Transcript

1.29.26 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today
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I will be reading a Smithsonian magazine dated January February
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twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio I is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Please join me now for the article. A skirmish early
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in George Washington's military career helped define him. It could
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have killed him. New evidence helps resolve enduring mysteries about
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a seventeen fifty eight incident that nearly cost the future
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president his life and shaped his views on the battles
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yet to come. By David L. Preston. For the rest
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of his life, George Washington would remember the chaos and
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tragedy of November twelfth, seventeen fifty eight. At twenty six,
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he was the colonel commanding the Virginia Regiment, a British
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subject fighting for his king in the conflict now known
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as the French and Indian War. The soldiers were advancing
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westward in a campaign to take the Ohio Valley from
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the French and their native allies. The troops had crossed
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the Appalachians and built a fort called Loyal Hannah in
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what is now western Pennsylvania, about fifty miles east of
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Fort Duquesne, the strategic French outposts they planned to conquer.
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In the October twenty nineteen issue of Smithsonian, I wrote
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about a seventeen fifty four document I discovered in the
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British National Archives, an eye witness account from an Ohio
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Iroquois warrior who identified Washington as having fired the first
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shot in the skirmish that sparked the war. Now, as
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British troops closed in on the Ohio Valley, Washington was
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about to play a key role in the conflict's end.
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On that Sunday in November seventeen fifty eight, the British
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commander General John Forbes got word that a French an
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Indian scouting party was approaching Loyal Hannah. After he sent
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a unit of Virginians into the woods, the roar of
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muskets was loud enough that Forbes sent Washington out with reinforcements.
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In the dusky light and confusion, each of the two
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Virginia parties mistook the other for the enemy. The skirmish
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would come to be known as the Friendly Fire incident,
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and Washington was largely responsible for restoring order. He placed
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himself between the two Virginia units, knocking the soldier's muskets
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upward with his sword and commanding them to stop firing.
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By the time the shooting ceased, as many as sixteen
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Virginians were dead and more than twenty others were wounded.
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Washington came out unscathed, but in his orderly book he
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noted that as his soldiers marched out the next morning,
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they were to carry a proportion of spades in order
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to bury the dead. Thirteen days later, the British capture
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Fort to Kesna and with it control of the Ohio
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Valley on Virginia's western frontier, but Washington remained haunted. In
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seventeen eighty seven, jotting down his personal reflections for a biographer,
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the soon to be president wrote that his life had
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never been in as much jeopardy before or since, that
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moment in the Pennsylvania Woods. By that time, everybody knew
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about Washington's courage. During the Revolutionary War. In seventeen seventy six,
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he'd led twenty four hundred men across the Delaware River
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as sleet rained down and ice floes drifted past. In
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the darkness, but at loyal Hanno. Washington wrote he'd faced
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more imminent danger. Yet the friendly fire incident has rarely
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earned more than a passing glance in the many biographies
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of Washington. The details and location remained unknown, even as
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sights all over the United States boasted that Washington slept, dined,
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or worshiped there. Between the shame of Fracturecide and the
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urgency of reaching Fort to Kesna, the soldiers themselves spent
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little time recording or investigating the event. The mass grave
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of the sixteen dead Virginians was never marked or memorialized.
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As the battle became the stuff of western Pennsylvania legend,
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it was up to local historians to uncover the reality.
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The Fort Ligonier Museum and historic site, nestled in Pennsylvania's
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Laurel Highlands, has played a crucial role. Shortly after the
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friendly fire incident, Forbes renamed Loyo Hanna in honor of
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John B. Liganeer, the commander in chief of the British Army.
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The original fort no longer stands, but in the nineteen
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forties and fifties archaeologists conducted excavations and began a stunningly
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accurate reconstruction of the fort at its original location, using
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period plans and maps. Visitors can stand at the recreated
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western battery and imagine the monumental labor of building a
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fort or moving supply wagons through the mountains. In two
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thousand eight, the museum acquired the handwritten manuscript of the
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first President's biographical remarks from seventeen eighty seven. Telling a
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story like the friendly Fire incident, says Matt Gault, the
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Fort's director of education, humanizes Washington and makes him relatable.
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Archaeology and history have always gone hand in hand at
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the Fort Ligonier Museum, Board trustee Charles Fagin, the third,
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who died in twenty twenty five, made it a lifelong
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mission to investigate the friendly Fire incident, given its importance
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to Fort Lignier's story. Written accounts, however, offered only vague
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hints of the incident's exact location. One soldier's journal placed
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it in a valley behind a mountain, which could have
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described almost any site in the vicinity. Fagin suspected that
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the skirmish had occurred a few miles west of Loyal
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Hannah along Forbes Road, an old pathway whose traces are
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still visible, but only archaeologists would be able to locate
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the site with precision and certainty. In twenty twenty one,
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Fort Liganier's executive director, Mary Mangus, asked archaeologists to find
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the friendly fire location. Jonathan Burns, an anthropologist at nearby
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Juniata College, had extensive experience excavating eighteenth century sites and
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in the field of conflict archaeology. He also led the
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Veteran's Archaeology Program, an initiative that helps U S Military
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veterans explore careers related to archaeology and public history. He
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knew that the members of this team would bring an
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extra layer of insight because of their combat experience. In
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twenty twenty two, the team followed Fagin's hunch and began
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digging near Forbes Road. Sure enough, the evidence began to emerge.
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It was a visceral rush. Once our team began recovering
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mid eighteenth century artifacts scattered across the fields. Burns said
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that ultimately meant that we were locating and documenting the
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battle actions of that infamous day in history. By the
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time the dig began, I'd spent years pouring over documents
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as I worked on a book about Washington's early life.
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The only verified eye witness accounts of the friendly Fire
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incident were Washington's own writings his seventeen fifty eight orderly book.
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In the seventeen eighty seven Reflections, there are second hand
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accounts drawn from officers and men who had remained at
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Loyohanna in seventeen fifty eight, a Pennsylvania German soldier, a
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Scottish Highland officer, and Forbes. Some of Forbes's officers contributed
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reports to colonial newspapers such as the Pennsylvania Gazette. I
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was also surprised to discover how many papers in Great
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Britain had covered the friendly Fire incident, even though the
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story had been mostly lost to history. At the time,
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it was international news. I began visiting the site and
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consulting with Burns as well as Fort Liganier's staff. After
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years of reading about the incident. It was a thrill
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to see eighteenth century objects coming up to the surface bullets, buttons, buckles,
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musket parts, and iron hardware. As Burns team members found
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each item, they plotted its exact coordinates on a digital map.
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The spatial patterns revealed important details such as the size
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of the battlefield and the location of the firing lines.
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One of the most compelling early finds was a copper
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watch key with a Fleur Dely design, lost by a
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French or British officer who would have had a watch
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in the wilderness. The Virginia Provincials not only didn't wear
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standard uniforms, but also often looked like civilians. One officer
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at the time had noted that some soldiers wore blue
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coats while others were in rags. He described one soldier
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as wearing a light colored cloth waistcoat and checked trousers.
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Rag Williams, a Navy veteran and Smithsonian staff member who
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was working at the dig site, uncovered a square copper
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shoe buckle fragment of a civilian variety, most likely belonging
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to a provincial soldier. When I visited the sight in July,
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the heat didn't seem to FaZe the veterans. One kept
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digging through a downpour, shouting out the old Army saying,
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if it ain't raining, we ain't training. I spent much
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of my time with David Williams, an Army veteran who
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received the Combat Infantryman badge during his service in Iraq,
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as he swung the long shaft of a mine lab
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mantcor metal detector, his midast touch never failed. On his
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last day at the sight this past summer, he made
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a rare find three dropped musket balls of French caliber
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on the ground where the French and Indian forces fought
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the Virginians. As a combat veteran, he told me, knowing
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what happened here brings you closer to the site and
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makes it more personal. One of my own projects has
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been to reconstruct the French perspective on the battle at
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Loyal Hanna, using documents that other historians had never consulted.
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I pieced together second hand accounts from French officers and
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won by the French Canadian governor general who fixed the
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skirmish location a few miles west of Loyal Hannah. The
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Marquis de Vauderoul told his superiors in Paris that the
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Belle Riviere Ohio River was of infinite importance to the
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state and especially to this colony, and he closely monitored
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events there. In the fall of seventeen fifty eight. For
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the French, the friendly fire incident was a turning point
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in the struggle for the Ohio Valley. The commanding officer
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at Fort de Quesna, Captain Francois Marie Le marchanp de Lignaire,
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had been tasked with repairing the crumbling edifice of French
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power in the Ohio Valley, both literally and figuratively. Years
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of floods had rendered Fort to Quesna indefensible, Yet through
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most of seventeen fifty eight, the French and their Native
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allies had bested the British. In battle. In September, they
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had destroyed a large British reconnaissance force led by Major
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James Grant, a battle that became known as Grant's Defeat.
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The French followed that victory in October with a spoiling
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attack on Loyal Hanna, designed to destroy supplies and capture
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live stock so that the British advance would grind to
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a halt. But by mid October Lnree no longer had
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enough rations to sustain his garrison beyond eighteen days, let
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alone alone provide gifts and supplies to his native allies.
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Most of his troops left Fort to Quisna, and discouraged
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Native allies drifted away, but the officer was determined to
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keep pressure on the British. As he informed his superiors,
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I have not ceased for a month to have scouting
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done in the neighbourhood at Loyal Hanna. As Lnerie sent
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out another party in early November, he hoped his men
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could prevent the British from attacking Fort to Quesna for
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the rest of the year. According to Vaudril's letter, a
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party of thirty French Canadians, along with one hundred forty Shawnee, Delaware,
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and Iroquois warriors set out for Loyal Hanna on November nine.
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Their leader, Lieutenant Claude Louis de Cobier, was a master
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of woodland warfare with Native allies. By seventeen fifty eight,
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he had destroyed several British forces in battle. Yet by
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the time his group approached Loyal Hanna, it had dwindled
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to around fifty Canadians and Indians. Without knowing that Cobier's
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party was on its way, Forbes met with his principal
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officers at Loyal Hanna on November eleventh. They acknowledged a
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hard truth. The cold weather was causing supply shortages and
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turning the roads into soupy rivers of mud. The campaign
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would have to be suspended and the army would winter
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at Loyal Hanna, as the Ohio Valley would remain in
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French hands. Washington had been pessimistic about the campaign from
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the start, and he observed that nothing but a miracle
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can procure success. The next day, the British learned from
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their own scouts or guards tending near by cattle that
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the French were approaching with the party of around two hundred.
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The first group Forbes sent out was more than a match,
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around five hundred Virginians, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Mercer
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of the second Virginia Regiment. Mercer was a confidant of Washington's,
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having served under him since seventeen fifty four. He had
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fought by Washington's side in many battles and been his
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principal aid. Mercer and his men likely marched out of
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Loyal Hanna with high confidence. Many of these Virginians had
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fought alongside their own native allies, and some were outfitted
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after the Indian fashion, according to one Virginia officer, sporting
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match coats, blankets, leggings, moccasins, and tomahawks. Sure Enough, the
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archaeological dig has unearthed a wide variety of buttons and
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other clothing elements at the site. This motley assortment of
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Virginia uniforms would have contributed to the confusion of the battle.
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The November sky was beginning to darken as the Virginians
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headed westward, gaining a high ridge and descending into a
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valley where they made initial contact with the French and
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Indian patrol. As Washington and waited back at the camp
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he later recalled, the sounds of severe conflict and hot
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firing seemed to be getting closer, as though Mercer's men
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were being pushed back. Forbes wanted to surround the French
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and Native patrol, and he authorized Washington to call for volunteers.
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The relief force presumably took a different route than Mercer's
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men had taken, since Washington planned to envelop the enemy.
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The Virginians advanced toward the sound of gunshots, but when
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the firing ceased, Washington sent scouts ahead to let Mercer
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know that they were approaching. The message did not reach
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all of Mercer's men, perhaps because they dispersed so widely
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as they fought the French. By the time the sun
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disappeared behind the mountains. Mercer's men had been fighting the
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French and Native force for about an hour. Mercer's initial
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attack was apparently successful. The Virginians had pushed Corbier's force
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up an elevated shelf of ground. The French and Indians
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had taken position behind trees and rocks, intending to withdraw
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under cover of darkness. Archaeologists have found a pattern of
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bullets concentrated on that very shelf, including the three unspent
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musket balls, which were perhaps dropped by a wounded or
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retreating French or Native fighter. Corbierre and his allies were
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savvy veterans of wilderness warfare. Though heavily outnumbered, they had
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preserved their line of retreat as they broke off contact
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and headed west toward Fort de Keusna. Mercers Virginians managed
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to capture three prisoners, including a Native man and woman.
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There is no discussion in the sources about the Native woman,
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who she was or what she was doing in the party.
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That was when Washington's relief force burst onto the scene,
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approaching in another direction. As Washington later recalled, fearing that
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the French and Natives had circled back for a counter attack,
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Mercer's men opened fire. Darkness, as well as clouds of
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smoke from the musketry, obscured visibility in the valley. Washington's
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men saw a Mercer's group and assumed they had surrounded
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the enemy. The presence of native prisoners might have added
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to the confusion. The Whitehall Evening Post in London reported
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that the relief unit began shooting on seeing our people
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with Indians amongst them. About the fire. The roar of
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musketry erupted once again, as lead balls butted into trees, rocks,
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and human flesh. Washington quickly realized the mistake and began
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running between the two sides, presumably on foot, ordering his
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men to cease firing, and knocking their muskets up with
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his sword. Officers began to restore order, a difficult task
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as many soldiers were likely scattered among the trees rather
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than in dense ranks. A round tore through the arm
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and chest of Henry Townsend, a soldier in Washington's Virginia Regiment.
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One of Mercer's men, Sergeant Thomas Brannan, suffered a severe
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wound in the neck that left him with impaired eyesight.
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Two officers were killed, including a volunteer who had gone
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out with Washington, Lieutenant John Evans of the sixtieth Regiment.
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John Michael Lindenmouth, a Pennsylvania German soldier who had remained
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back at the fort, described the pitiful condition of the
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men who stumbled back, but the names of the casualties
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were not recorded in any known document. Officers and interpreters
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interrogated the three prisoners. One turned out to be an
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Englishman named Richard Johnson, originally a farmer living in Paxton
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Township in Pennsylvania. He may have lived and traded among
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the Ohio Indians before the war, but the Indians had
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taken him captive in seventeen fifty seven. Now, the British
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officers informed Johnson that as he had been found in
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arms against his king and country, he had thereby forfeited
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his life unless he was willing to reveal what he
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knew of the enemy's situation. If the British found any
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redemption from the fratricide near Loyalhanna, it came from Johnson's intelligence.
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He told his interrogators that Fort to Kesna was desperately
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weak and undermanned. There is no record of whether Johnson
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was executed or pardoned, but his crucial information proved to
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be the miracle that Washington thought was needed to bring success.
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Forbes ordered his army to resume its march on Fort
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de Kesna, a bold decision that allowed his soldiers to
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redeem tragedy with forward progress. Before the group could move on,
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though Lindenmouth recorded in his journal that we buried our
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dead with sorrowful hearts. Forbes captured Fort to Kesna without
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a fight on November twenty fifth, renaming it Pittsburgh in
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honor of British statesman William pitt Francis, Delaware, Shawnee, and
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Ohio Iroquois allies were forced to accept a new British
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presence along with an uncertain future. Meanwhile, the Colony of
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New France was collapsing under relentless British attacks. Lunnery was
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mortally wounded in seventeen fifty nine near Fort Niagara, and
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Corbierre died from his wounds after the seventeen sixty Battle
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of Saint Foy outside of Quebec on the British side. Forbes,
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who had been ill throughout the campaign, died shortly after
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returning to Philadelphia in early seventeen fifty nine. Brannon and
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Townsend of the Virginia Provincials suffered from their wounds long
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after the war. Unable to make a living, they both
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petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses for relief. Poignantly, both
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former commanders Washington and Mercer were on the legislative committee
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that review viewed and approved the petitions. As compensation for
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their injuries, Brannon appeared to receive a one time payment
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of ten pounds, while Townshend received ten pounds per year.
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Mercer was a legislator and land agent for the colonies
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after the war, but when the American Revolution broke out,
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he remained a loyalist and died in London in seventeen
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eighty four. Still, when Washington looked back on the incident
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after the Revolutionary War, he referred warmly to his friend
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Colonel Mercer. After four seasons of sifting through dirt and evidence,
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Burns and the Fort Liguanier leadership announced in July twenty
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twenty five that they had discovered the exact location of
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the friendly fire incident. By that time, they found nearly
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four hundred artifacts in what Burns regarded as a significant
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victory for battlefield archaeology. The concentration and spatial distribution of
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both fired and unfired musket balls allowed them to pinpoint
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the battle site, as well as the general locations of
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the British and French and Indian forces. Written records reveal
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no other skirmishes in the area that could have produced
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such a volume of gunfire along such an extended front.
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Archaeological investigations continue, especially the search for the Virginian's mass grave.
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The team has used specially trained archaeology dogs that can
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detect even the smallest human remains. This past spring, Burns
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and his colleague Ryan Mather at Juniata College tested the
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musket balls for their chemical isotopes, specific variations of molecules
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that reveal their geological origin. The lead in the musket
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balls clearly came from either Europe or from French sources
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in Canada and the Far West. This last finding lined
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up with French documents which reported that Fort to Quesna
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increasingly relied on men, supplies and munitions coming from Illinois
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down the Ohio River. The calibers of British and French
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ammunition uncovered at the site also revealed the weaponry used
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by the combatants, ranging from French tull sin Aentienne and
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British long land pattern brown best muskets to trade muskets
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that native warriors would have carried. The British musket balls
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matched eighteenth century descriptions of the Virginia Provincial's weaponry, a
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motley mix of fire arms, with some daty back to
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the seventeen twenties. Ongoing excavations, as well as private property
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concerns prevent me from revealing the exact location of the site,
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But after years of watching the team's progress, I shared
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in the satisfaction of discovery, I knew how profoundly the
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events of November seventeen fifty eight shaped the man who
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would become the commander of the Continental Army. They included
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both the heights and the depths of Washington's military career
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in the French and Indian War. During the final March
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on Fort de Quesna, Forbes honored him with the temporary
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title of Brigadier as he commanded the Advanced Brigade. When
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Washington posed for Charles Wilson Peel's seventeen seventy two portrait
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of himself as a Virginia officer, in the Ohio Valley,
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he had his seventeen fifty eight Order of March proudly
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sticking out of his waistcoat pocket. Washington stopped fighting for
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the British after the capture of Fort de Quesna. He
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turned his gaze back east, toward marriage to the widow
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Martha Custus and a new political career in the Virginia
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Legislature that became the crucible of his growing resistance to
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British policies. The friendly Fire incident was not simply a
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tragic footnote in the life of the man and prehistory
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of the n It was a pivotal moment in the
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Forbes Campaign and in Washington's development. The first time Washington
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heard bullets whistling past him in seventeen fifty four, he
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wrote that he found something charming in the sound. But
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his last combat experience before the American Revolution was a
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sobering reminder of all that could go wrong in the
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fog of war. The French and Indian War had presented
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the young officer with catastrophic defeats, grinding attrition, personal frustration,
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and tragedy, even as he became a heroic figure in
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British America, and in the end triumphed over the French.
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When the Revolutionary War began in seventeen seventy five, Washington
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was under no illusions. He braced himself for a long
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and protracted war that would leave America drenched with blood.
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By contrast, the British generals opposing him blithely assumed the
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American rabble would be quickly defeated after one campaign. Perhaps
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the greatest lessons that Washington absorbed from the French and
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Indian War and the Friendly Fire incident concerned the chaos, unpredictability,
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and human cost of war. Accompanying this article, did you
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know the French and Indian War? The American theater of
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the Seven Years War actually ran for nine years, from
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seventeen fifty four to seventeen sixty three. The conflict arose
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as expanding British and French colonies encroached on each other,
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leading to a fight over who would control the highly
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coveted resources and trading routes of the Ohio Valley and beyond.
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Native Americans largely allied with the French, giving the war
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its name. Finally, ask Smithsonian, you've got questions, We've got
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experts question, when did the early colonists stop sounding British
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and start sounding American. The answer is from Mary Lynne,
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former linguist Smithsonian Center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage.
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People back in England noted the quirky new ways. Americans
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were speaking English within roughly a generation of the colonist's arrival.
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Over time, the changes went beyond accent to include different
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words and grammatical structures, adding up to a new dialect.
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Dialects have two main causes. The first is isolation. Early
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colonists had only sporadic contact with the mother country. The
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second is exposure to other languages, and the colonists came
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into contact with native American languages, mariners, Indian English, Pigin,
27:44
and other settlers who spoke Dutch, Swedish, French, and Spanish.
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All of these languages influenced colonists origins in different parts
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of England, Wales, and Scotland in different parts of England.
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This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine for to Day.
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Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening
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and have a great day.