his unabated inclination to continue in the service, if permitted to do so without a sacrifice too great to be made, he retired indignantly from the station assigned him; and answered the various letters which he received pressing him still to hold his commission, with assurances that he would serve with pleasure when he should be enabled to do so without dishonour.

His eldest brother Mr. Lawrence Washington, who had been engaged in the expedition against Carthagena, had lately died, and left him a considerable estate on the Potowmack, which, in compliment to the admiral who commanded the fleet engaged in that enterprise, by whom he had been particularly noticed, he had called Mount Vernon. To this delightful spot, colonel Washington now withdrew, resolving to devote all his future attention to the avocations of private life. This resolution was not long maintained.

General Braddock, being informed of his merit, his knowledge of the country which was to be the theatre of action, and his motives for retiring from the service,...motives, which that officer could not disapprove,...gratified his desire to make one campaign under a person supposed to possess some knowledge of the art of war, by inviting him to enter into his family as a volunteer aid-de-camp.

Having determined to accept this invitation, he joined the commander in chief immediately after his departure from Alexandria, and proceeded with him to Wills' creek, afterwards called fort

Cumberland. At that place the army, consisting of two European regiments and a few corps of provincials, was detained until the 12th of June, (1755) by the difficulty of procuring waggons, horses, and provisions. Impatient under these delays, and possessing some knowledge of the services to be performed, colonel Washington had perceived and suggested the propriety of using, to a considerable extent, pack horses instead of waggons, for conveying the baggage. Although extremely solicitous to hasten the expedition, the commander in chief was so attached to the usages of regular war that this salutary advice was at first rejected; but soon after the commencement of the march, its propriety became too obvious to be longer neglected, and considerable changes were made in this respect.

On the third day after the army had moved from its ground, during which time it had only marched fifteen miles, colonel Washington was seized with a raging fever, which absolutely disabled him from riding on horseback. Persisting, however, in his refusal to remain behind the troops, he was conveyed with them in a covered waggon. General Braddock, who found the difficulties of the march, arising from the badness of the roads, and his long train of waggons, infinitely greater than had been expected, still continued privately to consult him respecting the measures it would now be most proper to pursue. Retaining his first impressions on the manner of conducting the enterprise, he strenuously urged the general to leave

his heavy artillery and baggage with the rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches; and with a chosen body of troops, some pieces of light artillery, and stores of absolute and immediate necessity, to press forward with the utmost expedition to fort du Quesne. The reasons he urged in support of this advice were, that, according to all their intelligence, the French were at that time weak on the Ohio, but hourly expected re-enforcements; that during the excessive drought then prevailing, those re-enforcements could not arrive with the necessary supplies, because the river Le Bœuf, on which they must necessarily be brought to Venango, did not then afford a sufficient quantity of water to admit of their portage down it. By a rapid movement therefore, it was probable that the fort might be reached with a sufficient force to carry it, before the arrival of the expected aid; but if this measure should not be adopted, such were the delays attendant on the march of the whole army, that rains sufficient to raise the waters might reasonably be counted on, and the whole force of the French would probably be collected for their reception; a circumstance, which might render the success of the expedition extremely doubtful.

This advice according well with the temper of the commander in chief, it was determined in a council held at the Little Meadows, that twelve hundred men selected from the different corps, to be commanded by general Braddock in person, accompanied by sir Peter Halket then acting as

a brigadier, the lieutenant colonels, Gage, and Burton, and by major Spark, should advance with the utmost expedition against fort du Quesne. They were to take with them only such waggons as the train would absolutely require, and to carry their provisions and necessary baggage on horses. Colonel Dunbar, and major Chapman, were to remain with the residue of the two regiments, and all the heavy baggage.

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This select corps commenced its march with only thirty carriages, including ammunition waggons, and these strongly horsed. The hopes, however, which had been entertained of the celerity of its movements, were not fulfilled. found," said colonel Washington, in a letter to his brother, written during the march, “that instead of pushing on with vigour, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook." By these means, they employed four days in reaching the great crossings of the Yohogany, only nineteen miles from the Little Meadows.

At that place, the situation of colonel Washington, and the medicines which had been administered to him, rendered it indispensable for him to stop. The physician declared that his life would be endangered by continuing with the army, and general Braddock ordered him, absolutely, to remain at this camp, with a small guard left for his protection, until the arrival of colonel Dunbar. These orders he reluctantly, obeyed, having first obtained from the general his solemn promise,

that means should be used to bring him up with the detachment in front, before it reached fort du Quesne.

The day before the action of the Monongahela, an account of which has been given in the preceding volume, he rejoined the general in a covered waggon; and though very weak, immediately entered on the duties of his station.

In a very short time after the action had commerced, colonel Washington was the only aid remaining alive and unwounded. On him alone, in an engagement with marksmen who selected officers, and especially those on horseback, for their objects, devolved the whole duty of carrying the orders of the commander in chief. Under these difficult circumstances, he manifested that coolness, that self possession, that fearlessness of danger which ever distinguished him, and which are so necessary to the character of a consummate soldier. He had two horses killed under him, and four balls through his coat; but to the astonishment of all, escaped unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was either killed or wounded. "I expected every moment," says an eye witness,* "to see him fall. His duty and situation exposed him to every danger. Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him.”

At length, after an action of near three hours, general Braddock, under whom three horses had been killed, received a mortal wound, and his

* Dr. Craik.