The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 (of 5)
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Strong as was his attachment to a military life, Colonel Washington
possessed in too eminent a degree the proud and punctilious feelings
of a soldier, to submit to a degradation so humiliating as was
produced by his loss of rank. Professing his unabated inclination to
continue in the service, if permitted to do so without a sacrifice too
great to be made, he retired indignantly from the station assigned
him, and answered the various letters which he received, pressing him
still to hold his commission, with assurances that he would serve with
pleasure, when he should be enabled to do so without dishonour.
His eldest brother had lately died, and left him a considerable estate
on the Potowmac. This gentleman had served in the expedition against
Carthagena; and, in compliment to the admiral who commanded the fleet
engaged in that enterprise, had named his seat _Mount Vernon_! To this
delightful spot Colonel Washington withdrew, resolving to devote his
future attention to the avocations of private life. This resolution
was not long maintained.
{1755}
{March.}
General Braddock, being informed of his merit, his knowledge of the
country which was to be the theatre of action, and his motives for
retiring from the service, gratified his desire to make one campaign
under a person supposed to possess some knowledge of war, by inviting
him to enter his family as a volunteer aid-de-camp.
[Sidenote: Is appointed aid-de-camp to General Braddock.]
{April.}
{June.}
Having determined to accept this invitation, he joined the
commander-in-chief, immediately after his departure from Alexandria,
and proceeded with him to Wills' Creek. The army, consisting of two
European regiments and a few corps of provincials, was detained at
that place until the 12th of June, by the difficulty of procuring
wagons, horses, and provisions. Colonel Washington, impatient under
these delays, suggested the propriety of using pack-horses instead of
wagons, for conveying the baggage. The commander-in-chief, although
solicitous to hasten the expedition, was so attached to the usages of
regular war, that this salutary advice was at first rejected; but,
soon after the commencement of the march, its propriety became too
obvious to be longer neglected.
{Fifteenth.}
On the third day after the army had moved from its ground, Colonel
Washington was seized with a violent fever, which disabled him from
riding on horseback, and was conveyed in a covered wagon. General
Braddock, who found the difficulties of the march greater than had
been expected, continuing to consult him privately, he strenuously
urged that officer to leave his heavy artillery and baggage with the
rear division of the army; and with a chosen body of troops and some
pieces of light artillery, to press forward with the utmost expedition
to fort Du Quesne. In support of this advice, he stated that the
French were then weak on the Ohio, but hourly expected reinforcements.
During the excessive drought which prevailed at that time, these could
not arrive; because the river Le Boeuf, on which their supplies must
be brought to Venango, did not then afford a sufficient quantity of
water for the purpose. A rapid movement therefore might enable him to
carry the fort, before the arrival of the expected aid; but if this
measure should not be adopted, such were the delays attendant on the
march of the whole army, that rains sufficient to raise the waters
might reasonably be expected, and the whole force of the French would
probably be collected for their reception; a circumstance which would
render the success of the expedition doubtful.
This advice according well with the temper of the commander-in-chief,
it was determined in a council of war, held at the Little Meadows,
that twelve hundred select men, to be commanded by General Braddock in
person, should advance with the utmost expedition against fort Du
Quesne. Colonel Dunbar was to remain with the residue of the two
regiments, and all the heavy baggage.
{June 19.}
Although this select corps commenced its march with only thirty
carriages, including ammunition wagons, the hopes which had been
entertained of the celerity of its movements were not fulfilled. "I
found," said Colonel Washington, in a letter to his brother, written
during the march, "that instead of pushing on with vigour, without
regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every
mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook." By these means they
employed four days in reaching the great crossings of the Yohiogany,
only nineteen miles from the Little Meadows.
Colonel Washington was obliged to stop at that place;--the physician
having declared that his life would be endangered by continuing with
the army. He obeyed, with reluctance, the positive orders of the
general to remain at this camp, under the protection of a small guard,
until the arrival of Colonel Dunbar; having first received a promise
that means should be used to bring him up with the army before it
reached fort Du Quesne.
{July 8.}
The day before the action of the Monongahela he rejoined the general
in a covered wagon; and, though weak, entered on the duties of his
station.
In a short time after the action had commenced, Colonel Washington was
the only aid remaining alive, and unwounded. The whole duty of
carrying the orders of the commander-in-chief, in an engagement with
marksmen who selected officers, and especially those on horseback, for
their objects, devolved on him alone. Under these difficult
circumstances, he manifested that coolness, that self-possession, that
fearlessness of danger which ever distinguished him, and which are so
necessary to the character of a consummate soldier. Two horses were
killed under him, and four balls passed through his coat; but, to the
astonishment of all, he escaped unhurt,--while every other officer on
horseback was either killed or wounded. "I expected every moment,"
says an eye-witness,[5] "to see him fall. His duty and situation
exposed him to every danger. Nothing but the superintending care of
Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him."
[Footnote 5: Dr. Craik.]
[Sidenote: Defeat and death of that general.]
{August.}
At length, after an action of nearly three hours, General Braddock,
under whom three horses had been killed, received a mortal wound; and
his troops fled in great disorder. Every effort to rally them was
ineffectual until they had crossed the Monongahela, when, being no
longer pursued, they were again formed. The general was brought off in
a small tumbril by Colonel Washington, Captain Stewart of the guards,
and his servant. The defeated detachment retreated with the utmost
precipitation to the rear division of the army; soon after which,
Braddock expired. In the first moments of alarm, all the stores were
destroyed, except those necessary for immediate use; and not long
afterwards, Colonel Dunbar marched the remaining European troops to
Philadelphia, in order to place them in, what he termed, winter
quarters.
Colonel Washington was greatly disappointed and disgusted by the
conduct of the regular troops in this action. In his letter to
Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, giving an account of it, he said, "They
were struck with such an inconceivable panic, that nothing but
confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among them. The
officers in general behaved with incomparable bravery, for which they
greatly suffered; there being upwards of sixty killed and wounded--a
large proportion out of what we had.
"The Virginia companies behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for,
I believe, out of three companies on the ground that day, scarce
thirty men were left alive. Captain Peronny, and all his officers down
to a corporal, were killed. Captain Poulson had almost as hard a fate,
for only one of his escaped. In short, the dastardly behaviour of the
regular troops (so called,) exposed those who were inclined to do
their duty, to almost certain death; and, at length, in spite of every
effort to the contrary, they broke, and ran as sheep before hounds;
leaving the artillery, ammunition, provisions, baggage, and in short
every thing, a prey to the enemy; and when we endeavoured to rally
them, in hopes of regaining the ground, and what we had left upon it,
it was with as little success as if we had attempted to have stopped
the wild bears of the mountains, or the rivulets with our feet: for
they would break by, in spite of every effort to prevent it."[6]
[Footnote 6: In another letter, he says, "We have been
beaten, shamefully beaten--shamefully beaten by a handful of
men, who only intended to molest and disturb our march!
Victory was their smallest expectation! But see the wondrous
works of Providence, the uncertainty of human things! We,
but a few moments before, believed our numbers almost equal
to the force of Canada; they only expected to annoy us. Yet,
contrary to all expectation and human probability, and even
to the common course of things, we were totally defeated,
and have sustained the loss of every thing."]
[Illustration: Wakefield--the Birthplace of George Washington
_This is from an etching made in idealization of the original house,
situated on the banks of the Potomac, 38 miles from Fredericksburg, in
Westmoreland County, Virginia, where our First President was born,
February 22, 1732. The original house, which was built by Washington's
father, Augustine, was destroyed by fire more than 150 years ago,
before the Declaration of Independence was signed._]
{August.}
[Sidenote: Is appointed to the command of a regiment.]
Colonel Washington had long been the favourite soldier of Virginia;
and his reputation grew with every occasion for exertion. His conduct
in this battle had been universally extolled;[7] and the common
opinion of his countrymen was, that, had his advice been pursued, the
disaster had been avoided. The assembly was in session, when
intelligence was received of this defeat, and of the abandonment of
the colony by Colonel Dunbar. The legislature, perceiving the
necessity of levying troops for the defence of the province,
determined to raise a regiment, to consist of sixteen companies, the
command of which was offered to Colonel Washington; who was also
designated, in his commission, as the Commander-in-chief of all the
forces raised and to be raised in the colony of Virginia. The uncommon
privilege of naming his Field Officers was added to this honourable
manifestation of the public confidence.
[Footnote 7: In a sermon preached not long after the defeat
of General Braddock, the Rev. Mr. Davies, speaking of that
disaster, and of the preservation of Colonel Washington,
said: "I can not but hope that Providence has preserved that
youth to be the saviour of this country." These words were
afterwards considered as prophetic; and were applied by his
countrymen to an event very opposite to that which was
contemplated by the person who uttered them.]
Retaining still his prepossessions in favour of a military life, he
cheerfully embraced this opportunity of re-entering the army. After
making the necessary arrangements for the recruiting service, and
visiting the posts on the frontiers, which he placed in the best state
of defence of which they were susceptible; he set out for the seat of
government, where objects of the first importance required his
attention; but was overtaken below Fredericksburg by an express,
carrying the intelligence, that a large number of French and Indians,
divided into several parties, had broken up the frontier settlements;
were murdering and capturing men, women, and children; burning their
houses, and destroying their crops. The troops stationed among them
for their protection, were unequal to that duty; and, instead of being
able to afford aid to the inhabitants, were themselves blocked up in
their forts.
[Sidenote: Extreme distress of the frontiers and exertions of Colonel
Washington to augment the regular forces of the colony.]
Colonel Washington hastened back to Winchester, where the utmost
confusion and alarm prevailed. His efforts to raise the militia were
unavailing. Attentive only to individual security, and regardless of
the common danger, they could not be drawn from their families.
Instead of assembling in arms, and obtaining safety by meeting their
invaders, the inhabitants fled into the lower country, and increased
the general terror. In this state of things, he endeavoured to collect
and arm the men who had abandoned their houses, and to remove their
wives and children to a distance from this scene of desolation and
carnage. Pressing orders were at the same time despatched to the newly
appointed officers, to forward their recruits; and to the county
lieutenants, east of the Blue Ridge, to hasten their militia to
Winchester: but before these orders could be executed, the party which
had done so much mischief, and excited such alarm, had recrossed the
Alleghany mountains.
{1756}
{April.}
Early in the following spring, the enemy made another irruption into
the inhabited country, and did great mischief. The number of troops on
the regular establishment was totally insufficient for the protection
of the frontier, and effective service from the militia was found to
be unattainable. The Indians, who were divided into small parties,
concealed themselves with so much dexterity, as seldom to be perceived
until the blow was struck. Their murders were frequently committed in
the very neighbourhood of the forts; and the detachments from the
garrisons, employed in scouring the country, were generally eluded, or
attacked to advantage. In one of these skirmishes, the Americans were
routed, and Captain Mercer was killed. The people either abandoned the
country, or attempted to secure themselves in small stockade forts,
where they were in great distress for provisions, arms, and
ammunition; were often surrounded, and sometimes cut off. Colonel
Washington was deeply affected by this state of things. "I see their
situation," said he, in a letter to the Lieutenant Governor, "I know
their danger, and participate their sufferings, without having it in
my power to give them farther relief than uncertain promises. In
short, I see inevitable destruction in so clear a light, that unless
vigorous measures are taken by the assembly, and speedy assistance
sent from below, the poor inhabitants now in forts must unavoidably
fall, while the remainder are flying before the barbarous foe. In
fine, the melancholy situation of the people; the little prospect of
assistance; the gross and scandalous abuses cast upon the officers in
general, which is reflecting upon me in particular for suffering
misconduct of such extraordinary kind; and the distant prospect, if
any, of gaining reputation in the service, cause me to lament the hour
that gave me a commission, and would induce me, at any other time than
this of imminent danger, to resign, without one hesitating moment, a
command from which I never expect to reap either honour or benefit;
but, on the contrary, have almost an absolute certainty of incurring
displeasure below, while the murder of helpless families may be laid
to my account here."
Colonel Washington had been prevented from taking post at fort
Cumberland by an unfortunate and extraordinary difficulty, growing out
of an obscurity in the royal orders, respecting the relative rank of
officers commissioned by the king, and those commissioned by the
governor. A Captain Dagworthy, who was at that place, and of the
former description, insisted on taking the command, although it had
been committed to Lieutenant Colonel Stevens; and, on the same
principle, he contested the rank of Colonel Washington also. This
circumstance had retained that officer at Winchester, where public
stores to a considerable amount were deposited, with only about fifty
men to guard them. In the deep distress of the moment, a council of
war was called, to determine whether he should march this small body
to some of the nearest forts, and, uniting with their petty garrisons,
risk an action; or wait until the militia could be raised. The council
unanimously advised a continuance at Winchester. Lord Fairfax, who
commanded the militia of that and the adjacent counties, had ordered
them to his assistance; but they were slow in assembling. The
unremitting exertion of three days, in the county of Frederick, could
produce only twenty men.
The incompetency of the military force to the defence of the country
having become obvious, the assembly determined to augment the regiment
to fifteen hundred men. In a letter addressed to the house of
burgesses, Colonel Washington urged the necessity of increasing it
still farther, to two thousand men; a less number than which could not
possibly, in his opinion, be sufficient to cover the extensive
frontier of Virginia, should the defensive system be continued. In
support of this demand, he stated, in detail, the forts which must be
garrisoned; and observed, that, with the exception of a few
inhabitants in forts on the south branch of the Potowmac, the north
mountain near Winchester had become the frontier; and that, without
effectual aid, the inhabitants would even pass the Blue Ridge. He
farther observed that the woods seemed "alive with French and
Indians;" and again described so feelingly the situation of the
inhabitants, that the assembly requested the governor to order half
the militia of the adjoining counties to their relief; and the
attorney general, Mr. Peyton Randolph, formed a company of one hundred
gentlemen, who engaged to make the campaign, as volunteers. Ten well
trained woodsmen, or Indians, would have rendered more service.
The distress of the country increased. As had been foreseen,
Winchester became almost the only settlement west of the Blue Ridge,
on the northern frontier; and fears were entertained that the enemy
would soon pass even that barrier, and ravage the country below.
Express after express was sent to hasten the militia, but sent in
vain. At length, about the last of April, the French and their savage
allies, laden with plunder, prisoners, and scalps, returned to fort Du
Quesne.
Some short time after their retreat, the militia appeared. This
temporary increase of strength was employed in searching the country
for small parties of Indians, who lingered behind the main body, and
in making dispositions to repel another invasion. A fort was commenced
at Winchester, which, in honour of the general who had been appointed
to the command of the British troops in America, was called fort
Loudoun; and the perpetual remonstrances of Colonel Washington at
length effected some improvement in the laws for the government of the
troops.
Instead of adopting, in the first instance, that military code which
experience had matured, the assembly passed occasional acts to remedy
particular evils as they occurred; in consequence of which, a state of
insubordination was protracted, and the difficulties of the commanding
officer increased. Slight penalties were at first annexed to serious
military offences; and when an act was obtained to punish mutiny and
desertion with death, such crimes as cowardice in action, and sleeping
on a post, were pretermitted. It was left impossible to hold a general
court martial, without an order from the governor; and the commanding
officer was not at liberty to make those arrangements in other
respects which his own observation suggested, but shackled by the
control of others, who could neither judge so correctly, nor be so
well informed, as himself.
These errors of a government unused to war, though continually
remarked by the officer commanding the troops, were slowly perceived
by those in power, and were never entirely corrected.
Successive incursions continued to be made into the country by small
predatory parties of French and Indians, who kept up a perpetual
alarm, and murdered the defenceless, wherever found. In Pennsylvania,
the inhabitants were driven as far as Carlisle; and in Maryland,
Fredericktown, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, became a
frontier. With the Virginia regiment, which did not yet amount to one
thousand men, aided occasionally by militia, Colonel Washington was to
defend a frontier of near four hundred miles in extent, and to
complete a chain of forts. He repeatedly urged the necessity and
propriety of abandoning fort Cumberland, which was too far in advance
of the settlements, and too far north, to be useful, while it required
for its defence a larger portion of his force than could be spared
with a proper regard to the safety of other and more advantageous
positions. The governor, however, thought the abandonment of it
improper, since it was a "_king's fort_;" and Lord Loudoun, on being
consulted, gave the same opinion.
Among the subjects of extreme chagrin to the commander of the Virginia
troops, was the practice of desertion. The prevalence of this crime
was ascribed, in a considerable degree, to the ill-judged parsimony of
the assembly. The daily pay of a soldier was only eight pence, out of
which two pence were stopped for his clothes. This pay was inferior to
what was received in every other part of the continent; and, as ought
to have been foreseen, great discontents were excited by a distinction
so invidious. The remonstrances of the commanding officer, in some
degree, corrected this mischief; and a full suit of regimentals was
allowed to each soldier, without deducting its price from his pay.
This campaign furnishes no event which can interest the reader; yet
the duties of the officer, though minute, were arduous; and the
sufferings of the people, beyond measure afflicting. It adds one to
the many proofs which have been afforded, of the miseries to be
expected by those who defer preparing the means of defence, until the
moment when they ought to be used; and then, rely almost entirely, on
a force neither adequate to the danger, nor of equal continuance.
It is an interesting fact to those who know the present situation of
Virginia, that, so late as the year 1756, the Blue Ridge was the
northwestern frontier; and that she found immense difficulty in
completing a single regiment to protect the inhabitants from the
horrors of the scalping knife, and the still greater horrors of being
led into captivity by savages who added terrors to death by the manner
of inflicting it.
As soon as the main body of the enemy had withdrawn from the
settlements, a tour was made by Colonel Washington to the
south-western frontier. There, as well as to the north, continued
incursions had been made; and there too, the principal defence of the
country was entrusted to an ill-regulated militia. The fatal
consequences of this system are thus stated by him, in a letter to the
lieutenant governor: "The inhabitants are so sensible of their danger,
if left to the protection of these people, that not a man will stay at
his place. This I have from their own mouths, and the principal
inhabitants of Augusta county. The militia are under such bad order
and discipline, that they will come and go, when and where they
please, without regarding time, their officers, or the safety of the
inhabitants, but consulting solely their own inclinations. There
should be, according to your honour's orders, one-third of the militia
of these parts on duty at a time; instead of that, scarce
one-thirtieth is out. They are to be relieved every month, and they
are a great part of that time marching to and from their stations; and
they will not wait one day longer than the limited time, whether
relieved or not, however urgent the necessity for their continuance
may be." Some instances of this, and of gross misbehaviour, were then
enumerated; after which, he pressed the necessity of increasing the
number of regulars to two thousand men.
After returning from this tour, to Winchester, he gave the Lieutenant
Governor, in curious detail, a statement of the situation in which he
found the country, urging, but urging in vain, arguments which will
always be suggested by experience, against relying chiefly on militia
for defence.
Sensible of the impracticability of defending such an extensive
frontier, Colonel Washington continued to press the policy of enabling
him to act on the offensive. The people of Virginia, he thought, could
be protected only by entering the country of the enemy; giving him
employment at home, and removing the source of all their calamities by
taking possession of fort Du Quesne.
"As defensive measures," he observed in a letter to the Lieutenant
Governor, "are evidently insufficient for the security and safety of
the country, I hope no arguments are necessary to evince the necessity
of altering them to a vigorous offensive war, in order to remove the
cause." But in the event, that the assembly should still indulge their
favourite scheme of protecting the inhabitants by forts along the
frontiers, he presented a plan, which, in its execution, would require
two thousand men--these were to be distributed in twenty-two forts,
extending from the river Mayo to the Potowmac, in a line of three
hundred and sixty miles. In a letter written about the same time to
the speaker of the assembly, he said, "The certainty of advantage, by
an offensive scheme of action, renders it, beyond any doubt,
preferable to our defensive measures. Our scattered force, so
separated and dispersed in weak parties, avails little to stop the
secret incursions of the savages. We can only perhaps put them to
flight, or frighten them to some other part of the country, which
answers not the end proposed. Whereas, had we strength enough to
invade their lands, we should restrain them from coming abroad, and
leaving their families exposed. We should then remove the principal
cause, and have stronger probability of success; we should be free
from the many alarms, mischiefs, and murders, that now attend us; we
should inspirit the hearts of our few Indian friends, and gain more
esteem with them. In short, could Pennsylvania and Maryland be induced
to join us in an expedition of this nature, and to petition his
Excellency Lord Loudoun for a small train of artillery, with some
engineers, we should then be able, in all human probability, to subdue
the terror of fort Du Quesne; retrieve our character with the Indians;
and restore peace to our unhappy frontiers."