Chapter XVII
```Virginia, hail! Thou venerable state
```In arms and council still acknowledged great!
```When lost Britannia, in an evil hour,
```First tried the steps of arbitrary power,
```Thy foresight then the Continent alarm'd;
```Thy gallant temper ev'ry bosom warm'd.
```And now, when Britain's mercenary bands
```Bombard our cities, desolate our lands
```(Our prayers unanswer'd, and our tears in vain),
```While foreign cut-throats crowd the ensanguined plain,
```Thy glowing virtue caught the glorious flame,
```And first renounced the cruel tyrant's name!
```With just disdain, and most becoming pride,
```Further dependence on the erown denied!
```While Freedom's voice can in these wilds be heard,
```Virginia's patriots shall be still revered."
`````Holt's New York Journal, June, 1776=.
ICHMOND, the metropolis of Virginia, is situated at the Falls of the James River, a locality known and mentioned as early as 1609, two years after the commencement of a settlement at Jamestown, and the same year that Henry Hudson first entered and explored New York Bay and the North River. In that year, Captain West was sent, with one hundred and twenty men, to make a settlement at the Falls. They pitched their tents at the head of navigation, at a place now known as Rockett's, just below Richmond. It was near one of the imperial residences of Powhatan when the foundations of Jamestown were first laid. Captain John Smith, then president of the colony, visited West's settlement toward the close of 1609. He disliked the situation, on account of the overflowing of the river, and, purchasing from Powhatan a tract now known by that name, two miles below Richmond, where the Indians had a palisade fort, he directed the settlers to remove thither. They refused compliance, while Smith strenuously insisted upon obedience. An open rupture ensued. Smith committed some of the ringleaders to confinement; but this so exasperated the remainder, that, with menaces of death, they drove him to his vessel in the river. The Indians espoused the cause of Smith, and the settlers and the natives became bitter enemies. Smith, greatly chagrined, sailed down the river for Jamestown. As soon as he was gone, the Indians fell upon West's people, and slew several of them. The remainder were glad to recall Smith, who had not proceeded far down the river, and receive his aid. He again imprisoned some of the leaders, and established the settlement at Powhatan. There they had a strong fort with dry wigwams, and about two hundred acres of land ready to be planted. On account of the beauty and fertility of the place, they called it "Nonesuch." As Smith was about to depart, West, who had been at Jamestown, returned, and, by his influence, stirred up a mutiny, which ended in the settlers abandoning "Nonesuch" and returning to the Falls.
A fortification, called Fort Charles, was erected at the Falls in 1615. Thirty-four years afterward, Captain William Byrd, having been granted certain privileges contingent upon his making a settlement at the Falls of fifty able-bodied men, well armed, as a protection against the Indians, built a trading-house and mill upon the present site of Richmond, about three fourths of a mile above Rockett's. The place was called Byrd's Warehouse. The building from which the name was derived stood near the present Exchange Hotel.
[[[Founding of Richmond.--Scenery on ihe James River at Richmond.--Expedition of Arnold to Virginia]]]
{433}A town was established there with the name of Richmond (so called because of its similarity in situation to Richmond on the Thames, near London), in May, 1742, on land belonging to Colonel William Byrd, of Westover. It is situated upon the north side of the James River, upon the high hills of Shockoe and Richmond, and the margin of Shoekoe Creek, which flows between them to the river.
The scenery from almost every point of view around Richmond is exceedingly picturesque.
The river is almost half a mile wide, dotted with beautiful wooded islands, and broken into numerous cascades, which extend to Westham, six miles up the stream. The Capitol stands in the center of a large square, upon the brow of Shoekoe Hill, in the western division of the city. From its southern colonnade there is an extensive view of the best portion of the town, of the river, with its islands and cascades, and the flourishing manufacturing village of Manchester, on the opposite shore, with a back-ground of fertile slopes. From this point the eye takes in almost the whole area of Richmond, made memorable by Revolutionary events. Let us consider them.
When noticing the adventures of Sergeant Champe, while endeavoring to abduct Arnold from New York (see page 206), I mentioned the fact that the traitor sailed, in command of an expedition, to Virginia, taking Champe with him. Arnold left New York (a) with nearly fifty small vessels, and six hundred troops, principally [[ a Dec. 16, 1780]] Loyalists, for the purpose of carrying on a predatory warfare in Virginia. Contrary winds detained them at Sandy Hook, and they did not leave their anchorage there until five days had elapsed. (b) Arnold entered Hampton Roads on the 30th of [[ b Dec 21]] December. His fleet had become dispersed, and several ships were missing. Anxious to distinguish himself in the service of his royal purchaser, and favored by the capture of some small American vessels by his advance frigate, he pushed up the James River to seize or destroy the public stores at Richmond and Petersburg. Williamsburg, situated about half-way between the James and York Rivers, was the Capitol of the state when the Revolution broke out. It was peculiarly exposed to the depredations of the enemy, and was an unsafe place for the public records and stores. Richmond, though quite an insignificant town of about eighteen hundred inhabitants, one half of whom were slaves, offered a more secure place for publie stores, and the quiet deliberations of the Virginia Legislature; and thither, in the summer of 1779, the troops, arms, and ammunition, together with the public records, were sent, by order of the Assembly. Finally, the Burgesses, by an act passed in May, 1779, made Richmond the permanent seat of government, and there all
* This view is from a long shaded island extending up the river from Mayo's Bridge, one of the three structures which span the stream at Richmond. Down the river from our point of view' is seen Mayo's Bridge, and, in the extreme distance, the lower portion of Richmond, upon Richmond or Church Hill. Several fish-traps are seen among the rapids in the river. On the left are observed two or three smaller islands. Since the above sketch was made, a bridge, for the accommodation of the Danville rail-way, has been constructed from the Richmond end of Mayo's Bridge, diagonally, to the southern end of the Petersburg rail-way bridge, crossing very nearly our point of view. Not content with thus marring the beauty of one of the finest series of islands and cascades in the country, the company have covered the bridge, so as to shut out from the eyes of passengers the surrounding attractions. Wherefore?
[[[Arnold, with his Fleet, in the James River.--Approach to Richmond.--Activity of Jefferson.--The Militia]]]
{434}the state offices were located at the period in question. Thomas Jefferson was then Governor of Virginia. *
On the 3d of January, (a) Arnold, with his fleet, anchored near Jamestown, ** and the [[ a 1781]] next day proceeded as far as Westover, the seat of the widow of Colonel Byrd, about twenty-five miles below Richmond, where he landed almost a thousand troops, *** and led them toward the metropolis. Governor Jefferson had been apprised of the approach of the fleet, but was not certain whether Richmond or Petersburg was the point of the intended attack, until advised of the debarkation of the British troops. The whole country was speedily alarmed. Jefferson called out all of the militia from the adjacent counties; but so sudden was the invasion, and so great was the panic, that only a handful could be collected The white population were few, and scattered over plantations, with their habitations widely separated; and private interest, in many cases, made the planters more intent upon securing their slaves and horses from capture than defending public property. Only about two hundred armed men could be collected for the defense of Richmond. ****
The enemy encamped on the night of the 4th at Four Mile Creek, twelve miles below Richmond. Governor Jefferson, perceiving that resistance with his handful of raw militia would be useless, turned his attention to the salvation of the public stores. By his activity a large quantity was secured. Much of the portable property was carried across the river to Manchester, and also the stores which had been sent to Westham, six miles above Richmond, were ordered to be conveyed to the south side.
One object which Arnold had in view was the capture of Governor Jefferson. That officer left Richmond on the evening of the 4th, tarried a while at Westham to hasten the removal of the stores, and then rode on to join his family at Tuckahoe, eight miles further. Early the next morning he took them across the river to a place of safety, and then rode to Britton's, opposite Westham, and gave further orders respecting the disposition of the stores, [[ b Jan. 5, 1781]]Hastening to Manchester, he arrived there in time to see the invading troops march, unopposed, into Richmond, at one o'clock. (b)
When within a few miles of Richmond, Arnold so disposed his troops as to have the appearance of twice their actual number. A patrol of the militia who were assembled at Richmond, met them when within four miles of the town, and, hastening back with the intelligence that fifteen hundred British troops were within an hour's march of the place, produced the greatest alarm and confusion. Many of the inhabitants fled into the country, and were afterward followed by the militia themselves, when the enemy entered the town.
Arnold, advised of the weakness of the place, halted at Rockett's, and sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with the Queen's Rangers, to drive the military from their position
* The public buildings were only temporary. The old Capitol in which the Legislature held its sessions was private property, and stood upon the site of the present custom-house.
** The Americans had a battery on Hood's Point, and when, late in the evening, the enemy anchored, a fire was opened upon them. Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe landed with one hundred and thirty of the Queen's Rangers and the light infantry and grenadiers of the 80th regiment, and made a circuit of about a mile in the dark to surprise the garrison. On approaching the battery it was found to be abandoned, and the fleet suffered no further inconvenience. See Simcoe's Journal, page 161.
**** Simcoe, who accompanied Arnold, says, "General Arnold's force did not amount to 800 men." American writers generally agree that the number was at least 900.
**** "The bare communication of the fact," says Tucker, in his Life of Jefferson, "that a force of one thousand, or, at most, fifteen hundred men, was able to invade a country containing at that time a population of more than half a million, and fifty thousand enrolled militia, march to its metropolis, destroy all the public, and much private property found there and in its neighborhood, and to leave the country with impunity, is a fact calculated to excite our surprise, and to involve both the people, and those who administered its affairs, in one indiscriminate reproach. But there seems to be little ground for either wonder or censure, when it is recollected that these fifty thousand militia were scattered over a surface of more than as many square miles; that the metropolis which was thus insulted was but a village, containing scarcely eighteen hundred inhabitants, half of whom were slaves; and that the country itself, intersected by several navigable rivers, could not be defended against the sudden incursion of an enemy, whose naval power gave it the entire command of the water, and enabled it to approach within a day's march of the point of attack."
[[[The British at Richmond.--Old City Tavern.--Baron Steuben.--Depredations by British Frigates]]]
(A A) upon{435} Richmond Hill, near St. John's Church, on the south side of the Shockoe Creek.
He marched up the hill in small detachments, when the militia, after firing a few shots, fled to the woods in the rear. Along the base of the hill, leading into the portion of the town lying in the valley, Simcoe sent his cavalry to surprise the militia there. The latter escaped across the creek to Shockoe Hill, followed by the whole body of the Rangers, and made a stand near the site of the Capitol (B).
A large number of spectators were also there, and as the Rangers ascended the hill, they fled to the country, hotly pursued by the enemy's cavalry.
After taking possession of Richmond, Arnold ordered Simcoe to proceed to Westham, and destroy the cannon-foundery and the magazine there. The trunnions of most of the cannons were broken off; the powder in the magazine which they could not carry away was thrown into the river, and, before night, the foundery was a desolation. The Rangers returned to Richmond, and the whole hostile force quartered in the town during the night. (a) Arnold and Simcoe made their quarters at the Old City Tavern, yet standing on Main Street, but partially in ruins, when I visited Richmond. Many houses were entered and plundered by the invaders.
They obtained a considerable quantity of rum, and a large portion of them spent the night in drunken revelry.
Baron Steuben, who was then collecting the Virginia levies for General Greene's army at the South, was at Colonel Fleming's, in Powhatan county, a few miles from Manchester. Thither Governor Jefferson went to solicit aid. While there, some of the citizens waited on him to tender an offer from Arnold to spare the town, provided British vessels were permitted to come up unmolested, and carry off tobacco from the warehouses. The governor promptly rejected the proposal, and the enemy applied the torch.[[Jan. 5, 1781.]]
* Note.--This plan represents the invasion of Richmond on the 5th of January, 1781. A A is the first position of the American militia on Richmond Hill; B, the second position of the military and people on Shockoe Hill; C, the Queen's Rangers marching to the attack; D, the eavalry of the Queen's Rangers: E, Yagers; F, the main body of the British with General Arnold; G, two cannons in battery; H, a fine plantation, opposite the present Rockett's.
* This is a frame building, and stands on the northwest corner of Main and Nineteenth streets. A portion of the lower part is yet inhabited (1852). The glass and some of the sashes in the upper story are gone, and the roof is partly decayed and fallen in on the west end. Here Cornwallis and other British officers were quartered at a later period, and beneath its roof the good Washington was once sheltered.
** British frigates ascended the rivers of Virginia, and levied contributions upon all the tide-water counties. On one of these occasions the Mount Vernon estate was menaced with destruction by Captain Graves, of the Acteon. The manager, Mr. Lund Washington, to save the buildings, complied with the terms, and consented to furnish a supply of provisions. Washington highly disapproved of this proceeding, and, in a letter to his nephew, declared that he would rather have had the buildings destroyed, than saved by such "a pernicious example."
[[[Departure of Arnold from Richmond.--French Fleet in Hampton Roads.-- Houdon's Statue of Washington.]]]
[[ a Jan. 7.]]{436}Quite a number of public and private buildings, together with a great quantity of tobacco, were burned. The public records had been saved through the vigilance of Jefferson; and Arnold, finding no more plunder or objects on which to pour out his wrath--the ire of a most vindictive heart toward those whom he had foully wronged--withdrew to Westover, and re-embarked to proceed to commit other depredations upon the river shores and the coasts of the Virginia bays. On the same day Jefferson returned to Richmond, and quiet was restored.
A large body of militia rapidly rallied around Steuben; and General Nelson also collected another large force lower down on the James River. Arnold was pursued, but succeeded in reaching Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk, where he established his head-quarters.
Soon afterward a French sixty-four gun ship (the Eveille), and two large frigates, from Newport, entered the Chesapeake. * Thus menaced by land and water, Arnold resolved to remain at Portsmouth, whither the large French vessels could not follow. ** The little fleet, after making a few captures, and efforts to ascend the Elizabeth River, returned to[[b Feb. 24, 1781]] Newport, (b) having been absent only fifteen days. We shall meet Arnold again presently.
I passed the day after my arrival at Richmond in visiting and sketching some localities and objects of note within the city. I first went up to the Capitol, where, after loitering an hour in the state library, I copied the fine statue of Washington, by Houdon, a celebrated French sculptor, which stands within an iron railing in the center of the rotunda. It was made in. Paris, five years after the close of the Revolution, by order of the Virginia Assembly, under the direction of Mr. Jefferson, who was then minister at the court of Versailles. The statue is of fine white marble, of life size; the costume, the military dress of the Revolution. The right hand of the patriot rests upon a staff, the left is upon the folds of a military cloak covering one end of the fasces, with which is connected the plowshare, the emblem of agriculture, the chief pursuit of the Virginians. The inscription upon the pedestal was written by James Madison, afterward President of the United States. *** In a small niche near is a marble bust of La Fayette, and in the gallery of the rotunda is a fine full length portrait of Chief-justice Marshall.
From the Capitol I walked to the Monumental Church, a neat edifice of octagon form, belonging to the Protestant Episcopalians. It derives its
* At the solicitation of Governor Jefferson and of Congress, Luzerne, the French minister, had requested that, if possible, a ship of the line and some frigates might be sent up the Chesapeake to oppose Arnold. It was determined to use every effort to capture the traitor; and, while Steuben was narrowly watching his movements from a nearer point of view, Washington detached La Fayette with twelve hundred men, drawn from the New England and New Jersey lines, to march to Virginia, and co-operate in the double enterprise of defending that state and capturing the renegade. M. de Tilley was detached from Newport, on the 9th of February, with a sixty-four and two frigates, for the Chesapeake. The little squadron of De Tilley captured the Romulus, a British frigate of forty-four guns, and also two privateers, one of eighteen and the other of fourteen guns; sent four prizes to Yorktown, and burned four others. They also captured about five hundred prisoners. Fortunately for Arnold, Admiral Arbuthnot gave him timely warning of the approach of the French vessels, and, as I have mentioned in the text, he escaped up the Elizabeth River. The events at Portsmouth and vicinity will be detailed presently.
** The Eveille did not attempt to follow him from Hampton Roads. One of the frigates, the Surveillante, ran aground in endeavoring to ascend the Elizabeth River, and was got off only by taking out her guns and casks of water.
*** The following is a copy of the inscription:
*** "GEORGE WASHINGTON.
"The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia have caused this statue to be erected, as a monument of affection and latitude to George Washington, who, uniting to the endowments of a hero the virtues of the patriot, and exerting both in establishing the liberties of his country, has rendered his name dear to his fellow-citizens, and given the world an immortal example of true glory. Done in the year of Christ, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, and in the year of the Commonwealth, the twelfth."
*** On the 22d of February, 1850, the corner-stone of a new and elegant monument, to be erected upon Capitol Square, by order of the Virginia Legislature, was laid with imposing ceremonies. The appropriation made by the Legislature for the purpose was first suggested by the Virginia Historical Society. Crawford, the eminent American sculptor, is now engaged upon the work in Italy. The monument will be composed of a broad base, with flights of steps between pedestals at proper intervals. These pedestals, six in number, will support each a colossal eagle. From this base will arise another for the lofty and elegantly wrought pedestal in the center, designed to support a colossal equestrian statue of Washington. Upon the second base are to be eight small pedestals, supporting the statues of Virginia and Liberty, and of several of the Revolutionary patriots of that state. The grand pedestal will contain, in different parts, appropriate inscriptions, civic wreaths, stars, &c. This is but a meager description of the beautiful design before me. It will be an honor not only to Virginia, but to the Republic.
*** The grand master of the Masonic fraternity laid the corner-stone of the monument, in the presence of President Taylor and his cabinet, the Governor of Virginia, and a large concourse of people. On that occasion, he wore the apron beautifully wrought by the hand of La Fayette's wife, and presented to Washington by the Grand Lodge of France. Both generals were members of the order. The apron is in the possession of Mount Nebo Lodge, No. 91, located at Shepherdstown. * The oration delivered on the occasion was by Robert G. Scott, Esq. It is expected that the monument will be completed in 1855.
[[[Monumental Church.--Destruction of the Richmond Theater.--St. John's Church.--Virginia Washington Monument]]]
{437}name from the circumstance that under its portico is a monumental urn, erected to in-memory-of those who lost their lives when the Richmond theater was burned, on the night of the 26th of December, 1811. * This church was erected upon the site of the destroyed theater. There the late venerable Bishop Moore preached during the whole time of his residence in Richmond; and there I heard the voice of his successor, Bishop Mead, on whom the mantle of his goodness hath fallen.
Crossing the deep valley of the Shockoe upon the broad and lofty causeway just completed, I visited and sketched old St. John's Church (see engraving on next page), upon Richmond Hill, and lingered long among its venerable graves. It is the oldest church in Richmond, and one of the most ancient in the state. The burial-ground which surrounds it is embowered in trees and shrubbery, and from its southern slope there is a noble view of the city and surrounding country. The main portion of the building is the same as it was in the Revolution, the tower alone being modern. On Sunday I sat within its hallowed walls, and, while the voice of the preacher was uttering the eloquence of persuasive piety, predicated upon the apostolic annunciation, "We are embassadors for Christ," ** and urged his hearers to heed his voice of warning, and join the standard of those who sought the freedom of the Gospel, my thoughts involuntarily glanced back over a period of seventy-three years, to the hour when, within that same temple, (a) the voice of Patrick [[ a March 1775]] Henry enunciated those burning words which aroused the Continent to action,
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"
There the people of Virginia assembled in rep-
* The audience on that night was uncommonly large, and composed chiefly of the first class of citizens, among whom was the governor of the state, George W. Smith. Some of the scenery was ignited by a chandelier at the back part of the stage, while the most of it was concealed by a drop-curtain. The combustible materials of all the stage arrangements made the flames spread with wonderful rapidity, and before the audience could make their escape by the only door of egress, in the front of the building, the whole wooden edifice was in flames. Some leaped from the windows and were saved; others were thus severely injured; and a large number perished in the flames, or were suffocated by the smoke in the burning building. Sixty-six white persons, and six colored ones, were destroyed. The governor was one of the victims. It was a night of woe in Richmond, and months and even years were required to elapse, before the gloom was entirely dissipated. The funeral obsequies of the dead were performed on the 28th of the month, in the presence of almost the entire population.
** Gal., v., 20.
* Misled by careless historians and current tradition, I have stated on page 307, of the first volume of this work, that Washington was initiated into the secrets of the order at Morristown, in New Jersey. The records exhibited by the orator on the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the Virginia Monument, show that he was initiated on the 4th of November, 1752, in Lodge No. 4, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when he was not quite twenty-one years of age. He was raised to the degree of Master Mason on the 4th of August. 1753. It is asserted that all of the major generals of the Revolutionary army were master masons, except one; that one was the "lost Pleiad"--Benedict Arnold.
[[[The Constitutional Convention--The Members and their Vote--Mayo's Bridge--The Old Stone House.]]]
[[1788]]{438}representative convention to ratify guaranty of our civil freedom, or reject the Federal Constitution, the glorious Patrick Henry was then there, and, filled with apprehension lest the new Constitution should destroy state sovereignty and concentrate a fearful power in the hands of the chief magistrate, he lifted up his eloquent voice against it.
There, too, were Madison and Monroe, who both subsequently filled the chair of the chief magistracy of the republic.
There was Chancellor Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Marshall, the eminent chief justice, and the biographer of Washington; Pendleton, one of Virginia's noblest sons, and president of the Constitutional Convention; Mason, the sage, and personal friend of Washington; Grayson, the accomplished scholar and soldier; Nicholas, an officer of Washington's Life Guard; Edmund Randolph, then governor of the state; Bushrod Washington, a nephew of the general; Innes, the attorney general of the state; the brave Theodoric Bland of the Continental army; Harrison, another signer of the great Declaration, and many other luminaries of less brilliancy. Of the 168 members who voted on the measure in that convention, there was a majority of only two in favor of the Federal Constitution.
Leaving St. John's and its interesting associations, I strolled into the town, and crossed the James River to Manchester, over Mayo's Bridge. ** On my way I sketched the City tavern, printed on page 435, and the Old Stone House near it, which was the first
* This view is from the burial-ground, looking southwest. The willow seen on the left, leaning by the side of a monument, is a venerable tree. It appears to have been planted by the hand of affection when the monument was reared. In the progress of its growth the trunk has moved the slab at least six inches from its original position. How imperceptible was that daily motion when the sap was flowing, and yet how certain and powerful!
** This bridge is nearly four hundred yards in length, and spans the James River near the foot of the great rapids. It was built, soon after the close of the Revolution, by Colonel John Mayo, who received a large revenue from the tolls.
[[[Reminiscences of the "Old Stone House."--Anecdote of Monroe.--Patrick Henry.]]]
{439}dwelling erected in Richmond. It stand eth streets, and was among the houses in Richmond which was spared by the incendiary in 1781.
It was occupied, when I visited it, by Mrs. Elizabeth Welsh, whose great-grandfather, Jacob Ege, from Germany, built it before Byrd's warehouse was erected. It was owned by Mrs. Welsh's, father, Samuel Ege, who was a commissary in the American army during a part of the Revolution. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (four of the presidents of the United States) have all been beneath its roof. Mrs. Welsh informed me that she well remembers the fact that Monroe boarded with her mother, while attending the Virginia Convention in 1788, just alluded to. * She was then ten years of age.
I passed a portion of the afternoon among the tobacco factories in Richmond, and the cotton and iron factories at Manchester, and then lingered until almost sunset upon the beautiful island above Mayo's Bridge, ** from which I
* Mrs. Welsh related a circumstance whieh she well remembered. While Monroe was boarding with her mother, Samuel Hardy, another member of the convention, was also there. Hardy was a very modest, retiring man. One morning at breakfast, Monroe, remarked to Hardy, in a jocular manner, "I have no doubt you will be governor of the state yet." "Yes." rejoined Hardy, "and you will have your hair cued and be sent to Congress." Hardy was afterward lieutenant governor of the state, and Monroe was not only "sent to Congress" as a senator, but became a foreign minister, and chief magistrate of the nation.
** Another noble bridge spans the James River a short distance above, which was constructed for the passage of the Richmond and Petersburg rail-way. A third bridge has been erected since my visit there, which is referred to on page 433.
*** Patrick Henry was born at the family seat of his father, called Studley, in Hanover county, Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. At the age of ten years he was taken from school, and placed under the tuition of his father, in his own house, to learn Latin. He acquired some proficiency in mathematics; but it now became evident that he had a greater taste for hunting and fishing than for study. We have already considered the character of his youth and early manhood, on page 430, until his powers of eloquence were first developed in a speech in Hanover court-house. From that period Mr. Henry rose rapidly to the head ol his profession. He removed to Louisa county in 1764, and in the autumn of that year he was employed to argue a case before a committee on elections of the House of Burgesses. He made an eloquent speech on the right of suffrage, and his uncouth appearanee was entirely lost sight of by the wondering burgesses. He was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1765. During that session he made his memorable speeeh in opposition to the Stamp Act, whieh I shall notice more particularly hereafter. Mr. Henry was admitted to the bar of the General Court in 1769. At that time he was again a resident of his native county; and from that period until the close of the Revolution he was connected with the House of Burgesses as a member, and as governor of the state. He was elected a delegate to the first Congress in 1774. and there, as we have seen, gave the first impulse to its business. In 1775, when Lord Dunmore seized and conveyed on board a British vessel of war a part of the powder in the provincial magazine at Williamsburg, Mr. Henry assembled the independent companies of Hanover and King William counties, and, boldly demanding its restoration or its equivalent in money, forced a compliance. He was chosen the first republican governor of Virginia, after the departure of Dunmore, in 1776, which office he held for several successive years. In the Virginia Convention of 1788, assembled to consider the Federal Constitution, Mr. Henry opposed its adoption with all his eloquence. In 1795, Washington nominated him as Secretary of State, but he declined the honor and trust. President Adams appointed him an envoy to France, with Ellsworth and Murray, in 1799, but his indisposition and advanced age caused him to decline that honor also. He died soon afterward at his seat at Red Hill, Charlotte county, on the 6th of June, 1799, aged nearly sixty-three He had six children by his first wife, and nine by his second. He left his family rich. His widow married the late Judge Winston, and died in Halifax county in February, 1831.
* In private life Mr. Henry was amiable and virtuous, and in public and private strictly temperate. He was never known to utter a profane expression, dishonoring the name of God. He was not a member of any church, yet he was a practical Christian, and a lover of the Bible.
* Wirt, in his brilliant biography of the great orator, has given several illustrations of the power of his eloquence. I give one in conclusion. A Scotchman, named Hook, living in Campbell county, was suspected of being a Tory. On the occasion of the joint invasion of Cornwallis and Phillips, the American army was greatly distressed. A commissary, named Venable, took two of Mr. Hook's steers, without his consent, to feed the starving soldiers. At the conclusion of the war, a lawyer, named Cowan, advised Book to prosecute Venable for trespass, in the District Court of New London. Venable employed Patrick Henry.
* The case was tried in the old court-house in New London. Mr. Henry depicted the distress of the American soldiers in the most glowing colors, and then asked, where was the man, "who had an American heart, who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, his cellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his breast, to have received with open arms the meanest soldier in that little band of famished patriots? Where is the man? There he stands; but whether the heart of an American beats in his bosom you, gentlemen, are to judge." "He then," says Wirt, "carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, to the plains around York, the surrender of which had followed shortly after the act complained of. He depicted the surrender in the most glowing and noble colors of his eloquence. The audience saw before their eyes the humiliation and dejection of the British as they marched out of the trenches--they saw the triumph which lighted up every patriotic face, and heard the shouts of victory, and the cry of 'Washington and Liberty,' as it rung and echoed through the American ranks, and was reverberated from the hills and shores of the neighboring river--| but hark! what notes of discord are these which disturb the general joy, and silence the acclamations of victory? They are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the American camp, 'beef! beef! beef!'
* "The whole audience were convulsed. The clerk of the court, unable to contain himself, and unwilling to commit any breach of decorum in his place, rushed out of the court-house, and threw himself upon the grass, in the most violent paroxysm of laughter, where he was rolling when Hook, with very different feelings, came out for relief into the yard also. 'Jemmy Steptoe,' he said to the clerk, 'what the divil ails ye, mon?' Mr. Steptoe was only able to lay that he could not help it. 'Never mind ye.' said Hook, 'wait till Billy Cowan gets up; he'll show him the la'!' Mr. Cowan was so overwhelmed that he could scarcely utter a word. The jury instantly returned a verdict against Hook. The people were highly excited, and Hook was obliged to leave the county to avoid a coat of tar and feathers."--Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. *
* This is from a picture in Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia, p. 220. The house is upon a ridge, the dividing line of Campbell and Charlotte counties. "From the brow of the hill, west of the house," says Howe, "the Blue Ridge, with the lofty peaks of Otter, appear in the horizon at the distance of nearly sixty miles." In a grove of locusts and other trees at the foot of the garden, are the graves of Governor Henry and his first wife. In the parlor of the house hangs the portrait, by Sutly, of which the one given on the preceding page is a copy. The dress is black, cravat white, and a red velvet mantle is thrown over the shoulders. The sketch of the old court-house in New London is also from Howe's valuable hook, p. 212.
[[[Departure from Richmond.--Aspect of the Scene.--Effect of Patrick Henry's Eloquence.--His Residence.]]]
{440}made the sketch printed on page 433, contemplating the beauty and grandeur of the scenery, charming even in December, when the trees were leafless and the sward of a russet hue.
The storm had subsided, the clouds had dispersed, and the sun and air were as genial to the feelings as a day in mid-May. Bright and beautiful, also, was the Sabbath; but when I left Richmond for Charles City and old Jamestown on Monday morning, every thing was draped in a thick vapor which had arisen from the river during the night. I had scarcely left the suburban village of Powhatan, and turned my horse's head toward the open country, when=
`````"That sea of vapor
```Parted away, and, melting into air,
```Rose round me, and I stood involved in light,
```As if a flame had kindled up, and wrapp'd me
```In its innocuous blaze."--Percival.=
The sun came forth brilliant and warm, and for an hour I could trace the sinuous course
[[[Appearance of the Country below Richmond. Westover. Colonel Byrd. Birth-place of President Harrison]]]
{441}of the James River by the line of the white vapor which stretched away, far southward, like a huge serpent measuring its mighty length over the land.
Before leaving Richmond, I endeavored to ascertain the exact location of Westover, the famous estate of Colonel Byrd, and memorable as the landing-place of Arnold's troops. I could not learn its relative position in distance from the direct road to Charles City courthouse, the goal of my first day's journey, and I thought I should pass it by unvisited. After leaving Richmond a few miles, the hilly country disappeared, and there spread out a level or gently rolling region, bearing extensive pine forests, which inclose quite large plantations. I dined in my wagon upon cold turkey and biscuit, furnished by my kind friend, Mrs. G., of Richmond, after giving Charley a lunch of meal and water, by the side of a small stream in the way. The day was very warm ***---too warm to ride comfortably [[ a Dec. 18, 1848]] with an overcoat. Not suspecting that I might diverge into a wrong road by one of the numerous forks which characterize the highway, I allowed Charley to jog on leisurely, and with a loose rein, while I gave myself up to contemplation, which was occasionally interrupted by a passing regret that I was obliged to forego the pleasure of visiting Westover.
Suddenly, on emerging from a pine forest into an open cultivated region, the bright waters of a broad river, dotted with an occasional sail, were before me. On the bank of the river was a spacious brick mansion, approached from the country by a broad lane, in which a large number of servants, men and women, were engaged shucking or husking corn. The gleaming water was the James River, and the spacious mansion was that of John A. Selden, Esq., once the residence of Colonel Byrd. I was at Westover, scarcely conscious how I had reached it; for I supposed myself to be upon the direct road to Charles City courthouse, and probably a dozen miles from the spot I desired to see. I was between two and three miles from the main road, led thither by a deceptive by-way, and was obliged to retrace the journey, after passing half an hour in viewing the location. The family of the proprietor was absent, and not a white person was upon the plantation. It must be a delightful place in summer, and, when it was occupied by the accomplished family of the widow of Colonel Byrd, * doubtless justified the Marquis de Chastellux in giving his glowing account of the beauty of its location and the charms of society there. "That of Mrs. Byrd," he says, "to which I was going, surpasses them all [fine mansions on the James River] in the magnificence of the buildings, the beauty of its situation, and the pleasures of society." ** Mrs. Byrd was a cousin of Benedict Arnold, and this relationship, and the fact that West-over was made the place of landing for the British troops three times under Arnold and Cornwallis, so excited the suspicions of the vigilant Whigs, that the government once took possession of her papers. She was wrongfully suspected, and the landings of the enemy were great misfortunes to her in various ways. I made a sketch of the fine old mansion before leaving Westover, but lost it that very evening.
A short distance above Westover, and in sight of its gardens, upon the river shore, is Berkeley (called Barclay in the old books), the residence of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the birth-place of his son, the ninth president of the United States. It is a brick edifice, with gambrel-roof, and stands about an eighth of a mile from the bank of the river. Around it are tall Lombardy poplars, rising in stately beauty above shrubbery and lesser trees. I made this sketch from the deck of a steam-boat, while ascending the James River a few days afterward, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, aided in my view of the details by the captain's spy-glass.
* Colonel William Byrd, whose widow owned Westover when Arnold landed there, was the son of Colonel William Byrd, once president of the Virginia Council, and one of the wealthiest and most accomplished gentlemen in the province. Like his father, he was an active public man. He was a commissioner to treat with the Indians in 1756, and accompanied Forbes in his expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. Being a gay spendthrift and a gambler, his immense wealth was much lessened at his death, and his affairs were left in great confusion.
** Travels, ii., 16
[[[Anecdote of Harrison's Father.--Charles City Court House.--Birth place of President Tyler.--Jefferson's Marriage.]]]
{442}For many years Berkeley was the seat of elegant taste and refinement, for its distinguished owner as a legislator, and as governor of the state, drew around him the wealthy and honorable of the commonwealth. His portrait, and a sketch of his life, will be found among those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in another part of this work. *
Leaving Westover, I returned to the highway, and after traversing a beautiful level country, garnished with fertile plantations and handsome mansions, for about six miles, I reached Charles City Court House. It was just at sunset, and there I passed the night with Mr. Christian, who was the clerk of the county, the jailer, and innkeeper.
His house of entertainment, the old court-house and jail, and a few out-houses and servants' quarters, compose the village.
The county is the smallest in Virginia, yet bears the honor of having given birth to two presidents of the United States, and of being the place of marriage of a third. ** I passed the birth-place of President Tyler just before reaching Mr. Christian's inn. It is the last dwelling upon the Richmond road, when leaving the Court House. His father,
John Tyler, was one of the leading revolutionary men in Virginia. He succeeded Benjamin Harrison as speaker of the Virginia Assembly, and in 1808 he was chosen governor of the state.
While Judge of the District Court of the United States, he died, at his seat, in January, 1813.
Mr. Christian allowed me to pass the evening searching among the dusty records in the old court-house. I found nothing there relating to Revolutionary events; but in a bundle of papers, wrapped up and laid away probably for more than half a century, I discovered the marriage license-bond of Thomas Jefferson, in his own handwriting. I made a fac simile copy of it, which is printed on the opposite page. Mr. Jefferson was married to Martha Skelton, of Charles City county, in January, 1772. She was the widow of Bathurst Skelton, and daughter of John Wayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia. She brought her husband a considerable fortune, and was only twenty-three years of age when she was married to Mr. Jefferson. Through the stormy period of the Revolution she shared his joys and sorrows, and died in 1782, leaving two daughters. It will be perceived that in writing the bond, which is countersigned by Francis Eppes (the father of Mr. Eppes, who afterward married Mr. Jefferson's daughter), the usual word spinster was introduced, but erased, and the word widow substituted by another hand.
* The Marquis de Chastellux gives an interesting account of his visit to Mr. Harrison, at his residence in Richmond, while he was governor of the state. He relates an anecdote of Mr. Harrison, which illustrates the confidence of the people in their delegates to the first Congress at Philadelphia. When he was on the point of leaving home, with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Lee, a large number of the country people waited upon him, and said, "You assert that there is a fixed intention to invade our rights and privileges. We own that we do not see this clearly; but since you assure us it is so, we believe the fact. We are about to take a very dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt." Shortly afterward appeared Lord North's speech, clearly avowing his intentions toward the colonies. When Mr. Harrison returned home, at the close of the session, the same people came to him, with the assurance that they were now convinced that he had not deceived them, that their confidence was not misplaced, and that henceforth they were determined on war.--Travels, ii., 159.
** William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were both born in that county, and there Thomas Jefferson was married.
*** The style of this building is similar to that of Hanover court-house. It is constructed of imported brick, and was erected previous to that at Hanover. I could not discover the exact period when it was built. Among its records I found notices of courts held at Charles City as early as 1639.
**** I copied this signature from a letter written to the lady of General Gates in August, 1780.
{443}Charles City Court House was a scene of mortal strife between the Queen's Rangers, under Simcoe, and a party of American militia, on the evening of the day after Arnold's return from Richmond. (a) Arnold had directed a patrol on that evening toward [[ a Jan 8, 1781]] Long Bridge, in order to obtain intelligence. The patrol consisted of about forty cavalry, under Simcoe. Falling in with some American videttes, they captured two or three, and from them Simcoe learned that a party of militia, under General Nelson, lay at and near Charles City Court-house. The night was clear and frosty, and the moon at its full. * The enemy had no knowledge of the way. A negro prisoner was made to act
* Simcoe, in his journal, says "the night was very dark." Mr. Tyler informed me that his father, who was then at home, and witnessed a part of the affray, always declared that the sky was cloudless, and the moon in full orb.
[[[Attack upon the American Militia.--Carelessness of Dudley.--"Sherwood Forest."--Ex-president Tyler.]]]
{444}as guide. The party at the Court House, consisting of one hundred and fifty militia, under the command of Colonel Dudley, were completely surprised, for they had no intimation of the immediate approach of a foe until their sentries were fired upon, and two bugles sounded the signal of attack, upon the frosty air of that winter's night.
A confused and scattering fire ensued, when the American detachment fled and joined the main body, which lay a few miles distant, toward the Chickahominy River. A part of Simcoe's dragoons dismounted, rushed into the tavern, and seized several of the Americans. Two of the militiamen (Deane and Ballard) were killed. One of them was slain upon the landing at the head of the stairs, while fleeing to the chamber for safety. The spot was pointed out to me, where, until within a few years, the stains of the victim's blood might be seen. The attack was so sudden and furious, that those who escaped and communicated the fact to the militia under Nelson, so alarmed that body, that a large number of them broke from the camp, and fled to Williamsburg. Simcoe collected his prisoners and a few captured horses as speedily as possible, and before dawn he joined Arnold at Westover.
Mr. Tyler (the late President of the United States), on whom I called while on my way from Charles City Court House to Jamestown, informed me that his father, who was then a member of the Virginia Assembly, but at his residence at the time, aware of the force of the enemy at Westover and Berkeley, earnestly advised Colonel Dudley, the commander of the county militia, to place his men in a position for defense; offering, at the same time, to join them, and act in any capacity. He advised him to remove his party from the tavern, for, if left there drinking and carousing as usual, they would surely be surprised. The haughty colonel would not heed his warning, and the result was defeat and disgrace. ***
It was another glorious morning when I left Charles City Court House. Warm and brilliant as May, I anticipated a delightful day's journey. Nor was I disappointed. A heavy fog during the night had hung each bough and spray with liquid jewels, and these, glittering in the early sun, fell in radiant showers as the light breezes touched their resting-places. Traversing a rough road for nearly four miles, I crossed a rapid stream at a mill, and ascending to a plain half a mile beyond, I reined up at the entrance-gate to Sherwood Forest, the estate of ex-President Tyler. His mansion is very spacious, and stands upon the brow of a gentle slope, half a mile from the highway. It is sheltered in the rear by a thick forest of oaks, pines, and chestnuts, while from the front the eye overlooks almost the whole of his plantation of fourteen hundred acres, with occasional glimpses of the James River. The distinguished proprietor was at home, and received me with that courteous hospitality so common in the South, which makes the traveler feel at ease, as if at the house of a friend. Mr. Tyler is tall and slender in person, his locks long, thin, and slightly grizzled, and he was dressed in the plain garb of a Virginia planter. After giving warm expressions of interest in my enterprise, and an invitation to remain longer at Sherwood Forest,
** This tavern, in which I lodged, was built about ten years before the skirmish which occurred within and around it. It is now occupied hy Edmund F. Christian, Esq., the clerk of Charles City county when I visited it in 1848.
*** A man named Royston, whom Mr. Tyler well knew, was badly wounded in the affray. A pistol was discharged so near his head, that grains of powder sprinkled his face, and disfigured him for life. He was then struck down by a saber blow, and the troopers cruelly tried to make their horses trample him to death. The animals, more humane in action than their riders, leaped over him, and he was saved. He crawled to the residence of Mr. Tyler, where a colored nurse, the only inmate of the house, dressed his wounds and gave him food and drink. Mr. Tyler had moved his family to a place of safety, beyond the Chickahominy River.
[[[The Slashes of the Chickahominy.--Difficulties at the Ferry.--The Chickahominy and its Associations.]]]
{445}he sketched a map of my route to Jamestown, as a guide among the diverging ways. Time was precious, and I passed only an hour at the hospitable mansion of the ex-president, and then departed for the Chickahominy.
Soon after leaving Sherwood Forest, I entered a low, wet region, covered with pines, called the slashes. These extended to the banks of the Chickahominy, a distance of seven miles; and in all that journey, without a clearing to cheer the eye, I saw no living thing, except an occasional "wild boar of the wood," a dwarf breed of hogs which inhabit this dreary region. Here, where once broad fields were smiling with culture-blessings, and this road, now almost a quagmire, but fifty years ago was one of the finest highways in Virginia, wild deers and turkeys abound, as if the land was a primeval wilderness. It was a sad commentary upon the past husbandry of Virginia, and a sadder picture of the inevitable result of the present bad husbandry which prevails in many regions of the South. Year after year the tillers make constant drafts upon the vitality of the soil without an ounce of compensating manure, until all fertility is exhausted. I saw thousands of acres in the course of my journey, where tillage had levied its withering taxes until the generous soil could no longer yield its tithe, nor even its hundredth. The earth was completely covered with "poverty grass," dwarf pines, or stately forests of the same tree, patiently renewing its strength during a long Sabbath-rest of abandonment by man.
It was at meridian when I emerged from the wilderness and halted upon the high sandbank of the Chickahominy, a few miles above its confluence with the James River. Above, all appeared bright and beautiful; below, all was gloomy and desolate. Silence reigned here, where once the busy ferryman plied his oars from morning until night. No voice was to be heard; no human habitation was to be seen. The broad and turbid river moved sluggishly on without a ripple, and on the beach a scow, half filled with water, told only of desolation. There appeared no way for me to cross the stream. If denied that privilege, I must make a circuit of thirty miles' travel to a public crossing above! I looked for the smoke of a dwelling, but saw none. I shouted; there was no response but that of echo. Remembering that, just before reaching the clearing upon the Chickahominy, I saw a road, covered with leaves, diverging toward the James River, I returned, reined into it, and followed it with hope. Presently I saw a log hut upon the shore, and heard the voices of men. They were negroes, busily preparing a canoe for a fishing excursion. I inquired for a ferryman, and was informed that nobody crossed now, and the scow would not float. Two of the men speedily changed their opinion when I offered a bright half dollar to each if they would "bail out" the craft and "pole" me across. They worked faithfully, and within half an hour I was embarked upon the stream, with my horse and vehicle, in a shell just long enough and broad enough to contain us. To keep Charley quiet, so as to "trim the boat," I allowed him to dine upon some oats which I procured at Charles City Court House. The Chickahominy is here about a quarter of a mile wide. The current was quite strong, and so deep, that the poles, by which the bateau was impelled, were sometimes too short for use. We drifted some distance down the stream, and, at one time, I anticipated an evening voyage upon the James River, but by the great exertions of the motive-power we reached the landing-place in safety, after rather a dangerous voyage of nearly three quarters of an hour. The bateau was again almost half filled with water, and the ferrymen were obliged to empty it before returning. I was too much occupied while crossing with apprehensions of an involuntary bath to reflect upon the perils which Captain John Smith encountered upon this very stream, before the empire of the white men had commenced; but when safely seated in my wagon upon the Jamestown side of the river, I looked with intense interest upon the wooded shores of those waters, up which that adventurer paddled. More than sixty miles above the place where I crossed he was captured by Opechancanough, the king of Pamunkee, and carried in triumph to Powhatan, at Werowocomoeo, where he was saved from death by the gentle Pocahontas. These events we shall consider presently.
I was now eight miles from old Jamestown, the goal of my day's journey. Hungry and thirsty, I was about entering another dreary region of slashes, five miles in extent, when I
[[[Green Spring and its Associations.--Distant View of Jamestown Island.--Changes in the River Banks.--Tradition.]]]
{446}saw a log hut on the verge of the woods. I hailed, but no person appeared, except a little child of six years, black as ebony, and having nothing on but its birth-day suit and a tattered shirt. It brought me a draught of cool water in a gourd from a spring near by. Dropping half a dime into the emptied shell, I pursued my way. Emerging from the slashes, I passed through a portion of the celebrated Green Spring plantation, its mansion appearing among the trees on my left, half a mile distant. *
It is now in possession of two brothers, named Ward, formerly of New Jersey, who, for many years, as skippers upon the James River, bartered for the products of this plantation, until they were able to purchase it. Green Spring was the theater of an interesting episode in our Revolutionary history, for there the American army, under La Fayette, Wayne, and Steuben, were encamped for a few days in the summer of 1781, while watching the movements and foiling the designs of Cornwallis in Virginia.
It was almost sunset when I passed the morass in front of Green Spring, over which the Americans crossed to the attack of Cornwallis at Jamestown Ford. I crossed the plantation of John Coke, Esq., and halted upon the shore of an estuary of the James River, at the cottage of Mr. Bacon, opposite Jamestown island. It was too late to visit the consecrated spot that evening. I sketched this distant view of the portion of the island where-
* This was the residence of Sir William Berkeley, one of the early governors of Virginia. It afterward belonged to Philip Ludwell, one of the king's council, from whom it descended to William Lee, sheriff of London under the celebrated John Wilkes.
** This view is from the north side of what was once a marsh, but now a deep bay, four hundred yards wide. On the left is seen the remains of a bridge, destroyed by a gale and high tide a few years ago; and beyond is the James River. Near the point of the island, toward the end of the bridge, are the remains of an ancient church, a near view of which is given upon the opposite page. Mr. Coke resided upon the island when the tempest occurred which destroyed the bridge. The island was submerged, and for three davs himself and family were prisoners. It was in winter, and he was obliged to cut the branches of ornamental trees that were close to his house, for fuel. I was gravely informed by a man on the beach, while making the sketch, that Pocahontas crossed at that very spot "in her skiff," when she went to warn the Jamestown settlers of threatened danger. The dear child had no need of a skiff, had such a thing existed in America, for I was told by Mr. Coke that his father-in-law well remembered when a marsh, so narrow and firm that a person might cross it upon a fence rail, was where the deep water at the ruined bridge now is. Every year the current of James River is changing its margins in this region, and within a few years Jamestown Island, made so only by a marsh on the land side, will have a navigable channel around it. Already a large portion of it, whereon the ancient town was ereeted, has been washed away; and I was informed that a cypress-tree, now many yards from the shore, stood at the end of a carriage-way to the wharf, sixty yards from the water's edge, only sixteen years ago. The destructive flood is gradually approaching the old church tower, and if the hand of man shall not arrest its sure progress, that too will be swept away, and not a vestige of Jamestown will remain. Virginians, look to it, and let a wall of masonry along the river margin attest your reverence for the most interesting historical relic within your borders! Some remains of the old fort may be seen at low water, several yards from the shore.
[[[Mr. Coke's Plantation.--The Council Tree.--Remains of Old Jamestown Church and Grave yard.]]]
{447}on the ancient city stood, and then returned to the mansion of Mr. Coke, (who is brother of the late Richard Coke, member of Congress from Accomac district), to pass the night under his roof, where I experienced true Virginia hospitality. Mr. Coke was for many years sheriff of the county, is an influential man, and an excellent practical agriculturist.
He owns a plantation of nineteen hundred acres, nearly one thousand of which is under cultivation. Unlike too many agriculturists of the South, he is his own general overseer, and his family of seventy persons (only eleven of whom are white), receive his daily personal care. He owns all the soil that is left unsubmerged on which the English built their first town in America. His house has many bullet-marks, made there during the battle at Jamestown Ford, on the 6th of July, 1781; and in the broad level field in front of his mansion, the French army was encamped when on its way to Yorktown the same year. Within that field a venerable chestnut-oak, riven, but not destroyed, by lightning, was yet standing, under which a court-martial was held by Cornwallis, and upon its branches a culprit was hanged. It is called the "Council Tree." Mr. Coke's plantation is truly classic ground, for upon it occurred events connected with those widely-separated incidents, the opening and the closing of the heroic age of America. Over it the lordly Powhatan once walked, and the feet of his gentle daughter pressed its soil when speeding on her mission of mercy to the doomed settlement of Jamestown. Over it the royal and republican armies marched, and there fought desperately for victory.
I was at Mr. Bacon's cottage soon after an early breakfast, and before nine o'clock had crossed the estuary in a punt, and sat within the shadow of the old church tower, which stands like a sentinel, watching the city of the dead at its feet. This crumbling pile, surrounded by shrubbery, brambles, and tangled vines; and the old church-yard wall, of English brick, inclosing a few broken monuments, half buried in earth or covered with a pall of ivy and long grass, are all the tangible records that remain of the first planting of an English colony in America. As I sat upon the hollow trunk of a half-reclining and decayed old sycamore, and sketched the broken tower, the questionings of the eloquent Wirt came up from the depth of feeling: "Whence, my dear S---- arises this irrepressible reverence and tender affection with which I look at this broken steeple?
* This view is from the old church-yard, looking toward James River, a glimpse of which may be seen through the arches. The stream is here about three miles wide. It is uncertain at what precise time the church, of which now only a portion of the tower remains, was erected. It was probably built sometime between 1617 and 1620. According to Smith, a fire consumed a large portion of the town, with the palisades, at about the close of 1607, the first year of the settlement. Captain Smith and Mr. Scrivener were appointed commissioners to superintend the rebuilding of the town and church. Afterward, in speaking of the arrival of Governor Argali in 1617, he says, "In James towne he found but five or six houses, the church downe, the pallizados broken, the bridge in pieces, the well of fresh water spoiled, the store-house used for the church," &c. The tower here represented was doubtless that of the third church built, and is now (1852) about 234 years old. The tower is now about thirty feet high, the walls three feet thick, all of imported brick.
[[[Wirt's Musings at the Church at Jamestown.--The Ancient Monuments.--Paulding's Ode.--Efforts at Early Settlement.]]]
{448}Is it that my soul, by a secret, subtile process, invests the moldering ruins with her own powers; imagines it a fellow-being--a venerable old man, a Nestor or an Ossian, who has witnessed and survived the ravages of successive generations, the companions of his youth and of his maturity, and now mourns his own solitary and desolate condition, and hails their spirits in every passing cloud? Whatever may be the cause, as I look at it, I feel my soul drawn forward as by the cords of gentlest sympathy, and involuntarily open my lips to offer consolation to the drooping pile." * Around this=
```"Old cradle of our infant world,
````In which a nestling empire lay,"=
the Spirit of Romance and the Muse of Poetry delight to linger, and the bosom of the American glows with increased patriotism as he contemplates this small beginning of the mighty progression around him.=
```"What solemn recollections throng,
````What touching visions rise,
```As, wandering these old stones among,
````I backward turn my eyes,
```And see the shadows of the dead flit round,
```Like spirits when the last dread trump shall sound!
```The wonders of an age combined,
````In one short moment memory supplies;
```They throng upon my 'waken'd mind,
````As Time's dark curtains rise.
```The volume of a hundred buried years,
```Condensed in one bright sheet appears. ********
```Jamestown and Plymouth's hallow'd rock
````To me shall ever sacred be;
```I care not who my themes may mock,
````Or sneer at them and me.
```I envy not the brute who here can stand
```Without a thrill for his own native land.
```And if the recreant crawl her earth.
````Or breathe Virginia's air,
```Or in New England claim his birth,
````From the old pilgrims there,
```He is a bastard, if he dare to mock
```Old Jamestown's shrine, or Plymouth's famous rock.'
`````James Kirke Paulding.=
Although it was late in December, the sun was shining almost as warm as at [[ a Dec 21, 1848]] the close of May. While finishing my sketch, I was glad to take shelter from its beams in the shadow of the sycamore. Here, upon this curiously-wrought slab, clasped by the roots of the forest anak, let us sit a while and ponder the early chronicles of Virginia. **
I have mentioned, in the Introduction to this work, the efforts made by the English, Spanish, and French adventurers to plant colonies in the New World, and their failures. The idea was not abandoned; and the public mind, particularly in England, was much occupied with the visions of new and opulent empires beyond the ocean, of which a few glimpses had appeared. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, published a hypothetical treatise on a northwest passage to the East Indies, which attracted great attention, and exerted much influence favorable to colonizing expeditions. He obtained [[ b June 11, 1578]] a patent from Queen Elizabeth (b) to colonize such parts of North America as were already possessed by any of her allies. Raleigh, a young, ardent, and ambitious student at Oxford, had just completed his studies, and was about to engage in a military life in France. He was induced by his step-brother to join with him in an expedition to America. They sailed early in 1579, but never reached our Continent, because, as was alleged, their little squadron was broken up in a conflict with a Spanish fleet, when they returned to England. Gilbert's patent was limited, and he made great efforts to plant a colony before it should expire. He and Raleigh equipped a new squadron in 1583. ***
* Wirt's Letters of a British Spy, page 128.
** The slab referred to was a blue stone about four inches thick. The roots of the sycamore were so firmly entwined around it that no church-yard thief could take it away. It bore the date of 1608. The remainder of the inscription was so broken and defaced that I could not decipher a name. This is probably the oldest tomb-stone extant in the United States. Vandalism has been at work in that old grave-yard as elsewhere. Almost every monument has a fragment broken from it. A small piece, with some letters upon it, had been recently broken from one, and was left lying in the grass. This I brought away with me, not, however, without a sense of being an "accessory after the fact" in an act of sacrilege.
** The names of the vessels were Raleigh, Swalloir, Hind, Delight, and Squirrel. The Raleigh went but a lew leagues from Portsmouth, and returned.
[[[Loss of Sir Humphrey Gilbert.--Raleigh's Perseverance.--Amidas and Barlow.--Native Hospitality abused.--Grenville and Lane.]]]
{449}Raleigh did not sail with the expedition. Gilbert reached Newfoundland, and at St. John's he performed the feudal ceremonies of taking formal possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, in the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese adventurers who were located there. (a)
Soon afterward the expedition sailed southward. The flag-ship of [[ a August 5, 1583]] Gilbert was the Squirrel. Tempests arose. One night, "about twelve o'clock, the lights of the Squirrel suddenly disappeared, and neither the vessel nor any of its crew was ever again seen." * The survivors of the expedition reached England in the Hind, on the 22d of September following.
Raleigh was not disheartened. He resolved to plant a colony in a more southern region, and readily obtained a patent from Elizabeth as ample as that of his lost step-brother. He was constituted a lord proprietary, with civil and political privileges in his prospective domain almost monarchical. He equipped two vessels, with an ample supply of men and provisions, and gave the command to Philip Arnidas and Arthur Barlow, two experienced mariners. They sailed for America on the 27th of April, 1584, and reached Cuba, in the West Indies, in July. Departing northward, they landed upon Wocoken Island, the southernmost of the group which form Ocracock Inlet, on the shores of North Carolina. The natives, ignorant of the character and designs of the English, received them with friendly greetings after the first emotions of fear and wonder had subsided. Amidas and Barlow explored Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, enjoyed the hospitality of Granganimeo, the father of King Wingina, upon the beautiful island of Roanoke (now belonging to Tyr-rel county, N. C.), and then returned to England, accompanied by Wanchese and Manteo, two natives of the forest. The glowing accounts of his captains of the beauty and fertility of the land, and the gentleness of the natives, filled Raleigh's heart with joy. The captains were presented at court, and their tales of the enchanting region which they had discovered made Elizabeth feel that the most glorious event of her reign had just been accomplished. She named the new-found region in the Western world Virginia, as a memorial of her unmarried state.
Raleigh was elected a member of Parliament for Devonshire, obtained a confirmation of his patent, (b) was knighted, and became one of the most popular men in England. [[ b Dec 18, 1584]] In 1585, he fitted out another fleet. The command was given to Sir Richard Grenville, one of the most gallant men of the age. The fleet consisted of seven vessels, and bore one hundred and eight emigrants, designed to colonize Virginia. Ralph Lane (afterward knighted by Elizabeth) accompanied them as governor of the colony, and several men of learning were his companions. Among them was With, a meritorious painter, whose sketches of the people and scenery in the New World were made with remarkable faithfulness. This expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, and reached Florida on the 20th of June. Coasting northward, they arrived at the beautiful Roanoke Island, lying between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. They went to the Main, and explored the beautiful county of Secotan, around Albemarle Sound and the Chowan, in various directions. Ignorant of the power of kindness, they foolishly quarreled with the simple natives; and because they supposed a lost silver cup had been stolen by one of them, a whole village was burned, and fields of standing corn were destroyed. From the ashes arose the spirit of discord which ever afterward separated the Indian and the white man.
Grenville returned with the fleet to England, leaving Lane and his colony to perfect a settlement. Instead of cultivating the soil for the production of maize and the potato, which were indigenous, they sought gold. A wily savage, intent on revenge, told them wondrous tales of a land of gold at the head waters of the Roanoke River. Up that broad and rapid stream, Lane and a portion of his people went, for the two-fold purpose of exploring the
* Bancroft, i., 91.
** This sketch is from a picture published in a Treatise on Navigation in 1595.
[[[Hostilities with the Indiana.--Colonists Return to England.--Another Expedition.--"City of Raleigh."--Virginia Dare.]]]
{450}country and seeking gold. They ascended no further than the present village of Williams-town, when a flight of arrows from the wooded shore revealed the enmity of the natives. Lane hastened back to Roanoke, and summoned Wingina, the most powerful of the chiefs, to an audience. The sachem and his followers appeared. Their secret plans for the destruction of the English were suspected, indeed, quite certainly known, and the white men were on the alert. With apparent friendliness Wingina appeared at the council. At a given signal the English fell upon the chief and his handful of warriors, and put them to death. The calumet was now buried forever; the hatchet was brightened and made sharp by intensest hatred. The English felt the danger of their situation, and were desponding, when the fleet of Sir Francis Drake anchored outside of Roanoke Inlet. He came from the West Indies to visit the domain of Raleigh, and generously offered to furnish the colony with means to pursue their discoveries; but fear gained the mastery of their avaricious de[[ a June 19, 1586]] sires, and the colonists sailed with Drake for England. (a) A few days after their departure a ship arrived, laden with stores for the colony; and, within a fortnight, Grenville also arrived with three well-furnished ships. The commander sought in vain for the colony, and, leaving fifteen men on the Island of Roanoke to maintain English dominion, he returned to England with the sad intelligence for Raleigh. *
Raleigh, undismayed by misfortunes, fitted out another expedition. He changed his policy, and sent a colony of men, women, and children to establish an agricultural state. John White was appointed their governor. They sailed on the 26th of April, 1587, and arrived on the coast of North Carolina in July. When they reached Roanoke, they found no vestige of the fifteen men left by Grenville, except a few scattered bones. The Indians had slain them all. Wild deers were in the untenanted habitations, and rank grass covered their gardens, They proceeded to lay the foundation of "the city of Raleigh," pursuant to the instructions of the proprietor, but it was an idle show. ** White endeavored to make treaties of amity with the natives, but failed, though aided by the friendly Manteo, who accompanied Amidas and Barlow to England. *** The neighboring tribes exhibited implacable hatred and jealousy. Winter approached, and the vessel which brought them was prepared for departure for England. White was urged strongly to go with it, and use his endeavors to send them immediate relief, for they had neither planted nor reaped, and to England alone they looked for supply. He was unwilling to appear as a deserter of his colony, and refused. He had another tie. His daughter, Eleanor Dare, had given birth to a child, the first offspring of English parents in the New World. Little Virginia Dare twined the tendrils of affection close around the heart of her grand-parent, and he lingered. **** He at length consented to go, leaving his daughter and child as pledges that he would return. Very long the poor colonists waited for relief. Three years passed away before White returned, and then he found the settlement a desolation. There was evidence upon the bark of a tree that the people had departed for Croatan, (v) the residence of Manteo; but
* It is believed that these returning colonists first carried the tobacco plant to England, as prepared by the natives for smoking. Raleigh first used it privately. It is related that when his servant entered his room with a tankard of ale, and for the first time saw the smoke issuing from his master's mouth and nostrils, he cast the liquor in his face. Terribly frightened, he alarmed the household with the intelligence that Sir Walter was on fire.
** The Island of Roanoke is now uninhabited, except by a few wreckers and pilots. Slight traces of Lane's fort may be seen near the north end.
*** By command of Raleigh, Manteo was baptized, and invested by White with the rank of feudal Baron, as the Lord of Roanoke. It was the first creation of an American peer of the realm.
**** It is a coincidence worth noticing, that White was the name of the progenitors of the first two children born of English parents in America. One on the Island of Roanoke, in August, 1587; the other in the May Flower, in Plymouth harbor, more than thirty-three years afterward.
* (v) It was agreed, on the departure of White, that if the colony should go to Croatan, they would signify the fact by inscribing the letters C R O upon the bark of a tree. This inscription, and also the full name of Croatan, was found. White has been censured for heartlessness in not prosecuting his search with more perseverance, particularly as his own relatives were among the settlers. The colony was composed of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and two children. What was their fate is left to conjecture. Lawson, in his Travels among the Indians, with a Description of North Carolina, published in 1700, hazards the opinion that the colonists intermarried with the Hatteras Indians, and cites the physical character of that tribe in support of his hypothesis. Such, too, was the tradition of the Indians at a late day.
[[[Loss of a Colony.--Other Expeditions.--London and Plymouth Companies.--Death of Raleigh.--Newport.]]]
{451}the season was far advanced, and search was abandoned. "White put to sea without intelligence of the fate of his daughter and child, and returned to England. Five several times Raleigh sent a vessel with trusty men to search for his colony, when hope fading, his fortune almost exhausted, and his health and heart broken by domestic griefs, he abandoned all ideas of settlement in America, and assigned his proprietary rights to a company. * Virginia, then including in its indefinite boundaries all of North Carolina, remained untouched by the English for twenty years, except by an occasional adventurer who voluntarily searched for Raleigh's colony. These attempts at settlement on the coasts of our Middle States, form a wonderful chapter of adventure and moral heroism in the history of the world.
We will now consider the modern settlement of Virginia. The efforts of Raleigh awakened intense interest in the public mind. Other expeditions were fitted out, but all failed to make permanent settlements. Gosnold, Weymouth, Pring, Smith, and others, who visited America, gave such glowing accounts of the country, that men of rank, capital, and influence were induced to embark in colonizing schemes. They were made acquainted with the general character of a fertile region, extending over eleven degrees of latitude, from Cape Fear to Halifax, all in the temperate climates, diversified with noble rivers and harbors, and displaying the most luxuriant vegetation. An association was formed, (a) of men eminent as merchants, and wealthy titled commoners, of London and Bristol. ** King James encouraged the scheme, and gave them a charter. (b) They formed two [[ a April 10, 1606]] companies; the men of London for colonizing the south portion of the territory, and called the London Company; those of Bristol for settling the more northern region, and called the Plymouth Company. A line of three degrees between both was allowed, upon which settlements in common might be made, it being stipulated that whenever one should first become permanently seated, the other should settle at least one hundred miles distant. Each of the colonies was to be governed by a council of thirteen persons. The companies were to have full property in all lands, fisheries, &c., except a fifth of the gold, and a fifteenth of the copper ore that might be found, which was to be paid to the king. James, with his usual pedantry, prepared a code of laws for them, written with his own hand. The colonists and their posterity were declared English subjects, but were vested with no political rights, not even trial by jury, unless in capital charges. Minor offenses were punished arbitrarily by the council. That body was to be appointed by the home government, the former choosing its own president. The property of the colonists was to continue in joint stock for five years. The English Church was exclusively established, and strict injunctions were given for the mild and just treatment of the natives. ***
Three small vessels, whose joint tonnage amounted to only one hundred and sixty, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, with a colony of one hundred and five men, sailed for Virginia on the 19th of December, 1606. The king had placed the names of the future council of Virginia in a sealed box, which, was not to be opened until their arrival in
* Sir Walter Raleigh experienced the folly of "putting his trust in princes." For years after abandoning his schemes for colonization, he served his country nobly against its enemies. He also was sent by Queen Elizabeth on an expedition in search of gold, up the Oronoco, in South America. Once, because he married without the queen's consent, she committed him to the Tower for a brief season. Finally, on the death of his royal mistress in 1602, and the accession of James I., he became the victim of a conspiracy. He was tried, and condemned for treason; and for fifteen years he remained in the Tower a prisoner, first under sentence of death, afterward under the merciful provision of a reprieve. During that long imprisonment he wrote his History of the World. On being released, he went on another expedition to Guiana; but it being unsuccessful, he was cast into prison on his return, and the royal scoundrel who occupied the throne of England allowed the decrepit old man, who had given more true luster to the crown than any living mortal, to be beheaded. He was then in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
** Among these were Sir Thomas Gates; Sir George Summers; Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of
England; Edward Maria Wingfield, a wealthy, sordid, and unprincipled merchant; Richard Hakluyt, one of the assignees of Raleigh, who wrote an interesting collection of voyages, in three volumes; Robert Hunt, a clergyman; and Captain John Smith.
*** Chalmers, pages 15, 16.
[[[Captain John Smith.--Founding of Jamestown.--Visit to Powhatan.--Energy of Smith.--Bartholomew Gosnold.]]]
{452}America. Only twelve laborers and a few mechanics were among the voyagers; the remainder of the one hundred and five persons were adventurers, with hands unused to labor. Dissensions arose on the voyage, and, as there was no acknowledged head, in consequence of the folly of the king, much confusion ensued. Captain Smith possessed more genius than any man among them, and, consequently, great jealousy of him was felt. Under the absurd accusation of an intention to murder the council, and make himself King of Virginia, he was put in confinement. After a voyage of four months, the expedition entered the [[ a April 26, 1607]]Chesapeake, (a) having been driven by a storm northward of their point of destination. The capes of the noble bay they named in honor of the two sons of the king, Henry and Charles. They landed upon Cape Henry, made peace with the natives, opened the sealed paper of the king, discovered the names of the council, and chose the unscrupulous and narrow-minded Wingfield to be president. Smith was named one of the council, but was excluded from that body. His accusers thought it prudent, however, to withdraw their charges, and he was released from confinement.
A few days after their arrival in the Chesapeake, the little fleet entered the mouth of the noble River Powhatan, which they named James, in honor of their sovereign. Up its broad channel they sailed about fifty miles, and there, upon a charming peninsula, an island at high tide, they determined to build a town and plant a permanent settlement. The natives received them kindly; and in the beautiful month of May, 1607, the first sound of an ax was heard, the first tree was felled, and the first rafter was laid in Virginia. A village was planned, and, in honor of the king, was called Jamestown. While the carpenters and laborers were rearing the city, Smith and Newport, with twenty others, ascended the river to the Falls, and at his imperial residence of twelve wigwams, just below Richmond, they visited Powhatan, the "Emperor of the Country." The events connected with that visit have been noticed on page 432.
Newport returned to England with his vessels in June, leaving one hundred men, and a pinnace with stores, at Jamestown. The colonists, wanting habits of industry, soon perceived the helplessness of their situation. Many of them were of dissolute habits; and before autumn, the dampness of the climate, and the malaria arising from the decay of luxuriant vegetation, produced diseases which swept away fifty of their number, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, * the eminent navigator and projector of the settlement.
The survivors relied chiefly upon sturgeons and crabs, and scanty supplies of maize, for their subsistence, while Wingfield and a part of his council were appropriating the stores to their own use. Wingfield, and Kendall (one of the council), were detected in a conspiracy to abandon the colony, and escape with the pinnace and stores to the West Indies. They were deposed, and, Ratcliffe, an irresolute and indolent man, was appointed president. Fortunately for the colony, he was quite willing to bear the empty honors of his office without exercising its functions, and he allowed Captain Smith, by far the ablest man among them, to have the principal management of affairs. The colony at once assumed a new and better aspect under the direction of Smith. As far as possible, he infused his own energetic spirit into his companions; but they were generally too indolent and dissolute to profit much by his example. Smith quelled the spirit of anarchy and rebellion; restored order in the midst of confusion; visited the chiefs of the neighboring tribes, and inspired them with respect for the English; and, by his consummate skill, he procured from the natives an ample stock of corn and wild fowl when winter approached.
We are now at a point in the history of the New World full of the most romantic interest, and the pen is tempted from its present line of duty by a thousand seductive influences. The exploits of Smith--his exploring voyages--his discoveries--his indomitable perseverance
* Gosnold crossed the Atlantic in 1602. and, after a voyage of six weeks, saw land at the northern extremity of Massachusetts Bay. He sailed southward, and landed upon a promontory, which he called Cape Cod, on account of the great quantity of cod fish which abounded there. Pursuing his voyage along the coast, he discovered and named Elizabeth Islands, thirteen in number, Martha's Vineyard, and others in the neighborhood of Buzzard's Bay. After an absence of only four months, Gosnold returned to England.
[[[Progress of Jamestown Colony.--Smith's Voyage up the Chickahominy.--His Capture.--His Adventures in Europe.]]]
{453}and courage--his hardships, sufferings, escapes, and forbearance with his ungrateful companions, all plead eloquently for the services of pen and pencil. These must be briefly sketched in faint outline, for it is foreign to my plan to detail colonial history, except so much as is necessary to illustrate the main subject of these volumes--The War for Independence.
The Jamestown colony was placed beyond the effects of want in the autumn of 1607, and Smith, with a few companions, set out to explore the country.
He went up the Chickahominy, in an open boat, fifty miles from its mouth. * There he left his boat, the water being shallow, and, with two companions and two Indian guides, pushed into the interior. He ordered those in the boat not to leave it. Disobeying his instructions, they wandered on shore and were slain. Smith was surprised by a party of Indians, under Opechancanough, the "King of Pamunkee his two companions were killed, and he, after slaying several Indians, was made a prisoner. His life was spared, and he was conducted in triumph through the several Indian villages, from the Chickahominy to the banks of the Rappahannock and Potomac, and was finally brought back to the seat of Opechancanough, at Pamunkee, on the York River. There, for three days, the priests performed incantations to discover the character of their prisoner, and
* Among the positive instructions of the London Company, was an injunction for the colonists to endeavor to find a passage to the South Sea, or, in other words, to the East Indies, by a northwest passage, the object of the polar expeditions of the present day. For this purpose, they were instructed to explore every considerable stream that came from the northward; and hence we find Smith (who did not share in the geographical ignorance of his employers, but was willing to engage in discoveries) exploring the James, Chickahominy, York, and Potomac Rivers. The wily Indian mentioned on page 449 as having invented the wonderful story of a gold region at the head of the Roanoke, informed Lane that the source of that river was among high rocks so near the ocean on the west, that the salt water would sometimes dash over into the clear fountains of the stream!
** John Smith was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559. He was early distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure. At the age of thirteen, he sold his school-books and satchel to procure money to pay his way to the sea-board, for the purpose of going to sea. He was prevented, and was apprenticed to a merchant. He left home when he was fifteen years old, and went to France and the Low Countries. For two years he studied military tactics; and, at the age of seventeen, having procured a portion of an estate left by his father, went abroad seeking adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a storm arose, and the Roman Catholic crew believing the heretic, as they called Smith, to be a Jonah, they cast him into the sea to quiet the waters. He was a good swimmer, and reached the shore of a small island in the Mediterranean, called St. Mary's. From St. Mary's he went in a French vessel to Alexandria, in Egypt. He soon went from thence to Italy, and then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army, and, by his daring exploits at the siege of Olympach, was rewarded by the command of a troop of horse. These obtained the name of the "Fiery Dragoons," in the war against the Turks. At the siege of Regall, a Turkish officer, the Lord Turbishaw, "to amuse the ladies," offered to engage in single combat with any Christian soldier. The lot fell upon Smith; and, in the sight of both armies, he cut off the head of Turbishaw, and carried it in triumph to the Austrian camp. He fought two other champions, Grualgo and Mulgro, with the same result. In a subsequent battle Smith was wounded, captured, and sold to a pacha. This dignitary sent him to Constantinople, as a present to a damsel whom he loved. She, in turn, loved Smith, and to place him in safety, sent him to her brother. There, however, Smith was cruelly treated. He beat out the brains of the tyrant, and escaped to Muscovy, and finally reached Austria. He went with a French captain to Morocco and the Canaries, encountered a sea-fight with the Spaniards, and returned to his native country. His restless spirit made him yearn for adventures in the New World. Here, after many great exploits, and the endurance of many hardships, he planted the Virginia colony on a firm basis, and returned to England. He died in London in 1631, at the age of 72.
[[[The Indians outwitted by Smith.--His Trial and Sentence.--Pocahontas--her Marriage, Death, and Descendants.]]]
{545}the most expedient disposition of him, for they considered him a superior being. * They finally carried him to Wevowoeomoco, ** the lower seat of Powhatan, and referred the decision to that powerful chief.
Seated upon a raised platform, the trunk and branches of the towering pine for a palace, the lordly Powhatan, with his two favorite daughters beside him, and his "grim courtiers" and women around him, received the prisoner.
In solemn state he was tried; with solemn words he was adjudged to die. On the right of the Indian emperor sat Pocahontas, his youngest and best loved daughter. Her heart beat quick with sympathy the moment she saw the manly form of Smith, and in her young bosom glowed intense desire to save his life.=
```"How trembled then the maid, as rose
````That captive warrior, calm and stern,
```Thus girded by his wolfish foes
````His fearless spirit still would spurn.
```How bright his glance, how fair his face,
```And with what proud, enfranchised grace
````His footsteps free advance, as still
```He follow'd firm the bloody mace
```That guided to the gloomy place
````Where stood the savage sent to kill."
`````W. Gillmore Simms=
* Smith showed them a pocket compass, and explained its properties, and the shape of the earth; how "the sun, and the moon, and the stars chased each other." They were astonished, and regarded him with awe. They made him offers of "life, liberty, land, and women," if he would tell them how to obtain possession of Jamestown. They also obtained some of his powder. Smith made them waste it (for they had been made acquainted with its use) by letting them sow it as seed and raise a crop for themselves. In various ways he outwitted them, and so perfectly retained his self-possession that they regarded him with great respect.
** Werowocomoeo, the scene of Smith's salvation by Pocahontas, was upon the north side of the York River, in Gloucester county, about twenty-five miles below the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers, which form the broad and navigable York. According to Charles Campbell, Esq., of Petersburg, Virginia, who has carefully examined the matter, Shelly, the scat of Mrs. Mann Page, nearly opposite the mouth of Queen's Creek, is the site of Werowocomoeo. Carter's Creek, emptying into the York at Shelly, afforded a safe harbor for canoes. Such was also the opinion of Governor Page, whose plantation (Rosewell) adjoined that of Shelly. The enormous beds of oyster shell (on account of which Governor Page named the place Shelly) at this point indicate that it was once a place of great resort by the natives.
*** Pocahontas was a girl "of ten or twelve" years of age when she saved the life of Captain Smith. Two years afterward, when not over fourteen years old, she went from her father's camp, on a dark and stormy night, to Jamestown, and informed Smith of a conspiracy among the Indians to destroy the settlers. This timely interposition saved them. While Smith remained in the colony, she was a welcome visitor at Jamestown, and often bore messages between the white men and her kindred. In 1612, after Smith had returned to England, she was treacherously betrayed, for the bribe of a copper kettle, into the hands of Captain Argali, and by him kept as a prisoner, in order to secure advantageous terms of peace with Powhatan. The Indian king offered five hundred bushels of corn for her ransom; but, before her release was effected, a mutual attachment had sprung up between her and John Rolfe, a young Englishman of good family. With the consent of her father she received Christian baptism, and was married to Rolfe. The former ceremony is the subject, of a beautiful painting by John G. Chapman, Esq., which graces one of the panels of the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Pocahontas accompanied her husband to England in 1616, where she was received at court with the distinction of a princess. The bigoted King James was highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry into a royal family, and absurdly apprehended that, because Rolfe had married an Indian princess, he might lay claim to the crown of Virginia! It is said that Pocahontas was much afflicted because Smith, fearing the royal displeasure, would not allow a king's daughter to call him father, her usual endearing name when addressing him. She remained in England about a year; and when on the point of returning to America, with her husband, in 1617, she sickened and died at Gravesend. The Lady Rebecca (for so she was called in England) had many and sincere mourners. She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became a distinguished man in Virginia. He left an only daughter, and from her some of the leading families of Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Bollings, Hemmings, Murrays, Guys, Eldridires, and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of Roanoke, was a descendant of the Indian princess. Her portrait here given is from a painting made in England, while she was there. Her costume shows the style of a fashionable dress of that day.
[[[Smith's Life saved by Pocahontas.--Condition of Jamestown.--Newport's Folly.--Smith's Exploring Expedition.]]]
{455}With his arms pinioned, Smith was laid upon the ground, with his head upon a stone, and the executioner had lifted the huge club to dash out his brains. With a bound like that of a frightened fawn, Pocahontas leaped from the side of her father to that of the prisoner, and interposed her delicate form between his head and the warrior's mace;=
```Then turns--with eye grown tearless now,
````But full of speeeh, as eye alone
```Can speak to eye, and heart in prayer--
````For merey to her father's throne!=
```How could that stern old king deny
```The angel pleading in her eye?
```How mock the sweet, imploring grace.
```That breathed in beauty from her faee,
```And to her kneeling action gave
````A power to soothe, and still subdue,
```Until, though humble as a slave,
````To more than queenly sway she grew?
```Oh! brief the doubt--oh! short the strife;
```She wins the captive's forfeit life;
```She breaks his bands, she bids him go,
```Her idol, but her country's foe,
```And dreams not, in that parting hour,
````The gyves that from his limbs she tears
```Are light in weight, and frail in power,
````To those that round her heart she wears."
`````Simms.=
Smith's life was spared. The enmity of the natives was changed to friendship, and, with a guard of twelve men, he was sent to Jamestown, a wiser man; for, during his seven weeks of captivity, he had traversed a large extent of country, observed its resources, and the habits and condition of the Indians, and made himself quite familiar with their language. He established a friendly intercourse with Powhatan and his confederates, and often the "dearest daughter of the king," with her companions, brought baskets of corn for the garrison.
Disorder prevailed at Jamestown on Smith's return. Only forty men remained, and these were on the point of abandoning the country where they had suffered so much, and escape with the pinnace. The courage and energy of Smith compelled them to remain. Newport soon afterward arrived with supplies, and one hundred and twenty emigrants, chiefly idle gentlemen, "packed hither," as Smith says, "by their friends, to escape ill destinies," and goldsmiths, the very men least needed in the colony. Gold was the chief incentive of the Company and the adventurers to risk capital and life. Discovering something resembling grains of the metal near the site of Richmond, "there was no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Newport loaded his vessel with, worthless earth, and returned to England with the idea that he was exceedingly rich, but to have science and skill pronounce him miserably poor in useful knowledge and well-earned reputation.
Smith remonstrated against idleness, and pleaded for industry, but in vain. He implored the settlers to plow and sow, that they might reap and be happy. They refused to listen, and he turned from Jamestown with disgust, and, with a few sensible men, explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. He went up the Potomac to the Falls above Washington City. He also entered the Patapsco, and ate maize upon the site of Baltimore. These long voyages were made in an open boat, propelled by oars and paddles. It was one of the most wonderful of exploring expeditions, considered in all its aspects, recorded by the pen of history. Smith constructed a map of his discoveries, and every subsequent survey of the region attests its remarkable accuracy.
Three days after Smith's return to Jamestown he was made president of the colony. (a) Newport soon afterward arrived from England with a supply of food. With [[ a Sept. 10, 1608]] him came two females, the first English women seen upon the James River.
Smith again exerted his energies to turn the little industry of the settlers to agriculture, and succeeded in a degree. The colony was beginning to thrive under his management, when the features of its political character were modified. A new charter was [[ b May 23, 1609]] given to the London Company, (b) with provisions for a more powerful government.
* The new charter extended the limits of the colony, and transferred to the Company the power which had before been reserved to the king. The council in England, formerly appointed by the king, was now to have its vacancies filled by the votes of a majority of the corporation. This council was authorized to appoint a governor, and to delegate to him almost absolute power, even in cases capital and criminal, as well as civil. They could give him power to declare martial law at his discretion; and thus the lives, liberties, and fortunes of the colonists were placed at the will of a single man.
[[[Lord De la Ware.--Commissioners.--Anarchy at Jamestown.--Famine.--Timely Relief]]]
{456}The colonists had no voice in the matter; neither their rights nor wishes were consulted or respected. While extraordinary powers were given to the governor, not one new civil privilege was conceded to them.
Under the new charter, Lord De la Ware, or Delaware, a virtuous and upright nobleman, was appointed governor and captain-general of Virginia for life. Before his departure for America, nine ships, under the command of Newport, with more than five hundred emigrants, were sent to the James River. Sir Thomas Gates (the governor's deputy), Newport, and Sir George Somers, were sent as commissioners to administer the government until the arrival of Lord Delaware. A hurricane drove the fleet toward the West Indies. The vessel in which were the three commissioners was stranded on the rocks of the Bermudas, and only seven vessels of the squadron reached Virginia. The commissioners were not lost; but their arrival in the colony with the emigrants was prevented, and great confusion followed. A large portion of the new comers were idle and dissolute scions of wealthy families, without energy or good principles. They regarded the colony as without a head until the arrival of the commissioners or the governor, and were disposed to set at naught the authority of President Smith. That energetic man was equal to the exigency of the case, and he boldly and successfully maintained his authority until an accident prostrated his body, and he was obliged to go to England for surgical aid. * He delegated his authority to George Percy, brother of the Duke of Northumberland, and sailed for England in the summer of 1608.
The colonists, released from the control of Smith, now gave themselves up to every irregularity of life. The Indians lost their respect for, and dread of Englishmen; and when the ample stock of provisions of the latter was consumed, the former refused assistance. Famine ensued; thirty escaped in a vessel to become pirates; and within six months, hunger, sickness, and Indian hatchets had reduced the colony of more than five hundred left by Smith, to sixty persons, and these were perishing with hunger. "It was not the will of God that the new state should be formed of these materials; that such men should be the fathers of a progeny, born on the American soil, who were one day to assert American liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor." ** This period of distress was long remembered with a shudder as "the starving time."
At the moment when the destitution was greatest, the commissioners and their wrecked companions arrived. Upon the uninhabited island where they stranded they had constructed two rude vessels, loaded them with the stores of their ship, which laid among the rocks, and sailed for the James River. They arrived in June; (a) but, instead of finding a large [[ a 1609]] and flourishing colony, they were greeted by a handful of emaciated men, on the point of dying. Death by famine awaited all, and Gates resolved to sail for Newfoundland, and disperse the company among the English fishing vessels there. Jamestown was utterly abandoned, and toward Hampton Roads the dejected settlers sailed in the four pinnaces which remained in the river. As they approached that broad harbor on the following morning, a vision of white sails cheered their hearts; and as the sun came up, the longboat of Lord Delaware was seen approaching. He came with emigrants and supplies; and that night, Jamestown, abandoned to the rude natives in the morning, was made vocal [[ b June 9]] with hymns and thanksgivings from truly grateful lips. (b) The next day solemn religious exercises were held; the commission of Lord Delaware was read, and the foundation stone of the Virginia Commonwealth was permanently laid. Delaware ad-
* I have noticed the efforts of Smith to establish a permanent settlement at Powhatan, near Richmond. While returning from that place down the James River, his powder-bag accidentally exploded and almost killed him. He was dreadfully lacerated, and so acute was the pain, that he threw himself into the river for alleviation. He was recovered when nearly drowned.
** Bancroft, i. 138.
[[[Arrival of new Emigrants and Supplies.--Prosperity of the Colony.--Implantation of Republicanism.--New Constitution.]]]
{457}ministered the government with equity until the failure of his health required him to return to England. (a) Percy was left in charge of affairs until Delaware's successor should [[ a 1611]]arrive. In the mean while, Sir Thomas Dale, an "experienced soldier of the Low Countries," arrived with supplies, (b) and assumed the government, which he [[ b May 10]] administered upon the basis of martial law. In less than four months afterward, Sir Thomas Gates arrived with supplies, and three hundred emigrants, in six ships, and assumed the functions of governor. Under Dale and Gates, the colony, now numbering nearly a thousand souls, thrived wonderfully. There were but few drones; industry and sobriety prevailed, and a bright future dawned upon Jamestown.
A new charter was granted to the London Company in 1612. The supreme council in England was abolished, and its powers were transferred to the whole Company, who were to meet as a democratic assembly, elect their own officers for the colony, and establish the laws therefor. This was the republican seed which found its way to Virginia, and took deep root there. Another important concession was made; the Bermudas, and all islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore, were included in the grant, and opened a commercial field. The colony continued to flourish; and the marriage of John Rolfe with Pocahontas, with the consent of her father, and the concurrence of Opechancanough, her uncle (who "gave her away" at the marriage altar), cemented the friendship which had been gradually forming between the white men and natives.
In 1614, Gates went to England, and left affairs in the hands of Dale, who ruled with energy for five years, when he appointed George Yeardly deputy governor, and returned to England. Yeardly encouraged agriculture, and, during his administration, the tobacco plant began to be cultivated. It soon became not only the staple, but the currency of the colony. He was succeeded in office (c) by Samuel Argali, an unprincipled man, and sort of [[ c 1617]] buccaneer, * who ruled with tyranny for two years, and was then displaced. Yeardly was made governor; the planters were released from further tribute-service to the colony; martial law was abolished; and on the 29th of June, 1619, the first colonial assembly ever held in America was convened at Jamestown. The domain of the English had been divided into eleven boroughs. Two representatives from each were present at the assembly, and were called burgesses. This was the kernel of the Virginia government which prevailed until the Revolution--a governor, his council, and a house of Burgesses. It was the beginning of the American constitutions.
Twelve years had elapsed since planting Jamestown, and now the settlement first assumed the character of permanency. Ninety respectable young women were sent over in 1620, ** and the following year sixty more came to be wives for the planters. The settlers "fell to building houses and planting corn," with a determination to make Virginia their home. The gold mania had passed away, and the wealth of the rich mold was delved for with success. A written constitution was granted to the colony by the Company in 1621, (d) which ratified the form of government introduced by Yeardly. It was [[ d August, 1621]] brought over by Sir Francis Wyatt, who succeeded Yeardly, and was received with joy by the colonists. General prosperity prevailed, and glad dreams of happiness filled
* Argali, as we have noticed, obtained possession of Pocahontas, and made her his prisoner, in 1613. The same year he sailed with his fleet to the coast ol Maine, to protect the English fisheries. He broke up a French colony near the Penobscot, and sent some of the people to France and some to Virginia. He also broke up a French settlement at Port Royal, and made the conquest of Acadia. On his return voyage to Virginia, he entered the Bay of New York, and compelled the little Dutch trading settlement there to acknowledge the supremacy ol' England.
** On the 20th of August, in this year, a Dutch man-of-war entered the James River, and landed twenty negroes for sale. Almost simultaneously with the birth of civil liberty in Virginia, by the concession of the representative system, and the tacit acknowledgment of the universal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the system of human bondage, which has ever weighed upon our national energies, and tarnished our national character, was introduced. Englishmen have attempted to cast off the stain from themselves by alleging that the traffickers from a foreign country first brought the negroes here. Had not Englishmen become the willing purchasers, the slave-trade and its system would never have been known in this country.
[[[Massacre by the Indians.--Retaliation.--The Patents canceled.--Policy of Charles I.--Governor Harvey.]]]
{458}the minds of the settlers. They were now four thousand strong, and fast increasing; but a cloud was gathering.
Powhatan, the firm friend of the English since the marriage of his daughter, was now dead. * The restraints of his influence were lifted from his people, and they, apprehending their own annihilation by the white men, resolved to strike a blow of extermination. At [[ b March 22, 1622]] mid-day, (a) the hatchet fell upon the more remote settlements around Jamestown, and more than seventeen scores of men, women, and children perished in an hour. ** A friendly Indian, a Christian convert, warned his white friend (Pa Ca) in Jamestown of the plot the night before. The people prepared for defense, and were, with the nearest settlements, to whom they sent notice, saved. General alarm prevailed. The remote planters fled to Jamestown, and the number of plantations was reduced from eighty to eight. A terrible reaction ensued. The English arose, and, moved with a spirit of hatred and revenge, they smote the Indians with great slaughter, and drove them far back into the wilderness.
We have seen the government of Virginia gradually changed from a royal tenure, under the first charter, to a proprietary and representative government under the second and third charters. The king now began to look upon it with suspicion, as inimical to royalty, and a breeder of disloyal men. The holders of the stock of the London Company had become very numerous, and their election of officers assumed a political character, presenting two parties--the advocates of liberty, and the upholders of the royal prerogative. The king, disliking the freedom of debate which prevailed at their meetings, attempted to control their elections; but failing in this, he determined to recover, by a dissolution of their Company, the influence in the affairs of the New World of which he had deprived himself by his own charter. He appointed a çommission, composed of his own pliant instruments, to examine the affairs of the Company. They, of course, reported favorable to a dissolution of the association, and an equally pliant judiciary effected a consummation of the measure. A quo warranto was issued; it was feebly defended, and in June, 1624, a decision was given against the Company, and the patents were canceled. The enterprise had, thus far, been an unprofitable speculation for the Company, and there was not much opposition. The king took the political affairs of the colony into his own hands, and it became a royal government; yet no material changes were made in the domestic policy of the settlers, and they were allowed to retain their popular legislative assemblies as a branch of their government. [[ b April 6]] James died in 1625, (b) and his son, the unfortunate Charles I., succeeded him.
The policy of the new monarch toward the colonists was governed entirely by selfish motives, and he allowed them liberty under which to prosper, that gain to himself might accrue. He imposed some restrictions, and attempted, but in vain, to gain for himself a monopoly of the trade in tobacco, by becoming the sole factor of the planters. ** Governor Yeardly died in November, 1627, and the king appointed John Harvey, one of his warmest [[ c 1628]] supporters, and a member of the commission appointed by James, governor; (c) but his unpopularity in the colony lost to the king all the advantages his selfishness coveted. The Virginians deprived Harvey of his government in 1635; summoned an assembly to receive complaints against him, and appointed commissioners to proceed to England
* Powhatan died in 1618, and his younger brother, Opechancanough, heired his power, but not his friendly influence favorable to the English. He always harbored a secret aversion to the white men. Only a few days before the massacre, he declared "that sooner the skies would fall than his friendship with the English be dissolved."
** Exaggerated reports went to England. Smith, in his Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters, stated the number of killed at 5000. Berkeley rated it at 2000. Edward Waterhouse transmitted to the Company a statement containing the names of every victim. The number was 347.--Declaration of the State of the Colony, &c., pages 14--21.
*** In his efforts to obtain the control of the tobacco trade, by becoming himself the sole purchaser of the crop, the king unconsciously recognized the legality of the Virginia Assembly. In a letter to the governor and council, written in June, 1628, he offered to contract for the whole crop of tobacco, and expressed a desire that an assembly might be convened to consider his proposal. "This is the first recognition," says Bancroft (i., 196), "on the part of a Stuart of a representative assembly in America." James permitted it, but did not expressly sanction it.
[[[Wyatt and Berkeley.--The Commonwealth.--Intolerance in Virginia.--Indian Wars.--Berkely and Loyalty.]]]
{459}with an impeachment. Harvey accompanied the commissioners. The king would not even admit the accusers to a hearing, and the accused was sent back, clothed with full authority from Charles to administer the government. He remained in office until 1639, when he was succeeded by Sir Francis Wyatt. (a) Sir William Berkeley succeeded Wyatt in [[ a Nov.]] 1641. (b) During his first administration of ten years, the civil condition of the [[ b Aug.]] Virginians was much improved. The rights of property, and the rewards of industry, were secured, and the people were prosperous and happy. *
The democratic revolution in England, which brought Charles to the block and placed Cromwell in power, now began, and religious sects in England and America assumed a political importance. Puritans had hitherto been tolerated in Virginia; and Puritan ministers were even invited by the council to come to that province from Massachusetts Bay. Now, as the monarch and the Church were united in interest, and the Virginians were loyal to Church and king, it was decided that no minister should preach or teach except in conformity to the constitution of the Church of England, and Non-conformists were banished from the colony. This was a cloud upon the otherwise clear skies of the settlement. But a darker cloud was gathering. The Indians prepared for another massacre of the white men. The war-whoop sounded along the frontier settlements, and a general border contest ensued. (c) The [[ c April, 1646]] Indians were generally defeated, and old Opechancanough, the chief instigator, was [[ d 1646]] made a prisoner, and died in captivity. (d) Peace was speedily effected by the Indians making large concessions to the white men. **
The Virginians remained loyal during the civil war in England; and when the king was beheaded, and the Republicans bore rule, they recognized Charles, the son of their murdered sovereign, though then a fugitive in a foreign country. The Parliament was incensed at the audacity of a colony resisting the will of the supreme government, and took measures to enforce submission. *** A powerful fleet, under Sir George Aysene, entered the Chesapeake, and east anchor at the mouth of the James River. Sir William Berkeley, **** with the cavaliers
* In 1648, the number of colonists was twenty thousand. '"The cottages were filled with children, as the ports were with ships and emigrants." Ten ships from London, two from Bristol, twelve from Holland, and seven from New England, were trading in Virginia at Christmas of that year.--Mass. Hist. Coll., ix., 118.
** Necotowance, the successor of Opechancanough, was forced to acknowledge that he held his kingdom of the crown of England. It was agreed that the Indians should remove to the north side of the York and Pamunkey Rivers; and they ceded to the white men all the lands from the Falls of the James River, at Richmond, between the two rivers, to the Bay forever. Thus were the natives driven from their beautiful land--the most beautiful in all Virginia--leaving few traces of their existence behind.
*** An ordinance was passed on the 3d of October, 1650, empowering the Council of State to reduce the rebellious colonies to obedience, and, at the same time, establish it as a law, that foreign ships should not trade in any of the ports in Barbadoes, Antiguas, Bermudas, and Virginia.
**** Sir William Berkeley was of an ancient family near London. He was educated at Oxford, and admitted Master of Arts in 1629. The next year he traveled extensively in Europe, and became a model of an elegant courtier and cavalier. He succeeded Sir Francis Wyatt as governor of Virginia in 1641, and held that post most of the time during the civil wars in England, and until the restoration of monarchy in 1660. He exhibited shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of Parliament, sent to subdue the loyal colony of Virginia, appeared in the James River; and, by good management, both parties were satisfied. Cromwell appointed "worthy Samuel Mathews" governor, and, at his death, Berkeley was elected governor by the people. His obsequious deference to royalty offended the independent Virginians, and his popularity declined. His obstinacy in refusing compliance with the expressed wishes of the inhabitants that Nathaniel Bacon might lead an expedition against the Indians, further alienated the affections of his people. He became irritable and revengeful; and when juries refused to aid his projects of vengeance against those who followed Bacon, he resorted to martial law, and fines, confiscations, and executions ensued. In view of this conduct Charles II. remarked, "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than I have taken for the murder of my father."
**** Berkeley returned to England, after an administration of nearly forty years, and died soon after his arrival. He was buried at Twickenham, July 13, 1677. He was possessed of quite liberal views in respect to government, but these were often hidden or perverted by his cringing loyalty. In his reply to commissioners sent in 1671 to inquire into the state of the colony, he said, "Thank God there are no free schools nor printing-press, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged these and libels against the best government." In this last sentence the old bigot courtier uttered one of the most glorious truths whieh the march of progress has practically developed. Tyranny always fears enlightenment. Napoleon said he was in more dread of one free printing-press than a hundred thousand Austrian bayonets.
[[[Opposition to parliamentary Commissions.--Concession to the Colonists.--Commercial Restrictions.--King of Virginia.]]]
{460}who had fled to Virginia, on the death of Charles, for safety, were prepared for their reception. Armed Dutch vessels, lying in the river, were pressed into service; and, although the Virginians had resolved to submit as soon as they perceived the arrival of the fleet, they, like Falstaff, declared they would not do it "on compulsion." This unexpected show of resistance made the commissioners of Parliament, who were sent out to negotiate, hesitate; and, instead of opening their cannon upon the colonists, they courteously proposed submission to the authority of the Protector, upon terms quite satisfactory to the Virginians. The liberties of the colonists were more fully secured than they had ever been; indeed, they were allowed nearly all those rights which the Declaration of Independence a century and a quarter later charged the King of Great Britain with violating. Until the restoration of monarchy in 1660, Virginia was virtually an independent state; for Cromwell made no appointments for the state, except a governor. On the death of Oliver Cromwell In 1658, the Virginians were not disposed to acknowledge the authority of Richard, his successor, and they elected Matthews, and afterward Berkeley, to fill the office of governor. Universal suffrage prevailed; all freemen, without exception, were allowed to vote; and servants, when the terms of their bondage ended, became electors, and might be made burgesses.
When the news of the probable restoration of Charles the Second reached Virginia, Berkeley disclaimed the popular sovereignty, proclaimed the exiled monarch, issued writs for an assembly in the name of the king, and the friends of royalty came into power. * High hopes of great favor from the new king were entertained. They were speedily blasted. Commercial restrictions, grafted upon the existing colonial system of the commonwealth, were rigorously enforced. ** The people murmured, and finally remonstrated, but in vain. The profligate monarch, who seems never to have had a clear perception of right and wrong, but was always guided by the dictates of caprice and passion, gave away to special favorites large tracts of land, some of it cultivated and valuable. *** The Royalist party in Virginia soon began to have an evil influence. The Assembly abridged the liberties of the people; the members, elected for only two years, assumed to themselves the right of an indefinite continuance of power, and the representative system was virtually abolished. Intolerance began to grow again, and heavy fines were imposed upon Baptists and Quakers. Taxes were made unequal and oppressive. Loyalty waned; the people learned to despise the very name of king, and open discontent ensued. The common people formed a Republican party, opposed to the aristocracy and the Royalists.
The menaces of the hostile Susquehannas, a fierce tribe on the northern frontier, who had been driven southward by the Five Nations, and were then desolating the remote set-
* Berkeley proclaimed Charles the Second king of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia. Charles was therefore made king in Virginia, by the supreme authorities of the colony, before he actually became so in England. Already, when they were informed that Cromwell was about to send a fleet to reduce them to submission, the Virginians sent, in a small ship, a messenger to Charles, at Breda, in Flanders, to invite him to come over and be King of Virginia. He was on the point of sailing, when he was called to the throne of his father. In gratitude to Virginia, he caused the arms of that province to be quartered with those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent member of the empire. From this circumstance Virginia received the name of The Old Dominion. Coins with these quarterings were made as late as 1773.
** The colonial system of all kingdoms has uniformly been to make the industry of colonists tributary to the aggrandizement of the parent country. The Navigation Act, which, down to the time of our Revolution, was a fruitful source of complaint, was now rigorously applied, and new and more stringent provisions added to it. Under it, no commodities could be imported into any British settlement, nor exported from them, except in English vessels; and tobacco, turpentine, and other principal commodities of the colonies, could be shipped to no country except England. The trade between the colonies was also taxed for the benefit of the imperial treasury, and in various other ways the colonies were made dependent on the mother country.
*** He gave away to Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington, two of his favorites, "all the dominion of land and water called Virginia," for the space of thirty-one years. Culpepper became governor in 1680.
[[[Indian Hostilities.--"Bacon's Rebellion."--Republican Triumphs.--English Troops.--Burning of Jamestown.]]]
{461}tlements of Maryland, offered the people an excuse for arming. The Indians hovered nearer and nearer, and committed murders on Virginia soil. The planters, with Nathaniel Bacon, a popular, bold, and talented man, for their leader, demanded of Governor Berkeley the privilege of protecting themselves. Berkeley refused; for he doubtless had sagacity to perceive how the people would thus discover their strength. At length, some people on Bacon's plantation having been killed by the Indians, that gentleman yielded to popular clamor, placed himself at the head of five hundred men, and marched against the invaders. Berkeley, who was jealous of Bacon's popularity, immediately proclaimed him a traitor, (a) and [[ a May, 1676]] ordered a body of troops to pursue and arrest him. * Bacon was successful against the Indians, while Berkeley was obliged to recall his troops to put down a rising rebellion in the lower counties. The people generally sympathized with the "traitor." They arose in open insurrection; Berkeley was compelled to yield; the Long Assembly was dissolved, and a new one elected; new laws were granted; universal suffrage was restored; arbitrary taxation was abolished, and Bacon was appointed commander-in-chief. Berkeley, compelled by the popular will, promised to sign Bacon's commission, but this promise was never fulfilled. Fearing treachery, the latter withdrew to Williamsburg, then called the Middle Plantation, where he assembled five hundred men, and marched to Jamestown, to demand his commission from the governor. It was reluctantly granted; and Berkeley and the Assembly, overawed, attested the bravery and loyalty of Bacon, and on the 4th of July, 1676, just one hundred years before the birth-day of our republic, a more liberal and enlightened legislation commenced in Virginia. "The eighteenth century in Virginia was the child of the seventeenth; and Bacon's rebellion, with the corresponding scenes in Maryland, Carolina, and New England, was the earlier harbinger of American independence and American nationality." **
The moment Bacon left Jamestown to confront the invading Indians, Berkeley treacherously and rashly published a proclamation, reversing all the proceedings of the burgesses; again declaring Bacon a traitor, and calling upon the loyal aristocracy to join him. The indignation of Bacon was fiercely kindled, and, marching back to the capital, he lighted up a civil war. The property of Berkeley's adherents was confiscated; their wives were seized as hostages; and a general destruction of the plantations of the Royalists ensued. Berkeley and his followers were driven from Jamestown, and sought shelter on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. Bacon became supreme ruler, and, having proclaimed the abdication of Berkeley, he summoned an Assembly in his own name, and prepared to cast off all allegiance to the English crown. When troops came from England to support Berkeley, Bacon and his followers resolved to oppose them. *** A rumor reached the capital that a strong party of Royalists, with the imperial troops, were approaching, and, in a council of war, Bacon and his followers resolved to burn Jamestown. The torch was applied just as the night shadows came over the village, and the sun rose the next morning upon the smoking ruins of the first English town built in America. Naught remained standing but a few chimneys and the church tower, that solitary monument which now attracts the eye and heart of the traveler.
* Nathaniel Bacon was a native of Suffolk. He was educated for the legal profession in London. He went to Virginia, where his high character for virtue and integrity soon procured him a seat in the council. He purchased a plantation not far from the present city of Richmond. Handsome in person, eloquent in speech, and thoroughly accomplished, he acquired great popularity; and when he proposed to lead the young men of the settlement against the murderous Indians, he had many adherents. In defiance of the wrath of the jealous Berkeley, he headed an expedition. The governor proclaimed him a traitor, and his followers rebels. Bacon was successfully beating back the Indians on one side, and the governor s adherents on the other, when death, from a severe disease, closed his career. Had he lived to complete what he had begun, his memory would have been cherished as a patriot, instead of being clouded with the stigma of the insurgent. He died at the house of Dr. Green, in Gloucester county, October 1, 1676.
** Bancroft., ii., 222.
*** This was the first time that English troops were sent to America to suppress republicanism. The same determined spirit prevailed which, a century later, made all the Anglo-American colonies lift the arm of defiance against the armies and navies of Great Britain, when sent here to burn our towns, ravage our coasts, and eat out the substance of the people."
[[[Death of Bacon.--Vengeance of Berkeley.--His Recall and Death.--Jamestown and its Associations.]]]
{462}Leaving the smoking ruins behind, Bacon pushed forward with his little army to drive the Royalists from Virginia; but the malaria from the low lands infused its poison into his [[ a October, 1676]] veins, and on the north bank of the York River that brave patriot died. (a) His death was a blow of unutterable evil to his followers, for no other man could wear the mantle of his influence. The fugitive governor returned to the Middle Plantation In triumph, and began to wreak his vengeance upon the principal insurgents. Twenty were hanged, ** and others were on their way to the gallows, when the Assembly implored that "he would spill no more blood." Berkeley yielded; but the fines, confiscations, and other punishments continued. He ruled with an iron hand, which rule begot him many enemies at home. ** He was soon recalled, and went to England, but died before he obtained an audience with his king. ***
As briefly as perspicuity would allow, I have sketched the early history of Virginia, in order to illustrate the gradual development of that spirit of liberty which spoke out so boldly, and acted with so much decision and power there, in the incipient and progressive stages of the War for Independence. We have seen the republican tree spring up and flourish on the banks of the James River, until its branches overspread a wide region, and sheltered thousands of freemen who, a hundred years before our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, were ready to forswear allegiance to the British monarch, unless he should virtually recognize their sovereignty as a people. In the struggle between monarchy and republicanism, represented by Berkeley and Bacon, we have seen the capital of the new state, after an existence of seventy years, reduced to ashes, never to be restored. For a century and three quarters it has been a desolation. The green grass, the waving corn, and the golden wheat now cover the earth where streets and lanes were trodden by Smith and Gosnold, Newport, Gates and Berkeley, Powhatan and Pocahontas, and a host of Englishmen, whose spirits seem to have taken root in the soil, and multiplied a thousand-fold--whose scattered bones, like dragons teeth sown upon the land, seem to have germinated and sent up full-armed heroes. Nothing remains of the past but this old tower and these broken tombs, among which we have sat while pondering the antecedents of the present. We will close the chronicle for a while, and, taking a glance at later Revolutionary events here, hasten away to Williamsburg--the "Middle Plantation"--the second capital of Virginia.
* Among those who suffered were Colonel Hansford; Captains Carver, Farlow, and Wilford; Major Cheeseman; William Drummond (former governor of Carolina), and Colonel Richard Lawrence. Colonel Hansford was the first native of Virginia who died on the gallows, and he has been justly termed the first martyr to American liberty. This civil war cost the colony a quarter of a million of dollars.
** Afraid of popular enlightenment, Berkeley would not allow a printing-press in Virginia. To speak ill of him, or any of his friends, was punished as a crime by whipping, or a fine; to speak, write, or publish any thing in mitigation or favor of the rebellion or rebels, was made a misdemeanor, and, if thrice repeated, was evidence of treason.--Henning's Statutes of Virginia, ii., 385.
*** Berkeley was much censured in England, and those censures affected him greatly. His brother, Lord Berkeley, declared that the unfavorable report of the commissioners caused the death of Sir William.
[[[Departure from Jamestown.--Remains of Fortifications.--"Spencer's Ordinary."--Retreat of Cornwallis.]]]
{463}
Chapter XVIII
```"I look'd, and thought the quiet of the scene
````An emblem of the peace that yet shall he,
```When, o'er earth's continents and isles between,
````The noise of war shall cease from sea to sea,
````And married nations dwell in harmony;
```When millions, crouching in the dust to one,
````No more shall beg their lives on bended knee,
```Nor the black stake he dress'd, nor in the sun
```The o'er-labor'd captive toil, and wish his life were done."
`````Bryant.=
N hour before meridian I left the old church-yard at Jamestown, and sauntered along the pebbly shore back to the little punt in which I was to reach the mainland. I picked up two or three Jamestown diamonds, and a small brass key of antique form, which lay among the pebbles, and then left that interesting spot, perhaps forever. The day was very warm, and I was glad to get within the shadow of the pine forests which skirt the road almost the whole way from Jamestown to Williamsburg, a distance of four miles and a half. Not a leaf stirred upon the trees, and the silence of solitude prevailed, for the insects had gone to their winter repose, and the birds had finished their summer carols.
A mile and a half from Jamestown, I crossed the Powhatan Creek, a sluggish stream which finds its way into the James River through a fen in the rear of Jamestown Island. On its northern bank, a few yards from the road, are the remains of a fortification, which was thrown up by Cornwallis in the summer of 1781. The embankments and ditches are very prominent. Neighborhood tradition calls them the remnant of Powhatan's fort. In this vicinity two engagements took place between the Royalists and Republicans in June and July, 1781. The first occurred at the forks of the road, one of which makes a circuit to the Chickahominy, the other leads to Williamsburg. The place is known in history as Spencer s Ordinary, from the circumstance that a man named Spencer kept a tavern at the forks. Let us see what the pen of history has recorded.
In the spring of 1781, Cornwallis left Wilmington, in North Carolina, and marched into Virginia, to join the invading forces under Phillips and Arnold at Petersburg. After attempts to capture stores in the heart of Virginia, and finding the forces of La Fayette, Wayne, and Steuben rapidly increasing, the earl thought it prudent to return toward the sea-shore. He accordingly retreated to Richmond, and from thence across the Chickahominy to Williamsburg and Jamestown, and then down the James River to Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. From the stables and pastures of the planters he took the fine horses which they had refused to Greene, * and well mounted his cavalry. In his retreat he was closely pursued, and greatly annoyed by La Fayette and Wayne, with about four thousand men. **
Cornwallis reached Williamsburg on the 25th of June. (a) Informed that the Americans had some boats and stores on the Chickahominy River, he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with his Rangers, and a company of Yagers, under Major Armstrong and Captain Ewald, to destroy them, and to collect all the cattle they could find. *** La Fayette,
* Greene, then in command of the Southern army, had left Steuben in Virginia to collect troops, horses, and stores, and send them to him at the South.
** There were 2100 regulars, of which number 1500 were veteran troops, who had experienced service at the North.
*** Simcoe found but little to destroy on the Chickahominy, and returning, halted at Dandridge's, within three, miles of the Diesckung Creek, a branch of the Chickahominy. The next morning they marched to the creek, repaired the bridge sufficiently to pass over, and then utterly destroyed it. They then marched to Cooper's Mills, nearly twenty miles from Williamsburg. Simcoe was anxious concerning his safety, for he could not gain a word of reliable information respecting La Fayette's movements. He promised a great reward to a Whig to go to the marquis's camp and return with information by the next morning, when his detachment should march. The Whig went; but instead of returning with information for Simcoe, he piloted Wayne, with a considerable force, to the place of the Rangers' encampment. The fires were yet burning, but the coveted prize had departed an hour before.--See Simcoe's Military Journal.
[[[Simcoe's Expedition.--Engagement between the advanced Guards of the Belligerents.--Battle at Spencer's Ordinary.]]]
{464}with great circumspection, had kept about a score of miles in the rear of the royal army while pursuing Cornwallis. He was at Tyre's plantation, about twenty miles from Williamsburg, when informed of Simcoe's expedition, and immediately detached Lieutenant-colonel Percival Butler, a brave officer of the Pennsylvania line, to intercept that partisan on his return. * Butler's detachment consisted of a corps of Continental troops, two rifle corps, under Majors Call and Willis, and about one hundred and twenty horsemen, under Major M'Pherson. Simcoe accomplished his purpose without opposition, and was hastening back to Williamsburg with a quantity of cattle procured from the planters, when he was overtaken at Spencer's Ordinary by M'Pherson and his dragoons, and a very severe skirmish ensued. Both parties were ignorant of the real strength of each other, and maneuvered with caution.
Simcoe believed the whole force of La Fayette to be near, and Butler supposed his detachment was fighting with the advanced guard of Cornwallis's army.
The approach of the Americans was first discovered by trumpeter Barney, of the Queen's Rangers, who was stationed as a vidette on an eminence about half way between Lee's farm and the road along which the patriots were approaching. A body of cavalry, under Captain Shank, were then dismounted at Lee's farm, where they were foraging. Barney galloped toward Spencer's, and this averted the blow which might have fallen fatally upon the dismounted cavalry at Lee's, if they had been seen by the Americans. The latter, perceiving the direction of the vidette's flight, and concluding he was retreating to his corps, pushed on toward Spencer's. The dragoons at Lee's immediately mounted, and, dashing through the wood, made a furious charge upon the right flank of the Americans. In this onset Major M'Pherson was thrown from his horse by Sergeant Wright of the Rangers, and so severely hurt that he did not again engage in the conflict. The belligerents swept on beyond him, too intent upon battle to stop for prisoners, and his life and liberty were spared.
The infantry and rifle corps under Simcoe were now brought into action. Butler's riflemen had also reached the scene of conflict. The fence on each side of the road had been thrown down by Simcoe early in the morning, to allow greater freedom for his troops. The action became general and fierce within an eighth of a mile of Spencer's. Simcoe soon perceived that he could not win a victory by fair fighting, and turned his attention to stratagem. While Captain Althouse with the
* Lieutenant-colonel Butler was Morgan's second in command at Saratoga.
* Note.--The letters in the above map have reference as follows: A, American infantry; B, American cavalry; C, the Queen's Rangers halting at the forks of the road; D, the Rangers in line, prepared for attack; E, the cavalry of the Queen's Rangers, foraging at Lee's farm; F, the British cavalry, and B, the American cavalry, contending at the beginning of the battle; G, the Rangers after the battle; and H, I, the line of retreat back to the road near Spencer's; K, trumpeter Barney, when he first discovered the Americans and gave the alarm; L, the Yagers, commanded chiefly by Ewald; M, a three-pounder near Spencer's; N, Captain Althouse with British riflemen.
[[[Simcoe's Stratagem.--A drawn Battle.--The Loss.--Burial with the Honors ot War.--March of Cornwallis from Williamsburg.]]]
{465}riflemen, and Captain Ewald with the Yagers, were engaged in fierce conflict with the corps of Call and Willis, he moved the whole body of his mounted Hangers to an eminence near Lee's, displayed them imposingly in full view of the Americans for a few moments, and then withdrew them. This maneuver, as was intended, deceived the patriots. The march of Simcoe was concealed from them by intervening hills and woods, and they did not suspect the party thus displayed to be that partisan's Rangers. They believed them to be the front of a more formidable force deploying in the rear, preparatory to a general charge. At the same moment a three-pounder, which had been stationed upon the hill (M, in the plan), near Spencer's, was discharged; and, while its echoes were booming over the country, Shank, with his cavalry, made another furious attack upon the main body of the Republicans, now gathered more compactly in the road and the adjacent fields, a short distance from Spencer's. *
The idea that Cornwallis was advancing with artillery alarmed the Americans, and, when Shank made his charge, they fell back in confusion upon the reserve corps of Continentals in the rear, and the battle ended. Simcoe was quite as much afraid of the advance of La Fayette and his force to the support of Butler, as was the latter of the appearance of Cornwallis. He immediately formed his corps in retreating order, and pushed on toward Williamsburg. Butler thought it imprudent to follow them; for he was informed that Cornwallis, on hearing the first fire, commenced a march, with a strong force, to the support of Simcoe. Neither party could fairly claim a victory, though both parties did so. It was a sort of drawn battle. The Americans returned to Tyre's plantation.
So widely different are the official accounts of the numbers lost in this engagement that it is difficult to ascertain the truth. La Fayette states the loss of the British at sixty killed and one hundred wounded, while Cornwallis says that only three officers and thirty privates were killed and wounded. The latter also states that three American officers and twenty-eight privates were taken prisoners. The number of the Americans killed has never been named by our writers. Simcoe says, "It is certain they had a great many killed and wounded, exclusive of prisoners;" but this was merely conjecture. He also says that his own groom was the only prisoner secured by the Americans, the bat-men at Lee's, who were captured at the commencement of the action, having been rescued, except the groom. Cornet Jones, a promising young officer of the Rangers, who was killed, was greatly beloved, and was buried at Williamsburg, the next day, with military honors. **
At this time, Sir Henry Clinton, having received some intercepted letters written by Washington, in which a plan for attacking New York was divulged, *** became alarmed for his safety. He accordingly made a requisition upon Cornwallis for a portion of his troops to be sent immediately to New York. The earl, supposing himself too weak, after complying with this requisition, to remain at Williamsburg, resolved to retire to Portsmouth, near Norfolk. He broke up his encampment at Williamsburg on the 4th of July, (a) [[ a 1781]] and marched for Jamestown Island. He disposed of his troops in such a manner as
* Simcoe's Journal, p. 226--236. Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, p. 298--301.
** The expression "buried with military honors" is often used, but, I apprehend, often without a clear understanding of its purport. The general reader may be interested in knowing in what consist "military honors" in the sense here used. The rules generally adopted are as follows: The funeral of a commander-in-chief is saluted with three rounds of 11 pieces of cannon, 4 battalions, and 6 squadrons; that of a lieutenant general with three rounds of 9 pieces of cannon, 3 battalions, and 4 squadrons; that of a major general with three rounds of 7 pieces of cannon, 1 battalion, and 2 squadrons; that of colonel by his own battalion (or an equal number by detachment), with three rounds of small-arms; that of a lieutenant colonel by 300 men and officers, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a major by 200 men and officers, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a captain by his own company, or 70 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a lieutenant by a lieutenant, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, 1 filer, and 36 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of an ensign by 1 ensign, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, and 27 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a sergeant by 1 sergeant and 10 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms; that of a corporal, musician, private man, drummer, or fifer by 1 sergeant and 13 rank and file, with three rounds of small-arms. The pall is supported by officers of the same rank as that of the deceased; if that number can not be had, officers next in seniority are to supply their place.
*** These letters, written by Washington for the express purpose of deceiving Sir Henry Clinton, have been noticed on page 213.
[[[Movements of La Fayette.--Cornwallis's Stratagem.--March from Green Spring.--Colonel Armand]]]
{466}to cover the ford, and the Queen's Rangers crossed over to the island the same evening. The two succeeding days were employed in passing over the baggage of the army.
La Fayette was exceedingly active and vigilant. As soon as he was informed by Lieutenant-colonel Mercer, who had been sent to reconnoiter, that Cornwallis had left Williamsburg, he moved forward and encamped within nine miles of Jamestown. Upon the activity and skill of Wayne the marquis relied with confidence. America had no truer or braver officers in the field than the "French game-cock" and "Mad Anthony." The marquis, who had steadily pursued the earl from Richmond, but always avoiding a general engagement, now resolved to fall upon his rear, when the main body should have passed over to Jamestown Island. Cornwallis suspected this design, and prepared for the emergency. He encamped the greater portion of his army on the main land, as compactly as possible, and sheltered from view by a dense pine forest. He also cast up a fortification on the right bank of Powhatan Creek, by the Williamsburg road, the remains of which, I have just mentioned, are still very prominent. He allowed but a few soldiers to make their appearance on the edge of the wood; deployed those on the island to the best advantage; drew in his light out-guards; suffered his pickets to be insulted; and, by every means in his power, gave the impression that only his rear-guard was upon the main. These maneuvers of Cornwallis, and abounding false intelligence, completely deceived La Fayette, and caused him to make an attack upon the British, a step which involved his whole army in imminent peril.
La Fayette and his troops were at Green Spring plantation * on the morning of the 6th of July. (a) At sunrise, the whole country was enveloped in a fog; at noon, an un-[[ a 1781]] clouded sun poured down its almost vertical rays with fierce intensity. Assured that only the rear-guard of Cornwallis's army remained off the island, the marquis moved from Green Spring, at three o'clock in the afternoon, for the purpose of attacking them. This late hour was judiciously chosen; the heat was less oppressive, and, if deceived concerning the numbers of the enemy on the main land, the night-shadows would favor a retreat. In front of Green Spring mansion, and extending to the Williamsburg road from the lower ford of the Chickahominy, where I crossed, was low, sunken ground, and a morass bridged by a causeway of logs. Over this, in narrow files, the Americans were obliged to make their way, and it was almost five o'clock before they arrived in sight of the British outposts. La Fayette detached Wayne, with about eight hundred men, to make the attack. His advanced guard consisted of the rifle corps of Call and Willis, and a patrol of dragoons. These were followed by the cavalry of Armand's and Mercer's troops, led by Major M'Pherson,
* See page 446.
** Charles Armand, marquis de la Rouarie, was a French officer in the Continental army, who had been ten years in military service before he came to this country. On the 10th of May, 1777, Congress gave him the commission of colonel, and authorized him to raise a corps of Frenchmen, in number not exceeding two hundred men He was a zealous and spirited officer, and did good service throughout the war. He was with La Fayette in New Jersey, after the battle of Red Bank, in the fall of 1777, and the next year was actively engaged in Westchester county, New York, in opposition to the corps of Simcoe and Emerick, and the Loyalists under Bare-more. The latter was captured by Armand, who, at one time, had his quarters at a house which stood on the site of the present St. John's College, at Fordham. He was stationed at Ridgefield, in Connecticut, under General Robert Howe, in the summer of 1779. Belonging to his corps was a company of cavalry called Maréchaussée * whose duties appertained chiefly to the police of the army. Armand's corps, exclusive of this company, was incorporated with Pulaski's in February, 1780. Armand was with the army under Gates at Clermont, near Camden, in South Carolina, and was directed by that general to form an advance attacking party in the night-march against Cornwallis at Camden. He censured the conduct of his general on that occasion very much. "I will not say," he remarked, "that the general contemplated treason; but I will say, that if he had desired to betray his army, he could not have chosen a more judicious course." Armand was dissatisfied with the promotions in the army, for he perceived no chance for himself to advance, yet he continued in faithful service. He went to France in February, 1781, to procure clothing and accoutrements, but came back again in time to join the army before Yorktown in Oetober of that year. On the earnest recommendation of Washington, who knew his worth, Congress gave Colonel Armand the commission of brigadier general in the spring of 1783. He returned to France in 1784. In a letter to Rochambeau, written in May of that year, Washington strongly recommended General Armand as worthy of promotion in his own eountry. He was married, in 1786, to a wealthy lady, belonging to an ancient family, and on that occasion wrote a letter to Washington, inviting him to come to Europe and partake of the hospitalities of his home. In his reply, Washington remarked, "I must confess I was a little pleased, if not surprised, to find you think quite like an American on the subject of matrimony and domestic felicity; for, in my estimation, more permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure, or the more tumultuous and imposing scenes of successful ambition. This sentiment will account in a degree for my not making a visit to Europe." General Armand took an active part in the revolutionary movements in his own country, and became a prisoner in the Bastile, for a time, in 1789. He participated in the sanguinary scenes in La Vendee, during the first year of the French Revolution. Sick when the news of the execution of Louis XVI. reached him, it produced a powerful effect upon his weakened system. A crisis in his malady was induced, and, on the 30th of January, 1793, he expired. He was buried privately, by moonlight; but his remains were disinterred by the Revolutionists within a month afterward, and the papers inhumed with him revealed the names of associates, some of whom were afterward guillotined. General Armand was of middle size, dark complexion, urbane in deportment, polished in manners, an eloquent and persuasive speaker, and a practiced marksman. He was greatly beloved by his friends, and his opponents were not his enemies.
* The Maréchaussée was a useful corps. In an encampment, it was its business to patrol the camp and its vicinity, for the purpose of apprehending deserters, thieves, rioters, &e., and soldiers who should be found violating the rules of the army. Strangers without passes were to be apprehended by them, and the sutlers in the army were under the control of the commander of the corps. In the time of action they were to patrol the roads on both flanks of the army to arrest fugitives, and apprehend those who might be skulking away.
[[[The Baltic Order.--Attack upon the Outpost.--The Enemy in full Force.--Retreat of the Americans.]]]
{467}who had recovered from the effects of his unhorsing at Spencer's. The Continental infantry, chiefly Pennsylvania troops, under Wayne, supported the whole. La Fayette, with nine hundred Continentals and some militia, halted after crossing the morass, to be in readiness to support Wayne, if necessary. Steuben, with the main body of the militia, remained as a reserve at Green Spring.
After moving about a mile, the van patrol were attacked by some of the enemy's Yagers, and the riflemen and militia commenced the attack upon the British pickets at about five o'clock. A desultory fire was kept up for a few minutes, when the cavalry made a furious charge, and the pickets were driven within their lines in great confusion and with considerable loss. The British outpost, which covered and concealed the main body of the royal army, was now assailed by the riflemen, who were stationed in a ditch, near a rail fence. They were under the immediate direction of M'Pherson and Mercer, and terribly galled the Yagers who garrisoned the point assailed, yet without driving them from their position. The assailants were speedily joined by two battalions of Continental infantry, one under Major Galvan, and another under Major Willis, of Connecticut, supported by two pieces of artillery, under the direction of Captain Savage. The Americans felt certain of victory, and were about to leave the ditch and engage hand to hand with the enemy, when more than two thousand of the royal troops were led from their concealment into action by Lieutenant-colonel Yorke on the right, and Lieutenant-colonel Dundas on the left. The brigade of the latter consisted of the forty-third, seventy-sixth, and eightieth regiments, the flower of Cornwallis's army. Yorke soon put to flight the American militia on the right; but, on the left, the riflemen, cavalry, and the Pennsylvania infantry sustained the unequal conflict with great bravery. Superior numbers, however, overmatched skill and courage, and the Americans, after a sanguinary battle of ten minutes, gave way; first the riflemen, then the cavalry, and finally the whole body of infantry retreated in confusion upon Wayne's line, which was drawn up in compact order in the field in front of the present residence of Mr. Coke.
Wayne now perceived the whole breadth of Cornwallis's stratagem, and the imminence of the danger which surrounded his troops. Already strong detachments were rapidly outflanking him and gaining his rear, while a solid body of veterans were confronting him. It was a moment of great peril. To retreat would be certain destruction to his troops; a false movement would involve the whole in ruin. Wayne's presence of mind never forsook him, and, in moments of greatest danger, his judgment seemed the most acute and faithful. He now instantly conceived a bold movement, but one full of peril. He ordered the trumpeters to
[[[Wayne's Charge upon Ihe British Line.--Retreat of Cornwallis to Portsmouth.--Tarleton's Expedition.--Williamsburg.]]]
{468}sound a charge, and, with a full-voiced shout, his whole force, cavalry, riflemen, and infantry, dashed forward in the face of a terrible storm of lead and iron, and smote the British line with ball, bayonet, and cutlass so fiercely, that it recoiled in amazement. La Fayette, who had personally reconnoitered the British camp from a tongue of land near the present Jamestown landing, perceived the peril of Wayne, and immediately drew up a line of Continentals half a mile in the rear of the scene of conflict, to cover a retreat if Wayne should attempt it. When the latter saw this, and perceived the flanking parties of the enemy halting or retrograding, he sounded a retreat, and in good order his brave band fell back upon La Fayette's line. Never was a desperate maneuver better planned or more successfully executed. Upon that single cast of the die depended the safety of his corps. It was a winning one for the moment, and the night-shadows coming on, the advantage gained was made secure.
Cornwallis was astonished and perplexed by the charge and retreat. The lateness of the hour, and the whole movement, made him view the maneuver as a lure to draw him into an ambuscade; and, instead of pursuing the Republicans, he called in his detachments,[[ a July 9, 1781]] crossed over to Jamestown Island during the evening, and three days afterward (a) crossed the James River with the largest portion of his troops, and proceeded by easy marches to Portsmouth. * The other portion of his army, pursuant to General Clinton's requisition, embarked in transports for New York. ** In this action, according to La Fayette, the Americans lost one hundred and eighteen men *** (including ten officers), in killed, wounded, and prisoners; also the two pieces of cannon, which they were obliged to leave on the field, the horses attached to them having been killed. The British loss was five officers wounded, and seventy-five privates killed and wounded. ****
The Americans, under La Fayette, remained in the vicinity of Williamsburg until the arrival of the combined armies, nearly two months afterward, on their way to besiege Cornwallis at Yorktown.[[ b Dec 20, 1848]] I arrived at Williamsburg at noon, (b) and proceeded immediately to search out the interesting localities of that ancient and earliest incorporated town in Virginia. They are chiefly upon the main street, a broad avenue pleasantly shaded, and almost as quiet as a rural lane. I first took a hasty stroll upon the spacious green in front of William and Mary College, the oldest literary institution in America except Harvard University. (v) The entrance to the green is flanked by stately live oaks, cheering the visitor in winter with their evergreen foliage. In the center of the green stands the mutilated statue of Lord Botetourt, the best beloved of the colonial governors. This statue was erected in the old capital in 1774, and in 1797 it was removed to its present position. I did not make a sketch of it, because a student at the college promised to hand me one made by his own
* Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton and his legion were dispatched on the 9th to New London, in Bedford county, nearly two hundred miles distant, to destroy some stores destined for Greene's army at the South, said to be in that district. Tarleton, with his usual celerity, passed through Petersburgh the same evening, and pushed forward toward the Blue Ridge. He was disappointed, for he could find no magazines of stores. He was also informed that Greene was besieging Ninety-Six, and successfully reconquering the districts over which the British had marched victoriously. He returned toward the sea-board, and rejoined Cornwallis at Suffolk on the 24th. The whole army then proceeded to Portsmouth.
** Before they left Hampton Roads, Cornwallis received orders to retain these troops, and occupy some defensible position in Virginia.
*** Stedman says (ii., 395) the American loss "amounted to about three hundred." That officer (who belonged to the surgeon's staff) was with Cornwallis at Jamestown. He gives the whole number of the British loss at seventy-five.
**** Marshall, i., 439, 440; Stedman, ii., 394, 395; Girardin; Simcoe's Journal; Howison.
* (v) William and Mary College was founded in 1692, and the sovereigns whose name it bears granted the corporation twenty thousand acres of land as an endowment. In 1693 the building was erected. It is of brick, and large enough to accommodate one hundred students. For its support a penny a pound duty on certain tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland was allowed, also a small duly on liquors imported, and furs and skins exported. From these resources it received ample support. It was formerly allowed a representation in the House of Burgesses. There is now a law school connected with the institution.
[[[Remains of Dunmore's Palace.--Brenton Church.--Lord Botetourt.--His Reception in Virginia.--Ode.]]]
{469}pencil before I left the place. He neglected to do so, and therefore I can give nothing pictorially of "the good Governor Botetourt," * the predecessor of Dunmore.
I next visited the remains of the palace of Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia. It is situated at the head of a broad and beautiful court, extending northward from the main street, in front of the City Hotel.
The palace was constructed of brick. The center building was accidentally destroyed by fire, while occupied by the French troops immediately after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. It was seventy-four feet long and sixty-eight feet wide, and occupied the site of the old palace of Governor Spottswood, at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Attached to the palace were three hundred and sixty acres of land, beautifully laid out in gardens, parks, carriage-ways, and a bowling-green. Dunmore imported some fine linden-trees from Scotland, one of which, still in existence, is one of the finest specimens of that tree I have ever seen. In vice-regal pomp and pageantry Dunmore attempted to reign among the plain republicans of Virginia; but his day of grandeur and power soon passed away, and the sun of his official glory set amid darkest clouds. All that remains of this spacious edifice are the two wings seen in the engraving above; the one on the right was the office, the one on the left was the guard-house.
A little eastward of Palace Street or Court, is the public square, on which area are two relics of the olden time, Brenton Church, a cruciform structure with a steeple, ** and the old Magazine, an octagon building, erected during the administration of Governor Spottswood. (a) The sides of the latter are each twelve feet in hori-[[ a 1716]]
* Norborne Berkeley (Baron de Botetourt) obtained his peerage in 1764. He was appointed Governor of Virginia in July, 1768, to succeed General Amherst. He arrived at Williamsburg in October, and was received with every demonstration of respect. After taking the oath of office, and swearing in the members of his majesty's council, he supped with the government dignitaries at the Raleigh Tavern. The city was illuminated during the evening, and balls and festivities succeeded. * His administration was mild and judicious. He died at Williamsburg October 15, 1770, and was succeeded by John Murray, earl of Dunmore. The following year the Assembly resolved to erect a statue to his memory, which was accordingly done in 1774.
** This church was built at about the commencement of the last century, and was the finest one in America at that time. Hugh Jones, who wrote "The present State of Virginia,'' &c., and who was one of the earliest lecturers in that church, speaks of it as "nicely regular and convenient, and adorned as the best churches in London." I was informed that the pew of Governor Spottswood remained in the church in its original character until within a few years. It was raised from the floor and covered with a canopy, and upon the interior was his name in gilt letters.
* In an ode sung on the occasion, the following air, recitative, and duet occur. It is copied from the "Virginia Gazette," first independent paper published in Virginia.
AIR. He comes! His Excellency comes, To cheer Virginia's plains! Fill your brisk bowls, ye loyal sons, And sing your loftiest strains. Be this your glory, this your boast, Lord Botetourt's the favorite toast! Triumphant wreaths entwine. Fill your bumpers swiftly round, And make your spacious rooms rebound With music, joy, and wine. Search every garden, strip the shrubby bowers And strew his path with sweet autumnal flowers! Ye virgins, haste, prepare the fragrant rose, And with triumphant laurels crown his brows.
DUET. Enter virgins with flowers, laurels, See, we've stripp'd each flowery bed; Here's laurels for his lordly head; And while Virginia is his care. May he protect the virtuous fair!
[[[Ancient Powder Magazine.--The Old Capitol.== Resumption of the Historical Narrative.--Plan of Williamsburg.]]]
{470}zontal extent. Surrounding it, also in octagon form, is a massive brick wall, which was constructed when the building was erected.
This wail is somewhat dilapidated, as seen in the engraving. The building was occupied as a Baptist meeting-house when I visited Williamsburg, and I trust it may never fall before the hand of improvement, for it has an historical value in the minds of all Americans. The events which hallow it will be noticed presently.
On the square fronting the magazine is the court-house.
It stands upon the site of the old capitol, in which occurred many interesting events connected with the history of our War for Independence. The present structure was erected over the ashes of the old one, which was burned in 1832 Around it are a few of the old bricks, half buried in the green sward, and these compose the only remains of the Old Capitol ** While leaning against the ancient wall of the old magazine, and, in the shadow of its roof, contemplating the events whieh cluster that locality with glorious associations, I almost lost cognizance of the present, and beheld in reverie the whole pageantry of the past march in review. Here let us consult the oracle of history, and note its teachings.
At the close of the last chapter we considered the destruction of Jamestown, the termination of "Bacon's rebellion," and the departure and death of Governor Berkeley. To make the events connected with the opening scenes of the Revolution in Virginia intelligible, we will briefly note the most prominent links in the chain of circumstances subsequent to the desolation of the ancient capital.
We have noticed the unrighteous gift of Charles the Second, of the fairest portions of
* This view is from the square, looking southeast. South of it is a neat frame building, whieh was occupied by President Tyler before his election to the office of Vice-president of the United States.
** Jones describes the capitol which preceded the one in question, and which was destroyed by fire in 1746. He says, "Fronting the college [William and Mary], at near its whole breadth, is extended a street, mathematically straight--for the first design of the town's form is changed to a mueh better*---just three quarters of a mile in length, at the other end of whieh stands the capitol, a noble, beautiful, and commodious pile as any of its kind, built at the cost of the late queen [Anne], and by direction of the governor" [Spottswood].... "The building is in the form of an H, nearly; the secretary's office and the general court taking up one side below stairs, the middle being a handsome portico, leading to the clerk of the Assembly's offiee and the House of Burgesses on the other side; which last, is not unlike the House of Commons. In each wing is a good stair-ease, one leading to the council-chamber, where the governor and council sit in very great state, in imitation of the king and council, or the lord chaneellor and House of Lords.... The whole is surrounded with a neat area, encompassed with a good wall, and near it is a strong and sweet prison for criminals; and, on the other side of the open court, another for debtors." On account of other public buildings having been burned, the use of fire, candles, and tobacco in the capitol was forbidden; nevertheless, it was destroyed by fire.
*** This is from an engraving in Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia, page 329. Mr. Howe obtained the drawing from a lady of Williamsburg, to whose patriotic taste our countrymen are indebted for a representation of the edifice whieh was the focus of rebellion in Virginia.
* The original plan of Williamsburg was in the form of a cipher, made of the letters W and M, the initials of William and Mary. Its site was known as the Middle Plantation while Jamestown was the capital. Situated upon a ridge nearly equidistant from the York and James Rivers, it was an eligible place for a town, and there Governor Nicholson established the capital in 1698. It was the residence of the royal governors, and the capital of the colony, until the War of the Revolution, and was, from that circumstance, the center of Virginia refinement. Yet, in its palmiest days, the population of Williamsburg did not exceed twenty-five hundred. Many of its present inhabitants are descendants of the old stock of Virginia aristocracy; and an eminent seat of learning being located there, no place South is more distinguished for taste and refinement than Williamsburg, in proportion to its population.
[[[Culpepper.--Lord Howard and Nicholson.--Federal Union proposed.--Orkney and his Deputies.--Spottswood.]]]
{471}Virginia to his two favorites, Arlington and Culpepper. (a) Two years after this [[ a 1675]] grant, Culpepper, who possessed the whole domain between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, was appointed governor for life. He was proclaimed soon after the departure of Berkeley. Virginia was thus changed into a proprietary government, like Maryland and Pennsylvania. Culpepper came to Virginia in 1680, and was more intent upon enriching himself than advancing the prosperity of the colonists. He was speedily impoverishing Virginia, when the grant was recalled. (b) He was deprived of his office, and [[ b 1684]] the province again became a royal demesne. Arlington had already assigned his rights to Culpepper. The name of the latter is ignoble in the annals of that colony, yet it is perpetuated by the name of a county given in his honor, a distinction awarded generally to men whose actions were praiseworthy.
Lord Howard, of Effingham, who succeeded Culpepper as governor, was not more popular; for he, too, was governed by avaricious motives, and practiced meaner acts to accomplish his purposes of gain than his predecessor. Desiring to please his royal master, he put all penal laws in full force, particularly those against printing and the restrictions of the Navigation Act. The bigot, James the Second, the successor of Charles, continued Effingham in office; but when that monarch was driven from the throne, (c) the governor returned to England. William the Third reappointed him, but with the stipulation [[ c 1688]] that he should remain in England, and a deputy should exercise his functions in Virginia. His deputy was Francis Nicholson, a man of genius and taste, who came to Virginia in 1690. Two years afterward, Sir Edmund Andross, the infamous tool of James the Second, was made governor, and succeeded Nicholson. He administered the government badly until 1698, when he was recalled, and Nicholson was reinstated. On the return of that officer to Virginia, he moved the seat of government to the Middle Plantations, and Williamsburg was thenceforth the capital of the province for eighty years.
Governor Nicholson, who was a bold and ambitious man, conceived a scheme for uniting all the Anglo-American colonies. His plan was similar in its intended results to that of Andross, attempted twelve years before, when James issued a decree for uniting the New England colonies. Nicholson's ostensible object was the mutual defense of all the colonies against the encroachments of the French on the north, and the Indians made hostile by them along the frontiers. He submitted his plan to the king, who heartily approved of it, and recommended the measure to the colonial assemblies. Virginia refused to listen to any such scheme, and Nicholson's ambitious dream was dissolved in a moment. Greatly chagrined, he villified the Virginians; impressed William and Mary with an idea that they were disloyal; and represented to the ministers of Queen Anne (d) that they were "imbued [[ d 1704]] with republican notions and principles, such as ought to be corrected and lowered in time." He memorialized the queen to reduce all the American colonies under a viceroy, and establish a standing army among them, to be maintained at their own expense, declaring "that those wrong, pernicious notions were improving daily, not only in Virginia, but in all her majesty's other governments." Anne and her ministers did not approve of his scheme, and the Virginians becoming restive under his administration, he was recalled. [[1704]]
The Earl of Orkney succeeded Nicholson as governor, but exercised the functions of the office through deputies. He enjoyed the sinecure for thirty-six years. His first deputies were Mott and Jennings; the first remaining in office one year, and the other four years. In 1710, Jennings was succeeded by Sir Alexander Spottswood, * one of the most acceptable
* In 1757, a son of Colonel Spottswood, who was with a company scouting for Indians on the frontier, wandered from his companions, and was lost. His remains were found near Fort Duquesne. An elegaic poem, founded on the circumstances, was published in Martin's Miscellany, in London. The writer assumes that he was killed by the Indians, and says,
"Courageous youth! were now thine honor'd sire "May Forbes yet live the cruel debt to pay, To breathe again, and rouse his wonted fire, And wash the blood of Braddock's field away; Nor French nor Shawnee durst his rage provoke, Then fair Ohio's blushing waves may tell From great Potomac's spring to Roanoke." How Briton's fought, and how each hero fell." *
* See page 478.
[[[Character of Spottswood.--Conflicting Claims of the French and English.--Injustice toward the Indians.--The Ohio Company.]]]
{472}governors Virginia ever had. He was liberal-minded and generous, and at once reversed the usual practice of royal governors, by making his private interest, if necessary, subservient to the public good. * He promoted internal improvements, set an example of elegant hospitality, encouraged learning, revered religion, and if he had been the royal representative when the eloquence of Henry aroused every generous heart in the Old Dominion, he would doubtless have been among the boldest rebels of the day. From the close of his administration in 1722, until the commencement of difficulties with the French and Indians, more than twenty years afterward, Virginia continued to increase in wealth, and general happiness and prosperity prevailed within its borders. **
We have already considered the most important events connected with the French empire in America which occurred along our northern frontier, and alluded to the fact that, in the ambitious scheme for gaining the mastery of this continent, the French made strenuous efforts to form a continuous chain of military works from the northern lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Upon widely different grounds did the French and English base their claims to the possession of the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains. The former claimed a right to the soil because of prior actual occupation; the latter claimed the domain as their own on account of the discovery of the Atlantic coast by the Cabots, before the French had made any settlements. The Pacific coast was considered as the western boundary. Upon the principle of settling claims by drawing a line interiorly at right angles from the coast discovered, the French, from their undisputed province of Acadia, might have claimed almost the whole of New England, and one half of New York, with all the lakes. It was a difficult question, while the argument rested upon a foundation of unrighteousness. **
The French had long occupied Detroit. They had explored the Mississippi Valley, formed settlements at Kaskaskias and Vincennes (the former now in the southern portion of Illinois, and the latter in the south part of Indiana), and along the northern border of the Gulf of Mexico, when the dispute arose. To vindicate their claims to the country they had explored, they commenced building forts. These the English viewed with jealousy, and determined to contravene the evident attempts to supersede them in the empire of the New World.
In 1749, a royal grant of six hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio River was made to a number of English merchants and Virginia planters, who, under the name of The Ohio Company, had associated for the ostensible purpose of trade. The British ministry, anticipating early hostility with France, had also sent out orders to the governor of Virginia to build two forts near the Ohio River, for the purpose of securing possession. But the order came too late; already the French were planting fortifications in that direction. The establishment of this trading company was the first positive intimation which the French had received of the intention of the English to vindicate their claims. They regarded the movement as the incipient steps toward a destruction of their western trade with the In-
* I have in my possession a document, signed by Spottswood, to which is attached the great seal of Virginia, a huge disk of beeswax, four and a half inches in diameter, on one side of which is impressed the English arms, and on the other a figure of Britannia, holding a scepter in one hand and a globe in the other, and receiving the obeisance of an Indian queen, who, bowed upon one knee, is presenting a bunch of the tobacco plant to her.
** In the early part of his administration, Governor Spottswood led, in person, an expedition over the Blue Ridge, beyond which no white man's foot had yet trodden in that direction, and obtained glimpses of those glorious valleys which stretch away along the tributaries of the mighty Mississippi. In commemoration of this event, King George the First conferred upon him the honor of knighthood, and in allusion to the fact that he commanded a troop of mounted men on the occasion, he was presented with a silver miniature horseshoe, on which was inscribed the motto, "Thus he swears to cross the mountains."
*** In these discussions the natives, the original proprietors of the soil, were not considered. The intruding Europeans assumed sovereignty and possession without ever pretending to have purchased a rood of the soil from the aboriginal owners. It is related that when Mr. Gist went into the Ohio Valley on a tour of observation for the Ohio Company, a messenger was sent by two Indian sachems to inquire, "Where is the Indian's land? The English claim it all on one side of the river, the French on the other; where does the Indian's land lay." The true answer to that question would have been, "Every where," and the intruders should have withdrawn from the soil and closed their lips in shame.
[[[Jealousy of the French.--Erection of Forts.--Dinwiddie's Measures.--George Washington sent to the French Commandant]]]
{473}dians, and to break their communication between New France or Canada, and Louisiana. With such impressions they resolved on defensive measures--aggressive ones too, if necessary. A pretense was not long wanting. While some English traders were engaged in their vocation near the present site of Pittsburgh, they were seized by some French and Indians, and conveyed to Presque Isle, now the town of Erie, on the lake of that name. The object was to learn from them the designs of the English in Virginia. In retaliation for this outrage, the Twightwees, * a body of Indians friendly to the English, seized some French traders, and sent them to Pennsylvania. Bitter animosity was now engendered, and it was intensified by those national and religious feuds which had so long made the English and French inimical to each other. Finally, the French began the erection of forts on the south side of Lake Erie, sending troops across the lakes with munitions of war, and forwarding bodies of armed men from New Orleans. One fort was built at Presque Isle (now Erie); another at Le Bouf (now Waterford), on the head waters of the Venango (now French Creek ** ), and a third at Venango (now Franklin, the capital of Venango county, Pennsylvania, at the junction of French Creek with the Alleghany). The Ohio Company complained, and Robert Dinwiddie, *** the lieutenant governor of Virginia, within whose jurisdiction the offensive movement occurred, felt called upon to send a formal remonstrance to the French commandant, M. De St. Pierre, and demand a withdrawal of his troops. The mission was an exceedingly delicate one, and demanded the exercise of great courage, discretion, and judgment. George Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, was chosen, from among the hundreds of the Virginia aristocracy, to execute this commission of trust. At the age of nineteen he had received the appointment of adjutant general of one of the four military districts of Virginia, with the rank of major. The appointment was as creditable to the sagacity of Dinwiddie as it was flattering to the young officer.
On the 31st of October, 1753, Major Washington, bearing a letter from Dinwiddie to the French commandant of the Western posts, left Williamsburg. At Fredericksburg he engaged Jacob Vanbraam, a Dutchman, to accompany him as French interpreter, and John Davidson as Indian interpreter, and then turned his face toward the wilderness. Before him was a journey of more than five hundred miles. At the junction of Will's Creek with the Potomac (now Cumberland, in Maryland), fourteen days journey from Williamsburg, he was joined by Mr. Gist (mentioned in a note on page 472) and four other [[ a Nov 14, 1753]] men, two of them Indian traders. (a) This point, at the mouth of Will's Creek on the Potomac, was on the verge of civilization, and near the lofty Alleghanies, then covered with snow. Over these the little party pushed their way, enduring every hardship incident to a dreary wilderness and the rigors of winter. The streams in the valleys were swollen, and upon frail rafts the travelers crossed them; or, when occasion demanded, they entered the chilling flood, and, by wading or swimming, accomplished a passage. At length they reached the forks of the Ohio, (b) at the present site of Pittsburgh, and, after resting part of a day, they hastened onward twenty miles down the river, to Logstown (now [[ b Nov. 23]] in Beaver county), accompanied by Shingias, a chief sachem of the Delawares.
There Washington called the surrounding Indian chiefs together in council, (c) made [[ c Nov. 26]]
* According to Mr. Gist, who visited them in 1751, the Twightwees, or Tuigtuis, as the Freneh wrote it, were a very numerous people, composed of many tribes. At that time they were in amity with the Six Nations, and were considered the most powerful body of Indians westward of the English settlements. While they resided on the Wabash, they were in the interests of the French, but left them, came eastward, and joined the fortunes of the English. Some assert that the Twightwees and the Ottawas were the same, originally.
** This is ealled Beef River on Bouquet's map.
*** The first successor of Spottswood in the chair of administration was Hugh Drysdale, in 1722, who was succeeded by William Gooch in 1727. In 1749, Thomas Lee, president of the council, was acting governor, and, in 1750, Lewis Burwell held the same responsible office. Robert Dinwiddie was appointed lieutenant governor in 1752. He administered the office for six years, and was succeeded by Francis Fauquier. Ten years later (1768), Lord Botetourt was appointed, and from the period of his death until the arrival of Lord Dunmore, the last of the royal governors. William Nelson, father of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was acting governor.
[[[Friendly Offices of the Indians.--St. Pierre.--His Letter to Dinwiddie.--Washington's Journey.--Preparations for War.]]]
{474}known to them the objects of his visit, and solicited a guide to conduct him to the French encampment, one hundred and twenty miles distant. The request was complied with, and Tanacharison * (Half King), with two other chiefs, ** and a bold hunter, accompanied Washington and his little band. After suffering terrible hardships, they reached the French camp. At Venango, a French outpost, attempts were made to detain the Indians, though
[[Dec. 5, 1753]] Joncaire, the commandant, received Washington with civility. The head-quarters of the French were higher up the stream, at Fort Le Bouf, and there the [[Dec 12.]] Virginia commissioner was received with great politeness by M. De St. Pierre. After a perilous journey of forty-one days, Washington had reached his destination.
St. Pierre was an elderly man, a knight of the order of St. Louis. He entertained Washington and his party for four days with cordial hospitality, and then delivered to him a sealed reply to Governor Dinwiddie's letter. *** In the mean while, Washington and his attendants made full observations respecting the fort and garrison, construction of the works, numbers of cannon, &c.; information of much value. After a journey marked by more perils and hardships than the first, **** a large portion of which Major Washington and Mr. Gist per-[[Jan. 16, 1754]] formed alone and on foot, the former reached Williamsburg, having been absent eleven weeks. (v)
Dinwiddie was greatly incensed when he opened the letter of St. Pierre. That officer, writing like a soldier, said it did not belong to him as a subaltern to discuss treaties; that such a message as Washington bore should have been sent to the Marquis Duquesne, governor of Canada, by whose instructions he acted, and whose orders he should obey; and that the summons to retire could not be complied with. There could be no longer a doubt of the hostile designs of the French. (vi) Governor Dinwiddie called his council together, and, without waiting for the Burgesses to convene, took measures for the expulsion of their troublesome neighbors from Virginia soil. The council advised the enlistment of two companies, of one hundred men each, for the service; and the Ohio Company sent out a party of thirty men to erect a fort at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers (Pittsburgh), a spot which Washington strongly recommended as most eligible, and to enlist men among
* This chief was a bold and patriotic man. He warned both the English and the French to leave the country. He had felt the encroachments of the French, by their taking actual possession of large tracts of land; but as yet he mistook the character of the English, and believed that they came simply to trade with his race. He and his brethren soon learned, by fearful experience, that the French and English were equally governed by whatever policy was necessary for the accomplishment of those acts of rapacity and injustice which are sanctioned by the law of nations! "Fathers," said Tanacharison to the French, "The Great Being above allowed this land to be a place of residence for us, so I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers the English; for I will keep you at arm's length. I lay this down as a trial for both, to see which will have the greatest regard to it, and that side we will stand by, and make equal shares with us." The French treated him with contempt, and hence he was the friend of the English.
** Jeskakake and White Thunder.
*** Dinwiddie, in his letter, asserted that the lands on the Ohio belonged to the Crown of Great Britain: expressed surprise at the encroachments of the French; demanded by whose authority an armed force had crossed the lakes, and urged their speedy departure.
**** On one occasion, an Indian, supposed to have been induced by Joncaire, at Venango, attempted to shoot them. On another occasion, after working a whole day in constructing a frail raft, they attempted to cross the swift current of the Alleghany, then filled with drifting ice. Their raft was destroyed among the ice, and the travelers, drenched in the river, were east upon a desert island, where they laid upon the snow all night. In the morning the ice over the other channel was sufficiently strong to bear them. They crossed over, and toward evening reached the house of Frazier (who was a lieutenant under captain Trent the following May), near the spot where a year and a half afterward was fought the battle of the Monongahela. The island on which they were cast now bears the name of Washington's Island. It is directly opposite the United States Arsenal, at Lawrenceville, two or three miles above Pittsburgh.
* (v) See Washington's Journal. This journal was published in the newspapers here, and also in England and France, where it excited great attention.
* (vi) Washington says in his Journal, in reference to the imprudence of Joncaire and his party, on account of too free indulgence in wine: "They told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and by God they would do it; for that, although they were sensible the English could raise two men to their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs."
[[[Expedition against the French.--Attack upon the Virginians.--Fort Duquesne.--Fort Necessity.--Surprise of Jumonville.]]]
{475}the traders on the frontier. The command of the two companies was given to Major Washington, one of which was to be raised by himself; the other by Captain Trent, who was to collect his men among the traders in the back settlements. Washington proceeded to Alexandria, while Trent went to the frontier and collected his corps in the neighborhood of the Ohio Fork.
When the Virginia Assembly met, they voted ten thousand pounds toward supporting the expedition to the Ohio. The Carolinas also voted twelve thousand pounds. With this aid, and promises of more, Dinwiddie determined to increase the number of men to be sent to the Ohio to three hundred, to be divided into six companies. Colonel Joshua Fry * was appointed to the command of the whole, and Major Washington was made his lieutenant. Ten cannons and other munitions of war were sent to Alexandria for the use of the expedition.
Washington left Alexandria, with two companies of troops, on the 2d of April, [[1754]] and arrived at Will's Creek on the 20th. He was joined on the route by Captain Adam Stephen, the general who was cashiered after the battle at Germantown, twenty-three years subsequently. When about to move on, Ensign Ward arrived with the intelligence that Captain Trent's corps, with those sent out by the Ohio Company to construct a fort at the Ohio Fork (now Pittsburgh), had been obliged to surrender the post to a French force of one thousand men, most of them Indians, under Monsieur Contrecoeur. ** [[April 7]] This was the first overt act of hostility--this was the beginning of the French and Indian war, which lasted seven years. The French completed the fort taken from Trent, and called it Duquesne, in honor of the governor general of Canada.
Washington pushed forward with one hundred and fifty men, to attempt to [[May 1, 1754]] retrieve this loss, confident that a larger force than his own, under Colonel Fry, would speedily follow. He marched for the junction of the Red Stone Creek and Monongahela River, thirty-seven miles from Fort Duquesne, where he intended to fortify himself, and wait for the arrival of Colonel Fry, with artillery. On the way, he received intelligence from Half King [[May 24]] that a French force was then marching to attack the English, wherever they might be found. Washington was now a few miles beyond the Great Meadows, an eligible place for a camp, and thither he returned and threw up an intrenchment, which he called Fort Necessity, from the circumstances under which it was erected. On the 27th, he received another message from Half King, informing him that he had discovered the hiding-place of a French detachment of fifty men. With a few Indians, and forty chosen troops, Washington proceeded to attack them. They were found in a well-sheltered place among rocks, and, assaulting them by surprise, he defeated them after a severe skirmish of ten minutes. Ten of the Frenchmen were killed (among whom was M. De Jumonville, the commander), one wounded, and twenty-one made prisoners. Washington had only one man killed, and two or three wounded. The prisoners were conducted to Fort Necessity, and from thence sent over the mountains into Eastern Virginia. ***
*Joshua Fry was a native of Somersetshire, England, and was educated at Oxford. He was at one time professor of mathematics in William and Mary College, Williamsburg; was subsequently a member of the House of Burgesses, and served as a commissioner in running the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. With Peter Jefferson, he made a map of Virginia, and by these employments became well acquainted with the frontier regions. In 1752, he was one of the Virginia commissioners for making a treaty with the Indians at Logstown. His integrity, experience, and knowledge of the Indian character qualified him to command the expedition against the French in 1754. He died at Will's Creek, while on his way to the Ohio, on the 31st of May, 1754.
** Ensign Ward was in command of the post when the enemy approached, Captain Trent being then at Will's Creek, and Lieutenant Frazier at his residence, ten miles distant. The whole number of men under Ward was only forty-one.
*** The French made a great clamor about this skirmish, declaring that Jumonville was the bearer of dispatches; and French writers unjustly vilified the character of Washington, by representing the affair as a massacre. Cotemporary evidence clearly indicates that Jumonville's embassy was a hostile, not a peaceful one; and, as Contrecour had commenced hostilities by capturing the fort at the Ohio Fork, Washington was justified in his conduct by the rules of war.
[[[Death of Colonel Fry.--Washington in Command.--Fort Necessity.--Washington's Return home.--The Great Meadows.]]]
{476}Two days after Washington wrote his dispatch to Colonel Fry, communicating the facts [[May 31]] respecting attack on the French, that officer died at Will's Creek. His troops, intended to re-enforce Washington, were sent forward, and swelled his little army to four hundred men. On the death of Fry, the chief command of the expedition devolved upon Washington, and with his inadequate force he proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne. He held a council of war at Gist's plantation, where information was received that the French at Duquesne were re-enforced, and were preparing to march against the English. Captain Mackay, with his South Carolina company, and Captains Lewis and Poison, with their detachments, were summoned to rendezvous at Gist's plantation, where another council was held, and a retreat was resolved upon. The intrenchments thrown up at Gist's were abandoned, and, with their ammunition and stores, the whole party reached Fort Necessity on the first of July. [[1754]] There, on account of great fatigue, and suffering from hunger, they halted, and commenced the construction of a ditch and abatis, and strengthened the stockades. *
On the third of July, a French force under M. De Villiers, Jumonville's brother, reported to be nine hundred strong, approached to the attack of Fort Necessity. It was about eleven o'clock when they came within six hundred yards of the outworks, and began an ineffectual fire. Colonel Washington had drawn up his little band outside the trenches, and ordered his men to reserve their fire until the enemy were near enough to do execution. But the French were not inclined to leave the woods and make an assault upon the works. At sunrise, rain had begun to fall, and toward noon it came down in torrents, accompanied by vivid lightning. The trenches into which Colonel Washington ordered his men were filled with water, and the arms of the provincials were seriously injured. A desultory fire was kept up the whole day by both parties, without any decisive result, when De Villiers sent proposals to capitulate. Washington at first declined, but on consultation with his officers, and being assured there was no chance of victory over such overwhelming numbers, he consented, and highly honorable terms were conceded. The English were allowed to march out of the fort with all the honors of war, retaining their baggage, and every thing except their artillery, and to return to Will's Creek unmolested. Washington agreed to restore the prisoners taken at the skirmish with Jumonville, ** and that the English should not attempt to erect any establishment beyond the mountains for the space of one year. On their march from the fort, a party of one hundred Indians, who came to re-enforce the French, surrounded them, and menaced them with death. They plundered their baggage, and committed other mischief.
The provincials finally arrived at Will's Creek, and Washington, with Captain Mackay, proceeded to Williamsburg, where the former communicated to Dinwiddie, in person, the events of the campaign. *** The House of Burgesses of Virginia approved generally of the conduct of the campaign, and passed a vote of thanks to Washington and his officers. **** The
* The Great Meadows, where Fort Necessity was built, is a level bottom, cleft by a small creek. Around it are hills of a moderate height and gradual ascent. The bottom is about two hundred and fifty yards wide where the fort was erected. It was a point well chosen, being about one hundred yards from the upland or wooded grounds on one side, and about a hundred and fifty on the other. The creek afforded water for the fort. On the side nearest the wood were three entrances, protected by short breast-works or bastions. The site of this fort is three or four hundred yards south of what is now called the National Road, four miles from the foot of Laurel Hill, and fifty miles from Cumberland, at Will's Creek. When Mr. Sparks visited the site in 1830, the lines of the fort were very visible.--See Sparks's Writings of Washington, ii., 457.
** This part of the capitulation the governor refused to ratify, because the French, after the surrender, took eight Englishmen prisoners, and sent them to Canada. Vanbraam and Stobo, whom Washington left with De Villiers, as hostages for the fulfillment of the conditions of the capitulation, were sent to Canada. The prisoners on both sides were finally released.
*** It was during this campaign that the colonial convention was held at Albany, noticed on pages 302 and 303, vol. i., of this work, where a plan for a political union of all the colonies, similar in some of its features to that proposed by Governor Nicholson fifty years before, was submitted.
**** All the officers were named in the resolution of thanks, except those of the major of the regiment, who was charged with cowardice, and Captain Vanbraam, who was believed to have acted a treacherous part in falsely interpreting the terms of capitulation, which were written in French, by which Washington was made to acknowledge that Jumonville was assassinated. A pistole (about three dollars and sixty cents) was given as a gratuity to each soldier engaged in the campaign.
[[[Loss at Fort Necessity.--French Duplicity.--General Braddock.--Provincial Governors.--March toward Fort Duquesne.]]]
{477}exact loss of the provincials in this engagement is not known. There were twelve killed, and forty-three wounded, of the Virginia regiment; the number of killed and wounded belonging to Captain Mackay's Carolinians is not recorded. The number of provincials in the fort was about four hundred; the assailants were nearly one thousand strong, five hundred of whom were Frenchmen. The loss of the latter was supposed to be more than that of the former.
When the British ministry called the attention of the French court to the transactions in America, the latter expressed the most pacific intentions and promises for the future, while its actions were in direct opposition to its professions. The English, therefore, resolved to send to America a sufficient force to co-operate with the provincial troops in driving the French back to Canada. On the twentieth of February, 1755, General Braddock arrived at Alexandria, in Virginia, with two regiments of the British army from Ireland, eaeh consisting of five hundred men, with a suitable train of artillery, and with stores and provisions. His colonels were Dunbar and Sir Peter Halket. At a meeting of colonial governors, * first called at Annapolis, and afterward convened at Alexandria, three expeditions were planned, one against Fort Duquesne, under Braddock; a second against Niagara and Frontenac (Kingston, U. C.), under General William Shirley; and a third against Crown Point, under General William Johnson. The last two expeditions have been fully considered in the first volume of this work.
General Braddock, with the force destined to act against Fort Duquesne, left Alexandria on the twentieth of April, and, marching by the way of Winchester, reached Will's Creek about the tenth of May. Here a fortification was thrown up, and named Fort Cumberland. Washington had left the service on account of a regulation by which the colonial officers were made to rank under those of the regular army, but being earnestly urged by General Braddock to accompany him, he consented to do so in the character of aid, and as a volunteer. The great delay in procuring wagons for transporting the baggage and stores, and in furnishing other supplies, gave the French an opportunity to arouse the Indians, and prepare for a vigorous defense.
On numbering his troops at Will's Creek, Braddock ascertained that his force consisted of a little more than two thousand effective men, about one half of whom belonged to the royal regiments.
The remainder were furnished by the colonies, among whom were portions of two independent companies, contributed by New York, under Captain Horatio Gates, unto whom Burgoyne surrendered twenty-two years later. Braddock separated his army into two divisions. The advanced division, consisting of over twelve hundred men, he led in person; the other was intrusted to the command of Colonel Dunbar, who, by slower marches, was to remain in the rear. Braddock reached the junction of the Voughiogheny and Monongahela Rivers, within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne, on the eighth of July, where he was joined by Colonel Washington, who had just recovered from an attack of fever.
On the morning of the ninth, [[1755]] the whole army crossed the Monongahela, and marching five miles along its southwestern banks, on account of rugged hills on the other side, they again crossed to the northeastern shore, and proceeded directly toward Fort Duquesne. Lieutenant Colonel Gage, afterward the commander of the British forces at Boston when besieged by the Americans under Washington, led the advanced guard of three
* Six colonial governors assembled on this occasion, namely: Shirley, of Massachusetts; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; James Delaney, of New York; Sharpe, of Maryland; Morris, of Pennsylvania; and Dobbs, of North Carolina. Admiral Keppel, then in command of his majesty's fleet in America, was also present.
[[[Alarm of the French.--Passage of the Monongahela.--The Battle.--Washington's Advance.--Death of Braddock.]]]
{478}hundred men in the order of march. Contrecoeur, the commandant of Fort Duquesne, had been early informed of the approach of Braddock, and his Indian scouts were out in every direction. He had doubts of his ability to maintain the fort against the English, and contemplated an abandonment, when Captain De Beaujeu proposed to head a detachment of French and Indians, and meet them while on their march. The proposition was agreed to, and on the morning of the ninth of July, [[1755]] at the moment when the English first crossed the Monongahela, the French and Indians took up their line of march, intending to make the attack at the second crossing of the river. Arriving too late, they posted themselves in the woods and ravines, on the line of march toward the fort.
It was one o'clock, and the sun was pouring its rays down fiercely, when the rear of the British army reached the north side of the Monongahela. A level plain extended from the river to a gentle hill, nearly half a mile northward. This hill terminated in higher elevations thickly covered with woods, and furrowed by narrow ravines. * Next to Gage, with his advanced party, was another division of two hundred men, and then came Braddock with the column of artillery and the main body of the army. Just as Gage was ascending the slope and approaching a dense wood, a heavy volley of musketry poured a deadly storm into his ranks. No adversary was to be seen. It was the first intimation that the enemy was near, and the firing seemed to proceed from an invisible foe. The British fired in return, but at random, while the concealed enemy, from behind trees, and rocks, and thick bushes, kept up rapid and destructive volleys. Beaujeu, the commander of the French and Indians, was killed at the first return fire, and M. Dumas took his place. Braddock advanced with all possible speed to the relief of the advanced guard; but so great was their panic, that they fell back in confusion upon the artillery and other columns of the army, and communicated their panic to the whole. The general tried in vain to rally his troops. Himself and officers were in the thickest of the fight, and exhibited indomitable courage. Washington ventured to suggest the propriety of adopting the Indian mode of skulking, and each man firing for himself, without orders; but Braddock would listen to no suggestions so contrary to military tactics. ** For three hours he endeavored to form his men into regular columns and platoons, as if in battle with European troops upon a broad plain, while the concealed enemy, with sure aim, was slaying his brave soldiers by scores. Harassed on every side, the British huddled together in great confusion, fired irregularly, and in several instances shot down their own officers without perceptibly injuring their enemies. The Virginians under Washington, contrary to orders, now adopted the provincial mode of fighting, and did more execution than all the rest of the troops. The carnage was dreadful. More than half of Braddock's whole army, which made such a beautiful picture in the eyes of Washington in the morning, *** were killed and wounded. General Braddock received a wound which disabled him, and terminated his life three days afterward. **** Through the
* Mr. Sparks visited this battle-field in 1830. He says the hill up which Gage and his detachment were marching is little more than an inclined plain of about three degrees. Down this slope extended two ravines, beginning near together, at about one hundred and fifty yards from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions, until they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the enemy were concealed and protected. In 1830, they were from eight to ten feet deep, and capable of holding a thousand men. It was between these ravines that the British army was slaughtered.--See Sparks's Washington, ii., 474. Although nearly one hundred years have elapsed since the battle, grape-shot and bullets are now sometimes cut out of the trees, or, with buttons and other metallic portions of military equipage, are turned up by the plowmen.
** It was on this occasion that the haughty and petulant Braddoek is said to have remarked contemptuously, "What, a Virginia colonel teach a British general how to fight!" It is proper to remark that this anecdote rests upon apocryphal authority.
*** Washington was often heard to say, during his lifetime, that the most beautiful spectacle he had ever beheld was the display of the British troops on that morning. Every man was neatly dressed in full uniform; the soldiers were arranged in columns, and marched in exact order; the sun gleamed from the burnished arms; the river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on the left.--Sparks.
**** General Braddock had five horses shot under him before he was mortally wounded himself. He was conveyed first in a tumbril, then on horseback, and finally by his soldiers in their flight toward Fort Cumberland after the defeat. He was attended by Dr. James Craik. * He died on the night of the 15th, and was buried in the road, to prevent his body being discovered by the Indians. Colonel Washington read the impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church over it, by torch-light. The place of his grave is a few yards north of the present National Road, between the fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from Cumberland, and about a mile west of the site of Fort Necessity, at the Great Meadows. It is said that a man named Thomas Faucett, who was among the soldiers under Braddock, shot his general. Faucett resided near Uniontown. Fayette county, Pennsylvania, toward the close of the last century, and never denied the accusation. He excused his conduct by the plea that by destroying the general, who would not allow his men to fire from behind trees, the remnant of the army was saved.
[[[Washington's Skill.--Providential Care acknowledged.--Lord Loudon.--New Expedition.--General Forbes.]]]
{479}stubbornness of that general, his contempt of the Indians, and the cowardice of many of his regular troops, an army thirteen hundred strong was half destroyed and utterly defeated by about one half that number, a large portion of whom were Indians. * Every mounted officer, except Washington, was slain before Braddock fell, and the whole duty of distributing orders devolved upon the youthful colonel, who was almost too weak from sickness to be in the saddle when the action commenced. **
William Pitt entered the British ministry at the close of 1757, and one of his first acts was the preparation of a plan for the campaign of 1758 against the French and Indians.
Lord Loudoun, who had been appointed to the chief command of the troops in America, *** was also appointed the successor of Dinwiddie, who left Virginia in January, 1758.
Loudoun's deputy, Francis Fauquier, a man greatly esteemed, performed the functions of governor. Pitt, in his arrangements, planned an expedition against Fort Duquesne. Every thing was devised upon a just and liberal scale. Brigadier-general Forbes **** was intrusted with the command of the expedition. The Virginian army was augmented to two thousand men. These were divided into two regiments. The first was under Colonel Washington, who was likewise commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces; the second was under Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, mentioned on page 441. After much delay in the collecting of men and munitions, the Virginians were ordered to Fort Cumberland, on the Potomac, at Will's Creek, to join the other portions of the expedition. The illness of General Forbes detained him long in Philadelphia, and, when able to move, his perversity of judgment placed many obstacles in the way of
* In a letter to his mother, written at Fort Cumberland nine days after the battle, Washington said, after mentioning the slaughter of the Virginia troops; "In short, the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to 'rally them." He used similar language in writing to Governor Dinwiddie.
** Colonel Washington had two horses shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat. ** Secretary Shirley was shot through the head, Sir Peter Halket was instantly killed, and among the wounded officers were Colonel Burton, Sir John St. Clair, Lieutenant Colonel Gage, Colonel Orme, Major Sparks, and Brigade-major Halket. Five captains were killed, and five wounded; fifteen lieutenants killed, and twenty-two wounded; out of eighty-six officers, twenty-six were killed, and thirty-seven wounded. The killed and wounded of the privates amounted to seven hundred and fourteen. One half of them were supposed to be killed, and these were stripped and scalped by the Indians.
*** See volume i., p. 110.
**** John Forbes was a native of Petincenet, Fifeshire, Scotland, and was educated for a physician. He entered the army in 1745. After serving as quarter-master general under the Duke of Cumberland, he was appointed brigadier general, and sent to America. The remainder of his public career is recorded in the text. The fort at Will's Creek he called Cumberland, in honor of his former commander, and the town since built there retains its name.
* See page 241.
** Speaking of this in a letter to his brother, he remarked, "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, and escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me." Dr. Craik, the intimate friend of Washington through life, and who was in this battle, relates that fifteen years afterward, while traveling near the junction of the great Kenhawa and Ohio Rivers in exploring wild lands, they were met by a party of Indians with an interpreter, headed by a venerable chief. The old chief said he had come a long way to see Colonel Washington, for in the battle of the Monongahela, he had singled him out as a conspicuous object, fired his rifle at him fifteen times, and directed his young warriors to do the same, but not one could hit him. He was persuaded that the Great Spirit protected the young hero, and ceased firing at him. The Rev. Samuel Davies of Hanover (afterward president of Princeton College, New Jersey), when preaching to a volunteer company a month after the battle, said, in allusion to Colonel Washington, "I can not but hope Providence has hitherto preserved him in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country." Washington was never wounded in battle.
[[[Movements of Forbes.--Defeat of Grant Attack on Bouquet.--Abandonment of Fort Duquesne.--Washington's Resignation.]]]
{480}success. Instead of following Braddock's road over the mountains, he insisted upon constructing a new one farther northward; and in September, when it was known that not more than eight hundred men were in garrison at Fort Duquesne, and the British might have been successfully beleaguring the fortress if Washington's advice had been heeded, General Forbes with six thousand men was yet east of the Alleghanies!
It was November when he reached the scene of action, and then his provisions were nearly exhausted.
In the mean while, Major Grant, of a Highland regiment, who had been ordered by Colonel Bouquet to march toward Fort Duquesne with about eight hundred men, and reconnoiter the country, exceeded his instructions, and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture it. [[Sept. 21]], The British were defeated with great loss, and both Major Grant and Major Andrew Lewis, of Washington's regiment (who commanded a rear guard), were made prisoners, and sent to Montreal. The retreat of the survivors was effected by the skill and energy of Captain Bullit, who, with fifty men, was left in charge of the baggage. The total loss on that occasion was two hundred and seventy-eight killed, and forty-two wounded. * The French, greatly inspirited by this event, determined to attack Colonel Bouquet at Loyal Hanna, ** before General Forbes should arrive from Fort Bedford. *** A force under De Vetrie, consisting of twelve hundred French and two hundred Indians, marched eastward, and on the twelfth of October attacked Bouquet's camp. The battle lasted four hours, and the French were repulsed with considerable loss. Colonel Bouquet lost sixty-seven men in killed and wounded. The Indians, bitterly disappointed, left the French in great numbers, and went out upon their hunting-grounds to secure a supply of food for the winter.
General Forbes arrived, toward the close of October, at Loyal Hanna, about half way between Fort Bedford and Fort Duquesne, where he called a council of war. The increasing inclemency of the season and scarcity of provisions, made it appear inexpedient to attempt to reach the fort, and they were about to abandon the expedition until Spring, when a knowledge of the extreme weakness of the garrison at Fort Duquesne was communicated by some prisoners who had been taken. Encouraged by this intelligence, the expedition moved on, the regiment of Colonel Washington forming the advanced corps. When he was within a days' march of Fort Duquesne, he was discovered by scouts. Fear magnified his numbers, and the garrison "burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it at night, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men, according to the best information." **** [[Nov. 25, 1758]] The English took possession of its site the next day. The blackened chimneys of thirty tenements stood in bold relief among the ruins. (v) The works were repaired, and the name of Pitt was given to the new fortress. After furnishing two hundred men from his regiment to garrison Fort Pitt, Colonel Washington marched back to Winchester, from whence he soon proceeded to Williamsburg to take his seat in the House of Burgesses, to which he had been elected a member by the county of Frederick, while he was at Fort Cumberland. The French being expelled from the Ohio, and the fear of frontier troubles subsiding, Washington determined to yield to the demands of enfeebled health and required attention to private affairs, and leave the army. At about the close of the year, he resigned his commission as colonel of the first Virginia regiment and commander-in-chief of all the troops raised in the colony. (vi)
* Marshall, i., 25.
** Now Ligonier, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, fifty miles west of Bedford.
*** This fort was on the site of the present village of Bedford, the capital of Bedford county.
**** Washington's letter to Governor Fauquier.
* (v) Day's History of Western Pennsylvania, page 140.
* (vi) It was on the occasion of his visit to Williamsburg, at the close of this campaign, that a touching event in the life of Washington is said to have occurred. He went into the gallery of the old Capitol when the House of Burgesses were in session, to listen to the proceedings. As soon as he was perceived by Mr. Speaker Robinson, that gentleman called the attention of the House to the young hero, and greatly complimented him for his gallantry. Washington, who was naturally diffident, and never a fluent extemporaneous speaker, was much confused. He arose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but, blushing and stammering, he was unable to utter a word intelligibly. Mr. Robinson observed his embarrassment, and with admirable tact relieved him. "Sit down, Mr. Washington," he said; "your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess." Mr. Robinson, the speaker of the House on this occasion, was the father of Colonel Beverly Robinson, the distinguished Loyalist of New York during the Revolution, whose portrait is printed on page 141. The last surviving son of Colonel Robinson, Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, died at his residence at Brighton, England, on the first of January, 1852, at the age of eighty-seven years.
[[[Development of Washington's Military Character.--Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson.]]]
{481}In this rapid sketch--this mere birds-eye view of the colonial history of Virginia, we have seen the development of those principles which made that state so eminently republican and patriotic when the Revolution broke out; and we have also seen the budding and growth of the military genius and public esteem of him who led our armies through that sanguinary conflict to victory and renown. We will now consider some of the events of the war for Independence which distinguished the peninsula below Richmond, lying between the York and James Rivers.
[[[Effect of the Stamp Act in Virginia.--Boldness of Patrick Henry.--His Resolution in Opposition to the Act.]]]
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