garrison was weak; in great want of provisions; and
had been deserted by the Indians. These encouraging circumstances
changed the resolution which had been taken, and determined the
general to prosecute the expedition.

[Sidenote: Fort Du Quesne evacuated by the French, and taken
possession of by the English.]

{November 25.}

Colonel Washington was advanced in front; and, with immense labour,
opened a way for the main body of the army. The troops moved forward
with slow and painful steps until they reached fort Du Quesne, of
which they took peaceable possession; the garrison having on the
preceding night, after evacuating and setting it on fire, proceeded
down the Ohio in boats.

To other causes than the vigour of the officer who conducted this
enterprise, the capture of this important place is to be ascribed. The
naval armaments of Britain had intercepted the reinforcements designed
by France for her colonies; and the pressure on Canada was such as to
disable the governor of that province from detaching troops to fort Du
Quesne. Without the aid of these causes, the extraordinary and
unaccountable delays of the campaign must have defeated its object.

The works were repaired, and the new fort received the name of the
great minister, who, with unparalleled vigour and talents, then
governed the nation.

After furnishing two hundred men from his regiment as a garrison for
fort Pitt, Colonel Washington marched back to Winchester; whence he
soon afterwards proceeded to Williamsburg, to take his seat in the
General Assembly, of which he had been elected a member by the county
of Frederick, while at fort Cumberland.

A cessation of Indian hostility being the consequence of expelling the
French from the Ohio, Virginia was relieved from the dangers with
which she had been threatened; and the object for which alone he had
continued in the service, after perceiving that he should not be
placed on the permanent establishment, was accomplished. His health
was much impaired, and his domestic affairs required his attention.

[Sidenote: Resignation and marriage of Colonel Washington.]

Impelled by these and other motives of a private nature, he determined
to withdraw from a service, which he might now quit without dishonour;
and, about the close of the year, resigned his commission, as colonel
of the first Virginia regiment, and commander-in-chief of all the
troops raised in the colony.

[Illustration: The Washington Fam