Young Washington Review by a Historian
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Scott and Jenn Bennie review the historical drama “Young Washington” (dir. Josh Irwin), which portrays George Washington’s early career in the French and Indian War from Fort Necessity (1754) to the Braddock Expedition and Battle of the Monongahela (1755).
Jenn separates accurate events—Washington’s 1753 mission to Fort Le Boeuf, the Jumonville encounter, the French-language surrender at Fort Necessity, and Washington’s survival at Monongahela with two horses shot out—from invented or compressed elements such as a romantic Fairfax plotline and some character substitutions.
00:00 Braddock Ambush
01:09 The Film
03:32 Washington Not a "Gentleman"
07:44 Family Roots and Mary Ball Washington
11:47 Fairfax Connections and Class
14:40 Movie Romance vs Reality
18:08 Surveying the Frontier
19:58 Washington Denied a British Commission
21:37 Ohio Valley Tensions and Fort Le Boeuf
25:16 French Snub At Fort
28:07 Jumonville Ambush Fallout
31:54 Washington's Fort Necessity Surrender
37:48 Braddock Expedition Lessons
41:28 Monongahela And Redemption
45:52 Mythmaking And Movie Changes
48:51 Facts And Final Takeaways
50:31 Failures Forge A Legend
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Transcript
Imagine standing deep in the untamed wilderness of the Ohio frontier.
Speaker:The year is 1755.
Speaker:You're surrounded by a suffocating green canopy, trapped in a chaotic
Speaker:crossfire as French troops and Native warriors ambush your regiment.
Speaker:British regulars are panicking, officers are falling all around you, and the
Speaker:air is thick with smoke and screams.
Speaker:Through the haze, you see a towering 23-year-old colonial stride
Speaker:into the center of the madness.
Speaker:He has just risen from a sickbed, yet he rides directly into the gunfire.
Speaker:Bullets shred his coat, two horses are shot out from under him, but
Speaker:somehow he remains untouched.
Speaker:To the warriors watching through the trees, he appears to be
Speaker:protected by an unseen force.
Speaker:This isn't the stoic, gray-haired man on the dollar bill.
Speaker:This is a young, ambitious, and deeply flawed soldier learning how to survive.
Speaker:This is George Washington before he ever imagined a revolution.
Speaker:Welcome to Talk with History.
Speaker:One filmmaker, one historian, leading history-inspired world
Speaker:travels for the curious, the history lovers, and the explorer in us all.
Speaker:I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jenn.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Today, we are swapping out our field gear for some movie popcorn because we just
Speaker:watched the new epic historical drama Young Washington, directed by Josh Irwin.
Speaker:This film focuses entirely on Washington's brutal early experience during the
Speaker:French and Indian War, from his humbling defeat at Fort Necessity to the bloody
Speaker:chaos of the Braddock Expedition.
Speaker:I'm Scott Bennie, and today we are reviewing the origin story of
Speaker:America's first commander-in-chief.
Speaker:All right, Jenn It's been a busy summer for us.
Speaker:Very busy summer, and we are getting it all in,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:We're get- we're, we're, we're making it happen.
Speaker:We're making it happen.
Speaker:We've got our Route 66 trip coming up.
Speaker:We may or may not be able to have content all the way through that.
Speaker:We're, we're giving it a shot.
Speaker:We'll let you guys know if, if there's gonna be a week or two
Speaker:where we may kinda throw some, some rewind, uh, episodes in there.
Speaker:But today we are talking about Young Washington.
Speaker:You guys have probably, if you're listening to this, you've probably
Speaker:s- either seen the movie or seen the ads, seen the trailer.
Speaker:Um, spoiler alert, I enjoyed it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was pleasantly surprised.
Speaker:I was happy.
Speaker:We saw it on July 3rd because-
Speaker:Like, the, the day, I think it was the day it came out.
Speaker:Yes, and I think 'cause that's the anniversary of Fort Necessity too, so I
Speaker:was happy to see it on that anniversary.
Speaker:Uh, I did not like your intro because you said Ohio wilderness.
Speaker:I was like, "Did I say something wrong?"
Speaker:It's Ohio Valley, because everything takes place in present-day Pennsylvania.
Speaker:Oh, really?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:So Ohio doesn't get to claim any of that.
Speaker:The Ohi- the Ohio Valley does.
Speaker:But that's, I mean, but they, don't they even in the movie,
Speaker:don't they even describe it as-
Speaker:The Ohio Valley
Speaker:the, like, they, they, they keep referring to it- Yes … as like
Speaker:the w- the wilderness is, like, the Ohio Valley, the Ohio wilderness.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Like, the-
Speaker:Yes
Speaker:… who's the rich guy that owns the five million acres or something like that?
Speaker:Fairfax.
Speaker:Fairfax.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So f- you know, for those listening, if you haven't seen it yet, obviously
Speaker:there's no real spoilers, right?
Speaker:This is history.
Speaker:This is George Washington.
Speaker:Surprise, he lives through everything, right?
Speaker:Um, but they focus on what people don't, I'd say the general person who doesn't
Speaker:really study history a lot, specifically Washington, probably doesn't know as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that is his, his early start with the British, kinda working his way into
Speaker:be- becoming an officer in, with the Virginia militia, and his early failures
Speaker:that really kinda laid the foundation for who he was as a military man.
Speaker:So there's a couple things, like, exactly what you said.
Speaker:Like, there's some things that this is really gonna stress and drive home.
Speaker:First, it's gonna stress that Washington isn't a gentleman.
Speaker:So they're gonna stress that pretty early on when he loses his father,
Speaker:um, Augustine, in April of 1743.
Speaker:So is that kinda what happened?
Speaker:Like, he was… Uh, they made it sound like in the movie,
Speaker:he was getting this education.
Speaker:His father kinda had some status.
Speaker:They had land, his family, and, and they w- and then his father
Speaker:died- Mm-hmm … when he was 11.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he lost a lotta that status.
Speaker:So- That's what, that's what they, that's what it seemed like in the movie.
Speaker:Yeah, so that, th- that's exactly what happened.
Speaker:So Augustine is married first to Jane, and he has-
Speaker:Augustine was his father.
Speaker:Augustine was his father.
Speaker:And, um, he marries Jane when he's 21, Jane's 16, and
Speaker:they have, uh, four children.
Speaker:Um, and Lawrence Washington is their oldest, and then they
Speaker:have Augustine Jr., so two boys.
Speaker:Yeah, Law- it was Lawrence, the one that- was basically his, like, half-brother-
Speaker:His half-brother … because his father had two sons from a previous marriage.
Speaker:Yeah, Jane- Okay … who I'm talking about right now.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I mean, uh- So this is, so that's the thing, is like for the people who
Speaker:know Washington and this history well-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:it's, it's relatively rote knowledge.
Speaker:For me, this was new.
Speaker:I was trying to kinda put it together-
Speaker:Sure
Speaker:… with his… He kept referring to this, this man in the movie as his brother.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I kinda always, like, he seemed more like his uncle, but that's because
Speaker:he was a brother from a previous marriage, and he was much older.
Speaker:Yeah, brother from another mother.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so he's, so Lawrence is 25 when his father dies, when Augustine dies, and
Speaker:George is only 11- Yeah … like you said.
Speaker:So it is kinda like a pseudo father figure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you have to understand, Augustine is, is a self-made man, and those
Speaker:boys have been educated in Europe, so they've had formal educations.
Speaker:So he
Speaker:was able to send them over there.
Speaker:And that's where you get this term gentleman comes from.
Speaker:I hope people understand, in the 1700s when they're referring to
Speaker:a man as a gentleman, think of it almost as saying educated.
Speaker:And, like, educated in England.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And, and they actually drove that home.
Speaker:See, again, th- this was, this was new to me.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:A lot of this was new to me.
Speaker:They kinda really drove home when Washington's kind of like trying
Speaker:to s- get his way into these, these Fairfax rich man parties, they
Speaker:drive home that he is not educated.
Speaker:And he's like, "Well, I, I…" But he's making the point, like,
Speaker:"I read all this other stuff, probably more than anybody else."
Speaker:Like, "No, no, no. Not educated in England."
Speaker:Yeah, no formal education.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so that's what this is trying to drive home, too, that Washington is- rallying
Speaker:against these things ag- that have kind of detrimented his career, and he's trying
Speaker:to build his … They, I, and I wouldn't say self s- self-made man, but he's
Speaker:overcoming these obstacles of the time.
Speaker:It was like the societal structure was so ingrained- Yes … that
Speaker:you had to do this to be this to be- Yeah … considered that.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And they kinda kept referring to colonials as, like, this weird, dirty word.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And it was almost derogatory, and it was almost like, okay, kinda,
Speaker:you know, just wild man, right?
Speaker:Farmer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, it was, it was almost in that light even though they're out here with
Speaker:hundreds if not thousands, right, um, of acres, and they're, they're, they're,
Speaker:they're taming, you know, everything.
Speaker:So because he's born in Virginia- Yeah … he's born in the colony, he's not born
Speaker:in England, that is looked down their nose upon, and he's trying to hold it as
Speaker:something of value and working against the societal understanding that it's not.
Speaker:And it's just like you said, so he's 11 years old when his father dies,
Speaker:and Mary Ball Washington, who is his second wife, um, George is the
Speaker:oldest boy of the children they have.
Speaker:So in essence, George inherits all of the land that Mary Ball will … She'll never
Speaker:remarry, and she will manage that land.
Speaker:So Augustine will leave in his will that all of these properties, um, it's, it's
Speaker:Ferry Farm, three lots in Fredericksburg, and 10 enslaved, uh, all inherited
Speaker:by George Washington at 11 years old.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:But Mary Ball, she's the manager until he comes of age.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's kinda what it's showing you there, that she will never remarry,
Speaker:and she really, you know- goes to work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:She manages the property.
Speaker:And George Washington will always say, "The most influential
Speaker:person in my life was my mother."
Speaker:So even though you see this struggle where George is disgruntle that he doesn't get
Speaker:to go to school, that now he has to work the land, uh, and that his mother is
Speaker:not really supportive of his endeavors- Yeah … she does, she, she really
Speaker:realizes that it's not really up to her.
Speaker:And so she, she tells him what she thinks, and then she also
Speaker:supports him in what he wants to do.
Speaker:And they, I think they do a good job.
Speaker:I was reading up a little bit on, on his mother- Mm-hmm … right, Mary, and I
Speaker:think they did a good job in the movie of kind of showing, like, one, like you said,
Speaker:she s- as he got older, once he finally started getting older and of age to try to
Speaker:come into the military, um, and basically that's what he wanted to do, 'cause
Speaker:that's how he knew he could gain status.
Speaker:He was ambitious.
Speaker:He was capable.
Speaker:He was smart, all these things, right?
Speaker:And but she was very frank and said, "I, I don't want you doing that." Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He was like, "I don't care. I'm gonna go do it anyways." Right?
Speaker:And so there was kind of very much this push/pull, and I was reading
Speaker:up on Mary W- Mary Washington.
Speaker:There's some differing opinions on, on her and her relationship with Washington.
Speaker:So it's very complicated.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:From a, just the little bit of research that I was, that I was doing, whether it's
Speaker:through state parks that kinda manage her stuff, or I was reading an, an interesting
Speaker:article on her for Colonial Williamsburg.
Speaker:They kinda wrote this whole very interesting kinda how complicated
Speaker:she was and how interesting her relationship with George Washington was.
Speaker:So like you said, someone like that, 'cause the norm was to get
Speaker:remarried- Mm-hmm … was to have a man, and she did not do that.
Speaker:That was very outside the norm.
Speaker:So again, something else, and I always understood that George Washington was
Speaker:very sensitive about his mother and his relationship with his mother, right?
Speaker:But he was, he was this man who was principled and educated himself and
Speaker:put himself forth as a gentleman, which something else I read was the, the British
Speaker:who were there- That for them, that was a breath of fresh air for these colonials.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And that's kinda partly how he was able to ingratiate himself
Speaker:into, into volunteering, which is what we see in the movie.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So exactly like what you said, Mary Ball will never remarry.
Speaker:She has a big influence on Washington.
Speaker:I think the great part of wa- his, his father dying when he's 11, is he's old
Speaker:enough to have seen his father work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's old enough to see how his father manages the plantations.
Speaker:He's old enough to understand it's his property, not his mother's, right?
Speaker:And
Speaker:he's frustrated by that
Speaker:. Right?
Speaker:So, yeah, so he's old enough to know his place- Yeah … that it, even
Speaker:though his mother can give him this advice, ultimately it's George's.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so Lawrence also sees that.
Speaker:Lawre- Lawrence I think also, um, empathizes with his brother and knowing
Speaker:that he'll never have the education he got, so he helps him to start to read.
Speaker:A-
Speaker:and, and from everything I saw in the movie and what I'm reading-
Speaker:Mm-hmm … what you're, what you're saying, it seems like the movie
Speaker:portrayed it p- relatively accurately.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:And so Lawrence is, like you said, Washington's foot into the Fairfax family.
Speaker:' Cause he, he m- he marries-
Speaker:Lawrence marries into- … a Fairfax
Speaker:yes, he marries a Fairfax.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So Lawrence, at 22 years old, he's gonna marry, um, Anne at 15, and that is the
Speaker:oldest daughter of William Fairfax.
Speaker:And what happens is Anne kinda gets engrossed in a little
Speaker:scandal where there's a clergyman who takes liberties with her.
Speaker:Mm. And she tells her father that this clergyman has basically
Speaker:abused her, and her father's answer is, A, to take that clergyman to
Speaker:court, but they, they don't win.
Speaker:The, the, the case is, um, uh, what did they call it?
Speaker:Like
Speaker:thrown out?
Speaker:Yeah, like thrown out.
Speaker:Oh, okay- Like,
Speaker:yeah … dismissed or whatever.
Speaker:Dismissed, yeah.
Speaker:The case is dismissed, but he also wants to marry off his daughter so
Speaker:she's not disgraced, and Lawrence happens to be staying with them
Speaker:as he's building Mount Vernon.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:So he's, there's this, this 22-year-old Royal British officer who h- coming
Speaker:into means, and he happens to be there when their oldest daughter,
Speaker:who's 15, has just been disgraced.
Speaker:So William Fairfax marries them off very quickly.
Speaker:Okay, so that's kinda how- Mm-hmm … how George Washington's
Speaker:older half-brother- Mm-hmm
Speaker:gets into the Fairfax, which is… And again, y- you know, h- living in
Speaker:Virginia for a couple years for us, I, I never really knew, like anyway,
Speaker:I think we lived in Fairfax County, or was Fairfax County was right-
Speaker:Mm-hmm, oh yeah … right next to us.
Speaker:It's cute.
Speaker:And, uh, I didn't realize that, like, that was, it made sense when I'm watching
Speaker:the movie, it's like, oh, Fairfax.
Speaker:Oh, of course.
Speaker:Mm. That's why, like, everything in Virginia is Fairfax
Speaker:Avenue or County or whatever.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So you have to see the Washingtons', that was really a chance of opportunity
Speaker:for Lawrence, and- Although they're not quite the class of the Fairfaxes, it
Speaker:does save his daughter's reputation.
Speaker:And so William Fairfax always looks at Lawrence very favorably, and actually
Speaker:looks at George Washington very favorably.
Speaker:He becomes like a pseudo father to him.
Speaker:So this whole idea of him sneaking into the party I think was just to reinforce
Speaker:that he's not an educated gentleman, and that the w- that the Washingtons
Speaker:are below the Fairfaxes class-wise.
Speaker:But that never would have been a thing.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Washington, George Washington would have been accepted as the brother,
Speaker:the brother of the Fairfax family.
Speaker:So the, the patriarch of the Fairfax family actually did kind of know-
Speaker:Yes … you know, George long before kinda, 'cause in the movie
Speaker:he sneaks into the, sneaks into the, to the richer party- Yes … right?
Speaker:Didn't have his invite, and that's also how they kinda spark up the love interest.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's, so was that pretty accurate as well?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So and that's, that's why I'm curious, right?
Speaker:And that's p- that's what we're talking about- Yeah … is like kind of what
Speaker:they got right and what they got wrong.
Speaker:And typical movie they'll compress things- Yeah … and they'll, they'll add stuff
Speaker:here and there for, for movie magic.
Speaker:But you'd, you're not introduced to Martha-
Speaker:No
Speaker:because Martha is later.
Speaker:Later.
Speaker:She's 1758.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So that's kinda after this movie.
Speaker:This movie ends like 1755.
Speaker:But you, you were telling me before we recorded that George Washington did
Speaker:kinda have a, I dunno, a fling or a- Mm-hmm … flirtatious relationship with-
Speaker:Sally Carey
Speaker:… with someone.
Speaker:And was she a Fairfax like they said in the movie?
Speaker:So she marries William Fairfax's grandson-
Speaker:Okay
Speaker:… George William Fairfax.
Speaker:But the thing is George Washin- George Washington and George
Speaker:William Fairfax were good friends.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:They're about the same age.
Speaker:So again, not like in the movie.
Speaker:Not like in the movie, and they hang out together at these parties.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And Sally is also kind of a part of their crew.
Speaker:Circle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Their circle.
Speaker:And so she gets married to him in 1748, and George Washington, this, this famous
Speaker:scandalous love letter that George Washington writes to Sally happens in
Speaker:1758 as he's about to marry Martha, and, um, as he's, he's engaged to Martha.
Speaker:And yes, is it pretty loving, and do people believe that he really
Speaker:had a great flirtation with Sally?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:They believe just like people f- just like Hamilton flirted
Speaker:with Angelica- Yeah … right?
Speaker:They believe that she was the debutante of the area.
Speaker:Everybody wanted her.
Speaker:She loved the attention, and George gave her attention like all the other
Speaker:men were giving her the attention.
Speaker:So that was like the 1700s version of like liking someone's post.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Is writing them a letter.
Speaker:Of heavy flirtation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They do not believe they crossed any moral boundaries.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So the kiss in-
Speaker:Yeah, so that never happened.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:They don't believe that ever happened.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And honestly, um- George William and George Washington and Sally
Speaker:and Martha were great friends.
Speaker:Okay,
Speaker:so- They visited Mount Vernon many times and hung out together as a foursome.
Speaker:So yeah, it wasn't like this-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:No, that's, that's… And, and again, I, I didn't know.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I just- But it's good for the
Speaker:movie.
Speaker:Yeah, it was, it was great for the movie, and it kind of, it helped
Speaker:drive s- some of the plot line- Mm-hmm
Speaker:um, because it showed that he did have some sort of relationship, right?
Speaker:But it was pre-Martha, so the whole time you're kinda thinking like, "Oh,
Speaker:when's Martha come into this?" Because, like, I don't know the history, right?
Speaker:Um-
Speaker:I think it shows him as very romantic and ide- idealistic and- It, it,
Speaker:it,
Speaker:it- … a dreamer.
Speaker:Yeah, and so that's what the, I think that's what it did, 'cause even at one
Speaker:point, right, she's reading the letters, and he comes back, and he, he's visiting
Speaker:her, and they're talking under the tree.
Speaker:Typical kinda colonial era movie, right?
Speaker:They're talking under the tree, these two- With a swing … with, with a swing.
Speaker:And, and she, she kinda says to him, like, "Nobody, nobody speaks like this."
Speaker:He's, and I think he says, "But they think like it" or something like that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so it kinda shows his frame of mind.
Speaker:They're kind of, they're pushing this, this, uh, thought that George Washington
Speaker:is thinking larger than his station.
Speaker:Yes, and that he dreams larger than his station, that he is a well-read man, that
Speaker:he can quote lines from plays, impress people with his self-taught knowledge.
Speaker:That's kind of what they're alluding to in these moments, which I think they do
Speaker:a good, very good job of these moments.
Speaker:It's just now how these relationships actually looked, but you can't introduce
Speaker:a ton of characters in a movie.
Speaker:You have to kinda compress.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We know, compress interaction, and they, they're gonna do this significantly when
Speaker:it comes to some of the battle stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, so let's talk some of the battles.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So is this, is that how he got involved, was he, he did go out and ser- volunteer
Speaker:to survey the Ohio Valley, the Ohio frontier, whatever we're gonna call it-
Speaker:Yes
Speaker:um, for the-
Speaker:William Fairfax
Speaker:… William Fairfax?
Speaker:Yeah, so he's bec- he becomes his patron, basically.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So William Fairfax basically funds his
Speaker:career.
Speaker:Yeah, he says, "Hey, go- Mm-hmm … go do this. I'll pay you- Mm-hmm … if
Speaker:you kind of map out all of my millions and millions of acres."
Speaker:Yeah, so in 1748, he's gonna spend a month surveying Fairfax's
Speaker:Shenandoah Valley property.
Speaker:The following year, he's gonna get his surveyor license from William & Mary.
Speaker:Um, even though he doesn't do an apprenticeship, uh, Thomas Fairfax,
Speaker:his cousin, is gonna appoint him surveyor of, um, Culpeper County in
Speaker:Washington, and then, um, that is when he's gonna become a surveyor and
Speaker:go out and survey the area, um- Oh, wait, I think I'm reading the wrong-
Speaker:That would've been, if, if I think back on it, that would've been a job
Speaker:I would've been, like, all about.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Because how cool is it to be, like, I'm gonna go out to this, this area of
Speaker:the frontier that nobody's ever really mapped and I'm gonna map it and explore
Speaker:it and I'm gonna come back and show everybody that this is what it looks like.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's, that's pretty cool just from a, a movie perspective.
Speaker:And they do show that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was even thinking while we were watching it too, was I wonder
Speaker:where, if they just kinda picked less populated spots of Virginia to kinda
Speaker:film it, you know, get some drone sho- It was, it was, it was really neat.
Speaker:They kinda did a good job of showing what that wild frontier would've felt like.
Speaker:They did.
Speaker:They did a great job, uh, of what Uniontown, Pittsburgh area,
Speaker:Erie would've looked like 'cause this is all in Pennsylvania.
Speaker:Uh, he's gonna seek a m- a military commission.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And this is gonna be, this is also alluding to this great-
Speaker:thorn in the side of George Washington, which is also
Speaker:gonna push him into revolution.
Speaker:The British Royal Military will never give him a commission, and he will ask
Speaker:for one over and over and over again, and they always say, "You can do the militia
Speaker:commission. You can do the Virginia Militia." And I think if they ever
Speaker:would've given him a British commission, you never would've had the man he became.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was… And it was really… I was… It's funny you say that, 'cause
Speaker:that's what I was thinking, you know.
Speaker:They… And they, they said it straight up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:The first time he comes asked for a commission, you know, the, the guy
Speaker:he's talking to, the British officer, says, "Stop writing me letters." Right.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:'Cause he's just written him letter after letter after letter.
Speaker:He
Speaker:can't afford the commission.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You have to buy a commission.
Speaker:It's 700 pound.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It was a lot, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I was thinking that, too.
Speaker:I was like, gosh, if they had ever… They're basically just pushing him away,
Speaker:and if they had ever given him this commission, he probably just would've
Speaker:stayed a British subject the entire time.
Speaker:We wouldn't have had our first pre- It's just wild to me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That kinda sets up this whole stage.
Speaker:Like, again, he's not formally educated, so they see him as a outsider.
Speaker:He's born in Virginia.
Speaker:They see him as an outsider.
Speaker:He can't afford a commission in the British military.
Speaker:He wants to be like his brother Lawrence.
Speaker:He really looks up to him.
Speaker:He wants to be like Lawrence.
Speaker:Lawrence has a commission in the, in the British military.
Speaker:They keep refusing him, refusing him, but they give him something else.
Speaker:They give him the Virginia Militia.
Speaker:So he's appointed, appointed with a task from Governor Dinwiddie, uh, in late 1753.
Speaker:So you have to understand, the Ohio Valley and the French are up
Speaker:in Canada, and what is very much the economy of the time is fur.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And so the French are taking this river.
Speaker:They, they want the river route.
Speaker:They want the river route from Pittsburgh to trade.
Speaker:So they're taking the river down from Canada.
Speaker:So they start making forts along from Erie to P- Pittsburgh to have this, again, trap
Speaker:the beaver and to take these river routes.
Speaker:And so when they hear about a fort being built up by Erie, Pennsylvania,
Speaker:Fort Le Boeuf, uh- And technically they have the land of that area,
Speaker:and they have it in a- The,
Speaker:the British
Speaker:… the British- Yeah … in a treaty, and they say, "This is our land.
Speaker:This is the land on our map.
Speaker:You need to go tell them to leave.
Speaker:They're encroaching on our land." So-
Speaker:So they, they tell Washington, "Hey…" So did, was it like in the movie
Speaker:where as he was surveying, the Native Americans came to him and basically
Speaker:said, "Hey, there's French up here.
Speaker:I'm gonna show you where they are"?
Speaker:And the In- and, and the Native Americans are kind of playing both sides.
Speaker:They know that if they show the British that the French are here, because they
Speaker:don't like the French, they're like, "Oh yeah, the British are gonna take
Speaker:this personally, and they're gonna, they're gonna kick the French out."
Speaker:So the Seneca American Indians have already been, uh, massacred by some
Speaker:of the French, and you allude to that.
Speaker:Half, um, Half King's father is killed by the French.
Speaker:And so again, because the French are coming down into these lands
Speaker:and, you know, but the American
Speaker:Indians- So he, he pits, he, he pits the British against the French.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he sees the British coming, and he's like, "Oh, I can use them-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:… to get back at these people that hurt my family."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so that's why he's like, "I can show you where they're at," and like- And
Speaker:they're very straightforward showing that in the movie.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They do a good job of that.
Speaker:But he makes it to Fort Le Boeuf in December of 1753.
Speaker:I think it's so funny.
Speaker:Like, this is December in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Speaker:So cold.
Speaker:And it's not quite Erie.
Speaker:It's Waterford, PA, and-
Speaker:Think lake effect snow.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Buffalo.
Speaker:It's so cold.
Speaker:And we have videos from there.
Speaker:That's the only statue you will ever see of George Washington is there in
Speaker:a British uniform because it is, like they said, they give him a commission
Speaker:in the Virginia Militia, and he makes his own kind of British uniform.
Speaker:Yeah, the
Speaker:red coat and everything.
Speaker:To kind of allude to that, even though the British make, um, military make
Speaker:very clear that you're not one of us.
Speaker:But that statue there at where the location of Fort Le Boeuf was has George
Speaker:Washington depicted in that British uniform if you ever see that statue.
Speaker:It's the same city where Stong Vincent was born.
Speaker:So we make a, the whole video from Waterford, PA, and if yous ever watch
Speaker:that video, right behind my shoulder is the statue of George Washington.
Speaker:So that's where Fort Le Boeuf was.
Speaker:So you can imagine the French are coming through, uh, the lake there and then the
Speaker:building, a fort right there on the lake.
Speaker:So George Washington shows up at 21 years old with a message to all these people
Speaker:in the fort that you have to leave.
Speaker:And they, they make… I think that's a really great part they
Speaker:do in this, where the commander kind of like, um, d- you know-
Speaker:He, he basically tells George Washington, he's like, "I know they're
Speaker:not taking this seri- I know the British aren't taking this seriously
Speaker:because they're sending you."
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And George kind of gives him the look of like, "What do you mean?"
Speaker:And so he goes on to explain.
Speaker:He's like, "They're sending you so that if- You succeed and you ha- get us to
Speaker:leave, they'll still take all the credit.
Speaker:If you fail, they've essentially have a patsy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So they- They have someone to blame it on
Speaker:… they humor him- Yeah … more or less.
Speaker:They bring him to dinner.
Speaker:Yeah, the French do.
Speaker:The French, they have a good time party, and they, they send the response,
Speaker:"Here's my response." And in, in reality, uh, he stays for five days.
Speaker:He is allowed to dine with them in the fort, but he has to make his camp outside
Speaker:their fort in December, in the cold.
Speaker:So it's a very clear message the French are giving him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like, "First of all, we have-
Speaker:Yeah, we'll, we'll hu-
Speaker:… four times the men of, as you."
Speaker:Yeah, we'll humor you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But, uh, g- g- go, go on and- Yes … and take your message back.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And here they also bring up something very interesting, that George
Speaker:Washington doesn't speak French.
Speaker:And again, if you are an educated gentleman, it's one of
Speaker:the languages you will learn.
Speaker:So of all the studying George Washington has done, he's never,
Speaker:uh, conquered the French language.
Speaker:And so they can talk around him, they can kinda make fun of him, he
Speaker:has to have an interpreter with him.
Speaker:So again, it's also alluding to this idea that he's not quite the status
Speaker:that he wants to be, and he has to kind of work against that, that
Speaker:handicap that he has, and it's gonna be a better, bigger problem later on.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think they do a good job of, of showing that.
Speaker:So he brings the message back.
Speaker:Dinwiddie?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Dinwiddie is not happy, right?
Speaker:He thought, what can he do, right?
Speaker:He sent this young man up, they're saying no.
Speaker:So he gets him, uh- He makes him give them reconnaissance.
Speaker:We wanna know how many people were at the fo- fort.
Speaker:We wanna know how many canoes they have, and we want you to deliver
Speaker:this all tomorrow, basically.
Speaker:And George Washington is like, "Well, I rode all night to get here to give
Speaker:you this response." This is close to Christmas, as you can imagine.
Speaker:So, uh, he writes all of this, and he writes that there
Speaker:was over 100 men, 70 canoes.
Speaker:He saw the fort was accessible to the French Creek.
Speaker:He noted the construction, the design of the fort.
Speaker:He noticed they had eight six-pound cannons, and they
Speaker:were basically building a fort.
Speaker:And so the governor becomes alarmed, and he wants to get to the Three
Speaker:Rivers, kinda where Pittsburgh is today, uh, because that is such a
Speaker:very valuable choke point for trading, uh, before the French can get there.
Speaker:He wants him to go back and, uh, basically s- stop them from moving down the river.
Speaker:Now, you have to realize they've al- the French have already
Speaker:gotten to, to Fort Duquesne.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they've already built it.
Speaker:And I think they, they show that- Mm-hmm … when, when, when George is
Speaker:c- is coming back kinda the second time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:When he's coming back the second time, they show, "Oh, they're even
Speaker:closer than, than we expected. They're only, like, five miles ahead or
Speaker:something." He says something like that.
Speaker:Yeah, so he gets there, and he goes, "Oh my gosh, I was supposed to stop
Speaker:them. They're r- they're r- already gotten here and built an entire fort."
Speaker:And so what happens then is in May of ei- 1754, um- He's supposed to go to that
Speaker:fort and tell them to leave, but instead they come across a small group of 35
Speaker:soldiers in a little encampment, um, 35 French soldiers, and it's commanded by
Speaker:Ensign Joseph de Villiers de Jumonville.
Speaker:Did I say that right?
Speaker:Doesn't matter, it's French.
Speaker:And they're camped in a rocky ravine, and it's called the Great Meadows.
Speaker:Same, it's in Fayette County.
Speaker:It's very close to Fort Necessity.
Speaker:It, this is all very close together by car, by… It's by five, 10 miles
Speaker:by horse and, and, uh, uh, bu- not buggies, horse and wagons like they
Speaker:would have had with their cannons.
Speaker:So they come across these 35 French soldiers.
Speaker:They have the Senecas with them.
Speaker:They have that man, Half King, with them.
Speaker:What they do not find, what the movie depicts, is the same French officer
Speaker:that they found at Fort Le Boeuf is not now at this location at, at Jumonville.
Speaker:Yeah, in the movie, they use the same kind of character who
Speaker:blew him off the first time-
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:in the second encounter further down the river, closer to, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Cl- closer to, to- Pittsburgh … to Pittsburgh.
Speaker:And Fort
Speaker:Duquesne.
Speaker:Um, so that, so that part, like you said, isn't accurate.
Speaker:But it sets it up in the movie because this is where things start going awry.
Speaker:And this is where you really start to have to see the youth
Speaker:of George Washington, right?
Speaker:Like, again, he's 21, 22 years old.
Speaker:This happens May 28th, 1754.
Speaker:Uh- The Seneca king has 12 natives with him.
Speaker:Washington has a party of about 40 militia.
Speaker:They come across 35 French soldiers in a camp meant, they enc- en- encircle
Speaker:them, and George is going to ask them to leave, and shots ring out.
Speaker:And this is very much today, no one knows who fired first.
Speaker:George will reiterate this a couple times, we don't know who fired first.
Speaker:But what happens is, the French fire back, and he can't, George can't
Speaker:control the Senecas, and they go down and just massacre everybody.
Speaker:And they scalp people, and they tomahawk people, and they make a very
Speaker:big showing of the types of deaths that they're giving these French men.
Speaker:And one of them is the ensign, um, Jeanne Ma- Jeanne, Jeanne Maville,
Speaker:which is now known as Jumonville, uh, Ravine, if you wanna go visit it, and
Speaker:he's the brother of the commander of Fort Duquesne, the French commander.
Speaker:One of the French men gets away and able ma- to make it to Fort Duquesne
Speaker:and let them know what happened.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Unprovoked attack from the British, killed your brother, and this is when
Speaker:George will make the fort of necessity, realizing that the men, the French men
Speaker:from Fort Duquesne are gonna come and, and
Speaker:for revenge for what happened.
Speaker:Yeah, so, so essentially they've just kicked off the French,
Speaker:uh, French and Indian War.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and George will survive this, and he will w- write in his journals that
Speaker:he hears bullets whipping by his head.
Speaker:Uh, he escapes without any wounds.
Speaker:Um, and He said, "I heard bullets whistle, and believe me, there's
Speaker:something charming in the sound." So he's in the middle of this battle.
Speaker:He sees it happen.
Speaker:He loses control.
Speaker:He loses control of his command.
Speaker:A half king, I would say more or less, is the one who started this war.
Speaker:Yeah, he's the one who's kinda… He, he's the one manipulating
Speaker:both, both s- well, really the British into doing what he wants.
Speaker:And he does this, and then just leaves.
Speaker:It's like, okay- Yeah, he got what he wanted
Speaker:he got what he wanted.
Speaker:He got his revenge, and he's, peace out to George.
Speaker:Like, so now George has to deal with this.
Speaker:So in July of 1754, um, a- anticipating this counterattack from the French,
Speaker:he does this makeshift fort at what they call Great Meadows, and
Speaker:they allude to it in the movie.
Speaker:It's low ground.
Speaker:It was n- It's highly exposed
Speaker:not
Speaker:a wise choice.
Speaker:It's an old lake bed, so if there's any kind of rain or
Speaker:flooding, it will flood out.
Speaker:Um, and so he builds this small makeshift fort, uh-
Speaker:And that's n- Fort Necessity.
Speaker:Fort Necessity.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And on July 1st, 1754, the French and native forces, so you have to imagine the
Speaker:French have some natives on their side of about 1,700, will meet George Washington
Speaker:and his troops, which are reinforced.
Speaker:They do show it in the movie, reinforced by a British militia
Speaker:that- Right … comes to help them.
Speaker:By,
Speaker:by actual British- Mm-hmm … like, led by actual British officers,
Speaker:not Fr- not Virginia militia.
Speaker:There's some actual, like, British, you know, formal officers.
Speaker:Yes, and they also p- poke at George Washington that you're really not
Speaker:a, a British officer, and you're not a, an gentleman, that even
Speaker:though you do have command of us, you don't really have command of us.
Speaker:Now, one thing they said in the movie, and I, and I only wanna ask this because it
Speaker:was one of the kinda like, one of the few humor spots in the movie, um, was when the
Speaker:British came up to where the tr- the, uh, the additional troops came up to support
Speaker:George Washington at Fort Necessity.
Speaker:They kinda, they rode up in the movie, and he asked, "Where's Colonel so-and-so?"
Speaker:I forgot his name.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:They're like, "Oh, he died the other day. He fell off his horse- Mm-hmm … and
Speaker:broke his neck," or something like that.
Speaker:And he's like, and they're like, "You, you've now assumed his, his rank." So
Speaker:George goes from m- major- Mm-hmm … in the Virginia militia to now colonel,
Speaker:and so did that actually happen?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'Cause, like, in the movie, his, his friends, his, his colonial friends kinda,
Speaker:a- as soon as that happens, one of his friends, they like cut to one of his
Speaker:friends look at him, and he just kinda gives him a like, "Oh- … that's pretty
Speaker:cool." Like, that, like the nod, right?
Speaker:His, his friend just sitting outside.
Speaker:He's like, "Man, Ge- George is a colonel in, like, less than a year."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So that's what they're alluding to, these battlefield promotions.
Speaker:So is, did
Speaker:that actually happen?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:100%. This is why George will take, have full responsibility
Speaker:of this, uh, um, surrender.
Speaker:So here he is.
Speaker:George is 22-
Speaker:Yep
Speaker:… when the, when, in 1754.
Speaker:So he's 22.
Speaker:He's a colonel.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which is wild 'cause less than a year before, he was nothing.
Speaker:Um, he w- Yeah.
Speaker:… wasn't even a, a Virginia militia officer.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So they say, uh- You have on July 3rd, 900 French so- soldiers attack
Speaker:Fort Necessity and ensuing battle will end in George Washington's surrender.
Speaker:So Just the hopelessness of the situation.
Speaker:They show it a little bit in the movie, the rain.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:George Washington said the rain was so bad the f- on July 3rd
Speaker:when this battle takes place, that they couldn't even see each other.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And it, it also shows how it floods out the fort, and it gets their
Speaker:gunpowder wet, and that was what it really incapacitated them.
Speaker:Then so they're basically taken over, and they surrender.
Speaker:And in that surrender, George Washington has to sign, uh, the treaty
Speaker:of surrender, and it's all in French.
Speaker:And he doesn't have a great interpreter.
Speaker:Again, not knowing French is his handicap.
Speaker:It says that they assassinated Ensign Jumonville, so they actually
Speaker:went there to assassinate him.
Speaker:He's admitting to that.
Speaker:And so when he signs the surrender, he has to leave some British
Speaker:officers with him, they also allude to that, uh, and then they have
Speaker:to, uh, march back to Williamsburg.
Speaker:And so when he comes back to Williamsburg and he shows the
Speaker:surrender, the governor is upset that he admitted to assassinating- Yeah,
Speaker:he's reading him the Riot Act- Mm-hmm
Speaker:and George Washington keeps saying, "Well, my interpreter…"
Speaker:And he's like, "It doesn't ma- Yeah … it doesn't matter, right?
Speaker:You signed it."
Speaker:Yes, and the, this particular killing of the brother of the, the leader
Speaker:of Fort Duquesne, this inflames the tension between the British
Speaker:and the French- Yeah … which will ignite the French and Indian War.
Speaker:So that's what they always say George Washington was that spark of the
Speaker:French and Indian War because of what he losing control there at, um, at-
Speaker:Fort Necessity
Speaker:… at Fort, what, before that, at, uh, losing control at Jumonville.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And then answering it with Fort Necessity.
Speaker:Side note, we went to Fort Necessity and did the lines from Hamilton,
Speaker:"History has its eyes on you," 'cause that's what George Washington's
Speaker:singing about, and that's when Chris Jackson first contacted us.
Speaker:So it's there for you if you wanna see it.
Speaker:Now, in the movie, they burn it to the ground.
Speaker:In reality, they also burned it to the ground.
Speaker:So what you see today when you go to Fort Necessity is the actual
Speaker:location with a recreation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So super cool.
Speaker:Yeah, so, so they, they show that, and then they show, I think, the
Speaker:next year in 1755, right, when-
Speaker:Braddock
Speaker:Braddock, right?
Speaker:So they do sh- they do show that, uh, some of that, uh, part of the conflict
Speaker:when George Washington really starts to get his reputation, you know.
Speaker:And so did he actually resign his commission like he did in the movie?
Speaker:'Cause in the movie, he comes back, and he's just completely humiliated by
Speaker:this massive failure at Fort Necessity.
Speaker:So he does try to resign his commission.
Speaker:Remember?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the governor says, "It would look bad on me 'cause I chose you." So Governor,
Speaker:um, Duignal, did I say his name right?
Speaker:Dinwiddie.
Speaker:Dinwiddie.
Speaker:I cannot say that name.
Speaker:He says, "It reflects bad on me if I pick somebody who can't do this job
Speaker:correctly." And so what happens with that is, uh- We now know Dinwiddie as
Speaker:starting George Washington's career.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so he doesn't let him.
Speaker:He lets him basically have a leave of absence.
Speaker:Oh, 'cause, 'cause in the movie, he It, they kinda made it look like
Speaker:he resigned, like they had let him resign, and then he came back to
Speaker:be, to ask to be the aide-de-camp to Braddock- Yes … to General Braddock.
Speaker:Kinda proves himself.
Speaker:He s- he says, he tells General Braddock, Braddock's is planning on
Speaker:get- moving his larger force to kick the French out of the Ohio Valley, and
Speaker:Washington comes in and says, "I'm the only one who knows how to get there."
Speaker:And Braddock's like, "Ah, it's only gonna take us a week." Washington's
Speaker:like, "No, it's gonna take you at least a month." And Braddock's like, "What?
Speaker:A month?" And he starts showing him the map. He's like, "This
Speaker:is all single, single file.
Speaker:Like, it's this, this country is not like, you know, Great Britain.
Speaker:It's not like England."
Speaker:And so he prove, he kinda proves that, and so Braddock's like, "Okay,
Speaker:you're gonna be aide-de-camp." Right?
Speaker:And then he, he brings him along, and that's why he's riding with Braddock
Speaker:to this, to this f- kinda fi- the final conflict that they show in the movie.
Speaker:Yeah, so I think they, they allude to Washington doesn't want to…
Speaker:He wants to clean up his mistakes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:He wants-
Speaker:He, he's still ambitious
Speaker:… and he, he feels like he has a lot of now experience in the area.
Speaker:Yeah, well, and in the movie, they kinda, again, show his mother.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:His mother, he comes home all defeated.
Speaker:He's ch- he's taken his anger out on a, on a tree.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's trying to chop down a tree.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And his, and his mother- Cherry tree … his mother comes and, and
Speaker:talks to him and kinda, like, says, you know, "If you don't learn from…"
Speaker:Basically, "If you don't learn from these mistakes, then, then you failed twice."
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You failed once at y- at your actual failure, and you failed a second time by
Speaker:not learning from it and not being better.
Speaker:And so he kinda, he shows that.
Speaker:He's at his low point, and then the movie kind of sends him on the upswing.
Speaker:Yeah, and so he volunteers as the aide-de-camp to Edward Braddock,
Speaker:to General Edward Braddock.
Speaker:Uh, and we know that George Washington's gonna have some tremendous aide-de-camps
Speaker:when he, for the Revolutionary War.
Speaker:So you can see, like, how he's learning- Yeah … to do these jobs.
Speaker:Now, he's gonna recommend split the army into one main column, flying columns.
Speaker:He's gonna say, "There's a difference in fighting within these forests.
Speaker:You can't set up these two columns.
Speaker:There's no fronts.
Speaker:There's no large fields.
Speaker:People fight from the trees."
Speaker:So he's trying to kinda give him, like, the, the topography
Speaker:and- He's like, "The, the fighting style's different." Right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he, and just think, even if you've never been to England-
Speaker:Mm … just think of it.
Speaker:If you've ever seen a movie of, that's been filmed over there,
Speaker:the countryside is just different.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's just different.
Speaker:And when you, and you think about, you know, Pennsylvania- Mm … and
Speaker:how thick the forests are out there, it's just totally different terrain.
Speaker:And even Braddock was kinda, they kinda show how surprised Braddock was when
Speaker:he's like, "I've been in, you know, many, many, many battles." He's like, "Not
Speaker:like, not like here on the new country."
Speaker:And then he gets up there, and he's like, "Why are we stopped?" He's
Speaker:like, "There's a tree." He's like… And he's, he's yelling at one of
Speaker:his majors or colonels, whatever.
Speaker:He's like, he says, "How do you expect to defeat the French if you can't defeat
Speaker:a tree?" And it's this massive tree that just fell across- the trail, and
Speaker:they gotta spend half a day chopping this tree up just to get through
Speaker:' Cause you need the wagons that,
Speaker:uh- 'Cause you have to have the-
Speaker:all the artillery … all the, all the supplies and all the stuff.
Speaker:And so they did a really good, I thought they did a really good job of showing
Speaker:w- how hard these conflicts were and how difficult it was to get from one location
Speaker:to the next if you weren't do- going on the river, and all of this stuff.
Speaker:And then so finally we get to this, this conflict.
Speaker:Yeah, so they basically, they're- they're being sent to expel
Speaker:the French from Fort Duquesne.
Speaker:So this is, again, we're leading, th- th- we're trying to do the
Speaker:same job now the third time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So now we have Braddock, we have a whole British army who's going to do this,
Speaker:and Washington has volunteered as the aide-de-camp to the general in charge.
Speaker:So they get there.
Speaker:They get to almost in the same area.
Speaker:I mean, they are right beside Fort Necessity when a huge
Speaker:battle takes place, and it's the Battle of the Mon- Monongahela.
Speaker:And two thor- two-thirds of the British forces become casualties, and Braddock
Speaker:is killed, and that's does happen.
Speaker:Now, in the movie they allude to he's killed right away.
Speaker:In reality, he lingers.
Speaker:He does, he does get a chest wound, and he lingers for a couple days- Oh,
Speaker:okay … and dies a couple days later.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But again, for a movie, they rush where he gives him his sash.
Speaker:That actually does happen.
Speaker:Yeah, so Washington is basically-
Speaker:He's, has dysentery … he, he's
Speaker:been sick.
Speaker:He's very sick.
Speaker:He gets up, he's riding his horse.
Speaker:He's trying to go kinda save his men, 'cause his men- He's near the
Speaker:battle … the Virginia Militia, the Virginia Militia were on the front line.
Speaker:Front lines, yep.
Speaker:And then so he's trying to save his men, while at the same
Speaker:time, who is the other major?
Speaker:So Thomas Gage, and what's so interesting is this is absolutely true, the command
Speaker:of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage.
Speaker:Thomas Gage is going to be the commander-in-chief of the British
Speaker:forces during the American Revolution.
Speaker:Which is so interesting because it shows these two kind of, there's this push-pull
Speaker:relationship between Washington and Gage.
Speaker:Gage is this traditional, formal, has official commission and everything
Speaker:like that, whereas Washington doesn't.
Speaker:But you see Gage kind of coming around to Washington, and at one point
Speaker:he's even telling Washington when Washington's sick on his horse getting
Speaker:ready to go save his men, he's like, "Washington, it's, the battle is lost."
Speaker:Mm-hmm, yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:He's, he's trying to, he even calls him friend.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He's like, "C- come, friend," right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and he's like, "What could be worth it?" And, in that,
Speaker:that classic hero shot, right?
Speaker:You know, he's, Washington looks up.
Speaker:He's like, "My men." Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And he rides off.
Speaker:And, uh, but so they show this relationship between these two, and
Speaker:Gage, they show him kind of saying, "Oh, the general called the retreat."
Speaker:Which didn't happen.
Speaker:Which didn't happen, and so Washington's trying to find the general, and
Speaker:that's, he finds General Braddock.
Speaker:Braddock sees Wash- and J- Washington.
Speaker:They do a good job of showing him.
Speaker:Like, the actor's pretty tall.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:And so he was this big, imposing- And with the red hair
Speaker:yeah, he's got- Reddish … kind of reddish hair.
Speaker:And so he finds the general, the general gives him his sash,
Speaker:which you said is accurate.
Speaker:Sash is at Mount Vernon today.
Speaker:And, and, and he, and Braddock basically tells him, "Rally the men. Hold this."
Speaker:He's still giving him direction.
Speaker:He had never called the retreat like Gage had, had implied.
Speaker:And Gage makes it sound like, "This is not my home. My home
Speaker:is in, across the ocean." Yeah.
Speaker:And George Washington's like, "This is my home."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, that's, he said- Right?
Speaker:… that, that's the difference between us.
Speaker:That's the difference between us.
Speaker:These men will meet again 20 years later, right?
Speaker:That's so
Speaker:crazy.
Speaker:As commander in chiefs of their opposing forces.
Speaker:I find that, and that's true.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So I find that very cool how they did that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so then you see him get the sash from Gage, uh, which will eventually happen.
Speaker:Gage doesn't, I mean, uh, the, the sash from, uh, Braddock, which does happen.
Speaker:Braddock will die a couple days later.
Speaker:They do bury Braddock there on the main road, and they did that
Speaker:because they believed the American Indians would desecrate his grave.
Speaker:So they felt like if they put his grave on the main road and trampled over it,
Speaker:that no one would know where it was.
Speaker:Today, there's a big monument there.
Speaker:Again, it's right beside the Juniper, uh, location where the massacre took place,
Speaker:and it's right beside Fort Necessity.
Speaker:You can see all of these three places within, like, 10 miles.
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:So in the movie, he kinda does this heroic bullets can't touch me ride, right?
Speaker:He, he rides out, he gets to his men, he kinda rallies his Virginia militia.
Speaker:He's able to kinda start maneuvering the troops to, to turn things around, to
Speaker:turn the tide of that particular battle.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And he kinda just saves, he saves the day there.
Speaker:So during the engagement, Washington will have two horses shot out from under
Speaker:him, his hat and his coats are pierced with bullets, and he, uh- redeems his
Speaker:reputation among his credits f- for losing command at, uh, the Battle Fort Necessity,
Speaker:because he's out there in front, because he helps his men, because he is this
Speaker:marker of inspiration of not getting hit by any bullets and going out in front.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I… Who is it?
Speaker:Ben Kingsley that plays the governor?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So Ben Kingsley, uh, i- in, um… I'm trying to think of other movies that
Speaker:people would know him, know him from.
Speaker:He was in, like, some of the I- Gandhi … Gandhi.
Speaker:He was in some of the Iron Man movies playing that weird actor, uh, who
Speaker:kind of pretended- Sherlock List.
Speaker:Yeah, so he's, he's been in a bunch of movies, but he does a great job.
Speaker:So after this, Washington saves the day at Fort Duquesne, right?
Speaker:So they, they come back and he saved a bunch of men that
Speaker:probably would've been captured.
Speaker:Um, they come back home and he's basically kinda giving the report to
Speaker:the governor, who is Ben Kingsley.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And Ben Kingsley's standing there with some other British officers and, and
Speaker:Washington is still… Like, he's cleaned up, but he's still in the same uniform.
Speaker:He's like, "You know, what's with the uniform?" He's like,
Speaker:"Well, this is the only one that I have." He's like, "No, no, no.
Speaker:There's a… There's bullet holes in it."
Speaker:He's like, "Well…" And Washington n- understand the question.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he keeps kinda hitting him with it.
Speaker:He's like, "There's, there's a hole in your hat. There's
Speaker:holes in your uniform," and, and Washington just kinda looks at him.
Speaker:Like, "It's the only hat I
Speaker:have." Like, it's, it's, it's, "This is all I have." And, uh, you know,
Speaker:and then they, they do some things, you know, with the Native Americans-
Speaker:Which never happened
Speaker:which never happened.
Speaker:So in the movie they actually… I guess some of the opposing Native Americans
Speaker:had said, "Hey, we wanna talk to this guy, Washington." So he goes and talks
Speaker:to him, and they kind of say, like, "Oh, you're protected," and it kinda…
Speaker:They kind of put it over the top as far as the mystery surrounding him.
Speaker:The myth that does become… The myth that, that does becomes the reality
Speaker:of George Washington- Yeah … that he will ride out in front of his troops, he
Speaker:will be one of the first people on the battlefield, that he doesn't get hit.
Speaker:He really is an inspiration.
Speaker:This all comes after his life, and so we allude to it now, but they are trying
Speaker:to make it in the movie like they're…
Speaker:they recognize it in the moment- Yeah … which they really didn't.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Some of the things here, too, that happen is he comes back and he appoints
Speaker:him commander with the rank of colonel to the Virginia Militia, and they
Speaker:allude to why their colors are blue.
Speaker:Yeah, so it's the new uniforms.
Speaker:Yes, and it's because indigo is a crop that actually is grown in
Speaker:Pennsylvania, it's grown in Louisiana.
Speaker:A lot of people have indigo plantations, and it's a dye.
Speaker:The dye is blue, and so it's just an easier color to access,
Speaker:and that's what they allude to.
Speaker:I don't know if that's true, but that's why they wear the blue.
Speaker:It worked really well for the movie.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so, and th- you know, I, I mentioned that Ben Kingsley, you
Speaker:know, governor scene is like, "Hey, you have all these holes in, um,
Speaker:in, you know, in your uniform."
Speaker:And then, and then all of a sudden the… kinda the last part of the movie, the last
Speaker:scene of the movie is, um- How is him in the new blue uniform, which you see all
Speaker:the pictures of George Washington, like picture, uh, an image of George Washington
Speaker:in his uniform, it's that blue uniform.
Speaker:It's the classic blue uniform, so he's wearing that, and then he's, he's walking
Speaker:in front of his troops, and he gives a speech, and they're like, everybody's
Speaker:like, "Yeah, Virginia," you know?
Speaker:So it was great.
Speaker:Yeah, and what they don't allude to is like two years later, he- this is again
Speaker:when George Washington, impatient for his, um, official royal commission,
Speaker:and he believes that Braddock would've give him a, a commission, um, asks
Speaker:for it again, and he's denied again.
Speaker:Um, it ends in 1755, so this would've happened in 1757.
Speaker:Uh, so you're gonna start to see, I think they're making a sequel now, more of
Speaker:what's gonna reinforce George Washington fighting for independence for our country.
Speaker:I do wanna say one more thing.
Speaker:Uh, Christopher Gist, they do have him as a character in this.
Speaker:Uh, they do kinda show him saving George Washington's life.
Speaker:He's known for saving George Washington's life twice.
Speaker:He goes on missions with him into the wilderness.
Speaker:Um, when they fall into the river as they're heading down to Pittsburgh,
Speaker:uh, it's actually Gist that gr- that saves Washington from drowning in
Speaker:the river, and they make it over to the island, and they're able to
Speaker:spend, uh, a night on that island.
Speaker:And, uh, during the night, it will freeze, and they're able to walk over.
Speaker:Um, but Gist does not, um, pass away at Fort Necessity.
Speaker:He actually will live a lot longer, but he's a part, he's part of
Speaker:the Braddock Expedition in 1755.
Speaker:He's a part of Fort Necessity in 1754, and he actually dies in 1759 of smallpox.
Speaker:So he's not shot at Fort Necessity, and it's not the moment that George
Speaker:Washington realizes his big blunder.
Speaker:Um, but it adds to the, to the movie, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But Gist does save his life, and they do spend that night, uh, on the island
Speaker:in Pittsburgh until it freezes over, and they do walk across the river together.
Speaker:Yeah, it was, it was great.
Speaker:I actually really enjoyed the movie.
Speaker:Even the kids, uh, kind of enjoyed it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So if you are a history fan, which I'm sure you are if you're watching
Speaker:this or if you're listening, we would recommend going to see it.
Speaker:I think they did a pretty good job.
Speaker:Um, and we actually saw, I saw on social media that the guy who wrote the
Speaker:movie says they're filming a follow-up, so they're gonna film one for around
Speaker:1776, so that should be pretty cool.
Speaker:That's really awesome.
Speaker:It's easy to look back at the giants of American history and see them as
Speaker:statues carved out of marble, perfect, stoic, and destined for greatness.
Speaker:But as we walked out of Young Washington, the thing that lingers is the reminder
Speaker:that before the glory, there was the mud George Washington's story
Speaker:didn't begin with a grand victory.
Speaker:It began with a humiliating defeat, international blunders, and a young
Speaker:man desperately trying to prove himself on a dangerous frontier.
Speaker:He wasn't born a legend, he was forged by his failures.
Speaker:Whether you love the cinematic style of Angel Studios or prefer to stick
Speaker:strictly to primary sources, this film does something critical: it
Speaker:humanizes the father of our country.
Speaker:It reminds us that leadership isn't about never falling down.
Speaker:It's about having the courage to dust off the bullet holes in your coat, get back
Speaker:on your horse, and take the next step.
Speaker:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker:Thank you
Speaker:This has been a Walk With History production.
Speaker:Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie.
Speaker:Episode researched by Jennifer Bennie.
Speaker:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Speaker:Talk With History is supported by our community at thehistoryroadtrip.com.
Speaker:Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player,
Speaker:and we'll talk to you next time
