Chapter 3

Early Military Career: Bulletproof

In 1752, shortly after Washington returned from Barbados, Virginia’s British governor Robert Dinwiddie appointed him commander over the militia for the southern part of the state. At that time, it appeared that the seemingly perpetual war between Great Britain and France would spill over into North America, for both wanted to control those vast lands.

The English colonies in North America developed originally along the Atlantic seacoast, but many colonists began to push westward, opening new settlements in the interior. England (based on the early voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in the late 1490s) claimed all of America for herself, from the Atlantic seacoast all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

But the French (also early explorers of North America) felt that they, too, had a right to a generous share of the New World and likewise claimed all of North America. They primarily colonized the interior of the continent along the Mississippi River, with settlements such as Montreal and Detroit in the north and St. Louis and New Orleans in the south. These French encampments were more than 500 miles inland from the English settlements along the Atlantic seaboard.

To expand French influence, the French governor of Canada ordered that a chain of forts be built on lands occupied by the English. Soldiers began erecting French strongholds, intending to draw a line from north to south across the American continent and keep English settlements confined east of the Allegheny Mountains.

But the English had already moved west of those mountains. The fur traders of Virginia previously established a chain of English trading posts stretching deep into the Ohio Valley (which included portions of what is now Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland). The English had friendly relations with Indian villages throughout that expansive region, so the French began visiting the same locations to undermine the British relationships with the Natives.

To counter the growing French encroachment, several prominent Virginians—including Robert Dinwiddie (governor of Virginia), Lawrence and Augustine Washington (George’s elder half-brothers), and Thomas Lee (president of the Virginia Council)—established the Ohio Company to promote additional English settlements in the Ohio Valley section of the Virginia Colony.

But before the Ohio Company could dispatch more English settlers to the region, the governor of Canada sent 300 Frenchmen to claim the area. They began building forts, even within the English colony of Pennsylvania. They also began attacking English trading posts, taking English traders as prisoners.

Tensions increased and it seemed an all-out war was looming on the horizon. Governor Dinwiddie decided to attempt one more diplomatic solution: he would send a final official remonstrance to General St. Pierre, the commander of French forces in northwestern Pennsylvania. Dinwiddie selected Washington to carry his message. On October 31, 1753, as winter was settling into the mountains, the 21-year-old set out on his perilous trek.

Washington was accompanied by Christopher Gist, the surveyor, explorer, and Indian agent for the Ohio Company. The two plunged into the recesses of the wild, leaving behind every vestige of civilization. They endured snow and storms, crossed rugged mountains, and traversed through dense forests and into flooded valleys where they were forced to navigate swollen, raging rivers on rapidly-made but frail and dangerous rafts. On December 12, after six weeks of treacherous winter travel, they reached French General St. Pierre.

The General refused to accept the official papers from Washington. Instead, the Frenchman informed Washington that his orders were to eject every Englishman from the Ohio Valley and that he meant to carry out those orders. He directed Washington to remain while he prepared a reply