USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 40
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* Bancroft, iv. 189.
+ Braddock's Expedition, 231.
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tected beyond all human probability or expectation, for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was levelling my companions on every side."
More than half of the army were killed or wounded, two-thirds of them, according to Washington's conjecture, by their own bullets; Sir Peter Halket was killed on the field; Shirley, Brad- dock's secretary, was shot through the head; Colonels Burton, Gage, and Orme, Major Sparks, Brigade-Major Halket, Captain Morris, etc., were wounded. Out of eighty-six officers, twenty- six were killed and thirty-seven wounded. The whole number of killed was estimated at four hundred and fifty-six, wounded four hundred and twenty one, the greater part of whom were brought off; the aggregate loss, eight hundred and seventy-seven. The enemy's force, variously estimated, did not exceed eight hundred and fifty men, of whom six hundred, it was conjectured, were Indians. The French loss was twenty-eight killed, including three officers, one of whom, Beaujeu, was chief in command; and twenty-nine badly wounded, including two officers. The French and Indians being covered by ravines, the balls of the English passed harmless over their heads; while a charge with the bayonet, or raking the ravines with cannon, would have at once driven them from their lurking places, and put them to flight, or, at the least, dispersed them in the woods. Any move- ment would have been better than standing still.
During the action, or massacre, of three hours, Braddock had three horses killed under him, and two disabled. At five o'clock in the afternoon, while beneath a large tree standing between the heads of two ravines, and in the act of giving an order, he re- ceived a mortal wound. Falling from his horse, he lay helpless on the ground, surrounded by the dead. His army having fired away all their ammunition, now fled in disorder back to the Monongahela. Pursued to the water's edge by a party of savages, the regulars threw away arms, accoutrements, and even clothing, that they might run the faster. Many were toma- hawked at the fording-place; but those who crossed were not pursued, as the Indians returned to the harvest of plunder. The provincials, better acquainted with Indian warfare were less dis- concerted, and retreated with more composure.
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Not one of his British soldiers could be prevailed upon to stay and aid in bearing off the wounded general. In vain Orme offered them a purse of sixty guineas. Braddock begged his faithful friends to provide for their own safety, and declared his resolution to die on the field. Orme disregarded these desperate injunctions; and Captain Stewart, of the Virginia Light-horse, (attached to the general's person,) and his servant, together with another American officer, hastening to Orme's relief, brought off Braddock, at first on a small tumbrel, then on a horse, lastly by the soldiers.
According to Washington's account, in a letter written to Din- widdie: "They were struck with such an inconceivable panic, that nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among them. The officers in general behaved with incomparable bravery, for which they greatly suffered, there being upwards of sixty killed and wounded, a large proportion out of what we had. The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers; for, I believe, out of three companies on the ground that day, scarcely thirty men were left alive. Captain Peyrouny, a Frenchman by birth, and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Poulson had almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of the regular troops (so called) exposed those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; and, at length, in spite of every effort to the contrary, they broke and ran like sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery, ammunition, provisions, baggage, and, in short, everything a prey to the enemy; and when we endeavored to rally them in hopes of regaining the ground and what we had left upon it, it was with as little success as if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of the mountains, or the rivulets with our feet; for they would break by in spite of every effort to prevent it."
Braddock was brave and accomplished in European tactics; but not an officer of that comprehensive genius which knows how to bend and accommodate himself to circumstances. Burke says that a wise statesman knows how to be governed by circum- stances: the maxim applies as well to a military commander. Braddock, headstrong, passionate, irritated, not without just grounds, against the provinces, and pursuing the policy of the
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British government to rely mainly on the forces sent over, and to treat the colonial troops as inferior and only secondary, rejected the proposal of Washington to lead in advance the provincials, who, accustomed to border warfare, knew better how to cope with a savage foe .* Braddock, however, showed that although he could not retrieve these errors, nor reclaim a degenerate soldiery, he could at any rate fall like a soldier.t
Although no further pursued, the remainder of the army con- tinued their flight during the night and the next day. Braddock continued for two days to give orders; and it was in compliance with them that the greater part of the artillery, ammunition, and other stores were destroyed. It was not until the thirteenth that the general uttered a word, except for military directions. He then bestowed the warmest praise on his gallant officers, and bequeathed, as is said, his charger, and his body-servant, Bishop, to Washington.} The dying Braddock ejaculated in re- ference to the defeat, "Who would have thought it?" Turning to Orme he remarked, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time;" and in a few moments expired, at eight o'clock, in the evening of Sunday, the 13th of July, 1755, at the Great Meadows. On the next morning he was buried in the road, near Fort Necessity, Washington, in the absence of the chaplain, who was wounded, reading the funeral service. Wash- ington retired to Mount Vernon, oppressed with the sad retrospect of the recent disaster. But his reputation was greatly elevated by his signal gallantry on this occasion. Such dreary portals open the road of fame.
The green and bosky scene of battle was strewn with the wounded and the dead. Toward evening the forest resounded
* Chalmers' Hist. of Revolt, ii. 276. True to his unvarying prejudice against the colonies, he justifies the conduct of Braddock.
The History of Braddock's Expedition, by Winthrop Sargent, Esq., is full, elaborate, and authentic. The volume, a beautiful specimen of typography, was printed, 1856, by Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co., for the Pennsylvania Historical Society. I am indebted to Townsend Ward, Esq., Librarian, for a copy of it.
į Gilbert, a slave, is said to have been with Washington at the battle of the Monongahela, and at the siege of York. John Alton is likewise mentioned as a servant attending him during Braddock's expedition.
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with the exulting cries and war-whoop of the returning French and Indians, the firing of small arms, and the responsive roar of the cannon at the fort. A lonely American prisoner confined there listened during this anxious day to the various sounds, and with peering eye explored the scene. Presently he saw the greater part of the savages, painted and blood-stained, bringing scalps, and rejoicing in the possession of grenadiers' caps, and the laced hats and splendid regimentals of the English officers. Next succeeded the French, escorting a long train of pack-horses laden with plunder. Last of all, just before sunset, appeared a party of Indians conducting twelve British regulars, naked, their faces blackened, their hands tied behind them. In a short while they were burned to death on the opposite bank of the Ohio, with every circumstance of studied barbarity and inhuman tor- ture, the French garrison crowding the ramparts of the fort to witness the spectacle.
The remains of the defeated detachment retreated to the rear division in precipitate disorder, leaving the road behind them strewed with signs of the disaster. Shortly after, Colonel Dun- bar marched with the remaining regulars to Philadelphia. Colo- nel Washington returned home, mortified and indignant at the conduct of the regular troops.
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CHAPTER LXII.
1755-1756.
Stith-Davies visits England and Scotland-Patriotic Discourse-Waddel, the Blind Preacher- Washington made Colonel of Virginia Regiment-Indian Incursions-Washington visits Boston.
DURING the year 1755 died the Rev. William Stith, president of the College of William and Mary, and author of an excellent "History of Virginia," from the first settlement to the dissolu- tion of the London Company. He was of exemplary character and catholic spirit, a friend of well-regulated liberty, and a true patriot.
The Rev. Samuel Davies, during the year 1754, went on a mission to England and Scotland for the purpose of raising a fund for the endowment of a college at Princeton, New Jersey. His eloquence commanded admiration in the mother country. The English Presbyterians he found sadly fallen away from the doctrines of the Reformation, and their clergy, although learned and able, deeply infected with the "modish divinity "-Socinian- ism and Arminianism. In Scotland, where he met a warm welcome, he found the young clergy no less imbued with the "modish divinity," and the cause of religion and the spiritual independence of the kirk lamentably impaired by the overween- ing influence of secular patronage. Davies was of opinion that in genuine piety the Methodists, who commenced their reform in the Church of England, ranked the highest. He returned to Virginia early in 1755, and during the French and Indian wars he often employed his eloquence in arousing the patriotism of the Virginians.
After Braddock's defeat, such was the general consternation that many seemed ready to desert the country. On the 20th of July, 1755, Davies delivered a discourse, in which he declared : " Christians should be patriots. What is that religion good for
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that leaves men cowards upon the appearance of danger? And permit me to say, that I am particularly solicitous that you, my brethren of the dissenters, should act with honor and spirit in this juncture, as it becomes loyal subjects, lovers of your country, and courageous Christians. That is a mean, sordid, cowardly soul that would abandon his country and shift for his own little self, when there is any probability of defending it. To give the greater weight to what I say, I may take the liberty to tell you, I have as little personal interest, as little to lose in the colony, as most of you. If I consulted either my safety or my temporal interest, I should soon remove with my family to Great Britain, or the Northern colonies, where I have had very inviting offers. Nature has not formed me for a military life, nor furnished me with any great degree of fortitude and courage; yet I must de- clare, that after the most calm and impartial deliberation, I am determined not to leave my country while there is any prospect of defending it."*
Dejection and alarm vanished under his eloquence, and at the conclusion of his address every man seemed to say, "Let us march against the enemy!" A patriotic discourse was delivered by him on the 17th of August, 1755, before Captain Overton's company of Independent Volunteers, the first volunteer company raised in Virginia after Braddock's defeat. In a note appended to this discourse, Davies said: " As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel Wash- ington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto pre- served in so signal a manner for some important service to his country."t
It is probable that Patrick Henry caught the spark of elo- quence from Davies, as in his early youth, and in after years, he often heard him preach. They were alike gifted with a profound sensibility. Henry always remarked that Mr. Davies was "the
* Davies' Sermons, iii. 169; Sermon on the defeat of General Braddock going to Fort Du Quesne; Memoir of Davies in Evan. and Lit. Mag.
+ Davies' Sermons, iii. 38. " Who is Mr. Washington ?" inquired Lord Hali- fax. "I know nothing of him," he added; " but they say he behaved in Brad- dock's action as bravely as if he really loved the whistling of bullets."
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greatest orator he had ever heard." Presbyterianism steadily advanced in Virginia under the auspices of Davies and his successors, particularly Graham, Smith, Waddell, "the blind preacher " of Wirt's "British Spy," and Brown.
The Rev. James Waddell, a Presbyterian minister, was born in the North of Ireland, in July, 1739, as is believed. He was brought over in his infancy by his parents to America; they set- tled in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, on White-clay Creek. James was sent to school at Nottingham to Dr. Finley, afterwards president of the College of New Jersey. In the school young Waddell made such proficiency in his studies as to become an assistant teacher; and Dr. Benjamin Rush, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, recited lessons to him there. He devoted his attention chiefly to the classics, in which he became very well versed. He was afterwards an assistant to the elder Smith, father of the Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hamp- den Sidney College, Virginia, and of the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, president of the College of New Jersey. Waddell, in- tending to pursue the vocation of a teacher, and to settle with that view at Charleston, in South Carolina, set out for the South. In passing through Virginia he met with the celebrated preacher, Davies, and that incident gave a different turn to his life. Shortly after, he became an assistant to the Rev. Mr. Todd in his school in the County of Louisa, with whom he studied theology. He was licensed to preach in 1761, and ordained in the following year, when he settled as pastor in Lancaster County. Here, about the year 1768, he married Mary, daughter of Colonel James Gordon, of that county,* a wealthy and influential man. In the division of the Presbyterian Church Mr. Waddell was of the "New Side," as it was termed. The Rev. Samuel Davies often preached to Mr. Waddell's congregation; as also did White- field several times.
In the year 1776 Mr. Waddell removed from Lower Virginia, in very feeble health, to Augusta County. His salary was now only forty-five pounds, Virginia currency, per annum. In 1783
* Ancestor of the late General Gordon, of Albemarle.
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he came to reside at an estate purchased by him, and called Hopewell, at the junction of Louisa, Orange, and Albemarle- the dwelling-house being in Louisa. Here he again became a classical teacher, receiving pupils in his own house. James Bar- bour, afterwards governor of Virginia, was one of these, and Merriwether Lewis, the companion of Clarke in the exploration beyond the Rocky Mountains, another. Mr. Waddell resided in Louisa County about twenty years, and died there, and was buried, according to his request, in his garden. During his resi- dence here he was, for a part of the time, deprived of his sight; but he continued to preach. In person he was tall and erect; his complexion fair, with a light blue eye. His deportment was dignified; his manners elegant and graceful. He is repre- sented by Mr. Wirt, in the "British Spy," as preaching in a white linen cap; this was, indeed, a part of his domestic cos- tume, but when he went abroad he always wore a large full- bottomed wig, perfectly white. Mr. Wirt held him as equal to Patrick Henry, in a different species of oratory. In regard to place, time, costume, and lesser particulars, Mr. Wirt used an allowable liberty in grouping together incidents which had occurred apart, and perhaps imagining, as in a sermon, expres- sions which had been uttered at the fire-side. Patrick Henry's opinion of Mr. Waddell's eloquence has been before mentioned. It was the remark of another cotemporary, that when he preached, "whole congregations were bathed in tears." It might also be said by his grave, as at that of John Knox,-
"Here lies one who never feared the face of man."
The late Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander married a daughter of Dr. Waddell, and the late Rev. Dr. James Waddell Alexander thus derived his middle name.
August, 1755, the assembly voted forty thousand pounds for the public service, and the governor and council immediately re- solved to augment the Virginia Regiment to sixteen companies, numbering fifteen hundred men. To Washington was granted the sum of three hundred pounds in reward for his gallant beha- vior and in compensation for his losses at the battle of Mononga - hela. Colonel Washington was, during this month, commissioned
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commander-in-chief of the forces, and allowed to appoint his own officers. The officers next in rank to him were Lieutenant- Colonel Adam Stephen and Major Andrew Lewis. Washing- ton's military reputation was now high, not only in Virginia, but in the other colonies. Peyton Randolph raised a volunteer com- pany of one hundred gentlemen, who, however, proved quite unfit for the frontier service.
After organizing the regiment and providing the commissariat, Washington repaired early in October to Winchester, and took such measures as lay in his power to repel the cruel outrages of a savage irruption. Alarm, confusion, and disorder prevailed, so that he found no orders obeyed but such as a party of soldiers, or his own drawn sword, enforced. He beheld with emotion calamities which he could not avert, and he strenuously urged the necessity of an act to enforce the military law, to remedy the insolence of the soldiers and the indolence of the officers. He even intimated a purpose of resigning, unless his authority should be re-enforced by the laws, since he found himself thwarted in his exertions at every step by a general perverseness and in- subordination, aggravated by the hardships of the service and the want of system. At length, by persevering solicitations, he prevailed on the assembly to adopt more energetic military regu- lations. The discipline thus introduced was extremely rigorous, severe flogging being in ordinary use. The penalty for fighting was five hundred lashes; for drunkenness, one hundred. The troops were daily drilled and practised in bush-fighting. A Cap- tain Dagworthy, stationed at Fort Cumberland, commissioned by General Sharpe, governor of Maryland, refusing, as holding a king's commission, to obey Washington's orders, the dispute was referred by Governor Dinwiddie to General Shirley, commander- in-chief of his majesty's armies in America, who was then at Boston. He was also requested to grant royal commissions to Colonel Washington and his field-officers, such commissions to imply rank but to give no claim to pay.
The Indians, after committing murders and barbarities upon the unhappy people of the border country, retired beyond the mountains. Colonel Byrd and Colonel Randolph were sent out with presents to the Cherokees, Catawbas, and other Southern
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Indians, in order to conciliate their good-will and counteract the intrigues of the French.
Colonel Washington obtained leave to visit General Shirley, so as to deliver in person a memorial from the officers of the Virgi- nia Regiment, requesting him to grant them king's commissions ; and also in order to make himself better acquainted with the military plans of the North. He set out from Alexandria early in February, 1756, accompanied by his aid-de-camp, Colonel George Mercer, and on his route passed through Philadelphia, New York, New London, Newport, and Providence. He visited the governors of Pennsylvania and New York, and spent several days in each of the principal cities. He was well received by General Shirley, with whom he continued ten days, mingling with the society of Boston, attending the sessions of the legislature, and visiting Castle William. During the tour he was everywhere looked upon with interest as the hero of the Monongahela. Shirley decided the contested point between Dagworthy and him in his favor.
While in New York he was a guest of his friend Beverley Ro- binson (brother of the speaker.) Miss Mary Philipse, a sister of Mrs. Robinson, and heiress of a vast estate, was an inmate of the family, and Washington became enamored of her. The flame was transient; he probably having soon discovered that another suitor was preferred to him. She eventually married Captain Roger Morris, his former associate in arms, and one of Brad- dock's aids. She and her sister, Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Inglis, were the only females who were attainted of high treason during the Revolution. Imagination dwells on the outlawry of a lady who had won the admiration of Washington. Humanity is shocked that a woman should have been attainted of treason for clinging to the fortunes of her husband .* Mary Philipse is the original of one of the characters in Cooper's "Spy."
* Sabine's Loyalists, 476.
CHAPTER LXIII.
1756-1758.
First Settlers of the Valley-Sandy Creek Expedition-Indian Irruption-Mea- sures of Defence-Habits of Virginians-Washington and Dinwiddie-Congress of Governors-Dinwiddie succeeded by Blair-Davies' Patriotic Discourse.
THE inhabitants of tramontane Virginia are very imperfectly acquainted with its history. This remark applies particularly to that section commonly called the Valley of Virginia, which, lying along the Blue Ridge, stretches from the Potomac to the Alle- ghany Mountains. Of this many of the inhabitants know little more than what they see. They see a country possessing salu- brity and fertility, yielding plentifully, in great variety, most of the necessaries of life, a country which has advantages, conveni- ences, and blessings, in abundance, in profusion, it may almost be said in superfluity. But they know not how it came into the hands of the present occupants; they know not who were the first settlers, whence they came, at what time, in what numbers, nor what difficulties they had to encounter, nor what was the progress of population. One who would become acquainted with these matters must travel back a century or more ; he must witness the early adventurers leaving the abodes of civilization, and singly, or in families, or in groups composed of several families, like pioneers on a forlorn hope, entering the dark, dreary, trackless forest, which had been for ages the nursery of wild beasts and the pathway of the Indian. After traversing this inhospitable solitude for days or weeks, and having become weary of their pilgrimage, they determined to separate, and each family taking its own course in quest of a place where they may rest, they find a spot such as choice, chance, or necessity points out; here they sit down; this they call their home-a cheerless, houseless home. If they have a tent, they stretch it, and in it they all nestle; otherwise the umbrage of a wide-spreading oak, or may- hap the canopy of heaven, is their only covering. In this new-
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found home, while they are not exempt from the common frailties and ills of humanity, many peculiar to their present condition thicken around them. Here they must endure excessive labor, fatigue, and exposure to inclement seasons; here innumerable perils and privations await them; here they are exposed to alarms from wild beasts and from Indians. Sometimes driven from home, they take shelter in the breaks and recesses of the moun- tains, where they continue for a time in a state of anxious sus- pense; venturing at length to reconnoitre their home, they per- haps find it a heap of ruins, the whole of their little peculium destroyed. This frequently happened. The inhabitants of the country being few, and in most cases widely separated from each other, each group, fully occupied with its own difficulties and dis- tresses, seldom could have the consolation of hoping for the advice, assistance, or even sympathy of each other. Many of them, worn out by the hardships inseparable from their new con- dition, found premature graves; many hundreds, probably thou- sands, were massacred by the hands of the Indians; and peace and tranquillity, if they came at all, came at a late day to the few survivors.
"Tantæ erat molis-condere gentem."
Here have been stated a few items of the first cost of this country, but the half has not been told, nor can we calculate in money the worth of the sufferings of these people, especially we cannot estimate in dollars and cents the value of the lives that were lost .*
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