USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 39
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The rain fell heavily during the day; the trenches were filled with water; and many of the arms of Washington's men were out of order. The desultory engagement lasted till eight o'clock in the evening, when the French commander, having twice sounded a parley, and the stock of provisions and ammunition in the fort being much reduced, it was accepted. About mid- night, during a heavy rain, one half of the garrison being drunk, a capitulation took place, after the articles had been modified in some points at Washington's instance. The French at first de- manded a surrender of the cannon; but this being resisted it was agreed that they should be destroyed, except one small piece re- served by the garrison upon the point of honor; but which they were eventually unable to remove.
These guns, probably only spiked and abandoned, were subse- quently restored, and lay for a long time on the Great Meadows. After the Revolution it was an amusement of settlers moving westward, to discharge them. They were at last removed to Kentucky.
The troops were to retain their other arms and baggage; to march out with drums beating and colors flying, and return home unmolested. The terms of the surrender, as published at the time from the duplicate copy retained by Colonel Washington, implied ("by the too great condescension of Van Braam," the inter- preter) an acknowledgment on his part that M. de Jumonville
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had been "assassinated." It appears that Washington was mis- led by the inaccuracy of Van Braam in translating the word, he being a Dutchman, and the only officer in the garrison who was acquainted with the French language. It was so stormy at the time that he could not give a written translation of the articles, and they could scarcely keep a candle lighted to read them by, so that it became necessary to rely upon the interpreter's word. The American officers present afterwards averred that the word "assassination " was not mentioned, and that the terms employed were, "the death of Jumonville." The affair is involved in ob- scurity : for why should the French require Washington to acknowledge himself the author of "his death," unless the killing was unjustifiable? On the other hand, with what consistency could Villiers allow such honorable terms in the same articles in which it was demanded of Washington that he should sign a confession of his own disgrace ?
Of the Virginia regiment, three hundred and five in number, twelve were killed, and forty-three wounded. The loss sustained by Captain Mackay's Independent Company was not ascertained. Villiers' loss was three killed, and seventeen dangerously wounded. The horses and cattle having been captured or killed by the enemy, it was found necessary to abandon a large part of the baggage and stores, and to convey the remainder, with the wounded, on the backs of the soldiers. Washington had agreed to restore the prisoners taken at the skirmish with Jumonville; and to insure this, two captains, Van Braam and Stobo, were given up as hostages.
Washington, early on the 4th of July, 1754, perhaps the most humiliating of his life, marched out according to the terms; but in the confusion the Virginia standard, which was very large, was left behind, and was carried off in triumph by the enemy. But the regimental colors were preserved. In a short time the Vir- ginians met a body of Indians who plundered the baggage, and were with difficulty restrained from attacking the men. Wash- ington hastened back to Will's Creek, whence he proceeded to Williamsburg. The assembly voted him and his officers thanks, and gave him three hundred pistoles to be distributed among his men; but dissatisfaction was expressed at some of the articles of
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capitulation when they came to be made public .* Among the prisoners taken at the time when Jumonville was killed, was La Force, who, on account of his influence among the Indians, was looked upon as a dangerous character, and was imprisoned at Williamsburg. He managed to escape from prison in the summer of 1756, but was recaptured near West Point; and he was now kept in irons. This severe usage, and his being detained by Din- widdie a prisoner, in violation of the treaty of Fort Necessity, cannot be justified, and was unjust to Stobo and Van Braam, who were, consequently, long retained as prisoners of war, and for some time confined in prison at Quebec. It is true that the French suffered the Indians to violate the article of the treaty securing the troops from molestation; but an excuse might be found in the difficulty of restraining savages.
Much blame was laid on poor Van Braam at the time, and in the thanks voted by the assembly his name was excepted, as having acted treacherously in interpreting the treaty. Washing- ington, who had shortly before the surrender pronounced him "an experienced, good officer, and very worthy of the command he has enjoyed," appears to have been at a loss whether to attri- bute his misinterpretation to "evil intentions or negligence," but was rather disposed to believe that it was owing to his being but little acquainted with the English language. Van Braam ap- pears to have been rather hardly judged in this affair.f Stobo, a native of Scotland, who emigrated early to Virginia, was brave, energetic, and a man of genius, but eccentric; his fidelity was never doubted. He was an acquaintance of David Hume, and a friend of Smollett, and was, it is said, the original of the charac- ter of Lismahago.
* Washington's Writings, ii. 456.
t Ibid., ii. 365, 456; Va. Hist. Register, v. 194; Hist. of Expedition against Fort Du Quesne, edited by Winthrop Sargent, Esq., and published by the Penn- sylvania Hist. Society, 51.
CHAPTER LXI.
1754-1755.
Dinwiddie's injudicious Orders-Washington resigns-Statistics -Braddock's arrival-Washington joins him as aid-de-camp-Braddock's Expedition-His Defeat-Washington's Bravery-His account of the Defeat.
THE Virginia regiment quartered at Winchester being re-en- forced by some companies from Maryland and North Carolina, Dinwiddie injudiciously ordered this force to march at once again over . the Alleghanies, and expel the French from Fort Du Quesne, or build another near it. This little army was under command of Colonel Innes, of North Carolina, who, having brought three hundred and fifty men with him from that colony, had been appointed, upon Colonel Fry's death, commander-in- chief. Innes had been with Lawrence Washington at Cartha- gena. The force under Innes did not exceed half the number of the enemy, and was unprovided for a winter campaign. The assembly making no appropriation for the expedition, it was for- tunately abandoned.
Two independent companies, ordered from New York by Din- widdie, arrived in Hampton Roads, in his majesty's ship Centaur, Captain Dudley Digges, in June, 1754. They were marched to Will's Creek, where they were joined by an independent company from South Carolina; and these troops, under command of Colo- nel Innes, during the autumn, built Fort Cumberland in the fork between Will's Creek and the north branch of the Potomac, on the Maryland side, about fifty-five miles northwest of Winches- ter. It was called after the Duke of Cumberland, captain- general of the British army. The fort was mounted with ten four-pounders, and some swivels; and contained magazines and barracks. A prosperous town has arisen on the spot.
The North Carolina troops at Winchester, not duly receiving their pay, disbanded themselves in a disorderly way, and re- turned home. Dinwiddie wrote to the board of trade that "the
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progress of the French would never be effectually opposed, but by means of an act of parliament compelling the colonies to con- tribute to the common cause independently of assemblies;" and to the secretary of state: "I know of no method to compel them to their duty to the king, but by an act of parliament for a general poll-tax of two shillings and six pence a head, from all the colonies on this continent." This scheme had been sug- gested a long time before.
In 1738 the assembly of Virginia, which had long exercised the right of choosing a treasurer, had placed their speaker, John Robinson, in that office; and he continuing to hold both places for many years, exerted an undue influence over the assembly by lending the public money to the members. Dinwiddie ruled on ordinary occasions, but Robinson was dictator in all extraordi- nary emergencies .*
When the assembly met in October, 1754, they granted twenty thousand pounds for the public exigencies; Maryland and New York also contributed their quotas to the common cause; and Din- widdie received ten thousand pounds from England. He now enlarged the Virginia forces to ten companies, under the pretext of peremptory orders from England, and made each of them independent, with a view, as was alleged, of terminating the dis- putes between the regular and provincial officers respecting command. The effect of this upon Washington would have been to reduce him to the grade of captain, and to subject him to officers whom he had commanded; officers of the same rank, but holding the king's commission, would rank before him. This would have been the more mortifying to him, after the catas- trophe of the Great Meadows. He, therefore, although his inclinations were still strongly bent to arms, resigned, and passed the winter at Mount Vernon. He was now twenty-two years of age.
In the meanwhile Horatio Sharpe, professionally a military man, and Lord Baltimore's lieutenant-governor of Maryland, was appointed by the crown commander-in-chief of the forces against the French. Colonel William Fitzhugh, of Virginia,
* Chalmers' Revolt, ii. 353.
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who was to command in the absence of Sharpe, had endeavored to persuade Washington to continue in the service, retaining for the present his commission of colonel. Replying in November, 1754, he said: "If you think me capable of holding a commis -. sion that has neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you must entertain a very contemptible opinion of my weakness, and believe me to be more empty than the commission itself." Washington was dissatisfied with Dinwiddie's action in this matter.
The population of the American colonies at this period was estimated at 1,485,000, of whom 292,000 were blacks, and the number of fighting men 240,000; while the French population in Canada was not over 90,000. Virginia was reckoned the first of the colonies in power, Massachusetts the second, Pennsylvania the third, and Maryland the fourth; and either one of these had greater resources than Canada. Yet the power of the French was more concentrated; they were better fitted for the emer- gencies of the war, and they had more regular troops .* The colonies were not united in purpose; and the Virginians were described by Dinwiddie as "an indolent people, and without mili- tary ardor."
Sharpe's appointment was sent over by Arthur Dobbs, Gover- nor of North Carolina, who arrived in Hampton Roads on the first of October. Sharpe, proceeding to Williamsburg, concerted with Dinwiddie and Dobbs a plan of operations against Fort Du Quesne. This plan was abandoned, owing to intelligence of the French being re-enforced by numerous Indian allies.
In February, 1755, General Edward Braddock, newly ap- pointed commander-in-chief of all the military forces in America, arrived in Virginia with a small part of the troops of the intended expedition, the remainder arriving afterwards, being two British regiments, each consisting of five hundred men, the forty-fourth commanded by Sir Peter Halket, the forty-eighth by Colonel Dunbar. Braddock went immediately to Williamsburg to confer with Dinwiddie. Sir John St. Clair, who had come over to
* Chalmers' Revolt, ii. 273.
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America some time before, was already there awaiting the general's arrival.
In compliance with Braddock's invitation, dated the second of March, Washington entered his military family as a volunteer, retaining his former rank. This proceeding aroused his mother's tender solicitude, and she hastened to Mount Vernon to give expression to it.
From Williamsburg Braddock proceeded to Alexandria, then sometimes called Belhaven, the original name, where he made his headquarters, the troops being quartered in that place and the neighborhood until they marched for Will's Creek. On the thir- teenth of April the governors of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, met General Braddock at Alexandria, to concert a plan of operations. Washington was courteously received by the governors, especially by Shirley, with whose manners and character he was quite fascinated. Overtaking Braddock (who marched from Alexandria on the twentieth) at Frederictown, Maryland, he accompanied him to Winchester, and thence to Fort Cumberland. Early in May Washington was made an aid-de-camp to the general. Being dispatched to Williamsburg to convey money for the army-chest, he returned to the camp with it on the thirtieth.
The army consisted of the two regiments of British regulars, together originally one thousand men, and augmented by Vir- ginia and Maryland levies to fourteen hundred. The Virginia captains were Waggener, Cock, Hogg, Stephen, Poulson, Pey- rouny, Mercer, and Stuart. The provincials included the frag- ments of two independent companies from New York, one of which was commanded by Captain Horatio Gates, afterwards a major-general in the revolutionary war. Of the remaining pro- vincials one hundred were pioneers and guides, called Hatchet- men : there were besides a troop of Virginia light-horse, and a few Indians. Thirty sailors were detached by Commodore Kep- pel, commander of the fleet that brought over the forces. The total effective force was about two thousand one hundred and fifty, and they were accompanied by the usual number of non- combatants. The army was detained by the difficulty of pro- curing provisions and conveyances. The apathy of the legisla-
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tures and the bad faith of the contractors, so irritated Braddock that he indulged in sweeping denunciations against the colonies. These led to frequent disputes between him and Washington, who found the exasperated general deaf to his arguments on that subject. The plan suggested by him of employing pack-horses for transportation, instead of wagons, was afterwards in some measure adopted.
Benjamin Franklin, deputy postmaster-general of the colonies, who, at Governor Shirley's instance, had accompanied him to the congress at Alexandria, visited Braddock at Frederictown, for the purpose of opening a post-route between Will's Creek and Philadelphia. Learning the general's embarrassment, he under- took to procure the requisite number of wagons and horses from the Pennsylvania farmers. Issuing a handbill addressed to their interests and their fears, and exciting among the Germans an apprehension of an arbitrary impressment to be enforced by Sir John St. Clair, "the Hussar," he was soon able to provide the general with the means of transportation .* It was a long time before Franklin recovered compensation for the farmers; Gover- nor Shirley at length paid the greater part of the amount, twenty thousand pounds; but it is said that owing to the neglect of Lord Loudoun, Franklin was never wholly repaid. Washington and Franklin were both held in high estimation by Braddock, and they were unconsciously co-operating with him in a war destined in its unforeseen consequences to dismember the British empire.
Braddock's army, with its baggage extending (along a road twelve feet wide) sometimes four miles in length, moved from Fort Cumberland, at the mouth of Will's Creek, early in June, and advanced slowly and with difficulty, five miles being con- sidered a good day's march. There was much sickness among the soldiers: Washington was seized with a fever, and obliged to travel in a covered wagon. Braddock, however, continued to consult him, and he advised the general to disencumber himself of his heavy guns and unnecessary baggage, to leave them with a rear division, and to press forward expeditiously to Fort Du Quesne. In a council of war it was determined that Braddock
* Gordon's Hist. of Pa .; Braddock's Expedition, 163.
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should advance as rapidly as possible with twelve hundred select men, and Colonel Dunbar follow on slowly with a rear-guard of about six hundred,-a number of the soldiers being disabled by sickness. The advance corps proceeded only nineteen miles in four days, losing occasionally a straggler, cut off by the French and Indian scouts. Trees were found near the road stripped of their barks and painted, and on them the French had written many of their names and the number of scalps recently taken, with many insolent threats and scurrilous bravados.
Washington was now (by the general's order) compelled to stop, his physician declaring that his life would be jeoparded by a continuance with the army, and Braddock promising that he should be brought up with it before it reached Fort Du Quesne. On the day before the battle of the Monongahela, Washington, in a wagon, rejoined the army, at the mouth of the Youghiogany River, and fifteen miles from Fort Du Quesne. On the morning of Wednesday, the 9th of July, 1755, the troops, in high spirits, confident of entering the gates of Fort Du Quesne triumphantly in a few hours, crossed the Monongahela, and advanced along the southern margin. Washington, in after-life, was heard to declare it the most beautiful spectacle that he had ever witnessed -the brilliant uniform of the soldiers, arranged in columns and marching in exact order; the sun gleaming on their burnished arms; the Monongahela flowing tranquilly by on the one hand, on the other, the primeval forest projecting its shadows in sombre magnificence. At one o'clock the army again crossed the river at a second ford ten miles from Fort Du Quesne. From the river a level plain extends northward nearly half a mile, thence the ground, gradually ascending, terminates in hills. The road from the fording-place to the fort led across this plain, up this ascent, and through an uneven country covered with woods .* Beyond the plain on both sides of the road were ravines unnoticed by the English. Three hundred men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, subsequently commander of the British troops at Boston, made the advanced party, and it was immediately followed by another of two hundred. Next came Braddock with the artil-
* A plan of the ground is given in Washington's Writings, ii. 90.
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lery, the main body, and the baggage. Brigadier-General Sir Peter Halket was second in command. No sooner had the army crossed the river, at the second ford, than a sharp firing was heard upon the advanced parties, who were now ascending the hill about a hundred yards beyond the edge of the plain .*
At an early hour De Beaujeu had been detached from Fort Du Quesne, at the head of about two hundred and thirty French and Canadians, and six hundred and thirty Indian savages, with the design of attacking the English at an advantageous ground selected on the preceding evening. Before reaching it he came upon the English. The greater part of Gage's command was ad- vanced beyond the spot where the main battle was fought, when Mr. Gordon, one of the engineers in front marking out the road, perceived the enemy bounding forward. Before them with long leaps came Beaujeu, the gay hunting-shirt and silver gorget de- noting him as the chief. Halting he waved his hat above his head, and at this signal the Indians dispersed themselves to the right and left, throwing themselves flat on the ground, or gliding behind rocks and trees into the ravines. The French occupied the centre of the Indian semicircle, and a fierce attack was com- menced. Gage's troops, recovering from their first surprise, opened a fire of grape and musketry. Beaujeu and twelve others fell dead upon the spot; the Indians, astonished by the report of the
* The surprise of the Roman army under Titurius Sabinus on his march, by the Gauls (as described by Cæsar) resembles Braddock's defeat in several par- ticulars.
" At hostes, posteaquam ex nocturno fremitu vigiliis que de profectione eorum senserunt, collocatis insidiis bipartito in silvis opportuno atque occulto loco, a millibus passuum circiter duobus, Romanorum adventum expectabant: et cum se major pars agminis in magnam convallem demisisset, ex utraque parte ejus vallis subito se ostenderunt, novissimosque premere et primos prohibere ascensu atque iniquissimo nostris loco prolium committere cœperunt." Lucius Cotta was the Washington of that defeat; but he fell in the general massacre. "At Cotta qui cogitasset hæc posse in itinere accidere, atque ob eam causam profec- tionis auctor non fuisset, nulla in re communi saluti deerat, et in appellandis cohortandisque militibus, imperatoris, et in pugna, militis officia præstabat."
The following sentence describes the war-whoop: "Tum vero suo more vic- toriam conclamant, atque ululatum tollunt, impetuque in nostros facto, ordines perturbant."
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cannon, began to fly. Rallied by Dumas, who succeeded Beau- jeu, they resumed the combat : the French in front, the Indians on the flank. For a time the issue was doubtful: cries of "Vive le Roi" were answered by the cheers of the English. But while the officers of the Forty-fourth led on their men with waving swords, the enemy, concealed in the woods and ravines, secure and invisible, kept up a steady, well-aimed, and fatal fire. Their position was only discovered by the smoke of their muskets. Gage, not reinforcing his flanking parties, they were driven in, and the English, instead of advancing upon the hidden enemy, returned a random and ineffectual fire in full column.
In the mean time Braddock sent forward Lieutenant-Colonel Burton with the vanguard. And while he was forming his men to face a rising ground on the right, the advanced detachment, overwhelmed with consternation by the savage war-whoop and the mysterious danger, fell back upon him in great confusion, communicating a panic from which they could not be recovered. Braddock now came up and endeavored to form the two regi- ments under their colors, but neither entreaties nor threats could prevail. The baggage in the rear was attacked, and many horses killed; some of the drivers fell, the rest escaped by flight. Two of the cannon flanking the baggage for some time protected it from the Indians; the others fired away most of their am- munition, and were of some service in awing the enemy, but could do but little execution against a concealed foe. The enemy extended from front to rear, and fired upon every part at once. The general finding it impossible to persuade his men to advance, many officers falling, and no enemy appearing in sight, endeavored to effect a retreat in good order, but such was the panic that he could not succeed. They were loading as fast as possible and firing in the air.
Braddock and his officers made every effort to rally them, but in vain; in this confusion and dismay they remained in a road twelve feet wide, enclosed by woods, for three hours, huddled together, exposed to the insidious fire, doing the enemy little hurt, and shooting one another. None of the survivors could afterwards say that they saw one hundred of the enemy, and
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many of the officers that were in the heat of the action would not assert that they saw one .*
The Virginia troops preserved their presence of mind, and be- haved with the utmost bravery, adopting the Indian mode of combat, and fighting each man for himself behind a tree. This was done in spite of the orders of Braddock, who still endeavored to form his men into platoons and columns, as if they had been manœuvring in the plains of Flanders or parading in Hyde Park. Washington and Sir Peter Halket in vain advised him to allow the men to shelter themselves: he stormed at such as attempted to take to the trees, calling them cowards, and striking them with his sword. Captain Waggener, of the Virginia troops, resolved to take advantage of the trunk of a tree five feet in diameter, lying athwart the brow of a hill. With shouldered firelocks he marched a party of eighty men toward it, and losing but three men on the way, the remainder throwing themselves behind it, opened a hot fire upon the enemy. But no sooner were the flash and report of their muskets perceived by the mob be- hind, than a general discharge was poured upon them, by which fifty were killed and the rest compelled to fly.t
The French and Indians, concealed in deep ravines, and be- hind trees, and logs, and high grass, and tangled undergrowth, kept up a deadly fire, singling out their victims. The mounted officers were especially aimed at, and shortly after the commence- ment of the engagement, Washington was the only aid not wounded. Although still feeble from the effects of his illness, on him now was devolved the whole duty of carrying the general's orders, and he rode a conspicuous mark in every direction. Two horses were killed under him, four bullets penetrated his coat, but he escaped unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was either killed or wounded. Dr. Craik afterwards said: "I expected every moment 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." Washington, writing to his brother, said: "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence I have been pro-
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