campaign, how did his handful of men fare? They nearly starved—and capitulated because they did not have the food to give them the necessary strength to retreat. This was not Washington's fault, for he, properly, left this matter with those whose business it was; but the experience certainly did not teach him how to handle an army.
I cannot see that he had the opportunity to learn much more in Braddock's campaign in 1755. He was that general's aide, a carrier of messages and orders, and a member of the military family. He had ever before his eyes a thousand examples of carelessness, chicanery, and mismanagement, but those could not teach him how an army was to be cared for properly. His advice was often asked and minded, but he gave it in the capacity of a frontiersman, not as a tactician or officer. The one exception was when he urged that Braddock divide the army into two parties by sending a small flying column rapidly against Fort Duquesne.
It is clear from preceding pages that, on the Virginia frontier, he learned no lessons on the control of large bodies of men.
