3 Years later GW finds out he's an Assassin?
Often a writer of history does not report where or how he found the story. Often such information is not discovered by the principals in the story itself until much later.
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An example of that is how we discover a wound a captain and aid de camp to GW received in 1754. We learn of it in 1778.
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GW's former Captain George Mercer writes from Paris to GW November 28th 1778 about a wound he received at Fort Necessity 3 July 1754 that has come back to aggravate him. By the way this roster did not list George Mercer as wounded there. That may be because the wound was just not as serious as those others wounded?
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Nevertheless, back to a discovery George Washington finds after the fact.
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GW finds out in Philadelphia in Feb 1757 a report and accusation about his actions in 1754. He finds out from a 3 Feb 1757 issue of Pennsylvania Gazette published prior to GW's arrival in Philly. The article's source for its information comes from a French publication found off a captured French ship. The French publications lists George Washington as one of the reasons Britain -- not France -- is the culprit for starting this present war. This refers to George Washington signing a surrender document at Fort Necessity 3 July 1754 accusing him for being an assassin in the Jumonville incident 28 May 1754. According to Douglas Southall Freeman, GW hires a French interpreter to translate the French publication captured off that French Ship. Rather than rely on the Pennsylvania Gazette, GW wants to verify what the actual French publication is asserting. Also, maybe while in Philly in Feb 1757, three years after the incident, GW wrote about this incident himself in his diary here.
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Before we get to this story of discovery after the fact, we want to set the scene.
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Where is our Colonel George Washington in February 1757?
Where is GW at the time of his discovering he is being accused for one of the reasons of starting this war between Britain and France?
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He's in Philadelphia.
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He's there to see Lord Loudoun, supreme commander of all North American forces.
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He finds out Lord Loudoun has delayed the original scheduled date of 17 February 1757.
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While waiting for Lord Loudoun, he dances, plays cards, shops, and has audiences mostly with Gov Horatio Sharpe of Maryland, despite that Lt Gov Dinwiddie of Virginia and other Governors who are also there to attend a conference with Lord Loudoun.
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They're all waiting. But in the meantime they're making various uses of their time.
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Lord Loudoun does not finally arrive in Philadelphia until 14 March 1757.
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From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Page 234 published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons:
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"Washington departed promptly
(leaving Fort Loudoun some time after 2 Feb 1757),
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stopped at home (Mt Vernon)
on his way to the city (Philadelphia),
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left on the 13th
(13 Feb 1757)
with Capt Robert Stewart and Thomas Bishop,
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and reached the place of the conference
(Philadelphia)
about the 21st (21 Feb 1757) --
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only to be told that the new Commander-in Chief
(Lord Loudoun) had not made his appearance. "
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So we have set the scene for GW's discovery.
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Douglas Southall Freeman doesn't mention that our Colonel George Washington is being accused of being an Assassin here.
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Douglas Southall Freeman does mention that this publication found off a captured French ship lists all the reasons why Britain is considered the cause of this war and not France.
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And one of those reasons is because of a young George Washington.
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So even then in his own time he was being accused as one of the reasons for starting the war.
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From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Pages 236-237, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons:
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. . . Washington had at least one other experience of interest during his weeks of waiting for the Commander-in-Chief.
About ten days after [ 3 March 1757? ] the Virginian reached Philadelphia he found in the Pennsylvania Gazette an unusual advertisement of a forthcoming book.
Aboard a French vessel captured at sea, British naval officers had found a volume published in Paris by royal order the previous year [1756] This was a “Memoire contenant le Precis des Faits, avec leur Pieces Justificatives pour Servir de Response aux Observations Envoyees par les Ministres d’Angleterre dans les Cours de l’Europe,” and it was described accurately by the title.
It was a collection of documents designed to show that blame for the existing war rested on Britain, not on France — just such a volume, in short, as a printer might seize upon and print quickly in order to satisfy public curiosity of what “the other side” was saying.
More than one such printer, it would appear, soon had the same resolution to translate and issue the Memoire.
There may, indeed, have been something of a race between two of the disciples of Cadmus, one in New York and the other in Philadelphia.
The advertisement in the Pennsylvania paper was exciting to
Washington because it listed among the contents a “Journal” attributed to him. 25
Washington at once investigated, because the publisher announced that the book would be put to press on the 20th of March [1757] and would be issued in six weeks.
The Virginian found that the translation had not been completed and that what had been put into English was awkward and poorly expressed. 26
For his own protection, doubtless, he had a translation of his own made of some of the passages that related to himself. 27
The “Journal” proved to be a French elaboration of notes he had kept in varying form, sometimes in extenso and sometimes in little more than outline, from Mch 31 to June 27, 1754, that is, from the time he was commissioned to start for the Ohio, to protect the building
of the fort at the Junction, until the eve of the retreat to the Great
Meadows.
Many things that he had jotted down the French editor of
his captured notes had eliminated, and some things of which he had
not even thought at the time were attributed to him. 28
He corrected as much of this as he could, m the short time that remained before publication, but apparently the Philadelphia printer decided to adhere to the English text already available. 29
George did not fail to subscribe to it. 30
Footnotes by Douglas Southall Freeman:
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Wtgan Collection from Sulgrave Manor copy at Mount Vernon It is instructive to compare this paper with the remonstrance published m 2 G W ,25 and provisionally dated April 16 That document is summarized infra , p, 245
25
Issue of Mch 3, 1757*
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See his undated letter to the printer or editor in 2 Sparks , 463
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See Ledger 4 , folio 34 “By cash to a French translator 21/6 ”
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2 Sparks , 263
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There are no more than the normal typographical differences between the New York and
Philadelphia editions
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Ledger A , folio 35 Apparently he did not purchase then nor is there any record that he later owned a publication that William Bradford advertised in the Penn Gazette of Feb 3, 1757, just before his arrival m Philadelphia — “A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for 1755
so Far as it Affected the General service of the British Colonies, particularly the Expedition under General Braddock ” The author was William Smith 31 Penn Gazette , Mch 17, 1757
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This blog is authored and compiled by Jim Moyer 2/21/2021
This blog "Sunday Word 1" is a series posted on Facebook in the year of 2021 following the events of 1757.
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Last year 2020 was a series posted on Facebook for the year 1756.
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See that FB page:
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Sources:
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See links already referenced in the article itself.
We will list all those links here as well at a later date.
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More about the Jumonville Incident
where the alleged assassin accusation took place?
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Jumonville Incident: May 28,1754
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Did the Chief Half King tomahawk the skull of French Officer Jumonville when he was a wounded prisoner — in front of Washington?
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And why did Washington sign his name to a French document calling Washington an “assassin” ?
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There are many sources for this story.
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George Washington’s letters
see 11th paragraph 29 May 1754 Washington letter to Dinwiddie
Click Next Page of this story in Washington’s Diary
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1757 GW writes about Assassin Mis-interpretation
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Adam Stephen’s account
John Shaw – not an eye witness
Monceau’s account
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Lt Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Lery records Contrecour’s recital of Denis Kaninguen‘s testimony
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Follow up needed on these broke links:
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There were many accounts of this.
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Click Next Page of this story in Washington’s Diary
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Monceau’s account
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Follow up needed on some unanswered questions:
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What French ship was captured and when and where.
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This French ship was the one that carried that French publication listing George Washington as one of the reasons naming England as the cause of this present war.
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