Expedition against the French.

Attack upon the Virginians. Fort Duquesne. Fort Necessity.

Surprise of Jumonville.

the traders on the frontier. The command of the two companies was given to Major Washington, one of which was to be raised by himself; the other by Captain Trent, who was to collect his men among the traders in the back settlements. Washington proceeded to Alexandria, while Trent went to the frontier and collected his corps in the neighborhood of the Ohio Fork.

When the Virginia Assembly met, they voted ten thousand pounds toward supporting the expedition to the Ohio. The Carolinas also voted twelve thousand pounds. With this aid, and promises of more, Dinwiddie determined to increase the number of men to be sent to the Ohio to three hundred, to be divided into six companies. Colonel Joshua Fry' was appointed to the command of the whole, and Major Washington was made his lieu tenant. Ten cannons and other munitions of war were sent to Alexandria for the use of the expedition.

b April 7

c May 1, 1754.

Washington left Alexandria, with two companies of troops, on the 2d of April,a a 1754 and arrived at Will's Creek on the 20th. He was joined on the route by Captain Adam Stephen, the general who was cashiered after the battle at Germantown, twentythree years subsequently. When about to move on, Ensign Ward arrived with the intelligence that Captain Trent's corps, with those sent out by the Ohio Company to construct a fort at the Ohio Fork (now Pittsburgh), had been obliged to surrender the post to a French force of one thousand men, most of them Indians, under Monsieur Contrecœur.❜b This was the first overt act of hostility—this was the beginning of the FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, which lasted seven years. The French completed the fort taken from Trent, and called it Duquesne, in honor of the governor general of Canada. Washington pushed forward with one hundred and fifty men, to attempt to retrieve this loss, confident that a larger force than his own, under Colonel Fry, would speedily follow. He marched for the junction of the Red Stone Creek and Monongahela River, thirty-seven miles from Fort Duquesne, where he intended to fortify himself, and wait for the arrival of Colonel Fry, with artillery. On the way, he received intelligence from Half Kingd that a French force was then marching to attack the English, wherd May 21. ever they might be found. Washington was now a few miles beyond the Great Meadows, an eligible place for a camp, and thither he returned and threw up an intrenchment, which he called Fort Necessity, from the circumstances under which it was erected. On the 27th, he received another message from Half King, informing him that he had discovered the hiding-place of a French detachment of fifty men. With a few Indians, and forty chosen troops, Washington proceeded to attack them. They were found in a wellsheltered place among rocks, and, assaulting them by surprise, he defeated them after a severe skirmish of ten minutes. Ten of the Frenchmen were killed (among whom was M. De Jumonville, the commander), one wounded, and twenty-one made prisoners. Washington had only one man killed, and two or three wounded. The prisoners were conducted to Fort Necessity, and from thence sent over the mountains into Eastern Virginia.3

1 Joshua Fry was a native of Somersetshire, England, and was educated at Oxford. He was at one time professor of mathematics in William and Mary College, Williamsburg; was subsequently a member of the House of Burgesses, and served as a commissioner in running the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. With Peter Jefferson, he made a map of Virginia, and by these employments became well acquainted with the frontier regions. In 1752, he was one of the Virginia commissioners for making a treaty with the Indians at Logstown. His integrity, experience, and knowledge of the Indian character qualified him to command the expedition against the French in 1754. He died at Will's Creek, while on his way to the Ohio, on the 31st of May, 1754.

2 Ensign Ward was in command of the post when the enemy approached, Captain Trent being then at Will's Creek, and Lieutenant Frazier at his residence, ten miles distant. The whole number of men under Ward was only forty-one.

3 The French made a great clamor about this skirmish, declaring that Jumonville was the bearer of dispatches; and French writers unjustly vilified the character of Washington, by representing the affair as a massacre. Cotemporary evidence clearly indicates that Jumonville's embassy was a hostile, not a peaceful one; and, as Contrecœur had commenced hostilities by capturing the fort at the Ohio Fork, Washington was justified in his conduct by the rules of war

Death of Colonel Fry.

Washington in Command. Fort Necessity. Washington's Return home. The Great Meadows Two days after Washington wrote his dispatch to Colonel Fry, communicating the facts respecting the attack on the French, that officer died at Will's Creek, a His troops, a May 31. intended to re-enforce Washington, were sent forward, and swelled his little army to four hundred men. On the death of Fry, the chief command of the expedition devolved upon Washington, and with his inadequate force he proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne. He held a council of war at Gist's plantation, where information was received that the French at Duquesne were re-enforced, and were preparing to march against the English. Captain Mackay, with his South Carolina company, and Captains Lewis and Polson, with their detachments, were summoned to rendezvous at Gist's plantation, where another council was held, and a retreat was resolved upon. The intrenchments thrown up at Gist's were abandoned, and, with their ammunition and stores, the whole party reached Fort Necessity on the first of July.b There, on account of great fatigue, and suffering from hunger, they halted, and commenced the construction of a ditch and abatis, and strengthened the stockades.'

b 1754.

On the third of July, a French force under M. De Villiers, Jumonville's brother, reported to be nine hundred strong, approached to the attack of Fort Necessity. It was about eleven o'clock when they came within six hundred yards of the outworks, and began an ineffectual fire.

Colonel Washington had drawn up his little band outside the trenches, and ordered his men to reserve their fire until the enemy were near enough to do execution. But the French were not inclined to leave the woods and make an assault upon the works. At sunrise, rain had begun to fall, and toward noon it came down in torrents, accompanied by vivid lightning The trenches into which Colonel Washington ordered his men were filled with water, and the arms of the provincials were seriously injured. A desultory fire was kept up the whole day by both parties, without any decisive result, when De Villiers sent proposals to capitulate. Washington at first declined, but on consultation with his officers, and being assured there was no chance of victory over such overwhelming numbers, he consented, and highly honorable terms were conceded. The English were allowed to march out of the fort with all the honors of war, retaining their baggage, and every thing except their artillery, and to return to Will's Creek unmolested. Washington agreed to restore the prisoners taken at the skirmish with Jumonville,' and that the English should not attempt to erect any establishment beyond the mountains for the space of one year. On their march from the fort, a party of one hundred Indians, who came to re-enforce the French, surrounded them, and menaced them with death. They plundered their baggage, and com.

mitted other mischief.

The provincials finally arrived at Will's Creek, and Washington, with Captain Mackay, proceeded to Williamsburg, where the former communicated to Dinwiddie, in person, the events of the campaign. The House of Burgesses of Virginia approved generally of the conduct of the campaign, and passed a vote of thanks to Washington and his officers. The

1 The Great Meadows, where Fort Necessity was built, is a level bottom, cleft by a small creek. Around it are hills of a moderate height and gradual ascent. The bottom is about two hundred and fifty yards wide where the fort was erected. It was a point well chosen, being about one hundred yards from the upland or wooded grounds on one side, and about a hundred and fifty on the other. The creek afforded water for the fort. On the side nearest the wood were three entrances, protected by short breast-works or bastions. The site of this fort is three or four hundred yards south of what is now called the National Road, four miles from the foot of Laurel Hill, and fifty miles from Cumberland, at Will's Creek. When Mr. Sparks visited the site in 1830, the lines of the fort were very visible.-See Sparks's Writings of Washington, ii., 457.

This part of the capitulation the governor refused to ratify, because the French, after the surrender, took eight Englishmen prisoners, and sent them to Canada. Vanbraam and Stobo, whom Washington left with De Villiers, as hostages for the fulfillment of the conditions of the capitulation, were sent to Canada. The prisoners on both sides were finally released.

3 It was during this campaign that the colonial convention was held at Albany, noticed on pages 302 and 303, vol. i., of this work, where a plan for a political union of all the colonies, similar in some of its features to that proposed by Governor Nicholson fifty years before, was submitted.

4 All the officers were named in the resolution of thanks, except those of the major of the regiment, who was charged with cowardice, and Captain Vanbraam, who was believed to have acted a treacherous part

Loss at Fort Necessity. French Duplicity. General Braddock.

Provincial Governors.

March toward Fort Duquesne.

exact loss of the provincials in this engagement is not known. There were twelve killed, and forty-three wounded, of the Virginia regiment; the number of killed and wounded belonging to Captain Mackay's Carolinians is not recorded. The number of provincials in the fort was about four hundred; the assailants were nearly one thousand strong, five hundred of whom were Frenchmen. The loss of the latter was supposed to be more than that

of the former.

When the British ministry called the attention of the French court to the transactions in America, the latter expressed the most pacific intentions and promises for the future, while its actions were in direct opposition to its professions. The English, therefore, resolved to send to America a sufficient force to co-operate with the provincial troops in driving the French back to Canada. On the twentieth of February, 1755, General Braddock arrived at Alexandria, in Virginia, with two regiments of the British army from Ireland, each consisting of five hundred men, with a suitable train of artillery, and with stores and provisions. His colonels were Dunbar and Sir Peter Halket. At a meeting of colonial govern

ors,' first called at Annapolis, and afterward convened at Alexandria, three expeditions were planned, one against Fort Duquesne, under Braddock; a second against Niagara and Frontenac (Kingston, U. C.), under General William Shirley; and a third against Crown Point, under General William Johnson. The last two expeditions have been fully considered in the first volume of this work.

General Braddock, with the force destined to act against Fort Duquesne, left Alexandria on the twentieth of April, and, marching by the way of Winchester, reached Will's Creek about the tenth of May. Here a fortification was thrown up, and named Fort Cumberland. Washington had left the service on account of a regulation by which the colonial officers were made to rank under those of the regular army, but being earnestly urged by General Braddock to accompany him, he consented to do so in the character of aid, and as a volunteer. The great delay in procuring wagons for transporting the baggage and stores, and in furnishing other supplies, gave the French an opportunity to arouse the Indians, and prepare for a vigorous defense.

On numbering his troops at Will's Creek, Braddock ascertained that his force consisted of a little more than two thousand effective men, about one half of whom belonged to the royal regiments. The remainder were furnished by the colonies, among whom were portions of two independent companies, contrib

E Beriddock

uted by New York, under Captain Horatio Gates, unto whom Burgoyne surrendered twentytwo years later. Braddock separated his army into two divisions. The advanced division, consisting of over twelve hundred men, he led in person; the other was intrusted to the command of Colonel Dunbar, who, by slower marches, was to remain in the rear. Braddock reached the junction of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers, within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne, on the eighth of July, where he was joined by Colonel Washington, who had just recovered from an attack of fever.

1755.

On the morning of the ninth, a the whole army crossed the Monongahela, and marching five miles along its southwestern banks, on account of rugged hills on the other side, they again crossed to the northeastern shore, and proceeded directly toward Fort Duquesne. Lieutenant Colonel Gage, afterward the commander of the British forces at Boston when besieged by the Americans under Washington, led the advanced guard of three

in falsely interpreting the terms of capitulation, which were written in French, by which Washington was made to acknowledge that Jumonville was assassinated. A pistole (about three dollars and sixty cents) was given as a gratuity to each soldier engaged in the campaign.

Six colonial governors assembled on this occasion, namely: Shirley, of Massachusetts; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; James Delancy, of New York; Sharpe, of Maryland; Morris, of Pennsylvania; and Dobbs, of North Carolina. Admiral Keppel, then in command of his majesty's fleet in America, was also present.

Alarm of the French.

Passage of the Monongahela. The Battle.

Washington's Advance.

Death of Braddock

hundred men in the order of march. Contrecœur, the commandant of Fort Duquesne, had been early informed of the approach of Braddock, and his Indian scouts were out in every direction. He had doubts of his ability to maintain the fort against the English, and contemplated an abandonment, when Captain De Beaujeu proposed to head a detachment of French and Indians, and meet them while on their march. The proposition was agreed to, and on the morning of the ninth of July, a at the moment when the English first crossa 1755. ed the Monongahela, the French and Indians took up their line of march, intending to make the attack at the second crossing of the river. Arriving too late, they posted themselves in the woods and ravines, on the line of march toward the fort.

It was one o'clock, and the sun was pouring its rays down fiercely, when the rear of the British army reached the north side of the Monongahela. A level plain extended from the river to a gentle hill, nearly half a mile northward. This hill terminated in higher elevations thickly covered with woods, and furrowed by narrow ravines.' Next to Gage, with his advanced party, was another division of two hundred men, and then came Braddock with the column of artillery and the main body of the army. Just as Gage was ascending the slope and approaching a dense wood, a heavy volley of musketry poured a deadly storm into his ranks. No adversary was to be seen. It was the first intimation that the enemy was near, and the firing seemed to proceed from an invisible foe. The British fired in return, but at random, while the concealed enemy, from behind trees, and rocks, and thick bushes, kept up rapid and destructive volleys. Beaujeu, the commander of the French and Indians, was killed at the first return fire, and M. Dumas took his place. Braddock advanced with all possible speed to the relief of the advanced guard; but so great was their panic, that they fell back in confusion upon the artillery and other columns of the army, and communicated their panic to the whole. The general tried in vain to rally his troops. Himself and officers were in the thickest of the fight, and exhibited indomitable courage. Washington ventured to suggest the propriety of adopting the Indian mode of skulking, and each man firing for himself, without orders; but Braddock would listen to no suggestions so contrary to military tactics. For three hours he endeavored to form his men into regular columns and platoons, as if in battle with European troops upon a broad plain, while the concealed enemy, with sure aim, was slaying his brave soldiers by scores. Harassed on every side, the British huddled together in great confusion, fired irregularly, and in several instances shot down their own officers without perceptibly injuring their enemies. The Virginians under Washington, contrary to orders, now adopted the provincial mode of fighting, and did more execution than all the rest of the troops. The carnage was dreadful. More than half of Braddock's whole army, which made such a beautiful picture in the eyes of Washington in the morning,' were killed and wounded. General Braddock received a wound which disabled him, and terminated his life three days afterward. Through the

1 Mr. Sparks visited this battle-field in 1830. He says the hill up which Gage and his detachment were marching is little more than an inclined plain of about three degrees. Down this slope extended two ravines, beginning near together, at about one hundred and fifty yards from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions, until they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the enemy were concealed and protected. In 1830, they were from eight to ten feet deep, and capable of holding a thousand men. It was between these ravines that the British army was slaughtered.-See Sparks's Washington, ii., 474. Although nearly one hundred years have elapsed since the battle, grape-shot and bullets are now sometimes cut out of the trees, or, with buttons and other metallic portions of military equipage, are turned up by the plowmen.

2 It was on this occasion that the haughty and petulant Braddock is said to have remarked contemptuously, “What, a Virginia colonel teach a British general how to fight!" It is proper to remark that this anecdote rests upon apocryphal authority.

3 Washington was often heard to say, during his lifetime, that the most beautiful spectacle he had ever beheld was the display of the British troops on that morning. Every man was neatly dressed in full uniform; the soldiers were arranged in columns, and marched in exact order; the sun gleamed from the burnished arms; the river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on the left.-Sparks.

✦ General Braddock had five horses shot under him before he was mortally wounded himself. He was conveyed first in a tumbril, then on horseback, and finally by his soldiers in their flight toward Fort Cum.

Washington's Skill.

Providential Care acknowledged.

Lord Loudon.

Now Expedition.

General Forbes.

stubbornness of that general, his contempt of the Indians, and the cowardice of many of his regular troops, an army thirteen hundred strong was half destroyed and utterly defeated by about one half that number, a large portion of whom were Indians.' Every mounted officer, except Washington, was slain before Braddock fell, and the whole duty of distributing orders devolved upon the youthful colonel, who was almost too weak from sickness to be in the saddle when the action commenced."

Londons

William Pitt entered the British ministry at the close of 1757, and one of his first acts was the preparation of a plan for the campaign of 1758 against the French and Indians. Lord Loudoun, who had been appointed to the chief command of the troops in America,' was also appointed the successor of Dinwiddie, who left Virginia in January, 1758. Loudoun's deputy, Francis Fauquier, a man greatly esteemed, performed the functions of governor. Pitt, in his arrangements, planned an expedition against Fort Duquesne. Every thing was devised upon a just and liberal scale. Brigadier-general Forbes was intrusted with the command of the expedition. The Virginian army was augmented to two thousand men. These were divided into two regiments. The first was under Colonel Washington, who was likewise commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces; the second was under Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, mentioned on page 235. After much delay in the collecting of men and munitions, the Virginians were ordered to Fort Cumberland, on the Potomac, at Will's Creek, to join the other portions of the expedition. The illness of General Forbes detained him long in Philadelphia, and, when able to move, his perversity of judgment placed many obstacles in the way of berland after the defeat. He was attended by Dr. James Craik.* He died on the night of the 15th, and was buried in the road, to prevent his body being discovered by the Indians. Colonel Washington read the impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church over it, by torch-light. The place of his grave is a few yards north of the present National Road, between the fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from Cumberland, and about a mile west of the site of Fort Necessity, at the Great Meadows. It is said that a man named Thomas Faucett, who was among the soldiers under Braddock, shot his general. Faucett resided near Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, toward the close of the last century, and never denied the accusation. He excused his conduct by the plea that by destroying the general, who would not allow his men to fire from behind trees, the remnant of the army was saved.

In a letter to his mother, written at Fort Cumberland nine days after the battle, Washington said, after mentioning the slaughter of the Virginia troops; "In short, the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them." He used similar language in writing to Governor Dinwiddie.

2 Colonel Washington had two horses shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat. Secretary Shirley was shot through the head, Sir Peter Halket was instantly killed, and among the wounded officers were Colonel Burton, Sir John St. Clair, Lieutenant Colonel Gage, Colonel Orme, Major Sparks, and Brigade-major Halket. Five captains were killed, and five wounded; fifteen lieutenants killed, and twenty-two wounded; out of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed, and thirty-seven wounded. The killed and wounded of the privates amounted to seven hundred and fourteen. One half of them were supposed to be killed, and these were stripped and scalped by the Indians. 3 See volume i., p. 110. John Forbes was a native of Petincenet, Fifeshire, Scotland, and was educated for a physician. He entered the army in 1745. After serving as quarter-master general under the Duke of Cumberland, he was appointed brigadier general, and sent to America. The remainder of his public career is recorded in

the text.

The fort at Will's Creek he called Cumberland, in honor of his former commander, and the town since built there retains its name.

* See page 34.

↑ Speaking of this in a letter to his brother, he remarked, "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, and escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me." Dr. Craik, the intimate friend of Washington through life, and who was in this battle, relates that fifteen years afterward, while traveling near the junction of the great Kenhawa and Ohio Rivers in exploring wild lands, they were met by a party of Indians with an interpreter, headed by a venerable chief. The old chief said he had come a long way to see Colonel Washington, for in the battle of the Monongahela, he had singled him out as a conspicuous object, fired his rifle at him fifteen times, and directed his young warriors to do the same. but not one could hit him. He was persuaded that the Great Spirit protected the young hero, and ceased firing at him. The Rev. Samuel Davies of Hanover (afterward president of Princeton College, New Jersey), when preaching to a volunteer com pany a month after the battle, said, in allusion to Colonel Washington, “I can not but hope Providence has hitherto preserved him in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country." Washington was never wounded in battle.