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"MAKERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY" SERIES
GEORGE
WASHINGTON
By CALISTA McCABE COURTENAY
ILLUSTRATED BY
A. M. TURNER
AND
HARRIET KAUCHER
[Illustration: George Washington]
Copyright, 1917, by
SAM'L GABRIEL SONS & COMPANY
NEW YORK
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I 5
Washington's Early Life--Appointed as Surveyor--First
Trip into the Wilderness--Entrusted with Message
to the French.
CHAPTER II 20
Washington Appointed a Member of Gen. Braddock's
Staff--French and Indian War--Washington Made
Commander of Virginia Forces--Causes of the American
Revolution--Washington a Member of the First Continental
Congress.
CHAPTER III 30
Beginning of the Revolution--Washington
Made Commander-in-Chief
of the Continental
Army--British Forced
to Leave Boston.
CHAPTER IV 40
Declaration of Independence
Signed--Battle
of Long Island--Battle
of White Plains--Washington
Crosses the Delaware
and Surprises the
Hessians at Trenton.
CHAPTER V 52
Recapture of Fort Ticonderoga
by Gen. Burgoyne--Battle
of Brandywine--Battle
of Germantown--Burgoyne's
Surrender
at Saratoga--Washington
at Valley Forge--Alliance with France.
CHAPTER VI 62
Battle of Monmouth--Patriots Receive Aid from France--Recapture
of Fort at Stony Point by Gen. Anthony
Wayne--Washington at Morristown--Surrender of
Charleston, S. C., to the British--Treason of Benedict
Arnold.
CHAPTER VII 73
Gen. Gates Defeated at Camden, S. C.--Battle of King's
Mountain--Washington Sends Aid to the South--Siege of
Yorktown--Surrender of Lord Cornwallis--Peace Treaty
Signed--Washington's Farewell to His Officers.
CHAPTER VIII 83
Washington Retires to Mount Vernon--Inaugurated as
First President of the United States--His Reelection--His
Death at Mount Vernon.
[Illustration: The Washington Monument]
LIST OF COLORED PLATES
Washington Leaving His Home _Frontispiece_
Washington Taking Command of the Army 20
Washington Crossing the Delaware 40
At Valley Forge 52
Washington Bidding Farewell to His Officers 73
Washington Welcomed in New York 83
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
WASHINGTON'S EARLY LIFE--APPOINTED AS SURVEYOR--FIRST TRIP INTO THE
WILDERNESS--ENTRUSTED WITH MESSAGE TO THE FRENCH--1732-1754
[Illustration]
The twenty-second day of February is a national holiday in America
because, as everybody knows, it is the anniversary of George
Washington's birthday. All loyal Americans love and honor him, the
greatest man in the history of the Republic.
He was born in 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, where the Potomac
River flowed past his father's farm. The farm-house, called "Wakefield,"
was burned, but the United States Government built a monument to mark
the place where it stood.
When "Wakefield" was destroyed, the family lived for a time in a home,
later called Mount Vernon, in Fairfax County. But the real boyhood home
of George Washington was a farm overlooking the Rappahannock River,
where his parents went when he was about eight years old. His father,
Augustine Washington, was a prosperous Virginia planter, and owned
several fine estates.
His mother's name was Mary Ball. She was a beautiful and sensible woman,
and a wise, firm and loving mother. She was his father's second wife and
there were two little lads already in the home, Lawrence and Augustine,
when she came to take the place of their mother who had died. Besides
these two half-brothers, George had two sisters and three brothers. The
two older sons were sent to England to school.
When George was eight years old, Lawrence returned home, having finished
his studies. A great affection at once sprang up between them. George
was a fine, manly little fellow whom any big brother could love, and he
looked up to Lawrence as a model. Before long, Lawrence went away to the
wars, serving under Admiral Vernon in the West Indies. His letters
filled George with admiration and he at once became commander-in-chief
of all the boys at school; they had parades and battles in imitation of
those Lawrence wrote about.
George's father died when he was twelve years old, but, fortunately, he
had a wise and careful mother. She taught him respect and obedience to
authority; justice and courtesy to others; loyalty to God and his
country. He had a high temper and a spirit of command, which she taught
him to control. A few times only in his life, when greatly provoked, did
his anger get beyond bounds. He loved and honored his mother deeply and
never forgot her teachings.
George and his younger brothers were educated in the country schools of
Virginia. George soon showed that he had a practical mind, caring little
for poetry and literature. He liked mathematics and wanted to know about
business and keeping accounts. He spent hours copying into a book the
exact forms of legal papers of all kinds. He was very neat and accurate
in his school work and learned the value of system and order. He never
began a thing without finishing it. He never did anything without
knowing the reason why. When he grew up, these fine principles and this
skill and accuracy, fitted him to take a great part in the history of
America.
All boys in those early days knew how to handle guns and manage horses.
George was an expert rider and loved the life of the woods. Being
exceptionally tall and strong, he was the champion athlete at school. It
is said he could throw a stone farther than any man in Virginia.
Besides, he was so fair-minded that the boys always let him settle their
disputes and quarrels, knowing he would give every one a square deal. He
was the admired and trusted leader of them all.
In addition to his mother's care, George soon had the loving advice and
devoted friendship of his brother Lawrence. The war was over and that
splendid young gentleman had come home, and had married the charming
Anne Fairfax. His house, willed to him by his father, stood upon a hill
overlooking the beautiful Potomac River. To this lovely home, surrounded
by lawns and stately trees, Lawrence gave the name Mount Vernon, in
honor of the Admiral under whom he had served. George spent as much time
as possible here, where he met many persons of education and refinement.
While he was still a young boy, he wrote out for himself a long list of
rules of politeness and good behavior. He had observed that older people
do not like careless children, who forget the comforts and rights of
others. As a result, he was well liked by his brother's friends. Among
them were often military and naval officers, who told him stories of war
and adventure in foreign lands. When he was fourteen, one of these
officers would have appointed him midshipman in the British navy. He was
eager to go, but his mother needed his help in the management of their
property. So he continued two years more at school, studying
mathematics, engineering and surveying.
The country was then new and wild and there was much work for land
surveyors, whose business it was to measure off boundaries and describe
the positions of rivers, mountains and forests in a piece of land.
George learned to do this so well that by the time he was sixteen, he
was appointed public surveyor of his county. His chief work for the next
three years was on the vast tracts of land owned by Lord Fairfax, the
uncle of Lawrence Washington's wife. Though very young, George was a
great favorite with his lordship, who often took him fox hunting.
George was a bold and skillful horseman and rode well after the hounds.
[Illustration: Surveying]
The estate of Lord Fairfax, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock
rivers and extending to the Alleghany Mountains, had been given to his
grandfather by King Charles II. These lands had never been settled nor
surveyed. People known as squatters were now moving in and taking
possession of the best places without permission. It became necessary to
have the land surveyed, and these settlers either driven out or made to
pay for certain definite parts. Lord Fairfax knew no one who could do
this so well as George Washington, for he was strong and fair enough to
deal wisely with the rough settlers. It was just what George wanted to
do, and he gladly accepted the offer.
In March, George set out for his first trip into the wilderness. He was
just sixteen years old, and it was his first big undertaking. George
Fairfax, Anne's brother, went with him. They crossed the mountains into
the lovely valley of the Shenandoah River. George's letters home were
full of the beauty of the country and the richness of the land. After
the first night, they found it more comfortable to sleep out under the
sky than in the poor, untidy lodgings of the settlers. They lived on
wild turkey and other game. They did their own cooking, roasting the
meat on sticks over the fire and eating it on broad, clean chips.
They met a party of war-painted Indians, and for the first time George
saw an Indian war dance. He studied the Indians carefully, for he wanted
to understand their ways so that he might know how to deal with them.
All through his life, he was kind and just in his treatment of these
people.
The work of surveying grants of land took them long distances among the
mountains and through the valleys. They traveled on horseback over the
woodland trails, for there were as yet no roads. Sometimes they found
the rivers so high that they crossed in canoes, their horses swimming.
George returned in a month, well pleased with his adventures, and Lord
Fairfax, delighted with his success, paid him well.
The cordial, friendly, free life of Virginia pleased Lord Fairfax more
than did the life in England. When he heard the account of the
fertility and beauty of the Shenandoah Valley, he decided to make his
home there. George laid out for him a fine farm of ten thousand acres.
The long stone farm-house, surrounded by servants' quarters, stables and
kennels, was located on a charming hillside. The place was called
"Greenway Court," and visitors always found a warm welcome, whether
Indians, woodsmen, or friends from the cities. Here George stayed when
on his surveying trips and during the hunting seasons.
Until he was nineteen, George spent his time at his work, or at home
with his mother or at Mount Vernon with Lawrence. The society of his
home and friends kept him from being spoiled by the roughness of the
wilderness. He was now six feet, two inches in height, with a fresh,
out-door complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He had attractive
manners, he was careful about his dress, and presented a pleasing
appearance. Through all his life, George Washington was a true
gentleman.
He was so well paid for his work that he was able to buy several pieces
of fine land. His noble character gave him a high place among the
leading men of his colony. When he was nineteen, he was appointed one of
four military officers in the colonies, with the rank and pay of a
major, $750 a year--a considerable sum at that time.
Troubles had now arisen between the French and the English about the
ownership of lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. The Indians,
regarding the lands as theirs, took part in the disturbance. To protect
her frontiers, Virginia was divided into four districts, each under a
leader, whose duty it was to organize and drill militia. George at once
began to study military tactics and the arts of war. This was
interrupted by a trip to the West Indies with his beloved brother
Lawrence, who was ill of consumption.
They had hardly arrived there when George had a severe attack of
smallpox; though he soon got well, his face was scarred for life. He
wrote home about the beauty of the island, the wonderful trees and
fruits, and his social pleasures--dinners, parties and drives. For the
first time in his life, he attended a theater. He visited the courts of
justice and the fortifications; studied the laws, the soil and the
crops, learning all that could be learned about the island. The trip
resulted in no lasting good for Lawrence, however, for he died the
following summer, beloved and honored by the colonists.
George was only twenty, but Lawrence left Mount Vernon in his charge,
and the care of his wife and little daughter. The farm on the
Rappahannock had been given to George by their father. These two fine
estates, with the property he had bought for himself, made George a
large land owner when still a very young man. The care of all this
property and his military duties kept him busy.
During this time, the trouble with the French had grown more serious.
The English, having settled the eastern sea-coast, claimed the lands to
the west for their settlers. The French claimed the same lands by reason
of having explored them first. The rich country lying west of the
Alleghany Mountains, between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, was
the region in question. The French were planning to hold it by a line of
forts from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and near the eastern end of
Lake Erie, they had built two forts.
Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia decided to send a message to the
French commandant, Saint Pierre, warning him to keep off English soil.
He needed someone brave and strong enough to travel in the winter,
through hundreds and hundreds of miles of forests and across mountains
and swift rivers; who knew how to take care of himself in the woods; who
could get along with the Indians, and meet the French officers with
courtesy and wisdom.
Of all the men in Virginia, the Governor chose George Washington, only
twenty-one years old, for this dangerous and important journey!
So, late in the autumn of 1753, Major Washington set out for the Ohio
River, accompanied by Christopher Gist, a brave and daring frontiersman,
and an Indian chief called Half King, as guides, together with
interpreters and a small company of trusted men. They traveled on
horseback, and took with them tents and supplies for the journey.
As they proceeded, cold weather overtook them and the forests became
almost impassable from snow. Traveling was so difficult that, when they
reached the Monongahela River, they sent two men down the river in a
canoe with their baggage. These men waited for them at the fork where
the Allegheny River joins the Monongahela to form the Ohio. As soon as
Washington saw this fork, he marked it as a splendid location for a
fort, of which we shall learn more later.
Pushing on a little farther, Washington and his men reached a little
settlement on the Ohio River, where Indian chiefs met him in council. He
told them he had a letter for the French commandant and asked for their
advice and help. Indians are very dignified and slow in their councils.
They kept Washington waiting for several days. Then three of the
greatest chiefs went with him to the French forts. These were in what is
now northwestern Pennsylvania. It was a journey of many miles through
snow and mud and took nearly a week.
[Illustration: Starting for the French Camp]
It was almost the middle of December before Washington delivered his
message to the French commandant, Saint Pierre. He was politely
received by the French officers, with whom he discussed matters very
tactfully. It took some days to prepare the reply to the Governor of
Virginia. While they waited, the French tried, with presents and liquor,
to coax Washington's Indian friends to leave him. At this time, the
Indian tribes were in a difficult position. Both the French and the
English were trying to get their lands and each seeking to win their
alliance against the other. Washington reminded the chiefs that he had
their word of honor and so kept them with him.
After receiving the French reply, the party started back home, going as
far as possible in canoes. The rivers were swollen and full of ice,
making the water-trip extremely dangerous. On Christmas Day, Washington
began his long journey home--nearly a thousand miles through almost
trackless forests. The horses became so tired that he and Christopher
Gist decided to hurry on foot, in advance of the others, to the fork of
the Ohio, leaving their horses to be brought later. They tramped several
days, camping in the forests at night. An Indian met them and offered to
show them a short cut. But he was treacherous and guided them out of
their way and tried to shoot them. They escaped, traveling as fast as
they could all night and all the next day.
At nightfall they came to the Allegheny River, expecting to find it
frozen over, but it was full of floating ice and they had no way to
cross. After working a whole day, with only a small hatchet, they made a
raft. In trying to pole this across the swift current, Washington was
thrown into the water and was nearly drowned, but he managed to get on
the raft again and they reached an island, where they spent the night.
It was so intensely cold that Gist's hands and feet were frozen. The
next morning, they got ashore on the chunks of ice and by suppertime
were in the warm house of a trader named Frazier. In a few days, they
were rested enough to go on to Gist's home, where the Major bade his
companion good-by and went on alone on horseback, through constant snows
and bitter cold.
On the sixteenth of January (1754), Major Washington delivered the
French reply to Governor Dinwiddie. He had been absent almost three
months on his perilous journey, and you can imagine that his mother and
friends were glad to see him safe at home again.
The Governor and the colonists were very proud of the way Washington had
performed his errand. His wisdom in his dealings with the Indians and
the French, his firmness, his courage and daring in the face of peril,
had indeed been marked. He had not only done well what he had been sent
to do, but he had thoroughly examined the French forts and made notes of
the best places for English defenses. From that time, he was trusted
with important duties.
As might have been expected, the reply from the French commandant stated
that the land belonged to French settlers and that they intended to keep
it. It was Washington's opinion that the French intended in the spring
to take possession of the whole country. The Governor of Virginia tried
to interest other colonies to help fight the French. When they refused,
Virginia sent Captain Trent to raise a company of men in the western
country and to build a fort at the fork of the Ohio River, where the
city of Pittsburgh now stands.
Washington, now Colonel, was ordered to raise three hundred men and
build a road to this fort for cannon and supplies. He succeeded in
getting together one hundred and fifty men, who were poorly equipped,
and without training. They built the road as far as Cumberland. Here, in
April, 1754, they met Captain Trent's men in retreat. A French force of
three hundred men had surprised them by suddenly paddling down the river
in canoes, and planting their guns before the fort, with a summons to
surrender in an hour. One young officer and fifty men could not hold out
against so many. So they surrendered and marched back over the
mountains.
Every day traders and settlers came by, hurrying eastward. They said the
French had taken the place at the fork of the Ohio and were building a
strong fort. They were coaxing the Indians, with fine presents, to fight
the English. If the British were to succeed against the French, they
required a good road over which to march an army. So Colonel Washington
hurried the road building as much as possible, but at best he could make
only slow progress in such mountainous country.
He received a message from the friendly chief Half King, telling him
that a French force was on its way to attack him. With a little band of
men, Washington made his way by night through the forest, in a heavy
rain, to the camp of Half King. Indian scouts tracked the Frenchmen to a
forest near a place called Great Meadows, where, in May, Washington and
his men attacked them on one side and the Indians on the other. The
Colonel was in the thickest of the fight and, for the first time, heard
bullets whistling about his head. Ten Frenchmen were killed and
twenty-one taken prisoners. Half King sent the scalps of the dead men,
with tomahawks and strings of black wampum (small beads made of shells
and sometimes used by the Indians as money), to all his allies and asked
them to join the English.
This was Washington's first skirmish and it opened the French and Indian
War that lasted seven years. Washington now encamped at Great Meadows
where he dug rude trenches, which he called Fort Necessity. Supplies of
food and ammunition were slow in reaching him. He had been reënforced
with troops from the command of Colonel Fry, who had died on the way,
and Washington was now made commander of the joint forces of about three
hundred men.
The French finished their fort, which they called Duquesne (doo-cané).
Then about nine hundred French and Indians attacked Washington. The
English fought bravely, but Half King and his men deserted Washington.
Being greatly outnumbered, he was obliged to surrender.
Colonel Washington led his beaten and discouraged men home, trying to
cheer them while sharing their hardships. The campaign, fought against
such odds, had not been successful, but Washington was publicly thanked
for his bravery and hard work.
He resigned his commission and went to look after his mother's affairs.
He soon settled at Mount Vernon and began work on his farm. His greatest
desire was to devote himself to country life, but he was needed too much
by the colony to be allowed to live as a private man.
[Illustration]