THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
Sir Peter Halkett, Bart. In command of that part of Braddock's Army that marched through the present Loudoun in 1755.
We have come to the outbreak of that great world conflict between England and Prussia on the one side against France and Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony on the other which Fiske, writing before the devastation of 1914, called the most memorable war of modern times and which, involving three continents, ultimately passed the vast French territories in Canada and India to the British crown. In European history the contest is known, somewhat inadequately, as the Seven Years War and gave Frederick the Great of Prussia the fateful opportunity to demonstrate his extraordinary military genius; but in America it is known as the French and Indian War from the terrible alliance that the English colonists were forced there to face.
The menace of the French control of Canada had never oppressed the imagination of Virginia as it had that of New England and New York. Distance and lack of colonial unity tended to build in the minds of the Virginia Assembly the belief that it was a matter, to the Old Dominion at least, of secondary interest; though her royal governors, and especially Dinwiddie, recognized its true and pressing danger. Virginia claimed jurisdiction over a vast and largely unknown western territory, including much of what is now western Pennsylvania and that strategic point marking the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, now covered by the city of Pittsburgh. The French in Canada were well aware of the huge military importance of this "gateway of the west" and, although at the time peace was supposed to exist between England and France, in 1753 sent a small expedition south to take possession of it. News of these Frenchmen in Virginia territory came to Governor Dinwiddie who, in turn, sent the twenty-one year old Washington, already a major in the militia of Virginia, to remonstrate and protest to their commander. On his journey Washington travelled the road to Vestal's Gap and crossed the Blue Ridge at that point. Though he faithfully delivered his message, the English protest was ignored, the French commander asserting that all that domain belonged to his King and that the English had no territorial rights west of the mountains. Thereupon the energetic Dinwiddie decided that war or no war the French should be dislodged. A regiment of 300 Virginians was organized under Colonel Joshua Fry, with Major Washington as second in command, to take possession of the disputed "gateway" and fortify it.
This expedition, too, followed the road to Vestal's Gap and Washington, as was his habit, kept a journal of his experience. By the mischance of events this journal was to be captured later by the French at Fort Necessity; but in 1756, to bolster their claim that this English expedition was an unprovoked attack against a friendly power in time of peace, they published in French so much of it as served their purpose. Unfortunately the published portion did not include the march through Piedmont; but in Washington's accounting with the Virginia government we find these items:
"1754
"Apl. 6 To expences of the Regimt at Edward
Thompson's in marching up 2″ 16.0
8 To Bacon for Do of John Vestal at
Shenandoah & Ferriges over 1.9"[63]
Edward Thompson was a Quaker who lived near the present Hillsboro and who was to leave numerous descendants in Loudoun.
From the Shenandoah the little force pressed on into Western Maryland where at Will's Creek (the present Cumberland) then a trading station of the Ohio Company, 140 miles west from their objective, Colonel Fry was stricken with an illness which, a short time later, was to prove fatal. Leaving their colonel behind, the Virginia militia, now under the command of Major Washington, advanced very slowly cutting a narrow road through the forest and sending a small force ahead to begin work on the proposed fort at the confluence of the rivers. That work was hardly begun, however, when a greatly superior force of French and Indians, arriving suddenly on the scene from the north, drove the Virginians away, took possession of the place and continued the fort's construction naming it, on completion, Fort DuQuesne after Canada's French Governor.
The retreating Virginians fell back through the woods until they joined Washington's main force, encamped at Great Meadows, and it was not long before Washington learned from his Indian scouts that a small party of enemy skirmishers was cautiously advancing to deliver a surprise attack. Washington promptly determined on a counter-surprise with such complete success that the Virginians killed Jumonville, the French leader, and nine of his followers and captured the remaining twenty-two. But Washington knew that a much larger force of French would soon attack him and that his position was precarious. With earthworks and logs he caused his men to hastily fortify their camp, grimly called by him Fort Necessity. They had not long to wait for the enemy. There soon emerged from the surrounding forest a force of six hundred French and Indians from Fort DuQuesne who, apparently not finding that the appearance of the fort or the reputation of its defenders invited an attack, settled down to a siege. Washington, though in the meanwhile reinforced, had not more than three hundred Virginians and about one hundred and fifty Indian auxiliaries; but more serious than his inequality of numbers were his rapidly dwindling supplies of food and ammunition. This was the situation which resulted in Washington's first and last surrender during his long military career. The French so little relished an attack on the fort or a longer siege that the English were allowed to march out and begin their retreat (4th of July, 1754) under arms and with full honors of war.
All of this began to look very much like a fresh outbreak of war between England and France; but more and worse was to follow before a formal declaration of war was made in 1756. The Duke of Cumberland, son of George II, then Captain General of the British Armies, laid plans for a great American campaign which, once for all, was to cripple the French power in the west. Three expeditions were devised against French strategic strongholds on the American continent: One was to proceed against Crown Point on Lake George, a second against Fort Niagara and the third to capture the newly erected Fort DuQuesne. Major-General Edward Braddock, a veteran soldier thoroughly trained on Europe's battlefields, of unquestioned personal courage but abysmally ignorant of Indian warfare, was vested with the supreme command and with two British regiments, the 44th and 48th, set sail for America. The expedition landed at Alexandria where a general conference was immediately called at which were present, in addition to Braddock, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Governor Delancey and Colonel William Johnson of New York, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, Governor Sharp of Maryland, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania and other leaders. To these men Braddock revealed his orders and plans and the governors received the King's instructions as to the part they were to play in the campaign.
Alexandria was a poor starting point for Fort DuQuesne. Far better would have been Philadelphia, offering as it did not only a shorter route but more abundant and easily available supplies. Maryland interests, seeking the advantage of the highway to the west which the army would make, brought pressure to bear to have the force go through that Colony. It was finally decided to send a part of the troops through Maryland and a part through Virginia, the divided army to come together again at Will's Creek where, in the meanwhile, a large and strongly palisaded fort had been built by Colonel James Innes under the instructions of Governor Dinwiddie. A force of 1,400 Virginians and Marylanders was raised and added to the English troops and "on the 8th and 9th of April the provincials and six companies of the 44th under command of Sir Peter Halkett set out for Winchester, Lieutenant Colonel Gage and four companies remaining to escort the artillery. On the 18th of April the 48th, under Colonel Dunbar, set out for Frederick."[64] Although General Braddock, with Major Washington on his staff, crossed over into Maryland at Rock Creek and went to Will's Creek through that Colony, never entering or even seeing the embryo Loudoun, the local stories are still repeated, and with the utmost confidence, of the route he followed through that County and even where he spent the night. It was, as it still is, "Braddock's Army" in popular parlance and, as time passed, the commander's presence with the march through Virginia became a part of its story.
Had the supreme command of the expedition been vested in Halkett, rather than Braddock, one may reasonably believe that there would have been a very different outcome. A trained and able soldier, no less courageous than his chief, he was more cautious, more susceptible to new ideas and methods and far less arbitrary than lay in Braddock's nature to be. He learned to respect the dearly bought and superior knowledge of Indian fighting traits possessed by the provincials and wished to follow their recommendations that to Braddock, with his unbounded confidence in iron discipline, simply savoured of colonial ignorance and lack of military courage. Loudoun should remember Halkett not only as the commander of the march through her domain but as a brave and devoted soldier as well.
"Sir Peter Halkett of Pitferran, Fifeshire, a baronet of Nova Scotia," writes Sargent, "was the son of Sir Peter Wedderburne of Gosford, who, marrying the heiress of the ancient family of Halkett, assumed her name."[65] Our Sir Peter had married Lady Amelia Stewart, second daughter of Francis, 8th Earl of Moray, by whom he had three sons. Of these, James, the youngest, was a subaltern in his father's regiment and accompanied him on the expedition.
Of the Virginia troops serving in this campaign an effort has been made to identify such as came from the incipient Loudoun. All the Virginians were directly under the command of Captain Waggoner. As Loudoun was then a part of Fairfax her men were, of course, listed as from the latter county.
In March, 1756, the Virginia Legislature passed as its first act[66] an emergency measure from which we learn the names of certain soldiers from the then undivided Fairfax but from which side of Difficult Run each man came does not appear, or as to whether they went on Braddock's expedition or served nearer home, then or subsequently. The small amount of compensation awarded to each indicates a period of active service too short to have permitted them to be at the battle. Probably they were used east of the Blue Ridge.
That not all of the Virginia soldiers of the expedition of 1755 were enthusiastic volunteers is suggested by the passage of Chapter II of the session of 1754 which states in its preamble that as the King had instructed his lieutenant governor to raise soldiers for the expedition against the French on the Ohio and that there were "in every county and corporation within this Colony, able bodied persons, fit to serve his majesty, and who follow no lawful calling or employment" the justices of the peace, through the sheriffs, were ordered to forcibly enlist them, provided they were not voters or indentured servants![67] To raise money for the campaign an act was passed in May, 1755, instituting a public lottery with a first prize of £2,000 "current money" and many other prizes amounting altogether to £20,000 "current money."[68]
The route to be followed by Halkett's command is given in Braddock's Orderly Book as follows:
| "Alexandria 11th April 1755 | |
| .... March Rout of Sir Peter Halkett's Regiment from the | |
| Camp at Alexandria to Winchester | miles |
| To Ye old Court House | 18 |
| To Mr. Colemans on Sugar Land Run | |
| where there is Indian Corn | 12 |
| To Mr. Miner's | 15 |
| To Mr. Thompson ye Quaker wh is 3000 wt. corn | 12 |
| To Mr. They's ye Ferry at Shanh | 17 |
| From Mr. They's to Winchester | 23 |
| — | |
| 97" |
Thus from the date of entry, only two days after the last of Halkett's men had left the camp, we learn that the route given was the one ordered followed, rather than a report of one that had been pursued; but as it carefully describes the main northern road from Alexandria to Winchester it is safe to assume that the troops held to the course laid down for them.
The "Old Court House" was the first courthouse of Fairfax County built about 1742 and in use about ten years until another was built in Alexandria. Thus at the time of the march it was no longer used for the purpose for which it had been built. It stood near the present Tyson's Corner and in recent years its site has been marked by an appropriate inscription.
The "Mr. Colemans on Sugar Land Run" was the house of Richard Coleman who was thereafter in 1756 licensed by the Fairfax Court to keep an Ordinary there. It stood where the road then crossed Sugarland Run at the mouth of Colvin Run.
The "Mr. Miners" was the plantation of Nicholas Minor who served as a captain in this war and who soon was to lay out the town of Leesburg on part of his estate. It was known as Fruitland and the residence was situated on a knoll on the south side of the road about a mile east of the present Leesburg where a later building but bearing the same name now stands. There Miner in connection with his other activities, operated a distillery, probably for making brandy from peaches, apples and persimmons; according to General John Mason, a son of the famous George of Gunston Hall "the art of distilling from grain was not then among us" and he spoke of the time of his boyhood—a period well after 1755. A later writer comments: "The choice of such camping places as this perhaps explains in some measure the frequent court-martials in the army and the liberal rewards of from 600 to 1,000 lashes to recreant soldiers for drunkenness and for giving liquor to the Indians who accompanied the march or whom they met on the way."[69] There is much evidence that the British regulars, who had been recently recruited, frequently were disciplined for infraction of military rules and the disciplinary measures employed in British armies of that day were not gentle.
The "Mr. Thompson ye Quaker" we have already met in the preceding year when Washington, in Fry's expedition against the French at the "Gateway," noted his "expences." He lived, it will be recalled, in the locality which is now Hillsboro.
The "Mr. They's ye Ferry at Shanh" was, it is believed, in error for "Mr. Key's" and was at the Key's Gap Ferry.
All of this gives very little local detail. Fortunately that is more freely supplied from another and fortuitous source. There was attached to Braddock's expedition, when it left England, a certain commissary who had a widowed sister, one Mrs. Browne. She accompanied her brother from London to Fort Cumberland and, following the valuable eighteenth century habit, kept a journal which in 1924 was owned by Mr. S. A. Courtauld of the Howe, Halstead, Essex, and a photostatic copy of which has been acquired by the Library of Congress.[70] This journal or diary runs from the 17th November, 1754, to the 19th January, 1757. When Braddock and his men departed from Alexandria in April he had a number of soldiers too ill to travel. These he left there temporarily in charge of a force of "1 officer and 40 men" and the commissary (Mrs. Browne's brother), and Mrs. Browne stayed with them to help nurse the invalids. By June the sick men had so far recovered that they moved to join the main force, following the old Ridge (Alexandria-Winchester) Road over which Halkett and his men had marched before them. Here follows a full copy of Mrs. Browne's journal entries from her entrance into present Loudoun until she reached the Shenandoah:
1755. "June the 2. At Break of Day the Drum beat. I was extreemly sleepy but got up, and as soon as our Officer had eat 6 Eggs and drank a dram or two and some Punch we march'd; but, my Waggon being in the Rear the Day before, my Coachman insisted that it was not right that Madam Browne should be behind, and if they did not give way they should feel the soft end of his Whip. He gain'd his Point and got in Front. The Roads are so Bad that I am almost disjointed. At 12 we halted at Mr. Coleman's, pitched our markeys and dined on Salt Gammon,[71] nothing better to be had.
"June the 3. At 3 in the Morning was awak'd by the Drum, but was so stiff that I was at a loss to tell whether I had any Limbs. I breakfasted in my waggon and then sent of in front; at which all the rest were very much enrag'd, but to no Purpose for my Coachman told them that he had but one Officer to Obey and she was in his Waggon, and it was not right she should be blinded with Dust. My Brother the Day before left his Cloak behind, so sent his Man back for it on his Horse, and march'd on Foot. On the Road met with Mr. Adams a Parson[72] who left his Horse & padded with them on Foot. We halted at Mr. Minors. We order'd some Fowls for Dinner but not one to be had, so was obliged to set down to our old Dish Gammon & Greens. The Officer and the Parson replenish'd their Bowl so often that they began to be very joyous, untill their Servant told them that their Horses were lost, at which the Parson was much inrag'd and pop'd out an Oath but Mr. Falkner said 'Never mind your Horse, Doctor, but have you a Sermon ready for next Sunday?' I being the Doctor's country woman he mad me many Compts. and told me he should be very happy if he could be better acquainted with me, but hop'd when I came that way again I would do him the Honour to spend some Time at his House. I chatted til 11 and then took my leave and left them a full Bowl before them.
"June the 4. At break of Day my Coachman came and tap'd my Chamber Door and said Madam all is ready and it is right early. I went to my Waggon and we moved on. Left Mr. Falkner behind in Pursuit of his Horse. March'd 14 Miles and halted at an old sage Quaker's with silver Locks. His Wife on my coming in accosted me in the following manner: 'Welcome Friend set down, thou seem's full Bulky to travel, but thou art young and that will enable thee. We were once so ourselves but we have been married 44 Years & may say we have lived to see the Days that we have no Pleasure therein.' We had recourse to our old Dish Gammon, nothing else to be had; but they said they had some Liquor they called Whiskey which was made of Peaches. My Friend Thompson being a Preacher, when the soldiers came in as the Spirit mov'd him, held forth to them and told them the great Virtue of Temperance. They all stared at him like Pigs, but had not a word to say in their justification.
"June the 5. My Lodgings not being very clean, I had so many close Companions call'd Ticks that deprived me of my Night's Rest, but I indulg'd till 7. We halted this Day all the Nurses Baking Bread and Boiling Beef for the March to Morrow. A fine Regale 2 Chickens with Milk and water to Drink, which my friend Thompson said was fine temperate Liquor. Several things lost out of my Waggon, amongst the rest they took 2 of my Hams, which my Coachman said was an abomination to him, and if he could find out who took them he would make them remember taking the next.
"June the 6. Took my leave of my Friend Thompson, who bid me farewell. A great Gust of Thunder and Lightning and Rain, so that we were almost drown'd. Extreem bad Roads. We pass'd over the Blue Ridge which was one continual mountain for 3 miles. Forg'd through 2 Rivers. At 7 we halted at Mr. Key's, a fine Plantation. Had for Dinner 2 Chickens. The Soldiers desired my Brother to advance them some Whisky for they told him he had better kill them at once than to let them dye by Inches, for without they could not live. He complied with their Request and it soon began to operate; they all went to dancing and bid defiance to the French. My Friend Gore" (the coachman) "began to shake a Leg. I ask'd him if it was consistent as a member of his Society to dance; he told me that he was not at all united with them, and that there were some of his People who call'd themselves Quakers and stood up for their Church but had no more religion in them than his Mare. I told him I should set him down as a Ranter."
But to return to Halkett and the troops under his immediate command. From Winchester they proceeded to the new fort at Will's Creek which Braddock, upon his arrival, named Fort Cumberland in honour of his captain general. Here the main detachments of the expedition came together again in accordance with the plans made in Alexandria. The troops were given a short rest after their long march, the final plans were developed and on the 7th, 8th and 9th of June the army resumed its march to the west, widening the path through the woods made by Washington and his men the year before and hauling its artillery over the mountains with the utmost difficulty. So slow was their progress that Braddock decided to send on a large advance party, more lightly equipped, leaving the others to bring on the greater part of the supplies and baggage.
The Fall of Braddock. (From a painting by C. Schuessele, published in 1859.)
In contrast to Braddock's unbounded assurance, Halkett seems to have had a strong premonition of the impending disaster and his own tragic fate. Lowdermilk, in his excellent History of Cumberland, describes his dejection the night before the battle:
"Sir Peter Halkett was low spirited and depressed; he comprehended the importance of meeting the wily red skins with their own tactics, and while he urged the General to beat the bushes over every foot of ground from the camp to the Fort, he had little hope of seeing his advice put into effect; when he wrapped his mantle about him that night as he lay upon his soldier's bed his soul was filled with the darkest forebodings for the morrow, which he felt would close his own career as well as that of many another gallant soldier, a presentiment which was sadly realized."
Upon the following day, the 9th of July, the advance party of British, now making better progress, pressed on to a point five or six miles from Fort DuQuesne where they encountered the awaiting French and Indians. Against such British strength of numbers and equipment the French had one chance and well they knew it lay in meeting the attacking force in the forest before it could bring its artillery to play on their fortification. The mass of the scarlet-coated British troops were in close formation in the open; the French and Indians hid themselves behind the surrounding trees. As the first bullets poured into their ranks the British could see no foe and Braddock, deaf to the entreaties of the Virginians, insisted that his troops hold their ranks in the unprotected and open clearing. The provincials scattered and fought the foe in its own manner from behind every tree and mound they could find to shelter them; but Braddock, wholly immune to fear or reason himself, continued to hold his regulars together, in his anger beating back with his sword into the ranks those seeking cover. Even so the situation, impossible though it were rapidly becoming, might have been saved by the desperate and determined efforts of the provincials who had found a small ravine or ditch from which they were able to deliver an effective flanking fire against the French; but as the latter began to waver and the Americans left their protection to charge, the panic-stricken regulars fired upon them, killing and wounding a great number. It was the end. Braddock, who throughout the fighting had shewn the most reckless and obstinate courage and had had his horses killed from under him again and again, now received a mortal wound and the surviving English broke into a wild and disorderly retreat. Had the French and their allies pressed their advantage, hardly one of their foe would have escaped death or capture; but the Indian allies of the French, when the British fled, addressed themselves to killing the wounded and robbing and scalping the dead, thus giving the English their chance of flight, disorderly and panic-stricken, back over the road they had come. Braddock, crushed with the completeness of his defeat, died on the fourth day of the retreat and was buried in the roadway to protect his body from the Indian savages. How overwhelming was the French victory is shewn by the English record that of the 1,386 men who were under Braddock in the fight, only 459 escaped. That the British regulars stood their ground bravely in the face of most difficult conditions and stupid leadership there seems no question. But the greater praise went to the Americans who inflicted far more damage on the foe; and particularly to their leader Washington who with cool courage was everywhere encouraging his men in the fight and though his clothing was pierced repeatedly with rifle balls, he escaped wholly unwounded.
During the battle Halkett was shot and killed and his son James, seeing him fall and rushing to his aid, at once met the same fate. Both bodies were scalped and robbed and then left where they fell. Three years later Halkett's eldest son, the then Sir Peter Halkett, a major in the 42nd Regiment, joined General Forbes' new and successful expedition against Fort DuQuesne, especially to seek some trace of the fate of his father and brother. With friendly Indian help the bodies were found and identified and given a military burial nearby.
As the defeated English retreated to the east, the story of the calamity spread terror and dismay among the more westerly settlers. In Virginia the people in the valley were panic-stricken and in great numbers fled over the Blue Ridge to the Piedmont counties, spreading their terror among the people there. Washington wrote that he learned from Captain Waggoner who, as we have seen, had had command of the Virginia troops and had been wounded in the battle "that it was with difficulty he passed the Ridge for crowds of people, who were flying as if every moment was death." The fear and restlessness continued among the colonists on both sides of the Blue Ridge until General Forbes, as noted, in 1758 led his force to Fort DuQuesne and took possession of what was left by the French who burned and abandoned it at his approach. From then until after the Revolution this former outpost of France, under its new name of Fort Pitt, remained in the hands of the English government.
On the 1st day of September, 1758,[73] an act was passed in Virginia to pay arrears to "forces in the pay of this colony" and to raise money therefor. Section 5 recites:
"And whereas several companies of the militia were lately drawn out into actual service, for the defense and protection of the frontiers of this colony, whose names, and the time they respectively continued in the said service, together with the charge of provisions found for the use of the said militia are contained in the schedule to this act annexed....
"Loudoun County
On page 217 of the same act under the head of "Fairfax County" appear the following items, the names suggesting that the list was prepared prior to the time of the setting off of Loudoun from Fairfax and for services prior to those above listed:
| l | s | d | |
| "To Nicholas Minor, Captain | 15 | 12 | 0 |
| Josias Clapham, lieutenant, | 7 | 16 | |
| William Trammell, ensign | 5 | 4 | |
| To Captain James Hamilton his pay and | |||
| guards subsistence carrying soldiers | |||
| to Winchester | 10 | 4 | 1" |
The names of many other soldiers are given with the compensation awarded each. It is quite possible that among them were men who resided in that part of Fairfax which, at the time of the passage of the act, had been set off as Loudoun.