His Excellency: George Washington (46 page)

 9. Flexner 1:9–17; Martin H. Quitt, “The English Cleric and the Virginia Adventurer: The Washingtons, Father and Son,”
GWR,
15–37.

10. Charles Moore, ed.,
George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior
(Boston, 1926). Among the single-volume biographies, the fullest assessment of Washington’s adolescent influences is Paul Longmore,
The Invention of George Washington
(Berkeley, 1988), 1–16. Also excellent on these early years is Guthrie Sayen, “
A Compleat Gentleman
”:
The Making of George Washington
(University of Virginia Press, forthcoming), which I read as a doctoral dissertation.

11. Joseph Ball to Mary Washington, 19 May 1747, quoted in Freeman 1:198–99;
PWC
1:54.

12. 
Diaries
1:24–117, for the Barbados trip;
PWC,
232–35, for Lawrence’s will.

13. Edward D. Neill,
The Fairfaxes of England and America
(Albany, 1868); Flexner 1:26–33.

14. 
Diaries
1:10, 13, 18.

15. 
PWC
1:8–37, for the surveys. For the Ohio Company, see Kenneth P. Bailey,
The Ohio Company of Virginia and the Westward Movement, 1748–92
(Glendale, CA, 1939).

16. 
PWC
1:40–41, 46–59.

17. The physical description of young Washington is based on George Mercer’s famous description in 1759, in
PWC
6:192. Washington’s height is a matter of disagreement. Mercer’s account says six feet two inches, but this will be a running debate throughout Washington’s life, and even after his death. Flexner 1:80 and Longmore,
Invention of Washington,
181–82, offer convenient synthesis of the lore about his physical prowess.

18. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 June 1752,
PWC
1:50–51.

19. Dinwiddie’s Instructions, January 1754,
PWC
1:65–67;
Diaries
1:189–90.

20. See the correspondence with Dinwiddie in May 1754,
PWC
1:93–95, 99;
Diaries
1:192–96; Washington to Dinwiddie, 29 May 1754,
PWC
1:107–13, and
Diaries
1:195–96, for the quotations.

21. Anderson,
Crucible of War,
5–7, 51–59, for the best scholarly version of the massacre. For an excellent summary of the several eyewitness accounts, see
PWC
1:114–15, notes 12–14.

22. 
Diaries
1:198; Washington to John Augustine Washington, 31 May 1754,
PWC
1:118–19; for the quote from George II, see the editorial note,
Diaries
1:197.

23. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 3 June 1754,
PWC
1:124, and the extensive editorial notes on Fort Necessity on 125–26. Dinwiddie’s endorsement of Washington’s decision to make a stand is provided in their correspondence during early June,
PWC
1:192–202.

24. 
Diaries,
1:164–65, 203–8.

25. 
PWC
1:155–57, 162–64; Anderson,
Crucible of War,
50–65, which sustains the kind of magisterial tone and narrative verve for this incident that makes his book one of the seminal sources for this phase of Washington’s career.

26. The Capitulation of Fort Necessity,
PWC
1:157–64.

27. Ibid., 162–66.

28. Duquesne’s remarks of 8 September 1754 are available in the editorial notes,
Diaries
1:172.

29. John Robinson to Washington, 15 September 1754, Washington to John Robinson, 23 October 1754,
PWC
1:209–10, 219–20.

30. Washington to John Augustine Washington, 2 August 1755, Robert Dinwiddie to Washington, 11 September 1754, Washington to William Fitzhugh, 15 November 1754,
PWC
1:206–8, 225–26, 351–52.

31. Franklin T. Nichols, “The Organization of Braddock’s Army,”
WMQ
4 (1947), 130–33; Peter E. Russell, “Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740–1760,”
WMQ
34 (1978), 629–52. The best full-length study is Paul E. Kopperman,
Braddock at the Monongahela
(Pittsburgh, 1977).

32. See the editorial note on the revisions of his letterbook in
PWC
1:236–40; Robert Orme to Washington, 2 March 1755, Washington to Robert Orme, 15 March 1755, Washington to John Augustine Washington, 14 May 1755, ibid. 240–45, 277–78.

33. 
PWC
1:259, where the size of Braddock’s train is assessed by the editors. The Braddock quotation is in Stanley Pargellis, ed.,
Military Affairs in North America, 1748–1765
(New York, 1936), 81–84.

34. Washington to John Carlyle, 14 May 1755, Washington to Augustine Washington, 28 June–2 July 1755, Memorandum, 8–9 July 1755,
PWC
1:274–75, 319–24, 331–33. See also Lee McCardell,
Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards
(Pittsburgh, 1958).

35. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 18 July 1755,
PWC
1:339–40; see also ibid., 341, for an editorial note on the surgeon’s report showing that most members of the Virginia Regiment were shot in the back by British regulars.

36. Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 July 1755,
PWC
1:343. On Boone’s role in the battle, see John Mack Faragher,
Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
(New York, 1992), 37–39.

37. Washington to Mary Ball Washington, 18 July 1755, Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 July 1755,
PWC
1:336–37, 343. See also the editorial note on casualties on both sides in
PWC
2:10–11.

38. Washington to Robert Jackson, 2 August 1755,
PWC
1:349–50. The Dinwiddie quotation is on 351, note 2. Washington to Warner Lewis, 14 August 1755, ibid., 360–63.

39. The Davies quotation can be found in Longmore,
Invention of Washington,
30.

40. For the larger strategic picture of British policy during this phase of the French and Indian War, see Anderson,
Crucible of War,
108–32. The quotation is from Cunliffe,
Man and Monument,
51. For an assessment of Washington as commander of the Virginia Regiment, see Don Higginbotham, “Washington and the Colonial Military Tradition,”
GWR,
38–66.

41. Washington to Richard Washington, 15 April 1757,
PWC
4:132–33; Washington to John Robinson, 25 October 1757,
PWC
5:33.

42. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 7 April 1756,
PWC
2:333; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 24 April 1756,
PWC
3:45; Orders, 27 October 1756, ibid., 445.

43. Orders, 6 October 1755,
PWC
2:76.

44. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 March 1757,
PWC
4:112–15. The correspondence with Dinwiddie throughout 1756–57 is full of complaints that he and the regiment are not sufficiently supported or recognized for their accomplishments.

45. The examples come from correspondence in the summer and fall of 1755,
PWC
2:213–248; Washington to John Ashby, 28 December 1755, ibid., 241.

46. Role of George Washington’s Company, 28 August 1757,
PWC
4:389–91.

47. General Court Martial, 25–26 July 1757, ibid., 329–35; Washington to John Stanwix, 15 July 1757, ibid., 306–7. Washington had preferred to execute deserters a year earlier, but was prevented from doing so because his authority on this score was unclear.

48. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 October 1756,
PWC
3:430–35; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 9 November 1756,
PWC
4:1–6; Washington to John Robinson, 9 November 1756, ibid., 11–18.

49. Washington to John Robinson, 19 December 1756, ibid., 67–69.

50. Jack P. Greene,
The Quest for Power: The Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal Colonies, 1689–1776
(Chapel Hill, 1963). See also John R. Alden,
Robert Dinwiddie: Servant of the Crown
(Charlottesville, 1973), 90–110.

51. See, for example, Washington to Robert Dinwiddie and Washington to John Robinson, 5 December 1755,
PWC
2:200–5; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 17 September 1757,
PWC
4:411–12.

52. Stanley Pargellis,
Lord Loudoun in North America
(1933; reprint, Hamden, CT, 1968); Anderson,
Crucible of War,
135–49; Washington to John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, 25 July 1756,
PWC
3:293–94.

53. Washington to John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, 10 January 1757,
PWC
4:79–83. Longmore,
Invention of Washington,
46–47, is particularly good on this theme.

54. Washington to John Stanwix, 4 March 1758,
PWC
5:100–01.

55. Washington to Thomas Gage, 12 April 1756,
PWC
5:126. See also the editorial notes on Forbes and Bouquet on 118–19.

56. Washington to John Forbes, 19 June 1758, and the editorial note on Forbes’s decision to use “Indian dress,”
PWC
5:224–27, 259; Washington to John Forbes, 8 October 1758,
PWC
6:66–70; Washington to Henry Bouquet, 21 July 1758,
PWC
5:311.

57. Editorial notes on the road controversy in
PWC
5:316; Washington to Henry Bouquet, 24 July 1758 and 2 August 1758, ibid., 318–19, 353–60.

58. Henry Bouquet to Washington, 27 July 1758 and 3 August 1758, ibid., 344–45, 364–65.

59. Washington to John Robinson, 1 September 1758, Washington to Francis Fauquier, 2 September 1758 and 5 August 1758, ibid., 433–34, 439–44, 369–71.

60. Washington to Francis Fauquier, 5 November 1758, Washington to Henry Bouquet, 6 November 1758,
PWC
6:113–16.

61. Orderly Book, 12 November 1758, Orderly Book, 13–19 November 1758, Washington to Francis Fauquier, 28 November 1758, 2 December 1758, ibid., 120–23, 125–45, 158–60, 161–64. Anderson,
Crucible of War,
267–85, provides his typically masterful narrative of the Forbes campaign. The fall of Fort Frontenac on the St. Lawrence in late August 1758 had made any effective French reinforcement of Fort Duquesne impossible.

62. See the editorial note on the Custis estate,
PWC
6:202–9. Invoice from Thomas Knox, 18 August 1578,
PWC
5:399–402, for the order of furnishings. The alcohol bill from the tavern is available on 332–34. Washington kept a roster of all the voters and how they voted, ibid., 334–43. See also George William Fairfax to Washington, 25 July 1758, on 329.

63. Washington to Sarah Cary Fairfax, 16 May 1798,
PWRT
2:272–73.

64. Washington to Sarah Cary Fairfax, 12 September 1758, 25 September 1758,
PWC
6:10–13, 41–43.

65. Address from the Officers of the Virginia Regiment, 31 December 1758, To the Officers of the Virginia Regiment, 10 January 1758, ibid., 178–81, 186–87. Washington to Richard Washington, 7 May 1579, ibid., 319.

CHAPTER TWO

 1. Invoice to Robert Cary & Company, 20 September 1759,
PWC
6:352–58.

 2. Andrew Burnaby to Washington, 4 June 1760, ibid., 380–81. The authoritative account of Mount Vernon in all its material and metaphoric meanings is Robert F. Dalzell Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell,
George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America
(New York and Oxford, 1998), which both synthesizes and surpasses all previous scholarship on the subject.

 3. 
Diaries
1:240–41, provides a map and key to the growth of Mount Vernon over these years. The number of slaves at Mount Vernon is difficult to calculate with precision because white servants are also listed among the “tithables” and the accounting varies, sometimes providing those slaves above sixteen years, sometimes below. Dalzell and Dalzell,
Mount Vernon,
47–73, 129–49, gives the fullest discussion of both the acreage and the plantation workers.

 4. This is my own distillation of both the evidence and the informed conjecturing available in the major biographies. See Flexner 1:227–48 and, even more compelling, Bernard Knollenberg,
George Washington: The Virginia Period, 1732–1775
(Durham, 1964), 70–80, along with the extensive endnotes. Knollenberg’s conclusions are especially persuasive because his interpretation of Washington is more critical than admiring, so evidence of a negative character would not have been ignored. On the promiscuity matter, see John C. Fitzpatrick,
The George Washington Scandals
(New York, 1929). Dalzell and Dalzell,
Mount Vernon,
42–43, concur with this line of thought. The exception among recent biographers is John E. Ferling,
The First of Men: A Life of George Washington
(Knoxville, 1988), 34–35, 53–54, which is skeptical of Washington’s love for Sally Fairfax to begin with.