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Show ' BY THE PRESIDENT " . J! Installment 4 Upon the morning of that day Washington, Wash-ington, with 40 men, guided by friendly friend-ly Indians, had come upon a party of some 30 Frenchmen where they lurked lurk-ed deep within the thickets of the dripping forest, and with thrust of bayonet when the wet guns failed, had brought them to a surrender within 15 minutes of the first surprise. No one In the Virginia camp doubted doubt-ed that there was war already, or dreamed of awaiting the action of diplomats and cabinets over the sea. The French had driven an English garrison from the forks of the Ohio with threats of force, which would certainly have been executed had there been need. These men hidden in the thickets at Great Meadows would have It, when the fight was over, that they had come as messengers merely to bear a peaceful summons; but did it need 30 odd armed men to bear a message? Why had they lurked for five days so stealthily in the forest; and why had they sent runners back post haste to Fort Duquesne to obtain support for their diplomacy? Washington might regret that young M. Jumon-ville, Jumon-ville, their commander, had lost his life in the encounter, but he had no doubt he had done right to order his men to fire when he saw the French spring for their arms at the first' surprise. Now, at any rate, war was unquestionably unques-tionably begun. That sudden volley Bred in the wet woods at the heart of the lonely Alleghanies had set the final struggle ablaze. It was now either eith-er French or English in America; it could no longer be both. Juihonville, with his 30 Frenchmen, was followed ere many weeks were out by Coulon ie Villiers with 700 some , of them came all the way from Montreal at news of what had happened to France's lurking ambassadors in the tar-away mountains of Virginia. On the 3d of July they closed to m encounter at "Fort Necessity," Washington's rude intrenchments un- Brought Them to Surrender. 'der the Great Meadows. There were three hundred and fifty Englishmen English-men with him able to fight, spite Df sickness and short rations; and as the enemy , began to show themselves at the edges of the neighboring woods through the damp mists of that dreary morning, Washington Wash-ington drew his little force up outside their works upon the open meadow. He "thought the French would some up to him in open field," laughed laugh-ed a wily Indian, who gave him counsel coun-sel freely, but no aid in the fight; but Villiers had no mind to meet the gallant gal-lant young Virginian in that manly fashion. Once, indeed, they rushed to i his trenches, but, finding hot reception recep-tion there, kept their distance afterwards. after-wards. Villiers brought them after that only "as near as possible without uselessly exposing the lives of the king's subjects," and poured his fire In from the cover of the woods. For nine hours the unequal fight dragged on, the French and their Indians In-dians hardly showing themselves out-Bide out-Bide the shelter of the forest, the English crouching knee-deep in water wa-ter in their rude trenches, while the rain poured incessantly, reducing their breastworks to a mass of slimy mud. and filling all the air with a chill and pallid mist. The French Ask a Parley. Day Insensibly darkened into night In such an air, and it was eight o'clock when the firing ceased and the j F'rench asked a parley. Their men were tired of the dreary fight, their i Indian allies threa'ened to leave them ! when morning should come, and they i were willing the EngllsV should with-j draw, If they would, without further hurt or molestation. The terms they offered seemed very j acceptable to Washington's officers as the Interpreter read them out, standing stand-ing there In the drenching downpour ! and the black night. "It rained so hard we could hardly keep the candle lighted to read them by." said an officer; of-ficer; but there was really no choice i what to do. More than fifty men lay dead or wounded In the flooded camp; ' the ammunition was all but spent; the French strength had hardly been touched In the fight, and might at any moment be increased. Capitulation Capitula-tion was inevitable, and Washington did not hesitate. A Sorry Return Home. The next morning saw his wretched force making their way back again along the rude road they had cut through the forests. They had neither neith-er horses nor wagons to carry their baggage. What they could they burned; burn-ed; and then set out, sore stricken in heart and body, their wounded comrades com-rades and their scant store of food slung upon their backs, and dragged themselves very wearily all the fifty miles to the settlements at home. Two of the king's Independent companies com-panies from New York ought to have joined them long ago, but had gotten no further than Alexandria when the fatal day came at the Great Meadows. North Carolina had dispatched three hundred and fifty of her militiamen, under an experienced officer, to aid them, but they also came too late. It had been expected that Maryland would raise two' hundred and fifty men, and Pennsylvania had at last voted money, to be spent Instead of blood, for she would levy do men; but no succor had come from any quarter when it should. The English were driven in, and all their plans were worse than undone. Bitter Medicine for Washington. It was a bitter trial for the young Virginian commander to have his first campaign end so disastrously to be worsted in a petty fight, and driven back hopelessly outdone. No one he cared for In Virginia blamed him. His ragged troops had borne themselves like men In the fight; his own gallantry no man could doubt. The house of burgesses thanked thank-ed him and voted money to his men. But it had been a rough apprenticeship, apprentice-ship, and Washington felt to the quick the lessons It had taught him. The discouraging work of recruiting recruit-ing at Alexandria, the ragged idlers to be governed there, the fruitless drilling of listless and insolent men, the two months' work with axe and spade cutting a way through the for-' ests, the whole disheartening work of making ready for the fight, of seeking the enemy, and of choosing a field of encounter, he had borne as a stalwart young man can while his digestion holds good. . He had at least himself done everything every-thing that was possible, and it had been no small relief to him to write plain-spoken letters to the men who were supposed to be helping him in Williamsburg, telling them exactly how things were going and who was to blame letters which showed both how efficient and how proud he was. Enjoyed the Bullets. He had even shown a sort of boyish boy-ish zest In the affair when It came to actual fighting with Jumonvllle and his scouts hidden in the forest He had pressed to the thick of that hot and sudden skirmish, and had taken the French volleys with a lad's relish of the danger. "I heard the bullets whistle," he wrote his brother, "and believe me there Is something charming charm-ing In the sound." . But after he had stood a day In the flooded trenches of his wretched "fort" at Great Meadows, and fought till evening In the open with an enemy en-emy he could not see, he knew that he had been taught a lesson; that he was very young at this terrible business busi-ness of fighting; and that something more must be learned than could be read in the books at Mount Vernon. He kept a cheerful front in the dreary retreat, heartening his men bravely by word and example of steadfastness; steadfast-ness; but It was a sore blow to his pride and his1 hopes, and he must only have winced without protest could he have heard how Horace Walpole called call-ed him a "brave braggart" for his rodomontade about the music of deadly dead-ly missiles. He had no thought, however, of quitting his duty because his first campaign had miscarried. When he had made his report at Williamsburg he rejoined his demoralized demor-alized regiment at Alexandria, where It lay but an hour's ride from Mount Vernon, and set about executing his orders to recruit once more, as if the business were only just begun. Build Fort Cumberland. Captain Innes, who had brought three hundred and fifty men from North Carolina too late to be of assistance as-sistance at the Meadows, and who had had the chagrin of seeing them take i themselves off home again because there was no money forthcoming to pay them what had been promised, I remained at Will's Creek, amidst the ! back settlements, to command the ! king's provincials from South Caro- j Una who had been with Washington j at the Meadows, and the two Indepen-1 dent companies from New York, who j had lingered so long on the way; and ! to build there a rough fortification, ! to be named Fort Cumberland, in honor of the far-away Duke who was commander-in-chief In England. Dinwiddle, having such hot Scots blood in him as could brook no delays, de-lays, and having been bred no soldier or frontiersman, but a merchant and a man of business, would have had Washington's recruiting despatched at once, like a bill of goods, and a new force sent hot-foot to the Ohio again to catch the French while they were at ease over their victory and slackly upon their guard at Duquesne. Dinwiddie Blunders Again. When he was flatly told it was Impossible, Im-possible, he turned to other plans, equally ill considered, though no doubt equally well meant. By October Octo-ber he had obtained of the assembly twenty thousand pounds, and from .the government at home ten thousand more in good specie, such as was scarce In the colony for the sharp stir of actual fighting had had its effect ef-fect alike upon king and burgesses and had ordered the formation and equipment of ten full companies for the frontier. But the new orders contained a sad civilian blunder. The ten companies should all be Independent companies; there should be no officer higher than a captain amongst them. This, the good Scotsman thought, would accommodate accom-modate all disputes about rank and precedence, such as had come near to making trouble between Washington Washing-ton and Captain Mackay, of the independent inde-pendent company from South Carolina, Caro-lina, while they waited for the French at Great Meadows. Washington at once resigned, indignant in-dignant to be so dealt with. Not only would he be reduced to a captaincy under such an arrangement, but every petty officer would outrank him who could show the king's commission. com-mission. It was no tradition of his class to submit to degradation of rank thus by indirection and without fault committed, com-mitted, and his pride and sense of personal per-sonal dignity, for all he was so young, were as hij-h-strung as any man's in Virginia. He had shown his quality in such .matters already, six months ago, while he lay in camp in the wilderness wilder-ness on his way towards the Ohio. The burgesses had appointed a committee com-mittee of their own to spend the money they had voted to put his expedition ex-pedition afoot in the springiest Dinwiddie Din-widdie should think, were they to give him the spending of it, that they had relented in the matter of the fees; and these gentleman, in their careful parsimony, had cut the officers of the already straitened little force down to such pay and food aB Washington deemed unworthy of a gentleman's acceptance. ac-ceptance. A Volunteer Without Pay. He would not resign his commission commis-sion there at the head of his men upon the march, but he asked to be considered a volunteer without pay, that he might be quit of the humiliation humilia-tion of being stinted like a beggar. Now that it was autumn, however, and wars stood still, he could resign without reproach, and he did so very promptly, in spite of protests and earnest solicitations from many quarters. quar-ters. "I am concerned to find Colonel Washington's conduct so imprudent," wrote Thomas Penn. But the high-spirited high-spirited young officer deemed It no Imprudence to insist upon a just consideration con-sideration of his rank and services, and quietly withdrew to Mount Vernon, Ver-non, to go thence to his mother at the "ferry farm" upon the Rappahannock, Rappahan-nock, and see again all the fields and friends he loved so well. A Brief Respite. It was a very brief respite. He had been scarcely five months out of harness when he found himself again In camp, his plans and hopes once more turned towards the far wilderness where the French lay. He had set a great war ablaze that day he led his forty men into the thicket and bade them fire upon M. Jumonvllle and his scouts lurking there; and he could not, loving the deep business as he did, keep himself aloof from it when" he saw how it was to be finished. fin-ished. Horace Walpole might laugh lightly at the affair, but French and English statesmen alike even Newcastle, England's prime minister, as busy about nothing as an old woman, and as thoroughly ignorant of affairs as a young man knew that something must be done, politics hanging at so doubtful a balance between them, now that Frederick of Prussia had driven France, Austria and Russia into league against him. The French minister min-ister In London and the British minister minis-ter in Paris vowed their governments still loved and trusted one another, and there was no declaration of war. But in the spring of 1755 eighteen French ships of war put to sea from Brest and Rochefort, carrying six battalions bat-talions and a new governor to Canada, and as many ships got away under press of sail from English ports to intercept in-tercept and destroy them. The English Prepare. Transports carrying two English regiments had sailed for Virginia in January, and by the twentieth of February Feb-ruary had reached the Chesapeake. The French ships got safely in at the St. Lawrence despite pursuit, losing but two of their fleet, which had the ill luck to be found by the English befogged and bewildered off the coast. The colonies were to see fighting on a new scale. The English ministers, with whom 1 Just then all things went ell favor or by accident, had l sorry blunder in the cboict commander. Major General Edward Br whom they had commissioned the two regiments out and act mander-in-chief in America, brave man, a veteran soldier, a thorough school of action, quick with energy and indo in resolution; but every qua had unfitted him to learn. Se dent, brutal, headsrrong, "a vi quois in disposition," he wou neither check nor suggestion, ergy, resolution, good soldiers proper equipment might of selves suffice to do much in th that had come, whether wisdc -the reins or not; and it gave Dominion a thrill of quickene and purpose to see Keppel's ports in the Potomac and Bra redcoats ashore at Alexandria Troops Move Up the Potoi The transports, as they mac way slowly up the river, pas neath the very windows of Mou non, ro put the troops ashon eight miles beyond. Washingl left off being soldier for Dir but he had resigned only to a intolerable indignity, not tc service, and he made no pret indifference when he saw tl coats come to camp at Ales AgaiK. and again was he early saddle to see the stir and ordei troops, make the acquaintance officers, and learn, if he migh It was that fitted his majesty' lars for their stern business. The self-confident gentleme wore his majesty's uniform a ried his majesty's commissi their pockets had scant rgan of them, for the raw folk of i ony, who had never been in Loi seen the set array of battle, were not a little impatient th must recruit among such a The transports had brought thousand men two half-regim five hundred each, whose colon instructions to add two hundn A ht K " - f v General Braddpck, apiece to their force In the Six companies of "rangers," t colonists were to furnish, ai company of light horse, besid penters and teamsters. By al General Braddock's officers sei store, deeming it likely the depend, not upon the provlncic upon themselves for success, were at small pains to concea hearty contempt for the peopl had come to help. Washington a Social Favor But with Washington it was ferent matter. There- was that in his prou and gentleman's bearing that i him a man to be made friend and respected. A good comn proved, without pretense or bi but an ill man to scorn, as hi his way among them, lithe anc full six feet in his boots, wit strong gait as of a backwoO' and that haughty carriage as man born to have his will. H their liking, and even their a "tion, as a fellow of their own and purpose. General Braddock, knowing sired to make the campaign might do so without sacrifice c respect, promptly Invited him t( a member of his staff, where could be no question of rank, him. besides, to name any youn tlemen of his acquaintance he for several vacant enslgncles two regiments. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
