Don't Know Much

Washington’s “Confession”

Today is George Washington “real” birthday.

By now, I hope we all know that the cherry tree story is a legend, made up by a pseudobiographer but chiseled into American folklore.
But there is a true story about a young George Washington that most of us never hear. It is the story of his first actual military experience and his signing of a “murder confession.” It is not only more interesting than the cherry tree story but a lot more revealing.

The incident began in late May 1754, with England and France in a brief respite from bouts of relentless war. Relying upon knowledge garnered from reading military manuals, the wet-behind-the-ears Washington was in command of a crew of militiamen dispatched to build an outpost in western Pennsylvania’s contested wilderness.

Encountering a detachment of French soldiers, Washington followed the advice of an ally he barely trusted –an Indian chief known to the English as the Half King. Tossing caution to the wind, the untested Washington defied orders and ambushed the French. When the smoke cleared, one Virginian and several Frenchmen lay dead or wounded; the rest were taken prisoner. “I heard bullets whistle,” Washington later told his brother, famously adding that the sound was “charming.”

What happened next was anything but charming. A wounded French officer frantically waved some papers at Washington. He was, in fact, a diplomat, carrying letters to the British. But before Washington could make sense of this, the Half King buried his tomahawk in the Frenchman’s brain. The Indians fell on the other captives, leaving few alive.

Following this massacre, a French army set off in hot pursuit of Washington. Outnumbered, Washington’s men cobbled together a small wooden shed, surrounded by sharpened stakes, in a meadow about 60 miles south of what is now Pittsburgh. It was called “Fort Necessity” —but “Desperation” would have been more fitting. The Half King’s warriors took one look and beat a hasty retreat.

On a rainy July 3d, the French surrounded Fort Necessity and poured gunfire down on Washington’s hapless troops. Their powder wet, their trenches filling with mud and gore, some of the Virginians ransacked the rum stores. By the morning of the 4th, Washington had no choice. Fortunate he wasn’t shot on the spot, he accepted terms. Among them was signing what amounted to a murder confession. His admission sparked the Seven Years’ War—history’s first true “world war.” (The North American phase was the French and Indian War.)

Insubordinate, incompetent, an admitted murderer who had surrendered in abject defeat –Washington should have been done in by any of these blows to his reputation. But instead, he flourished. The first “Teflon” hero in American history –nothing stuck to the young George Washington.

Clearly, he possessed uncanny survival skills. He had proven that in 1753, during a dangerous trek through the Ohio River Valley wilderness when he was shot at by an Indian and later plunged into an icy river. By all rights, Washington should have died of exposure. But he lived to tell the tale and made a name for himself.

Just as intriguing as this public reversal of Washington’s failures is how they escaped inclusion in your schoolbooks. Maybe it is this simple: his “youthful indiscretions” never fit the tidy “I-cannot-tell-a-lie” image of young Washington that many Americans still cherish. Many Americans still cling to the mythic version of history with heroes as perfectly polished as the marble monuments in the nation’s capitol.

Yet the tale of “Washington’s Confession” is not simply revisionism meant to tarnish an icon. Washington emerged as the “indispensable man” who saw combat at its worst, learned well the politics of war, and was surely shaped by these disastrous misadventures.

“Washington’s Confession” is just one piece of America’s “hidden history,” a reminder that winners tell the tales. And Washington was a winner. Even though –as he surely knew– it is often the defeats and disasters that can teach us the most.

Here is a link to the National Historic site at Washington’s “Fort Necessity”
http://www.nps.gov/fone/index.htm
You can read more of the story of “Washington’s Confession” in America’s Hidden History

The Latest From My Blog

Don’t Know Much About® the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York caught fire and 146 people died.

Read More

The World in Books-Coming in October 2024

My new book is coming from Scribner in October 2024.

Read More