George Washington Frontier Colonel
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• Sterling North • GEORGE WASHINGTON GEORGE author of the newbery honor book rascal GEORGE WASHINGTON tells the early story of the United States’ first president, tracing his family background and early service as a military leader. Readers will learn about Washington’s hair-raising battles in the French and Indian War and how he narrowly escaped death from smallpox. You’ll also discover how Washington learned the military strategies that would later defeat the British in the American Revolution and how he developed the remarkable political leadership skills that held the early nation together in its fragile first years. Born in 1904 in Koshkonong, Wisconsin, Sterling North is the author of many books for young adults and adults, including COLONEL FRONTIER Rascal, which was a Newbery Honor book in 1964. In 1957, he became the general editor of North Star Books, publisher of biographies of American heroes for young adult readers. Sterling North also wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, and Henry David Thoreau. He died in 1974. GEORGE WASHINGTON north FRONTIER ISBN: 978-0-7603-5229-8 $12.99 US | £8.99 UK | $16.99 CAN COLONEL EAN Visit QuartoKnows.com Follow us on GEORGE WASHINGTON FRONTIER COLONEL • Sterling north • Contents Quarto is the authority on a wide range of topics. Quarto educates, entertains and enriches the lives of our readers —enthusiasts and lovers of hands-on living. 1 A Baby Christened George 9 www.quartoknows.com © 2016 Quarto Publishing Group Inc. 2 Childhood on the Potomac 15 Original text © 1957 Gladys North 3 The Years at Ferry Farm 21 Additional material © 2006 Flying Point Press Map © Richard Thompson, Creative Freelancers, Inc. 4 Compass Needle and Cupid’s Dart 31 First published in 1957 by Random House, Inc. This edition published in 2016 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. 5 Sea Voyage to Barbados 43 Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692 quartoknows.com 6 Danger on the Ohio Frontier 53 Visit our blogs at quartoknows.com 7 First Victory and First Defeat 71 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the 8 An Aide to Braddock 87 artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that 9 Frontier and Metropolis 109 credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book. 10 Fortunes of War and of Love 125 Voyageur Press titles are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-promotional use. For details contact the Special Sales 11 A Fashionable Wedding 135 Manager at Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. 12 First in War, First in Peace 143 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 cast of characters 158 ISBN: 978-0-7603-5229-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945707 timeline 160 Series design by: Beth Middleworth Series Creative Director: Laura Drew Index 162 • chapter one • A BABY CHRISTENED GEORGE “The wind in the night increased to a mere storm and raind exceed’g hard; towards day it moderated and ceased Raining but the whole day afterwards was Squally.” Thus George Washington, in his copper-plate handwriting, reported the weather of February 22, 1760—exactly twenty-eight years after his birth. Perhaps it was just such a typical February day in 1732 when “about 10 in The Morning” (to quote the family Bible) a lusty boy named George was born to Mary Ball Washington and her husband Augustine. Their modest plantation house stood on a low bluff above the widening waters of Pope’s Creek where it enters the Potomac River in Tidewater, Virginia. george washington • A baby christened george • The twenty-four-year-old mother has been described as living children by a former wife of Augustine Washington, a a handsome woman of medium height, with a well-rounded woman no longer living. Besides this half-sister, little George figure and a pleasing voice. She has also been described as had two big half-brothers attending Appleby School far luxury-loving and slightly spoiled. She had acquired by across the sea in England. The eldest was a boy of fourteen inheritance some land, a few slaves, several riding horses and named Lawrence, a brave and gentle person who would a “good silk plush riding saddle.” She loved to dance, and later have great influence in shaping George’s character. The appears to have enjoyed excellent health. Despite her “deathly other half-brother, Augustine, Jr., was known to the family as fear of thunder storms” she lived beyond her 80th birthday. “Austin.” He was a year or two younger than Lawrence. These Augustine Washington the father, known to his friends three—Lawrence, Austin and Jane—furnished a ready-made as “Gus,” has been portrayed as a man of great strength, six family for the first child of Mary Ball Washington. feet fall, well-proportioned and blond. Although he owned It is undeniable that George Washington had many vast tracts of land and a part interest in iron mines and advantages from birth. One hundred and twenty-five years furnaces, he was not a particularly successful businessman. had passed since the first hopeful settlers had come to Kindly by nature and fond of children, he must have been Jamestown. Never again would Virginia know a “starving deeply moved as he looked down upon his young wife and time.”) Plantations were well established along the James, the her first child. York, the Rappahannock and the Potomac—those beautiful Perhaps the slave boy who kept the many hearths burning rivers running into the Chesapeake. was now called to replenish the fire. Possibly a slave girl from But not all of these plantations were equally large or the separate building that housed the kitchen now brought productive. On some the fertility was already impaired by hot broth for the tired mother. Let the wind buffet the wide years of tobacco planting. Some owners prospered, some Potomac into seething crests of foam. Let the gulls go crying did not. Despite his many acres, Augustine Washington was over the stormy water. Inside the plantation house in the fire- not a really rich man by modern standards nor even by the lit bedroom all was warm and secure. standards of his own day. The Carters, the Fairfaxes and many other Virginia planters were far wealthier. At about this point one can visualize a little girl of nine More important than any material wealth George would tiptoeing into the room to have her first look at her new half- inherit was his endowment of good health, a good brain and brother. Her name was Jane, and she was the youngest of three a sound family tradition. In these he was rich indeed. 10 11 george washington In 1732 when George Washington was born into the fourth generation of his paternal family in America, the Washingtons had been on the Potomac for seventy-five Martha Washington’s years. It was possibly in just such stormy weather that John First Life Washington, Mate of a sailing ketch called the Sea Horse Martha Washington, known to of London, came scudding up the windswept waters of the us today as America’s first First Potomac in the year 1657. Later the little ship went aground Lady, had an interesting life before and was sunk. But the Mate’s story has a happy ending. He she met George. She was born Martha Dandridge, daughter to married the daughter of a wealthy planter and acquired a John and Frances Dandridge, on large plantation between Mattox Creek and Pope’s Creek. June 2, 1731, in Chestnut Grove John’s eldest son was named Lawrence. One of Lawrence’s in the Province of Virginia. At age eighteen, she married a very rich sons was Augustine—the tall, blond Gus who now stood local plantation owner, Daniel Parke looking down at his small son, George. Custis, who was twenty years older. From the beginning, Martha Great-grandfather John, grandfather Lawrence and was a partner in running the many family plantations, and at age twenty-five, when her husband died, Martha became sole man- father Augustine—each of this direct male line had added ager of five plantations, handling 17,000 acres and a workforce land to the family holdings. Each had been a Justice of the of 300 slaves. Daniel and Martha had four children together, but Peace, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and an only two survived. These two surviving children, named Jackie and Patsy, would become the only children George Washington would officer in the Virginia Militia. And each had enjoyed at least ever have when he married Martha two years later, in 1759. The a few years’ schooling “back home” in England—a privilege couple never had children of their own. George was never to be granted. Possibly this healthy boy, soon to be christened George Martha was an important supporter of Washington and the con- tinental troops during the Revolutionary War, and for eight years could hope to be as locally important as his father, grandfather she made annual visits to boost their spirits.