“He seems to have been a teamster, and in the rout did good service in bringing away the wounded after the defeat. Washington, you will remember, was there as aid-de-camp to Braddock, and doubtless he and Morgan became acquainted then.
“It is said that Morgan was unjustly punished with five hundred lashes for knocking down a British officer who struck him with the flat of his sword.
“Afterward he was attached to the quartermaster’s department, and his duty was to haul supplies to the military posts along the frontier.
“About that time, at the head of a few backwoodsmen, he defeated a small force of Frenchmen and Indians, and received from Governor Dinwiddie an ensign’s commission.
“Afterward, while on his way to Winchester with despatches, he and others engaged in a fierce woodland fight with the Indians, in which nearly all Morgan’s companions were killed and he was severely wounded, being shot through the neck with a musket ball. At the moment he supposed the wound to be fatal—he was almost fainting—but resolved not to leave his scalp in the hands of the Indians. He fell forward with his arms tightly clasped about the neck of his horse, and though mists were gathering before his eyes, he spurred away through the forest paths, until his foremost Indian pursuer, finding it impossible to come up with him, hurled his tomahawk after him with a yell of baffled rage and gave up the chase. That was the only wound he ever received.”
“And it didn’t hinder him from doing great service to his country in the Revolutionary War,” remarked Eric Leland.
“Some few years later,” continued the captain, “Morgan obtained a grant of land, took to farming and stock-raising, and married a farmer’s daughter, Abigail Bailey, who is said to have been a woman of rare beauty and lofty character. He named his home the ‘Soldier’s Rest,’ but was soon called away from it by Pontiac’s war. In that he served as a lieutenant. He prospered with his farming and acquired considerable property. But the calls to war were frequent. In 1771 he was commissioned captain of the militia of Frederick County, and two years later he served in Lord Dunmore’s war on the frontier.”