REFORM IN THE MILITIA LAWS--DISCIPLINE OF THE TROOPS--DAGWORTHY AND THE
QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE--WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY TO BOSTON--STYLE OF
TRAVELLING--CONFERENCE WITH SHIRLEY--THE EARL OF LOUDOUN--MILITARY RULE FOR
THE COLONIES--WASHINGTON AT NEW YORK--MISS MARY PHILIPSE.
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 courts-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.
This being effected, he proceeded to fill up his companies, and to enforce
this newly defined authority within his camp. All gaming, drinking,
quarrelling, swearing, and similar excesses, were prohibited under severe
penalties.
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. Under shelter of
these, the inhabitants began to return to their deserted homes. A shorter
and better road, also, was opened by him between Winchester and Cumberland,
for the transmission of reinforcements and supplies.
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 Stephen 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 officer who had taken care of General
Braddock in his last moments.
In those days the conveniences of travelling, even between our main cities,
were few, and the roads execrable. The party, therefore, travelled in
Virginia style, on horseback, attended by their black servants in livery.
[Footnote: We have hitherto treated of Washington in his campaigns in the
wilderness, frugal and scanty in his equipments, often, very probably, in
little better than hunter's garb. His present excursion through some of the
Atlantic cities presents him in a different aspect. His recent intercourse
with young British officers, had probably elevated his notions as to style
in dress and appearance; at least we are inclined to suspect so from the
following aristocratical order for clothes, sent shortly before the time in
question, to his correspondent in London.
"2 complete livery suits for servants; with a spare cloak, and all other
necessary trimmings for two suits more. I would have you choose the livery
by our arms, only as the field of the arms is white, I think the clothes
had better not be quite so, but nearly like the inclosed. The trimmings and
facings of scarlet, and a scarlet waistcoat. If livery lace is not quite
disused, I should be glad to have the cloaks laced. I like that fashion
best, and two silver-laced hats for the above servants.
"1 set of horse furniture, with livery lace, with the Washington crest on
the housings, &c. The cloak to be of the same piece and color of the
clothes.
"3 gold and scarlet sword-knots. 3 silver and blue do. 1 fashionable
gold-laced hat."] 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. "Your name," wrote
his former fellow-campaigner, Gist, in a letter dated in the preceding
autumn, "is more talked of in Philadelphia than that of any other person in
the army, and every body seems willing to venture under your command."
[Illustration]
With these prepossessions in his favor, when we consider Washington's noble
person and demeanor, his consummate horsemanship, the admirable horses he
was accustomed to ride, and the aristocratical style of his equipments, we
may imagine the effect produced by himself and his little cavalcade, as
they clattered through the streets of Philadelphia, and New York, and
Boston. It is needless to say, their sojourn in each city was a continual
fête.
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. Though a man
of good parts, he had always, until recently, acted in a civil capacity,
and proved incompetent to conduct military operations. He was recalled to
England, and was to be superseded by General Abercrombie, who was coming
out with two regiments.
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. These might claim to be
civil and military representatives of their sovereign, within their
respective colonies; but, even there, were bound to defer and yield
precedence to this their official superior. This was part of a plan devised
long since, but now first brought into operation, by which the ministry
hoped to unite the colonies under military rule, and oblige the Assemblies,
magistrates, and people to furnish quarters and provide a general fund
subject to the control of this military dictator.
Beside his general command, the Earl of Loudoun 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, attending, with great interest, the
meetings of the Massachusetts Legislature, in which the plan of military
operations was ably discussed; and 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 two
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, whose manor-house is still to be
seen on the banks of the Hudson. At the house of Mr. Beverly Robinson,
where Washington was an honored guest, he met Miss Mary Philipse, sister of
and co-heiress with Mrs. Robinson, a young lady whose personal attractions
are said to have rivalled her reputed wealth.
We have already given an instance of Washington's early sensibility to
female charms. A life, however, of constant activity and care, passed for
the most part in the wilderness and on the frontier, far from female
society, had left 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, and not very probable.
His military rank, his early laurels and distinguished presence, were all
calculated to win favor in female eyes; but his sojourn in New York was
brief; he may have been diffident in urging his suit with a lady accustomed
to the homage of society and surrounded by admirers. 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. Maryland and
Pennsylvania were erecting forts for the defence of their own borders, but
showed no disposition to co-operate with Virginia in the field; and
artillery, artillerymen, and engineers were wanting for an attack on
fortified places. Washington urged, therefore, an augmentation of the
provincial forces, and various improvements in the militia laws.
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.