George Washington

by Stephen Brumwell

  45. Kirkpatrick and Ramsay to GW, both September 22, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 410, 413.

  46. Brian Leigh Dunnighan, ed., Pierre Pouchot, Memoirs on the Late War in North America Between France and England (Youngstown, New York, 1994), p. 88.

  47. See Stanley Pargellis, Lord Loudoun in North America (New Haven, Connecticut, 1933).

  48. GW to Dinwiddie, October 10, 1756, and GW to Stephen, October 23, 1756, in PWC, 3, pp. 431–32: 440; “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 22. For Washington and religion, see Ellis, His Excellency George Washington, p. 45; Longmore, Invention of George Washington, p. 169.

  49. GW to Dinwiddie, November 9, 1756, in PWC, 4, pp. 1–5.

  50. Dinwiddie to GW, November 16, 1756, in PWC, 4, pp. 25–26.

  51. Dinwiddie to GW, December 10, 1756, GW to Captain William Bronaugh, December 17, 1756, in PWC, 4, pp. 50, 59.

  52. Loudoun’s comments were enclosed in Dinwiddie to GW, December 10, 1756, in PWC, 4, p. 51.

  53. GW to Dinwiddie, December 19, 1756, in PWC, 4, p. 65.

  54. GW to Loudoun, January 10, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 79–90.

  55. PWC, 4, p. 92, note 29.

  56. GW to Cunningham, January 28, 1757, in PWC, 4, p. 106.

  57. GW to Dinwiddie, March 10, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 112–15. For his shorter, edited “Memorial” to Loudoun, dated Philadelphia, March 23, 1757, see PWC, 4, pp. 120–21.

  58. Longmore, Invention of George Washington, pp. 43–44.

  59. See the discussion in Diaries, 1, pp. 166–71.

  60. Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire Before the American Revolution, Vol. 7: The Great War for the Empire: The Victorious Years, 1758–1760 (New York, 1949) pp. 98–99.

  61. While “Billy” was awaiting a vacancy in the regulars, Colonel Fairfax lobbied Washington to find him a place in the Virginia Regiment. Although commissioned in the Virginia Regiment, he never served in it, instead taking the first opportunity to purchase a regular commission. See William Fairfax to GW, July 17, 1757 in PWC, 4, p. 310; and William Henry Fairfax to GW, December 9, 1757, in PWC, 5, pp. 71–72.

  62. Longmore, Invention of George Washington, p. 54.

  63. GW to Richard Washington, April 15, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 132–33. Despite their shared surname, the two men were not related.

  64. GW to Stanwix, May 28, 1757, in PWC, 4, p. 169.

  65. Dinwiddie to GW, May 16, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 153–54.

  66. Mercer to GW, April 24, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 139–40.

  67. GW to Dinwiddie, July 11, 1757; GW to Stanwix, July 15, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 295, 306.

  68. General court-martial, Fort Loudoun, July 25–26, 1757; GW to Dinwiddie, August 3, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 329–34, 360.

  69. “Particulars of the Life and Character of General Washington,” in Gentleman’s Magazine, 1778, p. 369. The anonymous veteran who authored this sketch served alongside Washington during the 1758 campaign against Fort Duquesne.

  70. See Ian K. Steele, Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the “Massacre” (New York, 1990).

  71. Stanwix to GW, June 18, 1757, and GW to Stanwix, July 15, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 228, 306.

  72. Instructions to Company Captains, Fort Loudoun, July 29, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 341–45.

  73. Baker to GW, June 10, 1757, and GW to Dinwiddie, June 12, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 200, 208–209; Maryland Gazette, July 7, 1757, giving extract of a letter from Fort Loudoun, June 12, 1757.

  74. Atkin to GW, June 19, 1757, Captain Thomas Waggener et al. to GW, June 19, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 232–34, 239.

  75. GW to Stanwix, July 15 and 30, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 306–307, 353.

  76. GW to Dinwiddie, October 5, 1757, in PWC, 5, pp. 2–3.

  77. See William Peachey to GW, August 22, 1757, and GW to Dinwiddie, September 17, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 381–83, 411–12.

  78. Dinwiddie to GW, September 24, 1757, in PWC, 4, p. 422.

  79. Stewart to Dinwiddie, November 9, 1757, in PWC, 5, p. 46.

  4: Tarnished Victory

  1. GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, November 15, 1757, and February 13, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 56, 93.

  2. GW to Stanwix, March 4, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 101–102.

  3. Mercer to GW, August 17, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 370–71.

  4. Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington: The Man Behind the Myths, pp. 43–44, 80; G. M. Trevelyan, England Under Queen Anne: Blenheim (London, 1930), pp. 405, 409–410.

  5. GW to Richard Washington, April 5, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 112.

  6. For Loudoun’s plan for 1758, see copy of a letter to “Duke of B–d [Bedford],” New York, unsigned and undated but in the hand of John Forbes and written in February 1758, in National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Microfilm RH 4/86/1: “Military Papers of Brig-Gen John Forbes in North America” (no piece reference).

  7. Pitt to General James Abercromby, December 30, 1757, in G. S. Kimball, ed., The Correspondence of William Pitt, When Secretary of State, with Colonial Governors and Military and Naval Commissioners in America, 2 vols. (London, 1906; repr. New York, 1969), 1, pp. 143–46.

  8. Pitt to the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, December 30, 1757, ibid., pp. 141–42.

  9. GW to Stanwix, April 10, 1758, and to Gage, April 12, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 117, 126.

  10. Anderson, The War That Made America, pp. 120–21.

  11. GW to Stanwix, April 10, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 117.

  12. GW to Forbes, April 23, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 138–39, and note 1; St. Clair to Forbes, May 19, 1758, cited in PWC, 5, p. 198, note 1.

  13. Mercer to GW, August 17, 1757, and Stephen to GW, August 20, 1757, in PWC, 4, pp. 372–73, 375.

  14. GW to St. Clair, April 18, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 131; Gipson, The Victorious Years, pp. 261–62.

  15. Forbes to Pitt, October 20, 1758, in Alfred Proctor James, ed., Writings of General John Forbes, Relating to His Service in North America (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1938), p. 240.

  16. Forbes to Bouquet, June 27, 1758, in ibid., p. 125.

  17. William A. Hunter, ed., “Thomas Barton and the Forbes Expedition,” PMHB, 95 (1971), pp. 431–83: 449–50; Bouquet to Forbes, Raystown Camp, August 20, 1758, in S. K. Stevens, Donald H. Kent, and Autumn L. Leonard, eds., The Papers of Henry Bouquet, Volume II, The Forbes Expedition (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 1951, p. 397.

  18. Forbes to Pitt, July 10, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, p. 141.

  19. GW to Bouquet, July 21, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 311. On this point, and the Frederick County election in general, see Longmore, Invention of George Washington, pp. 58–60.

  20. See Bouquet to GW, July 24, 1758, and Bouquet to Forbes, July 26 and 31, 1758, in Stevens, Kent and Leonard, ed., Bouquet Papers, II, pp. 269, 277–78, 290–93; Bouquet to GW, July 27, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 344–45.

  21. GW to Halkett, August 2, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 360–61.

  22. GW to Bouquet, August 2, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 353–60; Forbes to Bouquet, August 9, 1758, and to Abercromby, August 11, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, pp. 171, 173.

  23. Forbes to Bouquet, September 4, 1758, in ibid., p. 199.

  24. GW to Robinson, September 1, 1758, also John Kirkpatrick to GW, August 23, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 432–33, 413.

  25. On the impact of Lord Howe and his brothers Richard and William, see Stephen Brumwell, “Band of Brothers,” History Today, 58, no. 6 (June 2008), pp. 25–31; Washington to Bouquet, July 21, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 311.

  26. Forbes to Pitt, Philadelphia, June 17, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, p. 118.

  27. West, War for Empire in Western Pennsylvania, pp. 55–56; Forbes to Bouquet, August 9, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, p. 171.

  28. Hunter, ed., “Thomas Barton and the Forbes Expedition,” PMHB (1971), pp. 458–59; GW to Bouquet, August 24, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 417.

  29. Stephen to GW, August 2, 1758, in PWC, 5, pp. 363 and 364, note 4.

  30. Bouquet to Forbes, July 31, 1758,
in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, p. 293; Hunter, ed., “Thomas Barton and the Forbes Expedition,” PMHB (1971), p. 445.

  31. Ibid., pp. 468, 470.

  32. GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, September 12, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 11.

  33. GW to Sarah Cary Fairfax, September 25, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 41–42. Washington’s admiration for Cato supports the interpretation that his own martial ambition was partially driven by a desire for Sally’s acclaim. For example, at one point Juba announces that Marcia’s declaration of love for him “ . . . will give new vigor to my Arms / Add strength and weight to my descending sword, / And drive it in a tempest on the foe.”

  34. Hunter, ed., “Thomas Barton and the Forbes Expedition,” PMHB (1971), p. 473.

  35. Bouquet to Forbes, September 11, 1758, in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, p. 493.

  36. Howard H. Peckham, ed., “Thomas Gist’s Indian Captivity 1758–1759,” in PMHB, 80 (1956), pp. 285–311: 291.

  37. Grant to Forbes, ca. September 14, 1758, Bouquet to Forbes, September 17, 1758; Joseph Shippen to Edward Shippen, September 19, 1758, in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, pp. 499–504, 519–20, 527–28. For a detailed analysis of “Grant’s Defeat,” see Douglas R. Cubbison, The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne (Jefferson, North Carolina, 2010), pp. 122–40.

  38. Ian McCulloch and Timothy Todish, eds., Through So Many Dangers: The Memoirs and Adventures of Robert Kirk, Late of the Royal Highland Regiment (Fleischmanns, New York, 2004), p. 42. The author’s real surname was Kirkwood. See also “Extract of a Letter from Pittsburgh (Lately Fort Duquesne),” in Pennsylvania Gazette, December 14, 1758.

  39. GW to George William Fairfax, September 25, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 38–39.

  40. Forbes to Bouquet, September 23, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, pp. 218–21.

  41. GW to Fauquier, September 25, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 45.

  42. Orderly Book, Raystown, 24–25 September 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 36–38; for Hanna, see p. 37 note 3.

  43. Hunter, ed., “Thomas Barton and the Forbes Expedition,” PMHB (1971), p. 482.

  44. Orderly Book, Raystown, September 28, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 50.

  45. GW to Forbes, with enclosed plans, October 8, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 66–68.

  46. West, War for Empire in Western Pennsylvania, p. 55.

  47. GW to Fauquier, October 30 and November 5, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 99–100, 113–14.

  48. GW to Bouquet, November 6, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 115–16.

  49. Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, pp. 600–601.

  50. Pennsylvania Gazette, November 30, 1758; Forbes to Abercromby, November 17, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, p. 255; “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 23; Lengel, General George Washington, p. 75.

  51. Peckham, ed., “Thomas Gist’s Indian Captivity,” PMHB (1956), pp. 295–8.

  52. Chew to Washington, September 11, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 9.

  53. Bouquet to William Allen, Fort Duquesne, November 25, 1758, in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, p. 610; “A Letter from an Officer who attended Brigadier Gen. Forbes” (dated February 25, 1759), in Gentleman’s Magazine, 1759, pp. 173–74; Orderly Book, “Camp at Loyal Hannon,” November 14, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 125.

  54. GW to Forbes, November 16, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 131.

  55. GW to Forbes, November 17, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 135.

  56. See General Court Martial, “Camp at Loyal Hannon,” November 11, 1758, in National Archives, WO [War Office] 71/67, pp. 18–22, 28.

  57. Forbes to Bouquet, October 21, 1758, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, p. 241.

  58. Orderly Book, “Bouquet’s Camp,” November 24, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 156; “Letter from an Officer,” Gentleman’s Magazine, 1759, pp. 173–74; National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Dalhousie Papers, GD 45/2/102/3: “American and other papers of Lieutenant-Colonel (later Brigadier-General) John Forbes,” undated pencil sketch of an order of battle. This is reproduced in Cubbison, British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, p. 164.

  59. Bouquet to William Allen, November 25, 1758, in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, p. 610.

  60. See “Extract of a Letter from Pittsburgh (Lately Fort Duquesne),” and “Letter from General Forbes’ Army, Pittsburgh (formerly Fort Duquesne), Nov. 28, 1758” both in Pennsylvania Gazette, December 14, 1758.

  61. Bouquet to Anne Willing and William Allen, November 25, 1758, in Stevens, Kent, and Leonard, eds., Bouquet Papers, II, pp. 608, 610–11; GW to Fauquier, November 28, 1758, in PWC, 6, p. 158; “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 22.

  62. See E. E. Curtis, “Mercer, Hugh,” in Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1929), 6, pp. 541–42.

  63. “Remarks,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, p. 23.

  64. “Address from the Officers of the Virginia Regiment,” December 31, 1758, in PWC, 6, pp. 178–81.

  65. GW to the Officers of the Virginia Regiment, January 10, 1759, in PWC, 6, p. 186.

  66. GW to Richard Washington, May 7, 1759, in PWC, 6, p. 319.

  5: Between the Wars

  1. “Resolution of the House of Burgesses,” February 26, 1759, in PWC, 6, p. 192.

  2. Longmore, Invention of George Washington, p. 60.

  3. Marriage among Washington’s peers is discussed in Emory G. Evans, “A Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680–1790 (Charlottesville, Virginia, 2009), pp. 121–27. On Washington’s relationship with his wife, see especially, Ellis, His Excellency George Washington, p. 42. For the declaration of “unalterable affection,” see GW to Martha Washington, Philadelphia, June 23, 1775, in PWRW, 1, p. 27.

  4. Esmond Wright, Washington and the American Revolution (New York, 1962), pp. 42–43.

  5. Freeman, Washington, 2, p. 383. Rogers would achieve an even higher profile that autumn after leading a daring raid against the Abenaki village of St. Francis. See Stephen Brumwell, White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery, and Vengeance in Colonial America (London, 2004; Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2005).

  6. For the following overview, two essays were especially useful: Don Higginbotham, “Young Washington: Ambition, Accomplishment and Acclaim,” in Anderson, ed., George Washington Remembers, pp. 66–87; and John E. Ferling, “School for Command: Young George Washington and the Virginia Regiment,” in Hofstra, ed., George Washington and the Virginia Backcountry, pp. 195–222.

  7. Wright, Washington and the American Revolution, p. 43.

  8. See Gipson, The Victorious Years, pp. 336–38.

  9. Mercer to GW, September 16, 1759, in PWC, 6, p. 343.

  10. Stewart to GW, September 28, 1759, in PWC, 6, p. 361.

  11. Forbes to Amherst, February 7, 1759, in James, ed., Writings of Forbes, pp. 289–90; Huntington Library, San Marino, California, LO [Loudoun Papers] 6043: Richard Huck-Saunders to Loudoun, February 20, 1759. Forbes died on March 11, 1759.

  12. On the 48th Foot, see Stephen Brumwell, Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755–1763 (Cambridge and New York, 2002), pp. 75, 318, table 5; for Alexander Stephen’s service, see his obituary in Pennsylvania Gazette, May 19, 1768.

  13. GW to William Henry Fairfax, April 23, 1758, in PWC, 5, p. 137; “A list of the killed and wounded at the Plains of Abraham, near Quebec, 13th Sept. 1759,” in Boston News-Letter, October 26, 1759; Brigadier-General George Townshend to Pitt, September 20, 1759, in Kimball, ed., Correspondence of Pitt, 2, p. 166.

  14. Anderson, The War that Made America, pp. 206–210.

  15. On Lord Howe’s monument, see Brumwell, “Band of Brothers,” History Today (June 2008), pp. 25–31.

  16. Invoice to Robert Cary & Co, September 20, 1759; and invoice from Robert Cary & Co, March 15, 1760, in PWC, 6, pp. 353
, 358, note 77, 400. See also Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington: The Man Behind the Myths, pp. 88–89.

  17. See GW’s reports to the House of Burgesses, November 10 and 14, 1760, in PWC, 6, pp. 371–72.

  18. Stewart to GW, June 3, 1760, in PWC, 6, p. 431.

  19. GW to Richard Washington, August 10, 1760, in PWC, 6, p. 453.

  20. See Paul David Nelson, General James Grant: Scottish Soldier and Royal Governor of East Florida (Gainesville, Florida, 1993), p. 31.

  21. David H. Corkran, The Cherokee Frontier: Conflict and Survival, 1740–62 (Norman, Oklahoma, 1962), p. 246.

  22. See “Journal of an Expedition to South Carolina,” by Captain Christopher French, 22nd Foot, Journal of Cherokee Studies, Summer 1977, pp. 275–301: 279; Ensign John Carden, 17th Foot, to William Johnson, February 8, 1762, and Richard Shuckburgh to Johnson, April 12, 1762, in J. Sullivan and A. C. Flick, eds., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, 14 vols. (Albany, New York, 1921–65), 3, pp. 625, 682.

  23. Barré to Major-General Amherst, October 22, 1760, in Richard Middleton, ed., Amherst and the Conquest of Canada (Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2003), p. 239.

  24. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Fletcher of Saulton Papers, MS. 16523, fols. 178–79: Fletcher to his sister, July 16, 1762.

  25. See Brumwell, Redcoats, pp. 225, 262; National Library of Scotland, MS 16523, fol. 172: Fletcher to his sister, February 28, 1762.

  26. This synthesis follows Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (New York, 2006), pp. 10–14.

  27. For the origins and course of this Indian war, see Gregory Evans Dowd, War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations and the British Empire (Baltimore, 2002), and David Dixon, Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac’s Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America (Norman, Oklahoma, 2005).

  28. McCulloch and Todish, eds., Through So Many Dangers, pp. 92–94.

  29. Letter from New York in Pennsylvania Gazette, September 1, 1763; British Library, Add. MSS. 21,649, fol. 369: Gordon to Bouquet, Philadelphia, September 4, 1763.

  30. Diaries, 2, pp. 120–21, 226. Appropriately enough, the rise of Virginian fox hunting in the early 1730s coincided with Washington’s birth; it resulted from an increase in the amount of cleared land. See Evans, “A Topping People,” pp. 152–53.