ngton's advice.

But Braddock would not listen to it. They must keep in order and fight
as they had been trained to fight.

Washington rode hither and thither trying his best to save the day. Two
horses were shot under him; four bullets passed through his coat; and
still he was unhurt. The Indians thought that he bore a charmed life,
for none of them could hit him.

It was a dreadful affair--more like a slaughter than a battle. Seven
hundred of Braddock's fine soldiers, and more than half of his officers,
were killed or wounded. And all this havoc was made by two hundred
Frenchmen and about six hundred Indians hidden among the trees.

At last Braddock gave the order to retreat. It soon became a wild flight
rather than a retreat; and yet, had it not been for Washington, it would
have been much worse.

The General himself had been fatally wounded. There was no one but
Washington who could restore courage to the frightened men, and lead
them safely from the place of defeat.

Four days after the battle General Braddock died, and the remnant of the
army being now led by a Colonel Dunbar, hurried back to the eastern
settlements.

Of all the men who took part in that unfortunate expedition against the
French, there was only one who gained any renown therefrom, and that one
was Colonel George Washington.

He went back to Mount Vernon, wishing never to be sent to the Ohio
Country again.

The people of Virginia were so fearful lest the French and Indians
should follow up their victory and attack the settlements, that they
quickly raised a regiment of a thousand men to defend their colony. And
so highly did they esteem Colonel Washington that they made him
commander of all the forces of the colony, to do with them as he might
deem best.

The war with the French for the possession of the Ohio Country and the
valley of the Mississippi, had now fairly begun. It would be more than
seven years before it came to an end.

But most of the fighting was done at the north--in New York and Canada;
and so Washington and his Virginian soldiers did not distinguish
themselves in any very great enterprise.

It was for them to keep watch of the western frontier of the colony lest
the Indians should cross the mountains and attack the settlements.

Once, near the middle of the war, Washington led a company into the very
country where he had once traveled on foot with Christopher Gist.

The French had built a fort at the place where