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It will be remembered that, at the surrender by Washington, of the fort
at Great Meadows, one of the terms of capitulation was that Captain
VanBraam and Captain Stobo should be held by the French until prisoners
taken on the 28th of May should be released.
Captain
Stobo was detained in Fort Duquesne for some time before he was sent to
Quebec, and on the 29th of July 1754, he wrote the following letter
describing the state of affairs here:
"Sir, I wrote to you
yesterday by an Indian named the Long, or Mono; he will be with you in
seven days. This goes by Delaware George. If these discharge their
trust, they ought to be well rewarded. The purport of yesterday's
letter was to inform you of a report, and I hope false, which greatly
alarms the Indians, that the Half King and Monecatooth are killed,
their wives and children given to the Catawbas, Cattoways and
Cherokees. I wish a peace may be made up between the Catawbas and the
nations here; they are much afraid of them. Many would have joined you
ere now, had it not been for that report. There are but 200 men here at
this time, 200 more expected in a few days; the rest went off in
several detachments, to the amount of 1000, besides Indians. The
Indians have great liberty here; they go out and in when they please,
without notice. If 100 trusty Shawnese, Mingoes and Delawares were
picked out, they might surprise the fort, lodging themselves under the
platform, behind the palisades, by day, and at night secure the guards
with their tomahawks. The guard consists of 40 men only, and 5
officers. None lodge in the fort but the guard, except Contecoeur, the
rest in bark cabins around the fort. Let the good of the expedition be
considered preferable to our safety. Haste to strike."
The
fifth of July must have been one of great bustle and excitement within
the limits of the westward of our City. Within those limits, and near
the Point, was then assembled, around and in Fort Duquesne, a number of
French and Indians. Intelligence had been brought by their scouts that
Braddock, with his formidable and disciplined army was rapidly
approaching. The French commandant was, no doubt, greatly distressed
and perplexed by the conditions of things - his force was comparatively
small - Fort Duquesne was only a stockade, incapable of resisting, even
for an hour, the lightest field pieces. At this crisis, when it seems
the commandant had abandoned all idea of resistance, Captain Beaujeu, a
bold and enterprising spirit, well suited to such an emergency,
proposed to take a detachment of French and Indians, and meet Braddock
on his march.
The consent of the Indians to accompany him was
first to be obtained. Capt. Beaujeu is represented to have been a man of
great affability of manners, and very popular among the Indians. He
went among them, explained his plan, and urged them to go with him.
They pronounced the plan a hopeless one, and refused peremptorily to go.
A
second time he applied to them - urged them to hold a council on the
subject; they did so, and again refused to go with him. Still not
despairing, Capt. Beaujeu again went among them, used all his arts and
persuasion, told them he was determined to go, and asked them whether
they would permit him to go alone to meet the enemy. This appeal proved
successful. They agreed to accompany him.
This was on the 7th of
July, 1755, and they had information that Braddock was only 18 miles
distant. That day and the next was spent in making preparations, and
early in the morning of the 9th, the united forces of French and
Indians departed, on what seemed an utterly hopeless expedition. Along
with Beaujeu, were two other captains, Dumas and Lignery, four
lieutenants, six ensigns and two cadets.
"Washington was often
heard to say during his lifetime, that the most beautiful spectacle he
had ever beheld was the display of the British troops on this eventful
morning. Every man was neatly dressed in full uniform; the soldiers
were ranged in columns and marched in exact order; the sun gleamed from
their burnished arms; the river flowed tranquilly on their right, and
the deep forest overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on their left.
Officers and men were equally inspirited with cheering hopes and
confident anticipations."
At noon they recrossed to the right
bank of the river, at a ripple about half a mile below the mouth of
Turtle Creek, and ten miles above Fort Duquesne. The ground where the
battle first commenced was rolling with ravines on either side,
sufficiently deep to contain, at least, a thousand men, and was covered
with a heavy forest, so that the ravines were completely hidden from
view. Capt. Orme, an aide of Braddock, who was wounded in the battle,
in a letter dated at Fort Cumberland, July 18th, gives the following
particulars:"The 9th inst., we passed the Monongahela by advancing
first a party of 300 men, which was immediately followed by another
200. The general, with the column of artillery, baggage and main body
of the army, passed the river the last time about 1 o'clock. As son as
the whole had got on the fort side of the Monongahela, we heard a very
heavy and quick fire in our front. We immediately advanced in order to
sustain them, but the detachment of the 200 & 300 men gave way and
fell back upon us, which caused such confusion and struck so great a
panic among our men, that afterwards no military expedient could be
made use of that had any effect on them. The men were so extremely deaf
to the exhortation of the general and the officers, they fired away in
the most irregular manner all their ammunition, and then ran off,
leaving to the enemy the artillery, ammunition, provisions and baggage;
nor could they be persuaded to stop till they got as far as Gist's
plantation, nor there only in part, many of them proceeded as far as
Col. Dunbar's party, who lay six miles on this side. The officers were
absolutely sacrificed by their unparalleled good behavior, advancing
sometimes in bodies and sometimes separately - hoping by such example
to engage the soldiers to follow them; but to no purpose. The general
had five horses killed under him, and at last received a wound through
the right arm into the lungs, of which he died th 13th inst. Mr.
Washington had two horses shot under him, and his clothes shot through
in several places; behaving the whole time with the greatest courage
and resolution.
By the particular disposition of the French and
Indians, it was impossible to judge the number they had that day in the
field. Killed - Gen. Braddock, William Shirley, Sec'y Col. Halkett.
Wounded - Roger Morris, and Robert Orme, aid-de-camps, Sir John St.
Clair, Dep. Quartermaster Gen. Matthew Leslie, Asst. Lieut. Col. Gage.
Between 6 and 700 officers and soldiers killed and wounded."
Col. Burd, who had obtained his information from Col. Dunbar at Fort Cumberland, also writes:"The
battle began at one o'clock of the noon, and continued three hours. The
enemy kept behind trees and logs of wood, and cut down our troops as
fast as they could advance. The soldiers then insisted much to be
allowed to take the trees, which the general denied, and stormed much,
calling them cowards; and even went so far as to strike them with his
own sword for attempting the trees. Our flankers, and many of our
soldiers that did take to the trees were cut off by the fire of our own
line, as they fired their platoons wherever they saw smoke or fire. The
one half of the army never saw the enemy. Particularly Capt. Waggoner,
of the Virginia forces, marched 80 men up to take position of a hill;
on the top of the hill there lay a large tree about five feet in
diameter, which Capt. Waggoner intended to make a bulwark of. He
marched up to the log with the loss of only three men killed by the
enemy, and at the time his soldiers carried their firelocks shouldered.
When they came to the log they began to fire upon the enemy. As soon as
their fire was discovered by our line, they fired from our line upon
him. He was obliged to retreat down the hill, and brought off with him
only 30 men out of 80; and in this manner were our troops chiefly
destroyed. The general had with him all his paper, which are entirely
fallen into the hands of the enemy, as likewise about �25,000 in cash.
All the wagons that were with the general in the action, all the
ammunition, provisions, cattle, etc., two twelve-pounder cannon, six
four-pounders, four coborus and two hortts, with all the shells, etc.
The loss of men, as high as Col. Dunbar could compute at that time, is
700 killed and wounded, (the one half killed,) and about 40 officers.
Col. Dunbar retreated with 1500 effective men."
Col. Washington wrote to his mother from Fort Cumberland, 18th July, 1755, nine days after the battle:"When
we came there we were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose
number I am pursuaded did not exceed 300 men, while ours consisted of
about1,300 well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who were stuck
with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is
possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to
encourage their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being near
60 killed and wounded - a large proportion of the number we had. The
Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were early all
killed; for I believe out of three companies that were there, scarcely
30 men were left alive. Capt. Peyrouny and all his officers, down to a
corporal, were killed. Capt. Polson had nearly as hard a fate, for only
one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behavior of those they
call regulars exposed all others that were inclined to do their duty,
to almost certain death; and at last, in despite of all their efforts
to the contrary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was
impossible to rally them.
Capts. Ormer and Morris, two of the
aids-de-camp, were wounded early in the engagement, which rendered the
duty harder upon me, as I was the only person then left to distribute
the general's orders; which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not
half recovered from a violent illness, that had confined me to my bed
and wagon for about ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble
condition, which induces me to halt two or three days, in the hope of
recovering a little strength to enable me to proceed homeward."
And to his brother John he wrote at the same time::As
I have heard since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial account
of my death and dying speech, I take this opportunity of contradicting
the first, and of assuring you that I have not yet composed the latter.
But, by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been
protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four
bullets through my coat*, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped
unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!"
[*
When Washington went to Ohio, in 1770, to explore wild lands near the
mouth of the Kanawha river, he met an aged Indian chief, who told him,
through an interpreter, that during the battle of Braddock's field he
had singled him out as a conspicuous object, fired his rifle at him
many times, and directed his young warriors to do the same; but none of
his balls took effect. He was then persuaded that the young hero was
under the special guardship of the Great Spirit, and ceased firing at
him. He had now come a long way to pay homage to the man who was the
particular favorite of heaven, and who could never die in battle.]
It appears that Washington's estimate of the numbers of the enemy was
underrated. Mr. Sparks ascertained that they were about 850, of whom
two-thirds were Indians.
Various estimates are given of the
force of the French and Indians. The largest estimate is two hundred
and fifty French and Canadians, and six hundred forty Indians. The
lowest estimate reduces the number of white men to two hundred and
thirty-five, and Indians to six hundred.
The brave and enterprising Beaujeu fell at the first fire, and the victory was achieved under the command of Capt. Dumas.
Again,
on the evening of that memorable day - if the statement of Col. James
Smith, who had been some time a prisoner in Fort Duquesne, may be
relied on - the Point was the scene of savage ferocity and human
suffering.
He says, on the morning of the 9th____, he observed an unusual battle in the Fort.
The
Indians stood in crowds at the great gate, armed and painted. Many
barrels of powder, balls, flints, etc., were brought out to them, from
which each warrior helped himself to such articles as he required. They
were soon joined by a small detachment of French regulars, when the
whole party marched off together. He had a full view of them as they
passed, and was confident that they could not exceed four hundred men.
He soon learned it was detached against Braddock, who was now within a
few miles of the Fort; but from their great inferiority of numbers, he
regarded their destruction as certain, and looked joyfully to the
arrival of Braddock in the evening., as the hour which was to deliver
him from the power of the Indians. In the afternoon, however, an Indian
runner arrived with far different intelligence. The battle had not yet
ended when he left the field, but he announced that the English had
been surrounded, and were shot down in heaps by an invisible enemy;
that instead of flying at once or rushing upon their concealed foe,
they appeared completely bewildered, huddled together in the center of
the ring, and before sundown there would not be a man of them alive.
This intelligence fell like a thunderbolt upon Smith, who now saw
himself irretrievably in the power of the savages, and could look
forward to nothing but torture or endless captivity. He waited
anxiously for further intelligence, still hoping that the fortune of
the day might change. But about sunset, he heard at a distance the well
known scalp halloo, followed by wild, joyful shrieks, and accompanied by
long continued firing. This too surely announced the fate of the day.
About dusk, the party returned to the fort, driving before them twelve
British regulars, stripped naked, with their faces painted black! An
evidence that the unhappy wretches were devoted to death. Next came the
Indians, displaying their bloody scalps of which they had immense
numbers, and dressed in the scarlet coat sashes and military hats of
the officers and soldiers. Behind all came a train of baggage horses,
ladened with piles of scalps, canteens and all the accoutrements of
British soldiers. The savages appeared frantic with joy, and when Smith
beheld them entering the Fort, dancing, yelling, brandishing their red
tomahawks, and waving their scalps in the air, while the great guns of
the Fort replied to the incessant discharge of rifles without, he said
that it looked as if h__l had given a holiday, and turned loose its
inhabitants upon the upper world. The melancholy spectacle was the bank
of prisoners. They appeared dejected and anxious. Poor fellows! They
had but a few months before left London, at the command of their
superiors, and we may easily imagine their feelings at the strange and
dreadful spectacle around them. The yells of delight and
congratulations were scarcely over, when those of vengeance began. The
devoted prisoners (British regulars) were led out from the Fort to the
banks of the Allegheny, and to the eternal disgrace of the French
commandant, were there burnt to death, with the most awful tortures.
Smith stood upon the battlements, and witnessed the shocking spectacle.
The prisoner was tied to a stake, with his hands raised above his head,
stripped naked, and surrounded by Indians. They would touch him with
red hot irons, and stick his body full of pine splinters and set them
on fire - drowning the shrieks of the victim in the yells of delight
with which they danced around him. His companions in the meantime stood
in a group near the stake, and had a foretaste of what was in reserve
for each of them. As fast as one prisoner died under his tortures,
another filled his place, until the whole perished. All this took place
so near the Fort, that every scream of the victims must have rung in
the ears of the French commandant! |
