ing officer, was killed. Reinforced, soon afterward, by two additional companies from Virginia, and succeeding, by the death of a senior officer to the rank of colonel, he erected, with as much expedition as possible, a small stockade fort at the Great Meadows, which he called Fort Necessity, and advanced toward fort Du Quesne, (Pittsburgh,) intending, if possible, to drive the French garrison from thence. Having proceeded about thirteen miles in that direction, he was met by some friendly Indians, who informed him that the French and their savage allies, "as numerous as the pigeons in the woods," were advancing to meet him. Being satisfied from different sources, that the hostile detachment consisted of eight hundred French and seven hundred Indians, and being destitute almost of provisions, and the ground he occupied ill adapted for defence, he returned to Fort Necessity, and commenced a ditch around the stockade. Before, however, it was completed, the little garrison was assailed by about fif teen hundred French and Indians, commanded by M. de Villier. A violent attack was immediately commenced, and the engagement lasted. from ten in the morning until dark, and was conducted with great intrepidity on both sides. The French commander, however, in the evening, desired a parley, and offered terms of capitulation. Several propositions were made and rejected, and others substituted in their places. During the night a capitulation was signed, and the fort was surrendered. Its little garrison marched out with the honors of war, and with their arms and baggage proceeded according to stipulation, without interruption, to the inhabited parts of Virginia. The Americans lost fifty-eight, in killed and wounded, and the French considerably more. Great credit was given to Colonel Washington by his countrymen, for the courage and conduct displayed by him on this occasion, and the Legislature of Virginia passed a unanimous vote of thanks.

The regiment having returned to Winchester, was immediately recruited, and being joined by some companies from North Carolina and Maryland, were ordered by the Governor of Virginia, with the advice of his council, regardless of the number and condition of the force opposed to them, and against the advice and remonstrance of Colonel Washington, "to march immediately over the Alleghany mountains, and expel the French from Fort Du Quesne, or build another in its vicinity."

Not a shilling, however, was advanced for the recruiting service; and the Assembly having adjourned, without having made any provision for prosecuting the war, the expedition, conceived in madness, was for the present abandoned.

In the meantime, orders were received from England, directing "that all officers commissioned by the king, or by his general in North America, (when serving with provincials,) should take rank of all officers commissioned by the governors of the respective provinces, and that the general and field officers of the provincial troops, should have no rank when serving with the general and field-officers commissioned by the crown." Colonel Washington, unable longer to serve his country without dishonor,

immediately resigned. An elder brother having then recently died, and left him an estate on the Potomac, Colonel Washington withdrew to this delightful spot, and resolved in future to cultivate the arts of peace.

His brother, having served under Admiral Vernon in the mad expedition against Carthagena, Colonel Washington, in compliment to the admiral, called his estate on the Potomac Mount Vernon, thus conferring on the name of Vernon, more just celebrity than the admiral had done by his

arms.

England and France, though at peace, were each of them preparing vigorously for war. In 1754 and '55, the affairs of America began to excite interest even in England; and on the 14th of January, 1755, Major General Braddock, with Colonel Dunbar and Colonel Halket's regiments of foot, sailed from the town of Cork in Ireland for Virginia, where they all landed previous to the first of March. In order to give the Virginians a lucrative job, their march was retarded until the 12th of June; the horses, wagons, and provisions for the army, were then furnished by some gentlemen from Pennsylvania, whither its destination ought originally to have been. This, however, was among the least of its misfortunes. General Braddock, though a man of courage, and expert at a review, (having been brought up in the English guards,) was haughty, positive, and difficult of access-qualities ill-suited to the nature of his command. His military education, on which he prided himself, unfitted him, in many respects, for Indian warfare; and the contempt with which he regarded the American militia, "because they could not go through their exercises with the same dexterity as a regiment of guards in Hyde Park," filled the measure of his incompetency, and insured his defeat. Before he left England, he received from the Duke of Cumberland a set of instructions, in which he was cautioned against surprise. Instead, however, of regarding this salutary admonition, his overweening confidence in his own abilities rendered him superior to advice, especially from provincial officers, whose opinions were of any value. His haughtiness toward the Indians who had sought his camp, and whose services would have been exceedingly desirable to any other than "a supercilious fool or madman," was also of such a nature as to induce them to forsake his banners.

Under these disadvantages, he began his march from Fort Cumberland on the 12th of June, at the head of two thousand two hundred troops, most of them gallant soldiers, who had served with reputation upon the Continent--unfit, however, with such a leader, to meet in battle the tawny sons of the forest.

General Braddock having heard of Colonel Washington-of his merits and motives, in retiring from the service some time in March, invited him to enter his family as a volunteer aid. Anxious to serve under an officer supposed to possess some knowledge of war, he accepted the appointment, and early in June, joined the army. Colonel Washington, impatient of delay, at once suggested to his commander the propriety of using pack-horses instead of wagons, for conveying their baggage. The

commander, however, was so attached to the usages of regular war, that this salutary advice was at first rejected. Its propriety, however, when the army commenced its march, became too obvious to be neglected.

On the third day after leaving Will's Creek, (June 15th,) Colonel Washington being seized with a fever, and being unable to ride on horseback, was conveyed in a wagon, and General Braddock, finding the difficulties of the march greater than he anticipated, occasionally sought his company, and sometimes his advice. Colonel Washington, on this occasion, urged the general to leave his heavy artillery and baggage, with the rear division of the army, and press forward at the head of a chosen body of troops and a few pieces of light artillery, with the utmost expedition, to Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh.) In support of this advice, he sta ted that the French were then weak on the Ohio, but expected reinforcements daily; that during the excessive, droughts which then prevailed, they could not arrive; that a rapid movement, therefore, might enable him to carry the fort, before this expected aid, now detained by reason of low water, could reach them; that the whole force of the French, in all probability, would then be concentrated, and the success of the expedition, in that event, would be doubtful.

This advice received at once the approbation of the commander-inchief, and was adopted. It was then agreed, in a council of war, that twelve hundred select men, with ten pieces of light artillery, to be commanded by General Braddock in person, should advance with the utmost expedition, and that Colonel Dunbar with the residue, and all the heavy baggage, should bring up the rear.

The hopes, however, so fondly cherished by Colonel Washington of its rapid movements, were not fulfilled. "Instead of pushing on with vigor," says Colonel Washington, in a letter to his brother, written during the march, "without regarding a little rough road, the whole detachment was constantly halting to level every mole-hill, and erect bridges over every brook." Four days were thus spent in marching nine miles. Colonel Washington was too ill, at that time, to accompany the army further, and remained behind, under the protection of a small guard, with a promise that means should be placed at his disposal to overtake the main body before its arrival at Fort Du Quesne, and General Braddock, in the meantime, advanced without care or caution, "as if the nearer he approached the enemy, the further he was removed from danger," and on the eighth of July encamped within ten miles of Fort Du Quesne. Colonel Dunbar was then about forty miles in the rear, and several officers, especially Sir Peter Halket, who commanded one of the regiments, earnestly entreated him to advance with caution, and to employ the friendly Indians who were with him to reconnoitre the woods and thickets through which he was about to pass. Such, however, was the general's infatuation, that when he resumed his march on the tenth, no efforts had been made to obtain intelligence; no scouts sent forward to explore the country. As he was thus carelessly advancing, he was saluted about noon

with a tremendous fire of musketry upon his front and left flank, from an enemy so artfully concealed, that not a man of them could be seen. The vanguard fell back upon the main body, and in an instant the panic was general. Most of the troops fled with great precipitation, notwithstanding the efforts of their officers, many of whom conducted with extraordinary bravery. Instead of scouring the thickets with grape-shot from his artillery, or sending out flanking parties against the enemy, he remained obstinately upon the spot where he was; and gave orders to the few brave officers and men who remained with him, to form regularly and advance as if he had been upon the open prairie, and his enemy in full view. In the meantime his officers, singled out by unseen marksmen, one after another were killed or wounded, and his men fell thick upon every side. At last the general, whose obstinacy had increas ed with his danger, and under whom three horses had already been killed, received a musket-shot through his right arm and lungs, and fell. His troops fled immediately in disorder. As soon as he had fallen, the confusion which prevailed before, was changed into a disorderly flight. Although no enemy was seen, all the artillery, ammunition, and baggage of the army were left to the enemy, without any one appearing to claim them, and among the rest, the general's cabinet with his letters and instructions. The panic continued till they met the rear division, and so infected the latter with their terrors, that the whole army retreated without stopping till they reached Fort Cumberland. Although no enemy appeared in sight, either in the battle or afterward," it was," says Smollet, the historian, "the most extraordinary victory that ever was obtained, and the farthest flight that ever was made." The English loss was about seven hundred in killed and wounded, and the whole force opposed to them, as the French afterward reported, about four hundred, mostly Indians.

Colonel Washington, weak as he was, had joined the army previous to the battle, and discharged the duties of a friend and volunteer aid to the commander-in-chief. Soon after the action commenced, he was the only aid alive and unwounded; the principal duty devolved, therefore, on him. During the whole action he manifested that coolness, self-possession, and fearlesness of danger which always marked his course, and form the principal ingredients in the character of a soldier. Two horses were killed under him, and four balls passed through his coat. To the astonishment of all, he escaped unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was killed or wounded. General Braddock was brought off the field in a tumbril by Colonel Washington, Captain Stewart of the guards, and his servant, and on meeting the rear division expired.

Colonel Washington, writing afterward to Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, and speaking of the regular troops, says: "They were struck with such an inconceivable panic, that nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among them. The Virginia companies behaved like men, and died like soldiers. Out of three companies, scarcely thirty

were left alive.

ral, were killed.

Captain Perouny, and all his officers, down to a corpoCaptain Poulson's company had almost as hard a fate, for only one escaped." In another letter, he says: "We have been beaten-shamefully beaten, by a handful of men, who only intended to molest or disturb our march. Victory was their smallest expectation."

Braddock's defeat left the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, for some time exposed to French and Indian incursions. Some settlements were entirely broken up; some houses were burnt; their crops were destroyed, and men, women, and children were captured and massacred. The troops stationed among them were inadequate to their protection, and occasionally were blocked up themselves in their forts.

Had the shattered remains of Braddock's army continued at Fort Cumberland, as they ought to have done, they would have been a check upon the French, and have saved much of the misery that followed; instead, however, of doing so, they commenced their march in August, for Philadelphia, where they could be of no manner of service, under pretence of going into winter-quarters. The whole expedition then, instead of aiding the colonies, was prejudicial to their interests; inasmuch as it drew down upon unoffending women and children, the effects of savage

vengeance.

In order to gratify the cupidity of a few merchants in London who traded to Maryland and Virginia, the Ohio company was formed-its conduct provoked a war-defeat and disgrace succeeded, and the colonists suffered.

On the death of General Braddock, Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, succeeded as commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. His son had been secretary to General Braddock, and was killed at Braddock's defeat. Governor, now General Shirley, planned two expeditions against the enemy--one to be led by General, afterward Sir William Johnson, against Crown-Point, in New-York-the other by himself, against Fort Niagara; both of which proved abortive. The campaign of 1755, begun under flattering auspices, conducted by experienced officers, and supported by disciplined soldiers, thus passed away, and nothing was effected.

General Shirley being "no ways qualified to conduct military operations," early in 1756 was recalled, and General Abercrombie appointed his successor. Two British regiments, in March, 1756, accompanied him to America. The Earl of Loudon, appointed to the government of Virginia, was to act as commander-in-chief, and was vested with power and authory but little inferior to that of a viceroy.

Hostilities

England and France during all this time were at peace. by sea and land, it is true, had been carried on with considerable vigor, and battles had been fought and won: still, their majesties of England and of France were exchanging the most cordial salutations.

On the 18th of May, 1756, the King of England declared war against France, and in the beginning of June, the King of France reciprocated