In 1749, while surveying land for Lord Fairfax, George Washington met a young man remarkably like himself. The person was William Crawford. The Virginian stood well over six feet tall, was raised by a widowed mother, and was also a surveyor. This friendship lasted for more than thirty years until Crawford's death at the end of the American Revolution.
Personal Life
Born in 1722 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, he was raised by his mother Honora after the death of his father. After being widowed after the death of his wife Ann Stewart, he married Hannah Vance in 1723. In addition to his daughter his first wife, William and Hannah shared three more children. Washington and Crawford began surveying together in 1749, and later served together in the military. The bond between Washington and Crawford deepened during the Seven Years’ War. Crawford fought with Washington at Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela near Fort Duquesne in July 1755. Three years later, they fought together again outside the walls of the fort, finally taking the post in November 1758.
Washington later visited Crawford's home in October 1770, and the two men set out by canoe down the Ohio as far as the Kanawha River, searching for the best land for Virginians who had received lands for their service in the war. Crawford later went on to survey tens of thousands of acres in western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio for Washington as his land agent.1
Service in the American Revolution and Crawford Expedition
After the journey, Washington and Crawford carried on a steady correspondence, but did not meet again until August 1776. Crawford by then was the colonel of Virginia's 7th Regiment and joined Washington at the Battle of Long Island. Crawford went on to fight under Washington's command at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown.
In 1780, Colonel Crawford returned to western Pennsylvania as the commander of American forces in the west. Exhausted from years of fighting, and hoping to retire to his home at Stewart's Crossing, Crawford resigned from the army in 1781. But when British-allied nations such as the Delawares continued raids on along the Sandusky River, General William Irvine, the commander at Pittsburgh, asked Crawford for assistance. Known as the Crawford Expedition, he led 500 volunteers west in June 1782.
After several days of fighting in the swampy country near Upper Sandusky, Crawford and dozens of others were captured while retreating. He was stripped naked, tied to a post, and tortured for hours until he finally died. His his son, son-in-law, and nephew who joined him were also killed. Washington remembered the colonel as "an officer of much care and prudence," and wrote sadly to General Irvine, "I lament the failure of the expedition against Sandusky, and am particularly affected with the disastrous death of Colonel Crawford."2 This instance became a part of a larger military struggle between Indigenous nations and the nascent United States, it was highly publicized further damaging public sentiment towards Native Americans.
Mary Stockwell, Ph.D., revised by Zoie Horecny, Ph.D., 15 August 2025
Notes:
1. “George Washington to William Crawford, 17 September 1767,” Founders Online, National Archives; “Memorandum to William Crawford, 24 November 1770,” Founders Online, National Archives.
2. "George Washington to William Irvine, 6 August 1782," George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799: Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799.
Bibliography:
Abbot, W.W. "George Washington, the West, and the Union." Indiana Magazine of History 84 (March 1988): 3-14.
Anderson, James H. "Colonel William Crawford," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 6 (1898):1–34.
Butterfield, Consul Willshire. An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky under Col. William Crawford in 1782. Cincinnati: R. Clarke & Co., 1873
Butterfield, Consul Willshire. The Washington-Crawford Letters, Being the Correspondence Between George Washington and William Crawford, 1767to 1781, Concerning Western Lands. Cincinnati: R. Clarke & Co., 1877.
Cleland, Hugh. George Washington in the Ohio Valley. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955.
Cook, Roy Bird. Washington’s Western Lands. Strasburg, Va.: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., 1930.
Hall, Edward Hagaman. "Roll of Members." The Sons of the American Revolution: New York State Society, 1893-94. New York: Republic, 1894. 82. Print.
Scholl, A. W. The Brothers Crawford: Colonel William, 1722-1782 and Valentine Jr., 1724-1777. Vol. 1. Bowie, Md.: Heritage, 1995. Print.
