Part 54 (1/2)
Many pages might be filled with extracts like the above. These, with most of the other French doc.u.ments used in Chapter 4, are taken from the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies.
Appendix C
Chapter 5. Was.h.i.+ngton
_Was.h.i.+ngton and the Capitulation at Fort Necessity_.--Villiers, in his Journal, boasts that he made Was.h.i.+ngton sign a virtual admission that he had a.s.sa.s.sinated Jumonville. In regard to this point, a letter, of which the following is an extract, is printed in the provincial papers of the time. It is from Captain Adam Stephen, an officer in the action, writing to a friend five weeks after.
”When Mr. Vanbraam returned with the French proposals, we were obliged to take the sense of them from his mouth; it rained so heavy that he could not give us a written translation of them; we could scarcely keep the candle lighted to read them by; they were written in a bad hand, on wet and blotted paper, so that no person could read them but Vanbraam, who had heard them from the mouth of the French officer. Every officer there is ready to declare that there was no such word as _a.s.sa.s.sination_ mentioned. The terms expressed were, _the death of Jumonville_. If it had been mentioned we would by all means have had it altered, as the French, during the course of the interview, seemed very condescending, and desirous to bring things to an issue.” He then gives several other points in which Vanbraam had misled them.
Dinwiddie, recounting the affair to Lord Albemarle, says that Was.h.i.+ngton, being ignorant of French, was deceived by the interpreter, who, through poltroonery, suppressed the word a.s.sa.s.sination.
Captain Mackay, writing to Was.h.i.+ngton in September, after a visit to Philadelphia, says: ”I had several disputes about our capitulation; but I satisfied every person that mentioned the subject as to the articles in question, that they were owing to a bad interpreter, and contrary to the translation made to us when we signed them.”
At the next meeting of the burgesses they pa.s.sed a vote of thanks for gallant conduct to Was.h.i.+ngton and all his officers by name, except Vanbraam and the major of the regiment, the latter being charged with cowardice, and the former with treacherous misinterpretation of the articles.
Sometime after, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to a correspondent who had questioned him on the subject: ”That we were wilfully or ignorantly deceived by our interpreter in regard to the word _a.s.sa.s.sination_ I do aver, and will to my dying moment; so will every officer that was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman little acquainted with the English tongue, therefore might not advert to the tone and meaning of the word in English; but, whatever his motives for so doing, certain it is that he called it the _death_ or the _loss_ of the Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we understood it, until, to our great surprise and mortification, we found it otherwise in a literal translation.” Sparks, _Writings of Was.h.i.+ngton_, II. 464, 465.
Appendix D
Chapter 7. Braddock
It has been said that Beaujeu, and not Contrecoeur, commanded at Fort Duquesne at the time of Braddock's expedition. Some contemporaries, and notably the chaplain of the fort, do, in fact, speak of him as in this position; but their evidence is overborne by more numerous and conclusive authorities, among them Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, and Contrecoeur himself, in an official report. Vaudreuil says of him: ”Ce commandant s'occupa le 8 [_Juillet_] a former un parti pour aller au devant des Anglois;” and adds that this party was commanded by Beaujeu and consisted of 250 French and 650 Indians (_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Aout, 1755_). In the autumn of 1756 Vaudreuil asked the Colonial Minister to procure a pension for Contrecoeur and Ligneris. He says: ”Le premier de ces Messieurs a commande longtemps au fort Duquesne; c'est luy qui a ordonne et dirige tous les mouvements qui se sont faits dans cette partie, soit pour faire abandonner le premier etabliss.e.m.e.nt des Anglois, soit pour les forcer a se retirer du fort Necessite, et soit enfin pour aller au devant de l'armee du General Braddock qui a ete entierement defaite” (_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1756_.) Beaujeu, who had lately arrived with a reinforcement, had been named to relieve Contrecoeur (_Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_), but had not yet done so.
As the report of Contrecoeur has never been printed, I give an extract from it (_Contrecceur a Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1755_, in Archives de la Marine):--
”Le meme jour [_8 Juillet_] je formai un party de tout ce que je pouvois mettre hors du fort pour aller a leur rencontre. Il etoit compose de 250 Francois et de 650 sauvages, ce qui faisoit 900 hommes. M. de Beaujeu, capitaine, le commandoit. Il y avoit deux capitaines qui estoient Mrs. Dumas et Ligneris et plusieurs autres officiers subalternes. Ce parti se mit en marche le 9 a 8 heures du matin, et se trouva a midi et demie en presence des Anglois a environ 3 lieues du fort. On commenca a faire feu de part et d'autre. Le feu de l'artillerie ennemie fit reculer un peu par deux fois notre parti. M. de Beaujeu fut tue a la troisieme decharge.
M. Dumas prit le commandement et s'en acquitta au mieux. Nos Francois, pleins de courage, soutenus par les sauvages, quoiqu'ils n'eussent point d'artillerie, firent a leur tour plier les Anglois qui se battirent en ordre de bataille et en bonne contenance. Et ces derniers voyant l'ardeur de nos gens qui foncoient avec une vigeur infinie furent enfin obliges de plier tout a fait apres 4 heures d'un grand feu. Mrs. Dumas et Ligneris qui n'avoient plus avec eux q'une vingtaine de Francois ne s'engagerent point dans la poursuite.
Ils rentrerent dans le fort, parceq'une grande partie des Canadiens qui n'estoient malheureus.e.m.e.nt que des enfants s'estoient retires a la premiere decharge.”
The letter of Dumas cited in the text has been equally unknown.
It was written a year after the battle in order to draw the attention of the minister to services which the writer thought had not been duly recognized. The following is an extract (_Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_, in Archives de la Marine):--
”M. de Beaujeu marcha donc, et sous ses ordres M. de Ligneris et moi. Il attaqua avec beaucoup d'audace mais sans nulle disposition; notre premiere decharge fut faite hors de portee; l'ennemi fit la sienne de plus pres, et dans le premier instant du combat, cent miliciens, qui faisaient la moitie de nos Francais lacherent honteus.e.m.e.nt le pied en criant 'Sauve qui peut.' Deux cadets qui depuis ont ete faits officiers autorisaient cette fuite par leur exemple. Ce mouvement en arriere ayant encourage l'ennemi, il fit retentir ses cris de Vive le Roi et avanca sur nous a grand pas. Son artillerie s'etant preparee pendant ce temps la commenca a faire feu ce qui epouvanta tellement les Sauvages que tout prit la fuite; l'ennemi faisait sa troisieme decharge de mousqueterie quand M. de Beaujeu fut tue.”
”Notre deroute se presenta a mes yeux sous le plus desagreable point de vue, et pour n'etre point charge de la mauvaise manoeuvre d'autrui, je ne songeai plus qu'a me faire tuer. Ce fut alors, Monseigneur, qu'excitant de la voix et du geste le peu de soldats qui restait, je m'avancai avec la contenance qui donne le desespoir.
Mon peloton fit un feu si vif que l'ennemi en parut etonne; il grossit insensiblement et les Sauvages voyant que mon attaque faisait cesser les cris de l'ennemi revinrent a moi. Dans ce moment j'envoyai M. le Chev'r. Le Borgne et M. de Rocheblave dire aux officiers qui etaient a la tete des Sauvages de prendre l'ennemi en flanc. Le canon qui batt.i.t en tete donna faveur a mes ordres.
L'ennemi, pris de tous cotes, combatt.i.t avec la fermete la plus opiniatre. Des rangs entiers tombaient a la fois; presque tous les officiers perirent; et le desordre s'etant mis par la dans cette colonne, tout prit la fuite.”
Whatever may have been the conduct of the Canadian militia, the French officers behaved with the utmost courage, and shared with the Indians the honors of the victory. The partisan chief Charles Langlade seems also to have been especially prominent.
His grandson, the aged Pierre Grignon, declared that it was he who led the attack (Draper, _Recollections of Grignon_, in the _Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society,_ III.). Such evidence, taken alone, is of the least possible weight; but both the traveller Anbury and General John Burgoyne, writing many years after the event, speak of Langlade, who was then alive, as the author of Braddock's defeat. Hence there can be little doubt that he took an important part in it, though the contemporary writers do not mention his name. Compare Ta.s.se, _Notice sur Charles Langlade_. The honors fell to Contrecoeur, Dumas, and Ligneris, all of whom received the cross of the Order of St Louis (_Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres_, 1755).