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

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

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

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

While the events already related were in progress, troops, intended for the occupation of the "Forks of the Ohio," were being raised and organized under the authority of Governor Dinwiddie, in Virginia, and the first detachment of these was sent forward under command of Lieut .- Col. George Washington, who, on the 31st of March, had received from the Governor a commission (dated March 15th) of that grade, in the Virginia regiment of which Col. Joshua Fry was the commanding officer, with orders to take the troops then quartered in Alexandria, and to march them to the Ohio, "there to help Capt. Trent to build forts, and to defend the possessions of his Majesty against the attempts and hostilities of the French."

The detachment thus ordered forward under Wash- ington consisted of two companies of infantry, com- manded respectively by Capt. Peter Hogg and Lieut. James Van Braam.1 Besides the commanding officer and the two company commandants, the force con- sisted of " five subalterns, two sergeants, six corporals, one drummer, and one hundred and twenty soldiers,

one surgeon,2 and one Swedish gentleman, who was a volunteer."

On Tuesday, the 2d of April, at noon, the force marched out of Alexandria with two wagons, and camped that night six miles from the town. From that time nothing of note occurred in fifteen days' marching, except that the detachment was joined by a small company under Capt. Stephen,3 bringing the total strength of the command up to about one hun- dred and fifty men.

Washington kept no regular journal on the expe- dition, but he made hasty notes of many occurrences ; which notes were captured by the French at the bat- tle of the Monongahela in 1755, and were by them preserved and published, though Washington said afterwards that they had distorted parts of them. One memorandum, dated April 19th, is to this effect : "Met an express who had letters from Capt. Trent, at the Ohio,4 demanding a reinforcement with all speed, as he hourly expected a body of eight hundred French.5 I tarried at Job Pearsall's for the arrival of the troops, where they came the next day. When I received the above express, I dispatched a courier to Col. Fry, to give him notice of it.

"The 20th .- Came down to Col. Cresap's [Old Town, Md.] to order the detachment, and on my route had notice that the fort was taken by the French. That news was confirmed by Mr. Ward, the ensign of Capt. Trent, who had been obliged to surrender to a body of one thousand French and upwards,6 under com- mand of Capt. Contrecœur, who was come down from Venango with sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes, and who, having planted eighteen pieces of cannon against the fort, afterwards had sent him a summons to depart."

Ensign Ward, as before mentioned, arrived at Wills' Creek on the 22d. Washington, on receiving Ward' account of the surrender of the fort to the French, convened a council of war at Wills' Creek to deter- mine on the proper course to be pursued in this exi- gency. The council was held on the 23d, and decided " that it would be proper to advance as far as Red-

was nearly completed, this Deponent, who commanded in the absence of Capt. Trent, was put to the necessity of surrendering the possession to a Superior number of Troops, commanded by a French Officer, who demanded it in the name of the King of France ; at which time the Half- King, and a number of the Six Nations in the English Interests were present. This deponent further saith that in the year 1752, and before his surrender to the French, there was a small Village, Inhabited by the Delawares, on the South East side of the Allegheny River, in the neigh- borhood of that place, and that old Kittanning, on the same side of the said River, was then Inhabited by the Delawares; that about one-third of the Shawanese Inhabited Loggs Town on the West Side of the Ohio, and tended Corn on the East Side of the River-and the other part of the nation lived on the Scioto River. That the Deputies of the Six Na- tions after the surrender Joined the Virginia Forces, Commanded by Colonel George Washington, who was then on his march at the Little Meadows, and continued with him in the service of Virginia till after the defeat of Monsieur La Force and a party of French Troops under his Command. And the deponent further saith that subsequent to the de- feat of Colo. Washington at the great Meadows, the Shawanese, Dela- wares, and many of the Western Tribes of Indians, and an inconsider- able number of Renegades of the Seneca Tribe, one of the Six Nations, joined the French, and Prosecuted a War against the Frontiers of the States of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, till the conclusion of the Peace with the Indians in the year 1759, but that he ever under- stood that the Body of the Six Nations continued the firm Friends of the English .... "

1 The same person who, in the preceding autumn, had accompanied Washington to Fort Le Bœuf as French interpreter.

2 Dr. James Craik, afterwards the family physician of Washington, and his intimate and life-long friend.

3 Afterwards Gen. Stephen, of the Revolutionary army, under Wash- I ington.

4 Capt. Trent appears to have attempted to conceal the fact that he had absented himself from his command at the Forks of the Ohio, leaving Ensign Ward in charge, an offonse for which he was severely censured by Governor Dinwiddie, who, on discovering it, proposed to have him court-martialed for it.

5 Reinforcements had gone on about that time from Canada to the French on the Allegheny. On the 27th of March the commanding officer at Oswego (Lieut. Holland) had sent notice that "an Indian from Cataraqui had seen a few days before four hundred French on their way to the Ohio, and understood that two hundred more were to follow." Information was also brought to Philadelphia by Conrad Weiser from the Ohio that the Six Nations had sent word of three columns of French passing Lake Ontario on their way to the Ohio, the first column having four hundred men, the second three hundred, and the third four hun- dred, and that more were to come.

G Ward overestimated the numbers of Contrecœur's force, as it was very natural that he should do under the circumstances.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

stone Creek, on Monongahela, about thirty-seven miles on this side of the fort, and there to raise a for. tification, clearing a road broad enough to pass with all our artillery and baggage, and there to wait for fresh orders." The reasons for this decision were, "First, That the mouth of Redstone is the first con . venient place on the river Monongahela. Second, That stores are already built at that place for the provisions of the company, wherein our ammunition may be laid up; our great guns may be also sent by water whenever we should think it convenient to attack the fort. Third, We may easily (having all these con- veniences) preserve our people from the ill conse- quences of inaction, and encourage the Indians, our allies, to remain in our interests." When the council had arrived at this decision, Ensign Ward was sent forward to acquaint Governor Dinwiddie with the facts as well as to make his own report, taking with him an interpreter, and one of the young Indians, while another Indian runner was sent to the Half- King, at the Ohio, to notify him of the projected ad- vance of the Virginians.1 " I thought it proper also," said Washington, "to acquaint the Governors of Maryland and Pennsylvania of the news."

After a few brief preparations Washington's forces moved out on the path leading to the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny, cutting out the road as they proceeded; so that it was not until the 9th of May that they reached the Little Crossings (Castleman's River). While they were at this place (May 11th) Washington sent out a reconnoitring party of twenty- five men, under command of Capt. Stephen and En- sign Peyronie, with orders to scout along the line of advance, as far as Gist's place, "to inquire where La Force2 and his party were ; and in case they were in ; themselves ;" and, also,, "to examine closely all the woods round about," and if any straggling French- man should be found away from the others, to capture, and bring him in to be examined for information. " We were exceedingly desirous," said Washington, " to know if there was any possibility of sending down anything by water, as also to find out some convenient place about the mouth of Redstone Creek, where we could build a fort."

letters informing him that Col. Fry was at Winchester with upwards of one hundred men, and would start in a few days to join the advance detachment; also that Col. Innis was on the way with three hundred and fifty Carolinians. On the 16th the column met two traders, who said they were fleeing for fear of the French, parties of whom had been seen near Gist's. These traders told Washington that they believed it to be impossible to clear a road over which wagons or artillery-pieces could be taken to the mouth of Red- stone Creek. On the 17th, Ensign Ward rejoined Washington, having come from Williamsburg, with a letter from the Governor, notifying him that Capt. Mackay, with an independent company of one hun- dred men, exclusive of officers, was on the way, and that he might expect them at any day. Two Indians came in from "the Ohio" the same evening, and re- ported that the French at Fort Du Quesne were ex- pecting reinforcements sufficient to make their total force sixteen hundred men. Washington reached the Youghiogheny on the 18th, and remained there five days. On the 24th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, his force arrived at the Great Meadows, in what is now Fayette County. In the morning of that day, when the column was a few miles southeast of the Meadows, two Indian runners came in from the Ohio with a message from the Half-King saying that " the French army" was already on the march from Fort Du Quesne to meet the advancing force of Washing- ton, and also notifying him that Tanacharison and the other chiefs would soon be with him to hold a council, as Washington had requested in the dispatch sent to him from Wills' Creek.

On the same afternoon that the troops arrived at the Great Meadows, a trader came in saying that he had the neighborhood, to cease pursuing, and take care of come from Gist's, where the evening before he had seen two Frenchmen; he also knew that a strong French force was in the vicinity of Stewart's Cross- ings on the Youghiogheny. This report confirmed the news received from the Half-King, and thereupon Washington decided to remain for a time at the Meadows, and avail himself of the advantage offered by the position. There were here, as he said in his notes, "two natural intrenchments," which he caused to be strengthened to some extent artificially, and Washington's force left the Little Crossings May 12th, and on the same day he received, by courier, within these slight defenses he placed a part of the troops with the wagons. The troops worked two or three days in strengthening the position, and on the 27th of May Washington wrote, "We have with nature's assistance made a good intrenchment, and by clearing the bushes out of the meadows prepared a charming field for an encounter." Probably he never afterwards used so unmilitary an adjective in describ- ing the construction and surroundings of a fortification.

On the 25th several small detachments were sent out from the camp with orders to reconnoitre the road 3 and the Indian trails, to examine the woods and

1 The Half-King had sent by some of his Indians to Washington, at Wills' Creek, an address or speech with belts of wampum. To that speech Washington now sent back by the runner a written reply, as- suring him of the friendship and gratitude of the English, and that they were moving towards the Ohio in force, and clearing a road for a much larger army with great guns. He also requested the Half-King to come up and meet him on the way, to assist him by his wise counsel. To this request Tanachariton responded by meeting Washington between the Youghiogheny and Gist's, as will be seen.

2 La Force was a Frenchman, who had been sent out from Fort Du Quesne about the 1st of May with a small party of French and Indians, ostensibly for the purpose of capturing deserters; but Washington, who had received information from an Indian runner sent by the Half-King, believed they had other purposes in view, and therefore ordered the reconnaissance.

3 That is, the path which had been slightly cleared by Capt. Trent and the Ohio Company's party in the previous winter.

WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGN OF 1754.

every part of the country thoroughly, “ and endeavor to get some news of the French, of their forces, and of their motions." But these parties returned in the evening of the same day without having made any discoveries. Gist and others was the "French army," of whose departure from Fort Du Quesne Washington had been apprised. In some historical accounts of the campaign it has been stated that it was under com- mand of M. La Force, but this was not the case; it was commanded by M. de Jumonville,3 a French en- sign, who was accompanied by La Force, but the lat- ter was simply a volunteer, and held no military command in the expedition. Afterwards the French authorities and writers claimed that Jumonville him- self was not engaged in a military enterprise, but that he was merely an envoy or bearer of dispatches, charged by the commandant at Fort Du Quesne with the duty of delivering a communication to the com- manding officer of the English force, and that the military party which accompanied him was acting simply as his guard while performing this service. But if it was simply a guard to a peaceful envoy, then Great Meadows. On the evening of the 27th, an In- , certainly its leader adopted a very strange course in lurking near Washington's encampment for two days, and hiding his men in an obscure and gloomy glen among rocks and brushwood.

Early on the morning of the 27th, Christopher Gist arrived from his plantation, and reported that at about noon on the preceding day a French detachment of about fifty men had visited his house and committed considerable depredation there. He also said he had seen their tracks within five miles of the Virgin- ians' camp. On receipt of this information, Wash- ington sent out a detachment of seventy-five men under Capt. Hogg, Lieut. Mercer, and Ensign Pey- ronie in search of the French force. Information had already been received that a party of Indians, under the friendly Half-King, had come up the Mo- nongahela, and was probably not very far from the dian messenger from Tanacharison came to Wash- ington with the information that the Half-King- whose camp, he said, was only six miles away-had seen the tracks of two Frenchmen, which he followed stealthily, and had thereby discovered the French party encamped in a rocky ravine, secluded, and diffi- cult of access, and situated about half a mile from the trail.2

On receiving this intelligence, Washington was suspicious that the secret movements of the French were part of a stratagem to draw some of his forces away from the camp and then attack it. He there- fore ordered the ammunition to be placed in a safe position, under a guard strong enough to prevent it from capture in case of attack, and then set out im- mediately, with the rest of his men,2 for the camp of the Half-King. The night was rainy and very dark ; the path over which they traveled was narrow, rough, and hard to distinguish ; but they persevered, and in the morning at a little before sunrise reached the Half- King's camp, where, at a council held with the old sachem, it was determined to proceed at once to at- tack the French camp.

The party whose movements had been reported by

1 "On the 27th of May the Half-King sent Col. Washington Notice that a Party from the French Army was hankering about his Camp; if he would march some of his People to join them, he did not doubt of cutting them off. Col. Washington marched that Night and came up to the In- dians; one of the Indian Runners tracked the French Men's Feet and came up to their Lodgment ; they discovered our People about one hun- dred yards distant, flew to their Arms, and a small Engagement ensued. We lost one Man and another wounded; the French had Twelve killed and Twenty-one taken Prisoners, who are now in our Prison; the In- diana scalped many of the dead French, took up the Hatchet against them, sent their Scalps and a String of black Wampum to several other Tribes of Indians, with a desire that they should also take up the Hatchet against the French, which I hope they have done .- Letter of Gov. Dinwiddie to Gov. Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, dated June 21, 1854 .- Colonial Records. vi. p. 55.

2 Most accounts have it that the force which Washington took with him on that night consisted of only forty men ; but the language of his notes, though not entirely clear, indicate that the number left to guard the ammunition was about forty, and that the remainder of his force accompanied him on the expedition.

It having been determined to attack Jumonville's party, Washington's men and Tanacharison's Indians left the headquarters of the latter, and marched "In- dian file" to near the French camp, where a line was formed, with the English on the right and the Indians on the left, and in this order the combined forces moved to the attack. It was not a complete surprise, for the French discovered their assailants before they were within rifle-range. The right, under Washing- ton, opened fire, and received that of the French. The conflict lasted only about a quarter of an hour,

3 Following is a translation of the orders given by M. de Contrecœur to Jumonville for this expedition :

"Be it known that the captain of a company belonging to the detach- ment of marines, commander-in-chief at the Ohio Fort Du Quesne, Prequ' Isle, and Rivière aux Bœufs, hath given orders to M. de Jumon- ville, an ensigu of the troops, to depart immediately, with one officer, three cadets, one volunteer [La Force], one English interpreter, and twenty-eight men, to go up as far as the High Lands, and to make what discovery he can ; he shall keep along the river Monongahela in Peria- guas as far as the Hangard, after which he shall march along until he finds the road which leads to that said to have been cleared by the Eng- lish. As the Indians give out that the English are on their march to attack us (which we cannot believe, since we are at peace), should M. de Jumonville, contrary to our expectations, hear of any attempt in- tended to be made by the English on the lands belonging to the French King, he shall immediately go to them and deliver them the summons we have given him. We further charge him to dispatch a speedy messenger to us before the summons be read, to acquaint us of all the discoveries he hath made, of the day he intends to read them the sum- mons, and also to bring us an answer from them, with all possible dili- gence, after it is read.

" If M. de Jumonville should hear that the English intend to go on the other side of the Great Mountain [the Alleghenies] he shall not pass the High Lands, for we would not disturb them in the least, being de- sirous to keep up that union which exists between the two crowns.

" We charge M. de Jumonville to stand upon his guard against every attempt, either from the English or the Indians. If he should meet any Indians, he shall tell them he is traveling about to see what is transact- ing on the King's territories, and to take notice of every road, and shall show them friendship. Done at the camp at Fort Du Quesne, the 23d of

1 May, 1754.

(Signed) CONTRECŒUR."

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

when the French surrendered. Their loss was ten killed and one wounded. Among the killed was M. de Jumonville.1 All the dead men were scalped by Tanacharison's Indians. Washington's loss was one man killed and two wounded.

The prisoners, twenty-one in number (among whom were La Force, M. Drouillard, and two cadets), were marched to the Half-King's camp, and thence to the ! Great Meadows. Two days later they were sent to Winchester, Va., with a guard of twenty men, under command of Lieut. West, who was also accompanied by Mr. Spindorph.

On the 30th, Washington "began to raise a fort with small palisadoes, fearing that when the French should hear the news of that defeat we might be at- tacked by considerable forces." The defenses which his men had constructed at the Great Meadows camp prior to this probably consisted of parapets, formed of logs (laid horizontally ) and earth, along the crests of the " two natural intrenchments," which have al- ready been mentioned, and the discovery of which at the Great Meadows, together with the advantage of a small stream that flowed near them, seems to have been a principal reason for his selecting that place as a site for his fortified camp and temporary base of operations.

The little stockade which Washington built after the fight at Jumonville's camp was evidently a very slight and primitive affair, for on the 2d of June it was completed, and religious services were held in it. In the previous evening the Half-King had arrived, bringing with him some twenty-five or thirty families of Indians, who had fled from the lower Mononga- hela and the neighborhood of Logstown for fear of the vengeance of the French. The fugitive party numbered between eighty and one hundred persons, including women and children. Among them was "Queen" Alliquippa and her son. Her heart had evidently been touched in its tenderest chord by Washington's present of a bottle of rum to her in the preceding December, and now she came to place her- self under his protection, and she doubtless had visions | the colonel to start out with about one hundred and of future favors from him. But the presence of these refugees was very embarrassing to the young com- mander on account of prospective scarcity of pro- visions, and for many other reasons, and the incon- venience was afterwards increased by the arrival of other parties of non-combatant Indians. One of these was a party of Shawanese, who came to the fort on the 2d of June, and others came in on the 5th and 6th. Washington wished to be disencumbered of these hangers-on, and tried to have a rendezvous of : friendly Indians established at the mouth of the Red-

stone Creek, but did not succeed in effecting his pur- pose.

On the 6th of June, Christopher Gist arrived from Wills' Creek, with information that Col. Fry, com- manding officer of the Virginia regiment, had died at that place on the 30th of May while on his way to the Great Meadows with troops. By his death Washing- ton succeeded to the command of the regiment. On the 9th, Maj. Muse arrived from Wills' Creek with the remainder of the regiment and ning small swivel- guns, with ammunition for them. But although the last of the regiment had now arrived, the total force under Washington was but little more than three hundred men, in six companies, commanded respec- tively by Capts. Stephen, Jacob Van Braam, Robert Strobo, Peter Hogg, Andrew Lewis,2 Polson, and George Mercer. Among the subalterns were Lieuts. John Mercer and Waggoner, and Ensigns Peyronie and Tower. Maj. Muse, as a man of some military experience, was detailed as quartermaster, and Capt. Stephen was made acting major.

Maj. Muse, on his arrival, reported that Capt. Mackay, of the South Carolina Royal Independent Company, had arrived with his command at Wills' Creek, and was not far behind him on the march to Great Meadows. He (Mackay) arrived on the follow- ing day (June 10th), having with him a force of about one hundred men, five days' rations of flour, sixty cattle on the hoof, and a considerable supply of am- munition. As Capt. Mackay was a regular officer in the royal service, he displayed from the first a disin- clination to act under the orders of a "buckskin colonel" of Virginia provincial troops. This feeling extended to the private soldiers of the Carolina com- pany, but no act of pronounced · insubordination resulted from it.

Two days after the arrival of Capt. Mackay, some of Washington's scouts brought in word that they had discovered a French party, numbering, by estimate, about ninety men, between Gist's and Stewart's Cross- ings of the Youghiogheny. This intelligence caused thirty men and thirty Indians to find them; but before leaving the Meadows he took the same pre- caution that he observed when he went out to attack the party under Jumonville,-that is, he directed all his ammunition and stores to be placed in the safest possible position within the palisade, and set a strong guard over it, with orders to keep the strictest watch until his return ; for he still feared that the reported movement by the French was part of a stratagem by which they hoped to capture the work in the absence of a large part of its defenders. On moving out with his party, however, he soon met an Indian party, who

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216