The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-04-11

Genera 6TG0QOCks
befogged and bewildered off the coast.
The colonies were to see fighting on
a new scale.
The English ministers, with whom
Just then all things went either by
favor or by accident, had made a
sorry blunder in the choice of q
commander.
Major General Edward Braddock.
whom they had commissioned to take
the two regiments out and act as COM
mander-in-chief in America, was a
brave man, veteran soldier, bred in
a thorough school of action, a man
quick with energy and indomitable
in resolution; but every quality he
had untitled him to learn. Self-confi-
dent, brutal, headstrong, ga very Iro-
quois in disposition" he would take
neither check nor suggestion. But en-
ergy, resolution, good soldiers and
proper equipment might of them
selves suffice to do much in the crisis
that had come, whether wisdom held
the reins or not; and it gave the Old
! d LII III VI QulChCuCQ AOpO
and purpose to see Keppels trans
ports in the Potomac and Braddock's
redcoats ashore at Alexandria.
Troops Move Up the Potomac.
The transports, as they made their
way slowly up the river, passed be-
meath the very windows of Mount Yer
non, to put the troops ashore only
eight miles beyond. Washington had
left off being soldier for Dinwiddie,
but he had resigned only to avoid an
intolerable indignity, not to shun
service, and he made no pretense of
Indifference when he saw the red
coats come to camp at Alexandria.
Again and again was he early in the
saddle to see the stir and order of the
troops, make the acquaintance of the
officers, and learn, if he might, what
it was that fitted his majesty's regu
lars for their stern business.
The self-confident gentlemen who
wore his majesty's uniform and car
ried his majestys commissions in
their pockets had scant regard, most
of them, for the raw folk of the col
ony, who had never been in London or
seen the set array of battle. They
were not a little impatient that they
must recruit among such people.
The transports had brought but a
thousand men-two heterogeneous of
five hundred each, whose colonies had
instructions to add two hundred men
L ovxsN To I1niv in N
Six companies of rangers" too, the
colonists were to furnish, and one
company of light horse, besides car
penters and teamsters. By all these
General Braddock's officers set small
store, deeming it likely they must
depend, not upon the provincials, but
upon themselves for success. They
were at small pains to conceal their
hearty contempt for the people they
had come to help.
Washington a Social Favorte.
But with Washington it was diff
ferent matter.
There was that in his proud eyes
and gentleman's bearing that marked
him a man to be made friends with
and respected. A good comrade he
proved, without pretense or bravado,
but an ill man to scorn, as he went
his way among them, 1.-the and alert,
full six feet in his boots, with that
strong gait as of backwoodsman,
and that naughty carriage as of a
man born to have his will. He won
their liking, and even their admira-
ton, as a fellow of their own pride
and purpose.
General Braddock, knowing he de-
sired to make the campaign if he
might do so without sacrifice of self
respect, promptly invited him to go as
g. member of mis- staff, where there
could be no question of rank, asking
him, besides, to name any young gen
tlemen of his acquaintance he chose
for several vacant ensigncies in the
two regiments.
On Braddock's Staff.
The letter of invitation, written by
Captain Orme, aide-de-camp, was
couched in terms of unaffected cor
diality Washington very gladly ac-
cepted, in a letter that had just a
touch of the young provincial in it.,
so elaborate and over-long was it's ex-
PLANTATION of its writer's delicate posi-
tion and self-respecting motives, but
with so much more of the proud gen
tleman and resolute man that the
smile with which Captain Orme must
have read it could have nothing of
disrelish in it.
The young aide-de-camp and all the
other members of the generals mill
tary family" found it's author, at any
rate, a man after their own hearts
when it came to terms of intimacy
among them.
BY mid-April the commander-in-
chief had brought FIVE governors to-
gether at Alexandria, in obedience
to his call for an immediate con-
ference-William Shirley, of Mas
sachusetts, the stout-hearted old law
yer, every inch "a gentleman and pol
itician," who had of a sudden turned