The Glenn Beck Program - Young George Washington： The War that Forged a Leader ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 4

00:00:00.000 It's July, 1755, the wilderness of western Pennsylvania.

00:00:16.440 Not far from Fort Duquesne, a French stronghold that is key to colonial dominance.

00:00:23.640 British General Edward Braddock rushes on horseback toward complete chaos, and his side

00:00:29.320 rides a lanky young Virginian, somebody nobody knows yet. George Washington, his face set in

00:00:36.780 grim determination, heart pounding beneath his stifling uniform, and the air hangs heavy with

00:00:42.800 a scent of gunpowder and damp summer earth. The woods ahead teemed with violence. They weave

00:00:49.680 through the horde of panicked soldiers in red uniforms, fleeing toward them, sweat-drenched

00:00:55.020 faces covered in terror. General Braddock, iron-willed and unyielding, rages at his troops

00:01:01.940 to form lines and re-engage. French troops and their Indian allies, masters of guerrilla warfare,

00:01:08.940 melt into the trees like phantoms, their shots tearing through the British ranks with ease.

00:01:15.000 Washington squints through the smoke, trying to make sense of the scene. Musket balls zip out of 0.52

00:01:20.380 nowhere, bludgeoning men all around him. Officers are struck from their horses, limp bodies dragged

00:01:26.160 across the forest floor, limbs still caught in stirrups. General Braddock waves his sword,

00:01:32.340 growling at 30 men to scramble up a hillside. But in the blind haze of battle, some troops panic,

00:01:39.120 mistaking their own men for foes and turn their fire toward the hill. Some officers think the

00:01:45.560 Redcoats on the hill are deserters and open fire.

00:01:48.640 Braddock's voice is overwhelmed by the din of war.

00:01:51.760 British bullets mix with those

00:01:53.460 from seemingly invisible enemies,

00:01:55.800 slicing through the smoke with brutal efficiency.

00:01:59.480 Within seconds, all 30 troops on the hill are dead.

00:02:06.600 A bullet finds General Braddock

00:02:08.880 ripping through his arm and into his chest.

00:02:11.400 He crumples to the ground, blood soaking his coat.

00:02:14.380 Washington wheels around and dismounts,

00:02:16.340 kneeling beside Braddock.

00:02:18.500 Washington feels lightheaded,

00:02:20.540 his own body severely depleted.

00:02:23.060 He's in excruciating pain

00:02:24.640 from weeks-long battle with dysentery,

00:02:27.340 and he tries to make out Braddock's words.

00:02:30.380 Then, with swift determination,

00:02:32.320 he swings back onto his horse,

00:02:33.940 no time to register the pain coursing through him

00:02:36.760 as he settles into the saddle.

00:02:38.680 The air is still thick with smoke and bullets,

00:02:41.500 and Washington is a tall, easy target.

00:02:44.680 He draws his sword, charging ahead into the maelstrom.

00:02:50.860 A bullet then rips through his coat,

00:02:52.840 yet somehow fails to graze him.

00:02:55.720 He is at home on horseback,

00:02:57.900 and there is a strange calm about him

00:02:59.800 in this wicked battle storm.

00:03:02.460 George Washington is now 23 years old.

00:03:05.500 He's in a war that will reshape empires,

00:03:08.440 a war that is also a forge,

00:03:10.760 shaping him for the destiny he cannot imagine.

00:03:19.100 This is the American story, The Beginnings,

00:03:22.940 adapted from the book of the same title

00:03:25.380 by David Barton and Tim Barton.

00:03:29.400 Episode four, Young George Washington,

00:03:32.840 The War That Forged a Leader. 0.97

00:03:38.920 Mary Ball was a devout Christian, strong-willed, mostly uneducated, resilient.

00:03:46.160 She had been orphaned at the age of 12 in an unforgiving world of colonial Virginia with its strict class structure.

00:03:54.240 Mary could have just been another forgotten casualty of that era's harsh realities, disease, isolation,

00:04:00.560 and the constant threat of poverty looming large for a girl without parents.

00:04:06.340 Instead, George Eskridge intervened.

00:04:09.220 He was a compassionate family friend who took her in.

00:04:12.440 Eskridge treated her like one of his own,

00:04:14.740 offering shelter, guidance, and perhaps even a semblance of family warmth.

00:04:19.260 This act of kindness left an indelible mark on Mary.

00:04:23.540 It's also likely that Eskridge played Cupid,

00:04:27.600 introducing a 22-year-old Mary to Augustine Washington.

00:04:32.120 He was a 37-year-old widower looking to rebuild his life after losing his first wife.

00:04:37.440 And he was a man on the move, a land speculator, an ironworks owner.

00:04:41.900 He was always eyeing the next opportunity in Virginia's expanding wilderness.

00:04:47.740 Mary and Augustine's marriage in 1731 was not a fairytale romance.

00:04:51.680 It was practical, a union of necessity in a frontier society where survival often depended on such partnerships.

00:05:00.060 Augustine brought three young children into the mix,

00:05:03.320 sons Lawrence and Augustine Jr., and a daughter named Jane.

00:05:09.460 Into this bustling family arrived George Washington in the winter of 1732.

00:05:15.320 He was the first of Mary and Augustine's six children.

00:05:19.120 Mary named him after George Eskridge, honoring the man who had been her lifeline.

00:05:25.400 George Washington's older half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine Jr., were at school in England during his early years.

00:05:32.520 When George was six years old, Lawrence returned from England at the age of 20.

00:05:36.640 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.

00:05:45.160 But just a year later, Lawrence embarked on an adventure in the Caribbean.

00:05:49.920 He joined the British military under Admiral Edward Vernon.

00:05:54.140 He experienced some combat in a brief but intense clash with Spain.

00:06:00.180 Lawrence's service was short, but it left him with a deep admiration for Admiral Vernon,

00:06:06.700 so much so that he renamed the family estate Mount Vernon in his honor.

00:06:13.580 He even hung a portrait of the Admiral in the main house that captivated the young George

00:06:18.600 with tales of battle and heroism in exotic places.

00:06:23.960 An enormous blow rocked the Washington family when George's father, Augustine, died in 1743 at the age of 49.

00:06:32.660 Lawrence inherited Mount Vernon.

00:06:35.020 11-year-old George inherited a new world of responsibility, helping care for his siblings and the family farm.

00:06:42.380 His father's death changed George's direction, especially his education. 0.68

00:06:47.800 There would be no boarding school in England, none of that European polish that was revered in the colonies.

00:06:54.220 But that early disparity planted seeds of determination in George, fueling his drive to prove himself.

00:07:01.100 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.

00:07:11.000 Yet his boyhood drive is evident in the 200-plus pages of school exercises

00:07:18.400 that are found in the files he left behind.

00:07:21.760 Page after page of geometry lessons, measurements, currency conversions.

00:07:27.040 As a kid, he even transcribed legal documents for things like land patents and leases.

00:07:32.460 He absorbed all manner of practical knowledge.

00:07:36.320 In 1807, an early Washington biographer described young George as,

00:07:41.000 grave, silent, and thoughtful. Diligent and methodical in business, dignified in his appearance

00:07:47.800 and strictly honorable in his deportment. But George wasn't all business and no play.

00:07:54.900 He loved swimming in the deep water of the Rappahannock River. Hunting was a passion,

00:08:00.400 honing his marksmanship and patience. Horse riding came naturally to him. Future peers would rave

00:08:06.660 about his equestrian skills.

00:08:09.020 He took fencing and dancing classes.

00:08:11.360 He enjoyed billiards, cockfights, and horse races.

00:08:15.280 Still, life was far from a breeze.

00:08:19.080 Unlike most widows in frontier Virginia,

00:08:21.680 George's mother never remarried.

00:08:24.480 That decision shaped him profoundly.

00:08:28.040 Imagine this household,

00:08:29.220 a headstrong, deeply pious mother

00:08:31.480 raising six children on her own.

00:08:33.940 Mary and George developed a strained relationship in this stressful environment.

00:08:39.380 One contemporary wrote that George treated his mother, quote,

00:08:42.560 with frigid deference.

00:08:44.600 Later, George signed his letters to her, not love, but, quote,

00:08:48.540 your most dutiful and obedient son.

00:08:51.780 After their father's death, Lawrence became the most important influence in George's young life.

00:08:57.380 Lawrence was well-traveled, he was charming, outgoing, and George revered him.

00:09:03.400 George was 11 when Lawrence married Anne Fairfax in 1743.

00:09:08.120 The Fairfax family was rich, powerful, and lived in an opulent estate just four miles

00:09:14.040 down the Potomac River from Mount Vernon. Through the Fairfaxes, George glimpsed a whole new world

00:09:19.720 of wealth and elegance, fox hunts, and political influence. He was all in. The head of the family,

00:09:27.320 Colonel William Fairfax, took George under his wing. Since Lawrence and Anne lost four

00:09:32.520 children as infants, they doted on George. He stayed with them at Mount Vernon as often as his

00:09:39.040 mother allowed. George's drive to equip himself for acceptance in this upper-class world was

00:09:45.220 evident in something he did as a teenager. He hand-copied 110 rules from the etiquette manual

00:09:51.460 called Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. Some are actually

00:09:58.360 be pretty funny, like,

00:09:59.900 Be do no man's face with your spittle by approaching too near him when you speak.

00:10:04.180 Others are more timeless and practical.

00:10:06.840 Do not express joy before one sick or in pain,

00:10:09.920 for that contrary passion will aggravate his misery.

00:10:13.640 Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.

00:10:18.580 Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation,

00:10:22.880 for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

00:10:28.360 When George was 14, Lawrence and Colonel Fairfax encouraged him to join the British Royal Navy.

00:10:34.740 A promising start, maybe, to a naval career.

00:10:38.780 But Mary, his mom, gave an emphatic no.

00:10:42.880 She did not want her oldest son vanishing overseas.

00:10:46.700 So George pivoted to become a land surveyor.

00:10:50.200 His father had left a complete set of surveying instruments, and it turned out to be perfect for George.

00:10:56.100 Surveying wasn't just about measuring land, it was about power.

00:11:01.280 Land meant wealth, and surveyors often got first pick of prime properties.

00:11:08.100 When George was 16, George got his first paying gig.

00:11:12.220 He was part of an expedition to measure the Fairfax family's land holdings in the rugged Shenandoah Valley.

00:11:17.880 He kept a diary throughout the job that he titled, A Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains.

00:11:24.460 He loved it.

00:11:25.820 He loved the outdoors, the challenge, the independence.

00:11:29.020 And by age 18, he had earned enough money as a surveyor to buy land for himself.

00:11:34.380 By the age 20, he owned more than 2,300 acres.

00:11:38.760 As one historian described it, quote,

00:11:40.700 Lawrence Washington, who by then was a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses,

00:11:51.540 had to leave the post because of a terrible hacking cough.

00:11:55.580 It, unfortunately, was tuberculosis.

00:11:59.640 Lawrence tried everything to find a cure, but nothing worked.

00:12:03.660 Doctors told him the tropical air of Barbados might help,

00:12:06.560 so he invited 19-year-old George to go with him.

00:12:10.220 It was the only time George ever traveled outside of America.

00:12:15.020 George reveled in island life at first.

00:12:17.420 Pristine beaches, the culture, dinner tables piled high with fruits

00:12:21.160 that he had never tasted before.

00:12:23.520 But then smallpox brought the extended holiday to a screeching halt.

00:12:29.180 Waylaid by fever, headaches, and a red-spotted rash,

00:12:33.240 George was confined to bed for over three weeks.

00:12:36.080 It was his first brush with death, yet he recovered.

00:12:39.740 And it was providential, because the illness gave him immunity

00:12:43.900 to the most feared disease of the 1700s,

00:12:47.560 A disease that would later ravage American and British troops during the Revolutionary War.

00:12:54.380 After George recovered from smallpox, he sailed back to Virginia without Lawrence, who was not improving.

00:13:01.280 George resumed his surveying jobs.

00:13:03.240 Lawrence tried a stint in Bermuda, but it wasn't enough.

00:13:06.860 He eventually made it back to Mount Vernon, where he died at the age of 34.

00:13:13.100 George, as you can imagine, was devastated.

00:13:15.560 it was like losing his father all over again. Lawrence was his role model, mentor, friend,

00:13:21.980 his escape. The loss of Lawrence was a major turning point in the life of George Washington.

00:13:28.900 He was determined to follow in Lawrence's footsteps. It was what they had talked and

00:13:33.400 dreamed about together in the glow of the fireplace on so many nights. George had decided

00:13:38.960 he would become something more. He laid down his surveying tools and he picked up a sword.

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00:14:52.000 When Lawrence died, George inherited Lawrence's ambitions, which meant the military. At the time,

00:14:58.680 Virginia was divided into four districts for militia purposes, each one led by an adjutant.

00:15:05.500 Lawrence was district adjutant when he died, and George lobbied to take over that position.

00:15:11.540 Against the odds, the lobby effort worked. In 1753, at just 21 years old and with zero

00:15:18.800 military experience, George was sworn in as Major Washington. The job paid 100 pounds a year

00:15:26.140 and gave him a taste of the military life his late brother had encouraged him to pursue.

00:15:31.500 Just six months into George's new role,

00:15:34.040 Virginia's British appointed governor, Robert Dinwiddie, received orders from London. 0.69

00:15:41.320 The French had been creeping into the Ohio Valley.

00:15:44.640 They were building forts on land claimed by Britain.

00:15:48.260 Dinwiddie was told to send somebody west,

00:15:51.060 demand that the French withdraw, and if they refused, to drive them out by force.

00:15:56.140 Well, who do you think volunteered? Young George Washington. He rode urgently to Williamsburg,

00:16:03.340 which was then the capital of Virginia, and offered his services. A 21-year-old with no

00:16:08.800 combat experience, no command record, and no French language skill. But he was ambitious,

00:16:14.900 and he was burning to prove himself. On paper, at least, it seemed like a terrible idea to send a

00:16:22.340 college-age kid with no experience into the wilderness on such an important diplomatic

00:16:27.160 mission, but the governor signed off on it. Washington set off on the journey that same day.

00:16:35.840 The route to the French outpost, Fort Leboeuf, which was near Lake Erie in Pennsylvania,

00:16:41.400 was 500 miles of wilderness. Washington gathered a small quirky crew on his way.

00:16:48.040 Jacob van Brom, a Dutch swordsman who had been Georgia's fencing instructor

00:16:52.860 and who also could translate French.

00:16:56.340 Christopher Gist, he was a seasoned backwoods guide.

00:17:00.160 And four Indian traders. 0.99

00:17:02.600 They trudged westward in the frozen nightmare.

00:17:06.280 Washington was still green, but he watched, he learned,

00:17:09.160 and he absorbed from every experience and every interaction on the grueling journey.

00:17:14.860 They met with Indian leaders on their way,

00:17:17.200 gleaning information about the French activity in the region.

00:17:20.340 In fact, that night, Washington wrote in his journal,

00:17:23.540 The Indians are mercenary.

00:17:25.080 Every service of theirs must be purchased, 1.00

00:17:27.260 and they are easily offended,

00:17:28.860 being thoroughly sensible of their own importance.

00:17:31.580 It was a crucial lesson that he would fail to remember later in the journey.

00:17:37.280 After six weeks in the wilderness, on December 11th,

00:17:40.320 the small party arrived at Fort LaBeouf.

00:17:44.020 The French commander at the fort received Washington politely, offering him wine and dinner.

00:17:49.320 But he also flatly refused the British demand that the French leave.

00:17:53.500 The French commander scribbled his reply to Dinwiddie's ultimatum.

00:17:57.400 He handed it back to Washington with the cockiness of a man who knew he had a bigger army in North America.

00:18:04.440 Washington, who was eager to prove himself to Governor Dinwiddie,

00:18:08.100 and the British military leaders who would scrutinize the 21-year-old's every move on his mission,

00:18:13.060 So, once Washington has the French commander's reply in hand, he immediately starts the return

00:18:19.380 trip to Williamsburg.

00:18:21.240 But this is in the middle of December.

00:18:23.980 Northwestern Pennsylvania is a frozen tundra.

00:18:27.240 The party's horses struggle in the snow and the ice and the extreme temperatures.

00:18:32.000 Washington ignores warnings that the winter trails are impassable, and he sets out on

00:18:37.700 foot with Christopher Gist.

00:18:40.220 Shortly into their punishing trek, they picked up the services of an Indian guide

00:18:45.300 who promises to lead them the fastest way through the vast Pennsylvania wilderness.

00:18:50.820 Gist does not trust this guide, but Washington is so exhausted at this point 0.85

00:18:54.980 that he allows the Indian to carry his backpack. 0.65

00:18:58.080 The men venture into an open meadow,

00:19:00.760 where the winter sun is offering the blinding glare off the thick layer of snow and ice,

00:19:05.440 when suddenly, without warning, the Indian guide dashes several yards ahead of Washington and Gist.

00:19:11.860 He spins toward them with a musket raised and fires.

00:19:16.360 Somehow, the shot misses them.

00:19:19.040 Washington and Gist instantly charge the assassin and tackle him in the packed snow.

00:19:23.900 They wrestle the musket away from the Indian.

00:19:26.020 Gist aims his own musket at the man and is about to pull the trigger when Washington yells,

00:19:30.740 Stop!

00:19:32.640 He insists they let the man live.

00:19:35.440 They bind the attacker's hands and feet while they figure out what to do.

00:19:40.040 Finally, they determine it will only slow them down to travel with a prisoner,

00:19:44.140 so after dark, they release the Indian, who scrambles into the woods. 0.65

00:19:49.200 Gist gives Washington a bitter tongue lashing.

00:19:51.920 Since Washington wouldn't let him kill the man, he insists,

00:19:54.840 they now have to travel all night in the opposite direction

00:19:57.400 in case the Indian returns with reinforcements. 0.98

00:20:00.140 And that is exactly what they do, 0.94

00:20:02.640 plodding all night through the thick snow in the forest.

00:20:06.620 After two grueling days of hiking, they face another deadly encounter,

00:20:11.940 this time with the Allegheny River.

00:20:14.560 They expect to find it frozen so they could just walk across.

00:20:18.520 Instead, they find a torrent of dark water choked with giant chunks of fast-moving ice.

00:20:24.640 They spend the whole day chopping trees down with one small hatchet just to build a raft.

00:20:31.320 At sunset, they climb aboard the raft and use setting poles to try to maneuver their way across the flowing, ice-clogged water.

00:20:38.600 The raft keeps jamming against the ice packs.

00:20:42.100 Washington leans into his pole, trying to nudge the heavy ice away, just enough to free them.

00:20:48.280 But the strong current knocks him off balance, and he tumbles into the deep ice water, sputtering.

00:20:54.240 He manages to grab onto the raft, and Gist hauls him back on.

00:20:59.020 All of their efforts seemed hopeless, exhausted, numb.

00:21:04.640 The best they can do is reach an island in the middle of the river.

00:21:09.560 There, they manage to build a small fire and spend the most miserable night imaginable,

00:21:15.120 exposed to the elements and their clothes encased in ice.

00:21:19.660 Finally, the morning light reveals their rescue.

00:21:23.340 Enough of the river freezes overnight.

00:21:25.760 Now they're able to inch the rest of their way across the ice on foot.

00:21:30.880 Three weeks later, in January 1754, Washington finally staggers back into Williamsburg

00:21:37.520 and delivers the French response to Governor Dinwiddie.

00:21:41.160 The governor was impressed with Washington's report that included a map of Fort Leboeuf

00:21:46.240 and the details on the French troop's strength.

00:21:50.440 Dinwiddie had Washington's travel journal published as the Journal of Major George Washington.

00:21:56.780 Colonial newspapers from Virginia to Massachusetts printed it.

00:22:00.080 It was even published as a pamphlet in London.

00:22:03.860 Suddenly, this obscure young Virginian was known all across the British Empire.

00:22:10.420 Washington turned 22 on the next month, and he was soon bumped up to Lieutenant Colonel.

00:22:15.920 His new assignment was to lead 150 men back to the Forks of Ohio,

00:22:20.880 the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and build a British fort.

00:22:26.560 Washington marched west again.

00:22:29.180 But before they reached the forks, scouting reports discovered the French had beaten them to it.

00:22:34.180 They had already built Fort Duquesne.

00:22:37.400 Washington had no chance of taking it with his small force,

00:22:40.320 so he camped 40 miles away in an area known as Great Meadows,

00:22:45.160 to wait for reinforcements.

00:22:47.500 In late May, another scouting report brought alarming news.

00:22:52.160 A French detachment was spotted less than 20 miles from Washington's camp.

00:22:56.780 Three days later, another report said the detachment was just seven miles away.

00:23:02.040 Washington made a fateful decision.

00:23:05.160 Instead of sitting tight, he marched his men out into the dead of night to confront them.

00:23:15.160 It was pitch black, pouring rain, Washington's men stumbling single-file through the woods

00:23:24.920 with their Indian allies.

00:23:27.360 At dawn, they discovered the French camp in a little hollow, 35 French soldiers surrounded

00:23:34.360 by trees and rocks.

00:23:37.080 The French scrambled for their weapons, but they were trapped.

00:23:40.580 In 15 minutes, the lopsided skirmish was over.

00:23:44.100 10 French dead, 21 captured, versus one dead and a few wounded on the British side.

00:23:51.300 Washington suddenly lost control of the situation.

00:23:54.600 To his horror, their Indian allies pounced on the wounded French and scalped them. 0.72

00:24:00.520 Lost to history is who fired first.

00:24:04.000 Each side claimed the other side did.

00:24:06.280 One Indian warrior claimed Washington himself fired the first shot.

00:24:09.980 The French insisted that they were victims of an unprovoked attack.

00:24:14.100 that they were simply on a diplomatic mission,

00:24:16.320 carrying a message to warn the British off the land.

00:24:20.120 Complicating things further was that the French envoy was among the dead.

00:24:25.300 Some claimed the envoy was shot in the head

00:24:27.680 while trying to read aloud his diplomatic orders.

00:24:31.680 Washington's first taste of battle was a blurry, bloody incident

00:24:36.660 that remains somewhat hazy even after the musket smoke had cleared.

00:24:40.860 he didn't realize it yet but he had just sparked a major war in a letter to his younger brother

00:24:49.840 jack a short time later washington wrote this about his first ever combat i fortunately escaped

00:24:55.880 without a wound though the right wing where i stood was exposed to and received all the enemy's

00:25:01.420 fire and was the part where the man was killed and the rest wounded i can with truth assure you

00:25:08.000 I heard bullets whistle, and believe me, there was something charming in the sound.

00:25:14.240 Those whistling bullets were the opening shots of the French and Indian War,

00:25:19.540 an international conflict that became known in Europe as the Seven Years' War.

00:25:24.820 As one British politician put it, quote,

00:25:27.260 the volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.

00:25:32.860 And now, Washington was trapped in it, because the French were not going to let their envoy's death go unanswered. 0.63

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00:28:03.880 After the skirmish with the French detachment, Washington knew the French would strike back,

00:28:09.220 so he and his men hacked out a clearing in the Great Meadows and built a crude circular stockade of logs.

00:28:16.220 He called it Fort Necessity.

00:28:19.660 It may have been a necessity, but it was hardly a fort.

00:28:22.940 It was little more than a mud hole, a fence of logs surrounding a tiny log cabin

00:28:28.060 that served as a storage room to keep food and gunpowder dry. 0.90

00:28:32.360 The fencing was barely enough to keep their cattle inside, let alone keep the French out.

00:28:37.460 But young Washington was determined to stand his ground.

00:28:41.500 His Indian allies, however, were determined it was a hopeless cause.

00:28:45.420 They deemed Fort Necessity useless against the French and walked away.

00:28:51.380 Now, alone, running low on supplies, with no reinforcements in sight,

00:28:57.240 Washington had to wonder, are my days numbered?

00:29:02.120 Indeed, French troops were making a beeline for Washington's position,

00:29:05.840 led by a man with a personal vendetta.

00:29:08.880 He was the older brother of the envoy that was killed by Washington's men.

00:29:14.440 They were out for revenge.

00:29:16.880 On the morning of July 3, 1754, the wilderness silence was pierced by the sudden war cries of Indian allies of the French,

00:29:25.800 followed by waves of the crack-thick musket volleys.

00:29:30.720 Washington's men fought back and for several hours put up a stubborn resistance,

00:29:34.980 but they were severely outnumbered and outgunned.

00:29:37.980 The hastily constructed fort provided little protection from the French and Indian onslaught.

00:29:43.980 Then the sky opened up.

00:29:47.980 The British trenches flooded with rain.

00:29:50.980 Their muskets misfired in the downpour.

00:29:52.980 The French and Indian troops sniped at them from the woods, picking them off one by one.

00:29:57.980 Washington's first skirmish with the French could barely be called combat.

00:30:02.980 This was battle, and it was brutal.

00:30:06.980 After fighting all day, 100 of Washington's men, one-third of his troops, were killed or wounded.

00:30:13.440 Bodies piled all around in the mud.

00:30:16.180 Out of spite, the French and Indians slaughtered every British animal, horses, cattle, even the dogs.

00:30:22.620 On the French side, three dead, 17 wounded.

00:30:26.560 It was a one-sided massacre.

00:30:33.580 At dusk, the French signaled they were willing to talk.

00:30:37.820 Jacob von Brom, Washington's translator, shuttled between the lines, relaying terms.

00:30:43.420 Washington and his fellow officers could barely read the document in the flickering lamplight,

00:30:48.120 rain smearing the ink, paper blotted, words smudged.

00:30:52.600 And that is why a fatal mistranslation crept in.

00:30:56.400 The terms of surrender stated that the French attack was in retaliation for the French envoy's death two months earlier.

00:31:03.340 But the French called it an assassination, a loaded word implying murder rather than the neutral combat loss.

00:31:12.640 Around midnight, Washington and his officers signed the document believing the French word meant death or loss.

00:31:19.480 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.

00:31:32.540 They were able to paint the British as aggressors.

00:31:35.960 But Washington always insisted that he never went along with the word assassination.

00:31:41.060 That we were willfully or ignorantly deceived by our interpreter in regard to the word assassination,

00:31:47.660 I do aver and will to my dying moment.

00:31:52.400 The British were permitted to retreat with honors,

00:31:55.300 but the Indians ransacked their bag of seizing Washington's diary.

00:32:00.000 He was mortified when it was published in Paris two years later to jeers and ridicule.

00:32:05.960 The French milked the terms of surrender, branding Washington a murderer of a peaceful envoy,

00:32:11.680 turning his Virginia celebrity into international notoriety.

00:32:16.740 The battle at Fort Necessity, it was a total debacle.

00:32:20.940 Yet glimmers of Washington's potential began to emerge.

00:32:25.920 As historian Ron Chernow describes, it, quote,

00:32:29.100 With unflagging resolution, Washington had kept his composure in battle, even when surrounded by piles of corpses.

00:32:37.600 A born soldier, he was always tenacious and persevering and never settled for halfway measures, end quote.

00:32:46.960 Washington returned to Virginia, stung by defeat.

00:32:51.240 Three months after the Fort Necessity loss, he resigned his military post.

00:32:56.100 He was still only 22.

00:32:58.280 His brother Lawrence's widow remarried and rented Mount Vernon to Washington.

00:33:03.500 He retreated into private life intending to focus on farming the property that he loved so much.

00:33:09.380 But Washington couldn't stay away from the military,

00:33:12.440 especially with Britain gearing up for an all-out war against France.

00:33:16.880 In early 1755, the British sent reinforcements,

00:33:20.560 two regiments, red-coated troops, commanded by a grizzled veteran named General Edward Braddock.

00:33:28.020 His mission? Drive the French from Fort Duquesne.

00:33:32.380 He accepted right away, still drawn by his ambition for British military glory. 0.73

00:33:37.080 His mother traveled to Mount Vernon to plead with him not to go.

00:33:40.860 He listened respectfully, but his mind was made up, telling Mary,

00:33:45.100 The God to whom you commended me, madam, when I set out upon a more perilous errand,

00:33:50.560 defended me from all harm, and I trust he will do so now. Do not you?

00:33:56.840 Once Washington joined General Braddock's staff, he tried warning him about Indian fighting tactics,

00:34:02.380 the ambushes, slipping in and out of the forests. But Braddock was not impressed with colonial

00:34:07.580 officers. He dismissed native tactics as child's play. When Ben Franklin once cautioned him about

00:34:14.440 the same thing. Braddock scoffed. These savages may be a formidable enemy to your raw American

00:34:20.760 militia, but upon the king's regular and disciplined troops, sir. It is impossible

00:34:27.360 they would make any impression. By June, Braddock's army, 3,000 men, cannons, and a wagon train

00:34:35.120 crawled west through the dense forest. Washington, meanwhile, was laid up with dysentery again,

00:34:41.140 a debilitating gut infection that left him feverish, weak, and in agony.

00:34:46.540 Doctors bled him as part of their so-called treatment, which only weakened him more.

00:34:52.660 He traveled laying down in a covered wagon, barely able to sit up,

00:34:56.180 miserable as it jolted along the uneven terrain.

00:34:59.940 In early July, as the army approached Fort Duquesne,

00:35:03.400 Washington finally rejoined Braddock and the troops,

00:35:06.160 though he was still weak and in considerable pain.

00:35:11.140 The next morning, the forest erupted.

00:35:15.900 Indian war whoops pierced the air and musket fire ripped through the British ranks.

00:35:21.800 About the shrill Indian war cries, one British soldier said, quote,

00:35:25.840 the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my disillusion.

00:35:30.380 French soldiers and their Indian allies swarmed from the trees.

00:35:34.000 The Redcoats froze, panicked, shot at shadows.

00:35:38.440 Officers shouted, but many were cut down instantly, picked off, one after another.

00:35:44.280 It was the frantic scene with which we began this episode.

00:35:48.560 Braddock ordering 30 soldiers to take some higher ground,

00:35:51.540 and all 30 of them mowed down by their own side in confusion.

00:35:56.040 Braddock takes a bullet in the arm, which pierced his lung.

00:35:59.840 Washington loaded Braddock on the cart and moved him back from the battle.

00:36:04.100 Then Washington mounted his horse and rode into the chaos,

00:36:07.840 bullets whizzing by. He galloped from unit to unit, carrying Braddock's orders, trying to rally

00:36:14.240 the men who were already breaking and fleeing. His horse was shot out from underneath him. He

00:36:19.280 climbed onto a second, then a third. A bullet knocked off his hat. He still rode. He still

00:36:24.480 fought. Braddock ordered Washington to call up supplies and wagons from a unit 40 miles away

00:36:30.560 to assist the hundreds of wounded and dying British troops. Washington had been riding all

00:36:35.760 day, but he now rode all night to relay the message. When the smoke cleared, out of 1,400

00:36:41.740 British troops, 977 lay dead or wounded. Among the French and Indians were 23 dead and 16 wounded.

00:36:52.520 It was another massacre. Washington's coat was littered with bullet holes. Four of them

00:36:59.900 clean through, but somehow he wasn't touched, not a scratch. Because of Lawrence's influence,

00:37:10.680 Washington had always admired the British Army as the gold standard in the world.

00:37:15.400 But what he witnessed in the Pennsylvania wilderness that day shattered this image.

00:37:21.100 Here's how he described the battle in writing to Governor Dinwiddie.

00:37:23.800 The Virginians behaved like men and died like soldiers.

00:37:28.940 The dastardly behavior of the English soldiers exposed all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death.

00:37:37.620 At length, in spite of every effort to the contrary, they broke and ran as sheep before the hounds.

00:37:45.380 And when we endeavored to rally them in hopes of regaining our invaluable loss,

00:37:49.580 It was with as much success as if we had attempted to have stopped the wild bears of the mountains.

00:37:58.240 Three days later, General Braddock died from his gunshot wound.

00:38:05.240 Washington officiated the Torchlight Funeral, reading scripture,

00:38:09.760 then ordering the wagons back and forth over the grave to help hide its location from the enemy.

00:38:14.780 Word traveled fast to Virginia about how their native son performed in the heat of battle.

00:38:21.220 Out of 70 mounted British officers in the battle, Washington alone survived unscathed.

00:38:28.100 One survivor said, quote,

00:38:29.360 I expected every moment to see him fall. His duty and station exposed him to every danger.

00:38:35.880 Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him.

00:38:41.020 Despite his lopsided losses on the battlefield,

00:38:44.160 the legend of Washington's invincibility started to grow.

00:38:49.060 Not long after Braddock's defeat while preaching in Hanover County, Virginia,

00:38:52.600 the Reverend Samuel Davies declared,

00:38:54.400 I beg leave to point the attention of the public to that heroic youth,

00:38:58.360 Colonel George Washington,

00:39:00.000 whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved for some great service to his country.

00:39:04.620 Prophetic words that lingered in the air.

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00:40:12.780 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, available now at WallBuilders dot com.

00:40:24.940 In 1755, shortly after General Braddock's catastrophic defeat near Fort Duquesne,

00:40:35.980 Virginia's assembly increased funds to help defend its western border from Indian attacks.

00:40:41.560 Governor Dinwiddie named George Washington commander of all Virginia forces.

00:40:47.340 Washington now was just 23. He had no formal schooling and strategy, no European battle

00:40:53.340 experience, but he had what mattered most in Virginia at that moment, the reputation of a man

00:40:58.820 who kept his head while everyone else was losing theirs. Washington threw himself into the job. He

00:41:05.640 drilled his men, he scrounged supplies, he built forts along the frontier. But frontier security

00:41:11.820 was misery. Endless skirmishes, burnt farms, constant shortages. He wrote bitterly about

00:41:18.680 the dastardly behavior of undisciplined recruits and the stinginess of the House of Burgesses.

00:41:25.440 At times, he was so frustrated he nearly resigned.

00:41:31.420 Three years into this job, 1758, Washington was on military leave when he started courting

00:41:37.800 Martha Dandridge Custis. She was a wealthy widow whose husband had died the previous year. She was

00:41:44.940 26 years old, she had lost two children in infancy and was raising a four-year-old son,

00:41:50.740 Jackie, and a two-year-old daughter, Patsy. They lived in a grand estate, ironically called

00:41:57.260 the White House. Washington was smitten with Martha, but while he inched towards marriage

00:42:04.880 and settling down, the French and Indian War beckoned one more time. British General John

00:42:11.260 and Forbes had arrived with another large force to try again to take Fort Duquesne.

00:42:18.640 General Forbes named Washington to lead the brigade in the attack on the fort.

00:42:24.100 Washington was the only colonial officer to get such an honor.

00:42:26.820 He hoped to redeem the previous battle losses he'd experienced.

00:42:30.960 But as the British force drew closer to their targets, smoke billowed from Fort Duquesne.

00:42:36.560 Indians had split from the French allies and the French, feeling they didn't have adequate

00:42:40.380 forces to defend the fort, set it on fire and fled down the Ohio River. The British took the

00:42:46.740 charred ruins and renamed it Fort Pitt, after William Pitt, a leader in Parliament who later

00:42:52.460 became Prime Minister. The war in the Ohio Valley was effectively over.

00:43:02.280 After five grueling years in uniform, Washington resigned his commission in December of 1758.

00:43:10.380 Now 26 years old, he was ready to start a new, more peaceful life with Martha and her children.

00:43:18.860 His five years in the military had been a thorough dress rehearsal.

00:43:24.160 He had learned the importance of discipline, the danger of arrogance,

00:43:27.800 and the weakness of British troops when fighting by European rules in American forests.

00:43:33.460 He now had vital first-hand knowledge to draw on much later,

00:43:37.320 A vision for how a ramshackle colonial militia just might be able to foil the world's most powerful military.

00:43:45.420 He didn't know it yet, but he had just trained for the Revolutionary War.

00:43:53.100 George married Martha on January 6, 1759 at her White House estate.

00:43:59.100 Two years later, his brother Lawrence's widow died, making George the full owner of Mount Vernon.

00:44:05.300 He spent the next 14 years focusing on his family and business at Mount Vernon until

00:44:09.920 his country, more than just Virginia this time, called on his leadership again. 0.98

00:44:18.200 That circumstance was the result of a domino effect reaching back to the French and Indian

00:44:23.600 War.

00:44:24.400 The British eventually won that war.

00:44:26.600 In 1763, a peace treaty awarded them all the land east of the Mississippi River except

00:44:31.840 New Orleans.

00:44:33.420 Former Indian allies of the French were despondent about the treaty.

00:44:37.740 Their territories were ceded to Britain without their permission.

00:44:41.320 For Great Britain, the financial cost of the Seven-Year War was staggering.

00:44:45.940 The empire was drowning in debt.

00:44:48.160 Annual interest payments took up over half the national budget,

00:44:51.040 so the British Parliament decided the American colonies should help pay.

00:44:56.860 First came the Stamp Act of 1765, taxes on items including paper, legal documents, and newspapers.

00:45:05.780 The colonies resisted.

00:45:07.660 This is when no taxation without representation became a familiar phrase.

00:45:12.980 Parliament ultimately repealed the Act, but added the Declaratory Act,

00:45:18.520 stating that Parliament had full power to make laws binding the colonies,

00:45:22.800 Britain proved it meant business in 1767 with the Townshend Act,

00:45:32.380 taxes on commonly imported goods, including glass and paint and tea.

00:45:38.160 George Washington was fed up.

00:45:39.940 Several boycott associations sprang up in the colonies,

00:45:42.860 and he received information in the mail about plans for one in Virginia.

00:45:48.320 He shared the plan with his neighbor and close friend George Mason.

00:45:52.280 Turns out, Mason was the one who wrote the plan.

00:45:55.540 In a significant step for Washington, he believed now was the time to take action, writing,

00:46:02.340 At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom,

00:46:10.160 it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors.

00:46:18.020 By then, Washington had been elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

00:46:22.380 So in their next session, he presented Mason's boycott plan to the members,

00:46:26.940 which included a lanky, red-haired 26-year-old named Thomas Jefferson.

00:46:32.540 The new royal governor of Virginia did not like this seditious proposal, so he dissolved the House session.

00:46:39.860 Undeterred, Washington and other members continued their organizing in Williamsburg in a tavern.

00:46:45.180 they signed an agreement to boycott all British goods subject to taxes in America.

00:46:51.320 They even added a list of British goods that were not taxed, so they could boycott those as well.

00:46:57.540 Washington, the once loyal British officer, had turned a corner into resistance leadership.

00:47:06.300 One year later, in 1770, Washington is in his element.

00:47:12.040 He's in the quiet hills of western Virginia with a small group of friends,

00:47:16.660 exploring the land they had acquired as investments.

00:47:19.900 It's the end of a long day.

00:47:21.680 The campfire is finally roaring and the men are laughing as they prepare dinner. 0.95

00:47:26.860 Suddenly, a group of Indians approach.

00:47:29.720 One of them introduces the oldest man in his party as a Grand Sachem,

00:47:33.920 who insisted on visiting when he heard Colonel Washington was in the area.

00:47:39.340 Washington invited the men to join them around the fire,

00:47:42.540 though the elder Indian abstains from the drinks that are offered.

00:47:46.600 This man says he was there, outside Fort Duquesne,

00:47:50.580 where General Braddock's men were slaughtered.

00:47:53.460 He says he saw Washington's bulletproof gallops through the eye of the battle storm.

00:47:59.020 I am a chief and the ruler over many tribes.

00:48:02.460 I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle.

00:48:09.940 It was on the day when the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest that I first beheld this chief.

00:48:18.500 I called to my young man and said,

00:48:21.160 Mark yon tall and daring warrior, he is not of the Redcoat tribe.

00:48:26.880 He hath an Indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight as we do.

00:48:31.340 himself alone exposed.

00:48:33.920 Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies. 0.57

00:48:37.420 Our rifles were leveled,

00:48:39.460 rifles which but for him knew not how to miss.

00:48:44.120 T'was all in vain, a power mightier far than we

00:48:47.680 shielded him from harm.

00:48:50.240 He cannot die in battle.

00:48:52.660 I am old and soon shall be gathered

00:48:54.680 to the great council fire of my fathers

00:48:57.720 in the land of shades.

00:49:00.500 But ere I go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy.

00:49:06.960 Listen.

00:49:08.160 The Great Spirit protects that man and guides his destinies.

00:49:12.860 He will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.

00:49:21.320 One of the men in Washington's party that night was his close friend and personal physician, Dr. James Crake,

00:49:28.480 who would serve Washington throughout the Revolutionary War.

00:49:32.740 The old Indians' words made a lasting impression on Dr. Crake.

00:49:37.500 During the Revolution, he told a group of officers,

00:49:40.180 Gentlemen, recollect what I have often told you of the old Indians' prophecy.

00:49:47.920 Yes, I do believe a great spirit protects that man

00:49:52.420 and that one day or other, honored and beloved,

00:49:56.740 he will be the chief of our nation as he is now our general our father and our

00:50:04.420 friend never mind the enemy they cannot kill him and while he lives our cause 1.00

00:50:11.860 will never die that cause still seemed a long way off in 1770 as the old Indians

00:50:20.780 words hung in the air with the embers of washington's campfire but 700 miles northeast

00:50:28.220 in boston a fuse had been lit i was about to change everything

00:50:38.140 coming up on the american story the beginnings

00:50:44.060 suddenly there's pounding on a door samuel's head snapped towards the sound the club members fall

00:50:48.700 silent as they exchange tense glances. The door swings open, revealing a panting messenger, his

00:50:54.420 breath visible in the cold draft that's now rushing in, his face etched with urgency. He blurts

00:51:00.540 something out about King Street, shots fired, and blood spilled. Without hesitation, the men pour

00:51:05.980 out into the biting winter darkness. Snow crunches under their boots as they race through the narrow

00:51:11.460 moonlit alleys, the ominous clanging bells drawing more people from their homes. The wind whips at

00:51:18.640 coats carrying distant shouts that now grow louder and louder, more chaotic with each step.

00:51:23.960 They turn a corner and collide with pandemonium, a hysterical mob surging like an ocean wave.

00:51:30.620 Bodies pressed together in a frenzy of rage and confusion. Cries of murder pierce the frigid air.

00:51:37.820 Samuel and his companions push forward, elbows and shoulders forcing a path through the throng,

00:51:42.360 hearts pounding with a mix of dread and determination. Finally, they break through

00:51:47.080 the front where the horror unfolds before them. Three bodies lied sprawl in the pristine white

00:51:53.920 snow, limbs twisted unnaturally, crimson blood pooling outward in a stark spreading stain.

00:52:02.460 The crowd wails and thrust their accusing fingers at a line of red-coated British soldiers standing

00:52:08.620 frozen, their faces pale. Sam Adams stands there, the scene searing his soul. This isn't a mere

00:52:16.520 brawl or accident. This is the ignition point. The moment when simmering tensions explode into

00:52:23.660 something irreversible. Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast

00:52:36.620 and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.

00:52:46.520 We'll be right back.

The Glenn Beck Program - May 02, 2026

Young George Washington： The War that Forged a Leader ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 4

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