The Wonderful Story of Washington

Chapter 9 DISHONORS AND DISASTERS

Word Count: 725 | Released on: 06/12/2017

ir charge, and toiled forward through the forest, making a military road toward Fort Duquesne, which was at th

had been his companion through the most perilous part of his romantic journey when he carr

l companies of Indians. A messenger was hastily despatched to Captain Mackay at Fort Necessity, thirteen miles away, and he came on with the swivel guns of the

diers" and so would not belittle themselves with the labors of the retreat. At Great Meadows, in the center of which was Fort

ed Indians surrounded the place. Finding that the English had escaped, they were about to return to Fort Duquesne, when a deserter from Washington's camp a

t at once to captu

efences of the fort. The Indians seeing such inferior equipment for

they could see. All day Washington kept his men close sheltered in the trenches, keeping the enemy at rifle's distance in the

ington at first refused, but their condition was hopeless. The only person with them who under

Braam tried to translate it by the light of a candle, under cover of a rude tent, through which the rain was pouring upon candle, paper and persons. The terms of

ated, did not leave a shred of honor for the defeated colonists. It was then believed that Van Braam had purposely mistranslated it in the service of the French, with whom he and Captain

t Will's creek, and Washington went o

, as well as the conduct of Washington, and the questions of the surrender. Thanks and rewards were freely voted to the

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The Wonderful Story of Washington

Charles M. Stevens Young Adult

“Excerpt: We cannot think with a true vision, in estimating the meaning of colonial and revolutionary days, if we allow the glamor of fame and the idolatry of colonial patriotism to obscure our view of those times. There were heroes immortal with what we know as "the spirit of '76," but, grading from them were the good, bad and indifferent, that often seemed overwhelming in numbers. George Washington is known chiefly through the rather stilted style of writing that then prevailed, and the puritanic expressions that were used in describing commendable conduct. Even Washington's writings were edited so as not to offend sensitive ears, and so as not to give an impression to the reader different from the idealized orthodox character of that severe pioneer civilization. The people were free in everything but social expression. That was sternly required to conform to a rigid puritanic or cavalier standard. Washington, more than any other great man, seems to have composed his early life from what some well-meaning reformers have termed "copy-book morality;" that is, proverbial morality or personal rules of conduct. Washington in his boyhood wrote out many moral sentences as reminders for his own guidance. He was a persistent searcher after the right way toward the right life. Washington's mother is described as being stern in business and moral discipline, even as having a violent temper and being capable of very severe measures to accomplish needed results. It seems that Washington, seeing this method in both father and mother, reinforced, as it were, by the military bearing of his much-admired elder half-brother, took that form of life as his earliest ideal. He was as tireless in perfecting models of business and life as Lincoln was in mastering the unconventional meaning of human beings. Washington at the ages of eleven and twelve delighted to copy various book-keeping forms and mercantile documents. His school books at that age are still preserved and they are models of accuracy and neatness. Besides that, he loved to discipline himself. He was always subjecting himself, either mentally or physically, to some kind of orderly training.”