REPLY OF THE CHEVALIER DE ST. PIERRE--TRENT'S MISSION TO THE FRONTIER--
WASHINGTON RECRUITS TROOPS--DINWIDDIE AND THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES--
INDEPENDENT CONDUCT OF THE VIRGINIANS--EXPEDIENTS TO GAIN RECRUITS--
JACOB VAN BRAAM IN SERVICE--TOILFUL MARCH TO WILLS' CREEK--CONTRECOEUR
AT THE FORK OF THE OHIO--TRENT'S REFRACTORY TROOPS.
The reply of the Chevalier de St. Pierre was such as might have been
expected from that courteous, but wary commander. He should transmit, he
said, the letter of Governor Dinwiddie to his general, the Marquis du
Quesne, "to whom," observed he, "it better belongs than to me to set forth
the evidence and reality of the rights of the king, my master, upon the
lands situated along the river Ohio, and to contest the pretensions of the
King of Great Britain thereto. His answer shall be a law to me. ... As to
the summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey
it. Whatever may be your instructions, I am here by virtue of the orders of
my general; and I entreat you, sir, not to doubt one moment but that I am
determined to conform myself to them with all the exactness and resolution
which can be expected from the best officer." ...
"I made it my particular care," adds he, "to receive Mr. Washington with, a
distinction suitable to your dignity, as well as his own quality and great
merit. I flatter myself that he will do me this justice before you, sir,
and that he will signify to you, in the manner I do myself, the profound
respect with which I am, sir," &c. [Footnote: London Mag., June, 1754.]
This soldier-like and punctilious letter of the chevalier was considered
evasive, and only intended to gain time. The information given by
Washington of what he had observed on the frontier convinced Governor
Dinwiddie and his council that the French were preparing to descend the
Ohio in the spring, and take military possession of the country.
Washington's journal was printed, and widely promulgated throughout the
colonies and England, and awakened the nation to a sense of the impending
danger, and the necessity of prompt measures to anticipate the French
movements.
Captain Trent was despatched to the frontier, commissioned to raise a
company of one hundred men, march with all speed to the Fork of the Ohio,
and finish as soon as possible the fort commenced there by the Ohio
Company. He was enjoined to act only on the defensive, but to capture or
destroy whoever should oppose the construction of the works, or disturb the
settlements. The choice of Captain Trent for this service, notwithstanding
his late inefficient expedition, was probably owing to his being
brother-in-law to George Croghan, who had grown to be quite a personage of
consequence on the frontier, where he had an establishment or
trading-house, and was supposed to have great influence among the western
tribes, so as to be able at any time to persuade many of them to take up
the hatchet.
Washington was empowered to raise a company of like force at Alexandria; to
procure and forward munitions and supplies for the projected fort at the
Fork, and ultimately to have command of both companies. When on the
frontier he was to take council of George Croghan and Andrew Montour the
interpreter, in all matters relating to the Indians, they being esteemed
perfect oracles in that department.
Governor Dinwiddie in the mean time called upon the governors of the other
provinces to make common cause against the foe; he endeavored, also, to
effect alliances with the Indian tribes of the south, the Catawbas and
Cherokees, by way of counterbalancing the Chippewas and Ottawas, who were
devoted to the French.
The colonies, however, felt as yet too much like isolated territories; the
spirit of union was wanting. Some pleaded a want of military funds; some
questioned the justice of the cause; some declined taking any hostile step
that might involve them in a war, unless they should have direct orders
from the crown.
Dinwiddie convened the House of Burgesses to devise measures for the public
security. Here his high idea of prerogative and of gubernatorial dignity
met with a grievous countercheck from the dawning spirit of independence.
High as were the powers vested in the colonial government of Virginia, of
which, though but lieutenant-governor, he had the actual control; they were
counterbalanced by the power inherent in the people, growing out of their
situation and circumstances, and acting through their representatives.
There was no turbulent factious opposition to government in Virginia; no
"fierce democracy," the rank growth of crowded cities, and a fermenting
populace; but there was the independence of men, living apart in
patriarchal style on their own rural domains; surrounded by their families,
dependants and slaves, among whom their will was law,--and there was the
individuality in character and action of men prone to nurture peculiar
notions and habits of thinking, in the thoughtful solitariness of country
life.
When Dinwiddie propounded his scheme of operations on the Ohio, some of the
burgesses had the hardihood to doubt the claims of the king to the disputed
territory; a doubt which the governor reprobated as savoring strongly of a
most disloyal French spirit; he fired, as he says, at the thought "that an
English legislature should presume to doubt the right of his majesty to the
interior parts of this continent, the back part of his dominions!"
Others demurred to any grant of means for military purposes which might be
construed into an act of hostility. To meet this scruple it was suggested
that the grant might be made for the purpose of encouraging and protecting
all settlers on the waters of the Mississippi. And under this specious plea
ten thousand pounds were grudgingly voted; but even this moderate sum was
not put at the absolute disposition of the governor. A committee was
appointed with whom he was to confer as to its appropriation.
This precaution Dinwiddie considered an insulting invasion of the right he
possessed as governor to control the purse as well as the sword; and he
complained bitterly of the assembly, as deeply tinctured with a republican
way of thinking, and disposed to encroach on the prerogative of the crown,
"which he feared would render them more and more difficult to be _brought
to order_."
Ways and means being provided, Governor Dinwiddie augmented the number of
troops to be enlisted to three hundred, divided into six companies. The
command of the whole, as before, was offered to Washington, but he shrank
from it, as a charge too great for his youth and inexperience. It was
given, therefore, to Colonel Joshua Fry, an English gentleman of worth and
education, and Washington was made second in command, with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel.
The recruiting, at first, went on slowly. Those who offered to enlist, says
Washington, were for the most part loose idle persons without house or
home, some without shoes or stockings, some shirtless, and many without
coat or waistcoat.
He was young in the recruiting service, or he would have known that such is
generally the stuff of which armies are made. In this country especially it
has always been difficult to enlist the active yeomanry by holding out
merely the pay of a soldier. The means of subsistence are too easily
obtained by the industrious, for them to give up home and personal
independence for a mere daily support. Some may be tempted by a love of
adventure; but in general, they require some prospect of ultimate advantage
that may "better their condition."
Governor Dinwiddie became sensible of this, and resorted to an expedient
rising out of the natural resources of the country, which has since been
frequently adopted, and always with efficacy. He proclaimed a bounty of two
hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio River, to be divided among the
officers and soldiers who should engage in this expedition; one thousand to
be laid off contiguous to the fort at the fork, for the use of the
garrison. This was a tempting bait to the sons of farmers, who readily
enlisted in the hope of having, at the end of a short campaign, a snug farm
of their own in this land of promise.
It was a more difficult matter to get officers than soldiers. Very few of
those appointed made their appearance; one of the captains had been
promoted; two declined; Washington found himself left, almost alone, to
manage a number of self-willed, undisciplined recruits. Happily he had with
him, in the rank of lieutenant, that soldier of fortune, Jacob Van Braam,
his old "master of fence," and travelling interpreter.
In his emergency he forthwith nominated him captain, and wrote to the
governor to confirm the appointment, representing him as the oldest
lieutenant, and an experienced officer.
On the 2d of April Washington set off from Alexandria for the new fort, at
the fork of the Ohio. He had but two companies with him, amounting to about
one hundred and fifty men; the remainder of the regiment was to follow
under Colonel Fry with the artillery, which was to be conveyed up the
Potomac. While on the march he was joined by a detachment under Captain
Adam Stephen, an officer destined to serve with him at distant periods of
his military career.
At Winchester he found it impossible to obtain conveyances by gentle means,
and was obliged reluctantly to avail himself of the militia law of
Virginia, and impress horses and waggons for service; giving the owners
orders on government for their appraised value. Even then, out of a great
number impressed, he obtained but ten, after waiting a week; these, too,
were grudgingly furnished by farmers with their worst horses, so that in
steep and difficult passes they were incompetent to the draught, and the
soldiers had continually to put their shoulders to the wheels.
Thus slenderly fitted out, Washington and his little force made their way
toilfully across the mountains, having to prepare the roads as they went
for the transportation of the cannon, which were to follow on with the
other division under Colonel Fry. They cheered themselves with the thoughts
that this hard work would cease when they should arrive at the company's
trading-post and store-house at Wills' Creek, where Captain Trent was to
have packhorses in readiness, with which they might make the rest of the
way by light stages. Before arriving there they were startled by a rumor
that Trent and all his men had been captured by the French. With regard to
Trent, the news soon proved to be false, for they found him at Wills' Creek
on the 20th of April. With regard to his men there was still an
uncertainty. He had recently left them at the fork of the Ohio, busily at
work on the fort, under the command of his lieutenant, Frazier, late Indian
trader and gunsmith, but now a provincial officer. If the men had been
captured, it must have been since the captain's departure. Washington was
eager to press forward and ascertain the truth, but it was impossible.
Trent, inefficient as usual, had failed to provide packhorses. It was
necessary to send to Winchester, forty miles distant, for baggage waggons,
and await their arrival. All uncertainty as to the fate of the men,
however, was brought to a close by their arrival, on the 25th, conducted by
an ensign, and bringing with them their working implements. The French
might well boast that they had again been too quick for the English.
Captain Contrecoeur, an alert officer, had embarked about a thousand men
with field-pieces, in a fleet of sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes,
dropped down the river from Venango, and suddenly made his appearance
before the fort, on which the men were working, and which was not half
completed. Landing, drawing up his men, and planting his artillery, he
summoned the fort to surrender, allowing one hour for a written reply.
What was to be done! the whole garrison did not exceed fifty men. Captain
Trent was absent at Wills' Creek; Frazier, his lieutenant, was at his own
residence at Turtle Creek, ten miles distant. There was no officer to reply
but a young ensign of the name of Ward. In his perplexity he turned for
counsel to Tanacharisson, the half-king, who was present in the fort. The
chief advised the ensign to plead insufficiency of rank and powers, and
crave delay until the arrival of his superior officer. The ensign repaired
to the French camp to offer this excuse in person, and was accompanied by
the half-king. They were courteously received, but Contrecoeur was
inflexible. There must be instant surrender, or he would take forcible
possession. All that the ensign could obtain was permission to depart with
his men, taking with them their working tools. The capitulation ended.
Contrecoeur, with true French gayety, invited the ensign to sup with him;
treated him with the utmost politeness, and wished him a pleasant journey,
as he set off the next morning with his men laden with their working tools.
Such was the ensign's story. He was accompanied by two Indian warriors,
sent by the half-king to ascertain where the detachment was, what was its
strength, and when it might be expected at the Ohio. They bore a speech
from that sachem to Washington, and another, with a belt of wampum for the
Governor of Virginia. In these he plighted his steadfast faith to the
English, and claimed assistance from his brothers of Virginia and
Pennsylvania.
One of these warriors Washington forwarded on with the speech and wampum to
Governor Dinwiddie. The other he prevailed on to return to the half-king,
bearing a speech from him, addressed to the "Sachems, warriors of the Six
United Nations, Shannoahs and Delawares, our friends and brethren." In this
he informed them that he was on the advance with a part of the army, to
clear the road for a greater force coming with guns, ammunition, and
provisions; and he invited the half-king and another sachem, to meet him on
the road as soon as possible to hold a council.
In fact, his situation was arduous in the extreme. Regarding the conduct of
the French in the recent occurrence an overt act of war, he found himself
thrown with a handful of raw recruits far on a hostile frontier, in the
midst of a wilderness, with an enemy at hand greatly superior in number and
discipline; provided with artillery, and all the munitions of war, and
within reach of constant supplies and reinforcements. Beside the French
that had come from Venango, he had received credible accounts of another
party ascending the Ohio; and of six hundred Chippewas and Ottawas marching
down Scioto Creek to join the hostile camp. Still, notwithstanding the
accumulating danger, it would not do to fall back, nor show signs of
apprehension. His Indian allies in such case might desert him. The
soldiery, too, might grow restless and dissatisfied. He was already annoyed
by Captain Trent's men, who, having enlisted as volunteers, considered
themselves exempt from the rigor of martial law; and by their example of
loose and refractory conduct, threatened to destroy the subordination of
his own troops.
In this dilemma he called a council of war, in which it was determined to
proceed to the Ohio Company store-houses, at the mouth of Redstone Creek;
fortify themselves there, and wait for reinforcements. Here they might keep
up a vigilant watch upon the enemy, and get notice of any hostile movement
in time for defence, or retreat; and should they be reinforced sufficiently
to enable them to attack the fort, they could easily drop down the river
with their artillery.
With these alternatives in view, Washington detached sixty men in advance
to make a road; and at the same time wrote to Governor Dinwiddie for
mortars and grenadoes, and cannon of heavy metal.
Aware that the Assembly of Pennsylvania was in session, and that the
Maryland Assembly would also meet in the course of a few days, he wrote
directly to the governors of those provinces, acquainting them with the
hostile acts of the French, and with his perilous situation; and
endeavoring to rouse them to cooperation in the common cause. We will here
note in advance that his letter was laid before the Legislature of
Pennsylvania, and a bill was about to be passed making appropriations for
the service of the king; but it fell through, in consequence of a
disagreement between the Assembly and the governor as to the mode in which
the money should be raised; and so no assistance was furnished to
Washington from that quarter. The youthful commander had here a foretaste,
in these his incipient campaigns, of the perils and perplexities which
awaited him from enemies in the field, and lax friends in legislative
councils in the grander operations of his future years. Before setting off
for Redstone Creek, he discharged Trent's refractory men from his
detachment, ordering them to await Colonel Fry's commands; they however, in
the true spirit of volunteers from the backwoods, dispersed to their
several homes.
It may be as well to observe, in this place, that both Captain Trent and
Lieutenant Frazier were severely censured for being absent from their post
at the time of the French summons. "Trent's behavior," said Washington, in
a letter to Governor Dinwiddie, "has been very tardy, and has convinced the
world of what they before suspected--his great timidity. Lieutenant
Frazier, though not altogether blameless, is much more excusable, for he
would not accept of the commission until he had a promise from his captain
that he should not reside at the fort, nor visit it above once a week, or
as he saw necessity." In fact, Washington, subsequently recommended Frazier
for the office of adjutant.