, and fired
into the fort till Washington had to surrender. This took place on July
4, 1754, just twenty-two years before the American Declaration of
Independence. Washington and his men were allowed to march home with
their arms, and the young colonel was very much praised when he got
home, for everybody thought he had done his work in the best possible
way.

When the news of this battle crossed the ocean there was great
excitement in England and France, and both countries sent soldiers to
America. Those from England were under a general named Braddock, a man
who knew all about fighting in England, but knew nothing about fighting
in America. And what was worse, he would let nobody tell him. Washington
generously tried to do so, but he got snubbed by the proud British
general for his pains.

After a while away marched General Braddock, with his British soldiers
in their fine red coats. Washington went with him with a body of
Virginians dressed in plain colony clothes. On and on they went, through
the woods and over the mountains, cutting down trees and opening a road
for their wagons, and bravely beating their drums and waving their
flags. At length they came near Fort Duquesne, the drums still beating,
the flags still flying, the gun barrels glittering in the bright
sunshine.

"Let me go ahead with my Virginians," said Washington. "They know all
about Indian fighting."

"That for your Indians!" said Braddock, snapping his fingers. "They will
not stay in their hiding places long when my men come up."

Soon after they came into a narrow place, with steep banks and thick
bushes all around. And suddenly loud Indian war-whoops and the crack of
guns came from those bushes. Not a man could be seen, but bullets flew
like hail-stones among the red-coats. The soldiers fired back, but they
wasted their bullets on the bushes. Washington and his men ran into the
woods and got behind trees like the Indians, but Braddock would not let
his men do the same, and they were shot down like sheep. At length
General Braddock fell wounded, and then his brave red-coats turned and
ran for their lives. Very likely not a man of them would have got away
if Washington and his men had not kept back the French and Indians.

This defeat was a bad business for the poor settlers, for the savage
redskins began murdering them on all sides, and during all the rest of
the war Washington was kept busy fighting with these Indians. Not till
four years