USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 10
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Ridding themselves of him, they traveled all night to escape pursuit.
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Being obliged to cross the Allegheny River, with "one poor hatchet" they toilsomely made a raft. "Before we were half way over," proceeds the journal, "we were jammed in the ice in such a manner that we expected every moment our raft to sink and ourselves to perish. I put out my setting pole to try to stop the raft that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole that it jerked me out into ten feet of water. Notwithstanding all our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft and make to it. The cold was so extremely severe that Mr. Gist had all his fingers and some of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard that we found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the morning."
Arrived at the Gist settlement, Washington bought a horse and saddle, and on the 16th of January, 1754, he records, "We met seventeen horses loaded with materials and stores for a fort at the fork of the Ohio, and the day following some families going out to settle. This day we arrived at Will's Creek, after as fatiguing a journey as it is possible to conceive, ren- dered so by excessive bad weather. From the first day of December to the fifteenth, there was but one day on which it did not rain or snow incessantly, and throughout the whole journey we met with nothing but one continued series of cold, wet weather, which occasioned very uncomfortable lodgings, especially after we had left behind us our tent, which had been some screen from the inclemency of it. I arrived at Williamsburg on the 16th, when I waited upon his Honor, the Governor, with the letter I had brought from the French commandant, and to give an account of the success of my proceedings. This I beg leave to do by offering the foregoing narrative, as it contains the most remarkable occurrences which happened in my journey. I hope what has been said will be sufficient to make your Honor satisfied with my conduct, for that was my aim in undertaking the journey and chief study throughout the prosecution of it."
It must be confessed that this embassage, undertaken in the dead of winter, through an almost trackless wilderness, infested by hostile savages, by a boy of twenty-one, was not only romantic, but arduous and dangerous in the extreme, and in its execution showed a discretion and persistent resolution remarkable for so youthful a person, giving promise of great future usefulness. The information which he obtained, and which was
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embodied in a modest way in his journal, was of great importance. The journal was published and widely circulated in this country and in England. It plainly disclosed the fact that the French, in building strong forts and providing cannon and a military force for garrisoning them, meant to hold this whole Ohio country by force of arms, and that if the English would foil them in this design they must lose no time in preparation to oppose force to force. The lateness of the season and the coming on of severe weather alone prevented the French from proceeding down the Allegheny and taking post on the Ohio in the fall of 1753. The following spring would doubtless witness such a hostile movement. Here is the opening of one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the North American continent. Here are two great, proud European nations standing face to face. preparing to contend for the possession of the great Mississippi valley, well apprised that before the blossoms of another spring shall come will be heard the clash of arms. Thus far, the French had shown much the greater military activity, and their strong positions had been selected by competent engineers detailed from the French army, who had superintended the erec- tion of their strong forts. Arrived at the threshold of a great era, the near future will witness the decision whether this fair land, in the midst of which is what is now the County of Crawford, shall be peopled by the French, and be under the control of the lilies of France, or an English-speaking people shall spread over this broad domain, the whole Mississippi valley, the pride of the continent.
CHAPTER VIII.
WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLES.
A S WE have seen, Washington met a train on its way to commence the building of a fort at the present site of Pittsburg. After his return, orders were given by the Governor of Virginia to enlist a company of a hundred men and proceed without delay to the forks of Ohio and complete the fort there begun. Washington was empowered to raise another company of like number with which to collect supplies and forward to the working party at the fort. In the meantime, Governor Dinwiddie convened the Virginia Legislature, asked for money with which to conduct the military operations, and called upon the other colonies to join him. Lack of funds, want of royal authority to enter upon this warfare and other excuses kept the other colonists from engaging immediately, but the Virginia Legis- lature voted money, and the number of troops authorized was increased to 300, to be divided into six companies, of which Washington was offered the command. But, on account of his youth, he declined it, and Joshua Fry was made Colonel, and Washington Lieutenant-Colonel. On the 2d of April, 1754, Washington set out with two companies of 150 men for the fort on the Ohio, Colonel Fry with the artillery, which had just arrived from England, to follow. But before Washington had arrived at Will's Creek intelligence was received that Captain Contracoeur, acting under authority of the Governor General of New France, having embarked a thousand men with field pieces upon sixty batteaux and three hundred canoes at the flood- tide in the Allegheny River, had dropped down and captured the meager force working upon the fort at the forks, both Trent and Frazier, the two highest in command, being at the time absent. The garrison, of about fifty men, were allowed to depart with their working tools.
Though bloodless, this was an act of hostility. The war was begun which was greatly to modify the map of this continent. "The seven years' war," says Albach, "arose at the forks of the Ohio; it was waged in all
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quarters of the world; it made England a great imperial power; it drove the French from Asia and America and dissipated their scheme of empire." Contracoeur immediately proceeded with the building of the fort which the Virginians had begun. He had issued before the surrender what he was pleased to denominate a summons, in which he "sirs" every sentence, and orders the English out of the Ohio country in the most absolute and authoritative way. "Nothing," he says, "can surprise me more than to see you attempt a settlement upon the lands of the King, my master, which obliges mne now, sir, to send you this gentleman, Chevalier Le Mercier, captain of the artillery of Canada, to know of you, sir, by virtue of what authority you are come to fortify yourself within the dominions of the King, my master. Let it be as it will, sir, if you come out into this place charged with orders, I summon you in the name of the King, my master, by virtue of orders which I got from my general, to retreat peaceably with your troops from off the lands of the King and not to return, or else I will find myself obliged to fulfill my duty and compel you to it.
I prevent you, sir, from asking one hour of delay."
Washington, though but a stripling, determined to move boldly for- ward, although his force was but a moiety of that of the French, and intrench upon the Redstone. To add to his perplexity, he received intelligence that a reinforcement of 800 men was on its way up the Mississippi to join Con- tracoeur at the forks. Sending out messengers to the Governors of Penn- sylvania, Virginia and Maryland to ask for reinforcements, he pushed on to the Great Meadows, arriving on the 27th. Here he learned that a scout- ing party of the French was already in this neighborhood. Not delaying a nioment, he started with forty picked men, and though the night was dark and the rain fell in torrents, he came up with the French before morning, encamped in a retreat shielded by rocks and a broken country. Order of attack was immediately formed, the English on the right and the friendly Indians on the left. The French aroused, flew to arms, when a brisk firing commenced, which lasted for some time, and the French, seeing no way of escape, surrendered. In this spirited skirmish, Jumonville, the commander, and ten of his men were slain, and twenty-two were taken prisoners. Wash- ington's loss was one killed and two wounded. This was the young com- mander's first battle, and, if we may judge of it by the measure of success, it was the presage of a brilliant career. He naturally felt a degree of pride
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and exultation. In a letter to his brother, he added a postscript in these words: "I fortunately escaped without any wounds, for the right wing, where I stood, was exposed to and received all the enemy's fire, and it was the part where the man was killed and the rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound." When this was reported to the English King, George II., he dryly remarked, "He would not say so if he had been used to hear many."
At the Great Meadows a fort was marked out and partially fortified, which was designated Fort Necessity. Supplies were scarce, and could be brought up with difficulty. Not satisfied to stop here, Washington pushed on to Gist's, at the headwaters of the Redstone, where some entrenchments were thrown up. But learning that the French were approaching in force, and seeing that no sufficient supply of provisions could be had, he was obliged to return to Fort Necessity, which he proceeded to strengthen. On the morning of the third of July, the French, under Captain de Villiers, a brother-in-law of Jumonville, with a force 900 strong, commenced an attack upon the fort. Outnumbered nearly three to one, Washington boldly ac- cepted the wager of battle, and all day long and until late at night made a gallant fight, when the French commander asked for a parley and de- manded a surrender, which was refused. Again the demand was made and again refused. Exhausted by the fatigues of the day and suffering for lack of provisions, Washington, on being offered the privilege of marching out with honors of war, decided to accept the terms, and on the 4th of July, a day memorable in the future annals of the country, though of humiliation now, departed with drums beating and colors flying. In this engagement of 300 under Washington's command, twelve had been killed and forty-three wounded. The loss in Captain Mackay's independent company of South Carolinians was not known, nor the loss of the French, which was believed to have been much more serious.
Returning to Will's Creek, a strong work, designated Fort Cumber- land, was constructed, which should be a rallying point. In the meantime, Colonel Fry had died, and Colonel Innes, of North Carolina, had been promoted to the chief command. The army which came under his orders was composed of the Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland Militia, and independent companies of South Carolina, New York and Virginia, under the pay of the King, and officered by soldiers bearing his commission. And
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now succeeded months of negotiation carried on between London and Paris: but nothing was definitely settled, and in the early spring of 1755 it was decided in the British Cabinet to prosecute an active campaign against the French in America, with four objects in view: To eject the French from Nova Scotia, to drive them from Crown Point, on Lake Champlain; to gain possession of Fort Niagara, and to recover the Ohio country. For the accomplishment of these purposes Major General Edward Braddock was dispatched to America, with two regiments of the line, the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth, commanded by Sir Peter Halket and Colonel Dunbar, with directions to take the supreme command of all the forces. Two ships of war and several transports were in the Chesapeake. Alexandria was made the rallying point, and here the regulars encamped. Commodore Keppel furnished four heavy pieces of ordnance, with a detail of tars to man the prolongs in passing the streams and mountains. Before starting on his campaign, the General held a conference at Alexandria with the Governors of the several colonies,-Shirley, of Massachusetts; Delaney, of New York; Sharpe, of Maryland; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; Dobbs, of Nortli Carolina, and Morris of Pennsylvania. This conference considered little more than the question of furnishing troops and supplies for the expe- ditions.
The force against Nova Scotia was earliest in the field, and was entirely successful, the country being reduced and placed under martial law, and two French men-of-war were captured by the English admiral, Boscawen. The force destined against the French on the Ohio, to be commanded by General Braddock in person, was slow in moving. Wagons and horses were not in readiness, and could not be procured, Two hundred wagons and two thousand horses must be had, or the General would not move; and when the expedition was on the point of failure for lack of them, Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster of Pennsylvania, appeared and assured the General that he would provide the desired transportation if authorized to do so. That authority was quickly and joyfully given, and the desired horses and wagons were soon forthcoming. It should be observed that Braddock had studied the military art as practiced in the open countries of Europe, where smooth, hard roads everywhere checkered the landscape, and he made his requisitions for baggage, artillery and ammunition as though his expedition was to be made over such a country, instead of over
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one bristling with mountains and torrent streams through a trackless wilder- ness. Had he gone in light marching order, with ammunition and pro- visions on pack-horses, he would have been better prepared to meet the obstacles which impeded his way. But instead of this, the impedimenta of his little force of less than 3,000 men was greater than was taken by a full army corps of 20,000 men in many of the campaigns of the late War of the Rebellion.
Before starting, Braddock organized his force in two divisions. The first, under Sir Peter Halket, was composed of the Forty-fourth regulars. Peyronie's and Waggoner's Virginia companies, Dagworthie's Maryland company, Rutherford's and Gate's New York companies, and Polson's pioneers. The second. under Colonel Thomas Dunbar, consisted of the Forty-eighth regulars, and the balance of the force. General William Shirley acted as secretary to the General, and Orme, Washington and Morris as aids-de-camp.
On the 9th of April, Sir Peter Halket, with six companies of the Forty- fourth, moved by way of Winchester for Fort Cumberland, at Will's Creek, leaving Lieutenant Gage with four companies to escort the artillery. By the advice of Sir John Sinclair, who had been sent forward in advance to Winchester and Fort Cumberland to prepare the way for the march, the second division, under Colonel Dunbar, accompanied with the artillery and heavy trains, moved by way of Frederick, Maryland. But though the roads were better approaching Frederick than by Winchester, there were abso- lutely none beyond there crossing the Alleghany Mountains, and accord- ingly this wing was obliged to recross the Potomac and gain the Winchester road. They now marched on with all the "pride and circumstance" of glorious war. "At high noon," says the chronicler, "on the 10th of May, while Halket's command was encamped at the common destination, the Forty-eighthi was startled by the passage of Braddock and his staff through their ranks with a body of light horse, one galloping each side of his travel- ing chariot, in haste to reach Fort Cumberland. The troops saluted, the drums rolled out the Grenadier's March, and the cortege passed. An hour later these troops heard the booming of artillery which welcomed the General's arrival at Fort Cumberland, and a little later themselves encamped on the hill sides about the post. In place of this vain display, Braddock should by this time have been knocking at the gates of Fort Du Quesne.
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But arrived at Fort Cumberland, he sat down one whole month of the very best campaigning season, preparing for the execution of his plans after the methods of European warfare. His utter lack of appreciation of the kind of warfare he was to wage is given in that delightful piece of auto- biography left us by Dr. Franklin: "In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some account of his intended progress. 'After taking Fort Du Quesne,' said he, 'I am to proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac if the season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Du Quesne can hardly detain nie above three or four days, and then I can see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.' Having before resolved in my mind," continues Franklin, "the long line the army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also of what I had heard of a former defeat of fifteen hun- dred French, who invaded the Illinois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign; but I ventured only to say, 'To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Du Quesne with these fine troops, so well provided with artillery, the fort, though completely"fortified and assisted with a very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resist- ance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from the ambuscades of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are dextrous in laying and executing them; and the slender line, nearly four miles long, which your army must make, expose it to be attacked by surprise on its flanks, and to be cut like thread into several pieces, which, from their dis- tance, cannot come up in time to support one another.' He smiled at my ignorance, and replied: 'These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to raw American Militia, but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an impression!' I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a military man in matters of his profession."
It was June before the army was ready to set forward. The wagons and artillery were a great hindrance in crossing the mountains, and it was soon found necessary to send them back, especially the King's wagons, which were very heavy. The horses became weakened by incessant pulling over rough and untraveled roads, and many died. The Little Meadows was not reached until the 18th of the month. Through the advice of Washington the General decided to change the order of march, and with a force of his
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picked men, with as little incumbrance of trains as possible, to push forward. Accordingly, with a force of 1,200 men, Braddock set out, leaving Colonel Dunbar with the balance of the command to bring on the heavy artillery and trains. At the camp near the crossing of Castleman's River, on the 19th, Washington was taken violently ill. "Braddock," said Washington, in relating the circumstance afterward. "was both my general and my physician. I was attacked with a dangerous fever on the march, and he left a sergeant to take care of me, and James' fever powders, with the directions how to give them, and a wagon to bring me on when I would be able, which was only the day before the battle."
The army was attended on its march by a small body of Indians under command of Croghan. They had come into camp at Fort Cumberland attended by their squaws. "These," says Irving, "were even fonder of loit- ering than the men about the British camp. They were not destitute of attractions, for the young squaws resemble the gypsies, having seductive forms, small hands and feet, and soft voices. Among those who visited the camp was one who, no doubt, passed as an Indian princess. She was the daughter of the Sachem, White Thunder, and bore the dazzling name of Bright Lightning. The charms of these wild-wood beauties were soon acknowledged." "The squaws," writes Secretary Peters, "bring in money plenty; the officers are scandalously fond of them! The jealousy of warriors was aroused; some of them became furious. To prevent discord, the squaws were forbidden to come into the British camp. Finally, it be- came necessary to send Bright Lightning, with all the women and children. back to Aughquick."
Washington was disappointed by the manner in which Braddock acted upon his advice to move rapidly with his best troops, and leave the heavy portion of his impedimenta to be moved more leisurely. Washington had given up his own horse for the use of the trains, and traveled with his bag- gage, half filling a portmanteau. But the officers of the line could not bring themselves to this simplicity. "Brought up," says Irving, "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 appro- priated to their use, not more than a dozen could be spared by them for the public service." Nor was the progress even with these drawbacks at
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all in consonance with the wishes of Washington. "I found," he says. "that instead of pushing on with vigor. without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole-hill and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." He had been about a month marching a hundred miles. Indeed, his movements were so sluggish as to cause impatience by his friends in Europe. "The Duke of Brunswick," who had planned the campaign, writes Horace Walpole, "is much dissatisfied at the slowness of Braddock, who does not march as if he was at all impatient to be scalped."
Though still weak, Washington had come up with the advance; but on the 23d of June, at the great crossing of the Youghiogheny, he was unable to proceed. Here General Braddock interposed his authority, and forbade his young aid to go further, assigned him a guard, placed him under the care of his surgeon, Dr. Craig, with directions not to move until the surgeon should consider him sufficiently recovered to resume the march with safety, at the same time assuring him that he should be kept informed of the progress of the column and the portents of a battle. He was, how- ever, impatient at the restraint, and regarded with distress the departure of the army, leaving him behind, fearful lest he might not be up in time for the impending battle, which, hc assured his brother aid-de-camp, he would not miss for five hundred pounds."
Indications of the presence of a hostile force of French and Indians, hovering upon the flanks of the column, hourly multiplied. On the 24th, a deserted Indian camp of 170 braves was passed, where the trees had been stripped of bark, and taunting words in the French language and scurrilous figures were painted thereon. On the following morning" three men, ven- turing beyond the sentinels, were shot and scalped. These hostile parties were often seen, but they always managed to elude the parties sent out to capture them. In passing over a mountain quite steep and precipitous, the. carriages had to be raised and lowered by means of halyards and pulleys by the assistance of the sailors. Such was the nature of the hurried march with his best troops which Braddock had consented to make. On the 26th, only four miles were marched, and the halt was at another Indian camp, which the warriors had but just left. the brands of their camp-fire still burn- ing. "It had a spring in the middle, and stood at the termination of the Indian path to the Monongahela. The French had inscribed their
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names on some of the trees with insulting bravadoes, and the Indians had designated in triumph the scalps they had taken two days previously. . 1 party was sent out, with guides, to follow their tracks and fall on them in the night, but without success. In fact, it was the Indian boast that throughout this march of Braddock they saw him every day from the mountains, and expected to be able to shoot down his soldiers 'like pigeons.'"
Still the colunm went toiling on, in one whole day making barely two miles, men and officers alike all unconscious of the fact that a pitfall was being prepared for them into which they would plunge to destruction, and laying no adequate plans to guard and shield themselves from such a fate.
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