Braddock Sent to America with Troops

The crown appointed Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, temporary commander-in-chief of all the colonial forces. This led to injurious disputes about military rank and precedence among the Virginia officers, when Dinwiddie, more zealous than wise--more rash than discreet--having a large sum of money at his disposal, and entirely ignorant of military affairs, assumed the responsibility of arranging these affairs in his colony as he pleased. He enlarged the provincial army to ten companies of one hundred men each and broke it up into companies, so that the highest rank in that little army was captain, and at the same time inferior in position to the same rank of those commissioned by the crown. Washington would not submit to the degradation, but resigned his commission and retired from the military service.

Knowing the value of Washington's services at that critical time, Governor Sharpe urged him to remain in the army, and intimated that he might hold his former commission. "This idea," wrote the indignant young Virginian, "has filled me with surprise, for, if you think me capable of holding a commission that has neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you must entertain a very contemptible opinion of my weakness, and believe me to be more empty than the commission itself." He declined the appointment and added: "I shall have the consolation of knowing that I have opened the way, when the smallness of our numbers exposed us to the attacks of a superior enemy; and that I have had the thanks of my country for the services I have rendered."

The early portion of the ensuing winter was spent by the colonists in anxious solicitude. France and England had been coquetting, with mutual professions of friendship, while every movement of the French in America indicated hostile intentions. The necessity of a colonial union was never more apparent than then, and Franklin, who had set his heart on the project, visited Shirley to confer with him on the subject. At the governor's house in Boston they discussed the topic long. Shirley was favorable to union, but it must be effected by the fiat of the British government, and not by the spontaneous act of the colonists. Franklin's love of popular liberty would not consent to such a union, and he parted from Shirley with the assurance of the latter that he would immediately recommend not only a union planned by parliament, but a tax.

Meanwhile the British government, perceiving the peril of English dominion in America, resolved to send military aid to the colonists. Edward Braddock, an Irish officer of distinction then in Ireland, was appointed commander-in-chief of all British forces in America, and was ordered to proceed immediately to Virginia with two regiments of regular troops. He was a man soured by broken fortunes; haughty in spirit; brutal in manners; conceited and brave. He was ordered to call a council of royal governors on his arrival in America, and to exact a revenue from the colonies for military service. They were also to be informed that it was the king's pleasure "that a fund be established for the benefit of all the colonies collectively in North America"--a financial union--and that the general and field officers of the provincial forces should have no rank when serving with the general and field-officers commissioned by the king.

Braddock sailed with his two regiments. "What does that mean?" inquired the French minister. "Only defence, that the general peace may not be disturbed," replied the perfidious Duke of New Castle, of whom it had been written: