“Could I strike a blow at once I might be successful,” said Washington, but he now had but a handful of soldiers and more it was next to impossible to obtain.
There was serious trouble regarding the English army and more troubles were to follow. Each officer was jealous of the others, and Governor Dinwiddie made matters worse by announcing that each company should be independent of the others and that nobody should hold a rank higher than that of captain. On top of this came a proclamation from England that any officer holding a commission from the king should be the superior of any provincial officer with whom he happened to be acting! Many Americans, though still loyal to the mother country, would not stand this, and among those to resign their commissions was Washington, who went back to his mother and to his brother’s family at Mount Vernon.
But the trouble in America was now a matter of hot discussion in England and France and soon England decided to strike at France’s colonies in Nova Scotia, New York, and throughout the Ohio valley. For this purpose England sent Major-General Edward Braddock to Virginia at the head of two regiments of picked soldiers.
The coming of Braddock with the trained soldiers of the king was hailed far and wide with delight, for all felt that the French would now suffer a quick and complete defeat. The soldiers arrived in February and went into camp at Alexandria, to which place the colonists from miles around flocked to see them. It was soon found that the English soldiers were indeed the pick of the army. They were drilled to perfection and everything in the camp went “like clock-work,” as the common saying goes. It was found that General Braddock was a stern veteran and disciplinarian, and one who never took advice from anybody. How dear this last trait was to cost him will soon be seen.
At Alexandria General Braddock met Washington, and the pair often came together later, when the Englishmen and the governors of the colonies held a consultation at Annapolis. It would seem that Braddock took to Washington, for soon after he offered the latter a position on his staff, with rank as colonel. Washington accepted at once, after being assured that he would be under orders from nobody but the general himself. At first some of the English officers grumbled at this, but before the army moved into the wilderness Washington was on a friendly footing with all.
It was well that Braddock took Washington on his staff. The English general knew nothing of American ways, nothing of the country to be covered, and nothing of the Indian method of warfare. He led the colonists to believe that he and he alone would fight and conquer the French and Indians, and when it came time for them to join him in the expedition they held back, not caring to “play second fiddle,” as some of the backwoodsmen said.
It was Washington who spoke to those who had fought under him before, and spoke to other of the colonists, and at last he persuaded the Virginia Rangers and a few other colonial troops to join the army under Braddock. But all this took time, and it was not until the middle of May, 1755, that the army reached Will’s Creek, and then the French, and their Indian allies, were on the alert and watching for their further march westward.
“The army has come!” shouted Dave one day, on returning from a visit to Will’s Creek. “General Braddock is there with over a thousand soldiers, and so is Colonel Washington with the Virginian troops. Oh, but don’t the regulars look grand! Their uniforms and rifles shine, I can tell you!”
“Here at last, eh?” returned Joseph Morris. “Well, it has taken them a good while to march from Alexandria, seems to me.”
“I saw Colonel Washington,” went on Dave. “And I’m going along, as soon as they move.”