George Washington

by Stephen Brumwell

  26. Don Higginbotham, “George Washington and Revolutionary Asceticism: The Localist as Nationalist,” in Hofstra, ed., Washington and the Virginia Backcountry, pp. 223–50: 229; C. R. Markham, Life of Robert Fairfax of Steeton (London, 1885), pp. 187–88.

  27. On this point, and the extent to which English-built and occupied Belvoir was “exceptional” among Virginia’s Georgian mansions, see Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington: The Man Behind the Myths, pp. 20–21.

  28. See Washington’s “Journal of my Journey over the Mountains . . . ,” in Diaries, 1, pp. 6–23.

  29. This is the consistent verdict of two influential Washington biographers writing half a century apart. See Flexner, Washington: The Forge of Experience, p. 39; Ellis, His Excellency George Washington, p. 37.

  30. Diaries, 1, p. 73.

  31. Ibid., p. 81.

  32. Ibid., p. 82; Max Farrand, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Restoration of a “Fair Copy” (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1949), p. 123: Franklin wrote his account in 1784, adding: “This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it—my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that therefore the safer should be chosen.”

  33. Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 (new ed., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1999), pp. 104–10.

  34. Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2001), p. 168.

  35. See Donald H. Kent, The French Invasion of Western Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1954).

  36. Earl of Holderness, Secretary-of-State, to Dinwiddie, London, August 28, 1753, in National Archives, Kew, CO [Colonial Office], 5/211, fols. 11–15.

  37. Instructions from Robert Dinwiddie, October 30, 1753, in PWC, 1, pp. 60–61.

  38. The letter credited to Mercer, and believed to describe Washington’s appearance in 1759, is cited in Freeman, Washington, 3, p. 6.

  39. For Washington’s journal of his “Journey to the French Commandant, October 31, 1753–January 16, 1754,” see Diaries, 1, pp. 130–61.

  40. See “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 16. That Washington may have “prompted” the Half-King to invoke Colonel John Washington’s Indian name is suggested by Professor Fred Anderson. See his “Speculations on George Washington’s Autobiographical ‘Remarks’ of 1787,” in ibid., pp. 137–78, note 21. Interestingly, although Washington certainly used the name “Caunotocarious” (or “Caunotaucarious” etc.) from 1754 onward, it does not appear in the Indian speeches included in his journal of the 1753 Ohio expedition.

  41. On these tattoos, see “The Journal of Robert Cholmley’s Batman,” in Charles Hamilton, ed., Braddock’s Defeat (Norman, Oklahoma, 1959), p. 26 note.

  42. For Saint-Pierre’s distinguished career, see F. G. Halpenny, ed., Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 13 vols. (Toronto, 1966–94), 3, pp. 374–76.

  43. Kent, French Invasion of Western Pennsylvania, pp. 75–76.

  44. For example, the Maryland Gazette carried the journal in its editions of March 21 and 28, 1754, with the Boston Gazette printing it between April 16 and May 21, 1754.

  2: Hearing the Bullets Whistle

  1. GW to Augustine Washington, August 2, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 352.

  2. “Instructions to be observed by Major George Washington on the expedition to the Ohio [Jan. 1754],” in PWC, 1, p. 65.

  3. GW to Dinwiddie, March 7 and 9, 1754, in PWC, 1, pp. 72, 73.

  4. Diaries, 1, pp. 174–75.

  5. GW to James Hamilton,. ca. April 24, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 83.

  6. GW to Dinwiddie, April 25, 1754, in PWC, 1, pp. 88–89.

  7. GW to Horatio Sharpe, April 24, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 86.

  8. GW to Dinwiddie, May 18, 1754, in PWC, 1, pp. 99–100.

  9. Diaries, 1, pp. 191–92.

  10. GW to Dinwiddie, May 27, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 105.

  11. Ibid.; Diaries, 1, pp. 193–95. See “The Ohio Expedition of 1754. By Adam Stephen,” PMHB, 18 (1894), pp. 43–50: 46.

  12. This account of the Jumonville episode draws on the following sources: Diaries, 1, pp. 194–95; Maryland Gazette, June 13, 1754 (this, and other issues of the Maryland Gazette cited in these notes, were accessed via the Archives of Maryland online); GW to Dinwiddie, May 29 (two letters), May 31, and June 3, in PWC, 1, pp. 110–13, 116, 124; also GW to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754, in ibid., p. 118.

  13. See Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 (Cambridge and New York, 1991), p. 241; Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York, 2000), pp. 5–6, 52–59. For the grisly detail of the Half-King handling Jumonville’s brains, Professor Anderson cites the testimony of Private John Shaw. Although not present during the Jumonville skirmish, Shaw served during Washington’s 1754 Ohio campaign and must have spoken with eyewitnesses. His description certainly squares with the convincing account in the Maryland Gazette of June 13, 1754, which reported that Ensign Jumonville was tomahawked by the Half-King.

  14. Diaries, 1, p. 197; Washington to Dinwiddie, May 29, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 111.

  15. Holderness to Dinwiddie, August 28, 1753 (National Archives, CO 5/211, fol. 12).

  16. Virginia Gazette, June 13, 1754 (digital reproductions of this, and other issues of the Virginia Gazette cited here, are available online via the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).

  17. Dinwiddie to the Board of Trade, June 18, 1754 (National Archives, CO 5/1328, fol. 117).

  18. Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. (Boston, 1884), 1, p. 156.

  19. GW to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 118.

  20. Jeremy Black, George II: Puppet of the Politicians? (Exeter, 2007), p. 38; Horace Walpole, Memoirs of King George the Second, ed. John Brooke, 3 vols. (New Haven and London, 1985), 2, p. 18.

  21. The Half-King’s speech as reported in Weiser’s journal, in Paul. A. W. Wallace, Conrad Weiser, 1696–1760: Friend of Colonist and Mohawk (Philadelphia, 1945), p. 367.

  22. See Fox to Demeré, August 25, 1754, National Archives, CO 5/211, fol. 69; “Draught of orders for settling the rank of the officers of His Majesty’s Forces, when joined or serving with the Provincial Forces in North America,” November 12, 1754, ibid., fol. 115.

  23. Diaries, 1, pp. 202–207.

  24. Wallace, Conrad Weiser, p. 367.

  25. Dinwiddie to GW, June 1 and June 27, 1754, in PWC, 1, pp. 119, 150.

  26. Major Adam Stephen’s report, in Maryland Gazette, August 29, 1754. For the “siege” of Fort Necessity, see also Washington and Mackay’s report, published in the Virginia Gazette, July 19, 1754, and George Washington’s later “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, pp. 17–18.

  27. Reporting gossip circulating in Williamsburg, Landon Carter noted Muse’s alleged misbehavior in his diary for August 22, 1754. See Jack P. Greene, ed., The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, 1752–1778, 2 vols. (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1965), 1, pp. 110–11.

  28. John Robinson to GW, September 15, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 209.

  29. La Péronie to GW, September 5, 1754, in PWC, 1, p. 194.

  30. Despite some minor editorial tinkering, the published French translation was essentially the same as Washington’s manuscript. See the discussion in Diaries, 1, pp. 171–73.

  31. Donald H. Kent, ed., Contrecoeur’s Copy of George Washington’s Journal for 1754 (first published in Pennsylvania History, January 1952; repr. Eastern National Park & Monument Association, 1989), pp. 3–4.

  32. Dinwiddie expressed this opinion to both Maryland’s lieutenant governor Sharpe and Horace Walpole in London. See Freeman, Washington, 1, p. 416.

  33. Sir Thomas Robinson to Sharpe, July 5, 1754, National Archives, CO 5/211, fol. 33.

  34. Br
itish Library, Add. MS [Additional Manuscripts] 32850, fol. 289: Albemarle to the Duke of Newcastle, September 11, 1754.

  35. “Sketch for the Operations in North America, November 16, 1754,” in Stanley Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America 1748–1765: Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle (New Haven, Connecticut, 1936), pp. 45–48.

  36. GW to Colonel Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754, in PWC, 1, pp. 225–26.

  37. Orme to GW, March 2, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 241.

  38. GW to Orme, March 15, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 243–44.

  39. GW to William Byrd, Carter Burwell, and John Robinson, all April 20, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 249–57.

  40. GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, April 30, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 261.

  41. “Orme’s Journal,” in Winthrop Sargent, ed., The History of an Expedition Against Fort Du Quesne in 1755 (Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 287, 309, 314–15. See also Adam Stephen to GW, November 7, 1755, in PWC, 2, p. 159.

  42. “Journal of Cholmley’s Batman,” in Hamilton, ed., Braddock’s Defeat, p. 12.

  43. For a detailed and thoughtful examination of the 1755 expedition against Fort Duquesne, see Paul E. Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela (Pittsburgh, 1977). On the composition of Braddock’s army, see the returns enclosed with Braddock to Robert Napier, in Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, pp. 86–89.

  44. See “Return of Ordnance,” Little Bear Camp, July 18, 1755, in ibid., pp. 96–97. For Wood’s testimony, see Rex Whitworth, ed., Gunner at Large: The Diary of James Wood, R.A. 1746–1765 (London, 1988), pp. 40, 53. For an overview of smoothbore artillery and its capabilities, see B. P. Hughes, Firepower: Weapons Effectiveness on the Battlefield, 1630–1850 (London, 1974), pp. 13–18, 29–35.

  45. Braddock to GW, May 15, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 281.

  46. See “Memorandum,” in PWC, 1, pp. 282–83.

  47. GW to William Fairfax, June 7, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 298–99.

  48. “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 21.

  49. Ibid, pp. 18–19.

  50. See “Orme’s Journal,” in Sargent, ed., History of the Expedition, pp. 293–98, 318.

  51. See Beverley W. Bond Jr., ed., “The Captivity of Charles Stuart,” in Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 13 (1926), p. 63; also, “A Journal of the Proceedings of the Seamen,” in Sargent, ed., History of an Expedition, pp. 378, 380.

  52. “Journal of Cholmley’s Batman,” in Hamilton, ed., Braddock’s Defeat, pp. 17–19.

  53. GW to William Fairfax, June 7, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 299–300.

  54. GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, June 7, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 308–309.

  55. Ellis, His Excellency George Washington, p. 36.

  56. “Memorandum,” May 30–June 11, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 293–94.

  57. GW to John Augustine Washington, June 28 –July 2, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 319–21.

  58. “Journal of a British Officer,” in Hamilton, ed., Braddock’s Defeat, p. 45; “Orme’s Journal,” in Sargent, ed., History of an Expedition, p. 341.

  59. Roger Morris to GW, June 23, 1755, GW to John Augustine Washington, June 28–July 2, 1755, and to Orme, June 30, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 315, 319–24, 329.

  60. “Orme’s Journal,” in Sargent, ed., History of an Expedition, p. 350.

  61. GW to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 339.

  62. Duncan Cameron, The Life, Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances of Duncan Cameron, Private Soldier in the Regiment of Foot, Late Sir Peter Halket’s (3rd ed., Philadelphia, 1756), p. 13.

  63. GW to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 339.

  64. “Orme’s Journal,” in Hamilton, ed., Braddock’s Defeat, pp. 356–57.

  65. Ibid; “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 20.

  66. James Smith, An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James Smith (Lexington, Kentucky, 1799), p. 9.

  67. “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 20.

  68. Ibid, p. 21.

  69. Cited in Longmore, Invention of George Washington, p. 30.

  3: Defending the Frontier

  1. Letter of July 26, 1755, in PWC, 1, p. 346.

  2. “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 21.

  3. GW to Mary Ball Washington, and to Warner Lewis, August 14, 1755, in PWC, 1, pp. 359, 362.

  4. Commission and Instructions from Robert Dinwiddie, August 14, 1755, in PWC, 2, 3–5.

  5. GW to Andrew Lewis, September 6, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 23–4.

  6. Orders, Fort Cumberland, September 17, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 40–41.

  7. GW to Joshua Lewis, September 18, 1755, in PWC, 2, p. 48.

  8. Stephen to GW, September 25 and October 4, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 62, 72.

  9. Warren Hofstra notes that while the backcountry settlers were often reluctant to answer the calls of Washington and other officers for the “common” defense, they fought tenaciously to protect their own communities. See Hofstra, “‘A Parcel of Barbarian’s and an Uncooth Set of People’: Settlers and Settlements of the Shenandoah Valley,” in Hofstra, ed., George Washington and the Virginia Backcountry, pp. 87–114: 104.

  10. GW to Dinwiddie, October 11–12, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 102–4.

  11. On the need for Indian allies, see especially Washington’s letters to Dinwiddie and John Robinson from Winchester on April 7, 1756, in PWC, 2, pp. 333, 338.

  12. GW to Andrew Montour and Christopher Gist, October 10, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 97–99.

  13. See GW to Lieutenant John Bacon, October 26, 1755, in PWC, 2, p. 137.

  14. On the Dagworthy dispute, see Longmore, Invention of George Washington, pp. 37–38; also GW to Dinwiddie, December 5, 1755, and Dinwiddie to GW, December 14, 1755 and January 22, 1756, in PWC, 2, pp. 200, 213, 291–92.

  15. GW to Stephen, November 18, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 172–73. See also James Titus, The Old Dominion at War: Society, Politics and Warfare in Late Colonial Virginia (Columbia, South Carolina, 1991), pp. 91–92.

  16. For the New England provincials, see Fred Anderson, A People’s Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years War (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1984), pp. 123–25. The limit of thirty-nine lashes followed the teachings of the Old and New Testaments: Deuteronomy 25: 3 specified that punishment floggings must not exceed forty strokes; if they did, the recipient would be “degraded.” To avoid this, it became customary for one lash to be withheld. Describing his sufferings, the apostle Paul boasted that he had five times “received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one”(II Corinthians 11: 24).

  17. GW to Stephen, November 28, 1755, and GW to Dinwiddie, December 5, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 185, 201–202.

  18. See Hog to GW, November 29, 1755, and GW to Hog, December 27, 1755, in PWC, 2, pp. 188, 236.

  19. Titus, Old Dominion at War, p. 78.

  20. GW to Dinwiddie, January 13, 1756, in PWC, 2, p. 278.

  21. See Lester J. Cappon, ed., Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760–1790 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1976), p. 97.

  22. Boston Gazette, March 1, 1756.

  23. Shirley to GW, March 5, 1756, in PWC, 2, p. 323.

  24. Freeman, Washington, 2, pp. 165–67.

  25. See “Memorandum,” January 7, 1756, and note 1 giving the court proceedings, in PWC, 2, pp. 254–56.

  26. “Address,” Winchester, January 8, 1756, in PWC, 2, pp. 256–57. On the popularity of Bland’s Treatise, see J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army 1715–1795 (Oxford, 1981), pp. 182–84. See also O. L. Spaulding, “The Military Studies of George Washington,” in American Historical Review, 29 (1924), pp. 675–80.

  27. Stephen to GW, March 29, 1756, in PWC, 2, p. 325; GW to Dinwiddie, April 18, 1756, in PWC, 3, p. 14.

  28. Robinson to GW, ca. March 31–April 2, 1756, in PWC, 2, p. 329; GW to Robinson, April 18, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 15–16.

  29. Carter to GW, April 21,
1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 30–31.

  30. Dinwiddie to GW, April 15, 1756, in PWC, 2, pp. 355–56; GW to Dinwiddie, April 16, 1756, and Robinson to GW, April 17, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 1, 12.

  31. See Lieutenant William Stark to GW, “Sunday Night [April 18, 1756] 8 Oclock”; GW to Dinwiddie, April 19, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 17–18, 20.

  32. Pennsylvania Gazette, May 13, 1756.

  33. For a perceptive analysis of the devastating impact of captive taking upon frontier communities, see Fred Anderson, The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War (New York, 2005), pp. 153–55.

  34. GW to Dinwiddie, April 22, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 33–34.

  35. Orders, Winchester, May 1, 1756: “Memorandum Respecting the Militia,” May 8, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 70, 99.

  36. William Fairfax to GW, May 13–14, 1756, in PWC, 3, p. 125.

  37. Orders for the militia, Winchester, May 15, 1756, Dinwiddie to GW, May 27 and August 19, 1756, and GW to Dinwiddie, June 25 and August 4, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 136–37, 179, 224, 313, 359; Muster for July 13, 1756, cited in PWC, 3, p. 263, note 1. See also Titus, Old Dominion at War, pp. 79–80.

  38. Roll of Washington’s Company, August 28, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 389–92. Details for one man are missing. For the overall statistics for Virginia and Massachusetts provincials, see Matthew C. Ward, Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years’ War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754–1765 (Pittsburgh, 2003), p. 264, table 1. On the backgrounds of the men of the Virginia Regiment in 1756–57, see also Titus, Old Dominion at War, pp. 81–88.

  39. GW to Dinwiddie, April 27, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 59–60.

  40. Orders, Fort Cumberland, July 6–8, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 239–41.

  41. Stephen to GW, July 25, 1756, in PWC, 3, p. 294.

  42. PWC, 3, p. 354.

  43. GW to Dinwiddie, August 14, 1756, in PWC, 3, p. 350.

  44. The Virginia Gazette of September 3, 1756 is one of only two issues of the newspaper surviving from that year. The “Virginia-Centinel” article was reprinted in the Maryland Gazette of November 25, 1756.