“Our father said, after the surrender, Mr. Morgan volunteered to bring a wagonload of casualties back to Frederick Town without payment. A French musket ball broke my father’s leg and he could not walk. He told us had he not gotten that ride, he would not have lived.”

“As far as I know, that’s all true,” Rev. Thruston said. “Daniel has told me he was ‘born poor’ in New Jersey in 1736 and walked down the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia to Frederick County when he was just seventeen. After working at farming and as the foreman of a sawmill for about a year, John Ashby, Robert Burwell’s superintendent, hired him to drive wagonloads of produce from the Shenandoah to the seaports in Alexandria, Dumfries, and Fredericksburg and return with goods needed in the Valley.

“When Morgan transported your father to safety from Fort Necessity, he was just eighteen years old. Your father also served in the Braddock Expedition the following year, didn’t he?”

“Yes, sir. By then he had been elected to command a Virginia Militia Company. They were called up in February 1755 when General Braddock arrived in Virginia with two regiments of British Regulars. In May, General Braddock and his troops arrived at Fort Cumberland with orders to drive the French out of the fort they erected where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers merge to form the Ohio. It’s also when he again met Mr. Morgan and Colonel Washington.”

“Ah, yes,” Rev. Thruston nodded, “the ill-fated expedition in the summer of 1755 to seize Fort Duquesne1 from the French and their savage allies. By then Daniel had saved enough to purchase his own team of draft horses and a sturdy wagon. He was hired to haul supplies and military equipment from Winchester to Fort Cumberland. It’s ironic your father, young Morgan, and George Washington all participated in two catastrophes on the same ground—both caused by British arrogance and unwillingness to take advice from mere colonials. What did your father have to say about that venture?”

“He told us that between April and June his Militia Company was posted at Fort Cumberland and how Mr. Morgan was flogged for disrespect to a British officer . . .”

The Reverend smiled and said, “According to the oft-repeated story, a court-martial for insubordination sentenced Daniel to 500 lashes—but the drummer miscounted and he only received 499. Whatever the number, if you ever see him with his shirt off you will see the scars. That kind of beating would likely have killed a lesser man than Daniel Morgan. What more did your father have to say about the campaign?”

“He said Lieutenant Colonel Washington was unable to get a Royal commission so he volunteered to serve without pay as one of General Braddock’s aides. Unfortunately, as you said, the general ignored most of his advice until it was too late. He also told us General Washington and Daniel Morgan were heroes in the midst of the disaster.”