George Washington | Page 7

to the charm of listening to
whistling bullets. Perhaps he never said it; perhaps he forgot. He was
only twenty-two at the time of the Great Meadows campaign. No doubt
he was as well aware as was Governor Dinwiddie, and other Virginians,
that he was the best equipped man on the expedition, experienced in
actual fighting, and this, added to his qualifications as a woodsman, had
given him a real zest for battle. In their discussion over the campfire, he
and his fellow officers must inevitably have criticized the conduct of
the expedition, and it may well be that Washington sometimes insisted
that if his advice were followed things would go better. Not on this
account, therefore, must we lay too much blame on him for being
conceited or immodest. He knew that he knew, and he did not
dissemble the fact. Silence came later.
The result of the expeditions to and skirmishes at the Forks of the Ohio
was that England and France were at war, although they had not
declared war on each other. A chance musket shot in the backwoods of
Virginia started a conflict which reverberated in Europe, disturbed the
peace of the world for seven years, and had serious consequences in the
French and English colonies of North America. The news of
Washington's disaster at Fort Necessity aroused the British Government
to the conclusion that it must make a strong demonstration in order to
crush the swelling prestige of the French rivals in America. The British
planned, accordingly, to send out three expeditions, one against Fort
Duquesne, another against the French in Nova Scotia, and a third
against Quebec. The command of the first they gave to General Edward
Braddock. He was then sixty years old, had been in the Regular Army

all his life, had served in Holland, at L'Orient, and at Gibraltar, was a
brave man, and an almost fanatical believer in the rules of war as taught
in the manuals. During the latter half of 1754, Governor Dinwiddie was
endeavoring against many obstacles to send another expedition,
equipped by Virginia herself, to the Ohio. Only in the next spring,
however, after Braddock had come over from England with a relatively
large force of regulars, were the final preparations for a campaign
actually made. Washington, in spite of being the commander-in-chief
of the Virginia forces, had his wish of going as a volunteer at his own
expense. He wrote his friend William Byrd, on April 20, 1755, from
Mount Vernon:
I am now preparing for, and shall in a few days set off, to serve in the
ensuing campaign, with different views, however, from those I had
before. For here, if I can gain any credit, or if I am entitled to the least
countenance and esteem, it must be from serving my country without
fee or reward; for I can truly say, I have no expectation of either. To
merit its esteem, and the good will of my friends, is the sum of my
ambition, having no prospect of attaining a commission, being well
assured it is not in Gen'l Braddock's power to give such an one as I
would accept of. The command of a Company is the highest
commission vested in his gift. He was so obliging as to desire my
company this campaign, has honoured me with particular marks of his
esteem, and kindly invited me into his family--a circumstance which
will ease me of expences that otherwise must have accrued in
furnishing stores, camp equipages, etc. Whereas the cost will now be
easy (comparatively speaking), as baggage, horses, tents, and some
other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge.[1]
[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 146-49.]
The army began to move about the middle of May, but it went very
slowly. During June Washington was taken with an acute fever, in spite
of which he pressed on, but he became so weak that he had to be
carried in a cart, as he was unable to sit his horse. Braddock, with the
main army, had gone on ahead, and Washington feared that the battle,
which he believed imminent, would be fought before he came up with

the front. But he rejoined the troops on July 8th. The next day they
forded the Monongahela and proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne.
Writing from Fort Cumberland, on July 18th, Washington gave
Governor Dinwiddie the following account of Braddock's defeat. The
one thing happened which Washington had felt anxious about--a
surprise by the Indians. He had more than once warned Braddock of
this danger, and Benjamin Franklin had warned him too before the
expedition started, but Braddock, with perfect British contempt, had
replied that though savages might be formidable to raw Colonials, they
could make no impression on disciplined troops. The surprise came and
thus