be nine hundred men, it was determined to retreat to Fort Necessity, and, if possible, to Wills' creek. Their provisions were short, their horses worn down, and it was with excessive labor and fatigue that they reached the fort, after a forced march of two days. Here only a small quantity of flour was found; but supplies were hourly expected, and it was therefore determined to fortify the place as well as circumstances would permit, and abide the event.

"On the 3d July the enemy appeared, and commenced firing from the woods, but without effect. Washington had drawn up his men outside of the fort, with the view of inviting an encounter in the open field. This the French and Indians declined, hoping to draw him into the woods. It rained constantly during the day, and the muskets became wet, and were used with difficulty. Washington's troops withdrew within the trenches, and fired as opportunities occurred. In the evening the French proposed a parley, which Washington at first declined, suspecting a design to gain an entrance to the fort, and discover his weakness; but he afterwards consented to send an officer to them. Captain Vanbraam, a Dutchman, who pretended to understand French, was sent to them, and returned with proposals, in the French language, for capitulation. These proposals, after being modified in some particulars by the besieged party, were agreed to. The garrison was to be permitted to leave the fort with the honors of war, taking their baggage, except their artillery, with them. They were not to be molested by the French, nor, as far as it could be prevented, by the Indians. Since their cattle and horses had been killed in the action, they were to be permitted to conceal such of their effects as could not be carried away, and to leave a guard with them until they could return with horses to take them away; but on condition that they should not, within one year, attempt any establishment there, or on that side of the mountains. The prisoners taken at the time of Jumonville's death, were to be returned, and Captains Vanbraam and Stobo were to be retained by the French as hostages, until the return of the prisoners.t On the following morning, Washington, with

*" In the French proposals this expression was insidiously written, ' à l'assassinat de M. Jumonville; and as Vanbraam, the stupid interpreter, did not explain the force of the expression to Washington, the capitulation was signed in that shape."

+ It seems (according to Burke) that La Force, one of the prisoners taken by Washington in the skirmish in May, had made strenuous exertions to instigate the Indians to hostilities, and that he had been travelling on the frontiers of Virginia to obtain information of its resources. When taken, there were found upon him papers, in part disclosing the designs and policy of France.

Viewing him in the character of a spy, Governor Dwore threw him into prison at Williamsburg. To redeem this man, was the principal design of De Villier in demanding these hostages. La Force escaped from prison, and the people of the country were alarmed. "The opinion," says Burke, "that before prevailed of his extraordinary address and activity, his desperate courage, and fertility in resources, was by this new feat wrought into a mingled agony of terror and astonishment. Already had he reached King and Queen courthouse, without any knowledge of the country through which he passed, without a compass, and not daring to ask a question, when he attracted the notice of a back-woodsman. Their route lay the same way; and it occurred to La Force, that by the friendship and fidelity of this man, he might escape in spite of the difficulties and dangers of his situation. Some questions proposed by La Force, relative to the distance and direction of Fort Duquesne, confirmed the woodsman in his suspicions, and he arrest. ed him as he was about to cross the ferry at West Point. In vain did La Force tempt the woodsman with an immediate offer of money, and with promises of wealth and preferment, on condition that he accompanied him to Fort Duquesne. He was proof against every allurement, inconsistent with his duty, and he led him back to Williamsburg. The condition of La Force, after this attempt, became in the highest degree distressing. He was loaded with a double weight of irons, and chained to the floor of his dungeon.

"Such was the situation of affairs when Colonel Washington, after his resignation, arrived in Williamsburg. Here, for the first time, he heard of the imprisonment and persecution of La Force, and he felt himself compelled to remonstrate with Mr. Dinwiddie against them, as an infraction of the articles of capitulation, and of the laws of honor acknowledged by soldiers. His application was strongly backed by the sympathy of the people, which now began to run strongly in favor of the prisoner; but the governor was inexorable. Meanwhile, the hostages, Stobo and Vanbraam, had been ordered, for greater security, to Quebec, and in retaliation of the sufferings of La Force, they too were confined in prison, but without any additional severity. Almost at the same moment that La Force had broken his prison, Stobo and Vanbraam, by efforts equally extraorthe garrison, left the fort, taking such baggage as they could carry, and transporting the wounded upon their backs. The Indians, contrary to the stipulation, annoyed them exceedingly, and pilfered their baggage. After a toilsome march, they at length arrived at Wills' creek, where they found rest and refreshment."

From thence Washington proceeded to Williamsburg, and communicated the events of the campaign to Governor Dinwiddie.

As soon as the House of Burgesses assembled, they passed a vote of thanks to Col. Washington and his officers, for their bravery and gallant conduct. Thus ended the first campaign of Washington. "Although as yet a mere youth, with small experience, unskilled in war, and relying on his own resources, he had behaved with the prudence, address, courage, and firmness of a veteran commander. Rigid in discipline, but sharing the hardships, and solicitous for the welfare of his soldiers, he had secured their obedience and won their esteem, amidst privations, sufferings, and perils, that have seldom been surpassed."

Gov. Dinwiddie resolved to prosecute the war, but being wholly ignorant of military affairs, his preliminary measures, in undertaking to organize an army, were injudicious. In August, he wrote to Washington, who was at Winchester, to fill up the companies of his regiment by enlistment, and lead them without delay to Wills' creek, where Col. Innes, with some troops from the Carolinas and New York, were building Fort Cumberland. From thence, it was the governor's project that the united forces should immediately cross the Alleganies and drive the French from Fort Duquesne, or build another fort beyond the mountains. Washington, astonished at the absurdity of the scheme, contemplated at a season when the mountains would be covered with snow, and the army enfeebled and destitute of supplies, made such a strong remonstrance that the project was abandoned.

The governor was opposed by the assembly, who would not yield to all his demands, and he never ceased to complain of their "republican way of thinking." He had lately prorogued them, to punish their obstinacy, and wrote to the ministry that he was satisfied the French would never be effectually opposed unless the colonies were compelled, independently of assemblies, to contribute to the common cause. When the Burgesses again met, they contributed £20,000 for the public service, which was soon increased to £30,000 by specie sent from England.

In possession of funds, the governor now enlarged the army to ten companies of 100 men each, and placed them upon the establishment of independent companies, by which the highest officers in the Virginia regiment, among whom was Washington, would be

dinary, had escaped from Quebec, and were passing the causeway leading from the city, at the moment that the governor of Canada was airing in his carriage. Stobo succeeded in effecting his escape; but Vanbraam, fainting with fatigue and hunger, and despairing of being able to effect his escape, called out to the governor from beneath the arch of the causeway, where he concealed himself, and desired to surrender. The governor received him in his carriage, and remanded him to prison, but without any extraordinary severity. Even these facts were not unknown to Mr. Dinwiddie; yet, without being touched by so generous an example, he persisted in his unjustifiable rigor towards La Force."

captains. He thereupon resigned his commission and retired from the service.

Early in the ensuing spring, (1755,) Major-Gen. Edward Braddock arrived in the country with the 44th and 48th regiments of royal troops, under Sir Peter Halkett and Col. Dunbar. The people seemed elated with joy, and in their imagination the intruding French seemed about to be driven back like a torrent upon the frontiers of Canada. Col. Washington, who now was to take an active part in the fearful scenes to be enacted, accepted the appointment of aid-de-camp to Gen. Braddock. At Wills' Creek, (Fort Cumberland,) the royal forces were joined by about 1000 Virginians, but the army was detained for want of horses, wagons, and forage. By the energy of Dr. Franklin, then postmaster-general of the provinces, the deficiency was supplied. The army moved at length on the 8th and 9th of June, but soon found themselves so encumbered with baggage and wagons, that it was determined, at the suggestion of Washington, to divide the force, pushing forward a small, but chosen band, with such artillery and light stores as were necessary, leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, &c., to follow by slow and easy marches.

The general, with 1,200 chosen men, and Sir Peter Halkett, as brigadier, Lieut. Col. Gage, (afterwards Gen. Gage,) Lieut. Col. Burton, and Major Sparks, went forward, leaving Col. Dunbar to follow with the remainder of the troops and baggage. Col. Washington, who had been very ill with a fever, was left in charge of Col. Dunbar, but with a promise from Gen. Braddock that he should be brought up with the advanced corps before they reached Fort Duquesne. He joined it at the mouth of the Yough'ogheny, on the 8th July. On the 9th, the day of Braddock's defeat, he says, "I attended the general on horseback, though very low and weak. The army crossed to the left bank of the Monongahela, a little below the mouth of Yough'ogheny, being prevented by rugged hills from continuing along the right bank to the fort."

"Washington was often heard to say during his lifetime, that the most beautiful spectacle he ever beheld was the display of the British troops on this eventful morning.Every man was neatly dressed in full uniform; the soldiers were arranged in columns and marched in exact order; the sun gleamed from their burnished arms; the river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on their left. Officers and men were equally inspirited with cheering hopes and confident anticipations."

"In this manner they marched forward until about noon, when they arrived at the second crossing place, ten miles from Fort Duquesne. They halted but a little time, and then began to ford the river and regain its northern bank. As soon as they had crossed they came upon a level plain, elevated only a few feet above the surface of the river, and extending northward nearly half a mile from its margin. Then commenced a gradual ascent at an angle of about three degrees, which terminated in hills of a considerable height at no great distance beyond. The road from the fording place to Fort Duquesne led across the plain and up this ascent, and thence proceeded through an uneven country at that time covered with wood.

"By the order of march, a body of 300 men under Col. Gage made the advanced party, which was immediately followed by another of 200. Next came the general with the columns of artillery, the main body of the army, and the baggage. At one o'clock, the whole had crossed the river, and almost at this moment a sharp firing was heard upon the advanced parties, who were now ascending the hill, and had proceeded about a hundred yards from the termination of the plain. A heavy discharge of musketry was poured in upon their front, which was the first intelligence they had of the proximity of an enemy, and this was suddenly followed by another on the right flank. They were filled with the greater consternation, as no enemy was in sight, and the firing seemed to proceed from an invisible foe. They fired in turn, however, but quite at random, and obviously without effect.

"The general hastened forward to the relief of the advanced parties; but before he could reach the spot which they occupied, they gave way and fell back upon the artillery and the other columns of the army, causing extreme confusion, and striking the whole mass with such a panic that no order could afterwards be restored. The general and the officers behaved with the utmost courage, and used every effort to rally the men, and bring them to order, but all in vain. In this state they continued nearly three hours, huddled together in confused bodies, firing irregularly, shooting down their own officers and men, and doing no perceptible harm to the enemy. The Virginia* provincials were the only troops who seemed to retain their senses, and they behaved with a bravery and resolution worthy of a better fate. They adopted the Indian mode, and fought each man for himself, behind a tree. This was prohibited by the general, who endeavored to form his men into platoons and columns, as if they had been manœuvring on the plains of Flanders. Meantime the French and Indians, concealed in the ravines and behind trees, kept up a deadly and unceasing discharge of musketry, singling out their objects, taking deliberate aim, and producing a carnage almost unparalleled in the annals of modern warfare. The general himself received a mortal wound,t and many of his best officers fell by his side.

"During the whole of the action, as reported by an officer who witnessed his conduct, Col. Washington behaved with the greatest courage and resolution." Captains Orme and Morris, the two other aids-de-camp, were wounded and disabled, and the duty of distributing the general's orders devolved on him alone. He rode in every direction, and was a conspicuous mark for the enemy's sharpshooters. By the all-powerful dispensa

* Washington said "The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed; for, I believe, out of three companies that were there, scarcely 30 men are left alive. Capt. Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Capt. Polson had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In short, the das. tardly behavior of those they call regulars, exposed all others that were inclined to do their duty, to almost certain death; and, at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them.

It is conjectured, (I believe with much truth,) that two-thirds of our killed and wounded received their shot from our own cowardly regulars, who gathered themselves into a body, contrary to orders, ten or twelve deep-would then level, fire, and shoot down the men before them."

† "There had long existed a tradition that Braddock was killed by one of his own men, and more recent developments leave little or no doubt of the fact. A recent writer says: ""When my father was removing with his family to the west, one of the Fausetts kept a public house to the eastward from, and near where Uniontown now stands, as the county seat of Fayette, Penn. This man's house we lodged in about the tenth of October, 1781, twenty-six years and a few months after Braddock's defeat, and there it was made any thing but a secret that one of the family dealt the death-blow to the British general.

"Thirteen years afterwards I met Thomas Fausett in Fayette co., then, as he told me, in his 70th year. To him I put the plain question, and received a plain reply, " I did shoot him!" He then went on to insist, that, by doing so, he contributed to save what was left of the army. In brief, in my youth, I never heard the fact either doubted or blamed, that Fausett shot Braddock.'

"Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Uniontown, says he knew, and often conversed with Tom Fausett, who did not hesitate to avow, in the presence of his friends, that he shot Gen. Braddock. Fausett was a man of gigantic frame, of uncivilized half-savage propensities, and spent most of his life among the mountains, as a hermit, living on the game which he killed. He would occasionally come into town, and get drunk. Sometimes he would repel inquiries into the affair of Braddock's death, by putting his fingers to his lips and uttering a sort of buzzing sound; at others, he would burst into tears, and appear greatly agitated by conflicting passions.

"In spite of Braddock's silly order, that the troops should not protect themselves behind trees, Joseph Fausett had taken such a position, when Braddock rode up, in a passion, and struck him down with his sword. Tom Fausett, who was but a short distance from his brother, saw the whole transaction, and immediately drew up his rifle and shot Braddock through the lungs, partly in revenge for the outrage upon his brother, and partly, as he always alleged, to get the general out of the way, and thus save the remainder of the gallant band, who had been sacrificed to his obstinacy, and want of experience in frontier warfare." -Day's Penn.

tions of Providence,' said he, in a letter to his brother, ' 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 I escaped unhurt, although death was levelling my companions on every side of me.'* So bloody a contest has rarely been witnessed. The number of officers in the engagement was 86, of whom 26 were killed, and 37 were wounded. The killed and wounded of the privates amounted to 714. On the other hand, the enemy's loss was small. Their force amounted, at least, to 850 men, of whom 600 were Indians. According to the returns, not more than 40 were killed. They fought in deep ravines, concealed by the bushes, and the balls of the English passed over their heads.

"The remnant of Braddock's army being put to flight, and having re-crossed the river, Col. Washington hastened to meet Col. Dunbar, and order up horses and wagons for the wounded. Three days were occupied in retreating to Gist's plantation. The enemy did not pursue them. Satiated with carnage and plunder, the Indians could not be tempted from the battle-field, and the French were too few to act without their aid. The unfortunate general, dying of his wounds, was transported first in a tumbril, then on a horse, and at last was carried by the soldiers. He expired the fourth day, and was buried in the road near Fort Necessity. A new panic seized the troops; disorder and confusion reigned; the artillery was destroyed; the public stores and heavy baggage were burnt, no one could tell by whose orders; nor were discipline and tranquillity restored, till the straggling and bewildered companies arrived at Fort Cumberland.

"Such was the termination of an enterprise, one of the most memorable in American history, and almost unparalleled for its disasters and the universal disappointment and consternation it occasioned. Notwithstanding its total and even disgraceful failure, the bitter invectives everywhere poured out against its principal conductors, and the reproaches heaped upon the memory of its ill-fated commander, yet the fame and character of Washington were greatly enhanced by it. It was known that he gave prudent counsel to General Braddock, which was little heeded. During the march, a body of Indians offered their services, which, at the earnest request and recommendation of Washington, were accepted, but in so cold a manner, and the Indians were treated with so much neglect, that they withdrew, one after another, in disgust. On the evening preceding the action, they came again to camp and renewed their offer. Again Col. Washington interposed, and urged the importance of these men as scouts and outguards, their knowledge of the grounds and skill in fighting among woods. Relying on the prowess of his regular troops, and disdaining such allies, the general peremptorily refused to receive them, in a tone not more decided than ungracious. Had a scouting party of a dozen Indians preceded the army after it crossed the Monongahela, they would have detected the enemy in the ravines, and reversed the fortunes of the day."t

After the defeat of Braddock, Col. Dunbar, who succeeded to the command, marched his troops to Philadelphia. The whole frontier, even to the Blue Ridge, was now harassed and horror-stricken by the bloody incursions of the French Indians. Col. Washington, in his capacity as adjutant-general of militia, circulated orders for them to assemble in their respective districts for exercise and review. Volunteer companies were organized, and the martial spirit of the people revived. Addresses were made to them from the pulpit, in one of which, the eloquent Samuel Davies of Hanover, after complimenting the bravery shown by the Virginia troops, added the following encomium, which seems almost

* When Washington went to the Ohio, in 1770, to explore wild lands near the mouth of the Kenhawa River, he met an aged Indian chief, who told him, through an interpreter, that during the battle of Braddock's field, he had singled him out as a conspicuous object, fired his rifle at him many times, and directed his young warriors to do the same; but none of his balls took effect. He was then persuaded that the young hero was under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit, and ceased firing at him. He had now come a long way to pay homage to the man who was the particular favorite of heaven, and who could never die in battle.

† Sparks' Life of Washington, from which much important information relating to this war is inserted in this chapter.