Show i aw installment 5 the letter of invitation written by captain orme aide de camp was couched in terms of unaffected cor washington very gladly ac cepter in a letter that had just a touch of the oung provincial in it EO elaborate and over long was its ex of its writer s delicate post lion and self respecting motives but with so much more of the proud gen aleman and resolute man that the smile with which captain orme must have read it could have nothing of disrelish in it the oung aide decamp de camp and all the other members 0 the generals mill tary family found its author at any rate a man after their own hearts when it came to terms of intimacy among them by mid april the commander in chief had brought alve governors together at alexandria in obedience to his call for an immediate con ference william of mas the stouthearted old lawyer every inch a gentleman and pol who had of a sudden turned soldier to face the french tor all ho was past sixty james de lancey of new york astute man of the people the brave and energetic horatio share of maryland robert hunter morris fresh from the latest wrangles with the headstrong quakers and germans of pennsylvania and robert the busy merchant gover nor of the old dominion whose urgent letters to the government at home had brought braddock and his ments to the potomac plans were prompts tl agreed upon new york and new england seeing war come on apace were astir no less than virginia and in active corre spon dence with the ministers in lon don two regiments had already been raised and taken into the kings pay the militia of all the threatened col onles were afoot in all quarters ac tion was expected and instant war to strike at niagara governor the council agreed should strike at once at na agara with the king s new provincial regiments in the hope to cut the en em s connections with their western posts colonel william johnson the cool headed trader and borderer who bad lived and thriven BO long in the forests where the dreaded mohawks had their strength should lead a levy from new england new ork and new jersey to an attack upon crown point where for twenty four epars the french bad held champlain aln and lieutenant colonel monckton of the king a regulars must take a similar force against beausejour in acidly while general braddock struck straight into the western wilderness to take duquesne best to be prompt in every pait of the hazardous business and Er addock turned from the conference to push his own expedition forward at once after taking fort quesne he said to franklin I 1 am to proceed to niagara and after baa arg taken that to frontenac it the season will allow time and I 1 suppose it will for duquesne can hardly de tain me above three or four days and then I 1 can see nothing that can obstruct my march to niagara the sagacious franklin to be sure sir quietly replied the sagacious franklan rn it you arrive well before duquesne with these fine troops so well provided with artillery the fort can probably make but a short resistance but there was the trouble atwould have been better no doubt had a route through vama been chosen where cultivated farms al ready stretched well into the west with their own roads and grain and cattle and wagons to serve an arm with but the virginia route had been selected by intrigue of gentlemen in forested lr the ohio company it was hinted and must needs be made the best of there was there at the least the rough track washington s men had cut to the great meadows this must be widened and leveled for an aeiry with train of artillery and ats endless procession of wagons laden with baggage and provisions to take two thousand men through the dense forests with all the mill lar trapping and supplies of a european army would be koput it might be four miles of its rough trail between van and rear of ahe struggling line and it would be a clumsy enemy as fighting went iche woods who could not cut such a force into pieces like thread as franklin said the advance begins the thing was to be attempted nevertheless with stubborn british revolution reo lution it was the of may before all the forces intended for the march were finally collected at fort cumberland twenty two hundred men in all fourteen hundred regulars now the recruits were in nearly live hundred virginians horse and toot two independent companies from new york and a small force of from the transports to rig tackle for the ordnance when there was need on he rough way and it was the af v 0 june when the advance began straight into that realm ot forests ancient as the world diat lay with out limit upon all the western ways braddock a mischief breeder it was a thing of infinite difficulty to get that lumbering train through the tangled wilderness and it kept the temper of the truculent braddock very hot to see how it played havoc with every principle and practice of campaigning he had ever heard of he charged the colonists with an ut ter want alike of honor and of bon esty to have kept him BO long await ing the transportation and supplies they had promised and to have done BO little to end with and so drew washington into frequent disputes maintained with warmth on both sides but the difficulties of the march presently wrought a certain forest change upon him and disposed him to take counsel of hla young clr aide the only man in all his company who could speak out of knowledge in that wild country on the at washington s ad vice he took twelve hundred men and pressed forward with a lightened train to a quicker advance leaving colonel dunbar to bring up the rest of the troops with the baggage even this lightened force halted to level every molehill mole hill and to erect bridges over every brook as washington chafee chafed to see and were tour days in getting twelve miles but the pace was better than before and brought them at last almost to their aton surprised by the enemy on the ath of july at mid day they waded the shallow monongahela but eight miles from duquesne making a brave show as the sun struck their berried ranks their bright forms their fluttering banners and their glittering arms and went straight into the rough and shadowed forest path that led to the french post upon a sudden there came a man bounding along the path to meet them wearing the gorget of a trench boffl and the furest behind him swarmed with a great host of but half discovered men upon signal given these spread themselves to the right and left within the shelter of the forest and from thear covert poured alre upon haddocks advancing lines with good british pluck the steady regulars formed their accustomed ranks crying god save ahe king to ghe grace to the volleys they sent back into the forest the ordnance was brought up and swung to its work all the force pressed forward to take what place it could in the light but where was the use braddock not listen washington besought general drad dock to scatter his men too and meet the enemy dundei cover as they came but he would not listen must stand in ranks as they were bidden and lake the alre of their hidden foes like men without breach of discipline when they would have broken in salto of him in their panic at being slaughtered there in the open glade without sight of the enemy briddock beat them back with his sword and bitterly cursed them tor cowards he would have kept the virginians too back from the covert if he could when he saw thew seek to close with the attacking party in true forest fash ion As it was they were as often shot down by the terror stricken regu iara behind them as by their right foes in front they alone made any head in the fight but who could tell lik such a place how the battle fareda redskins Red skins in force no one could count the enemy where they sprang from covert to chiert they were in fact near a thousand strong at the first meeting in the way more than six hundred indians a motley host gathered from far and near at the summons of the trench canadian rangers seventy odd regulars from the fort and thirty or forty french officers come out of sheer eagerness to have a hand in the daring game con tre coeur could not spare more french men from his little garrison his con at the lakes being threat ened and he sorely straightened for men and stores he was staking everything as it was upon this en counter on the way it the english should shake the say agea off as he deemed they would ho must no doubt withdraw as he could ere the lines of siege were closed about him he never dreamed of such largess of good fortune as came pouring in upon him the were not only check ed but beaten they had never seen business like this a pitiful shameful elaugh ter men shot like bears in a pen there where they cowered close in the scarlet ranks their first blazing volley had cent the craven canadians scampering back tho way they had come who led the attack was killed almost at the first onset but the gallant young who led the motley array dav ered never an instant and readily held the indians to their easy work washington did all that furious energy and reckless could to keep the order of battle his corn mander had so madly chosen to hold the regulars to their blind work and hearten the virginians to stay the threatened rout driving his horse everywhere into the thick of the mur derous firing and crying upon all alike to keep to it steadily like men he had but yesterday rejoined the advance having for almost two weeks lain stricken with a fever in dunbar s camp A charmed life he could hardly sit his cushioned saddle tor weakness when tho feht began but when the blaze of the bat tie burst his eagerness was suddenly like that of one possessed and bis immunity from harm like that of one charmed thrice a horse was shot under him many bullets cut bis cloth ing but he went without a wound A like mad energy drove Dr addock storming up and down the breaking lines but be was mortally stricken at last and washington alone remained to exercise such control as was possible when the inevitable rout came it was impossible to hold the ground in such fashion the stubborn brad dock himself had ordered a retreat ere the fatal bullet found him sixty three out of the eighty six officers of his force were killed or disabled less than five hundred men out of all the thirteen hundred who had but just now passed so gallantly through the ford remained unhurt the deadly slaughter must have gone on to utter destruction death of braddock retreat was inevitable blessed good fortune that it waa still possible when once it began it was headlong reckless frenzied the men ran wildly blindly as it hunted by demons whom no man might hope to resist haunted by the frightful cries maddened by the searching and secret fire of their foes now coming hot upon their heels wounded comrades military stores baggage their very arms they left upon the ground abandoned far into the night they ran madly on in frantic search tor the camp of the rear division crying as they ran tor help they even passed tha camp in their uncontrollable ter of pursuit and went desperately on toward the settlements washington and the few officers and provincials who scorned the terror found the utmost difficulty in bringing off their stricken general where he lay wishing to die upon the fourth day after the battle he died loathing the sight of a redcoat they said and murmuring praises of the blues the once despised virginians they burled his body in the road that the army wagons might pass over the place and obliterate every trace of a grave their savage enemies might rejoice to find and desecrate A craven commander he had lived to reach dunbar s camp but not to see the end of the shameful rout the terror mastered the rear guard too they destroyed their artillery burned their wagons and stores emptied their powder into the streams and themselves broke in to a disordered feverish retreat which was a mere flight their cravan om mander shamefully acquiescing he would not even hold or rally them at fort cumberland but went on as it upon a hurried errand all the way to philadelphia leaving the fort and all the frontier with it to be de bended fended by invalids and a few clr 1 I acknowledge cried 1 I was not brought up to arms but I 1 think common sense would have prevailed not to leave the frontier espos expos ed after having opened a road over the mountains to the ohio by which the enemy can the more easily invade us the whole conduct of colonel dunbar seems to be monstrous and so indeed it was but the colonies at large had little time to think of it governor sharley had gone against niagara only to find the french ready for him at every point now that they had read brad dock s pipers taken at duquesne and to come back again without doing any thing beausejour had been taken in awadla but it lay apart from the main field of struggle johnson beat the french off at lake george when they attacked him and took dieskau their commander but he contented himself with that and left crown point un touched there were other frontiers besides those of virginia and pennsyl vania to be looked to and guarded three years of french success for three long ears did the for tunes of the english settlements go steadily from danger to desperation as the french and their savage allies advanced from victory to victory in 1756 oswego was taken in 1757 fort william henry commander succeed ed commander among the english only to add blunder to blunder failure to failure and all the while it tell to washing ton virginias chief stay in her desperate trouble to stand steadfastly to the hopeless work of keeping three hundred and fifty miles of frontier w with a few hundred men against prowl ing bands of savages masters of the craft of swift and secret attack dex berous at skulking in a country mountainous and full of swamps and hollow ways covered with woods for twenty years now settlers had been coming steadily into this wilder ness that lay up and down upon the nearer slopes of the great mountains germans scots irish a hard breed their settlements lay scattered far and near among the foot hills and val leys their men were valiant and stouthearted with the rifle hard as flint when they wera once afoot to revenge themselves for mur dered wives and children and corn rades but how could they ed as they were meet these covert sallies in the dead of night a sudden rush ot men with torches the keen knife the quick rifle the country filled with fugitives for whom washington a ml could find neither food nor shelter tender heart the supplicating tears of the worn en and moving petitions of the men cried the young commander melt me into such deadly sorrow that I 1 solemnly declare it I 1 know my own mind I 1 could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy provided that would contribute to the peoples ease I 1 would be a willing lottering ottering ott ering to save fury and die by inches to save a people it was a comfort to know at least that he was trusted and believed in the burgesses Dur gesses had thanked him under the very stroke of braddicks braddocks Brad docks defeat in terms which could not be doubted sincere in the very thick of his deep troubles when he would have guarded the helpless people of the border but could not colonel fairfax could send him word from your good health and fortune are the toast at every table our colonel wrote a young comrade in arms Is an ex ample of fortitude in either danger or hardships and by his easy polite behavior has gained not only the regard but affection of both officers and sol adlers A trying ordeal but it took all the steadiness that had been born or bred in him to en dure the strain of the disheartening task from which he could not in hon or break away his plans he corn pla ined were today approved tomor row condemned lie was bidden do what was impossible it would require fewer men to go against du quesne again and remove the cause of danger than to prevent the effects while the cause remained many |