History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 7

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

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1 The force of " five hundred French and eleven Indiaas," which De Villiers meations ia his journal as having been detached under com- mand of Mercier for this expedition, had been angmented by the large Indian force which De Villiers brought with him dowa the Allegheny to Fort du Quesne.

" It will be recollected that Capt. Lewis, with about seventy men, had beea seat forward on the 27th of June to attempt the opening of a rond from Gist's to Redstone, and that they were recalled on the 29th. It is probable that the French sconts had come upua some part of the work done by Lewis's party, northwest of Gist's, bat not the track between Gist's and the Great Meadows.

3 De Villiers' narrative of his march to Gist's is very different from the account given by Veech, who says, "Hearing that the objects of !

When day broke on the morning of the 3d of July the weather was still wet and gloomy, but De Villiers moved forward at once with the main body, scouting parties having been sent in advance the previous evening. The rain continued, and increased during the long hours of the march towards Fort Necessity, but the French column pressed on with energy, and with all possible speed, for, said De Villiers, "I fore- saw the necessity of preventing the enemy in their works." It also appears that he took the pains to ride away from the road into the woods, to make a flying visit to the rocky defile where Jumonville had lost his life five weeks before. "I stopped," he says, "at the place where my brother had been assassin- ated, and saw there yet some dead bodies," and then proceeds : "When I came within three-quarters of a leagne from the English fort I ordered my men to march in columns, every officer to his division, that I might the better dispose of them as necessity would require." His column was now within striking dis- tance of the fort, after a drenching and dreary march of seven hours from Gist's.

Meanwhile, at Fort Necessity, Washington had been apprised of the arrival of the French at Gist's on the 2d, and had been constantly on the alert during the night. Not long after sunrise on the 3d, some of the advance scouts of the French were seen, and one of Washington's men on picket was brought in wounded, but after this three or four hours passed without further demonstrations. In the middle of the forenoon word came by scouts that the enemy in strong foree was within two hours' march, and after- wards reports of their progress were brought in from time to time. Washington formed his forces in line of battle outside the defenses, awaiting the enemy's appearance, and hoping to induce him to attack in the open field. Finally, at a little before noon the French appeared in the edge of the woods towards

his pursuit were intrenching themselves at Gist's, M. de Villiers dis- encumbered himself of all his heavy stores at the Hangard, and leaving a sergeant and a few men to guard them and the periaguas, rushed on in the night, cheered by the hope that he was about to achieve a brilliant coup de main upon the young ' buckskin colonel.' Coming to the 'plan- tation' [Gist's] on the morning uf July 21, the gray dawn revealed tho rude, half-finished fort, which Washington had there begun to erect. This the French at once invested, and gave a general fire. There was no response; the prey had escaped ! Foiled and chagrined, De Villiers was about to retrace his steps, when up comes a half-starved deserter from the Great Meadows, and discloses to him the whereabouts und des- titute condition of Washington's forces."

But De Villiers says the deser tor was brought to him while he was on the march to Gist's, and from him he learned that the camp at that place had been abandoned by Washington, who had taken his cannon with him; that, having learned this, they went to the place and " searched it throughont," finding tools and utensils concealed there ; and finally that, instead of reaching Gist's place iu "the gray dawn" of the second of July, they arrived there so late in the day that the commander decided to go no farther, and made bis camp there for the night. As to the statement that the French, on coming to the stockade at Gist's, "at once invested it and gave a general fire," it is hardly to bo supposed that an officer of De Villiers' experience would have shown such headlong ini- pulsiveness as to pour a volley of mu-ketry against the inanimate logs when no living thing was in sight.

WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGN OF 1754 IN THE YOUGHIOGHENY VALLEY.

the northwest and began firing at long range, but did no execution. After a time, finding that the enemy manifested no disposition to make a general attack, Col. Washington withdrew his men within the defenses, the Carolinians occupying the rifle-pit trenches behind the low log parapet which formed the outer line (though they were afterwards driven out, not by the enemy's fire, but the torrents of rain that inundated the trenches in which they were posted). The French, finding their fire ineffectual from their distant position in the woods to the north- west,1 moved to the left, where, on the eastern and southeastern side of the fort, the forest-line was within fair musket-range of the work. From this new posi- tion they opened fire with more effect ; the battle be- came general, and continued through the remainder of the day. An account of the conflict at Fort Ne- cessity is thus given by Sparks :

" At eleven o'clock they [ the French ] approached the fort and began to fire, at the distance of six hun- dred yards, but without effect. Col. Washington had drawn up his men on the open and level ground out- side of the trenches, waiting for the attack, which he presumed would be made as soon as the enemy's forces emerged from the woods, and he ordered his men to reserve their fire till they should be near enough to do execution. The distant firing was sup- posed to be a stratagem to draw Washington's men into the woods, and thus take them at a disadvantage. He suspected the design, and maintained his post till he found the French did not incline to leave the woods and attack the fort by an assault, as he sup- posed they would, considering their superiority of numbers. He then drew his men back within the trenches, and gave them orders to fire according to their discretion, as suitable opportunities might pre- sent themselves. The French and Indians remained on the side of the rising ground which was nearest to the fort, and, sheltered by the trees, kept up a brisk fire of musketry, but never appeared in the open plain below.

" The rain fell heavily through the day, the trenches

were filled with water, and many of the arms of Col. Washington's men were out of order and used with difficulty. In this way the battle continued from eleven o'clock in the morning till eight at night, when the French called and requested a parley." Suspecting this to be a feint to procure the admission of an officer into the fort, that he might discover their condition, Col. Washington at first declined listening to the proposal ; but when the call was repeated, with the additional request that an officer might be sent to them, engaging at the same time their parole for his safety, he sent out Capt. Van Braam, the only person under his command that could speak French except the Chevalier de Peyronie, an ensign in the Virginia regiment, who was dangerously wounded and disabled from rendering any service on the occasion. Van Braam returned, and brought with him from M. de Villiers, the French commander, proposed articles of capitulation. These he read and pretended to inter- pret, and some changes having been made by mutual agreement, both parties signed them about mid- night."

It was a mortifying close to Washington's first cam- paign, and the scene must have been a most dismal one when he signed the capitulation at dead of night, amid torrents of rain, by the light of a solitary splut- tering candle,3 and with his dead and wounded men around him ; but there was no alternative, and he had the satisfaction at least of knowing that he had done his best, and that all his officers, with a single exception,4 had behaved with the greatest coolness and bravery.

The articles of capitulation were of course written in French. The following translation of them shows the terms granted to Washington, viz. :

" ARTICLE 1 .- We grant leave to the English commander to retire with all his garrison, and to return peaceably into his

1 De Villiers' account of the opening of the fight was as follows: " As we had no knowledge of the place, we presented our finnk to the furt when they began to fire upon us, and almost ut the same time I perceived the English on the right, in order of battle, and coming towards us. The Indians, as well as ourselves, set up a great cry, atid advanced towards them, but they did not give us time to fire npou tirem before they shel- tered themselves in an iutrenchment which was adjoining to their fort, after which we uimed to invest the fort, which was advantageonsly enough situated in a meadow within a musket-shot from the woods. We drew as near to them as possible that we might not expose his Majesty's subjects to no purpose. The fire was very brisk ou both sides, and I chose that place which seemed to me the most proper in case we should be exposed to a sally. We fired so briskly as to put out (if I may use the expression) the fire of their cannon with our musket-shot." But, concerning the first part of the above account by De Villiers, Washington afterwards wrote: " I cannot belp remarking on Villiers' account of the battle of and transaction at the Meadows, as it is very extraordinary, und not less erroneous than inconsistent. Hle says the French received the first fire. It is well known that ice received it at six hundred paces distance."

2 The account given by De Villiers of the closing scenes of the battle, and of the call for a parley, is as follows : "Towards six at night the fire of the enemy increased with more vigor than ever, and lasted until light. We briskly returned their fire. We took partienlar care to secure our posts to keep the English fast up in their fort all night ; and after hav- ing fixed ourselves in the best position we conld we let the English know that if they would speak to us we would stop firing. They accepted tho proposal; there came a captain to the place where I was. I sent M. le Mercier to receive him, and I went tu the Me.udlow, where I told him that As we were not nt war we were very willing to save them from the cruel- ties to which they exposed themselves ou account of the Indians; but if they were stubborn we would take away from them all hopes of es- caping ; that we consented to be favorable to them at present, As we were come only to revenge my brother's assassination, and to oblige them to quit the lands of the king my master. ... "

3 An officer who was present at the capitulation wrote: "When Mr. Van Branm returned with the French proposals we were obliged to take the sense of them from his mouth ; it rained so hard that he could not give us a written translation of them, and we could scarcely keep the candle lighted to read them by."

4 When, in the following August, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a vote of thanks to Washington and his officers " for their bravery and gallant defense of their country" at Fort Necessity, the names of all the officers were mentioned except that of the major of the regiment, who was charged with cowardice in the battle, and Capt. Van Brannt, who was believed to have acted a trencherous part in interpreting the articles of capitulation.

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

own country, and promise to hinder his receiving any insnit from ns French, and to restrain, as much as shall be in onr power, the Indians that are with ns.

"ARTICLE 2 .- It shall be permitted him to go out and carry with him all that belongs to them except the artillery, which we reserve.

" ARTICLE 3 .- That we will allow them the honors of war,- that they march out with drums heating and one swivel gun ; being willing thereby to convince them that we treat them as friends.

" ARTICLE 4 .- That as soon as the articles are signed by both parties the English colors shall be struck.

"ARTICLE 5 .- That to-morrow, at break of day, a detachment of French shall go and make the garrison file off, and take pos- session of the fort.

"ARTICLE 6 .- As the English have but few oxen or horses left, they are at liberty to hide their effects and to come again and search for them when they have a number of horses suf- ficient to carry them off, and that for this end they may have what guards they please, on condition that they give their word of honor to work no more on any buildings in this place, or any part on this side of the mountains.

"ARTICLE 7 .- And as the English bave in their power one officer, two cadets, and most of the prisoners made at the as- sassination of M. de Jumonville, and promise to send them back with a safe guard to Fort dn Quesne, situate on the Ohio, for surety of their performing this article, as well as this treaty, MM. Jacob Van Braam and Robert Stobo, both enptains, shall be delivered as hostages till the arrival of our French and Cana- dians above mentioned. We oblige ourselves, on our side. to give an escort to return these two officers in safety, and espeet to have our French in two months and a half at farthest."

The capitulation was signed by Washington, Mac- kay, and Villiers. The latter had cunningly caused the articles to be so worded that the English officers (who knew nothing of the French language) were made to sign an apparent acknowledgment that the killing of Jumonville1 was an act of assassination. It was suspected that Van Braam, the so-called inter- preter, knowingly connived at the deception, and this opinion was firmly held by Washington, who after- wards wrote in reference to it as follows : "That we were willfully or ignorantly deceived by our inter- preter in regard to the word assassination I do aver, and will to my dying moment, so will every officer that was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman, little acquainted with the English tongue, therefore might not advert to the tone and meaning of the word in English ; but whatever his motives were for so doing, certain it is he called it the death or the loss of the Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we understood it, until, to our great surprise and mortification, we found it otherwise in a literal trans- lation."

The numbers of the English forces engaged in the battle at the Great Meadows are not precisely known. The Virginia regiment went in three hundred strong, including officers, and their loss in the engagement was twelve killed and forty-three wounded." Capt.

Mackay's company numbered about one hundred, but its losses in killed and wounded were not of- ficially stated. On the French side, according to the statement of De Villiers, the losses were two French- man and one Indian killed, fifteen Frenchmen and two Indians seriously and a number of others slightly wounded.

On the 4th of July, at break of day, the troops of Washington filed out of the fort with drums beating and colors flying, and (without any transportation for their effects other than was afforded by the backs and shoulders of the men, and having no means of carry- ing their badly wounded except on improvised stretch- ers ) moved sadly away to commence their weary jour- ney of seventy miles over hills and streams to Wills' Creek.

I'pon the evacuation of the fort by Washington the French took possession, and immediately proceeded to demolish the work, while " M. le Mercier ordered the cannon of the English to be broken, as also the one granted by capitulation, they not being able to carry it away." The French commander very prudently ordered the destruction of some barrels of rum which were in the fort, to guard against the disorder and perhaps bloodshed which would probably have en- sued if the liquor had been allowed to fall into the hands of the Indians.

De Villiers felt no little anxiety lest the expected reinforcements to Washington should arrive, which might place him in an unpleasant position and re- verse the fortunes of the day. He therefore lost no time, and took his departure from the Great Meadows at as carly an hour as possible, and marched about two leagues before he encamped for the night. On the 5th, at about nine o'clock in the forenoon, he arrived at Gist's, where he demolished the stockade which Washington had partially erected there, "and after having detached M. de la Chauvignerie to burn the houses round about," continued on the route to- wards Redstone, to a point about three leagues north- west of Gist's, where his forces made their night bivouac. In the morning of the 6th they moved at an carly hour, and reached the mouth of Redstone at ten o'clock. There they " put their periaguas in order, vietualed the detachment, carried away the reserve of provisions which they had left there, found several things which the English had hidden," and then, after burning the " Hangard" store-house, embarked, and went down the Monongahela. In the passage down the river, says De Villiers, "we burned down all the settlements we found," and about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th of July they arrived at Fort du Quesne.

As to the manner of the departure of Washington's troops from the surrendered fort, De Villiers said, " The number of their dead and wounded moved me i to pity, notwithstanding my resentment for their

1 " We made the English," snid Villiers, "consent to sign that they land assassinated my brother in his camp.""

" By Washington's owy official statement.

BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION IN 1755.

having in such a manner taken away my brother's life. The savages, who in everything had adhered to my wishes, claimed the right of plunder, but I re- strained them ; however, the English being fright- ened fled, and left their tents and one of their colors." But Washington, commenting on these statements of De Villiers, said, in a letter written not long after- wards, "That we left our baggage and horses nt the Meadows is certain ; that there was not even a possi- bility to bring them away is equally certain, as we had every horse belonging to the camp killed or taken away during the action, so that it was impracticable to bring anything off that our shoulders were not able to bear, and to wait there was impossible, for we had searce three days' provisions, and were seventy miles from a supply, yet to say that we came off precipi- tately is absolutely false, notwithstanding they did, contrary to the articles, suffer their Indians to pillage our baggage1 and commit all kinds of irregularity. We were with them until ten o'clock the next day ; we destroyed our powder and other stores, nay, even our private baggage, to prevent its falling into their hands, as we could not bring it off. When we had got about a mile from the place of action we missed two or three of the wounded, and sent a party back to bring them up; this is the party he speaks of. We brought them all safe off, and encamped within three miles of the Meadows. These are circum- stances, I think, that make it evidently clear that we were not very apprehensive of danger. The colors he speaks of as left were a large flag of immense size and weight : our regimental colors were brought off, and are now in my possession." 2

From his camping-ground, three miles southeast of the demolished fort, the Virginia regiment, with Mackay's South Carolinians, moved forward in the morning of the 5th of July, and fording the Youghio- gheny at the Great Crossings, retraced their steps over the route previously traveled, and reached Wills' Creek after a slow and very toilsome journey. From that place Washington went to Alexandria, and the Virginia troops returned to their homes. Mackay's

Carolina company remained at Wills' Creek, and to- gether with two independent companies from New York,-all under command of Col. James Innes,- erected the fortification afterwards called " Fort Cum- berland." This was then the western outpost of Eng- lish power, and in all the country west of the moun- tains there was left no bar to French occupation and supremacy.

CHAPTER VI.

BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION IN 1755.

THE news of Washington's defeat, and the conse- quent domination of the French over the broad terri- tory west of the Alleghenies, was forwarded without delay to England, where it produced a general alarm and excitement, and roused the ministry to a deter- mination to retrieve the disaster and expel the French, at whatever cost, from the valleys of the Mononga- hela and Allegheny Rivers. In pursuance of this de- termination, it was decided to send out a military force, to marchi from the Potomae to the "Forks of the Ohio," there to wrest from the French, by force of arms, their most menacing possession,-Fort du Quesne.3

The expeditionary force, which was intended to be a very formidable one (for that early day), was to be composed of the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Royal Regiments of Foot,' commanded respectively by Col. Sir Peter Halket and Col. Thomas Dunbar, with some other troops to be raised in Virginia and other American provinces. The command of the expedi- tion was given to Major-General Edward Braddock, of the regular British army, who was also made commander-in-chief of all his Majesty's forces in America.

Gen. Braddock sailed from Cork, Ireland, on the 14th of January, with the two regular regiments, on board the fleet of Admiral Keppel, of the British navy. The fleet arrived in Hampton Roads on the 20th of February, and the general, with the admiral, disembarked there and proceeded to Williamsburg, Va., for conference with Governor Dinwiddie. There, also, the general met his quartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, who had preceded him to America, and had already visited Fort Cumberland to make the preliminary arrangements for the campaign. "Vir- ginia levies" had already been raised for the purpose of being incorporated with the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Regiments, and these levies had been ordered to Alexandria, whither, also, the fleet was ordered for disembarkation of the troops.

1 " We all know that the French nre a people that never pay any re- gard to trenties longer than they find them consistent with their interest, nud this trenty [the Fort Necessity capitulation articles] they broke im- mediately, by letting the Indians demolish and destroy everything our prople had, especially the Doctor's Box, that our wounded should meet with no relief."-Extract from a letter written by Col. James lunes to Gor. Hamilton, dated Winchester, July 12, 174.

" It appears that the Half King Tanacharison had a poor opinion of Washington's ability ns a military commander, aud freely expressed that opinion to the Indian agent and interpreter, Conrul Weiser, who reported it as follows :

"Tho colonel [Washington] was n good-natured man, but had no ex- perience. Ile took upon him to command the Indians ns his slaves, and would have them every day upon the scout, and to attack the enemy by themselves, but would by no means take advice from the Indians. Ile lay in one place from one full moon to the other, without making any fortifications except that littlo thing on the Meadow, whereas bad he taken novice and built anch fortifications as he [Tauncharison] advised him, he might easily have beat off the French. But the French in tho engagement," he said, "acted like cowards, and the English like fools."

3 There were, however, two other expeditions projected,-one against Niagara nud Frontenac, under Gen. Shirley, and another ngainst Crown Point, noder Gen. William Johnson ; but the principal one was that in- tended for the reduction of Fort du Quesne.

4 These regiments, however, were far from being full, numbering only about five hundred Dien each.

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Leaving Williamsburg, Gen. Braddock, Sir John Sinclair, and the admiral arrived on the 26th at Alex- andria, which place was the headquarters of the ex- pedition for nearly two months, during which time (on the 14th of April) a council was held there, com- posed of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Keppel, Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia, Gov. Shirley, of Mas- sachusetts, Gov. Delancey, of New York, Gov. Morris, of Pennsylvania, and Gov. Sharpe, of Maryland ; at which conference the plan of the campaign 1 was de- eided on, and arrangements made to facilitate the for- warding of the provincial troops destined for the ex- pedition.

Sir John Sinclair was dispatched from Alexandria soon after his arrival with orders to proceed to Win- chester, Va., and thence to Fort Cumberland, to com- plete all arrangements for the army's transportation. By lis advice Braddock adopted the plan of moving his force from Alexandria in two divisions, viz. : one regiment and a portion of the stores to proceed to Winchester, whence a new road was nearly completed to Fort Cumberland, and the other regiment, with the remainder of the stores and the artillery, to move to the fort (which had been designated as the general rendezvous) by way of Frederick, Md. Accordingly, on the 9th of April, Sir Peter Halket left Alexandria for the fort, by way of Winchester, with six com- panies of the Forty-fourth Regiment, leaving the other four companies behind under command of Lieut .- Col. Gage2 to escort the artillery. On the 18th Col. Dunbar, with the Forty-eighth, marched for Frederick, Md., and the commander-in-chief left Alexandria for the same place on the 20th, leaving Gage to follow with the artillery. When Dunbar arrived at Frederick he found that there was no road to Cumberland through Maryland,3 and accordingly, on the 1st of May, he recrossed the Potomac, struck the Winchester route, and nine days later was in the neighborhood of the fort. " At high noon on the 10th of May, while Halket's command was already eneamped at the common destination, the Forty- eighth was startled by the passage of Braddock and his staff through their ranks, with a body of light- horse galloping on each side of his traveling chariot, in haste *to reach Fort Cumberland. The troops saluted, the drums rolled out the Grenadiers' March, and the cortege passed by. An hour later they heard

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 7

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314