Young Washington was, however, raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and made second in command. He left Alexandria with his troops, for the frontier, on the 2d of April, 1754, and being joined by a small detachment in his route, arrived at Wills Creek on the 20th, with one hundred and fifty men. He was here met by Captain Trent’s ensign, Mr. Ward, directly from the fort just begun at the fork of the Ohio, with the unpleasant information that he had been obliged to surrender to a French force of one thousand men, with eighteen pieces of cannon, on the 17th of April. He said that the Captain and the Lieutenant (Frazier) were both absent at the time, and that the whole number of men under his command was but forty-one. He stated that the French commander approached near the fort, halted his troops, and sent in an officer with a summons to surrender, allowing him but one hour to consider of it, and directing him to come to the French camp at the expiration of the hour, with his determination in writing. He asked the Half-King, who was in the fort at the time, what it was best to do. The chief advised him to inform the French that he was not an officer of rank, nor invested with power to answer their summons, and request them to wait till his commander should arrive. He accordingly went with this reply to the French camp, accompanied by the Half-King; but the French commander refused to wait, telling them that he must have an immediate and decisive answer, or he should take possession of the fort by force. He then agreed to surrender, with liberty to depart with his men the next day. The French commander invited the ensign to supper in the evening, and treated him with much civility. The seizure of this post was considered by the British, at the time, the first open act of hostility in the memorable French war which followed it. The French fortified the post strongly, and called it Fort Du Quesne.
Colonel Washington considered that the British territory was now actually invaded, and that it was his duty, in compliance with his orders, to march forward prepared to meet the invading foe. A council of war was held, which confirmed this opinion, and resolved to proceed to the junction of Red Stone Creek with the river Monongahela, thirty-seven miles south of Fort Du Quesne, there build a fort and wait for reinforcements. Colonel Fry, the chief in command, being detained by bad health, Lieutenant Colonel Washington with his one hundred and fifty men, moved on through the wilderness and over the mountains with all possible dispatch. He first sent forward sixty men to prepare a passage by mending the road, and in some places making a new one; and on the 1st of May, followed them with the main body. In the course of the march, the friendly Indians brought to Washington frequent reports of French scouts being seen in the woods. When he had advanced about fifty miles beyond Wills Creek, he met a messenger from the Half-King, informing him that a French force (how large he could not tell) was on its march to attack the English, and warning him to be on his guard. This induced Washington to fall back a few miles to a favorable place for meeting the enemy, called the Great Meadows. Here he immediately employed his men in clearing away the bushes and throwing up an intrenchment, and sent a small party to look out for the enemy and observe their strength and motions. But the party returned without seeing any thing of them. The troops were, however, alarmed in the night, and were under arms during the latter part of it.
On the morning of May 27th, an English trader who lived in the neighborhood, came to the camp from his residence, where a detachment of fifty Frenchmen, he said, had been seen the day before at noon. He added that he saw their tracks himself about five miles distant. Washington immediately sent out seventy-five men in pursuit of this party; but they returned without discovering it. Washington sent a messenger to the Half-King, who was encamped with some of his people about six miles distant. This messenger returned about nine o’clock in the evening, with information from the Half-King that he had seen the tracks of two Frenchmen across the road, which had been traced to an obscure part of the woods, and that he thought the main body of them must be concealed at no great distance.—Washington, suspecting a design to surprise him, set out that night with forty men for the Indian’s camp. The night was dark and rainy, and they often lost the path and were unable to find it again for fifteen or twenty minutes. They, however, arrived at the Indian’s camp before sunrise. The Half-King agreed “to go hand in hand with their brothers the English,” (as they called them,) “and strike the French.” Accordingly they set out together, and proceeded through the woods in single file, after the manner of the Indians, till they came to the place where the tracks were. The Half-King then sent two Indians to follow these tracks again, till they should find the very spot where the enemy lay. The two Indians soon discovered them about half a mile from the road, in a very retired place, surrounded by rocks. The men were immediately formed for the attack. They then advanced, with Washington at their head, till they came very near the French. The moment the French discovered them, they seized their arms. Washington gave the order to fire, and a brisk engagement ensued, which continued about fifteen minutes. The French were defeated with the loss of their whole party, except one who escaped, ten men being killed, including Jumonville, their commander, one wounded and twenty-one taken prisoners. Colonel Washington’s loss was one man killed, and a Lieutenant and two privates wounded. As the French directed their fire chiefly at Washington’s men, the Indians received no injury. This skirmish took place on the 28th of May, 1754, at about seven o’clock in the morning. It was the first battle in which Washington had ever been engaged.
[CHAPTER SIXTH.]
Battle of the Great Meadows—vote of thanks to Colonel Washington and his officers—disapproving of the arrangement of the Virginia troops, he retires from the service.
Colonel Fry died at Wills Creek on the 31st of May. By his death, the command of the expedition devolved on Washington. Reinforcements were soon forwarded, so that the whole number composing the Virginia regiment under his immediate command, was three hundred men. There was also with him an independent company from South Carolina, consisting of about one hundred men. With this force Colonel Washington advanced slowly and cautiously beyond the Great Meadows, employing his soldiers in repairing the road, and sending out scouting parties to watch the motions of the enemy. He also sent a party forward to clear a passage towards the mouth of Red Stone Creek, the place of the intended fort. He also held councils with several Indian chiefs who came to him for that purpose, heard and delivered speeches, exchanged belts of wampum, and went through the usual ceremonies on such occasions. But all this was to little purpose; for some of the Indians were spies from the French, and the only motive of others was to obtain presents of goods and provisions. In this mode of gaining friends, the French were more successful than the English, as they were better supplied with such articles as the Indians wanted.
While these operations were going on, reports were continually brought in by French deserters and Indians that reinforcements had arrived at Fort Du Quesne, and that a large force would soon come out to attack the English. These accounts came from many different sources, some of which were so authentic that a council of war was held, in which it was unanimously resolved that the army should return to the Great Meadows, there fortify themselves in the best manner they could, and wait for a supply of provisions and reinforcements. The retreat immediately commenced. They had so few horses that the Colonel loaded his own horse with ammunition and other public stores, marched on foot himself, and paid the soldiers from his own purse for carrying his private baggage. Other officers followed his example. The troops were short of provisions, and having to carry their baggage on their backs and draw nine swivels over a very broken road, they did not reach the Great Meadows till the 1st of July. The Colonel immediately sent off an express to hasten on the expected supplies and reinforcements, but they did not arrive. He set his men to felling trees, preparing and drawing together logs, and raising and strengthening the breastworks. This entrenchment was called Fort Necessity, on account of the circumstances attending the erection and original use of it.
On the third of July, early in the morning, an alarm was given by a sentinel who had been wounded by the enemy. At nine o’clock, intelligence was received that the whole body of the French, amounting to nine hundred men, was only four miles distant. They were commanded by M. De Villiers, brother of Jumonville. At eleven o’clock they approached the fort, and began to fire, at the distance of six hundred yards, but without effect. Colonel Washington had drawn up his men on the open and level ground outside of the trenches, awaiting the attack, which he supposed would be made immediately, having ordered his men to reserve their fire till the enemy were so near that it would certainly do execution. But the French kept up a distant firing from the woods. Washington considered this as a stratagem to draw his men into the woods and there take them at a disadvantage. He therefore maintained his position till he found that the French did not incline to leave the woods and attack the fort by assault, as he had thought they would, considering their superiority of numbers. He then drew his men back within the trenches, and gave them orders to fire as they found favorable opportunities of doing so with effect. The French and Indians remained on the side of a piece of rising ground near the fort, and sheltered by the trees, kept up a brisk fire of musketry upon it, but never appeared upon the open plain below.