It were long to tell you, my dear children, all that happened to
Washington, and all that he did for the next two or three years of his
life. I shall, therefore, in as brief and clear a manner as may be,
present to your minds a picture simply of those scenes in which he
figured as the chief actor; although there were, it must be
remembered, others who played a far more important part in this old
French War than our young Virginia colonel.
The French and Indians, early in the spring of these years, were wont
to cross the mountains at different points, and for months together
follow their usual programme of fire, plunder, and massacre, till the
approach of winter, when, loaded with booty and scalps, they would go
as they had come, only to return on the opening of the following
spring. With these cruel savages, and their scarcely less cruel white
allies, neither age nor sex found mercy; old men, tender women, and
helpless children, alike falling victims to their murderous tomahawks
and scalping-knives. Farms were laid waste, crops destroyed, cattle
butchered; and often, for days and nights together, the smoke could be
seen in many directions at once, as it rose from burning barns and
dwellings, and hung like a pall over the ill-fated land. At last, so
great became the audacity of these pestilent savages, that they
carried their depredations within cannon range of the very walls of
Winchester; and, under their destroying hand, the rich and beautiful
Valley of the Shenandoah seemed likely soon again to become a waste
and desert place. It was a boast of theirs, that they could take any
fort that could be fired; and round these places of refuge they would
skulk and lurk with the greatest patience for a week at a time, quite
content could they but get a single shot at such of the garrison as
dared to show themselves beyond shelter of the walls. Sometimes,
suddenly darting from their hiding-place, they would pounce upon
little children playing in the woods, and, in full view of the fort,
bear them away captives, never more to be seen by their bereaved
parents, who could only listen in helpless anguish to the piteous
cries of their little innocents, that grew fainter and fainter as
their savage captors hurried them farther and farther into the gloomy
depths of the wilderness.
Often, in their excursions along the frontier, Washington and his men
would come upon the still smoking ruins of a happy home, or the hacked
and mangled body of an unfortunate traveller who had been waylaid and
murdered by the Indians in some lonely mountain glen. In after-life,
the recollection of these harrowing scenes was to Washington so
painful, that he could but seldom be brought to speak of them. Now and
then, however, he would relate to a few friends some of these dark
experiences; among which is the following, given in his own words, as
a fair example of all the rest:--
"One day," said he, "as we were traversing a part of the
frontier, we came upon a small log-house, standing in the
centre of a little clearing, surrounded by woods on all sides.
As we approached, we heard the report of a gun,--the usual
signal of coming horror. Our party crept cautiously through the
underwood, until we had approached near enough to see what we
had already foreboded. A smoke was slowly making its way
through the roof of the house; when, at the same time, a party
of Indians came forth, laden with plunder,--consisting of
clothes, household furniture, domestic utensils, and dripping
scalps. We fired, and killed all but one, who tried to get
away, but was soon overtaken and shot down. Upon entering the
hut, there met us a sight, which, though we were familiar with
scenes of blood and massacre, struck us--at least myself--with
feelings more mournful than I had ever experienced before. On a
bed, in one corner of the room, lay the body of a young woman,
swimming in blood, with a gash in the forehead that almost
separated the head into two parts. On her breast lay two little
babes, less than a twelvemonth old, also with their heads cut
open; their innocent blood, that had once flowed in one common
vein, now mingling in the same current again. I was inured to
scenes of bloodshed and misery; but this cut me to the heart;
and never in my after-life did I raise my arm against a savage,
without calling to mind the mother and her little twins with
their heads cleft asunder. On examining the tracks of the
Indians to see what other murders they might have committed, we
found a little boy, and, a few steps forward, his father, both
scalped, and both stone-dead. From the prints of the boy's
feet, it seemed that he had been following the plough with his
father, whom he had probably seen shot down; and, in attempting
to escape, had been pursued, overtaken, and murdered. The ruin
was complete: not one of the family had been spared. Such was
the character of this miserable warfare. The wretched people of
the frontier never went to rest without bidding each other
farewell; for the chances were they might never wake again, or
wake only to find their last sleep. When leaving one spot for
the purpose of giving protection to another point of exposure,
the scene was often such as I shall never forget. The women and
children would cling around our knees, and mothers would hold
up their little babes before our eyes, begging us to stay and
protect them, and, for God's sake, not leave them to be
butchered by the savages. A hundred times, I declare to Heaven,
I would have laid down my life with pleasure under the tomahawk
and scalping-knife, could I, by the sacrifice, have insured the
safety of these suffering people."
The little folks can well imagine how scenes like these must have
pained and wrung a heart like Washington's. But what could he do? His
whole force did not exceed one thousand fighting men; with which he
had to man more than twenty forts, and guard a frontier of nearly four
hundred miles' extent. In addition to this, his men had been so
scattered all the while at these different points, as to have placed
it altogether beyond his power to give that attention to their
military training which he had had so near at heart when he first
entered upon his command. It naturally followed, then, that there was
among the greater number an almost total want of order and discipline.
They came and went when and where it suited their humor best; were
impatient of control; wasted their ammunition, of which there was a
great scarcity, in target-shooting; were far more ready to trouble
their officers with good advice than aid them by prompt obedience to
orders; and, if their sagacious counsels went unheeded, they would,
without more ado, shoulder their rifles in high dudgeon, and tramp
home. And, withal, so tender were they of what they were pleased to
call their _honor_, that they would take it as quite an insult to be
put on soldiers' rations; and were too proud or lazy--which with them
was the same thing--to carry their own provisions while on the march;
choosing, rather, to risk what chance might bring them, in the shape
of bullocks, sheep, or pigs, which they would knock down, without a
"By your leave" to the owner, and, after eating as much as satisfied
their present hunger, would throw the rest away. Thus, between their
wasteful defenders and their wasting invaders, the poor distressed
inhabitants were brought to the verge of starvation.
The forts were too far apart to prevent the Indians from passing
between; and the garrisons were too weak to lend each other aid when
any of them chanced to be in hard, besetting need. This plan of giving
defence to the border had been strongly opposed by Washington, who
foresaw the disadvantages just hinted at, and had urged the exact
contrary. This was, instead of having so many small forts, with but a
handful of men in each, to fortify Winchester in the completest manner
possible, with a view of making it the only stronghold and
rallying-point of all the border, and to be manned by the main body of
the troops, who were to give support to the smaller parties in their
excursions against the enemy. Long before the war was ended, it was
clearly to be seen, that, had this plan been adopted, much useless
expenditure of money and shedding of blood would have been avoided. As
it was, the cunning and watchful foe, whose motions were swift as the
birds, and secret as death, could pass between these forts, not only
unopposed, but even unobserved, and, without let or hinderance, lay
waste the country for the protection of which they had been built.
Under this most melancholy state of things, all the region west of the
Blue Ridge was fast becoming the dreary and silent wilderness it had
been in days gone by. Scarcely a shadow of its former population was
left: some had fled to the forts for refuge; some had resettled in the
eastern parts of the province; some had been carried away into cruel
captivity; and many, very many, had met with a horrible death at the
hands of the merciless invaders.
As if all this we have just related were not enough to try the
patience and fortitude of young Washington, evil reports, injurious to
his character, and charging him with being the author of all these
failures and calamities, were set agoing by secret enemies at home.
Foremost among these, you will be surprised and sorry to learn, was
Gov. Dinwiddie, who had for some time past regarded with a jealous and
envious eye this rising hope of the land, and was now seeking, by a
variety of underhand means, to have him disgraced from the service,
that Col. Innez, a particular chum of his, might be advanced to the
chief command of the Virginia troops instead. The lower offices of the
army he was zealous to bestow upon a knot of needy adventurers, who,
being Scotchmen like himself, were in high favor with him, and
scrupled not to make his likes and dislikes their own, if, by so
doing, they could further their own private advantage. Perhaps Gov.
Dinwiddie himself may not have been the direct author of these
reports; but it is quite certain that his hungry hangers-on would
never have dared whisper them had they not been fully aware of the
ill-will he bore the person by whose injury they hoped to profit, and
that they had but to do the thing, when their patron would not only
wink at it, but even give it his secret approval.
When these malicious whisperings came to the ears of Washington, he
was stung to the quick by such unfair and unmerited treatment. Feeling
assured in his own conscience that he had done his whole duty as far
as in him lay, all his strong and manly nature was roused to indignant
anger, that his fair name should thus become the target of these
arrows flying in the dark, without an opportunity being allowed him of
a fair and open hearing in his own defence. He would have left the
service at once,--the very end his enemies had been plotting so hard
to bring about,--had not the frontier settlements, just at that
moment, been threatened with more than usual peril; and to have
deserted his post at such a time would have given his accusers real
grounds for the charges, which heretofore had been but a mere
pretence. Before the immediate danger was past that kept him at his
post, many of his warmest and most influential friends, residing in
different parts of the province, had written to him, earnestly
entreating him not to think of resigning his command; assuring him, at
the same time, that the base slanders of those evil-minded men had
found no place whatever in the minds of his fellow-countrymen. On the
contrary, beholding the courage, patience, and humanity with which he
was discharging the high and sacred duties they had intrusted to him,
they felt their love for him, and confidence in him, increasing every
day. With this gratifying assurance that his conduct and motives were
rightly understood by those whose approbation he was most desirous of
winning, Washington now held on his course with renewed hope and
spirit.
Thenceforward, Gov. Dinwiddie, as if to revenge himself for this
failure of his base and selfish design, never let an opportunity slip
of thwarting or annoying the man whose high public character his petty
malice could not reach, and whose private worth his mean envy could
not tarnish. His letters to Washington, the tone of which heretofore
had been uncivil enough, now became harsh and insolent, full of
fault-finding, and bristling all over with biting reproofs and unmanly
insinuations. Although wretchedly ignorant of military matters, and at
a distance from the seat of active operations, yet he must needs take
upon himself the full control of all the troops of the province,
without seeming to trouble his mind as to what might be the wishes and
opinions of him who was in fact their true leader. Whether from a
spiteful desire to perplex the object of his dislike, or natural
fickleness of character, every letter from him brought with it some
new plan. To-day, he ordered this; to-morrow, he ordered that; and,
the next day, upset the other two by something quite different from
either: so that Washington was often left completely in the dark as
to what the uncertain meddler's wishes or plans really were.
At last, from being thus harassed in mind by these petty annoyances,
and worn in body by the hardships of such rough service, his health
failed him; and he was advised to repair to Mount Vernon, and there
remain until his disease should take a more favorable turn. Here he
lay for four long, weary months, before he could rejoin big regiment;
during much of which time, his friends, who nursed and watched him,
really regarded his recovery as doubtful. This is another instance of
what so often seems to us a matter of wonder,--the power of a
narrow-minded, mean-spirited, ill-tempered, false-hearted man to
inflict pain on a noble and lofty nature.
A short time before the close of the war, it becoming quite certain
that he had been putting public money, intrusted to his keeping, to
private or dishonorable uses, Gov. Dinwiddie was recalled, and another
sent over to fill his place. Being the man here described, and a petty
tyrant withal, nobody was sorry to see him go, except the needy
toadies who had hung about him, and who, seeing that nothing was
likely to turn up for them in the New World, packed off to Scotland
with their patron, as hungry and empty-handed as they came.
By the by, I must not forget to tell you of the heroic conduct of old
Lord Fairfax. Greenway Court, as you no doubt remember, was in the
Shenandoah Valley, not many miles from Winchester; and, situated on
the very edge of a vast forest, was quite open to the inroads of the
Indians, any one of whom, would have risked limb or life to get his
bloody clutches on the gray scalp of so renowned a Long Knife. To meet
this danger, as well as do his part towards the general defence, he
mustered his hunters and negro servants, to the number of a hundred or
thereabouts, and formed them at his own expense into a company of
horse, with which the keen old fox-hunter, now as daring a trooper,
scoured the country from time to time, and did good service.