arms, Colonel Washington possessed too entirely the proud and punctilious feelings of a soldier to submit to a degradation so humiliating as this. Professing his unabated inclination to continue in the service, he retired indignantly from it, and answered the various letters which he received, pressing him still to hold his commission, with assurances that he should serve with pleasure, when he should be enabled to do so without dishonour. His eldest brother, Mr. Lawrence Washington, who had been engaged in the expedition against Carthagena, had lately died and left him a considerable estate on the Potomack, which, in compliment to the admiral who commanded the fleet engaged in that enterprise, by whom he had been particularly noticed, he had called Mount Vernon. To this delightful spot Colonel Washington now withdrew, resolving to devote all his future attention to the avocations of private life. CHAP. L 1754 de-camp to Ge This resolution was not long maintained. General Braddock, Is appointed aidbeing informed of his merit, his knowledge of the country which neral Braddock. was to be the theatre of action, and his motives for retiring from the service-motives which that officer could not disapprove-gratified his desire to make one campaign under a person supposed to possess some knowledge of the art of war, by inviting him to enter into his family as a volunteer and aid-decamp. This invitation colonel Washington readily accepted, stipulating only for permission to employ himself in the arrangement of his private affairs till the general should be on his march, and that he might return to them when the active part of the campaign should be over. Colonel CHAP. I. 1755. April. June. Colonel Washington joined General Braddock immediately after his departure from Alexandria, and proceeded with him to Willis's-Creek, afterwards called Fort Cumberland, where the army was detained, waiting for waggons, horses, and proper supplies of provisions, till about the 12th of June. From his knowledge of the service to be performed, he very early suggested the propriety of using, to a considerable extent, packhorses instead of waggons for the baggage of the army. This advice was at first rejected; but soon after the commencement of the march, its propriety became too obvious to be longer neglected, and considerable changes were made in this respect. The army consisted of two British regiments with a few corps of provincials. On the third day after it had moved from its ground, and had marched but a little more than ten miles from Fort Cumberland, Colonel Washington was seized with a raging fever, which absolutely disabled him from riding on horseback. Persisting, however, in his refusal to remain behind the troops, he was conveyed with them in a covered waggon. General Braddock, who found the difficulties of the march, arising from the badness of the roads, and his long train of waggons, infinitely greater than had been expected, still continued privately to consult Colonel Washington respecting the measures it would now be most proper to pursue. Retaining his first impressions on the manner of conducting the march, he strenuously urged the general to leave his heavy artillery and baggage behind with the rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches, and to press forward himself as expeditiously as possible to Fort du Quesne with a chosen body of troops, some pieces of light artillery, and stores of absolute and immediate necessity. 6 necessity. The reasons urged by him in support of this advice were, that, according to all their intelligence, the French were at present weak on the Ohio, but hourly expected reinforcements; that during the present excessive drought, those reinforcements could not arrive with the necessary quantity of provisions and other supplies, because the river La Beuf, on which they must necessarily be brought to Venango, did not afford water enough to admit of their portage down it. By a rapid movement, therefore, it was extremely probable that the fort might be reached with a sufficient force to carry it before the arrival of the looked-for aid: but if this measure was not adopted, such were the delays attendant on the march of the whole army, that rains sufficient to raise the waters might reasonably be counted on, and the whole force of the French would probably be collected for their reception; a circumstance which might render the success of the expedition extremely doubtful. This advice accorded well with the temper of the commander in chief; and it was determined in a council held at the Little Meadows, that twelve hundred men, selected from the different corps, to be commanded by General Braddock in person, accompanied by Sir Peter Halket, now acting as brigadier, the Lieutenant-colonels Gage and Burton, and by Major Sparke, should advance with the utmost expedition against Fort du Quesne. They were to take with them only such waggons as the train would absolutely require, and to carry their provisions and necessary baggage on horses. Colonel Dunbar and Major Chapman were to remain with the residue of the two regiments and all the heavy baggage. This CHAP. I. 1755. CHAP. I. 1755. July 8, This select corps commenced its march with only thirty carriages, including ammunition waggons, and these strongly horsed. The hopes, however, which had been entertained of the celerity of its movements were not fulfilled. "I found," said Colonel Washington, in a letter written during the march, to his brother, “ that instead of pushing on with vigour, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every molehill, and to erect bridges over every brook." By these means they employed four days in reaching the great crossings of the Yohogany, only nineteen miles from the Little Meadows. Here the situation of Colonel Washington, and the medicine which had been administered to him, rendered it indispensable for him to stop. The physician declared that his life would be endangered by continuing with the army; and General Braddock ordered him absolutely to remain at this camp, with a small guard left for his protection, till the arrival of Colonel Dunbar. These orders he very reluctantly obeyed, having first obtained from the general a solemn promise that means should be used to bring him up with the detachment in front, before it reached Fort du Quesne. The day before the action of the Monongahela* he rejoined the general in a covered waggon. Though very weak, he immediately entered on the duties of his station. * An account of which has been given in vol. 1. p. 314. In a very short time after the action had commenced he was the only aid remaining alive and unwounded. On him alone devolved, in an engagement with marksmen who selected officers, and especially those on horseback, for their objects, the whole duty of carrying the orders of the commander in chief. Under these difficult circumstances he manifested that coolness, that self-possession and fearlessness of danger which ever distinguished him, and which are so necessary to the character of a consummate soldier. He had two horses killed under him, and four balls through his coat; but, to the astonishment of all, escaped unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was either killed or wounded. "I expected every moment," says an eyewitness*,." 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. CHAP. I. 1755. death of Braddock At length, after an action of near three hours, General Brad- Defeat and dock, under whom three horses had been killed, received a mortal wound, and his troops gave way in all directions. The efforts made to rally them were ineffectual till they had crossed the Monongahela; when, being no longer pursued by the enemy, for the Indians were stopped by the plunder, they halted, and were again formed. The general was brought off in a small tumbril by Colonel Washington, Captain Stewart of his guards, and his servant. Colonel Washington was immediately dispatched to Dunbar's camp, to have some comfortable provisions prepared for the defeated army; which place he reached the VOL. 11. *Doctor Craik. F next |