George Washington | Page 5

canoes, and planting their guns before the fort, with a summons to surrender in an hour. One young officer and fifty men could not hold out against so many. So they surrendered and marched back over the mountains.
Every day traders and settlers came by, hurrying eastward. They said the French had taken the place at the fork of the Ohio and were building a strong fort. They were coaxing the Indians, with fine presents, to fight the English. If the British were to succeed against the French, they required a good road over which to march an army. So Colonel Washington hurried the road building as much as possible, but at best he could make only slow progress in such mountainous country.
He received a message from the friendly chief Half King, telling him that a French force was on its way to attack him. With a little band of men, Washington made his way by night through the forest, in a heavy rain, to the camp of Half King. Indian scouts tracked the Frenchmen to a forest near a place called Great Meadows, where, in May, Washington and his men attacked them on one side and the Indians on the other. The Colonel was in the thickest of the fight and, for the first time, heard bullets whistling about his head. Ten Frenchmen were killed and twenty-one taken prisoners. Half King sent the scalps of the dead men, with tomahawks and strings of black wampum (small beads made of shells and sometimes used by the Indians as money), to all his allies and asked them to join the English.
This was Washington's first skirmish and it opened the French and Indian War that lasted seven years. Washington now encamped at Great Meadows where he dug rude trenches, which he called Fort Necessity. Supplies of food and ammunition were slow in reaching him. He had been re?nforced with troops from the command of Colonel Fry, who had died on the way, and Washington was now made commander of the joint forces of about three hundred men.
The French finished their fort, which they called Duquesne (doo-cané). Then about nine hundred French and Indians attacked Washington. The English fought bravely, but Half King and his men deserted Washington. Being greatly outnumbered, he was obliged to surrender.
Colonel Washington led his beaten and discouraged men home, trying to cheer them while sharing their hardships. The campaign, fought against such odds, had not been successful, but Washington was publicly thanked for his bravery and hard work.
He resigned his commission and went to look after his mother's affairs. He soon settled at Mount Vernon and began work on his farm. His greatest desire was to devote himself to country life, but he was needed too much by the colony to be allowed to live as a private man.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II
WASHINGTON APPOINTED A MEMBER OF GEN. BRADDOCK'S STAFF--FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR--WASHINGTON MADE COMMANDER OF VIRGINIA FORCES--CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION--WASHINGTON A MEMBER OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS--1755-1775
Early in the following year (1775), England sent out General Braddock and a thousand soldiers, trained in battle, to take Fort Duquesne and drive the French from the Ohio Valley. Washington was appointed a member of his staff.
[Illustration: The Indians fell upon their flanks]
General Braddock was a brave and experienced soldier, but he knew nothing of warfare in a new country, amid great forests and savage foes. He knew but one way to fight, which he had learned in the orderly camps and wide fields of Europe, and felt that nobody could defeat his well-drilled soldiers. He thought Washington too young to give advice, and paid no attention to what he said. He looked with contempt upon the queerly dressed, untrained Virginia troops, whom he called "raw recruits." Instead of being friendly and generous with the Indians, Braddock treated them coldly and they left him.
With much difficulty, the army and its supplies were brought over the mountains and approached Fort Duquesne early in July. As they drew near it, Braddock's men put on their scarlet uniforms and forded the river, with bands playing and colors flying. It was the first time Washington ever saw a regular, well-disciplined army and he enjoyed the sight, although he wondered how their orderly ranks were going to fight among the rocks and trees. Fearing an attack from the woods, he wanted to send Indian scouts and Virginia rangers ahead. General Braddock admired Washington, but could not help laughing at his fears. So he sent his soldiers gayly forward.
Suddenly, they were attacked in front! With hideous yells, the Indians fell upon their flanks. All that General Braddock had learned of warfare was of little use to him now in the wilderness, but he was courageous and determined. Four horses were shot under him and he was fatally wounded. Before