The Rise of George Washington

As you know, I loved living in Germany, but there were a few things I missed while we were gone. One of them was being a part of the 7^th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line, an American Revolutionary War re-enactment group. Well, this weekend, Dave and I rejoined the 7^th for the Revolutionary War Weekend at Mount Vernon. Typically, the events we attend occur at historical battlefields on the anniversary of a battle fought at the site. No battles were fought at George Washington’s home. However, it does provide a wonderful opportunity for people to come and learn a little history and chat with interpreters of the period. Anyone who knows me knows talking about history is my passion!

On the lawn in front of the house was a tent filled with 18th-century surveying equipment. I knew that was George Washington’s early career, so I wondered how a young surveyor ended up as a general fighting against the British. The path to his future began much earlier, during the French and Indian War.

Washington grew frustrated with the treatment of the local Virginia soldiers while serving in the British Army during that war. He could not understand why the Virginia Militia were paid less than their counterparts in the royal regiments. Militia members were considered subordinate to lower-ranking officers in those regiments. In May 1754, he complained of this to Robert Dinwiddie, Lt. Governor of Virginia, in a letter.

“I would rather prefer the great toil of a daily laborer and dig for a maintenance, provided I were reduced to the necessity, than serve upon such ignoble terms; for I really do not see why the lives of his Majesty’s subjects in Virginia should be of less value, than of those in other parts of his American dominions; especially when it is well known, that we must undergo double their hardship.”

Twenty-one-year-old George was an eager, though inexperienced, major in the Virginia Regiment when he was sent to the Ohio Valley to confront the French who were attempting to take over the region. The fertile area of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers was of great interest to both the British and the French. Concerned over recent reports, Lt. Governor Dinwiddie sent the young major to deliver an ultimatum to the French forces demanding that they leave the area and cease all hostilities immediately.

In October 1753, Washington, accompanied by Jacob Van Braam, friend and French speaker, and Ohio Company guide Christopher Gist, left Williamsburg to travel through the rugged territory. The Company arrived in a snowstorm on December 11. Washington personally handed the letter to Captain Jacques Legarderu de Saint-Pierre on arrival at Fort LeBoeuf. The French captain immediately sat down and replied to Dinwiddie that the French claim to the Ohio Valley was “indisputable.”

A disappointed Washington fought his way through snow storms to return to Williamsburg in January, a trip of over 900 miles. Many of his acquaintances, and even members of his own family, were shareholders in the Ohio Company and were enraged at the French claims. The Company had been formed in 1749 to encourage settlement and development of 200,000 acres in the Ohio Valley. There was also the potential to extend their territory by an additional 300,000 acres. Washington’s detailed description of their adventure was published in Williamsburg and soon was read as far away as London. This journal not only described their journey but included the contents of Dinwiddie’s letter and the French reply. As you can imagine, it created quite a stir.

Dinwiddie promptly promoted Washington to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and he was sent again with a force of 160 members of the Virginia Militia in March 1754. Their orders were to act on a defensive mission. However, they were granted the right to make prisoners of, or kill, any who resisted British control of the area. The French were just as eager to assert their claim to the land. They sent a 35-man force under Ensign Joseph Coulton de Villiers de Jumonville to deliver their message to George Washington, now encamped at the Great Meadows (modern-day Fayette County, PA). Learning the French were encamped in a ravine not far away, Washington gathered 12 native warriors under the Seneca chief Tanacharison and 40 militia members for a night raid on the encampment. On May 28, the band stealthily approached when suddenly shots rang out. The British force had surprised the French and quickly overwhelmed them. Thirteen were killed, and twenty-one were taken prisoner.

After this action, Ensign Jumonville’s brother, Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, was ordered to assail Washington and his men at Great Meadows. He rallied a force of 600 French soldiers, along with Canadian allies and 100 natives. Washington and his men had fortified their location, a poorly situated fort in the center of a field. Washington and 400 beleaguered men learned of the approaching forces and retreated inside the aptly named Fort Necessity. On the rainy morning of July 3, the French began firing. Washington, sensing the hopelessness of their predicament, surrendered. The terms granted provided him and his men safe passage back to Virginia. The document also required Washington to admit that he had assassinated Ensign Jumonville, a fact that Washington disputed for the rest of his life.

While each side involved in the midnight raid claimed the other fired first, that event is considered by many to be the inciting incident that sparked a war that would ultimately spread through Europe as the beginning of the Seven Years’ War.

While Great Britain did not formally declare war on France for a further two years, in May 1756, battles over the territory between the two nations continued in the colonies. British troops were sent from England to strengthen the colonial militias. George Washington went to Boston to apply to Governor William Shirley for a royal commission as a regular in the British Army. He was unsuccessful in his effort.

Washington was keenly aware in future battles of the disparity between the regular Army and those who served in local militias. He grew tired of the junior officers’ dismissive attitude and their placement above higher-ranking militia members. In 1755, Washington resigned his commission. Then, in the spring of that year, Washington joined Major General Edward Braddock and his forces of 2100 British Regulars and 500 colonial militia. With his knowledge of the terrain and potential threats, Washington assisted Braddock as an unpaid volunteer aide-de-camp.

On their way to capture Fort Duquesne, the British were attacked by a smaller French force, and most of the officers were killed. General Braddock was severely wounded and later died. Though suffering from dysentery, Washington assumed command and managed to resume order amongst the men. According to later reports, Washington had two horses shot out from under him, and there were four bullet holes in the fabric of his frock coat during the savage fighting. Washington was lauded as the hero of Monongahela by Governor Dinwiddie and awarded the rank of Colonel in command of the 1200 men in the Virginia Regiment.

Despite having two failed attempts at capturing Fort Duquesne, Washington commanded the Virginia forces attached to Brigadier General John Forbes against the French in 1757-1758. On November 24, 1758, after almost two years of fighting, Washington led his Virginians in an advance on the smoking ruins of Fort Duquesne. After five years of brutal combat through rugged terrain and countless setbacks, the forks of the Ohio were now under British control.

These experiences shaped the man George Washington was to become. Historian Fred Anderson writes, “Washington, at age twenty-seven, was not yet the man he would be at age forty or fifty, but he had come an immense distance in five years. And the hard road he had traveled from Jumonville’s Glen, in ways he would not comprehend for years to come, had done much to prepare him for the harder road that lay ahead.”