The Glenn Beck Program - Young George Washington: The War that Forged a Leader | The American Story | Ep 4
Aired: 2026-05-02
Duration: 52:39


=== Chaos at Fort Duquesne (02:54) ===

[00:00:07]  It's July 1755.
[00:00:11]  The wilderness of western Pennsylvania.
[00:00:16]  Not far from Fort Duquesne, a French stronghold that is key to colonial dominance.
[00:00:23]  British General Edward Braddock rushes on horseback toward complete chaos.
[00:00:28]  At his side rides a lanky young Virginian, somebody nobody knows yet George Washington, his face set in grim determination, heart pounding beneath his skin.
[00:00:39]  Stifling uniform, and the air hangs heavy with the scent of gunpowder and damp summer earth.
[00:00:46]  The woods ahead teem with violence.
[00:00:49]  They weave through the horde of panicked soldiers in red uniforms, fleeing toward them, sweat drenched, faces covered in terror.
[00:00:58]  General Braddock, iron willed and unyielding, rages at his troops to form lines and re engage.
[00:01:05]  French troops and their Indian allies, masters of guerrilla warfare, melt into the trees like phantoms.
[00:01:11]  Their shots tearing through the British ranks with ease.
[00:01:15]  Washington squins through the smoke, trying to make sense of the scene.
[00:01:18]  Musket balls zip out of nowhere, bludgeoning men all around him.
[00:01:23]  Officers are struck from their horses, limp bodies dragged across the forest floor, limbs still caught in stirrups.
[00:01:30]  General Braddock waves his sword, growling at 30 men to scramble up a hillside.
[00:01:35]  But in the blind haze of battle, some troops panic, mistaking their own men for foes, and turn their fire toward the hill.
[00:01:44]  Some officers think the redcoats on the hill are deserters and open fire.
[00:01:48]  Braddock's voice is overwhelmed by the din of war.
[00:01:51]  British bullets mix with those from seemingly invisible enemies, slicing through the smoke with brutal efficiency.
[00:01:59]  Within seconds, all 30 troops on the hill are dead.
[00:02:06]  A bullet finds General Braddock, ripping through his arm and into his chest.
[00:02:11]  He crumples to the ground, blood soaking his coat.
[00:02:14]  Washington wheels around and dismounts, kneeling beside Braddock.
[00:02:18]  Washington feels lightheaded, his own body severely depleted.
[00:02:23]  He's in excruciating pain from weeks long battle with dysentery, and he tries to make out Braddock's words.
[00:02:30]  Then, with swift determination, he swings back onto his horse, no time to register the pain coursing through him as he settles into the saddle.
[00:02:38]  The air is still thick with smoke and bullets, and Washington is a tall, easy target.
[00:02:44]  He draws his sword, charging ahead into the maelstrom.
[00:02:50]  A bullet then rips through his coat, yet Somehow fails to graze him.
[00:02:55]  He is at home on horseback, and there is a strange calm about him in this wicked battle storm.

=== Washington's Painful Recovery (15:24) ===

[00:03:02]  George Washington is now 23 years old.
[00:03:05]  He's in a war that will reshape empires, a war that is also a forge, shaping him for the destiny he cannot imagine.
[00:03:19]  This is the American story, The Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title.
[00:03:25]  By David Barton and Tim Barton.
[00:03:29]  Episode 4 Young George Washington The War That Forged a Leader.
[00:03:39]  Mary Ball was a devout Christian, strong willed, mostly uneducated, resilient.
[00:03:46]  She had been orphaned at the age of 12 in an unforgiving world of colonial Virginia with its strict class structure.
[00:03:54]  Mary could have just been another forgotten casualty of that era's harsh realities.
[00:03:58]  Disease, isolation, and the constant threat of poverty looming large for a girl without parents.
[00:04:06]  Instead, George Eskridge intervened.
[00:04:09]  He was a compassionate family friend who took her in.
[00:04:12]  Eskridge treated her like one of his own, offering shelter, guidance, and perhaps even a semblance of family warmth.
[00:04:19]  This act of kindness left an indelible mark on Mary.
[00:04:24]  It's also likely that Eskridge played Cupid, introducing a 22 year old Mary to Augustine Washington.
[00:04:32]  He was a 37 year old widower looking to rebuild his life after losing his first wife.
[00:04:37]  And he was a man on the move, a land speculator, an ironworks owner.
[00:04:42]  He was always eyeing the next opportunity in Virginia's expanding wilderness.
[00:04:47]  Mary and Augustine's marriage in 1731 was not a fairy tale romance, it was practical, a union of necessity in a frontier society where survival often depended on such partnerships.
[00:05:00]  Augustine brought three young children into the mix sons Lawrence and Augustine Jr., And a daughter named Jane.
[00:05:09]  Into this bustling family arrived George Washington in the winter of 1732.
[00:05:15]  He was the first of Mary and Augustine's six children.
[00:05:19]  Mary named him after George Eskridge, honoring the man who had been her lifeline.
[00:05:25]  George Washington's older half brothers, Lawrence and Augustine Jr., were at school in England during his early years.
[00:05:32]  When George was six years old, Lawrence returned from England at the age of 20.
[00:05:36]  Augustine put him in charge of the family's property on the Potomac, while the rest of the family lived at Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia.
[00:05:45]  But just a year later, Lawrence embarked on an adventure in the Caribbean.
[00:05:50]  He joined the British military under Admiral Edward Vernon.
[00:05:54]  He experienced some combat in a brief but intense clash with Spain.
[00:06:00]  Lawrence's service was short, but it left him with a deep admiration for Admiral Vernon, so much so that he renamed the family estate.
[00:06:10]  Mount Vernon in his honor.
[00:06:14]  He even hung a portrait of the Admiral in the main house that captivated the young George with tales of battle and heroism in exotic places.
[00:06:24]  An enormous blow rocked the Washington family when George's father, Augustine, died in 1743 at the age of 49.
[00:06:32]  Lawrence inherited Mount Vernon.
[00:06:35]  Eleven year old George inherited a new world of responsibility, helping care for his siblings and the family farm.
[00:06:42]  His father's death changed George's direction.
[00:06:45]  Especially his education.
[00:06:47]  There would be no boarding school in England, none of that European polish that was revered in the colonies, but that early disparity planted seeds of determination in George, fueling his drive to prove himself.
[00:07:01]  He had no Latin, Greek, or French, which, even when he was older, made him feel a bit rough around the edges compared to the men like Jefferson and Adams and Hamilton.
[00:07:13]  Yet his boyhood drive is evident in the 200 plus pages of school exercises that are found in the files he left behind.
[00:07:21]  Page after page of geometry lessons, measurements, currency conversions.
[00:07:27]  As a kid, he even transcribed legal documents for things like land patents and leases.
[00:07:32]  He absorbed all manner of practical knowledge.
[00:07:36]  In 1807, an early Washington biographer described young George as grave, silent, and thoughtful, diligent and methodical in business, dignified in his appearance.
[00:07:48]  And strictly honorable in his deportment.
[00:07:52]  But George wasn't all business and no play.
[00:07:54]  He loved swimming in the deep water of the Rappahannock River.
[00:07:58]  Hunting was a passion, honing his marksmanship and patience.
[00:08:03]  Horse riding came naturally to him.
[00:08:05]  Future peers would rave about his equestrian skills.
[00:08:09]  He took fencing and dancing classes.
[00:08:11]  He enjoyed billiards, cockfights, and horse races.
[00:08:15]  Still, life was far from a breeze.
[00:08:19]  Unlike most widows in frontier Virginia, George's mother never remarried.
[00:08:24]  That decision shaped him profoundly.
[00:08:28]  Imagine this household, a headstrong, deeply pious mother raising six children on her own.
[00:08:33]  Mary and George developed a strained relationship in this stressful environment.
[00:08:39]  One contemporary wrote that George treated his mother, quote, with frigid deference.
[00:08:44]  Later, George signed his letters to her, not love, but, quote, your most dutiful and obedient son.
[00:08:52]  After their father's death, Lawrence became the most important influence in George's young life.
[00:08:57]  Lawrence was well traveled, he was charming, outgoing.
[00:09:00]  And George revered him.
[00:09:03]  George was 11 when Lawrence married Anne Fairfax in 1743.
[00:09:08]  The Fairfax family was rich, powerful, and lived in an opulent estate just four miles down the Potomac River from Mount Vernon.
[00:09:16]  Through the Fairfaxes, George glimpsed a whole new world of wealth and elegance, fox hunts, and political influence.
[00:09:24]  He was all in.
[00:09:26]  The head of the family, Colonel William Fairfax, took George under his wing.
[00:09:30]  Since Lawrence and Anne lost four children as infants, They doted on George.
[00:09:36]  He stayed with them at Mount Vernon as often as his mother allowed.
[00:09:41]  George's drive to equip himself for acceptance in this upper class world was evident in something he did as a teenager.
[00:09:47]  He hand copied 110 rules from the etiquette manual called Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.
[00:09:57]  Some are actually pretty funny, like, Others are more timeless and practical.
[00:10:06]  Do not express joy before one sick or in pain, for that contrary passion will aggravate his misery.
[00:10:14]  Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.
[00:10:18]  Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for tis better to be alone than in bad company.
[00:10:28]  When George was 14, Lawrence and Colonel Fairfax encouraged him to join the British Royal Navy.
[00:10:34]  A promising start, maybe, to a naval career.
[00:10:38]  But Mary, his mom, gave an emphatic no.
[00:10:42]  She did not want her oldest son vanishing overseas.
[00:10:46]  So George pivoted to become a land surveyor.
[00:10:50]  His father had left a complete set of surveying instruments, and it turned out to be perfect for George.
[00:10:57]  Surveying wasn't just about measuring land, it was about power.
[00:11:01]  Land meant wealth, and surveyors often got first pick of prime properties.
[00:11:08]  When George was 16, George got his first paying gig.
[00:11:12]  He was part of an expedition to measure the Fairfax family's land holdings in the rugged Shenandoah Valley.
[00:11:18]  He kept a diary throughout the job that he titled, A Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains.
[00:11:24]  He loved it.
[00:11:25]  He loved the outdoors, the challenge, the independence.
[00:11:29]  And by age 18, he had earned enough money as a surveyor to buy land for himself.
[00:11:34]  By the age 20, he owned more than 2,300 acres.
[00:11:38]  As one historian described it, More than most, Washington's biography is the story of a man constructing himself.
[00:11:47]  Lawrence Washington, who by then was a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses, had to leave the post because of a terrible hacking cough.
[00:11:55]  It unfortunately was tuberculosis.
[00:11:59]  Lawrence tried everything to find a cure, but nothing worked.
[00:12:03]  Doctors told him the tropical air of Barbados might help, so he invited 19 year old George to go with him.
[00:12:10]  It was the only time George ever traveled outside of America.
[00:12:15]  George reveled in island life at first.
[00:12:17]  Pristine beaches, the cultured dinner tables piled high with fruits that he had never tasted before.
[00:12:23]  But then smallpox brought the extended holiday to a screeching halt.
[00:12:29]  Waylaid by fever, headaches, and a red spotted rash, George was confined to bed for over three weeks.
[00:12:36]  It was his first brush with death, yet he recovered.
[00:12:40]  And it was providential, because the illness gave him immunity to the most feared disease of the 1700s.
[00:12:48]  A disease that would later ravage American and British troops during the Revolutionary War.
[00:12:54]  After George recovered from smallpox, he sailed back to Virginia without Lawrence, who was not improving.
[00:13:01]  George resumed his surveying jobs.
[00:13:03]  Lawrence tried a stint in Bermuda, but it wasn't enough.
[00:13:06]  He eventually made it back to Mount Vernon, where he died at the age of 34.
[00:13:13]  George, as you can imagine, was devastated.
[00:13:15]  It was like losing his father all over again.
[00:13:18]  Lawrence was his role model, mentor, friend.
[00:13:21]  His escape.
[00:13:24]  The loss of Lawrence was a major turning point in the life of George Washington.
[00:13:28]  He was determined to follow in Lawrence's footsteps.
[00:13:32]  It was what they had talked and dreamed about together in the glow of the fireplace on so many nights.
[00:13:38]  George had decided he would become something more.
[00:13:42]  He laid down his surveying tools and he picked up a sword.
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[00:14:52]  When Lawrence died, George inherited Lawrence's ambitions, which meant the military.
[00:14:58]  At the time, Virginia was divided into four districts for militia purposes.
[00:15:02]  Each one led by an adjutant.
[00:15:05]  Lawrence was district adjutant when he died, and George lobbied to take over that position.
[00:15:11]  Against the odds, the lobby effort worked.
[00:15:14]  In 1753, at just 21 years old and with zero military experience, George was sworn in as Major Washington.
[00:15:24]  The job paid £100 a year and gave him a taste of the military life his late brother had encouraged him to pursue.
[00:15:31]  Just six months into George's new role, Virginia's British appointed governor, Robert Dinwiddie, received orders from London.
[00:15:41]  The French had been creeping into the Ohio Valley.
[00:15:44]  They were building forts on land claimed by Britain.
[00:15:48]  Dinwiddie was told to send somebody west, demand that the French withdraw, and if they refused, to drive them out by force.
[00:15:56]  Well, who do you think volunteered?
[00:15:59]  Young George Washington.
[00:16:01]  He rode urgently to Williamsburg, which was then the capital of Virginia, and offered his services.
[00:16:07]  A 21 year old with no combat experience, no command record, and no French language skill.
[00:16:13]  But he was ambitious and he was burning to prove himself.
[00:16:18]  On paper, at least, it seemed like a terrible idea to send a college age kid with no experience into the wilderness on such an important diplomatic mission, but the governor signed off on it.
[00:16:30]  Washington set off on the journey that same day.
[00:16:36]  The route to the French outpost, Fort LeBeuf, which was near Lake Erie in Pennsylvania, was 500 miles of wilderness.
[00:16:44]  Washington gathered a small, quirky crew on his way.
[00:16:48]  Jacob van Bram, a Dutch swordsman who had been Georgia's fencing instructor and who also could translate French.
[00:16:56]  Christopher Gist, he was a seasoned backwoods guide, and four Indian traders.
[00:17:02]  They trudged westward in the frozen nightmare.
[00:17:06]  Washington was still green, but he watched, he learned, and he absorbed from every experience and every interaction on the grueling journey.
[00:17:15]  They met with Indian leaders on their way, gleaning information about the French activity in the region.
[00:17:20]  In fact, that night, Washington wrote in his journal The Indians are mercenary.
[00:17:25]  Every service of theirs must be purchased, and they are easily offended, being thoroughly sensible of their own importance.
[00:17:31]  It was a crucial lesson that he would fail to remember later in the journey.
[00:17:37]  After six weeks in the wilderness, on December 11th, the small party arrived at Fort LaBeouf.
[00:17:44]  The French commander at the fort received Washington politely, offering him wine and dinner.
[00:17:49]  But he also flatly refused the British demand that the French leave.
[00:17:53]  The French commander scribbled his reply to Dinwiddie's ultimatum.
[00:17:57]  He handed it back to Washington with the cockiness of a man who knew he had a bigger army in North America.
[00:18:04]  Washington, who was eager to prove himself to Governor Dinwiddie and the British military leaders who would scrutinize the 21 year old's every move on his mission, so once Washington has the French commander's reply in hand, he immediately starts the return trip to Williamsburg.
[00:18:21]  But this is in the middle of December.
[00:18:23]  Northwestern Pennsylvania is a frozen tundra.

=== The French Ultimatum Refused (06:43) ===

[00:18:27]  The party's horses struggle in the snow and the ice in the extreme temperatures.
[00:18:32]  Washington ignores warnings that the winter trails are impassable, and he sets out on foot with Christopher Gist.
[00:18:40]  Shortly into their punishing trek, they picked up the services of an Indian guide who promises to lead them the fastest way through the vast Pennsylvania wilderness.
[00:18:50]  Gist does not trust this guide, but Washington is so exhausted at this point that he allows the Indian to carry his backpack.
[00:18:58]  The men venture into an open meadow where the winter sun is offering the blinding glare off the thick layer of snow and ice.
[00:19:06]  When suddenly, without warning, the Indian guide dashes several yards ahead of Washington and Gist.
[00:19:12]  He spins toward them with a musket raised and fires.
[00:19:16]  Somehow, the shot misses them.
[00:19:19]  Washington and Gist instantly charge the assassin and tackle him in the packed snow.
[00:19:23]  They wrestle the musket away from the Indian, and Gist aims his own musket at the man and is about to pull the trigger when Washington yells, Stop!
[00:19:33]  He insists they let the man live.
[00:19:36]  They bind the attacker's hands and feet while they figure out what to do.
[00:19:40]  Finally, they determine it will only slow them down to travel with a prisoner, so after dark, they release the Indian, who scrambles into the woods.
[00:19:49]  Gist gives Washington a bitter tongue lashing.
[00:19:51]  Since Washington wouldn't let him kill the man, he insists, they now have to travel all night in the opposite direction in case the Indian returns with reinforcements.
[00:20:00]  And that is exactly what they do, plodding all night through the thick snow in the forest.
[00:20:06]  After two grueling days of hiking, They face another deadly encounter, this time with the Allegheny River.
[00:20:14]  They expect to find it frozen so they could just walk across.
[00:20:18]  Instead, they find a torrent of dark water choked with giant chunks of fast moving ice.
[00:20:25]  They spend the whole day chopping trees down with one small hatchet just to build a raft.
[00:20:31]  At sunset, they climb aboard the raft and use setting poles to try to maneuver their way across the flowing, ice clogged water.
[00:20:39]  The raft Keeps jamming against the ice packs.
[00:20:42]  Washington leans into his pole, trying to nudge the heavy ice away just enough to free them.
[00:20:48]  But the strong current knocks him off balance and he tumbles into the deep ice water, sputtering.
[00:20:54]  He manages to grab onto the raft and Gist hauls him back on.
[00:20:59]  All of their efforts seemed hopeless.
[00:21:02]  Exhausted, numb, the best they can do is reach an island in the middle of the river.
[00:21:09]  There they manage to build a small fire.
[00:21:12]  And they spend the most miserable night imaginable, exposed to the elements and their clothes encased in ice.
[00:21:19]  Finally, the morning light reveals their rescue.
[00:21:23]  Enough of the river freezes overnight.
[00:21:25]  Now they're able to inch the rest of their way across the ice on foot.
[00:21:31]  Three weeks later, in January 1754, Washington finally staggers back into Williamsburg and delivers the French response to Governor Dinwiddie.
[00:21:41]  The governor was impressed with Washington's report that included a map of Fort LaBeouf.
[00:21:46]  And the details on the French troops' strength.
[00:21:50]  Dinwiddie had Washington's travel journal published as the Journal of Major George Washington.
[00:21:56]  Colonial newspapers from Virginia to Massachusetts printed it.
[00:22:00]  It was even published as a pamphlet in London.
[00:22:03]  Suddenly, this obscure young Virginian was known all across the British Empire.
[00:22:10]  Washington turned 22 on the next month and he was soon bumped up to lieutenant colonel.
[00:22:15]  His new assignment was to lead 150 men back to the forks of Ohio.
[00:22:20]  The site of present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and build a British fort.
[00:22:26]  Washington marched west again, but before they reached the forks, scouting reports discovered the French had beaten them to it.
[00:22:34]  They had already built Fort Duquesne.
[00:22:37]  Washington had no chance of taking it with his small force, so he camped 40 miles away in an area known as Great Meadows to wait for reinforcements.
[00:22:48]  In late May, another scouting report brought alarming news.
[00:22:52]  A French detachment was spotted less than 20 miles from Washington's camp.
[00:22:56]  Three days later, another report said the detachment was just seven miles away.
[00:23:02]  Washington made a fateful decision.
[00:23:05]  Instead of sitting tight, he marched his men out into the dead of night to confront them.
[00:23:17]  It was pitch black, pouring rain.
[00:23:21]  Washington's men stumbling single file through the woods with their Indian allies.
[00:23:27]  At dawn, they discovered the French camp in a little hollow.
[00:23:31]  35 French soldiers surrounded by trees and rocks.
[00:23:37]  The French scrambled for their weapons, but they were trapped.
[00:23:41]  In 15 minutes, the lopsided skirmish was over.
[00:23:44]  10 French dead, 21 captured, versus one dead and a few wounded on the British side.
[00:23:51]  Washington suddenly lost control of the situation.
[00:23:54]  To his horror, their Indian allies pounced on the wounded French and scalped them.
[00:24:00]  Lost to history is who fired first.
[00:24:04]  Each side claimed the other side did.
[00:24:06]  One Indian warrior claimed Washington himself fired the first shot.
[00:24:10]  The French insisted that they were victims of an unprovoked attack, that they were simply on a diplomatic mission, carrying a message to warn the British off the land.
[00:24:20]  Complicating things further was that the French envoy was among the dead.
[00:24:25]  Some claimed the envoy was shot in the head while trying to read aloud his diplomatic orders.
[00:24:31]  Washington's first taste of battle was a blurry, bloody incident that remains.
[00:24:37]  Somewhat hazy even after the musket smoke had cleared.
[00:24:43]  He didn't realize it yet, but he had just sparked a major war.
[00:24:48]  In a letter to his younger brother, Jack, a short time later, Washington wrote this about his first ever combat I fortunately escaped without a wound, though the right wing where I stood was exposed to and received all the enemy's fire, and was the part where the man was killed and the rest wounded.
[00:25:06]  I can with truth assure you, I heard bullets whistle.

=== Sparking the Major War (02:37) ===

[00:25:10]  And believe me, there was something charming in the sound.
[00:25:14]  Those whistling bullets were the opening shots of the French and Indian War, an international conflict that became known in Europe as the Seven Years' War.
[00:25:25]  As one British politician put it, the volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.
[00:25:34]  And now, Washington was trapped in it, because the French were not going to let their envoy's death go unanswered.
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=== Chapter Saves Lives and Money (12:25) ===

[00:27:47]  Hey, if you're enjoying this and you want to keep going, you don't have to wait a week for the next episode.
[00:27:51]  Torch Insiders already have access to the first 10 episodes of The American Story right now, ad free.
[00:27:58]  Just go to glenbeck.comslash torch and unlock the full experience today.
[00:28:04]  After the skirmish with the French detachment, Washington knew the French would strike back, so he and his men hacked out a clearing in the Great Meadows and built a crude, circular stockade of logs.
[00:28:16]  He called it Fort Necessity.
[00:28:20]  It may have been a necessity, but it was hardly a fort.
[00:28:22]  It was little more than a mud hole, a fence of logs surrounding a tiny log cabin that served as a storage room to keep food and gunpowder dry.
[00:28:32]  The fencing was barely enough to keep their cattle inside, let alone keep the French out.
[00:28:37]  But young Washington was determined to stand his ground.
[00:28:41]  His Indian allies, however, were determined it was a hopeless cause.
[00:28:46]  They deemed Fort Necessity useless against the French and walked away.
[00:28:51]  Now, alone, running low on supplies, with no reinforcements in sight, Washington had to wonder are my days numbered?
[00:29:02]  Indeed, French troops were making a beeline for Washington.
[00:29:05]  Position led by a man with a personal vendetta.
[00:29:08]  He was the older brother of the envoy that was killed by Washington's men.
[00:29:14]  They were out for revenge.
[00:29:16]  On the morning of July 3rd, 1754, the wilderness silence was pierced by the sudden war cries of Indian allies of the French, followed by waves of the crack of thick musket volleys.
[00:29:30]  Washington's men fought back and for several hours put up a stubborn resistance, but they were severely outnumbered and outgunned.
[00:29:39]  The hastily constructed fort provided little protection from the French and Indian onslaught.
[00:29:44]  Then the sky opened up.
[00:29:48]  The British trenches flooded with rain.
[00:29:51]  Their muskets misfired in the downpour.
[00:29:53]  The French and Indian troops sniped at them from the woods, picking them off one by one.
[00:29:58]  Washington's first skirmish with the French could barely be called combat.
[00:30:03]  This was battle, and it was brutal.
[00:30:07]  After fighting all day, 100 of Washington's men, one third of his troops, were killed.
[00:30:12]  Or wounded.
[00:30:13]  Bodies piled all around in the mud.
[00:30:16]  Out of spite, the French and Indians slaughtered every British animal, horses, cattle, even the dogs.
[00:30:22]  On the French side, three dead, 17 wounded.
[00:30:26]  It was a one sided massacre.
[00:30:34]  At dusk, the French signaled they were willing to talk.
[00:30:37]  Jacob von Brahm, Washington's translator, shuttled between the lines, relaying terms.
[00:30:43]  Washington and his fellow officers could barely read the document in the flickering lamplight, rain smearing the ink, paper blotted, words smudged.
[00:30:52]  And that is why a fatal mistranslation crept in.
[00:30:56]  The terms of surrender stated that the French attack was in retaliation for the French envoy's death two months earlier.
[00:31:04]  But the French called it an assassination, a loaded word implying murder rather than the neutral combat loss.
[00:31:13]  Around midnight, Washington and his officers signed the document, believing the French word meant death.
[00:31:18]  Death or loss.
[00:31:19]  It may have been Washington's inexperience, maybe a rookie mistake, but signing off on the word assassination was an inadvertent confession that handed the French a major propaganda victory.
[00:31:32]  They were able to paint the British as aggressors.
[00:31:36]  But Washington always insisted that he never went along with the word assassination.
[00:31:41]  That we were willfully or ignorantly deceived by our interpreter in regard to the word assassination, I do aver and will to my dying moment.
[00:31:52]  The British were permitted to retreat with honors, but the Indians ransacked their baggage, seizing Washington's diary.
[00:32:00]  He was mortified when it was published in Paris two years later to jeers and ridicule.
[00:32:05]  The French milked the terms of surrender, branding Washington a murderer of a peaceful envoy, turning his Virginia celebrity into international notoriety.
[00:32:17]  The battle at Fort Necessity was a total debacle.
[00:32:21]  Yet glimmers of Washington's potential began to emerge.
[00:32:26]  As historian Ron Chernow describes, it, with unflagging resolution, Washington had kept his composure in battle, even when surrounded by piles of corpses.
[00:32:37]  A born soldier, he was always tenacious and persevering and never settled for halfway measures.
[00:32:47]  Washington returned to Virginia, stung by defeat.
[00:32:51]  Three months after the Fort Necessity loss, he resigned his military post.
[00:32:56]  He was still only 22.
[00:32:58]  His brother Lawrence's widow remarried and rented Mount Vernon to Washington.
[00:33:03]  He retreated into private life, intending to focus on farming the property that he loved so much.
[00:33:09]  But Washington couldn't stay away from the military, especially with Britain gearing up for an all out war against France.
[00:33:17]  In early 1755, the British sent reinforcements two regiments, red coated troops commanded by a grizzled veteran named General Edward Braddock.
[00:33:29]  Drive the French from Fort Duquesne.
[00:33:32]  He accepted right away, still drawn by his ambition for British military glory.
[00:33:37]  His mother traveled to Mount Vernon to plead with him not to go.
[00:33:40]  He listened respectfully, but his mind was made up, telling Mary, The God to whom you commended me, madam, when I set out upon a more perilous errand, defended me from all harm, and I trust he will do so now.
[00:33:55]  Do not you?
[00:33:57]  Once Washington joined General Braddock's staff, He tried warning him about Indian fighting tactics, the ambushes, slipping in and out of the forests.
[00:34:05]  But Braddock was not impressed with colonial officers.
[00:34:08]  He dismissed native tactics as child's play.
[00:34:12]  When Ben Franklin once cautioned him about the same thing, Braddock scoffed.
[00:34:16]  These savages may be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they would make any impression.
[00:34:30]  By June, Braddock's army, 3,000 men, cannons, and a wagon train crawled west through the dense forest.
[00:34:38]  Washington, meanwhile, was laid up with dysentery again, a debilitating gut infection that left him feverish, weak, and in agony.
[00:34:46]  Doctors bled him as part of their so called treatment, which only weakened him more.
[00:34:52]  He traveled laying down in a covered wagon, barely able to sit up, miserable as it jolted along the uneven terrain.
[00:35:00]  In early July, as the army approached Fort Duquesne, Washington finally rejoined Braddock and the troops, though he was still weak and in considerable pain.
[00:35:11]  The next morning, the forest erupted.
[00:35:16]  Indian war whoops pierced the air and musket fire ripped through the British ranks.
[00:35:21]  About the shrill Indian war cries, one British soldier said, The terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my disillusionment.
[00:35:30]  French soldiers and their Indian allies swarmed from the trees.
[00:35:34]  The redcoats froze, panicked, shot at shadows.
[00:35:38]  Officers shouted, but many were cut down instantly, picked off one after another.
[00:35:44]  It was the frantic scene with which we began this episode.
[00:35:48]  Braddock ordering 30 soldiers to take some higher ground, and all 30 of them mowed down by their own side in confusion.
[00:35:56]  Braddock takes a bullet in the arm, which pierced his lung.
[00:35:59]  Washington loaded Braddock on the cart and moved him back from the battle.
[00:36:04]  Then Washington mounted his horse and rode into the chaos, bullets whizzing by.
[00:36:10]  He galloped from unit to unit, carrying Braddock's orders, trying to rally the men who were already breaking and fleeing.
[00:36:17]  His horse was shot out from underneath him.
[00:36:19]  He climbed onto a second, then a third.
[00:36:21]  A bullet knocked off his hat.
[00:36:23]  He still rode.
[00:36:24]  He still fought.
[00:36:25]  Braddock ordered Washington to call up supplies and wagons from a unit 40 miles away to assist the hundreds of wounded and dying British troops.
[00:36:34]  Washington had been riding all day, but he now rode all night to relay the message.
[00:36:39]  When the smoke cleared, out of 1,400 British troops, 977 lay dead or wounded.
[00:36:47]  Among the French and Indians were 23 dead.
[00:36:50]  And 16 wounded.
[00:36:52]  It was another massacre.
[00:36:56]  Washington's coat was littered with bullet holes, four of them clean through, but somehow he wasn't touched, not a scratch.
[00:37:08]  Because of Lawrence's influence, Washington had always admired the British Army as the gold standard in the world.
[00:37:15]  But what he witnessed in the Pennsylvania wilderness that day shattered this image.
[00:37:21]  Here's how he described the battle in writing to Governor Dinwiddie.
[00:37:24]  The Virginians behaved like men and died like soldiers.
[00:37:29]  The dastardly behavior of the English soldiers exposed all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death.
[00:37:37]  At length, in spite of every effort to the contrary, they broke and ran as sheep before the hounds.
[00:37:45]  And when we endeavored to rally them in hopes of regaining our invaluable loss, it was with as much success.
[00:37:52]  As if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of the mountains.
[00:37:58]  Three days later, General Braddock died from his gunshot wound.
[00:38:05]  Washington officiated the torchlight funeral, reading scripture, then ordering the wagons back and forth over the grave to help hide its location from the enemy.
[00:38:16]  Word traveled fast to Virginia about how their native son performed in the heat of battle.
[00:38:21]  Out of 70 mounted British officers in the battle, Washington alone survived unscathed.
[00:38:28]  One survivor said, I expected every moment to see him fall.
[00:38:32]  His duty and station exposed him to every danger.
[00:38:35]  Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him.
[00:38:41]  Despite his lopsided losses on the battlefield, the legend of Washington's invincibility started to grow.
[00:38:49]  Not long after Braddock's defeat while preaching in Hanover County, Virginia, the Reverend Samuel Davies declared, I beg leave to point the attention of the public to that heroic youth.
[00:38:58]  Colonel George Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved for some great service to his country.
[00:39:04]  Prophetic words that lingered in the air.
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=== Mason's Plan for Resistance (06:53) ===

[00:40:13]  For more of the history that inspired this podcast series, be sure to read The American Story The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.
[00:40:22]  Available now at wallbuilders.com.
[00:40:30]  In 1755, shortly after General Braddock's catastrophic defeat near Fort Duquesne, Virginia's assembly increased funds to help defend its western border from Indian attacks.
[00:40:41]  Governor Dinwiddie named George Washington commander of all Virginia forces.
[00:40:47]  Washington now was just 23.
[00:40:50]  He had no formal schooling and strategy, no European battle experience, but he had what mattered most in Virginia at that moment the reputation of a man who kept his head while everyone else was losing theirs.
[00:41:03]  Washington threw himself into the job.
[00:41:05]  He drilled his men, he scrounged supplies, he built forts along the frontier.
[00:41:10]  But frontier security was misery endless skirmishes, burnt farms, constant shortages.
[00:41:17]  He wrote bitterly about the dastardly behavior of Undisciplined recruits and the stinginess of the House of Burgesses.
[00:41:25]  At times, he was so frustrated he nearly resigned.
[00:41:31]  Three years into this job, 1758, Washington was on military leave when he started courting Martha Dandridge Custis.
[00:41:41]  She was a wealthy widow whose husband had died the previous year.
[00:41:44]  She was 26 years old.
[00:41:46]  She had lost two children in infancy and was raising a four year old son, Jackie, and a two year old daughter.
[00:41:52]  Patsy.
[00:41:53]  They lived in a grand estate, ironically called the White House.
[00:41:59]  Washington was smitten with Martha.
[00:42:03]  But while he inched towards marriage and settling down, the French and Indian War beckoned one more time.
[00:42:10]  British General John Forbes had arrived with another large force to try again to take Fort Duquesne.
[00:42:18]  General Forbes named Washington to lead the brigade in the attack on the fort.
[00:42:23]  Washington was the only colonial officer to get such an honor.
[00:42:26]  He hoped to redeem the previous battle losses he'd experienced.
[00:42:30]  But as the British force drew closer to their target, smoke billowed from Fort Duquesne.
[00:42:36]  Indians had split from the French allies, and the French, feeling they didn't have adequate forces to defend the fort, set it on fire and fled down the Ohio River.
[00:42:45]  The British took the charred ruins and renamed it Fort Pitt, after William Pitt, a leader in Parliament who later became Prime Minister.
[00:42:54]  The war in the Ohio Valley was effectively over.
[00:43:02]  After five grueling years in uniform, Washington resigned his commission in December of 1758.
[00:43:10]  Now 26 years old, he was ready to start a new, more peaceful life with Martha and her children.
[00:43:18]  His five years in the military had been a thorough dress rehearsal.
[00:43:24]  He had learned the importance of discipline, the danger of arrogance, and the weakness of British troops when fighting by European rules in American forests.
[00:43:33]  He now had vital first hand knowledge to draw on much later, a vision for how a ramshackle colonial militia just might be able to foil the world's most powerful military.
[00:43:45]  He didn't know it yet, but he had just trained for the Revolutionary War.
[00:43:53]  George married Martha on January 6, 1759, at her White House estate.
[00:43:59]  Two years later, his brother Lawrence's widow died, making George the full owner of.
[00:44:03]  Of Mount Vernon.
[00:44:05]  He spent the next 14 years focusing on his family and business at Mount Vernon until his country, more than just Virginia this time, called on his leadership again.
[00:44:18]  That circumstance was a result of a domino effect reaching back to the French and Indian War.
[00:44:24]  The British eventually won that war.
[00:44:26]  In 1763, a peace treaty awarded them all the land east of the Mississippi River except New Orleans.
[00:44:33]  Former Indian allies of the French were despondent about the treaty.
[00:44:37]  Their territories were ceded to Britain without their permission.
[00:44:41]  For Great Britain, the financial cost of this seven year war was staggering.
[00:44:45]  The empire was drowning in debt.
[00:44:48]  Annual interest payments took up over half the national budget, so the British Parliament decided the American colonies should help pay.
[00:44:57]  First came the Stamp Act of 1765, taxes on items including paper, legal documents, and newspapers.
[00:45:05]  The colonies resisted.
[00:45:07]  This is when no taxation without representation.
[00:45:11]  Became a familiar phrase.
[00:45:13]  Parliament ultimately repealed the Act, but added the Declatory Act, stating that Parliament had full power to make laws binding the colonies, quote, in all cases whatsoever, end quote.
[00:45:27]  Britain proved it meant business in 1767 with the Townshend Act, taxes on commonly imported goods, including glass and paint and tea.
[00:45:38]  George Washington was fed up.
[00:45:39]  Several boycott associations sprang up in the colonies, and he received information.
[00:45:44]  In the mail about plans for one in Virginia.
[00:45:48]  He shared the plan with his neighbor and close friend George Mason.
[00:45:52]  Turns out Mason was the one who wrote the plan.
[00:45:55]  In a significant step for Washington, he believed now was the time to take action, writing At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors.
[00:46:18]  By then, Washington had been elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
[00:46:22]  So, in their next session, he presented Mason's boycott plan to the members, which included a lanky, red haired 26 year old named Thomas Jefferson.
[00:46:33]  The new royal governor of Virginia did not like this seditious proposal, so he dissolved the House session.
[00:46:39]  Undeterred, Washington and other members continued their organizing in Williamsburg in a tavern.
[00:46:45]  They signed an agreement to boycott all British goods subject to taxes in America.
[00:46:51]  They even added a list of British goods that were not taxed, so they could boycott those as well.
[00:46:57]  Washington, the once loyal British officer, had turned a corner into resistance leadership.

=== Organizing the Boycott (03:37) ===

[00:47:06]  One year later, in 1770, Washington is in his element.
[00:47:12]  He's in the quiet hills of western Virginia with a small group of friends, exploring the land they had acquired as investments.
[00:47:20]  It's the end of a long day.
[00:47:21]  The campfire is finally roaring, and the men are laughing.
[00:47:24]  As they prepare dinner.
[00:47:26]  Suddenly, a group of Indians approach.
[00:47:29]  One of them introduces the oldest man in his party as a grand sachem who insisted on visiting when he heard Colonel Washington was in the area.
[00:47:39]  Washington invited the men to join them around the fire, though the elder Indian abstains from the drinks that are offered.
[00:47:46]  This man says he was there, outside Fort Duquesne, where General Braddock's men were slaughtered.
[00:47:53]  He says he saw Washington's bullet proof gallops through the eye.
[00:47:58]  Of the battle storm.
[00:47:59]  I am a chief and the ruler over many tribes.
[00:48:03]  I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle.
[00:48:10]  It was on the day when the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest that I first beheld this chief.
[00:48:18]  I called to my young men and said, Mark yon, tall and daring warrior, he is not of the Redcoat tribe, he hath an Indian's wisdom and his warriors fight as we do.
[00:48:31]  Himself alone exposed.
[00:48:34]  Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies.
[00:48:37]  Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss.
[00:48:44]  Twas all in vain.
[00:48:45]  A power mightier far than we shielded him from harm.
[00:48:50]  He cannot die in battle.
[00:48:52]  I am old and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades.
[00:49:01]  But ere I go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy.
[00:49:06]  Listen.
[00:49:08]  The Great Spirit protects that man and guides his destinies.
[00:49:13]  He will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.
[00:49:21]  One of the men in Washington's party that night was his close friend and personal physician, Dr. James Crake, who would serve Washington throughout the Revolutionary War.
[00:49:32]  The old Indian's words made a lasting impression on Dr. Craig.
[00:49:37]  During the Revolution, he told a group of officers Gentlemen, recollect what I have often told you of the old Indian's prophecy.
[00:49:47]  Yes, I do believe a great spirit protects that man, and that one day or other, honored and beloved, he will be the chief of our nation, as he is now our general, our father, and our friend.
[00:50:05]  Never mind the enemy.
[00:50:07]  They cannot kill him.
[00:50:09]  And while he lives, our cause will never die.
[00:50:15]  That cause still seemed a long way off in 1770, as the old Indian's words hung in the air with the embers of Washington's campfire.
[00:50:25]  But 700 miles northeast, in Boston, a fuse had been lit.
[00:50:32]  I was about to change everything.
[00:50:38]  Coming up on the American story The Beginnings.

=== Boston Fuse Lit (01:55) ===

[00:50:44]  Suddenly, there's pounding on a door.
[00:50:45]  Samuel's head snaps towards the sound.
[00:50:47]  The club members fall silent as they exchange tense glances.
[00:50:51]  The door swings open, revealing a panting messenger, his breath visible in the cold draft that's now rushing in, his face etched with urgency.
[00:51:00]  He blurts something out about King Street, shots fired, and blood spilled.
[00:51:04]  Without hesitation, the men pour out into the biting winter darkness.
[00:51:08]  Snow crunches under their boots as they race through the narrow, moonlit alleys, the ominous clanging bells drawing more people from their homes.
[00:51:17]  The wind whips at their coats, carrying distant shouts that now grow louder and louder.
[00:51:22]  chaotic with each step.
[00:51:24]  They turn a corner and collide with pandemonium, a hysterical mob surging like an ocean wave, bodies pressed together in a frenzy of rage and confusion.
[00:51:34]  Cries of murder pierce the frigid air.
[00:51:37]  Samuel and his companions push forward, elbows and shoulders forcing a path through the throng, hearts pounding with a mix of dread and determination.
[00:51:45]  Finally, they break through the front where the horror unfolds before them.
[00:51:50]  Three bodies lie sprawled in the pristine white snow.
[00:51:55]  Limbs twisted unnaturally, crimson blood pooling outward in a stark, spreading stain.
[00:52:02]  The crowd wails and thrusts their accusing fingers at a line of red-coated British soldiers standing frozen, their faces pale.
[00:52:11]  Sam Adams stands there, the scene searing his soul.
[00:52:15]  This isn't a mere brawl or accident.
[00:52:17]  This is the ignition point, the moment when simmering tensions explode into something irreversible.
[00:52:32]  Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.