At last, about the middle of September, the expedition was set in
motion. Gen. Forbes sent Col. Boquet in advance, with nearly two
thousand men, to open and level the road. In order to get more certain
information touching the condition of the enemy,--his number,
strength, and probable designs,--it was thought advisable by some of
the officers to send out a large party of observation in the direction
of Fort Duquesne. It was to be made up of British regulars, Scotch
Highlanders, and Pennsylvania and Virginia rangers,--eight hundred
picked men in all. Washington strongly disapproved the plan, on the
ground that the regulars, being wholly unacquainted with the Indian
mode of fighting, and unable to operate at so great a distance without
taking with them a cumbrous train of baggage, would prove a
hinderance, instead of a furtherance, to an enterprise which must
needs owe its success to the caution, silence, secrecy, and swiftness
on the part of those engaged. He therefore advised the sending-out of
small companies of rangers and Indian hunters, who, knowing the
country well, could spy out the enemy with less risk of detection to
themselves, and, moving without baggage, could make far better speed
with the tidings they may have gathered. The like advice, you may
remember, he gave to Braddock. It met with a like reception, and the
like disaster was the consequence.
The party set out from Laurel Hill, and began its tedious tramp across
the fifty miles of wilderness that lay between that point and Fort
Duquesne. It was headed by Major Grant, a noisy, blustering braggart,
who, hankering after notoriety rather than seeking praise for duty
well and faithfully done, went beyond the limits of his instructions;
which were simply to find out all he could about the enemy, without
suffering the enemy to find out more than he could help about himself,
and, by all possible means, to avoid a battle. But, instead of
conducting the expedition with silence and circumspection, he marched
along in so open and boisterous a manner, as made it appear he meant
to give the enemy timely notice of his coming, and bully him into an
attack even while yet on the way. The French, keeping themselves well
informed, by their spies, of his every movement, suffered him to
approach almost to their very gates without molestation. When he got
in the neighborhood of the fort, he posted himself on a hill
overlooking it, and began throwing up intrenchments in full view of
the garrison. As if all this were not imprudence enough, and as if
bent on provoking the enemy to come out and give him battle on the
instant, whether or no, he sent down a party of observation to spy out
yet more narrowly the inside plan and defences of the fort; who were
suffered not only to do this, but even to burn a house just outside
the walls, and then return to their intrenchments, without a hostile
sign betokening the unseen foe so silent yet watchful within.
Early the next morning, as if to give the enemy warning of the
threatened danger, the drums of the regulars beat the _reveille_, and
the bagpipes of the Highlanders woke the forest-echoes far and wide
with their wild and shrilly din. All this time, not a gun had been
fired from the fort. The deathly silence that reigned within was
mistaken for fear, and made the fool-hardy Grant so audacious as to
fancy that he had but to raise his finger, and the fort must fall. As
Braddock's day had begun with martial parade and music, so likewise
did this. As on that day the regulars were sent in advance, while the
Virginians were left in the rear to guard the baggage, so was likewise
done on this. On this day, as on that, not an enemy was to be seen,
till, all of a sudden, a quick and heavy firing was opened upon them
by Indians lurking in ambush on either side; while, at the same
moment, the French flung open their gates, and, rushing out, mingled
their loud shouts with the horrid yells of their savage allies. On
this day, as had been done on that, the regulars, surprised,
bewildered, panic-stricken, were thrown at once into disorder, and
began firing their pieces at random, killing friend as well as foe.
Unlike them, however, the Highlanders stood their ground like men,
and, fighting bravely, cheered each other with their slogan, or wild
battle-cry. On this day, as on that, the Virginians came up in the
very nick of time to rescue the helpless regulars from utter
destruction. On this, as on Braddock's day, the Indians, seeing the
hopeless confusion into which the English had fallen, rushed out from
their ambush with yells of triumph, and fell upon them, tomahawk and
scalping-knife in hand. Major Lewis, the brave leader of the
Virginians, fought hand to hand with a tall warrior, whom he laid dead
at his feet; but, soon overpowered by numbers, he was forced to
surrender himself to a French officer, who received his sword. The
blustering Grant, more lucky than the headstrong Braddock, saved his
life by yielding himself up in like manner.
And now the rout became general, and the slaughter dreadful. Seeing
the unlooked-for turn affairs had taken, Capt. Bullitt, whom Major
Lewis had left to guard the baggage, gathered a few of his brave
Virginians about him, and prepared to make a desperate stand. Sending
back the strongest horses with the baggage, he blocked up the road
with the wagons, and, behind the barricade thus formed, posted his
men, to whom he gave a few brief orders how to act. These scanty
preparations were hardly made, when the Indians, having finished the
work of plunder, had sprung into swift pursuit, and were now close
upon them, the wild woods ringing with their terrible whoops and
yells. When they had come within short rifle-range, Capt. Bullitt and
his men met them with a well-aimed volley of musketry from behind the
shelter of their wagons; which, however, checked the savages but for a
moment. Rallying on the instant, they were pressing forward in still
greater numbers; when Capt. Bullitt held out a signal of surrender,
and came out from behind the barricade at the head of his men, as if
to lay down their arms: but no sooner were they within eight yards of
the enemy, and near enough to see the fierce light that shone in their
eyes, than they suddenly levelled their pieces, and poured a murderous
fire into the thickest of them; then, charging bayonets, scattered
them in every direction, and sent them yelling with astonishment and
dismay. Before they could rally again, and renew the pursuit, Capt.
Bullitt, having picked up many more of the fugitives, began a rapid
but orderly retreat.
For several days thereafter, the fugitives, singly or in squads, came
straggling into camp at Loyal Hannon. Of the eight hundred picked men
who had been sent out with such good promise of success, twenty
officers and two hundred and seventy-three privates had been left
behind, either killed or taken prisoners. The whole force of the
enemy, French and Indians, did not exceed that of the English: their
loss in the battle is not known; but, as the Highlanders fought well
and the Virginians fought well, it must have been heavy. The disaster
foreboded by Washington had thus in reality fallen upon them. He was
at Raystown when the dismal tidings came; and, although complimented
by Gen. Forbes upon the bravery his rangers had displayed, was deeply
grieved and mortified. In secret, many a man would have been gratified
at beholding a prophecy he had uttered thus fulfilled; but Washington,
incapable of such selfish and unnatural vanity, could but sorrow
thereat, although it must needs increase his reputation for foresight
and sagacity. As the only good thing that came from this defeat, I
must tell you (and you will be glad to hear it) that Capt. Bullitt was
rewarded with a major's commission for the gallant and soldierly
conduct he had shown on that disastrous day in the midst of such
fearful perils.
It was not until the middle of November that the whole army came up to
Loyal Hannon, a little distance beyond Laurel Hill. Winter was coming
on apace. What with rain and snow and frost, the roads would soon be
rendered impassable, not only to wheeled carriages, but to pack-horses
also. Fifty miles of unbroken wilderness lay between them and Fort
Duquesne,--so long the goal of their hopes and toils, that seemed to
recede as they advanced, like some enchanted castle we have read of
before now in books of fairy tales, that poor benighted travellers
never reach, although, in fancy, every step they take brings them
nearer. The leaders began to talk seriously of going into
winter-quarters at that place until the return of spring; and it
seemed as if another of Washington's prophecies were likely to be
fulfilled. But, about this time, two prisoners from Fort Duquesne were
brought into camp; from whom they drew such an account of the weakness
of the French, and the discontent and daily desertions of their Indian
allies, as determined them to push forward without further delay, in
spite of the wintry weather, and, at one fell blow, make a finish of
the campaign. So, leaving behind them their tents and baggage, and
taking with them but a few pieces of light artillery, they once more
resumed their toilsome march. Col. Washington was ordered to go on in
advance with a part of his detachment, to throw out scouts and
scouting parties, who were to scour the woods in every direction, and
thereby prevent the possibility of an ambuscade. This new arrangement,
which showed that Gen. Forbes had the wisdom to profit by the folly of
those who had gone before him, was a signal proof of the high esteem
in which provincial troops were at last beginning to be held; and to
which, by their courage, skill, and hardihood, they had, even years
before, won so just a title.
When within a few miles of the French fort, the road began to show
signs of the late disaster. Here and there were to be seen the
blackened and mangled bodies of men, who, while fleeing for their
lives, had been overtaken, and cut down by the murderous tomahawk; or,
exhausted from the loss of blood, had there, by the lonely wayside,
laid them down to die of their wounds. As they advanced, these ghastly
tokens of defeat and massacre were to be met with at shorter and
shorter intervals, till at length they lay thickly scattered about the
ground.
Being now in close neighborhood with the enemy, the English moved with
even greater caution and wariness than before; for they had every
reason to suspect, that, as he had suffered them to come thus far
without molestation, he meant to meet them here, under shelter of his
stronghold, with a resistance all the move determined. When come in
sight, however, what was their surprise, instead of beholding the high
ramparts and strong walls, grim and frowning with cannon, which they
had pictured to their minds, to find a heap of blackened and smoking
ruins!
Deserted by his Indian allies, threatened with famine, cut off from
all hope of aid from the North (where the English were everywhere
gaining ground), and with a force of but five hundred men wherewith to
defend the post against ten times that number, the French general had
seen that the attempt to hold it would be but folly; and, like a
prudent officer, had resolved to abandon it as his only chance of
safety. Waiting, therefore, until the English were within a day's
march of the place, he blew up the magazine, set fire to the works,
and, embarking in his bateaux by the light of the flames, retreated
down the Ohio.
Col. Washington, still leading the advance, was the first to enter;
and, with his own hand planting the British banner on the still
smouldering heaps, took formal possession thereof in the name of his
Britannic majesty, King George the Second. And thus this stronghold of
French power in the Ohio Valley, so long the pest and terror of the
border, fell without a blow. Under the name of Fort Pitt, it was soon
rebuilt, and garrisoned with two hundred of Washington's men; and,
from that time to the war of the Revolution, it was held by the
English, chiefly as a trading-post; and hence the dingy, smoky, noisy,
thriving, fast young city of Pittsburg.
They now had leisure to pay the last sad duty to the dead who had
fallen in the two defeats of Braddock and Grant. For three long years,
the bodies of Braddock's slaughtered men had lain without Christian
burial, bleaching in the sun of as many summers, and shrouded in the
snows of as many winters. Mingled with the bones of oxen and horses,
or half hidden in heaps of autumn leaves, they lay scattered about the
stony hillsides,--a spectacle ghastly indeed, and most melancholy to
behold. With many a sigh of pity for the hapless dead, and many a
shudder of dark remembrance on the part of those who had been present
at the scenes of rout and massacre, they gathered together the
blackened corpses of Grant's men and the whitened bones of Braddock's
men, and, digging a huge pit, buried them in one common grave. In this
pious duty all took part alike, from the general down to the common
soldier.
With the fall of Fort Duquesne, ended, as Washington had years ago
foreseen, the troubles of the Western and Southern frontiers, and with
it the power so long held by the French in the Ohio Valley. The
Indians, with that fickleness of mind peculiar to savage races, now
hastened to offer terms of amity and peace to the party whom the
fortunes of war had left uppermost.
Having done his part, and so large a part, towards the restoration of
quiet and security to his native province, the cherished object of his
heart, for which he had so faithfully and manfully struggled,
Washington resolved to bring his career as a soldier to a close. In
his very soul, he was sick and weary of strife, and longed for peace.
The scenes of violence and bloodshed had become loathing and painful
to him beyond the power of words to tell; and, now that his country
had no longer need of his services, he felt that he could, without
reproach, retire to the tranquil shades of private life he loved so
much, and had looked forward to with such earnest longings. He
therefore, at the end of the year, gave up his commission, and left
the service, followed by the admiration and affection of his soldiers,
and the applause and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen.
With the fall of Quebec in the course of the following year (1759),
this long and eventful Old French War was brought to a close, and
French empire in America was at an end.