WASHINGTON IN COMMAND.--PANICS ON THE FRONTIER.
Washington arrived at Mount Vernon on the 26th of July, still in
feeble condition from his long illness. His campaigning, thus far, had
trenched upon his private fortune, and impaired one of the best of
constitutions. His connection with the army ceased at the death of
Braddock, but his military duties continued as adjutant-general of the
northern division of the province, and he immediately issued orders
for the county lieutenants to hold the militia in readiness for parade
and exercise, foreseeing that, in the present defenceless state of the
frontier, there would be need of their services.
Tidings of the rout and retreat of the army had circulated far and
near, and spread consternation throughout the country. Immediate
incursions both of French and Indians were apprehended; and volunteer
companies began to form, for the purpose of marching across the
mountains to the scene of danger.
On the 4th of August, Governor Dinwiddie convened the Assembly to
devise measures for the public safety. The sense of danger had
quickened the slow patriotism of the burgesses; they no longer held
back supplies; forty thousand pounds were promptly voted, and orders
issued for the raising of a regiment of one thousand men.
Washington's friends urged him to present himself at Williamsburg as a
candidate for the command; they were confident of his success,
notwithstanding that strong interest was making for the governor's
favorite, Colonel Innes. With mingled modesty and pride, Washington
declined to be a solicitor. The only terms, he said, on which he would
accept a command were a certainty as to rank and emoluments, a right
to appoint his field officers, and the supply of a sufficient military
chest; but to solicit the command, and, at the same time, to make
stipulations, would be a little incongruous, and carry with it the
face of self-sufficiency.
While this was in agitation, he received letters from his mother,
again imploring him not to risk himself in these frontier wars. His
answer was characteristic: "Honored Madam--If it is in my power to
avoid going to the Ohio again, I shall; but if the command is pressed
upon me by the general voice of the country, and offered upon such
terms as cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor on me
to refuse it; and that, I am sure, must, and ought, to give you
greater uneasiness than my going in an honorable command. Upon no
other terms will I accept it."
On the very day that this letter was despatched (Aug. 14), he received
intelligence of his appointment to the command on the terms specified
in his letters to his friends. His commission nominated him
commander-in-chief of all the forces raised, or to be raised in the
colony. The Assembly also voted three hundred pounds to him, and
proportionate sums to the other officers and to the privates of the
Virginia companies, in consideration of their gallant conduct and
their losses in the late battle. The officers next in command under
him were Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Stephens and Major Andrew Lewis.
The appointment of Washington to his present station was the more
gratifying and honorable from being a popular one, made in deference
to public sentiment; to which Governor Dinwiddie was obliged to
sacrifice his strong inclination in favor of Colonel Innes. It is
thought that the governor never afterwards regarded Washington with a
friendly eye. His conduct towards him subsequently was on various
occasions cold and ungracious.
Having held a conference with Governor Dinwiddie at Williamsburg, and
received his instructions, Washington repaired on the 14th of
September to Winchester, where he fixed his head-quarters. It was a
place as yet of trifling magnitude, but important from its position;
being a central point where the main roads met, leading from north to
south and east to west, and commanding the channels of traffic and
communication between some of the most important colonies and a great
extent of frontier.
Here he was brought into frequent and cordial communication with his
old friend, Lord Fairfax. The stir of war had revived a spark of that
military fire which animated the veteran nobleman in the days of his
youth, when an officer in the cavalry regiment of the Blues. He was
lord-lieutenant of the county. Greenway Court was his head-quarters.
He had organized a troop of horse, which occasionally was exercised
about the lawn of his domain, and he was now as prompt to mount his
steed for a cavalry parade as he ever was for a fox-chase.
His services were soon put in requisition. Washington, having visited
the frontier posts, established recruiting places and taken other
measures of security, had set off for Williamsburg on military
business, when an express arrived at Winchester from Colonel Stephens,
who commanded at Fort Cumberland, giving the alarm that a body of
Indians were ravaging the country, burning the houses and slaughtering
the inhabitants. The express was instantly forwarded after Washington;
in the meantime, Lord Fairfax sent out orders for the militia of
Fairfax and Prince William counties to arm and hasten to the defence
of Winchester, where all was confusion and affright. One fearful
account followed another. The whole country beyond it was said to be
at the mercy of the savages. They had blockaded the rangers in the
little fortresses or outposts provided for the protection of
neighborhoods. They were advancing upon Winchester with fire, tomahawk
and scalping-knife. The country people were flocking into the town for
safety--the townspeople were moving off to the settlements beyond the
Blue Ridge. The beautiful valley of the Shenandoah was likely to
become a scene of savage desolation.
In the height of the confusion, Washington rode into the town. He had
been overtaken by Colonel Stephens' express. His presence inspired
some degree of confidence, and he succeeded in stopping most of the
fugitives.
Expresses were sent off to hurry up the militia ordered out by Lord
Fairfax. Scouts were ordered out to discover the number of the foe,
and convey assurances of succor to the rangers said to be blocked up
in the fortresses, though Washington suspected the latter to be "more
encompassed by fear than by the enemy." Smiths were set to work to
furbish up and repair such firearms as were in the place, and wagons
were sent off for musket balls, flints, and provisions. Instead,
however, of animated co-operation, Washington was encountered by
difficulties at every step. The wagons in question had to be
impressed, and the wagoners compelled by force to assist. "No orders,"
writes he, "are obeyed, but such as a party of soldiers or my own
drawn sword enforces. Without this, not a single horse, for the most
earnest occasion, can be had."
In the meantime the panic and confusion increased. On Sunday an
express hurried into town, breathless with haste and terror. The
Indians, he said, were but twelve miles off; they had attacked the
house of Isaac Julian; the inhabitants were flying for their lives.
Washington immediately ordered the town guards to be strengthened;
armed some recruits who had just arrived, and sent out two scouts to
reconnoitre the enemy. It was a sleepless night in Winchester. Horror
increased with the dawn; before the men could be paraded, a second
express arrived, ten times more terrified than the former. The Indians
were within four miles of the town, killing and destroying all before
them. He had heard the constant firing of the savages and the shrieks
of their victims.
The terror of Winchester now passed all bounds. Washington put himself
at the head of about forty men, militia and recruits, and pushed for
the scene of carnage. The result is almost too ludicrous for record.
The whole cause of the alarm proved to be three drunken troopers,
carousing, hallooing, and ever and anon firing off their pistols.
Washington interrupted them in the midst of their revel and blasphemy
and conducted them prisoners to town. The alarm thus originating had
spread throughout the country. A captain, who arrived with recruits
from Alexandria, reported that he had found the road across the Blue
Ridge obstructed by crowds of people flying for their lives, whom he
endeavored in vain to stop. They declared that Winchester was in
flames!
At length the band of Indians, whose ravages had produced this
consternation throughout the land, and whose numbers did not exceed
one hundred and fifty, being satiated with carnage, conflagration and
plunder, retreated, bearing off spoils and captives. Intelligent
scouts sent out by Washington followed their traces, and brought back
certain intelligence that they had recrossed the Alleghany Mountains
and returned to their homes on the Ohio. This report allayed the
public panic and restored temporary quiet to the harassed frontier.
Most of the Indians engaged in these ravages were Delawares and
Shawnees, who, since Braddock's defeat, had been gained over by the
French. Scarooyadi, successor to the half-king, remained true to the
English, and vindicated his people to the governor and council of
Pennsylvania from the charge of having had any share in the late
massacres.
[Washington now learned the fate of the other enterprises included in
the plan of military operations. The defeat of Braddock paralyzed the
expedition against Niagara. The troops assembled at Albany were struck
with consternation, and deserted. By the end of August, Shirley was in
force at Oswego. But storms, sickness, and other impediments caused
the completion of the enterprise to be deferred until the following
year.
Gen. Wm. Johnson, it will be recollected, had the command of the
expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. A fort was erected
at the carrying-place on the Hudson, between that river and Lake
George, subsequently called Fort Edward. Part of the force were left
to garrison it; the main body advanced to Lake George. Meanwhile there
was great consternation in Canada. Three thousand troops, under Baron
de Dieskaw, had arrived at Quebec. Yielding to public importunities,
he advanced to Crown Point for its defence. His force was augmented by
eight hundred Canadians and seven hundred Indians, the latter under
command of the Chevalier St. Pierre.
In the meantime, Johnson remained encamped on the south end of Lake
George. On September 7th, news was received that the French had been
seen within four miles of the carrying-place. A detachment was sent to
intercept them, which was attacked and driven back. A panic seized
upon the camp as the French emerged from the forest in battle array,
led by Dieskaw. But the Canadians and Indians held back. The camp
recovered from its panic, artillery and musketry opened on the
assailants, whose fire began to slacken. Johnson's men and the Indians
leaped over the breastworks and a medley fight ensued, that ended in
the slaughter, rout, or capture of the enemy. Dieskaw was mortally
wounded; St. Pierre was slain in the attack on the detachment. The
baron had intended the surprise of Fort Edward, but the Indians and
Canadians refused to attack it, fearful of the cannon: he here changed
his plan therefor, and attempted to surprise the camp. Johnson, having
erected a stockaded fort, which received the name of William Henry,
garrisoned it, and returned to Albany. In reward for his services he
received five thousand pounds and a baronetcy.]
Mortifying experience had convinced Washington of the inefficiency of
the militia laws, and he now set about effecting a reformation.
Through his great and persevering efforts, an act was passed in the
Virginia Legislature giving prompt operation to court-martial;
punishing insubordination, mutiny and desertion with adequate
severity; strengthening the authority of a commander, so as to enable
him to enforce order and discipline among officers as well as
privates; and to avail himself, in time of emergency and for the
common safety, of the means and services of individuals. In
disciplining his men, they were instructed not merely in ordinary and
regular tactics, but in all the strategy of Indian warfare, and what
is called "bush-fighting"--a knowledge indispensable in the wild wars
of the wilderness. Stockaded forts, too, were constructed at various
points, as places of refuge and defence, in exposed neighborhoods.
His exertions, however, were impeded by one of those questions of
precedence which had so often annoyed him, arising from the difference
between crown and provincial commissions. Maryland, having by a scanty
appropriation raised a small militia force, stationed Captain
Dagworthy, with a company of thirty men, at Fort Cumberland, which
stood within the boundaries of that province. Dagworthy had served in
Canada in the preceding war, and had received a king's commission.
This he had since commuted for half-pay, and, of course, had virtually
parted with its privileges. He was nothing more, therefore, than a
Maryland provincial captain, at the head of thirty men. He now,
however, assumed to act under his royal commission, and refused to
obey the orders of any officer, however high his rank, who merely held
his commission from a governor. Nay, when Governor, or rather Colonel
Innes, who commanded at the fort, was called away to North Carolina by
his private affairs, the captain took upon himself the command and
insisted upon it as his right.
Parties instantly arose, and quarrels ensued among the inferior
officers; grave questions were agitated between the Governors of
Maryland and Virginia as to the fort itself; the former claiming it as
within his province, the latter insisting that, as it had been built
according to orders sent by the king, it was the king's fort, and
could not be subject to the authority of Maryland.
Washington refrained from mingling in this dispute; but intimated that
if the commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia must yield
precedence to a Maryland captain of thirty men, he should have to
resign his commission, as he had been compelled to do before, by a
question of military rank.
So difficult was it, however, to settle these disputes of precedence,
especially where the claims of two governors came in collision, that
it was determined to refer the matter to Major-general Shirley, who
had succeeded Braddock in the general command of the colonies. For
this purpose Washington was to go to Boston, obtain a decision from
Shirley of the point in dispute, and a general regulation by which
these difficulties could be prevented in future. It was thought, also,
that in a conference with the commander-in-chief he might inform
himself of the military measures in contemplation.
Accordingly, on the 4th of February (1756), leaving Colonel Adam
Stephens in command of the troops, Washington set out on his mission,
accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Captain George Mercer, of Virginia,
and Captain Stewart, of the Virginia light horse. The party travelled
in Virginia style, on horseback, attended by their black servants in
livery. In this way they accomplished a journey of five hundred miles
in the depth of winter; stopping for some days at Philadelphia and New
York. Those cities were then comparatively small, and the arrival of a
party of young Southern officers attracted attention. The late
disastrous battle was still the theme of every tongue, and the
honorable way in which these young officers had acquitted themselves
in it made them objects of universal interest. Washington's fame,
especially, had gone before him; having been spread by the officers
who had served with him and by the public honors decreed him by the
Virginia Legislature.
The mission to General Shirley was entirely successful as to the
question of rank. A written order from the commander-in-chief
determined that Dagworthy was entitled to the rank of a provincial
captain only, and of course, must on all occasions give precedence to
Colonel Washington as a provincial field officer. The latter was
disappointed, however, in the hope of getting himself and his officers
put upon the regular establishment, with commissions from the king,
and had to remain subjected to mortifying questions of rank and
etiquette when serving in company with regular troops.
From General Shirley he learnt that the main objects of the ensuing
campaign would be the reduction of Fort Niagara, so as to cut off the
communication between Canada and Louisiana, the capture of Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, as a measure of safety for New York, the besieging of
Fort Duquesne, and the menacing of Quebec by a body of troops which
were to advance by the Kennebec River.
The official career of General Shirley was drawing to a close. He was
recalled to England, and was to be superseded by General Abercrombie.
The general command in America, however, was to be held by the Earl of
Loudoun, who was invested with powers almost equal to those of a
viceroy, being placed above all the colonial governors. Beside his
general command he was to be governor of Virginia and colonel of a
royal American regiment of four battalions, to be raised in the
colonies, but furnished with officers who, like himself, had seen
foreign service. The campaign would open on his arrival, which it was
expected would be early in the spring; and brilliant results were
anticipated.
Washington remained ten days in Boston, receiving the most hospitable
attentions from the polite and intelligent society of the place, after
which he returned to New York. Tradition gives very different motives
from those of business for his sojourns in the latter city. He found
there an early friend and school-mate, Beverly Robinson, son of John
Robinson, speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was living
happily and prosperously with a young and wealthy bride, having
married one of the nieces and heiresses of Mr. Adolphus Philipse, a
rich landholder. At the house of Mr. Beverly Robinson, Washington met
Miss Mary Philipse, sister of Mrs. Robinson, a young lady whose
personal attractions are said to have rivalled her reputed wealth. A
life of constant activity and care, passed for the most part in the
wilderness and on the frontier, far from female society, had left
Washington little mood or leisure for the indulgence of the tender
sentiment; but made him more sensible, in the present brief interval
of gay and social life, to the attractions of an elegant woman,
brought up in the polite circle of New York. That he was an open
admirer of Miss Philipse is an historical fact; that he sought her
hand, but was refused, is traditional. The most probable version of
the story is, that he was called away by his public duties before he
had made sufficient approaches in his siege of the lady's heart to
warrant a summons to surrender. In the latter part of March we find
him at Williamsburg attending the opening of the Legislature of
Virginia, eager to promote measures for the protection of the frontier
and the capture of Fort Duquesne--the leading object of his ambition.
While thus engaged, he received a letter from a friend and confidant
in New York, warning him to hasten back to that city before it was too
late, as Captain Morris, who had been his fellow aide-de-camp under
Braddock, was laying close siege to Miss Philipse. Sterner alarms,
however, summoned him in another direction. Expresses from Winchester
brought word that the French had made another sortie from Fort
Duquesne, accompanied by a band of savages, and were spreading terror
and desolation through the country. In this moment of exigency all
softer claims were forgotten; Washington repaired in all haste to his
post at Winchester, and Captain Morris was left to urge his suit
unrivalled and carry off the prize.
Report had not exaggerated the troubles of the frontier. It was
marauded by merciless bands of savages, led, in some instances, by
Frenchmen. Travellers were murdered, farm houses burnt down, families
butchered, and even stockaded forts, or houses of refuge, attacked in
open day. The marauders had crossed the mountains and penetrated the
valley of the Shenandoah. Washington, on his arrival at Winchester,
found the inhabitants in great dismay. He resolved immediately to
organize a force, composed partly of troops from Fort Cumberland,
partly of militia from Winchester and its vicinity, to put himself at
its head, and "scour the woods and suspected places in all the
mountains and valleys of this part of the frontier, in quest of the
Indians and their more cruel associates."
He accordingly despatched an express to Fort Cumberland with orders
for a detachment from the garrison; "but how," said he, "are men to be
raised at Winchester, since orders are no longer regarded in the
county?" Lord Fairfax, and other militia officers with whom he
consulted, advised that each captain should call a private muster of
his men, and read before them an address, or "exhortation" as it was
called, being an appeal to their patriotism and fears, and a summons
to assemble on the 15th of April to enroll themselves for the
projected mountain foray. This measure was adopted; the private
musterings occurred; the exhortation was read; the time and place of
assemblage appointed; but, when the day of enrollment arrived, not
more than fifteen men appeared upon the ground. In the meantime the
express returned with sad accounts from Fort Cumberland. No troops
could be furnished from that quarter. The garrison was scarcely strong
enough for self-defence, having sent out detachments in different
directions.
Horrors accumulated at Winchester. Every hour brought its tale of
terror, true or false, of houses burnt, families massacred, or
beleaguered and famishing in stockaded forts. The danger approached. A
scouting party had been attacked in the Warm Spring Mountain, about
twenty miles distant, by a large body of French and Indians, mostly on
horseback. The captain of the scouting party and several of his men
had been slain, and the rest put to flight. An attack was apprehended,
and the terrors of the people rose to agony. They now turned to
Washington as their main hope. The women surrounded him, holding up
their children and imploring him with tears and cries to save them
from the savages. The youthful commander looked round on the suppliant
crowd with a countenance beaming with pity and a heart wrung with
anguish. A letter to Governor Dinwiddie drew from him an instant order
for a militia force from the upper counties to his assistance; but the
Virginia newspapers, in descanting on the frontier troubles, threw
discredit on the army and its officers, and attached blame to its
commander. Stung to the quick by this injustice, Washington publicly
declared that nothing but the imminent danger of the times prevented
him from instantly resigning a command from which he could never reap
either honor or benefit. His sensitiveness called forth strong letters
from his friends, assuring him of the high sense entertained at the
seat of government, and elsewhere, of his merits and services.
In fact, the situation and services of the youthful commander, shut up
in a frontier town, destitute of forces, surrounded by savage foes,
gallantly, though despairingly, devoting himself to the safety of a
suffering people, were properly understood throughout the country, and
excited a glow of enthusiasm in his favor. The Legislature, too, began
at length to act, but timidly and inefficiently. Its measure of relief
was an additional appropriation of twenty thousand pounds, and an
increase of the provincial force to fifteen hundred men. With this, it
was proposed to erect and garrison a chain of frontier forts,
extending through the ranges of the Alleghany Mountains, from the
Potomac to the borders of North Carolina; a distance of between three
and four hundred miles. This was one of the inconsiderate projects
devised by Governor Dinwiddie.
Washington, in letters to the governor and to the speaker of the House
of Burgesses, urged the impolicy of such a plan, with their actual
force and means. The forts, he observed, ought to be within fifteen or
eighteen miles of each other, that their spies might be able to keep
watch over the intervening country, otherwise the Indians would pass
between them unperceived, effect their ravages, and escape to the
mountains, swamps and ravines before the troops from the forts could
be assembled to pursue them. They ought each to be garrisoned with
eighty or a hundred men, so as to afford detachments of sufficient
strength, without leaving the garrison too weak. It was evident,
therefore, observed he, that to garrison properly such a line of forts
would require at least two thousand men. And even then, a line of such
extent might be broken through at one end before the other end could
yield assistance. His idea of a defensive plan was to build a strong
fort at Winchester, the central point, where all the main roads met of
a wide range of scattered settlements, where tidings could soonest be
collected from every quarter, and whence reinforcements and supplies
could most readily be forwarded. It was to be a grand deposit of
military stores, a residence for commanding officers, a place of
refuge for the women and children in time of alarm, when the men had
suddenly to take the field; in a word, it was to be the citadel of the
frontier. Beside this, he would have three or four large fortresses
erected at convenient distances upon the frontiers, with powerful
garrisons, so as to be able to throw out, in constant succession,
strong scouting parties to range the country. Fort Cumberland he
condemned as being out of the province and out of the track of Indian
incursions.
His representations with respect to military laws and regulations were
equally cogent. In the late act of the Assembly for raising a regiment
it was provided that, in cases of emergency, if recruits should not
offer in sufficient number, the militia might be drafted to supply the
deficiencies, but only to serve until December, and not to be marched
out of the province. In this case, said he, before they have entered
upon service, or got the least smattering of duty, they will claim a
discharge; if they are pursuing an enemy who has committed the most
unheard-of cruelties, he has only to step across the Potomac and he is
safe. Then as to the limits of service, they might just as easily have
been enlisted for seventeen months as seven.
Then as to punishments: death, it was true, had been decreed for
mutiny and desertion; but there was no punishment for cowardice; for
holding correspondence with the enemy; for quitting, or sleeping on
one's post; all capital offences, according to the military codes of
Europe. Neither were there provisions for quartering or billeting
soldiers, or impressing wagons and other conveyances, in times of
exigency. To crown all, no court-martial could sit out of Virginia; a
most embarrassing regulation, when troops were fifty or a hundred
miles beyond the frontier. He earnestly suggested amendments on all
these points, as well as with regard to the soldiers' pay; which was
less than that of the regular troops, or the troops of most of the
other provinces.
All these suggestions, showing at this youthful age that forethought
and circumspection which distinguished him throughout life, were
repeatedly and eloquently urged upon Governor Dinwiddie, with very
little effect. The plan of a frontier line of twenty-three forts was
persisted in. Fort Cumberland was pertinaciously kept up at a great
and useless expense of men and money, and the militia laws remained
lax and inefficient. It was decreed, however, that the great central
fort at Winchester, recommended by Washington, should be erected.
In the height of the alarm a company of one hundred gentlemen, mounted
and equipped, volunteered their services to repair to the frontier.
They were headed by Peyton Randolph. No doubt they would have
conducted themselves gallantly had they been put to the test; but
before they arrived near the scene of danger the alarm was over. About
the beginning of May, scouts brought in word that the tracks of the
marauding savages tended toward Fort Duquesne, as if on the return. In
a little while it was ascertained that they had recrossed the
Alleghany Mountain to the Ohio in such numbers as to leave a beaten
track, equal to that made in the preceding year by the army of
Braddock.
The repeated inroads of the savages called for an effectual and
permanent check. The idea of being constantly subject to the
irruptions of a deadly foe, that moved with stealth and mystery, and
was only to be traced by its ravages and counted by its footprints,
discouraged all settlement of the country. The beautiful valley of the
Shenandoah was fast becoming a deserted and a silent place. Her
people, for the most part, had fled to the older settlements south of
the mountains, and the Blue Ridge was likely soon to become virtually
the frontier line of the province.