Washington's Revolution: The Making of America's First Leader (52 page)

My daughter Holly’s support of this book and all of my scholarly life has meant more to me than I can say. My son, Sam, to whom this book is dedicated, has been an important presence in many ways. Beverly, my wife, has been the key person in my life in a long marriage, and also a wonderful critic in the making of this book. I cannot describe adequately all that I owe her.

Notes

ABBREVIATIONS

PROLOGUE: VIRGINIAN

1.
To describe the Virginia of Washington’s youth is a daunting assignment, and this Prologue covers only a small part of the ground. I have listed here some of the scholarship that I have found most useful in writing this general introduction. The list here touches on only two aspects of Virginia’s culture: politics and slavery. Bernard Bailyn’s
The Origins of American Politics
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968) provides an insightful interpretation of the political lives of all the thirteen colonies. His account of Virginia is, of course, necessarily brief, but his perceptions are searching. Almost as useful is Leonard Labaree’s
Royal Government in America
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1930; repr., New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1958). Jack Greene’s
The Quest for Power
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963) is equally fine in its treatment of the assemblies of Virginia and the southern colonies. Charles S.
Sydnor’s
Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952) is a work of great value.
   Slavery in Virginia has received penetrating study in many books and articles. The following have been extraordinarily useful: Philip D. Morgan,
Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), a monumental study; Lorena S. Walsh,
Motives of Honor, Pleasure and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607–1763
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010); T. H. Breen,
Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of the Revolution
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985); and Edmund S. Morgan,
American Slavery, American Freedom
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1975).

1 YOUNG WASHINGTON

1.
For the history of Washington’s family, see Freeman, 1:15–47, 527–34; Flexner, 1:9–12.

2.
The documents of George Washington’s education are sparse. See
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:1–4. Freeman and Flexner give useful accounts; see vol. 1 in both biographies.

3.
Charles Moore, ed.,
George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior
(Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1926). A modern reprint can be found in John H. Rhodehamel, ed.,
George Washington: Writings
(New York: Library of America, 1997), 3–10.

4.
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:10. For “A Journal of My Journey over the Mountains Began the 11th of March 1747/8,” see
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:6–23; quotation 10. “Quotation” refers to the cited work.

5.
Ibid., 1:13

6.
For the trip to Barbados, see Donald Jackson, ed.,
The Diaries of George Washington
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976–1979, 6 vols.), 1:24–117. Much of this material is in facsimile and not useful.

7.
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:56–61.

8.
For Washington’s account of his “Journey to the French Commandant,” see Jackson, ed.,
Diaries
, 1:118–61, which includes helpful editorial comment as well as his account.

9.
Ibid., 1:162–210, for Washington’s report and editorial interpretation.

10.
Ibid. and
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:118 quotation.

11.
Washington’s and Dinwiddie’s letters back and forth in late May and early June are helpful in understanding the events of the days covered. See
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:87–140. See also, for the governor, John Richard Alden,
Robert Dinwiddie: Servant of the Crown
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1973).

12.
Dinwiddie to Washington, May 25, 1754; Washington’s reply, May 29, 1754.
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:102, 107.

13.
Ibid., 1:107–115; quotation 109.

14.
For the beginnings of the campaign at Great Meadows, see ibid., 1:122–57.

15.
For the dimensions of Fort Necessity, ibid., 1:126n12; the quotation is from a letter to Governor Dinwiddie, June 3, 1754, ibid., 1:123.

16.
Negotiations with the Indians can be followed in Jackson, ed.,
Diaries
, 1:202–10.

17.
PGW: Col. Ser
., 1:159–73.

18.
On responses to the defeat at Fort Necessity, see ibid., 1:177–78; W. Fairfax’s words were “Marlbro’s Campaigns”; and “rout,” 1:201; 1:209 (John Robinson and House of Burgesses for Robinson’s comments).

19.
The quotations are from a letter to William Fairfax, ibid., 1:186 (“naked”) and 189 (“if not more than ten men”).

20.
Ibid., 1:206–7; 208n9, on winter weather.

21.
Dinwiddie’s decision to divide the Virginia Regiment into independent companies is discussed in ibid., 1:224n1. See this note for quotation.

22.
The events discussed in this paragraph and the preceding one can be followed in ibid., 1:224–35; for the lease of Mount Vernon, 1:232–34.

2 THE MAKING OF A SOLDIER

1.
For Braddock’s background, see Paul E. Kopperman,
Braddock at the Monongahela
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), 7–8, 135–36; and Lee McCardell,
Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958), 124–28.

2.
Robert Orme to Washington, Mar. 2, 1755,
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:241-245.

3.
Leonard W. Labaree et al., eds.,
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959–, 41 vols. to date), for his assistance to Braddock, 6:13–27. Franklin tells the story in his autobiography; see the edition edited by Labaree, 216–221.

4.
Kopperman,
Braddock
, 3–18.

5.
Ibid., 19–30.

6.
Washington’s account of the battle appears in several of his letters. For the quotations, see Washington to Mary Ball Washington,
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:336 (“four Bullets”); to Dinwiddie, 1:340 (“in the shoulder”); to Dinwiddie, 1:339–340 (“English soldiers,” “broke & run”).

7.
Ibid., 1:351–54; “scandalous,” 1:353.

8.
To Robert Jackson (“wondrous works”); Dinwiddie to Halifax: ibid., 1:349, 351n2. Among excellent accounts by modern historians, see Kopperman,
Braddock
, 31–121; and Fred Anderson,
Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), 94–107.

9.
Washington to Robert Orme, July 28, 1755,
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 1:347; Orme to Washington, Aug. 25, 1755, 2:9–11; Orme to Washington, Nov. 10, 1755, 2:165–66.

10.
Washington to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, ibid., 1:339–40, quotations.

11.
Washington to Warner Lewis, Aug. 14, 1755, ibid., 1:360–64.

12.
There have been many attempts to explain the meaning of honor in the American Revolution and at other times. One of the most helpful is in Caroline Cox,
A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington’s Army
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004). See also Kwame Anthony Appiah,
The Honor Code
(New York: Norton, 2010), a stimulating modern perspective, and Joanne B. Freeman,
Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), a suggestive and instructive interpretation.

13.
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 2:13–54. Washington’s own commission and instructions from Governor Dinwiddie are in ibid., 2:1–8.

14.
Washington to Andrew Lewis, Sept. 6, 1755, and to Adam Stephen, Sept. 11, 1755, ibid., 2:23, 27.

15.
Washington to Dinwiddie, Oct. 11, 1755, ibid., 2:101–7; quotation 102.

16.
On Dagworthy, see ibid., 2:63n4, 74n6.

17.
William Shirley to Washington, Mar. 5, 1756, ibid., 2:323.

18.
Washington to Dinwiddie, Apr. 7, 1756, ibid., 2:333, quotations.

19.
Washington’s reports to Dinwiddie and John Robinson, Speaker of the House, are filled with accounts of depredations by the Indians in these years.

20.
For Washington’s skepticism regarding the chain of forts built along the frontier, see, for example, his letter of Apr. 7, 1756, to Dinwiddie, ibid., 2:332–35, especially 334.

21.
Washington to Adam Stephen, Nov. 28, 1755, ibid., 2:184, 186n4.

22.
Ibid., 4:1 quotations. The entire letter is in ibid., 4:1–10 with notes.

23.
Ibid., 4:2; 4:3 for the quotations in this paragraph and the next.

24.
Ibid., 4:25 for Dinwiddie’s angry response.

25.
Ibid., 4:26 for the order to Washington.

26.
Washington’s answer on Nov. 24, 1756, contains an effective apology for remarks the governor had found “unmannerly,” but sustains what he had written on Nov. 9. See ibid., 4:30.

27.
For the Virginia Council’s statement, as reported by the governor, see ibid., 4:54–55. The governor’s citation of Lord Loudoun’s judgment is suspect, as the editors of vol. 4 of the
PGW: Col. Ser
. point out on page 53n4.

28.
Washington wrote the governor on Dec. 2, 4, and 10, 1756. Ibid., 4:34–37; 40–41; 48–49.

29.
For Washington’s letter of Jan. 10, 1757, to Lord Loudoun, see ibid., 4:79–93; quotations 4:81, 89.

30.
Ibid., 4:79–80, 136–38.

31.
To Dinwiddie, July 11, 1757, ibid., 4:295–96.

32.
To Dinwiddie, May 30, 1757, ibid., 4:171–73.

33.
To John Robinson, May 30, June 10, 1757, ibid., 4:174–75, 199; quotations 174, 199.

34.
To John Robinson, May 30, 1757, ibid., 4:175; and to Dinwiddie, Oct. 24, 1757, ibid., 5:25.

35.
Robinson to Washington, Nov. 3, 1757, ibid., 5:43–44. For Robinson, see ibid., 1:113n4. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses in the years 1738–65.

36.
Ibid., 5:44–46; quotation 45.

37.
Ibid., 5:46–47; quotations 46.

38.
Ibid., 5:115n3.

39.
Ibid., 5:117; quotations 117 and 126.

40.
Ibid., 5:138–139n1, 344–45; quotations 344.

41.
Washington to Francis Halkett, Aug. 2, 1758, ibid., 5:361; John Forbes to Col. Henry Bouquet, Sept. 23, 1758, ibid., 6:24n3.

42.
Washington to Francis Fauquier, Aug. 5 and Sept. 2, 1758, ibid., 5:369–71, 439–43.

43.
These arguments appear in letters to Col. Bouquet, Acting Governor John Blair, Governor Francis Fauquier, and others.

44.
PGW: Col. Ser.
, 6:45