Chapter 3: A Second Journal and a
Second Journey
The
young Washington soon thereafter became involved with the Ohio Company and its
plans to establish a trading post and fort at the source Forks of the Ohio
(Pittsburg). The French countered by
taking over the Ohio company site and renaming it Fort Duquense after the governor
general of French Canada.
Virginia
Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, also a major investor in the Ohio Company,
received instructions from the government in London to erect several forts
along the Ohio and to deliver an ultimatum to the French at Fort Duquense. Twenty one year old George Washington offered
his services to act as the emissary to deliver the ultimatum.[1] The orders, signed by King George II, clearly
stated that, in the event the French did not accede to the ultimatum: “we do hereby strictly charge and command you
to drive them off by force of arms.” [2]
Major
Washington received his instructions on October 31, 1753, and left for the Ohio
headwaters the same day.[3] He led a small party, notably including a
German speaking French interpreter who had some French facility but much less
English. Washington had no French and no
German:
[T]he
next [day], I arrived at Fredericksburg
[VA], and engaged Mr. Jacob Vanbraam, to be French interpreter; and proceeded
with him to Alexeandria, where we provided Necessaries; from thence we went to
Winchester, and got Baggage, Horses, etc. and from thence we persued the new
Road to Wills-Creek [MD], where we arrived 14th of November. Here I engaged Mr. Gist to pilot us out, and
also hired four other Servitors, Barnaby Currin, and John MaGuire, Indian
Traders, Henry Steward, and William Jenkins, and in the Company of those
Persons, left the Inhabitants the Day Following.
Washington
selected this small band to meet the minimum linguistic and skill requirements
for navigating a path through the wilderness and handling encounters with the French,
Indian and German speaking inhabitants.
Rain
and snow delayed his arrival at the mouth of Turtle Creek on the Monongahela
until November 22. His route over an
ancient Indian trail would later become the route of Braddock’s Road. He finally arrived at the headwaters of the
Ohio (now Pittsburg) a day or so later.
Following
his instructions, Washington evaluated the confluence of the Monongahela and
the Allegheny into the Ohio as an especially suitable site for a fort. He also made contact with Indian tribes in
the area and made them aware of British intentions.
The
French commandant had recently died. His
replacement required Washington to proceed another forty miles to Fort Le Boeuf,
at present day Waterford, PA near Lake Erie,[4]
to deliver the ultimatum to a superior officer.
While waiting for a reply, Washington spent three days assessing the military
capabilities Fort Le Boeuf. At the end
of the wait, Captain Jacques Legardeur de St. Pierre promised only to forward
the ultimatum to his superior and gave to Washington a sealed response to
Governor Dinwiddie. For his part, the
Captain had used the three days to bribe Washington’s Indian traveling
companions to stay at the fort leaving Washington and the remainder of his
travelling companions to find their own way back.[5] They did and arrived in Williamsburg on
January 16, 1754.
Dinwiddie
gave Washington one day to write a report based on his journal. Dinwiddie then sent it for publication as far
north as Massachusetts. Though
Washington did not get compensated for his service, he did manage to parlay it
into a promotion and a central role in the looming conflict on the frontier.
[1] Alan Axelrod, Blooding
at Great Meadows: Young George Washington and the Battle that Shaped the Man (Philadelphia
2007) at 83 ISBN-13: 978-0-7624-2769-7
[2] W.W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, and Philander D. Case,
eds. The Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 10 vols.
Charolottesville, VA (1983-95) vol. 1:57. ISBN-10: 0813909120 ISBN-13:
978-0813909127. Online http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN.
[3] George Washington, The Journal of Major George
Washington: An Account of His First Official Mission, Made As Emissary from the
Governor of Virginia to the Commandant of the French Forces on the Ohio,
October 1753-January 1754 (1959 Facsimile Edition, Williamsburg, VA; Henry
Holt, NY) LC No. 59-9062. Copy in DAH
library.
[4]
http://www.fortleboeufhistoricalsociety.org/museums/index.html
[5] See, Ron
Chernow, Washington: A Life (2010
Penguin Press) ISBN 978-1-59420 at 266-7 for an assessment of lessons learned
by the callow George Washington during this trip.
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