From Farm House to the White House Part 28

General Braddock possessed a high temper, and he was excessively fond of intoxicating drinks. With too much temper and too much drink to carry, he often became an overbearing officer. Was.h.i.+ngton wrote as follows to Mr. Fairfax at one time:

"The general, by frequent breaches of contract, has lost all patience, and for want of that temperance and moderation which should be used by a man of sense upon these occasions, will, I fear, represent us in a light we little deserve; for, instead of blaming individuals, as he ought, he charges all his disappointments to public supineness, and looks upon the country, I believe, as void of honor and honesty. We have frequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on his, who is incapable of arguing with or giving up any point he a.s.serts, let it be ever so incompatible with reason or common sense."

It should be recorded in his favor that General Braddock was a strict disciplinarian in the army. Each regiment was provided with a chaplain, and every soldier was required to attend prayers each day, and on Sunday be present at divine services. He refused to tolerate some practices among his men which are common in armies. The most vicious cla.s.s of soldiers indulged in a wholesome fear of him.

After Braddock's army crossed the Monongahela, and were within ten miles of Duquesne, and no sign nor sound of an enemy was seen or heard, Was.h.i.+ngton grew anxious, and he said:

"General, this silence so near the fort in our country is rather ominous than otherwise. A scouting party ought to go forward. We are liable to find ourselves in an ambuscade of Indians at any moment."

"Indians have a poor show in the presence of this force," replied the general. "The king's troops will show you how to handle savages."

"I will scour the woods in advance with the Virginia provincials if you say the word, general," Was.h.i.+ngton continued, apprehending that they were in the very jaws of danger. He knew very well that French and Indian scouts must be near them watching their movements. But Braddock declined his offer and they marched on in European style, "three hundred men under Colonel Gage forming the advanced party, followed by a party of two hundred; and last of all, the general, with the main body, Colonel Duncan leading the rear with supplies."

We should have stated that, in the outset, Indians flocked to the English standard; among them White Thunder Scarooyadi, successor to half-king, who had died, and others, a.s.sociated with Was.h.i.+ngton in his former campaign. Silver Heels, so called from his nimbleness, a renowned warrior, came and tendered his services.

Through Was.h.i.+ngton's entreaty, General Braddock received the red warriors kindly, with military honors. He made them presents in the name of the king, and they, in turned, danced and sung war songs. But such was Braddock's demeanor towards them subsequently, that they became displeased; and, when their dissatisfaction was intensified by the improper conduct of some young English officers towards Bright Lightning, the beautiful daughter of White Thunder, they all deserted the army in disgust. When within ten miles of Duquesne, on the ninth day of July, Braddock had no Indians in his command.

Scarooyadi reported to the governor and Council of Pennsylvania, after Braddock's defeat: "It was owing to the pride and arrogance of that great general who came from England. He is now dead, but he was a bad man when he was alive. He looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear anything that was said to him. We often endeavored to advise him, and tell him of the danger he was in with his soldiers; but he never appeared pleased with us, and that was the reason a great many of our warriors left him." He proposed to take up the hatchet again with the English, and said:

"Let us unite our strength; you are numerous, and all the English governors along your seash.o.r.e can raise men enough; but don't let those that come from over the great seas be concerned any more. _They are unfit to fight in the woods. Let us go ourselves, we that came out of this ground._"

Three or four o'clock on that ninth day of July, as the advance of the army was ascending a rise of ground, a volley of musketry suddenly arrested their progress. From a ravine, concealed by dense foliage, a deadly fire was poured into their faces. Before they had recovered from their surprise, another volley was fired into them from the other side. These volleys mowed them down like gra.s.s. Yet the enemy could not be seen. The English directed their fire towards the smoke of battle, though but for a moment. For the torrent of lead, shot into their faces, forced the advance back upon the main column, and confusion followed.

General Braddock bravely sought to rally them, to move forward in orderly columns, as on European battlefields, but his efforts were abortive; for six hundred Indians, painted and armed for battle and thirsting for blood, burst from their ambuscade, followed by three hundred French and Canadians, sure of victory; and the work of carnage grew terrific.

Early in the conflict two of Braddock's aides-de-camp, Captains Orme and Morris, fell, and Was.h.i.+ngton alone remained to carry the general's orders here and there. Without the least regard to personal safety, he galloped over the field, his tall, n.o.ble form presenting a rare target for the Indian sharpshooters, who took special pains to bring him down.

Two horses were shot under him, and four b.a.l.l.s pierced his clothes; still he was conspicuous everywhere that he could be of service, and for three hours distributed his commander's orders, with the deadly missiles flying around him like hailstones. Dr. Craik said:

"I expected to see him fall every moment. He dashed over the field, reckless of death, when the bullets whistled about him on every side.

Why he was not killed I cannot divine, unless a watchful Providence was preserving him for more important work."

One of the princ.i.p.al Indian warriors fired at him again and again; and, at his bidding, a score of young braves did the same, without so much as grazing his skin, keeping up their fire until convinced that the Great Spirit had given to him a charmed life that he might not be shot in battle.

Mr. Paulding gives the description of an eye-witness thus:

"I saw him take hold of a bra.s.s field-piece as if it had been a stick.

He looked like a fury; he tore the sheet-lead from the touch-hole, he placed one hand on the muzzle, the other on the breach; he pulled with this and he pushed with that, and wheeled it round as if it had been nothing. It tore the ground like a plough. The powder monkey rushed up with the fire, and then the cannon began to bark, I tell you. They fought and they fought, and the Indians yelled when the rest of the bra.s.s cannon made the bark of the trees fly, and the Indians came down.

That place they call Rock Hill, and there they left five hundred men dead on the ground."

A bullet struck Was.h.i.+ngton's gold watch-seal, and knocked it from his chain. Eighty years after the battle that seal was found by a visitor to the battle ground, and it is now preserved among the relics of the Was.h.i.+ngton family.

The English officers behaved heroically, and won Was.h.i.+ngton's admiration by their bravery; but the English _soldiers_ acted like cowards.

Panic-stricken in the first place, they did not recover from their consternation during the engagement. The unearthly yells of the savages, which they had never heard before, seemed to terrify them even more than the whistling of bullets. They lost self-control, disregarded the orders of their officers, and ran hither and thither like frightened sheep.

Sixty-three of the eighty-five English officers were killed or wounded, a fact that shows how bravely they fought.

General Braddock proved himself a brave and faithful commander. He did all that mortal man could do to save his army, exposing himself to death from first to last. After three hours of hard fighting, during which time four horses were shot under him, he fell, pierced by several bullets, and was borne from the field.

Now the whole command depended upon Was.h.i.+ngton, who had taken special pains to have the Virginia marksmen fight the Indians after their own fas.h.i.+on. Their effective tactics had saved the English army from complete destruction. And now Was.h.i.+ngton rallied them afresh, to cover the army in its retreat, bearing their wounded commander as they went.

Mr. Meek's description of the final contest is so particular and graphic that we quote it here:

"Happily, on the left, where lay the heaviest fire, Was.h.i.+ngton's rangers were posted, but not exposed like the British. For, on hearing the savage yells aforesaid, in a moment they flew each to his tree, like the Indians; and, like them, each leveled his rifle, and with as deadly aim.

This, through a kind Providence, saved Braddock's army; for, exulting in their confusion, the savages, grimly painted, and yelling like furies, leaped from their coverts, eager to glut their h.e.l.lish rage with a total ma.s.sacre of the British. But, faithful to their friends, Was.h.i.+ngton's rangers stepped forth with joy to met the a.s.sailants. Then rose a scene sufficient to fill the stoutest heart with horror. _Here_ falls the brave Virginia blue, under the stroke of his nimbler foe; and _there_, man on man, the Indians perish beneath the furious storm of lead. But who can tell the joy of Was.h.i.+ngton, when he saw this handful of his despised countrymen thus gallantly defending their British friends, and, by dint of mortal steel, driving back their blood-thirsty a.s.sailants?

Happy check! for by this time, covered with wounds, Braddock had fallen; his aids and officers, to a man, killed or wounded; and his troops, in _hopeless_, _helpless_ despair, flying backwards and forwards from the fire of the Indians, like flocks of crowded sheep from the presence of their butchers. Was.h.i.+ngton alone remained unhurt. Two horses had been killed under him. Showers of bullets had lifted his locks or pierced his regimentals. But still protected by heaven, still supported by a strength not his own, he had continued to fly from quarter to quarter, where his presence was most needed, sometimes animating his rangers, sometimes striving, but in vain, to rally the regulars. 'Twas his lot to be close to the brave but imprudent Braddock when he fell, and a.s.sisted to place him in a tumbril, or little cart. As he was laid down, pale and near spent with loss of blood, he faintly said to Was.h.i.+ngton:

"Well, colonel, what's to be done now?"

"Retreat, retreat by all means," answered Was.h.i.+ngton. "The regulars won't fight and the rangers are nearly all killed."

"Poor fellows! poor fellows!" weakly replied the dying general. "Do as you will, colonel, the command is on you."

"More than half of the army are dead and wounded," continued Was.h.i.+ngton, "and retreat is all that is left us. The surviving rangers can cover the retreat of the remnant."

"Pardon me, colonel for rejecting your counsel, which I now deeply regret," the general frankly confessed. "I see it now, but it is all over."

The command of the army reverted to Colonel Dunbar after the fall of Braddock; but he was several miles away, on the other side of the Monongahela, when the disaster occurred, in charge of the rear division and supplies. Hence the authority of Was.h.i.+ngton for the time being.

When the retreating army recrossed the river and reached Colonel Dunbar, and he learned the extent of the disaster, the wildest confusion followed. Colonel Dunbar proved himself unfit for his position, by losing his self-control, ordering the heavy baggage and supplies to be burned, and hastening the retreat to Fort Necessity.

General Braddock died soon after the shattered army reached Fort Necessity. Tradition says that he died in the arms of Was.h.i.+ngton, to whom he gave his favorite servant, Bishop, expressing regrets again and again that he had not treated his youthful aid-de-camp with more consideration.

Was.h.i.+ngton conducted the funeral services over the remains of the British general, and made it a very impressive ceremony. His voice trembled with emotion when he read the Episcopal service, and tears stood in his eyes as he thought of the victory that might have been, instead of the terrible defeat that was.

Subsequent information received by Was.h.i.+ngton proved that the French at Fort Duquesne celebrated their victory by a drunken carousal, and that they treated their prisoners with great barbarity. Colonel Smith, who was a prisoner there, and an eye-witness, subsequently bore the following testimony, after speaking of the victorious savages returning with the spoils of war, such as grenadiers' caps, canteens, muskets, swords, bayonets, rich uniforms, and dripping scalps:

"Those that were coming in and those who had arrived kept up a constant firing of small arms, and also of the great guns in the fort, which was accompanied by the most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters, so that it appeared to me as if the infernal regions had broken loose.

About sundown I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozen of prisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs.

Their faces and parts of their bodies were blackened. These prisoners they burned to death on the banks of the Alleghany River, opposite to the fort. I stood on the walls of the fort until I beheld them begin to burn one of these men. They tied him to a stake and kept touching him with fire-brands, red-hot irons, etc., and he screamed in the most doleful manner. The Indians, in the mean time, were yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene was too shocking for me, I returned to my lodgings both sorry and sore.

"From the best information I could receive, there were only seven Indians and four French killed in this battle. Five hundred British lay dead in the field, besides what were killed in the river, after their retreat. The morning after the battle I saw Braddock's artillery brought into the fort. The same day, also, I saw several Indians in the dress of British officers, with the sashes, half-moons, laced hats, etc., which the British wore."

Was.h.i.+ngton said: "The French are responsible for these atrocious cruelties, for the Indians are their allies, instigated to war by their influence, fighting under their banner, and paid by their money. The burning of our men under the very walls of their fort must have been done by their approval."

He embraced the first opportunity after the battle, to write to his mother, that she might know of his safety, and be relieved of any anxiety which exaggerated reports might create. His letter to her was dated Fort c.u.mberland, July 18, 1755, and the first paragraph was:

"As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat, and, perhaps, had it represented in a worse light, if possible, than it deserves, I have taken this opportunity to give you some account of the engagement as it happened within ten miles of the French fort, on Wednesday, the 9th inst."

He wrote to his brother:

"The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed. The dastardly behavior of those they called regulars exposed all others that were ordered to do their duty to almost certain death. 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.

"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 leveling my companions on every side of me."

XIII.

ON THE FRONTIER.