Children were born to Martha. The first and the second babies, Daniel Parke and Frances, died in childhood. A second son, John Parke, was born late in 1754; the fourth child, a dark-haired girl, was born in 1756 and named Martha. Other daughters and sons might be added, because the young mother was healthy, but when June 1757 ended and the rich month of July opened, Custis fell ill and developed symptoms that defied home medication. Dr. James Carter of Williamsburg was summoned and was at Custis’s bedside on the fifth. Effort and vigil were vain. Custis died on July 8 at the age of forty-five years and nine months.
Custis died without a will and thereby put upon Martha full responsibility of administering the estate and serving as guardian for her children. She undertook the task with little experience but with abundant common sense. On affairs of law she promptly consulted attorneys she knew to be competent and trustworthy. In many matters she followed the forms her husband had used, and she painstakingly drafted and revised her letters to merchants and other correspondents until they were explicit and adequate. She was careful, too, in taking receipts even for small sums paid out on account of the estate, though she soon found she could entrust this detail to her husband’s manager, Joseph Valentine.
Although George secretly regarded himself as in love with Sally Cary Fairfax, he knew that nothing more than the happiest of friendships could or would exist between him and his neighbor’s wife. It became a young man of station to look elsewhere for a bride. The Colonel looked towards the White House and Mrs. Custis. The young widow was among the wealthiest and most desirable in Virginia when the tall young Col. George Washington bowed low to her on March 16, 1758. Washington did not stay then more than a day or a day and a half at the White House, but as he looked at the lovely Martha and across the broad, rich fields of level land, he resolved to come again. He did so the next week, and when he went back to Williamsburg after that second visit he had either the promise of Martha to marry him or her assurance that she would consider the proposal he made her. Then he finished his business at the capital, rode to Fredericksburg and to Alexandria, paused briefly, and rushed on to Winchester. There he spent his earliest spare hour in ordering from London “by the first ship bound to any part of Virginia . . . as much of the best superfine blue cotton velvet as will make a coat, waistcoat and breeches for a tall man, with a fine silk button to suit it . . . six pairs of the very neatest shoes . . . [and] six pair gloves. . . .” In New Kent, perhaps about the same time, a certain lady was ordering from the same capital of fashion “one genteel suite of cloathes for myself to be grave but not to be extravagant and not to be mourning.”
By the time of the Colonel’s reopening of his Headquarters in Winchester, much had changed during the five months of his absence. Most conspicuous was the presence of the largest body of southern Indians that ever had come to support the English in their war against the French. Some four hundred savages were in the town or were roving the country west of the English settlements; an additional 140 were on the way from their villages. In spite of the cost, these contingents were encouraged to remain, but Washington was almost as uneasy when he had Indian warriors as when he lacked them.
About the time Washington had been taken sick, Lord Loudoun’s expedition against Louisburg had failed so completely that no attempt could be made even to land troops. The French under the Marquis de Montcalm had attacked and destroyed Fort William Henry at the lower end of Lake George. Almost the entire garrison had been captured. It was a disaster as humiliating as any British arms had sustained in a war that had included already the defeat of Braddock and the loss of Oswego.
What was to be done in 1758? William Pitt had been recalled to office June 29, 1757, as a Secretary of State and had been given supreme control of the war and of foreign affairs. When Pitt found no plan set forth in Loudoun’s dispatches, the Secretary concluded to relieve the commander in America. Pitt left Major General Abercromby as titular head of the forces in America. Nominally in the care of Abercromby but actually under Pitt himself were to be three expeditions, one against Louisburg as a preliminary to an advance on Quebec, the second against Fort Ticonderoga, and the third against Fort DuQuesne. To command the new attack on Louisburg, Pitt named Jeffrey Amherst. The thrust for Ticonderoga was to be Abercromby’s charge. For the operation against Fort DuQuesne, Pitt’s choice fell on Col. John Forbes, of the Seventeenth Foot, who was made Brigadier General.
To Colonel Stanwix came a step upward to the rank of Brigadier, with orders to share in the campaign on the Lakes. This transfer of Stanwix and the recall of Loudoun meant to Washington that he had to repeat the process of winning the good opinion of officers who replaced those whose esteem he had acquired.
He proceeded once again to have himself recommended to the new General—and to have it done promptly. Forbes assumed command about March 21. In a letter of congratulation that Washington wrote Stanwix April 10, less than a week after his return to Winchester, he said:
. . . I must . . . beg that you will add one more kindness to the many I have experienced, and that is, to mention me in favorable terms to General Forbes (if you are acquainted with that gentleman) and not as a person who would depend upon him for further recommendation to military preferment, for I have long conquered all such expectancies (and serve this campaign merely for the purpose of affording my best endeavors to bring matters to a conclusion) but as a person who would gladly be distinguished in some measure from the common run of provincial officers, as I understand there will be a motley herd of us.
Had Washington known more at the time of Forbes, he would have realized that he could learn much from him. Forbes’s special distinction had been as a quartermaster, a service in which there had been much backwardness and lack of skill throughout the operations in Virginia. Washington could not have found in America a better instructor in the art of army administration, nor could he have been associated with a man of greater patience, cheer and cordiality in relations with officers and men. Forbes was cautious in not wishing to advance until his troops were equipped and supplied, but he was tireless in effort to prepare them. While he had never been proclaimed brilliant, he was able, courageous and thorough.
Now Washington was to have a regiment of infantry, as previously, but he was to serve “in the line” under any colonel or brigadier of the regular establishment who might be designated. Nor was he to be Virginia’s sole colonel, at the head of her only regiment. The General Assembly had passed a bill to raise the armed forces of the Colony to two thousand men, exclusive of the previously created ranger companies. The additional one thousand volunteers were to be allowed a bounty of £10 each, and were to be enlisted for service to December 1, 1758, and no longer. John Blair, President of the Council and acting Governor, accepted an offer William Byrd III of Westover made to recruit and to lead the new troops.
These three developments—the presence of Indians, the change of command, and the recruiting and equipment of the larger force—set Washington’s task for the two months that followed his return to the Valley. Recruiting proved less difficult than in the past. Although Forbes did not believe he would receive more than half the two thousand troops Virginia had authorized, Washington’s Regiment numbered 950 or more by May 28, and Byrd, with 900, was so close to authorized strength that the official formation of his Regiment was set for May 29. Even St. Clair, who had found no words too contemptuous for describing the Virginia troops of 1755, had to admit that their successors were “a fine body of men.”
Indians raised new problems daily. Raids of hostile scalping parties took heavy toll in West Augusta. The need of Indians with whom to fight Indians was as manifest as ever; diplomacy, firmness and understanding of them were imperatives. Such hope as the English had of overcoming the adverse odds in the struggle for the frontier might depend on winning over some of the Indians who were said to be dissatisfied with their French allies.
Throughout this time of recruiting, adjustment to new commanders, and effort to satisf
y the insatiable Indians, preparations were being made hourly to move the Virginia regiments across the Potomac and, in due time, to Pennsylvania for the advance on Fort DuQuesne. At the outset the questions that most concerned Washington, St. Clair and others had to do with wagons, tents, cartridge boxes, powder horns, blankets, hatchets and varied items of equipment relatively unimportant in themselves but essential to such an orderly advance as Forbes proposed to make. Before St. Clair could put Washington’s troops under marching orders, he determined to procure such equipment as he could from the Colony and accordingly directed Washington to go to Williamsburg to ask for arms and tentage and to “settle the affairs of the two Virginia Regiments.” For a manifest personal reason, Washington was glad to go to the vicinity of the White House, but he hurried his trip as he was anxious to get back to the frontier in time to share in an offensive he so long had been urging.
St. Clair took Washington to Conococheague with him on June 13 for a conference with Governor Sharpe and Col. Henry Bouquet. Although Washington had often exchanged letters with Bouquet, this was the first time he had met the man who was to be Forbes’s most trusted lieutenant and Washington’s immediate superior. Swiss-born and thirty-nine years of age, Bouquet was portly and undistinguished in appearance but of attractive and friendly manners. Next to his definite ability and rounded training as a soldier, Bouquet’s greatest quality was his freedom from the binding tradition of the British and German armies. In Charleston, South Carolina, he had amazed the holders of Colonial commission by his considerate treatment of them and their troops. With like understanding, after he returned to Pennsylvania, he had begun to study new, more flexible tactics for forest fighting by British regulars. He was as careful as he was skillful, and on matters he did not understand, such as dealings with the Indians, he sought the best counsel he could get. By temperament as by training, Bouquet probably was second only to Forbes among all the soldiers in America from whom Washington could learn.
At the conference where Washington became acquainted with this remarkable man, Bouquet did not give the Virginia troops their marching orders, but, instead, left the duty to St. Clair. With orders from St. Clair Washington returned to Winchester and, on June 24, left that place for Fort Cumberland with five companies of the First Virginia and a company of artificers of the Second—close to six hundred men, and probably more than George had ever before commanded on the road in a single body.
It was not a fast or flawlessly managed march. Not until the afternoon of July 2 did the Virginian, his tired men and his twenty-eight wagons reach Fort Cumberland. By that time the last of Forbes’s artillery and supply ships had reached Philadelphia; his cannon had been put in the road to catch up with his infantry; and he himself was on his way to Carlisle, where he was to arrive on the fourth. The heads of his three columns then were at that post, Raystown and Fort Cumberland. His force was to number close to seven thousand, of whom about 1400 were Scottish Highlanders. Operations were to be different from Braddock’s in this fundamental: Braddock had established an advance base at Cumberland and had undertaken to proceed straight from that point to Fort DuQuesne. Forbes intended to establish successive depots as he advanced. Braddock had attempted a long jump; Forbes was to make a number of hops. Washington had seen the one method result in failure; he now was to share in a test of the other.
In all respects save one, the first few weeks at Fort Cumberland did not differ greatly from those that Washington had spent on Wills Creek under other Commanders-in-Chief. There were the usual alarms and murders by Indians; after the arrival of Col. William Byrd with eight companies of his Regiment on July 6, much effort had to be devoted to equipping troops for service they were expected to perform directly under Bouquet. The first contingents of two hundred under Maj. Andrew Lewis marched away promptly and arrived July 10 at Raystown, where they won praise from Bouquet both for the “extraordinary dispatch” of their advance and for the utility of their dress. Washington had taken pains to have the men procure hunting shirts and leggings, and he had satisfaction in the prompt decision of Bouquet and then of Forbes to make that garb “our pattern in this expedition.” Lewis’s contingent was followed by other companies until, by July 12, 535 Virginians, six companies, were at the Pennsylvania post under the command of Adam Stephen, who believed the entire Regiment would soon be assembled there. Discipline and the prospect of a final thrust at the enemy on the Ohio had made the Regiment more efficient than ever it had been.
What made this tour of duty different was that George was now a candidate for office. He wished to be a member of the House of Burgesses, from which he so often had received orders, and he had taken care to give early notice of his candidacy. Before he had left Winchester he had declared himself for one of the two seats of Frederick County, then represented by Hugh West and Thomas Swearingen. Col. Thomas Bryan Martin, young nephew of Lord Fairfax, had served as a Burgess of Hampshire County in 1756-58, but he too decided now to stand in Frederick County, where the peer had given him the 8840 acres styled Greenway Court. Martin had decided to conduct his canvass primarily against West, and, by so doing, he made Washington, in a sense, the challenger of Swearingen. Although Washington had good assurances of support, he suffered because of this circumstance: The writs of election did not reach Winchester until July 4; as twenty days had to elapse before the election could be held, the poll could not be conducted until July 24. Washington, therefore, might be absent at Fort Cumberland during the time the other aspirants were afield.
Friends did all they could to offset this disadvantage. George William Fairfax and John Carlyle agreed to visit the Valley and to assist in lining up their tenants. James Wood, the most influential man in the County, was wholeheartedly for Washington, though he preferred West to Martin. Gabriel Jones, one of the Burgesses from Augusta, was so determined to have Washington chosen that he neglected his own solicitation of votes to assist the Colonel. Washington’s officers in Frederick were as active in his behalf as military proprieties admitted, perhaps more active than they should have been. Lieut. Charles Smith, in command of Fort Loudoun, assumed responsibility with innkeepers and merchants for the beverages that were to be served voters on the day of election.
At first Washington’s success appeared certain, but after he left for Fort Cumberland some of his adherents thought the tide turned to the incumbents. Fairfax feared the Colonel would be “very hard pushed.” John Kirkpatrick had to report that some of the voters “entertain a notion of the inconvenience you lie under of attending the Assembly and of defending them at the same time.” He thought it desirable and Jones considered it imperative that Washington return temporarily to Frederick and solicit votes. Washington naturally wanted to go and to do his utmost to achieve what he had undertaken; but he could not get the full approval of his conscience. Marching orders might reach him; an emergency might develop; the service might suffer, and censure might fall on him if he were absent on personal business.
Washington could do nothing except to await the result. Late in the night of June 25, or on the morning of the twenty-sixth, he had it. He had been elected. What was more, he had led the poll. It stood: Washington, 309; Martin, 239; West, 199; Swearingen, 45. Now he was to be a lawmaker and was to see how those who authorized the drafts and levied the taxes looked on the officers who spent the revenue in the bloody business of war.
In letters to thank the friends who managed his canvass, Washington spoke gloomily of the military outlook: “Our expedition seems overcast with too many ills to give you any satisfaction in a transient relation of them. God knows what’s intended; for nothing seems ripe for execution; backwardness, and I would (if I dared) say more, appears in all things.” This pessimism was born of slow preparations for the advance to the Ohio and of the fact that the support of Indians seemed almost as uncertain as ever. Apparently Washington did not know that Forbes was seeking, and with good prospects of success, to detach the hostile Indians from their French allies. In addition Washington
was profoundly concerned over the selection of the best approach to the French stronghold on the Ohio. In June and during the first days of July, it had been reported widely that Forbes intended to follow the road used in 1755, but now Washington feared that the General had been misled into choosing a line of advance where a serviceable road did not exist.
Advanced Redcoats were at Raystown. The question was whether the General should attempt to proceed from that point directly northwest for eighty miles or should pursue Braddock’s route across the Alleghenies and over Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge. If the advance were by a new road from Raystown, then the greater part of the troops at Fort Cumberland would have to be moved to the Pennsylvania base. This would involve the abandonment of the line of supply from Alexandria to Fort Cumberland for all purposes other than the victualling of the few men who might be left on Wills Creek. Trade might follow the road the army smoothed. The rival interests of Pennsylvania and Virginia thus were at stake.
Washington did not admit and probably did not feel he had any selfish or personal interest in the continued use of a line of supply, via Fort Cumberland, that would make the Potomac the Watergate to the Ohio. From the military point of view, he was so convinced of the superiority of Braddock’s road that he was to attribute advocacy of a different policy to “Pennsylvanian artifice.” His argument was positive: From the time a road to the Ohio first was discussed, the Indians had said that the trail from Wills Creek was much the best. On the basis of their experience, the road had been built: it must be “firmer and better” than a new one could be. In the next place, circumstance demanded that a blow be struck on the Ohio in 1758 because the central and southern Colonies were making their maximal effort during the year and could not do as much again in 1759. The Indians would not remain friendly in event the English continued inactive. Of all the reasons for using Braddock’s road, the one that Washington most emphasized was that of saving time. The season, he maintained, was too far advanced to permit of the construction of a new road that year.
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