The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-03-05
WASHINGTON LEARNED
WAR In CUMBERLAND
Took His First Military Com
mand There When He Went
To Fort Necessity


connected with Cumberland than with
almost any other place outside his
own Mt. Vernon.
Over period of forty-one years,
beginning with his first visit there as
youth of twenty-one in 1853, until
his last visit as President of the
United States in 1894, Washington
was a. familiar figure in Cumberland,
then only a frontier fort.
It was there that the successfullead-
er of the War for American Indepen-
dence first learned military operations
on large scale; there he first saw
the methods of training of formid-
able British army, and also had his
first lesson in disciplined warfare.
Learend War There
In a letter to his brother, John
Augustine Washington, dated from
Fort Cumberland, May Ia, 1855,
while the Braddock expedition against
Fort Duquesne was being prepared to
strike, Washington wrote as follows:
81 now have good opportunity,
and shall not neglect it, of forming
an acquaintance with military rules
which may be serviceable hereafter if
I find it worth while to push my for
tunes in a military line"
Fort Cumberland had been erected
in 1850 by the Ohio Company, land
and trading concession chartered by
the British crown in 1749. Christopher
Gist, the famous pioneer guide, was
its agent. Among those interested in
the company were Lawrence Wash
ington and Col. Thomas Cresap.
AS a surveyor for Lord Fairfax,
Washington had penetrated that Sec
ton and beyond into West Virginia.
His first visit after establishment of
the fort there was in 1853.
Surveyed French Strength
Governor Dinwiddie, Of Virginia,
had learned that the French were in
vading the Ohio region and erecting
chain of forts southwark from the
Great Lakes. To ascertain the exact
extent of French activities along the
Ohio and to warn them that Great
Britain would not consent to their &C.
cupation of that territory, Gov. Din
widdie commissioned the twenty-one
year old Washington to penetrate that
area and bring back complete sur
vey of the situation.
On his way to the Ohio and en-
route back, Washington stopped at
Fort Cumberland. The fort, by the
way, occupied the site where now
stand Emmanuel Episcopal church,
the Masonic Temple and DR.. James
T. Johnson's home.
Washington's report to Gov. Din
widdie was that the French were al
ready well entrenched and determined
to hold the Ohio territory by force OF
arms. This report was transmitted
to the British government, and result
ted in the decision to send British
army to Fort Cumberland to prepare
for drive against the French invad-
ers. In the meantime, Gov. Dinwid-
lie was ordered to take steps to repel
the French advance with Colonial
troops until the British Army could
reach America.
Col. Joshua Fry was put in COM
mand of 300 Virginia soldiers with
Washington as his assistant.
His First Command
On April 20, 1854, Washington
(then 22) arrived in Cumberland with
half of the troops. Col. Fry, leading
the other $50 men, was fatally injured
when his horse stumbled and fell on
him. He was brought on to the fort
by his men and was given medical at
tention by DIR. Craik afterwards sur
geon general of the Continental
army but he died May 81 and was
buried in Cumberland. The location
of his grave is not definitely known.
Col. Fry's death left the youthful
Washington in command of the Colon
ial troops at Fort Cumberland.
Washington had left before his
Colonel's death for the invasion of
the French territory. He got no fur
Their than Great Meadows where he
built Fort Necessity, about fifty miles
west of Cumberland. His defeat there
forced his return to Fort Cumberland,
and there he remained long enough to
see that the wounded were given
proper attention before he returned to
Virginia to report to Gov. Dinwiddie.
BraddOck's Headquarters
Cumberland was selected as the
base of operation for the veteran
British Army that arrived in America
early in 1755 under the distinguished
General Braddock, former commander
of the Coldstream Guards, then re-
garded as the model regiment of the
English army.
Washington was named by Brad