FRONTIER SERVICE.
Throughout the summer of 1756, Washington exerted himself diligently
in carrying out measures determined upon for frontier security. The
great fortress at Winchester was commenced, and the work urged forward
as expeditiously as the delays and perplexities incident to a badly
organized service would permit. It received the name of Fort Loudoun,
in honor of the commander-in-chief, whose arrival in Virginia was
hopefully anticipated.
As to the sites of the frontier posts, they were decided upon by
Washington and his officers, after frequent and long consultations;
parties were sent out to work on them, and men recruited and militia
drafted to garrison them. Washington visited occasionally such as were
in progress, and near at hand. In the autumn, he made a tour of
inspection along the whole line, accompanied by his friend, Captain
Hugh Mercer. This tour furnished repeated proofs of the inefficiency
of the militia system. In one place he attempted to raise a force with
which to scour a region infested by roving bands of savages. After
waiting several days, but five men answered to his summons. In another
place, where three companies had been ordered to the relief of a fort
attacked by the Indians, all that could be mustered were a captain, a
lieutenant, and seven or eight men. When the militia were drafted, and
appeared under arms, the case was not much better. It was now late in
the autumn: their term of service, by the act of the Legislature,
expired in December,--half of the time, therefore, was lost in
marching out and home. Their waste of provisions was enormous. To be
put on allowance, like other soldiers, they considered an indignity.
For want of proper military laws, they were obstinate, self-willed and
perverse. The garrisons were weak for want of men, but more so from
indolence and irregularity. Not one was in a posture of defence; few
but might be surprised with the greatest ease. At one fort the Indians
rushed from their lurking-place, pounced upon several children playing
under the walls, and bore them off before they were discovered.
Another fort was surprised, and many of the people massacred in the
same manner.
What rendered this year's service peculiarly irksome and embarrassing
to Washington, was the nature of his correspondence with Governor
Dinwiddie. That gentleman, either from the natural hurry and confusion
of his mind, or from a real disposition to perplex, was extremely
ambiguous and unsatisfactory in most of his orders and replies. In
nothing was this disposition to perplex more apparent than in the
governor's replies respecting Fort Cumberland. Washington had
repeatedly urged the abandonment of this fort as a place of frontier
deposit, being within the bounds of another province and out of the
track of Indian incursion; so that often the alarm would not reach
there until after the mischief had been effected. He applied, at
length, for particular and positive directions from the governor on
this head. "The following," says he, "is an exact copy of his answer:
'Fort Cumberland is a _king's_ fort, and built chiefly at the charge
of the colony, therefore properly under our direction until a new
governor is appointed.' Now, whether I am to understand this aye or no
to the plain simple question asked, Is the fort to be continued or
removed? I know not. But in all important matters I am directed in
this ambiguous and uncertain way."
Governor Dinwiddie subsequently made himself explicit on this point.
Taking offence at some of Washington's comments on the military
affairs on the frontier, he made the stand of a self-willed and
obstinate man, in the case of Fort Cumberland; and represented it in
such a light to Lord Loudoun as to draw from his lordship an order
that it should be kept up, and an implied censure of the conduct of
Washington in slighting a post of such paramount importance. Thus
powerfully supported, Dinwiddie went so far as to order that the
garrisons should be withdrawn from the stockades and small frontier
forts, and most of the troops from Winchester, to strengthen Fort
Cumberland, which was now to become head-quarters. By these meddlesome
moves all previous arrangements were reversed, everything was thrown
into confusion, and enormous losses and expenses were incurred.
Governor Dinwiddie had never recovered from the pique caused by the
popular elevation of Washington to the command in preference to his
favorite, Colonel Innes. His irritation was kept alive by a little
Scottish faction, who were desirous of disgusting Washington with the
service, so as to induce him to resign and make way for his rival.
They might have carried their point during the panic at Winchester,
had not his patriotism and his sympathy with the public distress been
more powerful than his self-love. He determined, he said, to bear up
under these embarrassments in the hope of better regulations when Lord
Loudoun should arrive; to whom he looked for the future fate of
Virginia.
[While these events were occurring on the Virginia frontier, military
events went on tardily and heavily at the north. The campaign against
Canada hung fire. The armament coming out for the purpose under Lord
Loudoun was delayed. Gen. Abercrombie reached Albany June 25th, with
two regiments. July 12th word was received that the forts Ontario and
Oswego were menaced by the French. Relief was delayed until the
arrival of Lord Loudoun, which took place on the 29th of July. After
some delays Gen. Webb left Albany, August 12th, for the relief of
Oswego. But while the British commanders had debated, Field-marshal
the Marquis de Montcalm had acted.] He was a different kind of soldier
from Abercrombie or Loudoun. A capacious mind and enterprising spirit
animated a small, but active and untiring frame. Quick in thought,
quick in speech, quicker still in action, he comprehended every thing
at a glance, and moved from point to point of the province with a
celerity and secrecy that completely baffled his slow and pondering
antagonists. Crown Point and Ticonderoga were visited, and steps taken
to strengthen their works; then, hastening to Montreal, he put himself
at the head of a force of regulars, Canadians, and Indians; ascended
the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario; blocked up the mouth of the Oswego
by his vessels, landed his guns, and besieged the two forts; drove the
garrison out of one into the other; killed the commander, Colonel
Mercer, and compelled the garrisons to surrender prisoners of war. His
blow achieved, Montcalm returned in triumph to Montreal.
The season was now too far advanced for Lord Loudoun to enter upon any
great military enterprise; he postponed, therefore, the great northern
campaign, so much talked of and debated, until the following year.
Circumstances had led Washington to think that Lord Loudoun "had
received impressions to his prejudice by false representations of
facts," and that a wrong idea prevailed at head-quarters respecting
the state of military affairs in Virginia. He was anxious, therefore,
for an opportunity of placing all these matters in a proper light;
and, understanding that there was to be a meeting in Philadelphia in
the month of March, between Lord Loudoun and the southern governors,
to consult about measures of defence for their respective provinces,
he wrote to Governor Dinwiddie for permission to attend it. "I cannot
conceive," writes Dinwiddie in reply, "what service you can be of in
going there, as the plan concerted will, in course, be communicated to
you and the other officers. However, as you seem so earnest to go, I
now give you leave."
This ungracious reply seemed to warrant the suspicions entertained by
some of Washington's friends, that it was the busy pen of Governor
Dinwiddie which had given the "false representation of facts" to Lord
Loudoun. About a month, therefore, before the time of the meeting,
Washington addressed a long letter to his lordship, explanatory of
military affairs in the quarter where he had commanded. In this he set
forth the various defects in the militia laws of Virginia; the errors
in its system of defence, and the inevitable confusion which had
thence resulted.
The manner in which Washington was received by Lord Loudoun on
arriving in Philadelphia, showed him at once that his long,
explanatory letter had produced the desired effect, and that his
character and conduct were justly appreciated. During his sojourn in
Philadelphia he was frequently consulted on points of frontier
service, and his advice was generally adopted. On one point it failed.
He advised that an attack should be made on Fort Duquesne,
simultaneous with the attempts on Canada. At such time a great part of
the garrison would be drawn away to aid in the defence of that
province, and a blow might be struck more likely to insure the peace
and safety of the southern frontier than all its forts and defences.
Lord Loudoun, however, was not to be convinced, or at least persuaded.
According to his plan, the middle and southern provinces were to
maintain a merely defensive warfare.
Washington was also disappointed a second time in the hope of having
his regiment placed on the same footing as the regular army and of
obtaining a king's commission; the latter he was destined never to
hold. His representations with respect to Fort Cumberland had the
desired effect in counteracting the mischievous intermeddling of
Dinwiddie. The Virginia troops and stores were ordered to be again
removed to Fort Loudoun, at Winchester, which once more became
head-quarters, while Fort Cumberland was left to be occupied by a
Maryland garrison.
The great plan of operations at the north was again doomed to failure.
The reduction of Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, which had long been
meditated, was laid aside, and the capture of Louisburg substituted,
as an acquisition of far greater importance. This was a place of great
consequence, situated on the isle of Cape Breton, and strongly
fortified. It commanded the fisheries of Newfoundland, overawed New
England, and was a main bulwark to Acadia. [In July, Loudoun set sail
for Halifax, with nearly six thousand men, to join with Admiral
Holbourne, who had arrived at that port with eleven ships of the line,
and transports having on board six thousand men. With this united
force Lord Loudoun anticipated the certain capture of Louisburg. But
the French were again too quick for him. Admiral de Bois de la Mothe
had arrived at Louisburg with seventeen ships of the line and three
frigates. The place was ascertained to be well fortified and
garrisoned. Lord Loudoun, aware of the probability of defeat and the
ruin it would bring upon British arms in America, wisely, though
ingloriously, returned to New York.
Scarce had the tidings of his lordship's departure for Louisburg
reached Canada, when Montcalm took the fort. Fort William Henry, on
the southern shore of Lake George, was now his object. Colonel Munro,
with five hundred men, formed the garrison. With eight thousand men
Montcalm invested the fort, and after an obstinate resistance the
brave Colonel Munro surrendered, but not until most of his cannon were
burst and his ammunition expended. He obtained honorable terms.
Montcalm demolished the fort, and returned to Canada.]
During these unfortunate operations to the north, Washington was
stationed at Winchester, shorn of part of his force by a detachment to
South Carolina, and left with seven hundred men to defend a frontier
of more than three hundred and fifty miles in extent. The capture and
demolition of Oswego by Montcalm had produced a disastrous effect. The
whole country of the five nations was abandoned to the French. The
frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia were harassed by
repeated inroads of French and Indians, and Washington had the
mortification to see the noble valley of the Shenandoah almost
deserted by its inhabitants and fast relapsing into a wilderness.
The year wore away on his part in the harassing service of defending a
wide frontier with an insufficient and badly organized force, and the
vexations he experienced were heightened by continual misunderstandings
with Governor Dinwiddie, who was evidently actuated by the petty pique
of a narrow and illiberal mind, impatient of contradiction, even when
in error. He took advantage of his official station to vent his spleen
and gratify his petulance in a variety of ways incompatible with the
courtesy of a gentleman. It may excite a grave smile at the present day
to find Washington charged by this very small-minded man with looseness
in his way of writing to him: with remissness in his duty towards him;
and even with impertinence in the able and eloquent representations
which he felt compelled to make of disastrous mismanagement in military
affairs.
The multiplied vexations which Washington experienced from this man
had preyed upon his spirits, and contributed, with his incessant toils
and anxieties, to undermine his health. For some time he struggled
with repeated attacks of dysentery and fever, and continued in the
exercise of his duties; but the increased violence of his malady, and
the urgent advice of his friend, Dr. Craik, the army surgeon, induced
him to relinquish his post towards the end of the year and retire to
Mount Vernon. The administration of Dinwiddie, however, was now at an
end. He set sail for England in January, 1758.