Peter Stark - Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged Americas Founding Father

Young Washingtons Sketch Map of His First Wilderness Journey. Appointed to a part-time post in the Virginia militia, young Washington volunteered for a difficult missiondeliver an urgent message from Virginias British governor to the French commandant deep in the Ohio wilderness: Stay out!

For Amy

General Edward BraddockMember of the Coldstream Guards who rose up through the ranks of the British Royal Army to head the 1755 British expedition against the French and Indians in the Ohio wilderness.

Claude-Pierre Pcaudy de ContrecoeurFrench colonial commanding officer of Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio.

Martha Dandridge CustisWife, then widow, of wealthy Virginia landowner Daniel Parke Custis and mother of their two young children. Upon his death, she inherited vast holdings of her husbands land.

Captain John DagworthyOfficer from Maryland who held a commission from the regular British Royal Army, thus technically ranking him above Colonel George Washington, who had a colonial officers commission from the governor of Virginia.

Governor Robert DinwiddieScottish merchant, colonial Virginias acting governor, and young Washingtons commanding officer.

Colonel William FairfaxCousin to Lord Fairfax, Colonel Fairfax was the patriarch of the part of the family that had settled in Virginia and built Belvoir Manor not far from Lawrence Washingtons plantation known as Mount Vernon.

George William FairfaxSon of Colonel Fairfax and nephew of Lord Fairfax, George William was a polished young gentleman who had attended school in England, returned to Virginia, and took young George Washington on a surveying party into frontier lands. Shortly after his return from that surveying expedition, George William married Sally Cary, with whom young George Washington became enamored.

Sarah Sally Cary FairfaxOne of four daughters of the aristocratic Cary family, Sally married the young gentleman George William Fairfax.

Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax of CameronThe inheritor or proprietor of five million acres of land in the Virginia region known as the Northern Neck, Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron, left his home of Leeds Castle in Kent, England, and moved to a hunting lodge in Virginias Shenandoah Valley.

General John ForbesAfter earlier attempts to drive the French from the Ohio wilderness had failed, Forbes was the commanding officer sent by British secretary of state William Pitt to lead an army and accomplish the task.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas GageSecond son of a British viscount and officer in the Royal Army with previous experience in European wars, Gage commanded the advance party of General Braddocks troops.

Christopher GistFrontiersman, explorer, settler, and wilderness guide who accompanied Washington on his forays into the Ohio wilderness.

Half KingLeader of the Mingoes, or Iroquois living in the Ohio wilderness. Known to the British as Half King, because he had to clear his decisions with Iroquois superiors, his Indian name was Tanaghrisson.

Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de JumonvilleFrench colonial officer leading what was said to be a diplomatic party from Fort Duquesne through the Ohio wilderness to approach the Virginia troops who were under Washingtons command.

Marquis DuquesneGovernor-general of New France, overseeing French territory in North America, including Canada, Acadia, and Louisiana.

Captain Robert OrmeOfficer in the British Royal Army and Braddocks principal aide-de-camp. He kept a journal of Braddocks march into the Ohio wilderness.

Christian Frederick PostPrussian cabinet maker and devotee of the Moravian Church who came to the frontier of British North America to bring Christianity to the Indians. Married to an Indian woman, he was fluent in Indian languages.

James SmithYoung frontier settler in Pennsylvania who joined the woodsmen chopping a road for Braddocks army and was captured by the Indians.

Sir John St. ClairScottish gentry who became a career officer in the British Royal Army, served in European campaigns, and as assistant quartermaster general oversaw the difficult logistics of the Braddock campaign.

Adam StephenScottish doctor who had served aboard a Royal Navy ship, emigrated to Virginia, and served in the Virginia Regiment alongside Washington.

Captain Louis Coulon de VilliersFrench colonial officer and older brother of Ensign Jumonville. Villiers led the French and Indian attack against Washington and his troops at Fort Necessity.

Augustine Gus WashingtonFather of George Washington, who died when George was eleven, leaving his wife, Mary Ball Washington, a widow with several young children.

John Augustine Jack WashingtonGeorge Washingtons younger brother (like George, a son of Gus and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington) who oversaw some of his properties and with whom George corresponded.

Lawrence WashingtonOlder half-brother of George (Lawrence was eldest son of Gus and his first wife, Jane Butler) and a model and hero to his younger half-brother. Lawrence married one of the Fairfax daughters.

Mary Ball WashingtonMother of George Washington and Guss second wife.

Contents

T HE TIRED , SODDEN TRAVELERS RODE INTO THE OLD I NDIAN town of Venango at the mouth of Rivire Le Boeuf. Twenty-one-year-old George Washington had never traveled this deep into the wilds. He had now ridden nearly five hundred miles from the elegant plantations of coastal Virginia, over the crest of the Appalachians, far into the Ohio Valley wilderness, a great forest in Americas interior approximately the size of Spain. Smoke plumed from bark-covered longhouses and hung low in the damp, rainy air. It was early December 1753. A deep chill wrapped the forest clearing. Children and scrawny dogs ran on muddy paths. The arrival of the little caravanthe tall young stranger who carried himself with a proud bearing, the shaggy frontiersman guide, the French-speaking interpreter, the hired men handling the packhorses, the three Indian chiefsbrought out onlookers as word spread among the longhouses. The youthful white planter from the distant Atlantic coast of British America self-consciously rode through the native village, anxious to carry out this crucial step in his first mission for Virginias Governor Dinwiddieto deliver a message to the French commandant somewhere in the Ohio wilderness.

A stouter log cabin squatted amid the bark longhouses, a geometric cube intruding on an organic world. The French flag draped limply from a pole. The cabin had served as the trading post of British subject John Fraser until the French had recently evicted him. This, too, informed Washingtons missionto learn why the French had so boldly removed British colonist and trader Fraser from the Indian village of Venango and occupied his post.

Washington headed directly for the former trading post, now under the French flag, accompanied by his frontiersman guide, Christopher Gist, and his interpreter for French, Jacob van Braam. Three French military officers received him with formal introductions and polite respect. Captain Phillipe Thomas Joncaire stepped forward as the ranking officer. Son of a French trader and Seneca mother, forty-six-year-old Captain Joncaire had lived in the interior wilds since the age of eleven. Known to the Indians as Nitachinon, he had great influence among the tribes of the region, moving easily between the two worlds and working diplomatically to ally them to the French. Amid the fluid French graciousness, Washington abruptly asked who was the commander of French forces in the Ohio Valley.