ng in temper and
discretion, was certainly, according to the standard of the school in
which he had been educated, an accomplished officer; and whose courage
and honesty are not to be discussed. The uttermost penalty that humanity
could exact he paid for his errors; and if his misfortune brought death
and woe upon his country, it was through no shrinking on his part from
what he conceived to be his duty. He shared the lot of the humblest man
who fell by his side.

So terminated the bloody battle of the Monongahela; a scene of carnage
which has been truly described as unexampled in the annals of modern
warfare. Of the 1460 souls, officers and privates, who went into the
combat, 456 were slain outright and 421 were wounded; making a total of
877 men. Of 89 commissioned officers, 63 were killed or wounded; not a
solitary field-officer escaping unhurt.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

"FORT CUMBERLAND, 18 July, 1755.
"_To Governor Dinwiddie_:

"HONBL. SIR--As I am favored with an opportunity, I should think myself
inexcusable was I to omit giving you some account of our late
Engagement with the French on the Monongahela, the 9th instant.

"We continued our march from Fort Cumberland to Frazier's (which is
within 7 miles of Duquesne) without meeting any extraordinary event,
having only a straggler or two picked up by the French Indians. When we
came to this place, we were attacked (very unexpectedly) by about three
hundred French and Indians. Our numbers consisted of about thirteen
hundred well-armed men, chiefly Regulars, who were immediately struck
with such an inconceivable panick that nothing but confusion and
disobedience of orders prevailed among them. The officers, in general,
behaved with incomparable bravery, for which they greatly suffered,
there being near sixty killed and wounded--a large proportion, out of
the number we had!

"The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers; for I
believe out of three companies that were on the ground that day scarce
thirty were left alive. Capt. Peyroney and all his officers, down to a
corporal, were killed; Captn. Polson had almost as hard a fate, for
only one of his escaped. In short, the dastardly behavior of the
Regular troops (so called)[37] exposed those who were inclined to do
their duty to almost certain death, and, at length, in despite of every
effort to the cont