MISFORTUNES.--CAPITULATION OF FORT NECESSITY.
Scarcity began to prevail in the camp. Contracts had been made with
George Croghan for flour, of which he had large quantities at his
frontier establishment; for he was now trading with the army as well
as with the Indians. None, however, made its appearance. At one time
the troops were six days without flour. In this time of scarcity the
half-king, his fellow sachem, Scarooyadi, and thirty or forty
warriors, arrived, bringing with them their wives and children--so
many more hungry mouths to be supplied.
News came of the death of Colonel Fry at Wills' Creek, and that he was
to be succeeded in the command of the expedition by Colonel Innes of
North Carolina, who was actually at Winchester with three hundred and
fifty North Carolina troops. The colonel, however, never came to the
camp, nor did the North Carolina troops render any service in the
campaign--the fortunes of which might otherwise have been very
different. By the death of Fry, the command of the regiment devolved
on Washington.
The palisaded fort was now completed, and was named Fort Necessity,
from the pinching famine that had prevailed during its construction.
The scanty force in camp was augmented to three hundred by the arrival
from Wills' Creek of the men who had been under Colonel Fry. With them
came the surgeon of the regiment, Dr. James Craik, a Scotchman by
birth, and one destined to become a faithful and confidential friend
of Washington for the remainder of his life.
A letter from Governor Dinwiddie announced, however, that Captain
Mackay would soon arrive with an independent company of one hundred
men, from South Carolina. The title of independent company had a sound
ominous of trouble. Troops of the kind, raised in the colonies, under
direction of the governors, were paid by the crown, and the officers
had king's commissions; such, doubtless, had Captain Mackay. "I should
have been particularly obliged," writes Washington to Governor
Dinwiddie, "if you had declared whether he was under my command or
independent of it. I hope he will have more sense than to insist upon
any unreasonable distinction, because he and his officers have
commissions from his majesty."
On the 9th arrived Washington's early instructor in military tactics,
Adjutant Muse, recently appointed a major in the regiment. He was
accompanied by Montour, the Indian interpreter, now a provincial
captain, and brought with him nine swivels, and a small supply of
powder and ball. Fifty or sixty horses were forthwith sent to Wills'
Creek, to bring on further supplies, and Mr. Gist was urged to hasten
forward the artillery. Major Muse was likewise the bearer of a belt of
wampum and a speech, from Governor Dinwiddie to the half-king; with
medals for the chiefs, and goods for presents among the friendly
Indians, a measure which had been suggested by Washington. They were
distributed with that grand ceremonial so dear to the red man.
On the 10th there was agitation in the camp. Scouts hurried in with
word, as Washington understood them, that a party of ninety Frenchmen
were approaching. The report of the scouts had been either exaggerated
or misunderstood. The ninety Frenchmen in military array dwindled down
into nine French deserters. According to their account, the fort at
the fork was completed, and named Duquesne, in honor of the governor
of Canada. It was proof against all attack, excepting with bombs, on
the land side. The garrison did not exceed five hundred, but two
hundred more were hourly expected, and nine hundred in the course of a
fortnight.
On the same day Captain Mackay arrived, with his independent company
of South Carolinians. The cross purposes which Washington had
apprehended, soon manifested themselves. The captain was civil and
well disposed, but full of formalities and points of etiquette.
Holding a commission direct from the king, he could not bring himself
to acknowledge a provincial officer as his superior. He encamped
separately, kept separate guards, would not agree that Washington
should assign any rallying place for his men in case of alarm, and
objected to receive from him the parole and countersign, though
necessary for their common safety. Washington conducted himself with
circumspection, avoiding everything that might call up a question of
command, and reasoning calmly whenever such question occurred; but he
urged the governor by letter, to prescribe their relative rank and
authority.
On the 11th of June, Washington resumed the laborious march for
Redstone Creek. As Captain Mackay could not oblige his men to work on
the road unless they were allowed a shilling sterling a day; and as
Washington did not choose to pay this, nor to suffer them to march at
their ease while his own faithful soldiers were laboriously employed;
he left the captain and his independent company as a guard at Fort
Necessity, and undertook to complete the military road with his own
men. Accordingly, he and his Virginia troops toiled forward through
the narrow defiles of the mountains, working on the road as they went.
At Gist's establishment, about thirteen miles from Fort Necessity,
Washington received certain intelligence that ample reinforcements had
arrived at Fort Duquesne, and a large force would instantly be
detached against him. Coming to a halt, he began to throw up
intrenchments, calling in two foraging parties, and sending word to
Captain Mackay to join him with all speed. The captain and his company
arrived in the evening; the foraging parties the next morning. A
council of war was held, in which the idea of awaiting the enemy at
this place was unanimously abandoned.
A rapid and toilsome retreat ensued. There was a deficiency of horses.
Washington gave up his own to aid in transporting the military
munitions, leaving his baggage to be brought on by soldiers, whom he
paid liberally. The other officers followed his example. The weather
was sultry; the roads were rough; provisions were scanty, and the men
dispirited by hunger. On the 1st of July they reached the Great
Meadows. Here the Virginians, exhausted by fatigue, hunger, and
vexation, declared they would carry the baggage and drag the swivels
no further. Contrary to his original intentions, therefore, Washington
determined to halt here for the present, and fortify, sending off
expresses to hasten supplies and reinforcements from Wills' Creek,
where he had reason to believe that two independent companies from New
York were by this time arrived.
The retreat to the Great Meadows had not been in the least too
precipitate. Captain de Villiers, a brother-in-law of Jumonville, had
actually sallied forth from Fort Duquesne at the head of upwards of
five hundred French, and several hundred Indians, eager to avenge the
death of his relative. Arriving about dawn of day at Gist's
plantation, he surrounded the works which Washington had hastily
thrown up there, and fired into them. Finding them deserted, he
concluded that those of whom he came in search had made good their
retreat to the settlements, and it was too late to pursue them. He was
on the point of returning to Fort Duquesne, when a deserter arrived,
who gave word that Washington had come to a halt in the Great Meadows,
where his troops were in a starving condition. De Villiers ordered the
fellow into confinement; to be rewarded if his words proved true,
otherwise to be hanged. He then pushed forward for the Great Meadows.
In the meantime Washington had exerted himself to enlarge and
strengthen Fort Necessity, nothing of which had been done by Captain
Mackay and his men, while encamped there. The fort was about a hundred
feet square, protected by trenches and palisades. It stood on the
margin of a small stream, nearly in the centre of the Great Meadows,
which is a grassy plain, perfectly level, surrounded by wooded hills
of a moderate height, and at that place about two hundred and fifty
yards wide. Washington asked no assistance from the South Carolina
troops, but set to work with his Virginians, animating them by word
and example; sharing in the labor of felling trees, hewing off the
branches, and rolling up the trunks to form a breastwork.
At this critical juncture he was deserted by his Indian allies. They
were disheartened at the scanty preparations for defence against a
superior force, and offended at being subjected to military command.
The half-king thought he had not been sufficiently consulted, and that
his advice had not been sufficiently followed; such, at least, were
some of the reasons which he subsequently gave for abandoning the
youthful commander on the approach of danger. Most of his warriors
followed his example.
Early in the morning of the 3d, while Washington and his men were
working on the fort, a sentinel came in wounded and bleeding, having
been fired upon. Scouts brought word shortly afterwards that the
French were in force about four miles off. Washington drew up his men
on level ground outside of the works to await their attack. About
eleven o'clock there was a firing of musketry from among trees on
rising ground, but so distant as to do no harm; suspecting this to be
a stratagem designed to draw his men into the woods, he ordered them
to keep quiet, and refrain from firing until the foe should show
themselves, and draw near. The firing was kept up, but still under
cover. He now fell back with his men into the trenches, ordering them
to fire whenever they could get sight of an enemy. In this way there
was skirmishing throughout the day; the French and Indians advancing
as near as the covert of the woods would permit. In the meantime the
rain fell in torrents; the harassed and jaded troops were half drowned
in their trenches and many of their muskets were rendered unfit for
use.
About eight at night the French requested a parley. Washington
hesitated. It might be a stratagem to gain admittance for a spy into
the fort. The request was repeated, with the addition that an officer
might be sent to treat with them, under their parole for his safety.
Unfortunately the Chevalier de Peyrouney, engineer of the regiment,
and the only one that could speak French correctly, was wounded and
disabled. Washington had to send, therefore, his ancient swordsman and
interpreter, Jacob Van Braam. The captain returned twice with separate
terms, in which the garrison was required to surrender; both were
rejected. He returned a third time, with written articles of
capitulation. They were in French. As no implements for writing were
at hand, Van Braam undertook to translate them by word of mouth. A
candle was brought, and held close to the paper while he read. The
rain fell in torrents; it was difficult to keep the light from being
extinguished. The captain rendered the capitulation, article by
article, in mongrel English, while Washington and his officers stood
listening, endeavoring to disentangle the meaning. One article
stipulated that on surrendering the fort they should leave all their
military stores, munitions, and artillery in possession of the French.
This was objected to, and was readily modified.
The main articles, as Washington and his officers understood them,
were, that they should be allowed to return to the settlements without
molestation from French or Indians. That they should march out of the
fort with the honors of war, drums beating and colors flying, and with
all their effects and military stores excepting the artillery, which
should be destroyed. That they should be allowed to deposit their
effects in some secret place, and leave a guard to protect them until
they could send horses to bring them away; their horses having been
nearly all killed or lost during the action. That they should give
their word of honor not to attempt any buildings or improvements on
the lands of his most Christian Majesty for the space of a year. That
the prisoners taken in the skirmish of Jumonville should be restored,
and until their delivery Captain Van Braam and Captain Stobo should
remain with the French as hostages.
The next morning, accordingly, Washington and his men marched out of
their forlorn fortress with the honors of war, bearing with them their
regimental colors, but leaving behind a large flag, too cumbrous to be
transported. Scarcely had they begun their march, however, when, in
defiance of the terms of capitulation, they were beset by a large body
of Indians, allies of the French, who began plundering the baggage,
and committing other irregularities. Seeing that the French did not,
or could not, prevent them, and that all the baggage which could not
be transported on the shoulders of his troops would fall into the
hands of these savages, Washington ordered it to be destroyed, as well
as the artillery, gunpowder, and other military stores. All this
detained him until ten o'clock, when he set out on his melancholy
march, and continued on until three miles from Fort Necessity, where
he encamped for the night.
In the following days' march the troops seemed jaded and disheartened;
they were encumbered and delayed by the wounded; provisions were
scanty, and they had seventy weary miles to accomplish before they
could meet with supplies. Washington, however, encouraged them by his
own steadfast and cheerful demeanor, and by sharing all their toils
and privations; and at length conducted them in safety to Wills'
Creek, where they found ample provisions in the military magazines.
Leaving them here to recover their strength, he proceeded with Captain
Mackay to Williamsburg, to make his military report to the governor.
A copy of the capitulation was subsequently laid before the Virginia
House of Burgesses, with explanations. Notwithstanding the unfortunate
result of the campaign, the conduct of Washington and his officers was
properly appreciated, and they received a vote of thanks for their
bravery, and gallant defence of their country. From the vote of
thanks, two officers were excepted; Major Stobo, who was charged with
cowardice, and Washington's unfortunate master of fence and blundering
interpreter, Jacob Van Braam, who was accused of treachery, in
purposely misinterpreting the articles of capitulation.
We will here anticipate dates to record the fortunes of the half-king
after his withdrawal from the camp. He and several of his warriors,
with their wives and children, retreated to Aughquick, in the back
part of Pennsylvania, where George Croghan had an agency, and was
allowed money from time to time for the maintenance of Indian allies.
The half-king expressed himself perfectly disgusted with the white
man's mode of warfare. The French, he said, were cowards; the English,
fools. Washington was a good man, but wanted experience; he would not
take advice of the Indians, and was always driving them to fight
according to his own notions. For this reason he (the half-king) had
carried off his wife and children to a place of safety. After a time
the chieftain fell dangerously ill, and on his death, which took place
shortly afterwards, there was great lamentation.
Early in August Washington rejoined his regiment, which had arrived at
Alexandria by the way of Winchester. Letters from Governor Dinwiddie
urged him to recruit it to the former number of three hundred men, and
join Colonel Innes at Wills' Creek, where that officer was stationed
with Mackay's independent company of South Carolinians, and two
independent companies from New York; and had been employed in erecting
a work to serve as a frontier post and rally point; which work
received the name of Fort Cumberland, in honor of the Duke of
Cumberland, captain-general of the British army.
In the meantime the French, elated by their recent triumph, and
thinking no danger at hand, relaxed their vigilance at Fort Duquesne.
Stobo, who was a kind of prisoner at large there, found means to send
a letter secretly by an Indian, dated July 28, and directed to the
commander of the English troops. It was accompanied by a plan of the
fort. "There are two hundred men here," writes he, "and two hundred
expected; the rest have gone off in detachments to the amount of one
thousand, besides Indians. None lodge in the fort but Contrecoeur and
the guard, consisting of forty men and five officers; the rest lodge
in bark cabins around the fort. The Indians have access day and night,
and come and go when they please. If one hundred trusty Shawnees,
Mingoes, and Delawares were picked out, they might surprise the fort,
lodging themselves under the palisades by day, and at night secure the
guard with their tomahawks, shut the sally-gate, and the fort is
ours."
The Indian messenger carried the letter to Aughquick and delivered it
into the hands of George Croghan. The Indian chiefs who were with him
insisted upon his opening it. He did so, but on finding the tenor of
it, transmitted it to the governor of Pennsylvania. The secret
information communicated by Stobo may have been the cause of a project
suddenly conceived by Governor Dinwiddie, of a detachment which, by a
forced march across the mountains, might descend upon the French and
take Fort Duquesne at a single blow; or, failing that, might build a
rival fort in its vicinity. He accordingly wrote to Washington to
march forthwith for Wills' Creek, with such companies as were
complete, leaving orders with the officers to follow as soon as they
should have enlisted men sufficient to make up their companies.
The ignorance of Dinwiddie in military affairs and his want of
forecast, led him perpetually into blunders. Washington saw the
rashness of an attempt to dispossess the French with a force so
inferior that it could be harassed and driven from place to place at
their pleasure. Before the troops could be collected, and munitions of
war provided, the season would be too far advanced. There would be no
forage for the horses; the streams would be swollen and unfordable;
the mountains rendered impassable by snow, and frost, and slippery
roads.
Such are a few of the cogent reasons urged by Washington in a letter
to his friend William Fairfax, then in the House of Burgesses, which
no doubt was shown to Governor Dinwiddie, and probably had an effect
in causing the rash project to be abandoned.
In the month of October the House of Burgesses made a grant of twenty
thousand pounds for the public service; and ten thousand more were
sent out from England, beside a supply of fire-arms. The governor now
applied himself to military matters with renewed spirit; increased the
actual force to ten companies; and as there had been difficulties
among the different kinds of troops with regard to precedence, he
reduced them all to independent companies; so that there would be no
officer in a Virginia regiment above the rank of captain. This shrewd
measure, upon which Dinwiddie secretly prided himself as calculated to
put an end to the difficulties in question, immediately drove
Washington out of the service; considering it derogatory to his
character to accept a lower commission than that under which his
conduct had gained him a vote of thanks from the Legislature.
Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, appointed by the king commander-in-chief
of all the forces engaged against the French, sought to secure his
valuable services, and authorized Colonel Fitzhugh, whom he had placed
in temporary command of the army, to write to him to that effect. The
reply of Washington (15th Nov.) is full of dignity and spirit, and
shows how deeply he felt his military degradation. "You make mention,"
says he, "of my continuing in the service and retaining my colonel's
commission. This idea has filled me with surprise; for if you think me
capable of holding a commission that has neither rank nor emolument
annexed to it, you must maintain a very contemptible opinion of my
weakness, and believe me more empty than the commission itself. I
herewith inclose Governor Sharpe's letter which I beg you will return
to him with my acknowledgements for the favor he intended me."
Even had Washington hesitated to take this step, it would have been
forced upon him by a further regulation of government, in the course
of the ensuing winter, settling the rank of officers of his majesty's
forces when joined or serving with the provincial forces in North
America, "which directed that all such as were commissioned by the
king, or by his general commander-in-chief in North America, should
take rank of all officers commissioned by the governors of the
respective provinces. And further, that the general and field officers
of the provincial troops should have no rank when serving with the
general and field officers commissioned by the crown; but that all
captains and other inferior officers of the royal troops should take
rank over provincial officers of the same grade, having older
commissions." These regulations, originating in that supercilious
assumption of superiority which sometimes overruns and degrades true
British pride, would have been spurned by Washington, as insulting to
the character and conduct of his high-minded brethren of the colonies.
Another cause of vexation to Washington was the refusal of Governor
Dinwiddie to give up the French prisoners, taken in the affair of De
Jumonville, in fulfillment of the articles of capitulation. His plea
was, that since the capitulation, the French had taken several British
subjects, and sent them prisoners to Canada, he considered himself
justifiable in detaining those Frenchmen which he had in his custody.
Washington felt deeply mortified by this obtuseness of the governor on
a point of military punctilio and honorable faith, but his
remonstrances were unavailing. La Force not having acted in a military
capacity, and having offended against the peace and security of the
frontier, by his intrigues among the Indians, was kept in close
durance.
The refusal of Governor Dinwiddie to fulfill the article of the
capitulation respecting the prisoners, and the rigorous treatment of
La Force, operated hardly upon the hostages, Stobo and Van Braam, who,
in retaliation, were confined in prison in Quebec.