In the mean while, Major Grant, of a Highland regiment, who had been ordered by Colonel Bouquet to march toward Fort Duquesne with about eight hundred men, and reconnoiter the country, exceeded his instructions, and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture it. Sept. 21, The British were defeated with great loss, and both Major Grant and Major Andrew Lewis, of Washington's regiment (who commanded a rear guard), were made prisoners, and sent to Montreal. The retreat of the survivors was effected by the skill and energy of Captain Bullit, who, with fifty men, was left in charge of the baggage. The total loss on that occasion was two hundred and seventy-eight killed, and forty-two wounded. * The French, greatly inspirited by this event, determined to attack Colonel Bouquet at Loyal Hanna, ** before General Forbes should arrive from Fort Bedford. *** A force under De Vetrie, consisting of twelve hundred French and two hundred Indians, marched eastward, and on the twelfth of October attacked Bouquet's camp. The battle lasted four hours, and the French were repulsed with considerable loss. Colonel Bouquet lost sixty-seven men in killed and wounded. The Indians, bitterly disappointed, left the French in great numbers, and went out upon their hunting-grounds to secure a supply of food for the winter.
General Forbes arrived, toward the close of October, at Loyal Hanna, about half way between Fort Bedford and Fort Duquesne, where he called a council of war. The increasing inclemency of the season and scarcity of provisions, made it appear inexpedient to attempt to reach the fort, and they were about to abandon the expedition until Spring, when a knowledge of the extreme weakness of the garrison at Fort Duquesne was communicated by some prisoners who had been taken. Encouraged by this intelligence, the expedition moved on, the regiment of Colonel Washington forming the advanced corps. When he was within a days' march of Fort Duquesne, he was discovered by scouts. Fear magnified his numbers, and the garrison "burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it at night, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men, according to the best information." **** Nov. 25, 1758 The English took possession of its site the next day. The blackened chimneys of thirty tenements stood in bold relief among the ruins. (v) The works were repaired, and the name of Pitt was given to the new fortress. After furnishing two hundred men from his regiment to garrison Fort Pitt, Colonel Washington marched back to Winchester, from whence he soon proceeded to Williamsburg to take his seat in the House of Burgesses, to which he had been elected a member by the county of Frederick, while he was at Fort Cumberland. The French being expelled from the Ohio, and the fear of frontier troubles subsiding, Washington determined to yield to the demands of enfeebled health and required attention to private affairs, and leave the army. At about the close of the year, he resigned his commission as colonel of the first Virginia regiment and commander-in-chief of all the troops raised in the colony. (vi)
* Marshall, i., 25.
** Now Ligonier, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, fifty miles west of Bedford.
*** This fort was on the site of the present village of Bedford, the capital of Bedford county.
**** Washington's letter to Governor Fauquier.
* (v) Day's History of Western Pennsylvania, page 140.
* (vi) It was on the occasion of his visit to Williamsburg, at the close of this campaign, that a touching event in the life of Washington is said to have occurred. He went into the gallery of the old Capitol when the House of Burgesses were in session, to listen to the proceedings. As soon as he was perceived by Mr. Speaker Robinson, that gentleman called the attention of the House to the young hero, and greatly complimented him for his gallantry. Washington, who was naturally diffident, and never a fluent extemporaneous speaker, was much confused. He arose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but, blushing and stammering, he was unable to utter a word intelligibly. Mr. Robinson observed his embarrassment, and with admirable tact relieved him. "Sit down, Mr. Washington," he said; "your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess." Mr. Robinson, the speaker of the House on this occasion, was the father of Colonel Beverly Robinson, the distinguished Loyalist of New York during the Revolution, whose portrait is printed on page 141. The last surviving son of Colonel Robinson, Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, died at his residence at Brighton, England, on the first of January, 1852, at the age of eighty-seven years.
Development of Washington's Military Character.—Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson.
In this rapid sketch—this mere birds-eye view of the colonial history of Virginia, we have seen the development of those principles which made that state so eminently republican and patriotic when the Revolution broke out; and we have also seen the budding and growth of the military genius and public esteem of him who led our armies through that sanguinary conflict to victory and renown. We will now consider some of the events of the war for Independence which distinguished the peninsula below Richmond, lying between the York and James Rivers.