letter and the necessary reply. Washington
occupied himself in the meantime in observing and taking notes of the
plan, dimensions, and strength of the fort, and of every thing about
it. He gave orders to his people, also, to take an exact account of
the canoes in readiness, and others in the process of construction,
for the conveyance of troops down the river in the ensuing spring. As
the weather continued stormy, with much snow, and the horses were
daily losing strength, he sent them down, unladen, to Venango, to
await his return by water. In the meantime, he discovered that busy
intrigues were going on to induce the half-king and the other sachems
to abandon him, and renounce all friendship with the English. Upon
learning this, he urged the chiefs to deliver up their "speech-belts"
immediately, as they had promised, thereby shaking off all dependence
upon the French. They accordingly pressed for an audience that very
evening. A private one was at length granted them by the commander, in
presence of one or two of his officers. The half-king reported the
result of it to Washington. The venerable but astute chevalier
cautiously evaded the acceptance of the proffered wampum; made many
professions of love and friendship, and said he wished to live in
peace and trade amicably with the tribes of the Ohio, in proof of
which he would send down some goods immediately for them to Logstown.
On the evening of the 14th, the chevalier delivered to Washington his
sealed reply to the letter of Governor Dinwiddie. The purport of
previous conversations with the chevalier, and the whole complexion of
affairs on the frontier, left no doubt of the nature of that reply.
The business of his mission being accomplished, Washington prepared on
the 15th to return by water to Venango; but a secret influence was at
work which retarded every movement. "The commandant," writes he,
"ordered a plentiful store of liquor and provisions to be put on board
our canoes, and appeared to be extremely complaisant, though he was
exerting every artifice which he could invent to set our Indians at
variance with us, to prevent their going until after our departure;
presents, rewards, and every thing which could be suggested by him or
his officers.... He had promised them a present of guns if they would
wait until the morning. As I was very much pressed by the Indians to
wait this day for them, I consented, on the promise that nothing
should hinder them in the morning."
The next morning (16th) the French, in fulfilment of their promise,
had to give the present of guns. They then endeavored to detain the
sachems with liquor, but Washington reminded the half-king that his
royal word was pledged to depart, and urged it upon him so closely
that, exerting unwonted resolution and self-denial, he turned his back
upon the liquor and embarked.
It was rough and laborious navigation. French Creek was swollen and
turbulent, and full of floating ice. The frail canoes were several
times in danger of being staved to pieces against rocks. It was not
until the 22d that they reached Venango. Here Washington was obliged,
most unwillingly, to part company with the sachems. White Thunder had
hurt himself and was ill and unable to walk, and the others determined
to remain at Venango for a day or two and convey him down the river in
a canoe.
On the 25th of December Washington and his little party set out by
land from Venango on their route homeward. They had a long, winter's
journey before them, through a wilderness beset with dangers and
difficulties. The pack-horses, laden with tents, baggage, and
provisions, were completely jaded; it was feared they would give out.
Washington dismounted, gave up his saddle-horse to aid in transporting
the baggage, and requested his companions to do the same. None but the
drivers remained in the saddle.
The cold increased. There was deep snow that froze as it fell. The
horses grew less and less capable of travelling. For three days they
toiled on slowly and wearily. Washington was impatient to accomplish
his journey, and make his report to the governor; he determined,
therefore, to hasten some distance in advance of the party, and then
strike for the fork of the Ohio by the nearest course directly through
the woods. He accordingly put the cavalcade under the command of Van
Braam, then disencumbering himself of all superfluous clothing,
buckling himself up in a watch-coat, strapping his pack on his
shoulders, containing his papers and provisions, and taking gun in
hand struck manfully ahead, accompanied only by Mr. Gist, who had
equipped himself in like manner.
At night they lit a fire, and "camped" by it in the woods. At two
o'clock in the morning they were again on foot, and pressed forward
until they struck the south-east fork of Beaver Creek, at a place
bearing the sinister name of Murdering Town. Here Washington, in
planning his route, had intended to leave the regular path, and strike
through the woods for Shannopins Town, two or three miles above the
fork of the Ohio, where he hoped to be able to cross the Alleghany
River on the ice.
At Murdering Town he found a party of Indians, who appeared to have
known of his coming, and to have been waiting for him. One of them
accosted Mr. Gist, and expressed great joy at seeing him. The wary
woodsman regarded him narrowly, and thought he had seen him at
Joncaire's. If so, he and his comrades were in the French interest,
and their lying in wait boded no good. The Indian was very curious in
his inquiries as to when they had left Venango; how they came to be
travelling on foot, etc., these questions increased the distrust of
Gist, and rendered him extremely cautious in reply.
The route hence to Shannopins Town lay through a trackless wild, of
which the travellers knew nothing; it was deemed, therefore, expedient
to engage one of the Indians as a guide. He entered upon his duties
with alacrity, took Washington's pack upon his back, and led the way
by what he said was the most direct course. After travelling briskly
for eight or ten miles, Washington became fatigued, and his feet were
chafed; he thought, too, they were taking a direction too much to the
north-east; he came to a halt, therefore, and determined to light a
fire, make a shelter of the bark and branches of trees, and encamp
there for the night. The Indian demurred; he offered, as Washington
was fatigued, to carry his gun, but the latter was too wary to part
with his weapon. The Indian now grew churlish. Mr. Gist's suspicions
increased but he said nothing. Washington's also were awakened. They
proceeded some distance further: the guide paused and listened. He had
heard, he said, the report of a gun towards the north; must be from
his cabin; he accordingly turned his steps in that direction.
They went on two miles farther, when Washington signified his
determination to encamp at the first water they should find. The guide
said nothing, but kept doggedly on. After a little while they arrived
at an opening in the woods, when the Indian, who was about fifteen
paces ahead, suddenly turned, levelled his gun, and fired. Washington
was startled for an instant, but, feeling that he was not wounded,
demanded quickly of Mr. Gist if he was shot. The latter answered in
the negative. The Indian in the meantime had run forward, and screened
himself behind a large white oak, where he was re-loading his gun.
They overtook, and seized him. Gist would have put him to death on the
spot, but Washington humanely prevented him.
Arriving at a small stream they ordered the Indian to make a fire, and
took turns to watch over the guns. While he was thus occupied, Gist
observed to Washington that, since he would not suffer the Indian to
be killed, they must manage to get him out of the way, and then decamp
with all speed, and travel all night to leave this perfidious
neighborhood behind them; but first it was necessary to blind the
guide as to their intentions. He accordingly addressed him in a
friendly tone, and adverting to the late circumstance, pretended to
suppose he had lost his way, and fired his gun merely as a signal. The
Indian, whether deceived or not, readily chimed in with the
explanation. He said he now knew the way to his cabin, which was at no
great distance.
"Well then," replied Gist, "you can go home, and as we are tired we
will remain here for the night and follow your track at daylight."
Whatever might have been the original designs of the savage, he was
evidently glad to get off. Gist followed him cautiously for a
distance, and listened until the sound of his footsteps died away;
returning then to Washington, they proceeded about half a mile, made
another fire, set their compass and fixed their course by the light of
it, then leaving it burning, pushed forward, and travelled as fast as
possible all night. Continuing on the next day they never relaxed
their speed until nightfall, when they arrived on the banks of the
Alleghany River, about two miles above Shannopins Town.
Washington had expected to find the river frozen completely over; it
was so only for about fifty yards from each shore, while great
quantities of broken ice were driving down the main channel. Trusting
that he had out-travelled pursuit, he encamped on the border of the
river; still it was an anxious night, and he was up at daybreak to
devise some means of reaching the opposite bank. No other mode
presented itself than by a raft, and to construct this they had but
one poor hatchet. With this they set resolutely to work and labored
all day, but the sun went down before their raft was finished. They
launched it, however, and getting on board, endeavored to propel it
across with setting poles. Before they were half way over the raft
became jammed between cakes of ice, and they were in imminent peril.
Washington planted his pole on the bottom of the stream, and leaned
against it with all his might, to stay the raft until the ice should
pass by. The rapid current forced the ice against the pole with such
violence that he was jerked into the water, where it was at least ten
feet deep, and only saved himself from being swept away and drowned by
catching hold of one of the raft logs.
It was now impossible with all their exertions to get to either shore;
abandoning the raft therefore, they got upon an island, near which
they were drifting. Here they passed the night exposed to intense
cold, by which the hands and feet of Mr. Gist were frozen. In the
morning they found the drift ice wedged so closely together, that they
succeeded in getting from the island to the opposite side of the
river; and before night were in comfortable quarters at the house of
Frazier, an Indian trader, at the mouth of Turtle Creek, on the
Monongahela.
Leaving Frazier's on the 1st of January, where they had been detained
two or three days endeavoring to procure horses, they arrived on the
2d at Gist's residence, sixteen miles from the Monongahela. Here they
separated, and Washington, having purchased a horse, continued his
homeward course. He reached Williamsburg on the 16th of January, where
he delivered to Governor Dinwiddie the letter of the French
commandant, and made him a full report of the events of his mission.
We have been minute in our account of this expedition as it was an
early test and development of the various talents and characteristics
of Washington. The prudence, sagacity, resolution, firmness, and
self-devotion manifested by him throughout, pointed him out, not
merely to the governor, but to the public at large, as one eminently
fitted, notwithstanding his youth, for important trusts involving
civil as well as military duties. It is an expedition that may be
considered the foundation of his fortunes. From that moment he was the
rising hope of Virginia.
CHAPTER V.
MILITARY EXPEDITION TO THE FRONTIER.
The reply of the Chevalier de St. Pierre was such as might have been
expected from that courteous, but wary commander. He should transmit,
he said, the letter of Governor Dinwiddie to his general, the Marquis
du Quesne, "to whom," observed he, "it better belongs than to me to
set forth the evidence and reality of the rights of the king, my
master, upon the lands situated along the river Ohio, and to contest
the pretensions of the King of Great Britain thereto. His answer shall
be a law to me."
This was considered evasive, and only intended to gain time. The
information given by Washington of what he had observed on the
frontier convinced Governor Dinwiddie and his council that the French
were preparing to descend the Ohio in the spring, and take military
possession of the country. Washington's journal was printed, and
widely promulgated throughout the colonies and England, and awakened
the nation to a sense of the impending danger and the necessity of
prompt measures to anticipate the French movements.
Captain Trent was dispatched to the frontier, commissioned to raise a
company of one hundred men, march with all speed to the fork of the
Ohio, and finish as soon as possible the fort commenced there by the
Ohio Company. He was enjoined to act only on the defensive, but to
capture or destroy whoever should oppose the construction of the
works, or disturb the settlements. The choice of Captain Trent for
this service, notwithstanding his late inefficient expedition, was
probably owing to his being brother-in-law to George Croghan, who had
grown to be quite a personage of consequence on the frontier, where he
had an establishment, or trading-house, and was supposed to have great
influence among the western tribes, so as to be able at any time to
persuade many of them to take up the hatchet. Washington was empowered
to raise a company of like force at Alexandria; to procure and forward
munitions and supplies for the projected fort at the fork, and
ultimately to have command of both companies.
Governor Dinwiddie in the meantime called upon the governors of the
other provinces to make common cause against the foe; he endeavored,
also, to effect alliances with the Indian tribes of the south, the
Catawbas and Cherokees, by way of counter-balancing the Chippewas and
Ottawas, who were devoted to the French. The colonies, however, felt
as yet too much like isolated territories; the spirit of union was
wanting. Some pleaded a want of military funds; some questioned the
justice of the cause; some declined taking any hostile step that might
involve them in a war, unless they should have direct orders from the
crown.
Dinwiddie convened the House of Burgesses to devise measures for the
public security. Here his high idea of prerogative and of
gubernatorial dignity met with a grievous countercheck from the
dawning spirit of independence. When he propounded his scheme of
operations on the Ohio, some of the burgesses had the hardihood to
doubt the claims of the king to the disputed territory; a doubt which
the governor reprobated as savoring strongly of a most disloyal French
spirit. Others demurred to any grant of means for military purposes
which might be construed into an act of hostility. To meet this
scruple it was suggested that the grant might be made for the purpose
of encouraging and protecting all settlers on the waters of the
Mississippi. And under this specious plea ten thousand pounds were
grudgingly voted.
Ways and means being provided, Governor Dinwiddie augmented the number
of troops to be enlisted to three hundred, divided into six companies.
The command of the whole, as before, was offered to Washington, but he
shrank from it, as a charge too great for his youth and inexperience.
It was given, therefore, to Colonel Joshua Fry, an English gentleman
of worth and education, and Washington was made second in command,
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The recruiting, at first, went on
slowly. Governor Dinwiddie proclaimed a bounty of two hundred thousand
acres of land on the Ohio River, to be divided among the officers and
soldiers who should engage in this expedition; one thousand to be laid
off contiguous to the fort at the fork, for the use of the garrison.
This was a tempting bait to the sons of farmers, who readily enlisted
in the hope of having, at the end of a short campaign, a snug farm of
their own in this land of promise.
It was a more difficult matter to get officers than soldiers. Very few
of those appointed made their appearance; one of the captains had been
promoted; two declined; Washington found himself left, almost alone,
to manage a number of self-willed, undisciplined recruits. Happily he
had with him, in the rank of lieutenant, that soldier of fortune,
Jacob Van Braam, his old "master of fence," and travelling
interpreter. In his emergency he forthwith nominated him captain, and
wrote to the governor to confirm the appointment. On the 2d of April
Washington set off from Alexandria for the new fort, at the fork of
the Ohio. He had but two companies with him, amounting to about one
hundred and fifty men; the remainder of the regiment was to follow
under Colonel Fry with the artillery, which was to be conveyed up the
Potomac. While on the march he was joined by a detachment under
Captain Adam Stephen, an officer destined to serve with him at distant
periods of his military career. At Winchester he found it impossible
to obtain conveyances by gentle means, and was obliged reluctantly to
avail himself of the militia law of Virginia, and impress horses and
wagons for service; giving the owners orders on government for their
appraised value. Even then, out of a great number impressed, he
obtained but ten, after waiting a week. Thus slenderly fitted out,
Washington and his little force made their way toilfully across the
mountains, having to prepare the roads as they went for the
transportation of the cannon, which were to follow on with the other
division under Colonel Fry. They cheered themselves with the thoughts
that this hard work would cease when they should arrive at the
company's trading-post and store-house at Wills' Creek, where Captain
Trent was to have pack-horses in readiness, with which they might make
the rest of the way by light stages. Before arriving there they were
startled by a rumor that Trent and all his men had been captured by
the French. With regard to Trent the news soon proved to be false, for
they found him at Wills' Creek on the 20th of April. With regard to
his men there was still an uncertainty. He had recently left them at
the fork of the Ohio, busily at work on the fort, under the command of
his lieutenant, Frazier. Washington was eager to press forward and
ascertain the truth, but it was impossible. Trent, inefficient as
usual, had failed to provide pack-horses. It was necessary to send to
Winchester, sixty miles distant, for baggage wagons, and await their
arrival. All uncertainty as to the fate of the men, however, was
brought to a close by their arrival, on the 25th, conducted by an
ensign, and bringing with them their working implements. The French
might well boast that they had again been too quick for the English.
Captain Contrecoeur, an alert officer, had embarked about a thousand
men with field-pieces, in a fleet of sixty bateaux and three hundred
canoes, dropped down the river from Venango, and suddenly made his
appearance before the fort, on which the men were working, and which
was not half completed. Landing, drawing up his men, and planting his
artillery, he summoned the fort to surrender, allowing one hour for a
written reply. All that the ensign could obtain was permission to
depart with his men, taking with them their working tools.
Such was the ensign's story. He was accompanied by two Indian
warriors, sent by the half-king to ascertain where the detachment was,
what was its strength, and when it might be expected at the Ohio. They
bore a speech from that sachem to Washington, and another, with a belt
of wampum for the governor of Virginia. In these he plighted his
steadfast faith to the English, and claimed assistance from his
brothers of Virginia and Pennsylvania. One of these warriors
Washington forwarded on with the speech and wampum to Governor
Dinwiddie. The other he prevailed on to return to the half-king
bearing a speech from him, addressed to the "Sachems, warriors of the
Six United Nations, Shannoahs and Delawares, our friends and
brethren." In this he informed them that he was on the advance with a
part of the army, to clear the road for a greater force coming with
guns, ammunition, and provisions; and he invited the half-king and
another sachem to meet him on the road, as soon as possible, to hold a
council.
In fact, his situation was arduous in the extreme. Regarding the
conduct of the French in the recent occurrence an overt act of war, he
found himself thrown with a handful of raw recruits far on a hostile
frontier, in the midst of a wilderness, with an enemy at hand greatly
superior in number and discipline; provided with artillery, and all
the munitions of war, and within reach of constant supplies and
reinforcements. Besides the French that had come from Venango, he had
received credible accounts of another party ascending the Ohio; and of
six hundred Chippewas and Ottawas marching down Scioto Creek to join
the hostile camp. Still, notwithstanding the accumulating danger, it
would not do to fall back, nor show signs of apprehension. His Indian
allies in such case might desert him. The soldiery, too, might grow
restless and dissatisfied.
In this dilemma he called a council of war, in which it was determined
to proceed to the Ohio Company store-house, at the mouth of Redstone
Creek; fortify themselves there, and wait for reinforcements. Here
they might keep up a vigilant watch upon the enemy, and get notice of
any hostile movement in time for defence, or retreat; and should they
be reinforced sufficiently to enable them to attack the fort, they
could easily drop down the river with their artillery.
With these alternatives in view, Washington detached sixty men in
advance to make a road; and at the same time wrote to Governor
Dinwiddie for mortars and grenadoes, and cannon of heavy metal. Aware
that the Assembly of Pennsylvania was in session and that the Maryland
Assembly would also meet in the course of a few days, he wrote
directly to the governors of those provinces, acquainting them with
the hostile acts of the French, and with his perilous situation; and
endeavoring to rouse them to co-operation in the common cause.
Before setting off for Redstone Creek, he discharged Trent's men [who,
having enlisted as volunteers, considered themselves exempt from the
rigor of martial law, and had become refractory] from his detachment,
ordering them to await Colonel Fry's commands; they, however, in the
true spirit of volunteers from the backwoods, dispersed to their
homes.
On the 29th of April Washington set out from Wills' Creek at the head
of one hundred and sixty men. He soon overtook those sent in advance
to work the road; they had made but little progress. It was a
difficult task to break a road through the wilderness sufficient for
the artillery coming on with Colonel Fry's division. All hands were
now set to work, but with all their labor they could not accomplish
more than four miles a day. On the 9th of May they were not further
than twenty miles from Wills' Creek, at a place called the Little
Meadows.
Every day came gloomy accounts from the Ohio; brought chiefly by
traders, who, with pack-horses bearing their effects, were retreating
to the more settled parts of the country. Some exaggerated the number
of the French, as if strongly reinforced. All represented them as
diligently at work constructing a fort. By their account Washington
perceived the French had chosen the very place which he had noted in
his journal as best fitted for the purpose. One of the traders gave
information concerning La Force, the French emissary, who had beset
Washington when on his mission to the frontier, and acted, as he
thought, the part of a spy. He had been at Gist's new settlement
beyond Laurel Hill, and was prowling about the country with four
soldiers at his heels on a pretended hunt after deserters. Washington
suspected him to be on a reconnoitering expedition. It was reported,
moreover, that the French were lavishing presents on the Indians about
the lower part of the river, to draw them to their standard. Among all
these flying reports and alarms Washington was gratified to learn that
the half-king was on his way to meet him at the head of fifty
warriors.
After infinite toil through swamps and forests, and over rugged
mountains, the detachment arrived at the Youghiogeny River, where they
were detained some days constructing a bridge to cross it. This gave
Washington leisure to correspond with Governor Dinwiddie concerning
matters which had deeply annoyed him. By an ill-judged economy of the
Virginia government at this critical juncture, its provincial officers
received less pay than that allowed in the regular army. It is true,
the regular officers were obliged to furnish their own table, but
their superior pay enabled them to do it luxuriously; whereas the
provincials were obliged to do hard duty on salt provisions and water.
The provincial officers resented this inferiority of pay as an
indignity, and declared that nothing prevented them from throwing up
their commissions but unwillingness to recede from approaching danger.
Other instances of false economy were pointed out by Washington,
forming so many drags upon the expedition that he quite despaired of
success. "Be the consequence what it will, however," adds he, "I am
determined not to leave the regiment, but to be among the last men
that leave the Ohio; even if I serve as a private volunteer, which I
greatly prefer to the establishment we are upon.... I have a
constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo the most severe
trials, and I flatter myself resolution to face what any man dares, as
shall be proved when it comes to the test."
While the bridge over the Youghiogeny was in the course of
construction, the Indians assured Washington he would never be able to
open a wagon-road across the mountain to Redstone Creek; he embarked
therefore in a canoe with a lieutenant, three soldiers, and an Indian
guide, to try whether it was possible to descend the river. The river
was bordered by mountains and obstructed by rocks and rapids. Indians
might thread such a labyrinth in their light canoes, but it would
never admit the transportation of troops and military stores.
Washington kept on for thirty miles, until he came to a place where
the river fell nearly forty feet in the space of fifty yards. There he
ceased to explore, and returned to camp, resolving to continue forward
by land.
On the 23d Indian scouts brought word that the French were not above
eight hundred strong, and that about half their number had been
detached at night on a secret expedition. Close upon this report came
a message from the half-king. "It is reported," said he, "that the
French army is coming to meet Major Washington. Be on your guard
against them, my brethren, for they intend to strike the first English
they shall see."
In the evening Washington was told that the French were crossing the
ford of the Youghiogeny about eighteen miles distant. He now hastened
to take a position in a place called the Great Meadows, where he
caused the bushes to be cleared away, made an intrenchment, and
prepared what he termed, "a charming field for an encounter." A party
of scouts were mounted on wagon-horses, and sent out to reconnoitre.
They returned without having seen an enemy.
On the 25th Mr. Gist arrived from his place, about fifteen miles
distant. La Force had been there at noon on the previous day, with a
detachment of fifty men, and Gist had since come upon their track
within five miles of the camp. Washington detached seventy-five men in
pursuit of him and his prowling band. About nine o'clock at night came
an Indian messenger from the half-king, who was encamped with several
of his people about six miles off. The chief had seen tracks of two
Frenchmen, and was convinced their whole body must be in ambush near
by. Washington considered this the force which had been hovering about
him for several days, and determined to forestall their hostile
designs. Leaving a guard with the baggage and ammunition, he set out
before ten o'clock, with forty men, to join his Indian ally. They
groped their way in single file, by footpaths through the woods, in a
heavy rain and murky darkness. It was near sunrise when they reached
the camp of the half-king.
The chieftain received the youthful commander with great
demonstrations of friendship, and engaged to go hand in hand with him
against the lurking enemy. He set out accordingly, accompanied by a
few of his warriors and his associate sachem Scarooyadi or
Monacatoocha, and conducted Washington to the tracks which he had
discovered. Upon these he put two of his Indians. They followed them
up like hounds, and brought back word that they had traced them to a
low bottom surrounded by rocks and trees, where the French were
encamped, having built a few cabins for shelter from the rain.
A plan was now concerted to come upon them by surprise; Washington
with his men on the right; the half-king with his warriors on the
left; all as silently as possible. Washington was the first upon the
ground. As he advanced from among the rocks and trees at the head of
his men, the French caught sight of him and ran to their arms. A sharp
firing instantly took place, and was kept up on both sides for about
fifteen minutes. Washington and his party were most exposed and
received all the enemy's fire. The French at length, having lost
several of their number, gave way and ran. They were soon overtaken;
twenty-one were captured, and but one escaped, a Canadian, who carried
the tidings of the affair to the fort on the Ohio. The Indians would
have massacred the prisoners had not Washington prevented them. Ten of
the French had fallen in the skirmish, and one been wounded.
Washington's loss was one killed and three wounded. He had been in the
hottest fire, and, having for the first time heard balls whistle about
him, considered his escape miraculous. Jumonville, the French leader,
had been shot through the head at the first fire.
Of the twenty-one prisoners the two most important were an officer of
some consequence named Drouillon, and the subtle and redoubtable La
Force. As Washington considered the latter an arch mischief-maker, he
was rejoiced to have him is his power. The prisoners were conducted to
the camp at the Great Meadows, and sent on the following day (29th),
under a strong escort to Governor Dinwiddie, then at Winchester.
Washington had treated them with great courtesy; had furnished
Drouillon and La Force with clothing from his own scanty stock, and,
at their request, given them letters to the governor, bespeaking for
them "the respect and favor due to their character and personal
merit."
The situation of Washington was now extremely perilous. Contrecoeur,
it was said, had nearly a thousand men with him at the fort, beside
Indian allies; and reinforcements were on the way to join him. The
messengers sent by Jumonville, previous to the late affair, must have
apprised him of the weakness of the encampment on the Great Meadows.
Washington hastened to strengthen it. He wrote by express also to
Colonel Fry, who lay ill at Wills' Creek, urging instant
reinforcements.
The half-king was full of fight. He sent the scalps of the Frenchmen
slain in the late skirmish, accompanied by black wampum and hatchets,
to all his allies, summoning them to take up arms and join him at
Redstone Creek, "for their brothers, the English, had now begun in
earnest." He went off for his home, promising to send down the river
for all the Mingoes and Shawnees, and to be back at the camp on the
30th, with thirty or forty warriors, accompanied by their wives and
children. To assist him in the transportation of his people and their
effects thirty men were detached and twenty horses.
"I shall expect every hour to be attacked," writes Washington to
Governor Dinwiddie, on the 26th, "and by unequal numbers, which I must
withstand, if there are five to one, for I fear the consequence will
be that we shall lose the Indians if we suffer ourselves to be driven
back. Your honor may depend I will not be surprised, let them come at
what hour they will, and this is as much as I can promise; but my best
endeavors shall not be wanting to effect more."
CHAPTER VI.
MISFORTUNES.--CAPITULATION OF FORT NECESSITY.
Scarcity began to prevail in the camp. Contracts had been made with
George Croghan for flour, of which he had large quantities at his
frontier establishment; for he was now trading with the army as well
as with the Indians. None, however, made its appearance. At one time
the troops were six days without flour. In this time of scarcity the
half-king, his fellow sachem, Scarooyadi, and thirty or forty
warriors, arrived, bringing with them their wives and children--so
many more hungry mouths to be supplied.
News came of the death of Colonel Fry at Wills' Creek, and that he was
to be succeeded in the command of the expedition by Colonel Innes of
North Carolina, who was actually at Winchester with three hundred and
fifty North Carolina troops. The colonel, however, never came to the
camp, nor did the North Carolina troops render any service in the
campaign--the fortunes of which might otherwise have been very
different. By the death of Fry, the command of the regiment devolved
on Washington.
The palisaded fort was now completed, and was named Fort Necessity,
from the pinching famine that had prevailed during its construction.
The scanty force in camp was augmented to three hundred by the arrival
from Wills' Creek of the men who had been under Colonel Fry. With them
came the surgeon of the regiment, Dr. James Craik, a Scotchman by
birth, and one destined to become a faithful and confidential friend
of Washington for the remainder of his life.
A letter from Governor Dinwiddie announced, however, that Captain
Mackay would soon arrive with an independent company of one hundred
men, from South Carolina. The title of independent company had a sound
ominous of trouble. Troops of the kind, raised in the colonies, under
direction of the governors, were paid by the crown, and the officers
had king's commissions; such, doubtless, had Captain Mackay. "I should
have been particularly obliged," writes Washington to Governor
Dinwiddie, "if you had declared whether he was under my command or
independent of it. I hope he will have more sense than to insist upon
any unreasonable distinction, because he and his officers have
commissions from his majesty."
On the 9th arrived Washington's early instructor in military tactics,
Adjutant Muse, recently appointed a major in the regiment. He was
accompanied by Montour, the Indian interpreter, now a provincial
captain, and brought with him nine swivels, and a small supply of
powder and ball. Fifty or sixty horses were forthwith sent to Wills'
Creek, to bring on further supplies, and Mr. Gist was urged to hasten
forward the artillery. Major Muse was likewise the bearer of a belt of
wampum and a speech, from Governor Dinwiddie to the half-king; with
medals for the chiefs, and goods for presents among the friendly
Indians, a measure which had been suggested by Washington. They were
distributed with that grand ceremonial so dear to the red man.
On the 10th there was agitation in the camp. Scouts hurried in with
word, as Washington understood them, that a party of ninety Frenchmen
were approaching. The report of the scouts had been either exaggerated
or misunderstood. The ninety Frenchmen in military array dwindled down
into nine French deserters. According to their account, the fort at
the fork was completed, and named Duquesne, in honor of the governor
of Canada. It was proof against all attack, excepting with bombs, on
the land side. The garrison did not exceed five hundred, but two
hundred more were hourly expected, and nine hundred in the course of a
fortnight.
On the same day Captain Mackay arrived, with his independent company
of South Carolinians. The cross purposes which Washington had
apprehended, soon manifested themselves. The captain was civil and
well disposed, but full of formalities and points of etiquette.
Holding a commission direct from the king, he could not bring himself
to acknowledge a provincial officer as his superior. He encamped
separately, kept separate guards, would not agree that Washington
should assign any rallying place for his men in case of alarm, and
objected to receive from him the parole and countersign, though
necessary for their common safety. Washington conducted himself with
circumspection, avoiding everything that might call up a question of
command, and reasoning calmly whenever such question occurred; but he
urged the governor by letter, to prescribe their relative rank and
authority.
On the 11th of June, Washington resumed the laborious march for
Redstone Creek. As Captain Mackay could not oblige his men to work on
the road unless they were allowed a shilling sterling a day; and as
Washington did not choose to pay this, nor to suffer them to march at
their ease while his own faithful soldiers were laboriously employed;
he left the captain and his independent company as a guard at Fort
Necessity, and undertook to complete the military road with his own
men. Accordingly, he and his Virginia troops toiled forward through
the narrow defiles of the mountains, working on the road as they went.
At Gist's establishment, about thirteen miles from Fort Necessity,
Washington received certain intelligence that ample reinforcements had
arrived at Fort Duquesne, and a large force would instantly be
detached against him. Coming to a halt, he began to throw up
intrenchments, calling in two foraging parties, and sending word to
Captain Mackay to join him with all speed. The captain and his company
arrived in the evening; the foraging parties the next morning. A
council of war was held, in which the idea of awaiting the enemy at
this place was unanimously abandoned.
A rapid and toilsome retreat ensued. There was a deficiency of horses.
Washington gave up his own to aid in transporting the military
munitions, leaving his baggage to be brought on by soldiers, whom he
paid liberally. The other officers followed his example. The weather
was sultry; the roads were rough; provisions were scanty, and the men
dispirited by hunger. On the 1st of July they reached the Great
Meadows. Here the Virginians, exhausted by fatigue, hunger, and
vexation, declared they would carry the baggage and drag the swivels
no further. Contrary to his original intentions, therefore, Washington
determined to halt here for the present, and fortify, sending off
expresses to hasten supplies and reinforcements from Wills' Creek,
where he had reason to believe that two independent companies from New
York were by this time arrived.
The retreat to the Great Meadows had not been in the least too
precipitate. Captain de Villiers, a brother-in-law of Jumonville, had
actually sallied forth from Fort Duquesne at the head of upwards of
five hundred French, and several hundred Indians, eager to avenge the
death of his relative. Arriving about dawn of day at Gist's
plantation, he surrounded the works which Washington had hastily
thrown up there, and fired into them. Finding them deserted, he
concluded that those of whom he came in search had made good their
retreat to the settlements, and it was too late to pursue them. He was
on the point of returning to Fort Duquesne, when a deserter arrived,
who gave word that Washington had come to a halt in the Great Meadows,
where his troops were in a starving condition. De Villiers ordered the
fellow into confinement; to be rewarded if his words proved true,
otherwise to be hanged. He then pushed forward for the Great Meadows.
In the meantime Washington had exerted himself to enlarge and
strengthen Fort Necessity, nothing of which had been done by Captain
Mackay and his men, while encamped there. The fort was about a hundred
feet square, protected by trenches and palisades. It stood on the
margin of a small stream, nearly in the centre of the Great Meadows,
which is a grassy plain, perfectly level, surrounded by wooded hills
of a moderate height, and at that place about two hundred and fifty
yards wide. Washington asked no assistance from the South Carolina
troops, but set to work with his Virginians, animating them by word
and example; sharing in the labor of felling trees, hewing off the
branches, and rolling up the trunks to form a breastwork.
At this critical juncture he was deserted by his Indian allies. They
were disheartened at the scanty preparations for defence against a
superior force, and offended at being subjected to military command.
The half-king thought he had not been sufficiently consulted, and that
his advice had not been sufficiently followed; such, at least, were
some of the reasons which he subsequently gave for abandoning the
youthful commander on the approach of danger. Most of his warriors
followed his example.
Early in the morning of the 3d, while Washington and his men were
working on the fort, a sentinel came in wounded and bleeding, having
been fired upon. Scouts brought word shortly afterwards that the
French were in force about four miles off. Washington drew up his men
on level ground outside of the works to await their attack. About
eleven o'clock there was a firing of musketry from among trees on
rising ground, but so distant as to do no harm; suspecting this to be
a stratagem designed to draw his men into the woods, he ordered them
to keep quiet, and refrain from firing until the foe should show
themselves, and draw near. The firing was kept up, but still under
cover. He now fell back with his men into the trenches, ordering them
to fire whenever they could get sight of an enemy. In this way there
was skirmishing throughout the day; the French and Indians advancing
as near as the covert of the woods would permit. In the meantime the
rain fell in torrents; the harassed and jaded troops were half drowned
in their trenches and many of their muskets were rendered unfit for
use.
About eight at night the French requested a parley. Washington
hesitated. It might be a stratagem to gain admittance for a spy into
the fort. The request was repeated, with the addition that an officer
might be sent to treat with them, under their parole for his safety.
Unfortunately the Chevalier de Peyrouney, engineer of the regiment,
and the only one that could speak French correctly, was wounded and
disabled. Washington had to send, therefore, his ancient swordsman and
interpreter, Jacob Van Braam. The captain returned twice with separate
terms, in which the garrison was required to surrender; both were
rejected. He returned a third time, with written articles of
capitulation. They were in French. As no implements for writing were
at hand, Van Braam undertook to translate them by word of mouth. A
candle was brought, and held close to the paper while he read. The
rain fell in torrents; it was difficult to keep the light from being
extinguished. The captain rendered the capitulation, article by
article, in mongrel English, while Washington and his officers stood
listening, endeavoring to disentangle the meaning. One article
stipulated that on surrendering the fort they should leave all their
military stores, munitions, and artillery in possession of the French.
This was objected to, and was readily modified.
The main articles, as Washington and his officers understood them,
were, that they should be allowed to return to the settlements without
molestation from French or Indians. That they should march out of the
fort with the honors of war, drums beating and colors flying, and with
all their effects and military stores excepting the artillery, which
should be destroyed. That they should be allowed to deposit their
effects in some secret place, and leave a guard to protect them until
they could send horses to bring them away; their horses having been
nearly all killed or lost during the action. That they should give
their word of honor not to attempt any buildings or improvements on
the lands of his most Christian Majesty for the space of a year. That
the prisoners taken in the skirmish of Jumonville should be restored,
and until their delivery Captain Van Braam and Captain Stobo should
remain with the French as hostages.
The next morning, accordingly, Washington and his men marched out of
their forlorn fortress with the honors of war, bearing with them their
regimental colors, but leaving behind a large flag, too cumbrous to be
transported. Scarcely had they begun their march, however, when, in
defiance of the terms of capitulation, they were beset by a large body
of Indians, allies of the French, who began plundering the baggage,
and committing other irregularities. Seeing that the French did not,
or could not, prevent them, and that all the baggage which could not
be transported on the shoulders of his troops would fall into the
hands of these savages, Washington ordered it to be destroyed, as well
as the artillery, gunpowder, and other military stores. All this
detained him until ten o'clock, when he set out on his melancholy
march, and continued on until three miles from Fort Necessity, where
he encamped for the night.
In the following days' march the troops seemed jaded and disheartened;
they were encumbered and delayed by the wounded; provisions were
scanty, and they had seventy weary miles to accomplish before they
could meet with supplies. Washington, however, encouraged them by his
own steadfast and cheerful demeanor, and by sharing all their toils
and privations; and at length conducted them in safety to Wills'
Creek, where they found ample provisions in the military magazines.
Leaving them here to recover their strength, he proceeded with Captain
Mackay to Williamsburg, to make his military report to the governor.
A copy of the capitulation was subsequently laid before the Virginia
House of Burgesses, with explanations. Notwithstanding the unfortunate
result of the campaign, the conduct of Washington and his officers was
properly appreciated, and they received a vote of thanks for their
bravery, and gallant defence of their country. From the vote of
thanks, two officers were excepted; Major Stobo, who was charged with
cowardice, and Washington's unfortunate master of fence and blundering
interpreter, Jacob Van Braam, who was accused of treachery, in
purposely misinterpreting the articles of capitulation.
We will here anticipate dates to record the fortunes of the half-king
after his withdrawal from the camp. He and several of his warriors,
with their wives and children, retreated to Aughquick, in the back
part of Pennsylvania, where George Croghan had an agency, and was
allowed money from time to time for the maintenance of Indian allies.
The half-king expressed himself perfectly disgusted with the white
man's mode of warfare. The French, he said, were cowards; the English,
fools. Washington was a good man, but wanted experience; he would not
take advice of the Indians, and was always driving them to fight
according to his own notions. For this reason he (the half-king) had
carried off his wife and children to a place of safety. After a time
the chieftain fell dangerously ill, and on his death, which took place
shortly afterwards, there was great lamentation.
Early in August Washington rejoined his regiment, which had arrived at
Alexandria by the way of Winchester. Letters from Governor Dinwiddie
urged him to recruit it to the former number of three hundred men, and
join Colonel Innes at Wills' Creek, where that officer was stationed
with Mackay's independent company of South Carolinians, and two
independent companies from New York; and had been employed in erecting
a work to serve as a frontier post and rally point; which work
received the name of Fort Cumberland, in honor of the Duke of
Cumberland, captain-general of the British army.
In the meantime the French, elated by their recent triumph, and
thinking no danger at hand, relaxed their vigilance at Fort Duquesne.
Stobo, who was a kind of prisoner at large there, found means to send
a letter secretly by an Indian, dated July 28, and directed to the
commander of the English troops. It was accompanied by a plan of the
fort. "There are two hundred men here," writes he, "and two hundred
expected; the rest have gone off in detachments to the amount of one
thousand, besides Indians. None lodge in the fort but Contrecoeur and
the guard, consisting of forty men and five officers; the rest lodge
in bark cabins around the fort. The Indians have access day and night,
and come and go when they please. If one hundred trusty Shawnees,
Mingoes, and Delawares were picked out, they might surprise the fort,
lodging themselves under the palisades by day, and at night secure the
guard with their tomahawks, shut the sally-gate, and the fort is
ours."
The Indian messenger carried the letter to Aughquick and delivered it
into the hands of George Croghan. The Indian chiefs who were with him
insisted upon his opening it. He did so, but on finding the tenor of
it, transmitted it to the governor of Pennsylvania. The secret
information communicated by Stobo may have been the cause of a project
suddenly conceived by Governor Dinwiddie, of a detachment which, by a
forced march across the mountains, might descend upon the French and
take Fort Duquesne at a single blow; or, failing that, might build a
rival fort in its vicinity. He accordingly wrote to Washington to
march forthwith for Wills' Creek, with such companies as were
complete, leaving orders with the officers to follow as soon as they
should have enlisted men sufficient to make up their companies.
The ignorance of Dinwiddie in military affairs and his want of
forecast, led him perpetually into blunders. Washington saw the
rashness of an attempt to dispossess the French with a force so
inferior that it could be harassed and driven from place to place at
their pleasure. Before the troops could be collected, and munitions of
war provided, the season would be too far advanced. There would be no
forage for the horses; the streams would be swollen and unfordable;
the mountains rendered impassable by snow, and frost, and slippery
roads.
Such are a few of the cogent reasons urged by Washington in a letter
to his friend William Fairfax, then in the House of Burgesses, which
no doubt was shown to Governor Dinwiddie, and probably had an effect
in causing the rash project to be abandoned.
In the month of October the House of Burgesses made a grant of twenty
thousand pounds for the public service; and ten thousand more were
sent out from England, beside a supply of fire-arms. The governor now
applied himself to military matters with renewed spirit; increased the
actual force to ten companies; and as there had been difficulties
among the different kinds of troops with regard to precedence, he
reduced them all to independent companies; so that there would be no
officer in a Virginia regiment above the rank of captain. This shrewd
measure, upon which Dinwiddie secretly prided himself as calculated to
put an end to the difficulties in question, immediately drove
Washington out of the service; considering it derogatory to his
character to accept a lower commission than that under which his
conduct had gained him a vote of thanks from the Legislature.
Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, appointed by the king commander-in-chief
of all the forces engaged against the French, sought to secure his
valuable services, and authorized Colonel Fitzhugh, whom he had placed
in temporary command of the army, to write to him to that effect. The
reply of Washington (15th Nov.) is full of dignity and spirit, and
shows how deeply he felt his military degradation. "You make mention,"
says he, "of my continuing in the service and retaining my colonel's
commission. This idea has filled me with surprise; for if you think me
capable of holding a commission that has neither rank nor emolument
annexed to it, you must maintain a very contemptible opinion of my
weakness, and believe me more empty than the commission itself. I
herewith inclose Governor Sharpe's letter which I beg you will return
to him with my acknowledgements for the favor he intended me."
Even had Washington hesitated to take this step, it would have been
forced upon him by a further regulation of government, in the course
of the ensuing winter, settling the rank of officers of his majesty's
forces when joined or serving with the provincial forces in North
America, "which directed that all such as were commissioned by the
king, or by his general commander-in-chief in North America, should
take rank of all officers commissioned by the governors of the
respective provinces. And further, that the general and field officers
of the provincial troops should have no rank when serving with the
general and field officers commissioned by the crown; but that all
captains and other inferior officers of the royal troops should take
rank over provincial officers of the same grade, having older
commissions." These regulations, originating in that supercilious
assumption of superiority which sometimes overruns and degrades true
British pride, would have been spurned by Washington, as insulting to
the character and conduct of his high-minded brethren of the colonies.
Another cause of vexation to Washington was the refusal of Governor
Dinwiddie to give up the French prisoners, taken in the affair of De
Jumonville, in fulfillment of the articles of capitulation. His plea
was, that since the capitulation, the French had taken several British
subjects, and sent them prisoners to Canada, he considered himself
justifiable in detaining those Frenchmen which he had in his custody.
Washington felt deeply mortified by this obtuseness of the governor on
a point of military punctilio and honorable faith, but his
remonstrances were unavailing. La Force not having acted in a military
capacity, and having offended against the peace and security of the
frontier, by his intrigues among the Indians, was kept in close
durance.
The refusal of Governor Dinwiddie to fulfill the article of the
capitulation respecting the prisoners, and the rigorous treatment of
La Force, operated hardly upon the hostages, Stobo and Van Braam, who,
in retaliation, were confined in prison in Quebec.
CHAPTER VII.
A CAMPAIGN UNDER GENERAL BRADDOCK.
Having resigned his commission, and disengaged himself from public
affairs, Washington's first care was to visit his mother, inquire into
the state of domestic concerns, and attend to the welfare of his
brothers and sisters. In these matters he was ever his mother's
adjunct and counsellor, discharging faithfully the duties of an eldest
son, who should consider himself a second father to the family. He now
took up his abode at Mount Vernon, and prepared to engage in those
agricultural pursuits, for which, even in his youthful days, he had as
keen a relish as for the profession of arms. Scarcely had he entered
upon his rural occupations, however, when the service of his country
once more called him to the field.
The disastrous affair at the Great Meadows, and the other acts of
French hostility on the Ohio, had roused the attention of the British
ministry, who now prepared for military operations in America; none of
them professedly aggressive, but rather to resist and counteract
aggressions. A plan of campaign was devised for 1755, having four
objects: To eject the French from lands which they held unjustly, in
the province of Nova Scotia; to dislodge them from a fortress which
they had erected at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, within what was
claimed as British territory; to dispossess them of the fort which
they had constructed at Niagara, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie;
to drive them from the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and
recover the valley of the Ohio. The Duke of Cumberland,
captain-general of the British army, had the organization of this
campaign; and through his patronage, Major-general Edward Braddock was
intrusted with the execution of it, being appointed generalissimo of
all the forces in the colonies.
Braddock was a veteran in service, and had been upwards of forty years
in the guards, that school of exact discipline and technical
punctilio. He was a brave and experienced officer; but his experience
was that of routine, and rendered him pragmatical and obstinate,
impatient of novel expedients, and his military precision, which would
have been brilliant on parade, was a constant obstacle to alert action
in the wilderness. He was to lead in person the grand enterprise of
the campaign, that destined for the frontiers of Virginia and
Pennsylvania; it was the enterprise in which Washington became
enlisted, and, therefore, claims our especial attention.
Prior to the arrival of Braddock, came out from England
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John St. Clair, deputy quartermaster-general,
eager to make himself acquainted with the field of operations. He made
a tour of inspection, in company with Governor Sharpe, of Maryland,
and appears to have been dismayed at sight of the impracticable
wilderness, the region of Washington's campaign. From Fort Cumberland,
he wrote in February to Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, to have the
road cut, or repaired, toward the head of the river Youghiogeny, and
another opened from Philadelphia for the transportation of supplies.
Unfortunately the governor of Pennsylvania had no money at his
command, and was obliged, for expenses, to apply to his Assembly, "a
set of men," writes he, "quite unacquainted with every kind of
military service and exceedingly unwilling to part with money on any
terms." However, by dint of exertions, he procured the appointment of
commissioners to explore the country, and survey and lay out the roads
required. At the head of the commission was George Croghan, the Indian
trader, whose mission to the Twightwees we have already spoken of.
When Sir John St. Clair had finished his tour of inspection he
descended Wills' Creek and the Potomac for two hundred miles in a
canoe to Alexandria, and repaired to Virginia to meet General
Braddock. The latter had landed on the 20th of February, at Hampton,
in Virginia, and proceeded to Williamsburg to consult with Governor
Dinwiddie. Shortly afterwards he was joined there by Commodore Keppel,
whose squadron of two ships-of-war, and several transports, had
anchored in the Chesapeake. On board of these ships were two prime
regiments of about five hundred men each--one commanded by Sir Peter
Halket, the other by Colonel Dunbar; together with a train of
artillery, and the necessary munitions of war. The regiments were to
be augmented to seven hundred men, each by men selected by Sir John
St. Clair from Virginia companies recently raised. Alexandria was
fixed upon as the place where the troops should disembark and encamp.
The ships were accordingly ordered up to that place, and the levies
directed to repair thither.
The plan of the campaign included the use of Indian allies. Governor
Dinwiddie had already sent Christopher Gist to engage the Cherokees
and Catawbas, the bravest of the Southern tribes, who he had no doubt
would take up the hatchet for the English, peace being first
concluded, through the mediation of his government, between them and
the Six Nations; and he gave Braddock reason to expect at least four
hundred Indians to join him at Fort Cumberland. General Braddock
apprehended difficulty in procuring wagons and horses sufficient to
attend him in his march. Sir John St. Clair, in the course of his tour
of inspection, had met with two Dutch settlers, at the foot of the
Blue Ridge, who engaged to furnish two hundred wagons and fifteen
hundred carrying horses, to be at Fort Cumberland early in May.
Governor Sharpe was to furnish above a hundred wagons for the
transportation of stores, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. Keppel
furnished four cannons from his ships, for the attack on Fort
Duquesne, and thirty picked seamen to assist in dragging them over the
mountains. They were to aid also in passing the troops and artillery
on floats or in boats, across the rivers, and were under the command
of a midshipman and lieutenant.
Trusting to these arrangements, Braddock proceeded to Alexandria. The
troops had all been disembarked before his arrival, and the Virginia
levies, selected by Sir John St. Clair to join the regiments of
regulars, were arrived. There were beside two companies of hatchet
men, or carpenters, six of rangers, and one troop of light horse. The
levies, having been clothed, were ordered to march immediately for
Winchester to be armed. The light horse were retained by the general
as his escort and body guard.
The din and stir of warlike preparation disturbed the quiet of Mount
Vernon. Washington looked down from his rural retreat upon the ships
of war and transports as they passed up the Potomac, with the array of
arms gleaming along their decks. The booming of cannon echoed among
his groves. Alexandria was but a few miles distant. Occasionally he
mounted his horse, and rode to that place; it was like a garrisoned
town, teeming with troops, and resounding with the drum and fife. A
brilliant campaign was about to open under the auspices of an
experienced general, and with all the means and appurtenances of
European warfare. How different from the starveling expeditions he had
hitherto been doomed to conduct! What an opportunity to efface the
memory of his recent disaster! All his thoughts of rural life were put
to flight. The military part of his character was again in the
ascendant; his great desire was to join the expedition as a volunteer.
It was reported to General Braddock. The latter was apprised by
Governor Dinwiddie, and others, of Washington's personal merits, his
knowledge of the country, and his experience in frontier service. The
consequence was a letter from Captain Robert Orme, one of Braddock's
aides-de-camp, written by the general's order, inviting Washington to
join his staff.
A volunteer situation on the staff of General Braddock offered no
emolument nor command, and would be attended with considerable
expense, still he did not hesitate a moment to accept the invitation.
In the position offered to him, all the questions of military rank
which had hitherto annoyed him would be obviated, and he could indulge
his passion for arms without any sacrifice of dignity. His arrival at
head-quarters was hailed by his young associates, Captains Orme and
Morris, the general's aides-de-camp, who at once received him into
frank companionship, and a cordial intimacy commenced between them
that continued throughout the campaign. He experienced a courteous
reception from the general, who expressed in flattering terms the
impression he had received of his merits.
There were at that time four governors, beside Dinwiddie, assembled at
Alexandria, at Braddock's request, to concert a plan of military
operations--Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts; Lieutenant-Governor
Delancey, of New York; Lieutenant-Governor Sharpe, of Maryland;
Lieutenant-Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania. Washington was presented
to them in a manner that showed how well his merits were already
appreciated.
A grand council was held on the 14th of April, composed of General
Braddock, Commodore Keppel, and the governors. In discussing the
campaign, the governors were of opinion that New York should be made
the centre of operations, as it afforded easy access by water to the
heart of the French possessions in Canada. Braddock, however, did not
feel at liberty to depart from his instructions, which specified the
recent establishments of the French on the Ohio as the objects of his
expedition.
Niagara and Crown Point were to be attacked about the same time with
Fort Duquesne, the former by Governor Shirley, with his own and Sir
William Pepperell's regiments, and some New York companies; the latter
by Colonel William Johnson, sole manager and director of Indian
affairs--a personage worthy of especial note. He was a native of
Ireland, and had come out to this country in 1734 to manage the landed
estates owned by his uncle, Commodore Sir Peter Warren, in the Mohawk
country. By his agency and his dealings with the native tribes, he had
acquired great wealth, and become a kind of potentate in the Indian
country. His influence over the Six Nations was said to be unbounded.
The business of the Congress being finished, General Braddock would
have set out for Fredericktown, in Maryland, but few wagons or teams
had yet come to remove the artillery. Washington had looked with
wonder and dismay at the huge paraphernalia of war and the world of
superfluities to be transported across the mountains, recollecting the
difficulties he had experienced in getting over them with his nine
swivels and scanty supplies. "If our march is to be regulated by the
slow movements of the train," said he, "it will be tedious, very
tedious indeed."
In the meanwhile, Sir John St. Clair, who had returned to the
frontier, was storming at the camp at Fort Cumberland. The road
required of the Pennsylvania government had not been commenced. George
Croghan and the other commissioners were but just arrived in camp. Sir
John, according to Croghan, received them in a very disagreeable
manner, would not look at their draughts, nor suffer any
representations to be made to him in regard to the province, "but
stormed like a lion rampant;" declaring that the want of the road and
of the provisions promised by Pennsylvania had retarded the expedition
and might cost them their lives from the fresh numbers of French that
might be poured into the country, and that if the French defeated
them, by the delays of Pennsylvania, he would, with his sword drawn,
pass through the province and treat the inhabitants as a parcel of
traitors to his master. The explosive wrath of Sir John, which was not
to be appeased, shook the souls of the commissioners, and they wrote
to Governor Morris, urging that people might be set at work upon the
road. In reply, Mr. Richard Peters, Governor Morris's secretary, wrote
in his name: "Get a number of hands immediately, and further the work
by all possible methods."
A commission, of a different kind, was intrusted to George Croghan.
Governor Morris, by letter, requested him to convene at Aughquick, in
Pennsylvania, as many warriors as possible of the mixed tribes of the
Ohio, distribute among them wampum belts sent for the purpose, and
engage them to meet General Braddock when on the march and render him
all the assistance in their power. In reply, Croghan engaged to enlist
a strong body of Indians, being sure of the influence of Scarooyadi,
successor to the half-king, and of his adjunct, White Thunder, keeper
of the speech-belts. At the instance of Governor Morris, Croghan
secured the services of another kind of force. This was a band of
hunters, resolute men, well acquainted with the country and inured to
hardships. They were under the command of Captain Jack, one of the
most remarkable characters of Pennsylvania; a complete hero of the
wilderness. He had been for many years a captive among the Indians;
and, having learnt their ways, had formed this association for the
protection of the settlements. The band had become famous for its
exploits, and was a terror to the Indians.
General Braddock set out from Alexandria on the 20th of April.
Washington remained behind a few days to arrange his affairs, and then
rejoined him at Fredericktown, in Maryland, where, on the 10th of May,
he was proclaimed one of the general's aides-de-camp. The troubles of
Braddock had already commenced. The Virginian contractors failed to
fulfil their engagements; of all the immense means of transportation
so confidently promised, but fifteen wagons and a hundred
draught-horses had arrived, and there was no prospect of more. There
was equal disappointment in provisions, both as to quantity and
quality, and he had to send round the country to buy cattle for the
subsistence of the troops.
Fortunately, while the general was venting his spleen in anathemas
against army contractors, Benjamin Franklin arrived at Fredericktown.
That eminent man, then about forty-nine years of age, had been for
many years member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and was now
postmaster-general for America. The Assembly understood that Braddock
was incensed against them, supposing them adverse to the service of
the war. They had procured Franklin to wait upon him, not as if sent
by them, but as if he came in his capacity of postmaster-general, to
arrange for the sure and speedy transmission of dispatches between the
commander-in-chief and the governors of the provinces.
He was well received, and became a daily guest at the general's table.
As the whole delay of the army was caused by the want of conveyances,
Franklin observed one day to the general that it was a pity the troops
had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where almost every farmer had his
wagon. "Then, sir," replied Braddock, "you who are a man of interest
there can probably procure them for me, and I beg you will." Franklin
consented. An instrument in writing was drawn up, empowering him to
contract for one hundred and fifty wagons, with four horses to each
wagon, and fifteen hundred saddle or pack-horses for the service of
his majesty's forces, to be at Wills' Creek on or before the 20th of
May, and he promptly departed for Lancaster to execute the commission.
After his departure, Braddock, attended by his staff, and his guard of
light horse, set off for Wills' Creek by the way of Winchester, the
road along the north side of the Potomac not being yet made. "This
gave him," writes Washington, "a good opportunity to see the absurdity
of the route, and of damning it very heartily." Three of Washington's
horses were knocked up before they reached Winchester, and he had to
purchase others. The discomforts of the rough road were increased with
the general, by his travelling with some degree of state in a chariot
which he had purchased of Governor Sharpe. In this he arrived at Fort
Cumberland, amid a thundering salute of seventeen guns. By this time
the general discovered that he was not in a region fitted for such
display, and his travelling chariot was abandoned.
By the 19th of May, the forces were assembled at Fort Cumberland. The
two royal regiments, originally one thousand strong, now increased to
fourteen hundred, by men chosen from the Maryland and Virginia levies;
two provincial companies of carpenters, or pioneers, thirty men each,
with subalterns and captains; a company of guides, composed of a
captain, two aids, and ten men; the troop of Virginia light horse,
commanded by Captain Stewart; the detachment of thirty sailors with
their officers, and the remnants of two independent companies from New
York, one of which was commanded by Captain Horatio Gates, of whom we
shall have to speak much hereafter in course of this biography.
Another person in camp, of subsequent notoriety, and who became a warm
friend of Washington, was Dr. Hugh Mercer, a Scotchman, about
thirty-three years of age. Another was Dr. James Craik, who had become
strongly attached to Washington, being about the same age, and having
been with him in the affair of the Great Meadows, serving as surgeon
in the Virginia regiment, to which he still belonged.
Braddock's camp was a complete study for Washington during the halt at
Fort Cumberland, where he had an opportunity of seeing military
routine in its strictest forms. He had a specimen, too, of convivial
life in the camp, which the general endeavored to maintain, even in
the wilderness, keeping a hospitable table; for he is said to have
been somewhat of a _bon vivant_.
There was great detention at the fort, caused by the want of forage
and supplies, the road not having been finished from Philadelphia. Mr.
Richard Peters, the secretary of Governor Morris, was in camp, to
attend to the matter. He had to bear the brunt of Braddock's
complaints. The general declared he would not stir from Wills' Creek
until he had the governor's assurance that the road would be opened in
time. Braddock was also completely chagrined and disappointed about
the Indians. The Cherokees and Catawbas, whom Dinwiddie had given him
reason to expect in such numbers, never arrived. George Croghan
reached the camp with but about fifty warriors, whom he had brought
from Aughquick. At the general's request he sent a messenger to invite
the Delawares and Shawnees from the Ohio, who returned with two chiefs
of the former tribe. Among the sachems thus assembled were some of
Washington's former allies--Scarooyadi, alias Monacatoocha, successor
to the half-king; White Thunder, the keeper of the speech-belts, and
Silver-heels, so called, probably, from being swift of foot.
Notwithstanding his secret contempt for the Indians, Braddock,
agreeably to his instructions, treated them with great ceremony. A
grand council was held in his tent, where all his officers attended.
The chiefs, and all the warriors, came painted and decorated for war.
They were received with military honors, the guards resting on their
fire-arms. The general made them a speech through his interpreter,
expressing the grief of their father, the great king of England, at
the death of the half-king, and made them presents to console them.
They in return promised their aid as guides and scouts, and declared
eternal enmity to the French, following the declaration with the war
song, "making a terrible noise."
For a time all went well. The Indians had their separate camp, where
they passed half the night singing, dancing and howling. The British
were amused by their strange ceremonies, their savage antics, and
savage decorations. The Indians, on the other hand, loitered by day
about the English camp, fiercely painted and arrayed, gazing with
silent admiration at the parade of the troops, their marchings and
evolutions; and delighted with the horse-races, with which the young
officers recreated themselves. Unluckily the warriors had brought
their families with them to Wills' Creek, and the women were even
fonder than the men of loitering about the British camp. The jealousy
of the warriors was aroused. To prevent discord, the squaws were
forbidden to come into the British camp. This did not prevent their
being sought elsewhere. It was ultimately found necessary, for the
sake of quiet, to send the women and children back to Aughquick. White
Thunder, and several of the warriors, accompanied them for their
protection. As to the three Delaware chiefs, they returned to the
Ohio, promising the general they would collect their warriors together
and meet him on his march. They never kept their word.
During the halt of the troops at Wills' Creek, Washington had been
sent to Williamsburg to bring on four thousand pounds for the military
chest. He returned after a fortnight's absence. He found the general
out of all patience and temper at the delays and disappointments in
regard to horses, wagons, and forage, making no allowances for the
difficulties incident to a new country, and to the novel and great
demands upon its scanty and scattered resources. He accused the army
contractors of want of faith, honor and honesty; and in his moments of
passion, which were many, extended the stigma to the whole country.
This stung the patriotic sensibility of Washington, and overcame his
usual self-command, and the proud and passionate commander was
occasionally surprised by a well-merited rebuke from his aid-de-camp.
The same pertinacity was maintained with respect to the Indians.
George Croghan informed Washington that the sachems considered
themselves treated with slight, in never being consulted in war
matters; that he himself had repeatedly offered the services of the
warriors under his command as scouts and outguards, but his offers had
been rejected. Washington ventured to interfere, and to urge their
importance for such purposes, especially now when they were
approaching the stronghold of the enemy. As usual, the general
remained bigoted in his belief of the all-sufficiency of
well-disciplined troops. Either from disgust thus caused, or from
being actually dismissed, the warriors began to disappear from the
camp. Before Braddock recommenced his march, none remained to
accompany him but Scarooyadi, and eight of his warriors.
Seeing the general's impatience at the non-arrival of conveyances,
Washington again represented to him the difficulties he would
encounter in attempting to traverse the mountains with such a train of
wheel-carriages, assuring him it would be the most arduous part of the
campaign; and recommended, from his own experience, the substitution,
as much as possible, of pack-horses. Braddock, however, had not been
sufficiently harassed by frontier campaigning to depart from his
European modes, or to be swayed in his military operations by so green
a counsellor. At length the general was relieved from present
perplexities by the arrival of the horses and wagons which Franklin
had undertaken to procure.
CHAPTER VIII.
BRADDOCK'S ADVANCE.--HIS DEFEAT.
On the 10th of June, Braddock set off from Fort Cumberland with his
aides-de-camp, and others of his staff, and his body guard of light
horse. Sir Peter Halket, with his brigade, had marched three days
previously; and a detachment of six hundred men, under the command of
Colonel Chapman and the supervision of Sir John St. Clair, had been
employed upwards of ten days in cutting down trees, removing rocks,
and opening a road. The march over the mountains proved, as Washington
had foretold, a "tremendous undertaking." It was with difficulty the
heavily laden wagons could be dragged up the steep and rugged roads,
newly made, or imperfectly repaired. Often they extended for three or
four miles in a straggling and broken line, with the soldiers so
dispersed, in guarding them, that an attack on any side would have
thrown the whole in confusion.
By the time the advanced corps had struggled over two mountains, and
through the intervening forest, and reached (16th June) the Little
Meadows, where Sir John St. Clair had made a temporary camp, General
Braddock had become aware of the difference between campaigning in a
new country, or on the old well-beaten battle-grounds of Europe. He
now, of his own accord, turned to Washington for advice. Thus
unexpectedly called on, Washington gave his counsel with becoming
modesty, but with his accustomed clearness. There was just now an
opportunity to strike an effective blow at Fort Duquesne, but it might
be lost by delay. The garrison, according to credible reports, was
weak; large reinforcements and supplies, which were on their way,
would be detained by the drought, which rendered the river by which
they must come low and unnavigable. The blow must be struck before
they could arrive. He advised the general, therefore, to divide his
forces; leave one part to come on with the stores and baggage, and all
the cumbrous appurtenances of an army, and to throw himself in the
advance with the other part, composed of his choicest troops,
lightened of every thing superfluous that might impede a rapid march.
His advice was adopted. Twelve hundred men, selected out of all the
companies, and furnished with ten field-pieces, were to form the first
division, their provisions, and necessaries, to be carried on
pack-horses. The second division, with all the stores, munitions, and
heavy baggage, was to be brought on by Colonel Dunbar. The least
practicable part of the arrangement was with regard to the officers of
the advance. Washington had urged a retrenchment of their baggage and
camp equipage, that as many of their horses as possible might be used
as pack-horses. Here was the difficulty. Brought up, many of them, in
fashionable and luxurious life, or the loitering indulgence of country
quarters, they were so encumbered with what they considered
indispensable necessaries, that out of two hundred and twelve horses
generally appropriated to their use, not more than a dozen could be
spared by them for the public service.
During the halt at the Little Meadows, Captain Jack and his band of
forest rangers, whom Croghan had engaged at Governor Morris's
suggestion, made their appearance in the camp. The captain asked an
interview with the general, by whom, it would seem, he was not
expected. Braddock received him in his tent, in his usual stiff and
stately manner. The "Black Rifle" spoke of himself and his followers
as men inured to hardships, and accustomed to deal with Indians, who
preferred stealth and stratagem to open warfare. He requested his
company should be employed as a reconnoitring party, to beat up the
Indians in their lurking-places and ambuscades. Braddock, who had a
sovereign contempt for the chivalry of the woods, and despised their
boasted strategy, replied to the hero of the Pennsylvania settlements
in a manner to which he had not been accustomed. "There was time
enough," he said, "for making arrangements; and he had experienced
troops, on whom he could completely rely for all purposes." Captain
Jack withdrew, indignant at so haughty a reception, and informed his
leathern-clad followers of his rebuff. They forthwith shouldered their
rifles and turned their backs upon the camp.
On the 19th of June, Braddock's first division set out, with less than
thirty carriages, including those that transported ammunition for the
artillery, all strongly horsed. The Indians marched with the advanced
party. In the course of the day, Scarooyadi and his son being at a
small distance from the line of march, was surrounded and taken by
some French and Indians. His son escaped, and brought intelligence to
his warriors; they hastened to rescue or revenge him, but found him
tied to a tree. The French had been disposed to shoot him, but their
savage allies declared they would abandon them should they do so;
having some tie of friendship or kindred with the chieftain, who thus
rejoined the troops unharmed.
For several days Washington had suffered from fever, accompanied by
intense headache, and his illness increased in violence to such a
degree that he was unable to ride, and had to be conveyed for a part
of the time in a covered wagon. He was unable to bear the jolting of
the wagon, but it needed an interposition of the kindly-intended
authority of General Braddock to bring him to a halt at the great
crossings of the Youghiogeny. There the general assigned him a guard,
provided him with necessaries, and requested him to remain, under care
of his physician, Dr. Craik, until the arrival of Colonel Dunbar's
detachment, which was two days' march in the rear; giving him his word
of honor that he should, at all events, be enabled to rejoin the main
division before it reached the French fort.
[The march of the army, after leaving Washington, was excessively
slow. In the course of the first day, (June 24th) they came to a
deserted Indian camp, the trees about it being stripped and painted
with threats and scurrilous taunts written in the French language,
showing that white men were with the savages. On the next day, Indians
were seen hovering in the woods. In crossing a mountain the carriages
had to be lowered with the assistance of the sailors, by means of
tackle. On the 26th there was a laborious march of but four miles. In
the evening they came to a deserted camp, the fires of which were yet
burning. The march continued to be toilful and difficult. On one day
it did not exceed two miles, having to cut a passage over a mountain.
On July 4th they encamped at Thicketty Run. The general now supposed
himself to be within thirty miles of Fort Duquesne. Two Indians
consented to reconnoitre it. They returned on the 6th, having been
close to the fort. But few men were to be seen, and few tracks, if
any. Gist, who had also reconnoitred the fort, returned and
corroborated their story. He had, however, observed a smoke between
the camp and the fort, made probably by some scouting party.]
On the same day, during the march, three or four men, loitering in the
rear of the grenadiers, were killed and scalped. Several of the
grenadiers set off to take revenge. They came upon a party of Indians,
who held up boughs and grounded their arms--the concerted sign of
amity. Not perceiving or understanding it, the grenadiers fired upon
them and one fell. It proved to be the son of Scarooyadi. Aware too
late of their error, the grenadiers brought the body to the camp. The
conduct of Braddock was admirable on the occasion. He sent for the
father and the other Indians, and condoled with them on the lamentable
occurrence; making them the customary presents of expiation. But what
was more to the point, he caused the youth to be buried with the
honors of war; at his request the officers attended the funeral, and a
volley was fired over the grave. These soldier-like tributes of
respect to the deceased, and sympathy with the survivors, soothed the
feelings and gratified the pride of the father, and attached him more
firmly to the service.
We will return now to Washington in his sick encampment on the banks
of the Youghiogeny, where he was left repining at the departure of the
troops without him. He now considered himself sufficiently recovered
to rejoin the troops, and his only anxiety was that he should not be
able to do it in time for the great blow. He was rejoiced, therefore,
on the 3d of July, by the arrival of an advanced party of one hundred
men convoying provisions. Being still too weak to mount his horse, he
set off with the escort in a covered wagon; and after a most fatiguing
journey, over mountain and through forest, reached Braddock's camp on
the 8th of July. It was on the east side of the Monongahela, about two
miles from the river, and about fifteen miles from Fort Duquesne.
Washington was warmly received on his arrival, especially by his
fellow aides-de-camp, Morris and Orme. He was just in time, for the
attack upon Fort Duquesne was to be made on the following day. The
neighboring country had been reconnoitred to determine upon a plan of
attack. The fort stood on the same side of the Monongahela with the
camp, but there was a narrow pass between them of about two miles,
with the river on the left and a very high mountain on the right, and
in its present state quite impassable for carriages. The route
determined on was to cross the Monongahela by a ford immediately
opposite to the camp; proceed along the west bank of the river, for
about five miles, then recross by another ford to the eastern side,
and push on to the fort. The river at these fords was shallow, and the
banks were not steep.
According to the plan of arrangement, Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, with
the advance, was to cross the river before daybreak, march to the
second ford, and recrossing there, take post to secure the passage of
the main force. The advance was to be composed of two companies of
grenadiers, one hundred and sixty infantry, the independent company of
Captain Horatio Gates, and two six-pounders. Washington, who had
already seen enough of regular troops to doubt their infallibility in
wild bush-fighting, and who knew the dangerous nature of the ground
they were to traverse, ventured to suggest that the Virginia rangers,
being accustomed to the country and to Indian warfare, might be thrown
in the advance. The proposition drew an angry reply from the general,
indignant, very probably, that a young provincial officer should
presume to school a veteran like himself.
Early next morning (July 9th), before daylight, Colonel Gage crossed
with the advance. He was followed, at some distance, by Sir John St.
Clair, with a working party of two hundred and fifty men, to make
roads for the artillery and baggage. They had with them their wagons
of tools, and two six-pounders. By sunrise, the main body turned out
in full uniform. All looked as if arrayed for a fête, rather than a
battle. As it was supposed the enemy would be on the watch for the
crossing of the troops, it had been agreed that they should do it in
the greatest order, with bayonets fixed, colors flying, and drums and
fifes beating and playing. They accordingly made a gallant appearance
as they forded the Monongahela and wound along its banks and through
the open forests. About noon they reached the second ford. Gage, with
the advance, was on the opposite side of the Monongahela, posted
according to orders; but the river bank had not been sufficiently
sloped. The artillery and baggage drew up along the beach and halted
until one, when the second crossing took place. When all had passed,
there was again a halt close by a small stream called Frazier's Run,
until the general arranged the order of march.
First went the advance, under Gage, preceded by the engineers and
guides, and six light horsemen. Then, Sir John St. Clair and the
working party, with their wagons and the two six-pounders. On each
side were thrown out four flanking parties. Then, at some distance,
the general was to follow with the main body, the artillery and
baggage preceded and flanked by light horse and squads of infantry;
while the Virginian, and other provincial troops, were to form the
rear guard.
The ground before them was level until about half a mile from the
river, where a rising ground, covered with long grass, low bushes, and
scattered trees, sloped gently up to a range of hills. The whole
country, generally speaking, was a forest, with no clear opening but
the road, which was about twelve feet wide, and flanked by two
ravines, concealed by trees and thickets. Had Braddock been schooled
in the warfare of the woods, he would have thrown out Indian scouts or
Virginia rangers in the advance, and on the flanks, to beat up the
woods and ravines; but he suffered his troops to march forward through
the centre of the plain, with merely their usual guides and flanking
parties.
It was now near two o'clock. The advanced party and the working party
had crossed the plain and were ascending the rising ground. Braddock
was about to follow with the main body and had given the word to
march, when he heard an excessively quick and heavy firing in front.
Washington, who was with the general, surmised that the evil he had
apprehended had come to pass. For want of scouting parties ahead, the
advance parties were suddenly and warmly attacked. Braddock ordered
Lieutenant-Colonel Burton to hasten to their assistance with the
vanguard of the main body, eight hundred strong. The residue, four
hundred, were halted, and posted to protect the artillery and baggage.
The firing continued, with fearful yelling. There was a terrible
uproar. By the general's orders an aide-de-camp spurred forward to
bring him an account of the nature of the attack. Without waiting for
his return the general himself, finding the turmoil increase, moved
forward, leaving Sir Peter Halket with the command of the baggage.
The van of the advance had indeed been taken by surprise. It was
composed of two companies of carpenters or pioneers to cut the road,
and two flank companies of grenadiers to protect them. Suddenly the
engineer who preceded them to mark out the road gave the alarm,
"French and Indians!" A body of them was approaching rapidly. There
was sharp firing on both sides at first. Several of the enemy fell;
among them their leader; but a murderous fire broke out from among
trees and a ravine on the right, and the woods resounded with
unearthly whoops and yellings. The Indian rifle was at work, levelled
by unseen hands. Most of the grenadiers and many of the pioneers were
shot down. The survivors were driven in on the advance.
Gage ordered his men to fix bayonets and form in order of battle. They
did so in hurry and trepidation. He would have scaled a hill on the
right, whence there was the severest firing. Not a platoon would quit
the line of march. They were more dismayed by the yells than by the
rifles of the unseen savages. The latter extended themselves along the
hill and in the ravines; but their whereabouts was only known by their
demoniac cries and the puffs of smoke from their rifles. The soldiers
fired wherever they saw the smoke. The officers tried in vain to
restrain them until they should see their foe. All orders were
unheeded; in their fright they shot at random, killing some of their
own flanking parties, and of the vanguard, as they came running in.
The covert fire grew more intense. In a short time most of the
officers and many of the men of the advance were killed or wounded.
Colonel Gage himself received a wound. The advance fell back in dismay
upon Sir John St. Clair's corps, which was equally dismayed. The
cannon belonging to it were deserted.
Colonel Burton had come up with the reinforcement, and was forming his
men to face the rising ground on the right, when both of the advanced
detachments fell back upon him, and all now was confusion. By this
time the general was upon the ground. He tried to rally the men. The
colors were advanced in different places to separate the men of the
two regiments. The general ordered the officers to form the men, tell
them off into small divisions, and advance with them; but the soldiers
could not be prevailed upon either by threats or entreaties. The
Virginia troops, accustomed to the Indian mode of fighting, scattered
themselves, and took post behind trees, whence they could pick off the
lurking foe. In this way they, in some degree, protected the regulars.
Washington advised General Braddock to adopt the same plan with the
regulars; but he persisted in forming them into platoons; consequently
they were cut down from behind logs and trees as fast as they could
advance. Several attempted to take to the trees, without orders, but
the general stormed at them, called them cowards, and even struck them
with the flat of his sword. Several of the Virginians, who had taken
post and were doing good service in this manner, were slain by the
fire of the regulars, directed wherever a smoke appeared among the
trees.
The officers behaved with consummate bravery; and Washington beheld
with admiration those who, in camp or on the march, had appeared to
him to have an almost effeminate regard for personal ease and
convenience, now exposing themselves to imminent death, with a courage
that kindled with the thickening horrors. In the vain hope of
inspiriting the men to drive off the enemy from the flanks and regain
the cannon, they would dash forward singly or in groups. They were
invariably shot down; for the Indians aimed at every one who appeared
to have command. Some were killed by random shot of their own men,
who, crowded in masses, fired with affrighted rapidity, but without
aim. Soldiers in the front ranks were killed by those in the rear.
Between friend and foe, the slaughter of the officers was terrible.
Throughout this disastrous day, Washington distinguished himself by
his courage and presence of mind. His brother aids, Orme and Morris,
were wounded and disabled early in the action, and the whole duty of
carrying the orders of the general devolved on him. His danger was
imminent and incessant. He was in every part of the field, a
conspicuous mark for the murderous rifle. Two horses were shot under
him. Four bullets passed through his coat. His escape without a wound
was almost miraculous. At one time he was sent to the main body to
bring the artillery into action. All there was likewise in confusion;
for the Indians had extended themselves along the ravine so as to
flank the reserve and carry slaughter into the ranks. Sir Peter Halket
had been shot down at the head of his regiment. The men who should
have served the guns were paralyzed. Had they raked the ravines with
grapeshot the day might have been saved. In his ardor, Washington
sprang from his horse, wheeled and pointed a brass field-piece with
his own hand, and directed an effective discharge into the woods; but
neither his efforts nor example were of avail. The men could not be
kept to the guns.
Braddock still remained in the centre of the field, in the desperate
hope of retrieving the fortunes of the day. His secretary, Shirley,
had fallen by his side. Five horses had been killed under him; still
he kept his ground, vainly endeavoring to check the flight of his men,
or at least to effect their retreat in good order. At length a bullet
passed through his right arm, and lodged itself in his lungs. He fell
from his horse, but was caught by Captain Stewart, of the Virginia
guards, who, with the assistance of another American and a servant,
placed him in a tumbril. It was with much difficulty they got him out
of the field--in his despair he desired to be left there.
The rout now became complete. Baggage, stores, artillery, everything
was abandoned. The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and
fled. The officers were swept off with the men in this headlong
flight. It was rendered more precipitate by the shouts and yells of
the savages, numbers of whom rushed forth from their coverts and
pursued the fugitives to the river side. Fortunately for the latter,
the victors gave up the pursuit in their eagerness to collect the
spoil. The shattered army continued its flight after it had crossed
the Monongahela, a wretched wreck of the brilliant little force that
had recently gleamed along its banks, confident of victory. Out of
eighty-six officers, twenty-six had been killed, and thirty-six
wounded. The number of rank and file killed and wounded was upwards of
seven hundred.
About a hundred men were brought to a halt about a quarter of a mile
from the ford of the river. Here was Braddock, with his wounded
aides-de-camp and some of his officers. Braddock was still able to
give orders, and had a faint hope of being able to keep possession of
the ground until reinforced. Most of the men were stationed in a very
advantageous spot about two hundred yards from the road; and
Lieutenant-Colonel Burton posted out small parties and sentinels.
Before an hour had elapsed most of the men had stolen off. Being thus
deserted, Braddock and his officers continued their retreat; he would
have mounted his horse but was unable, and had to be carried by
soldiers. Orme and Morris were placed on litters borne by horses. They
were subsequently joined by Colonel Gage with eighty men whom he had
rallied.
Washington, in the meantime, notwithstanding his weak state, being
found most efficient in frontier service, was sent to Colonel Dunbar's
camp, forty miles distant, with orders for him to hurry forward
provisions, hospital stores, and wagons for the wounded, under the
escort of two grenadier companies. It was a hard and a melancholy ride
throughout the night and the following day. The tidings of the defeat
preceded him, borne by the wagoners who had mounted their horses, on
Braddock's fall, and fled from the field of battle.
Washington arrived at the camp in the evening. The orders which he
brought were executed during the night and he was in the saddle early
in the morning accompanying the convoy of supplies. At Gist's
plantation, about thirteen miles off, he met Gage and his scanty force
escorting Braddock and his wounded officers. Captain Stewart, and a
sad remnant of the Virginia light horse, still accompanied the general
as his guard. The Captain had been unremitting in his attentions to
him during the retreat. There was a halt of one day at Dunbar's camp
for the repose and relief of the wounded. On the 13th they resumed
their melancholy march, and that night reached the Great Meadows.
The proud spirit of Braddock was broken by his defeat. He remained
silent the first evening after the battle, only ejaculating at night,
"Who would have thought it!" He was equally silent the following day;
yet hope still seemed to linger in his breast, from another
ejaculation: "We shall better know how to deal with them another
time!" He was grateful for the attentions paid to him by Captain
Stewart and Washington, and more than once, it is said, expressed his
admiration of the gallantry displayed by the Virginians in the action.
He died on the night of the 13th, at the Great Meadows, the place of
Washington's discomfiture in the previous year. His obsequies were
performed before break of day. The chaplain having been wounded,
Washington read the funeral service.
Reproach spared him not, even when in his grave. The failure of the
expedition was attributed both in England and America to his
obstinacy, his technical pedantry, and his military conceit. He had
been continually warned to be on his guard against ambush and
surprise, but without avail. Had he taken the advice urged on him by
Washington and others, to employ scouting parties of Indians and
rangers, he would never have been so signally surprised and defeated.
Still his dauntless conduct on the field of battle shows him to have
been a man of fearless spirit; and he was universally allowed to be an
accomplished disciplinarian.
The obsequies of the unfortunate Braddock being finished, the escort
continued its retreat with the sick and wounded. On the 17th, the sad
cavalcade reached the fort, and were relieved from the incessant
apprehension of pursuit. Here, too, flying reports had preceded them,
brought by fugitives from the battle, who, with the disposition usual
in such cases to exaggerate, had represented the whole army as
massacred. Dunbar arrived shortly afterward with the remainder of the
army.
The true reason why the enemy did not pursue the retreating army was
not known until some time afterwards, and added to the disgrace of the
defeat. They were not the main force of the French, but a mere
detachment of 72 regulars, 146 Canadians, and 637 Indians--855 in all,
led by Captain de Beaujeu. De Contrecoeur, the commander of Fort
Duquesne, had received information, through his scouts, that the
English, three thousand strong, were within six leagues of his fort.
Despairing of making an effectual defence against such a superior
force, he was balancing in his mind whether to abandon his fort
without awaiting their arrival, or to capitulate on honorable terms.
In this dilemma, Beaujeu prevailed on him to let him sally forth with
a detachment to form an ambush and give check to the enemy. De Beaujeu
was to have taken post at the river, and disputed the passage at the
ford. For that purpose he was hurrying forward when discovered by the
pioneers of Gage's advance party. He was a gallant officer, and fell
at the beginning of the fight. The whole number of killed and wounded
of French and Indians did not exceed seventy.
The affair of Braddock remains a memorable event in American history,
and has been characterized as "the most extraordinary victory ever
obtained, and the farthest flight ever made." It struck a fatal blow
to the deference for British prowess, which once amounted almost to
bigotry, throughout the provinces.
CHAPTER IX.
WASHINGTON IN COMMAND.--PANICS ON THE FRONTIER.
Washington arrived at Mount Vernon on the 26th of July, still in
feeble condition from his long illness. His campaigning, thus far, had
trenched upon his private fortune, and impaired one of the best of
constitutions. His connection with the army ceased at the death of
Braddock, but his military duties continued as adjutant-general of the
northern division of the province, and he immediately issued orders
for the county lieutenants to hold the militia in readiness for parade
and exercise, foreseeing that, in the present defenceless state of the
frontier, there would be need of their services.
Tidings of the rout and retreat of the army had circulated far and
near, and spread consternation throughout the country. Immediate
incursions both of French and Indians were apprehended; and volunteer
companies began to form, for the purpose of marching across the
mountains to the scene of danger.
On the 4th of August, Governor Dinwiddie convened the Assembly to
devise measures for the public safety. The sense of danger had
quickened the slow patriotism of the burgesses; they no longer held
back supplies; forty thousand pounds were promptly voted, and orders
issued for the raising of a regiment of one thousand men.
Washington's friends urged him to present himself at Williamsburg as a
candidate for the command; they were confident of his success,
notwithstanding that strong interest was making for the governor's
favorite, Colonel Innes. With mingled modesty and pride, Washington
declined to be a solicitor. The only terms, he said, on which he would
accept a command were a certainty as to rank and emoluments, a right
to appoint his field officers, and the supply of a sufficient military
chest; but to solicit the command, and, at the same time, to make
stipulations, would be a little incongruous, and carry with it the
face of self-sufficiency.
While this was in agitation, he received letters from his mother,
again imploring him not to risk himself in these frontier wars. His
answer was characteristic: "Honored Madam--If it is in my power to
avoid going to the Ohio again, I shall; but if the command is pressed
upon me by the general voice of the country, and offered upon such
terms as cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor on me
to refuse it; and that, I am sure, must, and ought, to give you
greater uneasiness than my going in an honorable command. Upon no
other terms will I accept it."
On the very day that this letter was despatched (Aug. 14), he received
intelligence of his appointment to the command on the terms specified
in his letters to his friends. His commission nominated him
commander-in-chief of all the forces raised, or to be raised in the
colony. The Assembly also voted three hundred pounds to him, and
proportionate sums to the other officers and to the privates of the
Virginia companies, in consideration of their gallant conduct and
their losses in the late battle. The officers next in command under
him were Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Stephens and Major Andrew Lewis.
The appointment of Washington to his present station was the more
gratifying and honorable from being a popular one, made in deference
to public sentiment; to which Governor Dinwiddie was obliged to
sacrifice his strong inclination in favor of Colonel Innes. It is
thought that the governor never afterwards regarded Washington with a
friendly eye. His conduct towards him subsequently was on various
occasions cold and ungracious.
Having held a conference with Governor Dinwiddie at Williamsburg, and
received his instructions, Washington repaired on the 14th of
September to Winchester, where he fixed his head-quarters. It was a
place as yet of trifling magnitude, but important from its position;
being a central point where the main roads met, leading from north to
south and east to west, and commanding the channels of traffic and
communication between some of the most important colonies and a great
extent of frontier.
Here he was brought into frequent and cordial communication with his
old friend, Lord Fairfax. The stir of war had revived a spark of that
military fire which animated the veteran nobleman in the days of his
youth, when an officer in the cavalry regiment of the Blues. He was
lord-lieutenant of the county. Greenway Court was his head-quarters.
He had organized a troop of horse, which occasionally was exercised
about the lawn of his domain, and he was now as prompt to mount his
steed for a cavalry parade as he ever was for a fox-chase.
His services were soon put in requisition. Washington, having visited
the frontier posts, established recruiting places and taken other
measures of security, had set off for Williamsburg on military
business, when an express arrived at Winchester from Colonel Stephens,
who commanded at Fort Cumberland, giving the alarm that a body of
Indians were ravaging the country, burning the houses and slaughtering
the inhabitants. The express was instantly forwarded after Washington;
in the meantime, Lord Fairfax sent out orders for the militia of
Fairfax and Prince William counties to arm and hasten to the defence
of Winchester, where all was confusion and affright. One fearful
account followed another. The whole country beyond it was said to be
at the mercy of the savages. They had blockaded the rangers in the
little fortresses or outposts provided for the protection of
neighborhoods. They were advancing upon Winchester with fire, tomahawk
and scalping-knife. The country people were flocking into the town for
safety--the townspeople were moving off to the settlements beyond the
Blue Ridge. The beautiful valley of the Shenandoah was likely to
become a scene of savage desolation.
In the height of the confusion, Washington rode into the town. He had
been overtaken by Colonel Stephens' express. His presence inspired
some degree of confidence, and he succeeded in stopping most of the
fugitives.
Expresses were sent off to hurry up the militia ordered out by Lord
Fairfax. Scouts were ordered out to discover the number of the foe,
and convey assurances of succor to the rangers said to be blocked up
in the fortresses, though Washington suspected the latter to be "more
encompassed by fear than by the enemy." Smiths were set to work to
furbish up and repair such firearms as were in the place, and wagons
were sent off for musket balls, flints, and provisions. Instead,
however, of animated co-operation, Washington was encountered by
difficulties at every step. The wagons in question had to be
impressed, and the wagoners compelled by force to assist. "No orders,"
writes he, "are obeyed, but such as a party of soldiers or my own
drawn sword enforces. Without this, not a single horse, for the most
earnest occasion, can be had."
In the meantime the panic and confusion increased. On Sunday an
express hurried into town, breathless with haste and terror. The
Indians, he said, were but twelve miles off; they had attacked the
house of Isaac Julian; the inhabitants were flying for their lives.
Washington immediately ordered the town guards to be strengthened;
armed some recruits who had just arrived, and sent out two scouts to
reconnoitre the enemy. It was a sleepless night in Winchester. Horror
increased with the dawn; before the men could be paraded, a second
express arrived, ten times more terrified than the former. The Indians
were within four miles of the town, killing and destroying all before
them. He had heard the constant firing of the savages and the shrieks
of their victims.
The terror of Winchester now passed all bounds. Washington put himself
at the head of about forty men, militia and recruits, and pushed for
the scene of carnage. The result is almost too ludicrous for record.
The whole cause of the alarm proved to be three drunken troopers,
carousing, hallooing, and ever and anon firing off their pistols.
Washington interrupted them in the midst of their revel and blasphemy
and conducted them prisoners to town. The alarm thus originating had
spread throughout the country. A captain, who arrived with recruits
from Alexandria, reported that he had found the road across the Blue
Ridge obstructed by crowds of people flying for their lives, whom he
endeavored in vain to stop. They declared that Winchester was in
flames!
At length the band of Indians, whose ravages had produced this
consternation throughout the land, and whose numbers did not exceed
one hundred and fifty, being satiated with carnage, conflagration and
plunder, retreated, bearing off spoils and captives. Intelligent
scouts sent out by Washington followed their traces, and brought back
certain intelligence that they had recrossed the Alleghany Mountains
and returned to their homes on the Ohio. This report allayed the
public panic and restored temporary quiet to the harassed frontier.
Most of the Indians engaged in these ravages were Delawares and
Shawnees, who, since Braddock's defeat, had been gained over by the
French. Scarooyadi, successor to the half-king, remained true to the
English, and vindicated his people to the governor and council of
Pennsylvania from the charge of having had any share in the late
massacres.
[Washington now learned the fate of the other enterprises included in
the plan of military operations. The defeat of Braddock paralyzed the
expedition against Niagara. The troops assembled at Albany were struck
with consternation, and deserted. By the end of August, Shirley was in
force at Oswego. But storms, sickness, and other impediments caused
the completion of the enterprise to be deferred until the following
year.
Gen. Wm. Johnson, it will be recollected, had the command of the
expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. A fort was erected
at the carrying-place on the Hudson, between that river and Lake
George, subsequently called Fort Edward. Part of the force were left
to garrison it; the main body advanced to Lake George. Meanwhile there
was great consternation in Canada. Three thousand troops, under Baron
de Dieskaw, had arrived at Quebec. Yielding to public importunities,
he advanced to Crown Point for its defence. His force was augmented by
eight hundred Canadians and seven hundred Indians, the latter under
command of the Chevalier St. Pierre.
In the meantime, Johnson remained encamped on the south end of Lake
George. On September 7th, news was received that the French had been
seen within four miles of the carrying-place. A detachment was sent to
intercept them, which was attacked and driven back. A panic seized
upon the camp as the French emerged from the forest in battle array,
led by Dieskaw. But the Canadians and Indians held back. The camp
recovered from its panic, artillery and musketry opened on the
assailants, whose fire began to slacken. Johnson's men and the Indians
leaped over the breastworks and a medley fight ensued, that ended in
the slaughter, rout, or capture of the enemy. Dieskaw was mortally
wounded; St. Pierre was slain in the attack on the detachment. The
baron had intended the surprise of Fort Edward, but the Indians and
Canadians refused to attack it, fearful of the cannon: he here changed
his plan therefor, and attempted to surprise the camp. Johnson, having
erected a stockaded fort, which received the name of William Henry,
garrisoned it, and returned to Albany. In reward for his services he
received five thousand pounds and a baronetcy.]
Mortifying experience had convinced Washington of the inefficiency of
the militia laws, and he now set about effecting a reformation.
Through his great and persevering efforts, an act was passed in the
Virginia Legislature giving prompt operation to court-martial;
punishing insubordination, mutiny and desertion with adequate
severity; strengthening the authority of a commander, so as to enable
him to enforce order and discipline among officers as well as
privates; and to avail himself, in time of emergency and for the
common safety, of the means and services of individuals. In
disciplining his men, they were instructed not merely in ordinary and
regular tactics, but in all the strategy of Indian warfare, and what
is called "bush-fighting"--a knowledge indispensable in the wild wars
of the wilderness. Stockaded forts, too, were constructed at various
points, as places of refuge and defence, in exposed neighborhoods.
His exertions, however, were impeded by one of those questions of
precedence which had so often annoyed him, arising from the difference
between crown and provincial commissions. Maryland, having by a scanty
appropriation raised a small militia force, stationed Captain
Dagworthy, with a company of thirty men, at Fort Cumberland, which
stood within the boundaries of that province. Dagworthy had served in
Canada in the preceding war, and had received a king's commission.
This he had since commuted for half-pay, and, of course, had virtually
parted with its privileges. He was nothing more, therefore, than a
Maryland provincial captain, at the head of thirty men. He now,
however, assumed to act under his royal commission, and refused to
obey the orders of any officer, however high his rank, who merely held
his commission from a governor. Nay, when Governor, or rather Colonel
Innes, who commanded at the fort, was called away to North Carolina by
his private affairs, the captain took upon himself the command and
insisted upon it as his right.
Parties instantly arose, and quarrels ensued among the inferior
officers; grave questions were agitated between the Governors of
Maryland and Virginia as to the fort itself; the former claiming it as
within his province, the latter insisting that, as it had been built
according to orders sent by the king, it was the king's fort, and
could not be subject to the authority of Maryland.
Washington refrained from mingling in this dispute; but intimated that
if the commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia must yield
precedence to a Maryland captain of thirty men, he should have to
resign his commission, as he had been compelled to do before, by a
question of military rank.
So difficult was it, however, to settle these disputes of precedence,
especially where the claims of two governors came in collision, that
it was determined to refer the matter to Major-general Shirley, who
had succeeded Braddock in the general command of the colonies. For
this purpose Washington was to go to Boston, obtain a decision from
Shirley of the point in dispute, and a general regulation by which
these difficulties could be prevented in future. It was thought, also,
that in a conference with the commander-in-chief he might inform
himself of the military measures in contemplation.
Accordingly, on the 4th of February (1756), leaving Colonel Adam
Stephens in command of the troops, Washington set out on his mission,
accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Captain George Mercer, of Virginia,
and Captain Stewart, of the Virginia light horse. The party travelled
in Virginia style, on horseback, attended by their black servants in
livery. In this way they accomplished a journey of five hundred miles
in the depth of winter; stopping for some days at Philadelphia and New
York. Those cities were then comparatively small, and the arrival of a
party of young Southern officers attracted attention. The late
disastrous battle was still the theme of every tongue, and the
honorable way in which these young officers had acquitted themselves
in it made them objects of universal interest. Washington's fame,
especially, had gone before him; having been spread by the officers
who had served with him and by the public honors decreed him by the
Virginia Legislature.
The mission to General Shirley was entirely successful as to the
question of rank. A written order from the commander-in-chief
determined that Dagworthy was entitled to the rank of a provincial
captain only, and of course, must on all occasions give precedence to
Colonel Washington as a provincial field officer. The latter was
disappointed, however, in the hope of getting himself and his officers
put upon the regular establishment, with commissions from the king,
and had to remain subjected to mortifying questions of rank and
etiquette when serving in company with regular troops.
From General Shirley he learnt that the main objects of the ensuing
campaign would be the reduction of Fort Niagara, so as to cut off the
communication between Canada and Louisiana, the capture of Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, as a measure of safety for New York, the besieging of
Fort Duquesne, and the menacing of Quebec by a body of troops which
were to advance by the Kennebec River.
The official career of General Shirley was drawing to a close. He was
recalled to England, and was to be superseded by General Abercrombie.
The general command in America, however, was to be held by the Earl of
Loudoun, who was invested with powers almost equal to those of a
viceroy, being placed above all the colonial governors. Beside his
general command he was to be governor of Virginia and colonel of a
royal American regiment of four battalions, to be raised in the
colonies, but furnished with officers who, like himself, had seen
foreign service. The campaign would open on his arrival, which it was
expected would be early in the spring; and brilliant results were
anticipated.
Washington remained ten days in Boston, receiving the most hospitable
attentions from the polite and intelligent society of the place, after
which he returned to New York. Tradition gives very different motives
from those of business for his sojourns in the latter city. He found
there an early friend and school-mate, Beverly Robinson, son of John
Robinson, speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was living
happily and prosperously with a young and wealthy bride, having
married one of the nieces and heiresses of Mr. Adolphus Philipse, a
rich landholder. At the house of Mr. Beverly Robinson, Washington met
Miss Mary Philipse, sister of Mrs. Robinson, a young lady whose
personal attractions are said to have rivalled her reputed wealth. A
life of constant activity and care, passed for the most part in the
wilderness and on the frontier, far from female society, had left
Washington little mood or leisure for the indulgence of the tender
sentiment; but made him more sensible, in the present brief interval
of gay and social life, to the attractions of an elegant woman,
brought up in the polite circle of New York. That he was an open
admirer of Miss Philipse is an historical fact; that he sought her
hand, but was refused, is traditional. The most probable version of
the story is, that he was called away by his public duties before he
had made sufficient approaches in his siege of the lady's heart to
warrant a summons to surrender. In the latter part of March we find
him at Williamsburg attending the opening of the Legislature of
Virginia, eager to promote measures for the protection of the frontier
and the capture of Fort Duquesne--the leading object of his ambition.
While thus engaged, he received a letter from a friend and confidant
in New York, warning him to hasten back to that city before it was too
late, as Captain Morris, who had been his fellow aide-de-camp under
Braddock, was laying close siege to Miss Philipse. Sterner alarms,
however, summoned him in another direction. Expresses from Winchester
brought word that the French had made another sortie from Fort
Duquesne, accompanied by a band of savages, and were spreading terror
and desolation through the country. In this moment of exigency all
softer claims were forgotten; Washington repaired in all haste to his
post at Winchester, and Captain Morris was left to urge his suit
unrivalled and carry off the prize.
Report had not exaggerated the troubles of the frontier. It was
marauded by merciless bands of savages, led, in some instances, by
Frenchmen. Travellers were murdered, farm houses burnt down, families
butchered, and even stockaded forts, or houses of refuge, attacked in
open day. The marauders had crossed the mountains and penetrated the
valley of the Shenandoah. Washington, on his arrival at Winchester,
found the inhabitants in great dismay. He resolved immediately to
organize a force, composed partly of troops from Fort Cumberland,
partly of militia from Winchester and its vicinity, to put himself at
its head, and "scour the woods and suspected places in all the
mountains and valleys of this part of the frontier, in quest of the
Indians and their more cruel associates."
He accordingly despatched an express to Fort Cumberland with orders
for a detachment from the garrison; "but how," said he, "are men to be
raised at Winchester, since orders are no longer regarded in the
county?" Lord Fairfax, and other militia officers with whom he
consulted, advised that each captain should call a private muster of
his men, and read before them an address, or "exhortation" as it was
called, being an appeal to their patriotism and fears, and a summons
to assemble on the 15th of April to enroll themselves for the
projected mountain foray. This measure was adopted; the private
musterings occurred; the exhortation was read; the time and place of
assemblage appointed; but, when the day of enrollment arrived, not
more than fifteen men appeared upon the ground. In the meantime the
express returned with sad accounts from Fort Cumberland. No troops
could be furnished from that quarter. The garrison was scarcely strong
enough for self-defence, having sent out detachments in different
directions.
Horrors accumulated at Winchester. Every hour brought its tale of
terror, true or false, of houses burnt, families massacred, or
beleaguered and famishing in stockaded forts. The danger approached. A
scouting party had been attacked in the Warm Spring Mountain, about
twenty miles distant, by a large body of French and Indians, mostly on
horseback. The captain of the scouting party and several of his men
had been slain, and the rest put to flight. An attack was apprehended,
and the terrors of the people rose to agony. They now turned to
Washington as their main hope. The women surrounded him, holding up
their children and imploring him with tears and cries to save them
from the savages. The youthful commander looked round on the suppliant
crowd with a countenance beaming with pity and a heart wrung with
anguish. A letter to Governor Dinwiddie drew from him an instant order
for a militia force from the upper counties to his assistance; but the
Virginia newspapers, in descanting on the frontier troubles, threw
discredit on the army and its officers, and attached blame to its
commander. Stung to the quick by this injustice, Washington publicly
declared that nothing but the imminent danger of the times prevented
him from instantly resigning a command from which he could never reap
either honor or benefit. His sensitiveness called forth strong letters
from his friends, assuring him of the high sense entertained at the
seat of government, and elsewhere, of his merits and services.
In fact, the situation and services of the youthful commander, shut up
in a frontier town, destitute of forces, surrounded by savage foes,
gallantly, though despairingly, devoting himself to the safety of a
suffering people, were properly understood throughout the country, and
excited a glow of enthusiasm in his favor. The Legislature, too, began
at length to act, but timidly and inefficiently. Its measure of relief
was an additional appropriation of twenty thousand pounds, and an
increase of the provincial force to fifteen hundred men. With this, it
was proposed to erect and garrison a chain of frontier forts,
extending through the ranges of the Alleghany Mountains, from the
Potomac to the borders of North Carolina; a distance of between three
and four hundred miles. This was one of the inconsiderate projects
devised by Governor Dinwiddie.
Washington, in letters to the governor and to the speaker of the House
of Burgesses, urged the impolicy of such a plan, with their actual
force and means. The forts, he observed, ought to be within fifteen or
eighteen miles of each other, that their spies might be able to keep
watch over the intervening country, otherwise the Indians would pass
between them unperceived, effect their ravages, and escape to the
mountains, swamps and ravines before the troops from the forts could
be assembled to pursue them. They ought each to be garrisoned with
eighty or a hundred men, so as to afford detachments of sufficient
strength, without leaving the garrison too weak. It was evident,
therefore, observed he, that to garrison properly such a line of forts
would require at least two thousand men. And even then, a line of such
extent might be broken through at one end before the other end could
yield assistance. His idea of a defensive plan was to build a strong
fort at Winchester, the central point, where all the main roads met of
a wide range of scattered settlements, where tidings could soonest be
collected from every quarter, and whence reinforcements and supplies
could most readily be forwarded. It was to be a grand deposit of
military stores, a residence for commanding officers, a place of
refuge for the women and children in time of alarm, when the men had
suddenly to take the field; in a word, it was to be the citadel of the
frontier. Beside this, he would have three or four large fortresses
erected at convenient distances upon the frontiers, with powerful
garrisons, so as to be able to throw out, in constant succession,
strong scouting parties to range the country. Fort Cumberland he
condemned as being out of the province and out of the track of Indian
incursions.
His representations with respect to military laws and regulations were
equally cogent. In the late act of the Assembly for raising a regiment
it was provided that, in cases of emergency, if recruits should not
offer in sufficient number, the militia might be drafted to supply the
deficiencies, but only to serve until December, and not to be marched
out of the province. In this case, said he, before they have entered
upon service, or got the least smattering of duty, they will claim a
discharge; if they are pursuing an enemy who has committed the most
unheard-of cruelties, he has only to step across the Potomac and he is
safe. Then as to the limits of service, they might just as easily have
been enlisted for seventeen months as seven.
Then as to punishments: death, it was true, had been decreed for
mutiny and desertion; but there was no punishment for cowardice; for
holding correspondence with the enemy; for quitting, or sleeping on
one's post; all capital offences, according to the military codes of
Europe. Neither were there provisions for quartering or billeting
soldiers, or impressing wagons and other conveyances, in times of
exigency. To crown all, no court-ma
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