George Washington by Calista McCabe Courtenay (howl and other poems txt) 📖
- Author: Calista McCabe Courtenay
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Troubles had now arisen between the French and the English about the ownership of lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. The Indians, regarding the lands as theirs, took part in the disturbance. To protect her frontiers, Virginia was divided into four districts, each under a leader, whose duty it was to organize and drill militia. George at once began to study military tactics and the arts of war. This was interrupted by a trip to the West Indies with his beloved brother Lawrence, who was ill of consumption.
They had hardly arrived there when George had a severe attack of smallpox; though he soon got well, his face was scarred for life. He wrote home about the beauty of the island, the wonderful trees and fruits, and his social pleasures—dinners, parties and drives. For the first time in his life, he attended a theater. He visited the courts of justice and the fortifications; studied the laws, the soil and the crops, learning all that could be learned about the island. The trip resulted in no lasting good for Lawrence, however, for he died the following summer, beloved and honored by the colonists.
George was only twenty, but Lawrence left Mount Vernon in his charge, and the care of his wife and little daughter. The farm on the Rappahannock had been given to George by their father. These two fine estates, with the property he had bought for himself, made George a large land owner when still a very young man. The care of all this property and his military duties kept him busy.
During this time, the trouble with the French had grown more serious. The English, having settled the eastern sea-coast, claimed the lands to the west for their settlers. The French claimed the same lands by reason of having explored them first. The rich country lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, was the region in question. The French were planning to hold it by a line of forts from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and near the eastern end of Lake Erie, they had built two forts.
Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia decided to send a message to the French commandant, Saint Pierre, warning him to keep off English soil. He needed someone brave and strong enough to travel in the winter, through hundreds and hundreds of miles of forests and across mountains and swift rivers; who knew how to take care of himself in the woods; who could get along with the Indians, and meet the French officers with courtesy and wisdom.
Of all the men in Virginia, the Governor chose George Washington, only twenty-one years old, for this dangerous and important journey!
So, late in the autumn of 1753, Major Washington set out for the Ohio River, accompanied by Christopher Gist, a brave and daring frontiersman, and an Indian chief called Half King, as guides, together with interpreters and a small company of trusted men. They traveled on horseback, and took with them tents and supplies for the journey.
As they proceeded, cold weather overtook them and the forests became almost impassable from snow. Traveling was so difficult that, when they reached the Monongahela River, they sent two men down the river in a canoe with their baggage. These men waited for them at the fork where the Allegheny River joins the Monongahela to form the Ohio. As soon as Washington saw this fork, he marked it as a splendid location for a fort, of which we shall learn more later.
Pushing on a little farther, Washington and his men reached a little settlement on the Ohio River, where Indian chiefs met him in council. He told them he had a letter for the French commandant and asked for their advice and help. Indians are very dignified and slow in their councils. They kept Washington waiting for several days. Then three of the greatest chiefs went with him to the French forts. These were in what is now northwestern Pennsylvania. It was a journey of many miles through snow and mud and took nearly a week.
It was almost the middle of December before Washington delivered his message to the French commandant, Saint Pierre. He was politely received by the French officers, with whom he discussed matters very tactfully. It took some days to prepare the reply to the Governor of Virginia. While they waited, the French tried, with presents and liquor, to coax Washington's Indian friends to leave him. At this time, the Indian tribes were in a difficult position. Both the French and the English were trying to get their lands and each seeking to win their alliance against the other. Washington reminded the chiefs that he had their word of honor and so kept them with him.
After receiving the French reply, the party started back home, going as far as possible in canoes. The rivers were swollen and full of ice, making the water-trip extremely dangerous. On Christmas Day, Washington began his long journey home—nearly a thousand miles through almost trackless forests. The horses became so tired that he and Christopher Gist decided to hurry on foot, in advance of the others, to the fork of the Ohio, leaving their horses to be brought later. They tramped several days, camping in the forests at night. An Indian met them and offered to show them a short cut. But he was treacherous and guided them out of their way and tried to shoot them. They escaped, traveling as fast as they could all night and all the next day.
At nightfall they came to the Allegheny River, expecting to find it frozen over, but it was full of floating ice and they had no way to cross. After working a whole day, with only a small hatchet, they made a raft. In trying to pole this across the swift current, Washington was thrown into the water and was nearly drowned, but he managed to get on the raft again and they reached an island, where they spent the night. It was so intensely cold that Gist's hands and feet were frozen. The next morning, they got ashore on the chunks of ice and by suppertime were in the warm house of a trader named Frazier. In a few days, they were rested enough to go on to Gist's home, where the Major bade his companion good-by and went on alone on horseback, through constant snows and bitter cold.
On the sixteenth of January (1754), Major Washington delivered the French reply to Governor Dinwiddie. He had been absent almost three months on his perilous journey, and you can imagine that his mother and friends were glad to see him safe at home again.
The Governor and the colonists were very proud of the way Washington had performed his errand. His wisdom in his dealings with the Indians and the French, his firmness, his courage and daring in the face of peril, had indeed been marked. He had not only done well what he had been sent to do, but he had thoroughly examined the French forts and made notes of the best places for English defenses. From that time, he was trusted with important duties.
As might have been expected, the reply from the French commandant stated that the land belonged to French settlers and that they intended to keep it. It was Washington's opinion that the French intended in the spring to take possession of the whole country. The Governor of Virginia tried to interest other colonies to help fight the French. When they refused, Virginia sent Captain Trent to raise a company of men in the western country and to build a fort at the fork of the Ohio River, where the city of Pittsburgh now stands.
Washington, now Colonel, was ordered to raise three hundred men and build a road to this fort for cannon and supplies. He succeeded in getting together one hundred and fifty men, who were poorly equipped, and without training. They built the road as far as Cumberland. Here, in April, 1754, they met Captain Trent's men in retreat. A French force of three hundred men had surprised them by suddenly paddling down the river in canoes, and planting their guns before the fort, with a summons to surrender in an hour. One young officer and fifty men could not hold out against so many. So they surrendered and marched back over the mountains.
Every day traders and settlers came by, hurrying eastward. They said the French had taken the place at the fork of the Ohio and were building a strong fort. They were coaxing the Indians, with fine presents, to fight the English. If the British were to succeed against the French, they required a good road over which to march an army. So Colonel Washington hurried the road building as much as possible, but at best he could make only slow progress in such mountainous country.
He received a message from the friendly chief Half King, telling him that a French force was on its way to attack him. With a little band of men, Washington made his way by night through the forest, in a heavy rain, to the camp of Half King. Indian scouts tracked the Frenchmen to a forest near a place called Great Meadows, where, in May, Washington and his men attacked them on one side and the Indians on the other. The Colonel was in the thickest of the fight and, for the first time, heard bullets whistling about his head. Ten Frenchmen were killed and twenty-one taken prisoners. Half King sent the scalps of the dead men, with tomahawks and strings of black wampum (small beads made of shells and sometimes used by the Indians as money), to all his allies and asked them to join the English.
This was Washington's first skirmish and it opened the French and Indian War that lasted seven years. Washington now encamped at Great Meadows where he dug rude trenches, which he called Fort Necessity. Supplies of food and ammunition were slow in reaching him. He had been reënforced with troops from the command of Colonel Fry, who had died on the way, and Washington was now made commander of the joint forces of about three hundred men.
The French finished their fort, which they called Duquesne (doo-cané). Then about nine hundred French and Indians attacked Washington. The English fought bravely, but Half King and his men deserted Washington. Being greatly outnumbered, he was obliged to surrender.
Colonel Washington led his beaten and discouraged men home, trying to cheer them while sharing their hardships. The campaign, fought against such odds, had not been successful, but Washington was publicly thanked for his bravery and hard work.
He resigned his commission and went to look after his mother's affairs. He soon settled at Mount Vernon and began work on his farm. His greatest desire was to devote himself to country life, but he was needed too much by the colony to be allowed to live as a private man.
WASHINGTON APPOINTED A MEMBER OF GEN. BRADDOCK'S STAFF—FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR—WASHINGTON MADE COMMANDER OF VIRGINIA FORCES—CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION—WASHINGTON A MEMBER OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS—1755-1775
Early in the following year (1775), England sent out General Braddock and a thousand soldiers, trained in battle, to take Fort Duquesne and drive the French from the Ohio Valley. Washington was appointed a member of his staff.
General Braddock was a brave and experienced soldier, but he knew nothing of warfare in a new country,
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