The action with De Jumonville took place on May 28, and the Half-King,
although disappointed as to scalps, went away, promising to return with
many warriors. He told me his friends the English had now at last begun
in earnest, but that it was no good war to keep prisoners.
As I trusted him more than most of the Indians, I sent thirty men
and some horses to assist in moving the Indian families, for without
them the warriors would never return; and I did not neglect to send
a runner back to hasten Mackay, who was in command of an independent
company from South Carolina. They were indeed quite independent,
having neither good sense nor discipline, as I was soon to discover.
My little skirmish with the French on May 28 added to my perplexities
the knowledge that as soon as the runners who escaped should reach the
fort at the Forks Contrecœur would undertake to avenge the loss of his
officer.
While I was impatiently waiting supplies from Croghan at Wills Creek,
for now we were six days without flour, came news that Colonel Frye,
my commander, was dead at that post. Colonel Innes of North Carolina,
who was to succeed him in the whole command, lay at Winchester with
four hundred men; but as he continued to lie there, neither he nor his
troops were of any use in the campaign.
During the period which elapsed between my fight on May 28 and my
being attacked on July 3, being now a colonel, and sure of soon being
reinforced, I made haste to complete the fort at Great Meadows.
There I had excellent help from Captain Stobo and Mr. Adam Stephen,
whom I made captain, and who, long after, became a general and served
under me in the great war.
It was only a log work we built, near to breast-high, with no roof,
one hundred feet square, with partitions, and surrounded at some
distance by a too shallow ditch and palisadoes. Captain Stobo gave to
this defence the name of Fort Necessity, and said that the name was
suggested by his empty belly, for indeed we were at this time half
starved.
Near about this time came three hundred men from Wills Creek, and, to
my satisfaction, my friend Dr. Craik, who was of a merry disposition,
and kept us in good humour, besides what aid he gave us as a physician,
and I never had the service of a better.
On the 9th of June arrived my old military teacher, Adjutant Muse, with
other men, nine swivels, and a very small supply of ammunition. He
fetched with him a wampum belt and presents and medals for the Indians,
as I had desired of the governor.
At this time, in order to secure the Indians, who are fickle and must
always be bribed, we had a fine ceremony, and I delivered a speech sent
from the governor.
Dr. Craik gave me, two years ago, the account he wrote home of this
occasion, and I leave it in this place for the time, since it serves to
record matters of which I have no distinct remembrance, and is better
wrote than it would have been by me.
MY DEAR ANNE: To-day, before we move on, I send you a letter
by a runner who returns to hasten our supplies. We had a
great ceremony to-day. A space in the meadows near the fort
was cleared, and all our men set around under arms in a great
circle. In the middle stood the Colonel, very tall and, like
all of us, very lean for lack of diet, for we are all shrunk
like persimmons in December. Before him were seated the
Half-King and the son of Aliquippa, the Queen of one of the
tribes. Last year our Colonel gave her a red match-coat and a
bottle of rum, and now she is his great friend and waiting for
more favours, especially rum.
The warriors were painted to beat even a London lady, and no
bird has more feathers or finer. The pipe of Council was passed
around, and all took a few whiffs. When it came to the turn
of our Colonel, he sneezed and coughed and made a wry face,
but none of the Indians so much as smiled, for they are a very
solemn folk. I could not refrain to laugh, so hid my face in
the last handkerchief I possess. There are holes in it, too.
Then we had the Indian’s speech and that the Governor sent to
be spoken. After this the Colonel hung around the necks of the
Chiefs medals of silver sent from England. One had the British
lion mauling the Gallic cock, and on the other side the King’s
effigy. Then the drums were beat, and the son of Aliquippa was
taken into Council as a sachem, and given, as is the custom, a
new name. I suppose it is a kind of heathen Christening. He was
called Fairfax. I hope his Lordship will look after his Godson,
or devil son, as he is more like to be. The Half-King was made
proud with the name of Dinwiddie, and so we are friends until
to-morrow, and allies――I call them _all lies_. After this the
Colonel read the morning service, which I hope pleased them.
They believed he was making magic.
This is a good account, and I certainly did make a face with the
tobacco-smoke, for, although at that time I raised the weed, I cannot
endure it.
Captain Mackay arrived on the 7th of June, but it came about untowardly
that the company which thus joined me was not Virginian, and gave me
more trouble than help. I may be wrong concerning the date of Captain
Mackay’s arrival, but he was with us when, on the 10th of June, I moved
out of our fort to prepare the road for the larger attempt proposed
to take the defences at the Forks of the Ohio. I soon found that I
was to have difficulty with this officer. I found him a good sort of
a gentleman, but, as he had a distinct commission from the King, he
declined to receive my commands, and, I found, would rather impede the
service than forward it. I have made it a rule, however, to do the best
I can in regard to obstacles I cannot control, and so I kept my temper
and was always civil to this gentleman, even when he would not permit
his men, unless paid a shilling a day, to assist in the making of roads.
As two masters are worse in an army than anywhere else, he agreed
willingly enough to remain at Fort Necessity, while I went on toward
Redstone Creek with my Virginians to better my road. It was a hard
task, and at night the men were so tired that the scouts and sentries
could hardly keep awake. The Indians came in daily, asking presents,
and were mostly spies.
At Gist’s old camp, thirteen miles from Great Meadows, I learned that
Fort Duquesne had been reinforced and that I was to be attacked by
a large force. I sent back for Mackay, and at once called in all my
hunters and scouting-parties. When Captain Mackay arrived we held a
council and resolved that we had a better chance to defend ourselves
at Fort Necessity. The officers gave up their horses to carry the
ammunition, and we began a retreat with all possible speed. The weather
was of the worst, very hot and raining, and the Carolina men, who
called themselves king’s soldiers, would give no assistance in dragging
the swivels. What with hunger and toil, my rangers were worn out when,
on July 1, we were come back to the fort. I was of half a mind to push
on and secure my retreat to Wills Creek; but the men refused to go on
with the swivels, and the few horses we had were mere bone-bags, and
some of them hardly fit to walk.
I turned over the matter that night with Captains Mackay and Stephen,
and resolved, for, indeed, I could do no better, to send for help and
abide in the fort. I was well aware that to retreat would turn every
Indian on the frontier against us, and I was in good hope to hold out.
If, as I wrote the governor, the French behaved with no greater spirit
than they did in the Jumonville affair, I might yet come off well
enough if provisions reached me in time, and I thought with proper
reinforcements we should have no great trouble in driving them to the
devil and Montreal.
On the evening of July 1 an Indian runner came in. He had been with De
Villiers and a force from Duquesne. He told me that when that officer
reached Gist’s palisado he fired on it, but, finding no one there,
was of a mind to go back, thinking I had returned to the settlements.
Unfortunately, some of our Indians, who were now leaving us in numbers,
told him I meant to make a stand at Fort Necessity.
Whether I should fall back farther or not was now a matter for little
choice. If I retreated with tired, half-starved men and no rum for
refreshment, De Villiers’s large, well-fed force and quick-footed
Indians would surely overtake us, and we should have to meet superiour
numbers without being intrenched. If Captain Mackay and his men, in my
absence, had done anything to complete my fort, I should have fared
better. Meanwhile we might be aided with men from Winchester, or, at
least, be provisioned. I said nothing to the South Carolina officer of
his neglect, for that would do no good, and I desired when it came to
fighting he should be in a good humour.
News seemed to fly through the forests as if the birds carried it,
and I was not surprised to learn before I got to the fort that the
Half-King and nearly all his warriors had stolen away. He was out of
humour with the officers I had left in charge and said no one consulted
him. I think he desired to escape a superiour force and to assure the
safety of his squaws and papooses, whom I was not ill pleased to be rid
of, but not of the warriors.
After my men were fed, Captain Stobo, Adjutant Muse, Captain Stephen,
and I took off our coats and went to work to help with axes, Dr. Craik
very merry and cheering the poor fellows, who were worn out with work.
We raised the log shelter a log higher, and dug our ditch deeper, and,
had we had more time, had done better to have enlarged the fort, for it
was quite too small for the force.