dant. When appointed General, Washington wrote, "tell Doctor
Craik that I should be very glad to see him here if there was anything
worth his acceptance; but the Massachusetts people suffer nothing to
go by them that they lay hands upon." In 1777 the General secured his
appointment as deputy surgeon-general of the Middle Department, and three
years later, when the hospital service was being reformed, he used his
influence to have him retained. Craik was one of those instrumental in
warning the commander-in-chief of the existence of the Conway Cabal,
because "my attachment to your person is such, my friendship is so
sincere, that every hint which has a tendency to hurt your honor, wounds
me most sensibly." The doctor was Washington's companion, by invitation,
in both his later trips to the Ohio, and his trust in him was so strong
that he put under his care the two nephews whose charge he had assumed. In
Washington's ledger an entry tells of another piece of friendliness, to
the effect, "Dr. James Craik, paid him, being a donation to his son, Geo.
Washington Craik for his education L30," and after graduating the young
man for a time served as one of his private secretaries. After a serious
illness in 1789, Washington wrote to the doctor, "persuaded as I am, that
the case has been treated with skill, and with as much tenderness as the
nature of the complaint would admit, yet I confess I often wished for your
inspection of it," and later he wrote, "if I should ever have occasion for
a Physician or Surgeon, I should prefer my old Surgeon, Dr. Craik, who,
from 40 years' experience, is better qualified than a Dozen of them put
together." Craik was the first of the doctors to reach Washington's
bedside in his last illness, and when the dying man predicted his own
death, "the Doctor pressed his hand but could not utter a word. He retired
from the bedside and sat by the fire absorbed in grief." In Washington's
will he left "to my compatriot in arms and old and intimate friend, Doctor
Craik I give my Bureau (or as the Cabinet makers called it, Tambour
Secretary) and the circular chair, an appendage of my study."

The arrival of Braddock and his army at Alexandria brought a new circle of
military friends. Washington "was very particularly noticed by that
General, was taken into his family as an extra aid, offered a Captain's
commission by _brevet_ (which was the highest grade he had it in his power
to bestow) and had the compliment o