character and his reputation rose by every public trust with which he was invested. He now received a commission appointing him colonel of this regiment, and commander-in-chief of all the forces, raised and to be raised, in Virginia, with the privilege to name his field officers. He could, in the existing state of the colony, engage in the military service of his country without an impeachment of his honour, and with alacrity he accepted the appointment.

1755. A scene now opened to Colonel Washington, trying, indeed, to a commander of his youth and degree of experience, but proving an excellent school in which to form the general of the revolutionary war. With an incompetent force he was to defend a frontier of three hundred and sixty miles. The French on the Ohio, aided by the numerous Indians attached to their interests, embraced every favourable opportunity to invade the northern and western borders of Virginia, spreading terror and desolation in their course; and having completed their work of slaughter and ruin, they retreated with their plunder over the Alleghany mountain, before a force could be collected to attack them. Governor Dinwiddie was not himself a soldier, nor did he possess a mind to comprehend the nature of this mode of war. Jealous of his prerogative, and obstinate in his temper, his orders were often inadequate to their object, or impracticable in their nature. The military code of the colony was insufficient, which rendered it impossible to bring the militia into the field with the dispatch necessary

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for which they greatly suffered; there being upwards of sixty killed and wounded; a large proportion of what we had.

"The Virginia companies behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I believe of three companies on the ground that day, scarcely thirty men were left alive: Captain Peronny and all his officers, down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Poulson had almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the dastardly behaviour of the regular troops, so called, exposed those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death. And, at length, in spite of every effort to the contrary, they broke and ran as sheep before hounds; leaving the artillery, ammunition, provisions, baggage, in short every thing, a prey to the enemy; and when we endea voured to rally them, in hopes of regaining the ground, and what we had left upon it, it was with as little success as if we had attempted to stop the wild bears of the mountains, or the rivulets with our feet; for they would break by in spite of every effort to prevent it."

The assembly of Virginia was in session when the gloomy intelligence was received, that General Braddock was defeated and slain, and that Colonel Dunbar had left their frontiers open to the invasion of the enemy. They immediately voted to raise a regiment to consist of sixteen companies.

The important transactions in which Colonel Washington had been engaged, developed his

character and his reputation rose by every public trust with which he was invested. He now received a commission appointing him colonel of this regiment, and commander-in-chief of all the forces, raised and to be raised, in Virginia, with the privilege to name his field officers. He could, in the existing state of the colony, engage in the military service of his country without an impeachment of his honour, and with alacrity he accepted the appointment.

1755. A scene now opened to Colonel Washington, trying, indeed, to a commander of his youth and degree of experience, but proving an excellent school in which to form the general of the revolutionary war. With an incompetent force he was to defend a frontier of three hundred and sixty miles. The French on the Ohio, aided by the numerous Indians attached to their interests, embraced every favourable opportunity to invade the northern and western borders of Virginia, spreading terror and desolation in their course; and having completed their work of slaughter and ruin, they retreated with their plunder over the Alleghany mountain, before a force could be collected to attack them. Governor Dinwiddie was not himself a soldier, nor did he possess a mind to comprehend the nature of this mode of war. Jealous of his prerogative, and obstinate in his temper, his orders were often inadequate to their object, or impracticable in their nature. The military code of the colony was insufficient, which rendered it impossible to bring the militia into the field with the dispatch necessary

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to repel an Indian invasion; and her martial laws did not possess vigor to prevent insubordination in officers, or secure discipline in the permanent troops. The colony was at that time too poor or too improvident scasonably to lay 'up magazines for the use of her little army, or to keep money in the military chest for its regular payment.

Under all these embarrassments, Colonel Washington entered on the duties of his commission. Having put the recruiting service in operation, he visited the line of posts on the frontiers, and established the best regulations their state admitted, to keep the petty garrisons vigilant and alert.

He had accomplished this necessary business, and nearly completed a journey to Williamsburg, to settle with the governor the plan of operations; and to press upon him and other influential characters in the government, the importance of legislative interference to conciliate those Indians who were not already attached to the French; and to adopt effectual means and regulations to support and discipline the troops; when information ́reached him of an eruption of the French and Indians on the northern border. In haste he returned to Winchester, and found the country in the utmost alarm and confusion. The small garrisons conceived themselves to be in danger in their fortresses, and were unable to protect the open country. The inhabitants on the extreme frontier, instead of uniting their force for mutual safety, fell back, and communicated their fears to more interior places. Orders to call the militia into the field were unavailing; the solicitude and exertion

of each individual were directed to the immediate preservation of his family and property. The sufferings of his countrymen deeply wounded the heart of Colonel Washington. Every measure was adopted, that an enterprising spirit could suggest; and all the means he possessed were judiciously and strenuously exerted for their protection; but all were ineffectual. He was compelled to be the witness of the calamity of friends, whom he could not relieve; and of the carnage and ravages of a ferocious enemy, whom he could not chastise. Before a force from below could be collected, the invading foe, having glutted their appetite for blood and loaded themselves with spoil, recrossed the mountain.

Three years service affords little else than a repetition of scenes of a similar nature; scenes, which occasioned to these settlements the utmost horror and distress, and fully tested the fortitude and military resources of the commander; but which, in recital, would swell this work beyond the designed bounds. The regiment never consisted of more than one thousand effective men. Colonel Washington, in addition to the appropriate duty of his commission, was obliged to superintend the operations of each subordinate department, and to attend to the wants of the impoverished inhabitants.

During this period, he unremittingly urged upon the executive and legislature of his province, the insufficiency of the mode adopted to prosecute the war. He earnestly advised to offensive operations, as the only measure which would effectually