1754-1755.
Dinwiddie's injudicious Orders--Washington resigns--Statistics--
Braddock's arrival--Washington joins him as aid-de-camp--
Braddock's Expedition--His Defeat--Washington's Bravery--His
account of the Defeat.
THE Virginia regiment quartered at Winchester being re-enforced by some
companies from Maryland and North Carolina, Dinwiddie injudiciously
ordered this force to march at once again over the Alleghanies, and
expel the French from Fort Du Quesne, or build another near it. This
little army was under command of Colonel Innes, of North Carolina, who,
having brought three hundred and fifty men with him from that colony,
had been appointed, upon Colonel Fry's death, commander-in-chief. Innes
had been with Lawrence Washington at Carthagena. The force under Innes
did not exceed half the number of the enemy, and was unprovided for a
winter campaign. The assembly making no appropriation for the
expedition, it was fortunately abandoned.
Two independent companies, ordered from New York by Dinwiddie, arrived
in Hampton Roads, in his majesty's ship Centaur, Captain Dudley Digges,
in June, 1754. They were marched to Will's Creek, where they were joined
by an independent company from South Carolina; and these troops, under
command of Colonel Innes, during the autumn, built Fort Cumberland in
the fork between Will's Creek and the north branch of the Potomac, on
the Maryland side, about fifty-five miles northwest of Winchester. It
was called after the Duke of Cumberland, captain-general of the British
army. The fort was mounted with ten four-pounders, and some swivels; and
contained magazines and barracks. A prosperous town has arisen on the
spot.
The North Carolina troops at Winchester, not duly receiving their pay,
disbanded themselves in a disorderly way, and returned home. Dinwiddie
wrote to the board of trade that "the progress of the French would
never be effectually opposed, but by means of an act of parliament
compelling the colonies to contribute to the common cause independently
of assemblies;" and to the secretary of state: "I know of no method to
compel them to their duty to the king, but by an act of parliament for a
general poll-tax of two shillings and six pence a head, from all the
colonies on this continent." This scheme had been suggested a long time
before.
In 1738 the assembly of Virginia, which had long exercised the right of
choosing a treasurer, had placed their speaker, John Robinson, in that
office; and he continuing to hold both places for many years, exerted an
undue influence over the assembly by lending the public money to the
members. Dinwiddie ruled on ordinary occasions, but Robinson was
dictator in all extraordinary emergencies.[470:A]
When the assembly met in October, 1754, they granted twenty thousand
pounds for the public exigencies; Maryland and New York also contributed
their quotas to the common cause; and Dinwiddie received ten thousand
pounds from England. He now enlarged the Virginia forces to ten
companies, under the pretext of peremptory orders from England, and made
each of them independent, with a view, as was alleged, of terminating
the disputes between the regular and provincial officers respecting
command. The effect of this upon Washington would have been to reduce
him to the grade of captain, and to subject him to officers whom he had
commanded; officers of the same rank, but holding the king's commission,
would rank before him. This would have been the more mortifying to him,
after the catastrophe of the Great Meadows. He, therefore, although his
inclinations were still strongly bent to arms, resigned, and passed the
winter at Mount Vernon. He was now twenty-two years of age.
In the meanwhile Horatio Sharpe, professionally a military man, and Lord
Baltimore's lieutenant-governor of Maryland, was appointed by the crown
commander-in-chief of the forces against the French. Colonel William
Fitzhugh, of Virginia, who was to command in the absence of Sharpe, had
endeavored to persuade Washington to continue in the service, retaining
for the present his commission of colonel. Replying in November, 1754,
he said: "If you think me capable of holding a commission that has
neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you must entertain a very
contemptible opinion of my weakness, and believe me to be more empty
than the commission itself." Washington was dissatisfied with
Dinwiddie's action in this matter.
The population of the American colonies at this period was estimated at
1,485,000, of whom 292,000 were blacks, and the number of fighting men
240,000; while the French population in Canada was not over 90,000.
Virginia was reckoned the first of the colonies in power, Massachusetts
the second, Pennsylvania the third, and Maryland the fourth; and either
one of these had greater resources than Canada. Yet the power of the
French was more concentrated; they were better fitted for the
emergencies of the war, and they had more regular troops.[471:A] The
colonies were not united in purpose; and the Virginians were described
by Dinwiddie as "an indolent people, and without military ardor."
Sharpe's appointment was sent over by Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North
Carolina, who arrived in Hampton Roads on the first of October. Sharpe,
proceeding to Williamsburg, concerted with Dinwiddie and Dobbs a plan of
operations against Fort Du Quesne. This plan was abandoned, owing to
intelligence of the French being re-enforced by numerous Indian allies.
In February, 1755, General Edward Braddock, newly appointed
commander-in-chief of all the military forces in America, arrived in
Virginia with a small part of the troops of the intended expedition, the
remainder arriving afterwards, being two British regiments, each
consisting of five hundred men, the forty-fourth commanded by Sir Peter
Halket, the forty-eighth by Colonel Dunbar. Braddock went immediately to
Williamsburg to confer with Dinwiddie. Sir John St. Clair, who had come
over to America some time before, was already there awaiting the
general's arrival.
In compliance with Braddock's invitation, dated the second of March,
Washington entered his military family as a volunteer, retaining his
former rank. This proceeding aroused his mother's tender solicitude, and
she hastened to Mount Vernon to give expression to it.
From Williamsburg Braddock proceeded to Alexandria, then sometimes
called Belhaven, the original name, where he made his headquarters, the
troops being quartered in that place and the neighborhood until they
marched for Will's Creek. On the thirteenth of April the governors of
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, met
General Braddock at Alexandria, to concert a plan of operations.
Washington was courteously received by the governors, especially by
Shirley, with whose manners and character he was quite fascinated.
Overtaking Braddock (who marched from Alexandria on the twentieth) at
Frederictown, Maryland, he accompanied him to Winchester, and thence to
Fort Cumberland. Early in May Washington was made an aid-de-camp to the
general. Being dispatched to Williamsburg to convey money for the
army-chest, he returned to the camp with it on the thirtieth.
The army consisted of the two regiments of British regulars, together
originally one thousand men, and augmented by Virginia and Maryland
levies to fourteen hundred. The Virginia captains were Waggener, Cock,
Hogg, Stephen, Poulson, Peyrouny, Mercer, and Stuart. The provincials
included the fragments of two independent companies from New York, one
of which was commanded by Captain Horatio Gates, afterwards a
major-general in the revolutionary war. Of the remaining provincials one
hundred were pioneers and guides, called Hatchetmen: there were besides
a troop of Virginia light-horse, and a few Indians. Thirty sailors were
detached by Commodore Keppel, commander of the fleet that brought
over the forces. The total effective force was about two thousand one
hundred and fifty, and they were accompanied by the usual number of
non-combatants. The army was detained by the difficulty of procuring
provisions and conveyances. The apathy of the legislatures and the bad
faith of the contractors, so irritated Braddock that he indulged in
sweeping denunciations against the colonies. These led to frequent
disputes between him and Washington, who found the exasperated general
deaf to his arguments on that subject. The plan suggested by him of
employing pack-horses for transportation, instead of wagons, was
afterwards in some measure adopted.
Benjamin Franklin, deputy postmaster-general of the colonies, who, at
Governor Shirley's instance, had accompanied him to the congress at
Alexandria, visited Braddock at Frederictown, for the purpose of opening
a post-route between Will's Creek and Philadelphia. Learning the
general's embarrassment, he undertook to procure the requisite number of
wagons and horses from the Pennsylvania farmers. Issuing a handbill
addressed to their interests and their fears, and exciting among the
Germans an apprehension of an arbitrary impressment to be enforced by
Sir John St. Clair, "the Hussar," he was soon able to provide the
general with the means of transportation.[473:A] It was a long time
before Franklin recovered compensation for the farmers; Governor Shirley
at length paid the greater part of the amount, twenty thousand pounds;
but it is said that owing to the neglect of Lord Loudoun, Franklin was
never wholly repaid. Washington and Franklin were both held in high
estimation by Braddock, and they were unconsciously co-operating with
him in a war destined in its unforeseen consequences to dismember the
British empire.
Braddock's army, with its baggage extending (along a road twelve feet
wide) sometimes four miles in length, moved from Fort Cumberland, at the
mouth of Will's Creek, early in June, and advanced slowly and with
difficulty, five miles being considered a good day's march. There was
much sickness among the soldiers: Washington was seized with a fever,
and obliged to travel in a covered wagon. Braddock, however, continued
to consult him, and he advised the general to disencumber himself of his
heavy guns and unnecessary baggage, to leave them with a rear division,
and to press forward expeditiously to Fort Du Quesne. In a council of
war it was determined that Braddock should advance as rapidly as
possible with twelve hundred select men, and Colonel Dunbar follow on
slowly with a rear-guard of about six hundred,--a number of the soldiers
being disabled by sickness. The advance corps proceeded only nineteen
miles in four days, losing occasionally a straggler, cut off by the
French and Indian scouts. Trees were found near the road stripped of
their barks and painted, and on them the French had written many of
their names and the number of scalps recently taken, with many insolent
threats and scurrilous bravados.
Washington was now (by the general's order) compelled to stop, his
physician declaring that his life would be jeoparded by a continuance
with the army, and Braddock promising that he should be brought up with
it before it reached Fort Du Quesne. On the day before the battle of the
Monongahela, Washington, in a wagon, rejoined the army, at the mouth of
the Youghiogany River, and fifteen miles from Fort Du Quesne. On the
morning of Wednesday, the 9th of July, 1755, the troops, in high
spirits, confident of entering the gates of Fort Du Quesne triumphantly
in a few hours, crossed the Monongahela, and advanced along the southern
margin. Washington, in after-life, was heard to declare it the most
beautiful spectacle that he had ever witnessed--the brilliant uniform of
the soldiers, arranged in columns and marching in exact order; the sun
gleaming on their burnished arms; the Monongahela flowing tranquilly by
on the one hand, on the other, the primeval forest projecting its
shadows in sombre magnificence. At one o'clock the army again crossed
the river at a second ford ten miles from Fort Du Quesne. From the river
a level plain extends northward nearly half a mile, thence the ground,
gradually ascending, terminates in hills. The road from the
fording-place to the fort led across this plain, up this ascent, and
through an uneven country covered with woods.[474:A] Beyond the plain on
both sides of the road were ravines unnoticed by the English. Three
hundred men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, subsequently commander of
the British troops at Boston, made the advanced party, and it was
immediately followed by another of two hundred. Next came Braddock with
the artillery, the main body, and the baggage. Brigadier-General Sir
Peter Halket was second in command. No sooner had the army crossed the
river, at the second ford, than a sharp firing was heard upon the
advanced parties, who were now ascending the hill about a hundred yards
beyond the edge of the plain.[475:A]
At an early hour De Beaujeu had been detached from Fort Du Quesne, at
the head of about two hundred and thirty French and Canadians, and six
hundred and thirty Indian savages, with the design of attacking the
English at an advantageous ground selected on the preceding evening.
Before reaching it he came upon the English. The greater part of Gage's
command was advanced beyond the spot where the main battle was fought,
when Mr. Gordon, one of the engineers in front marking out the road,
perceived the enemy bounding forward. Before them with long leaps came
Beaujeu, the gay hunting-shirt and silver gorget denoting him as the
chief. Halting he waved his hat above his head, and at this signal the
Indians dispersed themselves to the right and left, throwing themselves
flat on the ground, or gliding behind rocks and trees into the ravines.
The French occupied the centre of the Indian semicircle, and a fierce
attack was commenced. Gage's troops, recovering from their first
surprise, opened a fire of grape and musketry. Beaujeu and twelve others
fell dead upon the spot; the Indians, astonished by the report of the
cannon, began to fly. Rallied by Dumas, who succeeded Beaujeu, they
resumed the combat: the French in front, the Indians on the flank. For a
time the issue was doubtful: cries of "Vive le Roi" were answered by the
cheers of the English. But while the officers of the Forty-fourth led on
their men with waving swords, the enemy, concealed in the woods and
ravines, secure and invisible, kept up a steady, well-aimed, and fatal
fire. Their position was only discovered by the smoke of their muskets.
Gage, not reinforcing his flanking parties, they were driven in, and the
English, instead of advancing upon the hidden enemy, returned a random
and ineffectual fire in full column.
In the mean time Braddock sent forward Lieutenant-Colonel Burton with
the vanguard. And while he was forming his men to face a rising ground
on the right, the advanced detachment, overwhelmed with consternation by
the savage war-whoop and the mysterious danger, fell back upon him in
great confusion, communicating a panic from which they could not be
recovered. Braddock now came up and endeavored to form the two regiments
under their colors, but neither entreaties nor threats could prevail.
The baggage in the rear was attacked, and many horses killed; some of
the drivers fell, the rest escaped by flight. Two of the cannon flanking
the baggage for some time protected it from the Indians; the others
fired away most of their ammunition, and were of some service in awing
the enemy, but could do but little execution against a concealed foe.
The enemy extended from front to rear, and fired upon every part at
once. The general finding it impossible to persuade his men to advance,
many officers falling, and no enemy appearing in sight, endeavored to
effect a retreat in good order, but such was the panic that he could not
succeed. They were loading as fast as possible and firing in the air.
Braddock and his officers made every effort to rally them, but in vain;
in this confusion and dismay they remained in a road twelve feet wide,
enclosed by woods, for three hours, huddled together, exposed to the
insidious fire, doing the enemy little hurt, and shooting one another.
None of the survivors could afterwards say that they saw one hundred of
the enemy, and many of the officers that were in the heat of the action
would not assert that they saw one.[477:A]
The Virginia troops preserved their presence of mind, and behaved with
the utmost bravery, adopting the Indian mode of combat, and fighting
each man for himself behind a tree. This was done in spite of the orders
of Braddock, who still endeavored to form his men into platoons and
columns, as if they had been manoeuvring in the plains of Flanders or
parading in Hyde Park. Washington and Sir Peter Halket in vain advised
him to allow the men to shelter themselves: he stormed at such as
attempted to take to the trees, calling them cowards, and striking them
with his sword. Captain Waggoner, of the Virginia troops, resolved to
take advantage of the trunk of a tree five feet in diameter, lying
athwart the brow of a hill. With shouldered firelocks he marched a party
of eighty men toward it, and losing but three men on the way, the
remainder throwing themselves behind it, opened a hot fire upon the
enemy. But no sooner were the flash and report of their muskets
perceived by the mob behind, than a general discharge was poured upon
them, by which fifty were killed and the rest compelled to fly.[477:B]
The French and Indians, concealed in deep ravines, and behind trees, and
logs, and high grass, and tangled undergrowth, kept up a deadly fire,
singling out their victims. The mounted officers were especially aimed
at, and shortly after the commencement of the engagement, Washington was
the only aid not wounded. Although still feeble from the effects of his
illness, on him now was devolved the whole duty of carrying the
general's orders, and he rode a conspicuous mark in every direction. Two
horses were killed under him, four bullets penetrated his coat, but he
escaped unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was either killed
or wounded. Dr. Craik afterwards said: "I expected every moment to see
him fall. His duty and situation exposed him to every danger. Nothing
but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the
fate of all around him." Washington, writing to his brother, said: "By
the all-powerful dispensations of Providence I have been protected
beyond all human probability or expectation, for I had four bullets
through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt,
although death was levelling my companions on every side."
More than half of the army were killed or wounded, two-thirds of them,
according to Washington's conjecture, by their own bullets; Sir Peter
Halket was killed on the field; Shirley, Braddock's secretary, was shot
through the head; Colonels Burton, Gage, and Orme, Major Sparks,
Brigade-Major Halket, Captain Morris, etc., were wounded. Out of
eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded.
The whole number of killed was estimated at four hundred and fifty-six,
wounded four hundred and twenty one, the greater part of whom were
brought off; the aggregate loss, eight hundred and seventy-seven. The
enemy's force, variously estimated, did not exceed eight hundred and
fifty men, of whom six hundred, it was conjectured, were Indians. The
French loss was twenty-eight killed, including three officers, one of
whom, Beaujeu, was chief in command; and twenty-nine badly wounded,
including two officers. The French and Indians being covered by ravines,
the balls of the English passed harmless over their heads; while a
charge with the bayonet, or raking the ravines with cannon, would have
at once driven them from their lurking places, and put them to flight,
or, at the least, dispersed them in the woods. Any movement would have
been better than standing still.
During the action, or massacre, of three hours, Braddock had three
horses killed under him, and two disabled. At five o'clock in the
afternoon, while beneath a large tree standing between the heads of two
ravines, and in the act of giving an order, he received a mortal wound.
Falling from his horse, he lay helpless on the ground, surrounded by the
dead. His army having fired away all their ammunition, now fled in
disorder back to the Monongahela. Pursued to the water's edge by a party
of savages, the regulars threw away arms, accoutrements, and even
clothing, that they might run the faster. Many were tomahawked at the
fording-place; but those who crossed were not pursued, as the Indians
returned to the harvest of plunder. The provincials, better acquainted
with Indian warfare were less disconcerted, and retreated with more
composure.
Not one of his British soldiers could be prevailed upon to stay and aid
in bearing off the wounded general. In vain Orme offered them a purse of
sixty guineas. Braddock begged his faithful friends to provide for their
own safety, and declared his resolution to die on the field. Orme
disregarded these desperate injunctions; and Captain Stewart, of the
Virginia Light-horse, (attached to the general's person,) and his
servant, together with another American officer, hastening to Orme's
relief, brought off Braddock, at first on a small tumbrel, then on a
horse, lastly by the soldiers.
According to Washington's account, in a letter written to Dinwiddie:
"They were struck with such an inconceivable panic, that nothing but
confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among them. The officers
in general behaved with incomparable bravery, for which they greatly
suffered, there being upwards of sixty killed and wounded, a large
proportion out of what we had. The Virginia companies behaved like men
and died like soldiers; for, I believe, out of three companies on the
ground that day, scarcely thirty men were left alive. Captain Peyrouny,
a Frenchman by birth, and all his officers down to a corporal, were
killed. Captain Poulson had almost as hard a fate, for only one of his
escaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of the regular troops (so
called) exposed those who were inclined to do their duty to almost
certain death; and, at length, in spite of every effort to the contrary,
they broke and ran like sheep before hounds, leaving the artillery,
ammunition, provisions, baggage, and, in short, everything a prey to the
enemy; and when we endeavored to rally them in hopes of regaining the
ground and what we had left upon it, it was with as little success as if
we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of the mountains, or the
rivulets with our feet; for they would break by in spite of every effort
to prevent it."
Braddock was brave and accomplished in European tactics; but not an
officer of that comprehensive genius which knows how to bend and
accommodate himself to circumstances. Burke says that a wise statesman
knows how to be governed by circumstances: the maxim applies as well to
a military commander. Braddock, headstrong, passionate, irritated, not
without just grounds, against the provinces, and pursuing the policy of
the British government to rely mainly on the forces sent over, and to
treat the colonial troops as inferior and only secondary, rejected the
proposal of Washington to lead in advance the provincials, who,
accustomed to border warfare, knew better how to cope with a savage
foe.[480:A] Braddock, however, showed that although he could not
retrieve these errors, nor reclaim a degenerate soldiery, he could at
any rate fall like a soldier.[480:B]
Although no further pursued, the remainder of the army continued their
flight during the night and the next day. Braddock continued for two
days to give orders; and it was in compliance with them that the greater
part of the artillery, ammunition, and other stores were destroyed. It
was not until the thirteenth that the general uttered a word, except for
military directions. He then bestowed the warmest praise on his gallant
officers, and bequeathed, as is said, his charger, and his body-servant,
Bishop, to Washington.[480:C] The dying Braddock ejaculated in reference
to the defeat, "Who would have thought it?" Turning to Orme he remarked,
"We shall better know how to deal with them another time;" and in a few
moments expired, at eight o'clock, in the evening of Sunday, the 13th of
July, 1755, at the Great Meadows. On the next morning he was buried in
the road, near Fort Necessity, Washington, in the absence of the
chaplain, who was wounded, reading the funeral service. Washington
retired to Mount Vernon, oppressed with the sad retrospect of the recent
disaster. But his reputation was greatly elevated by his signal
gallantry on this occasion. Such dreary portals open the road of fame.
The green and bosky scene of battle was strewn with the wounded and the
dead. Toward evening the forest resounded with the exulting cries and
war-whoop of the returning French and Indians, the firing of small arms,
and the responsive roar of the cannon at the fort. A lonely American
prisoner confined there listened during this anxious day to the various
sounds, and with peering eye explored the scene. Presently he saw the
greater part of the savages, painted and blood-stained, bringing scalps,
and rejoicing in the possession of grenadiers' caps, and the laced hats
and splendid regimentals of the English officers. Next succeeded the
French, escorting a long train of pack-horses laden with plunder. Last
of all, just before sunset, appeared a party of Indians conducting
twelve British regulars, naked, their faces blackened, their hands tied
behind them. In a short while they were burned to death on the opposite
bank of the Ohio, with every circumstance of studied barbarity and
inhuman torture, the French garrison crowding the ramparts of the fort
to witness the spectacle.
The remains of the defeated detachment retreated to the rear division in
precipitate disorder, leaving the road behind them strewed with signs of
the disaster. Shortly after, Colonel Dunbar marched with the remaining
regulars to Philadelphia. Colonel Washington returned home, mortified
and indignant at the conduct of the regular troops.
FOOTNOTES:
[470:A] Chalmers' Revolt, ii. 353.
[471:A] Chalmers' Revolt, ii. 273.
[473:A] Gordon's Hist. of Pa.; Braddock's Expedition, 163.
[474:A] A plan of the ground is given in Washington's Writings, ii. 90.
[475:A] The surprise of the Roman army under Titurius Sabinus on his
march, by the Gauls (as described by Caesar) resembles Braddock's defeat
in several particulars.
"At hostes, posteaquam ex nocturno fremitu vigiliis que de
profectione eorum senserunt, collocatis insidiis bipartito in
silvis opportuno atque occulto loco, a millibus passuum
circiter duobus, Romanorum adventum expectabant: et cum se
major pars agminis in magnam convallem demisisset, ex utraque
parte ejus vallis subito se ostenderunt, novissimosque premere
et primos prohibere ascensu atque iniquissimo nostris loco
proelium committere coeperunt." Lucius Cotta was the
Washington of that defeat: but he fell in the general
massacre. "At Cotta qui cogitasset haec posse in itinere
accidere, atque ob eam causam profectionis auctor non fuisset,
nulla in re communi saluti deerat, et in appellandis
cohortandisque militibus, imperatoris, et in pugna, militis
officia praestabat."
The following sentence describes the war-whoop: "Tum vero suo more
victoriam conclamant, atque ululatum tollunt, impetuque in nostros
facto, ordines perturbant."
[477:A] Bancroft, iv. 189.
[477:B] Braddock's Expedition, 231.
[480:A] Chalmers' Hist. of Revolt, ii. 276. True to his unvarying
prejudice against the colonies, he justifies the conduct of Braddock.
[480:B] The History of Braddock's Expedition, by Winthrop Sargent, Esq.,
is full, elaborate, and authentic. The volume, a beautiful specimen of
typography, was printed, 1856, by Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co., for
the Pennsylvania Historical Society. I am indebted to Townsend Ward,
Esq., Librarian, for a copy of it.
[480:C] Gilbert, a slave, is said to have been with Washington at the
battle of the Monongahela, and at the siege of York. John Alton is
likewise mentioned as a servant attending him during Braddock's
expedition.