Braam persuaded Washington to sell him his dress
uniform for £13, on credit. The two men gathered up some
of their belongings, made their farewells, and crossed to
the French lines. There Villiers signed both copies of the
surrender document, returned one to the escorting
English officer, and took the two hostages into custody.

Villiers’ report was self-congratulatory:
We made the English give us in their own hands, that they
had committed an assassination on us, in the camp of my
brother. We had hostages as sureties for the French whom
they had in their power; we compelled them to evacuate the
country as belonging to the most Christian King. We obliged
them to leave us their cannon, which consisted of nine pieces.
We had already destroyed all their horses and cattle, and
further we made them give us in their own hand that the
favor we showed them was only to prove to them bow
greatly we desired to treat them as Ponds.

The negotiations had taken some 4 hours, and it was
now after midnight. The dog-tired soldiers on both sides

lay down to get what sleep they could before the events
of the next day.

39


the rain, exhausted, and “‘little accustomed to this military
discipline.” His Indians were threatening to leave him in
the morning. He had received a report that “the beat of
drums and the firing of cannon had been heard from a
distance”’—which could mean that the rumored reinforce-
ment of 5,000 English might appear. His second in com-
mand agreed that they should parlay.

Since France and England were not at war, Villiers told
La Peyroney and Van Braam, he would show mercy and
permit the English to retire to their own territory rather than
become prisoners of war. If they refused his offer however,
and continued an “obstinate resistance,” he could not
guarantee to protect them from the Indians when the fort
fell. A body of 400 braves, he said (exaggerating by 300),
would arrive in the morning. He might not be able to
control them.

La Peyroney and Van Braam returned to the stockade
and conveyed Villiers’ terms to Washington. Though he
never said so, he must have felt mingled emotions of
surprise, relief, and pleasure. One-fourth of his men were
sick and another one-third lay dead or wounded. He had
little food, no means of transportation, no hope of escape
or victory. He had no reason to expect such favorable
treatment from the enemy.

Washington instructed the two officers to return to the
French lines and insist that the proposed terms be put in
writing. La Peyroney seems to have collapsed by this
time, for Van Braam went back alone. He was gone for
what seemed a very long time. When he returned, he
carried the surrender document written out in duplicate on
two sheets of paper. Adam Stephen described the scene
a few weeks later for the Maryland Gazette at Annapolis:
“When Mr. Van Braam returned with the French proposals,
we were obliged to take the sense of them by word of
mouth: It rained so heavily that he could not give us a
written translation of them; we could scarcely keep the
candle light to read them; they were wrote in a bad hand,
on wet and blotted paper so that no person could read
them but Van Braam who had heard them from the mouth
of the French officer.”

Van Braam, reading aloud, translating as he went along,
was working in two languages not native to him; he
probably translated the French words mentally into Dutch
and then into English. He may have run quickly through
the preamble:

Capitulation granted by M. de Villiers, captain of infantry
and commander of troops of his most Christian Majesty, to
those English troops actually in the fort of Necessity which
was built on the lands of the King’s dominions July the 3rd,
at eight o'clock in the evening, 1754. As our intention
has never been to trouble the peace and good harmony that
reigns between the two friendly princes, but only to
revenge...

35


of fighting a battle at the Great Meadows if he could avoid
it; the real bastion was to be built at Red Stone on the
Monongahela, on the far side of Chestnut Ridge.

The Virginia House of Burgesses publicly commended
its regiment, praised the officers ‘for their late gallant and
brave behavior,” and gave each man a bonus of one pis-
tole, a coin worth about $4. It excepted two names from
its citiation: George Muse, who resigned his commission
in disgrace, and Jacob Van Braam, who, unaware of the
blame being heaped upon him by Washington and others,
was innocently playing cards with the French officers in
Fort Duquesne while waiting to be exchanged for the
French prisoners.

The consequences of the defeat at Fort Necessity were
momentous. The English lost the Indians as allies and
within a few months all the tribes were either allied with
the French or were neutral; within a year they were burn-
ing and pillaging the entire western frontier. The Virginia
Regiment, the only protection for several thousand square
miles vulnerable to attack, was now demoralized and
racked by desertion. The French were strengthening their
fortification at the Forks of the Ohio. The ministry at Ver-
sailles had invaluable propaganda materials: the Articles
of Capitulation with its embarrassing admission of guilt,
and "Colonel! Washington's” private journal of the expedi-
tion. They printed both with appropriate comment in the
famous pamphlet, Mémoire contenant le précise des faits.

Humiliation was piled upon humiliation. The Half King,
having taken up residence at George Croghan’s trading
center in central Pennsylvania, declared, ‘The colonel
[Washington] was a good-natured man, but had no experi-
ence; he took upon him to command the Indians as his
slaves, and would have them every day upon the out scout
and attack the enemy by themselves, but would by no
means take advice from the Indians. He lay at one place
from one full moon to the other, and made no fortifications
at all, but that little thing upon the meadow, where he
thought the French would come up to him in an open field;
had he taken my advice, and made such fortifications as |
advised him to make, he would certainly have beat the
French off. But the French acted as great cowards, and the
English as fools, in the engagement.” The Half King went
on to explain that he and his Indians alone had done all
the fighting against Jumonville and his men. The Council
of Virginia ruled that Washington, in guaranteeing the re-
turn of the 21 French prisoners taken in the Jumonville
action, had exceeded his authority, since he had sent
them east and they were no longer under his jurisdiction.
When Dinwiddie reorganized the Virginians into 8 com-
panies of regulars with no rank higher than captain,
Washington, rather than accept a demotion, left the serv-
ice and devoted himself to running his brother's estate at
Mount Vernon.

45


Crossed the onean, and set himself up as a merchant In
Petersburg, Va, When the prospect.ot an armed clash with
the French seomed imminent, he bought and studied a
Vestine on the militaryart, hired 10 “servant medhanes."
Including a blacksmith and skilled hunters, and joumnayed
to Alexandria to join the Ohio expedition, Captain Stobo,
whe liked to travel in comfort and Nad Ihe meang to do so

hroughtwith him a filed with personal supplies and
equipment and a cask holding 126 gallons of Mac#ira
wing.

Washington's chile! aide was Maj George Muse. He
was. wilh Washingtan, one of the four district adjutants of
Ihe Virginia militie. He had S96n action in 1740 in the Brit:
ish attack on Spanish Cartagens on te nerihwes) coast of
Colombia in the Caribbean

Surgeon-major of the regiment was James Oralk 24.
physician. also 6 graduate ofthe University af Edinburgh.
Or. Craik had emigrated to Virginia in 1750,

To-serve asthe expedition’s intarpreter and adviser on
indhan affairs and to supply. it with certain provisions at
Wills Greek, Governor Dinwiddie recruited George Crogti+

Weeweud


FORT NECESSITY AFTER 1755

George Washington spent much time, effort, and money
trying to convert his regiment's claims for 20,000

acres cf bounty lands for their 1754 service into

actual grants. The territory to be divided among his

men was shifted from the area around the Forks of the
Ohio tc a less desirable region about 300 miles down the
Ohio River. Washington made two trips to inspect his
western land holdings in 1770 and 1784, accompanied on
each journey by his friend Dr. Craik. He eventually ac-
quired 32,373 acres of frontier land, only 3,953 of it
awarded him as bounty land; much of the rest was bought
from the men who had served with him in 1754. In 1794,
“having, from long experience, found that landed property
at a distance from the proprietor, is attended with more
plague than profit,” he offered to sell all his Ohio land
holdings for $3.33 per acre.

On his 1770 trip to the west, Washington bought Great
Meadows, including the site of Fort Necessity, from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 30 pistoles (about
$120). He visited the place again in 1784. He attempted to
lease the land to a tenant farmer but never succeeded in
finding one who would stay and pay his rent. At his death
in 1799 the land was appraised at $1,404.

The value of the land rose considerably in 1811 when
the Federal Government began to construct the National
Highway, following fairly closely the line of the Braddock-
Washington Road. (Present U.S. 40, in turn, follows the
National Highway.) The value rose again during the 1820s
when Judge Nathanial Ewing erected Mount Washington
Tavern, a large brick building near the site of Fort Neces-
sity. One of the best, largest, and most profitable inns and
stagecoach stations on the highway, it is now part of Fort
Necessity National Battlefield.

The remains of Fort Necessity lay in the Great Meadows
for 175 years without receiving any restoration or perma-
nent commemoration. The site was well known to his-
torians, however, and many visitors walked down from the
National Highway or the tavern to inspect the area.

The first effort to map the remains was made in 1816 by
Freeman Lewis, a professional surveyor. By that time the
burned traces of the stockade had disappeared and only
the ridges of the entrenchments remained. Lewis plotted
these ridges in an almost triangular shape and theorized
that they marked the stockade walls. He supposed that
the mounds had been formed “by throwing up the earth
against the palisades.” His assumption that the contours.
of the stockade wall followed the ridges was uncritically
accepted, and from 1816 until 1953 every theory about the
size and shape of Fort Necessity was wrong.

To add to the confusion, most of those who examined
the surface remains thought they indicated a diamond-
shaped fort. Variations on the two basic themes often in-
cluded bastions at the corners, or a bulging extension of
the north wall to cover the stream. Proponents of each

37


campaign, many had interesting subsequent ex-

periences or careers. Robert Stobo, while a hos-
tage at Fort Duquesne, smuggled out a detailed scale
map of the fort on the back of a letter that gave an
account of French weaknesses and stated that the French
commissary, La Force, was a man too valuable to the
French to be returned. La Force and his fellow prisoners
were held in Virginia; Stobo and his fellow hostage Van
Braam were sent to Canada; and Stobo’s map was given
to General Braddock. When the French came upon the
map among the general's captured papers, they court-
martialed Stobo and sentenced him to death in a trial
that attracted international attention. He made a daring
escape down the St. Lawrence River, reached the British
forces at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, and returned to
serve on Gen. James Wolfe's staff at the siege of Quebec.
He received a hero’s welcome and a £1,000 award in
Williamsburg, after which he finished his life as a captain
in the regular British army.

With the fall of Montreal, Jacob Van Braam was re-
leased from 6 years of not-very-rigorous confinement. He
returned to Williamsburg, where the Burgesses, ashamed
of the obviously false charges of treachery that had been
leveled against him, received him as a friend, gave him his
back pay of £828, and awarded him an additional £500 for
his sufferings. He then made a career in the British army.

Ancrew Lewis was captured during General Forbes’
1758 march on Fort Duquesne and was imprisoned in
Quebec, where he met Stobo and Van Braam. He com-
manded the 800-man army of American colonials that in
1774 won a decisive victory over the Indians at Point
Pleasant on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Great Kana-
wha. He served as a brigadier general in the American
War of Independence, driving the English governor out of
Virginia in the early months of the war.

George Croghan, as deputy to Sir William Johnson, the
influential British Indian agent, became the second most
powerful political force and the second largest landowner
on the western frontier before 1776.

Capt. James Mackay retired from the army in 1755, built
up a good estate in Georgia, and then moved to Rhode
Island for his health. On his way back to Georgia in 1785,
he fell ill in Alexandria and died, waiting in vain for a visit
from Washington, who did not know of his arrival.

Dr. James Craik was for many years Washington's
neighbor, friend, and personal physician. He became
chief surgeon of the Continental Army during the American
Revolution and in that position warned Washington of the
plot of the “Conway Cabal” to replace him with Gen.
Horatio Gates. He was one of the attending physicians at
the death of Washington in Mount Vernon in 1799, and of
Washington's widow 3 years later.

Adam Stephen served as a major general in the Revolu-
tion. On July 20, 1776, with the British army massing its

O f the men who took part in the Fort Necessity

55


APPENDICES

A, Articles of Capitulation

Capitulation granted by Mons. De Villier, captain of infan-
try and commander of troops of his most Christian
Majesty, to those English troops actually in the fort of
Necessity which was built on the lands of the King's domi-
nions July the 3rd, at eight o'clock at night, 1754.

As our intention has never been to trouble the peace
and good harmony which reigns between the two friendly
princes, but only to revenge the assassination which has
been done on one of our officers, bearer of a summons, upon
his party, as also to hinder any establishment on the lands
of the dominions of the King, my master; upon these con-
siderations, we are willing to grant protection or favor, to
all the English that are in the said fort, upon the conditions
hereafter mentioned.

1/ We grant the English commander to retire with all his
garrisons, to return peaceably into his own country, and
we promise to hinder his receiving any insult from us
French, and to restrain as much as shall be in our power
the Savages that are with us.

2/ He shall be permitted to withdraw and to take with him
whatever belongs to them excepting the artillery, which we
reserve for ourselves.

3/ We grant them the honors of war; they shall come out
with drums beating, and with a small piece of cannon,
wishing to show by this means that we treat them as
friends.

4/ As soon as these Articles are signed by both parties
they shail take down the English flag.

5/ Tomorrow at daybreak a detachment of French shall
receive the surrender of the garrison and take possession
of the aforesaid fort.

6/ Since the English have scarcely any horses or oxen
left, they shall be allowed to hide their property, in order
that they may return to seek for it after they shall have
recovered their horses; for this purpose they shall be per-
mitted to leave such number of troops as guards as they
may think proper, under this condition that they give their
word of honor that they will work on no establishment
either in the surrounding country or beyond the Highlands
during one year beginning from this day.

7/ Since the English have in their power an officer and two
cadets, and, in general, all the prisoners whom they took
when they assassinated Sieur de Jumonville they now
promise to send them with an escort to Fort Duquesne, sit-
uated on Belle River, and to secure the safe performance
of this treaty article, as well as of the treaty, Messrs. Jacob
Van Braam and Robert Stobo, both Captains shall be de-
livered to us as hostages until the arrival of our French and
Canadians herein before mentioned.

We on our part declare that we shall give an escort to
send back in safety the two officers who promise us our

61








on July 4 and formed two facing ranks. Washington

and Mackay put their men in formation and led
them between the ranks to the sound of French drums.
The English carried their supplies and, on their backs,
their wounded comrades. The one swivel gun they were
permitted as a token of war could not be transported and
had to be left behind. They proceeded to a separate part
of the Meadows and organized for the return to Wills
Creek.

They buried their dead, 17 from Mackay's company and
13 from the Virginia companies. (It is one of the mysteries
of Fort Necessity that a thorough search with modern
methods and devices has failed to discover the graves.)
Seventy men in all were wounded. The sergeants dis-
tributed a ration of shot and powder and scattered the
rest over the wet field. They destroyed some of their
baggage, selected what they thought they could carry, and
put the remainder in a pile to be retrieved later. Some-
where, somehow during this time Washington's journal of
the expedition was lost or stolen; it ended up in French
hands.

The French marched into the fort and raised the
fleur-de-lis. The number of English dead and wounded,
Villiers wrote, “raised compassion in me, notwithstanding
my resentment at the manner in which they had made
away with my brother.” He found and immediately
smashed several remaining kegs of rum before the Indians
could discover them. He had his men render the swivel
guns useless and break up and burn the wagons. He had
them pull some 55 of the palisade posts from the ground,
stack them around the remaining 20 posts, and set the
entire mass on fire.

The French losses were three killed, one of whom was
an Indian, and 17 wounded, two of them Indians. The
figures seem unbelievably low, but they are found in
Villiers’ report to his commanding officer, and it seems
unlikely that he would give him incorrect totals. (Jean
Victor Varin, the French king's comptroller in Canada,
reported to a higher official on July 24, “We lost 2
Canadians . . . and had 70 wounded, most of them very
lightly."") Washington and Mackay believed that the
English had killed 300 French and Indians, including an
officer of high rank; they so informed Dinwiddie, who sent
the information on to London.

The surrender ceremonies were scarcely completed
when the Indians demanded their traditional right to
pillage and make captives of the defeated enemy. When
Villiers refused their demands, they became unruly. The
100 Indians who had arrived during the night were highly
excited and could scarcely be restrained. They broke open
Dr. Craik's medicine chest, which was to have been left
with the wounded, and tore apart the baggage in the pile
to be left behind. Washington complained strongly to

T he French marched to Fort Necessity at daybreak

4






InglUdiNy One woUNdED man, were given protection. The
Indians damaried thet Ihe prisoners be lured overip
Tham. Washingtor refieect

When tho contusion of the encounter suosided, Wash~
ington found that ho had 21 prisoners and that 10) Frenoh
soldiers lay dear, including ther commander, Ensign
Toulon dé Jumanyile.* apparently killed by the Half
King’s hatchet. Gna Frenchman, anawaring a call of nature
al the.edge of tne camp, cocaped and Walked beretocted
back to the Forks of the Ohia te tell His story. Among the
prisoners was Captain La Force, the French commissary
Who in December had led Washington and Var Braam to
Le Boeul and tad bossted that the French would elfive the
English aut of the Obie Vallay Ih his report to Dinwiddie
Washington called hin “a bold Enterprising Man, anda

aN OY Qresit Sudlity art cunning . whase astive Spirit

pads him inte all pariayss,'*

Washington aise jeamed tram Van Sraam that the
French officers were indignantly charging him with uns
provoked attack in lime af peace on members of a Frerich
erizassy They had been sent oul, they seticd ty fired thee
Enigllat, peoehyi thole desiree (Gr Figidehip. and Warn
hain to depart peddeatily retry lard that belonged {0
France of be fornibly ejeetadl Thay elaine that they did
hot kKnow:the English were naar ane (hatthey kad en-
camped in the glen, netto Nide but because ofits supply
of waler, Thay produced credentiais sighed bya Captain:
Gontrecoeur al Pott Duquesne that seemed to support
thiir story, They insinted [hat they should be [reated 68
members af & diplomalic mission and not as uriaeners af
war.

Other ordars found among the French papers. however.
indicated that Jumonville was also ona reconnarssance
mussion.and had-been sending back reports on English
numbers and activites: Washington. ts officers, and fie
Indian allies.readily concurred thal Jumonvile was carry:


work on the road; crowds gathering around any messen-
ger newly arrived from Wills Creek or Winchester or
Williamsburg; and Indians wandering sharp-eyed through
the camp or dozing in front of their wigwams at the edge
of the woods.

The day after the arrival of the fourth and fifth com-
panies, the regiment fell out in formation for ceremonies
honoring the Indian allies. The Half King and his braves
appeared in a group, appropriately attired, decorated, and
painted for the occasion. Washington, in dress uniform,
read the speech Dinwiddie had not been able to deliver at
Winchester. He presented Dinwiddie's belts of wampum
and distributed his presents. He conferred on the Half King
the English name Dinwiddie, meaning “The Head of Every-
thing," and hung around his neck a crescent-shaped sil-
ver medailion called a ‘‘gorget,”’ showing the features of
King George II on one side and the British coat of arms on
the other. Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca matriarch who came
with the Half King, desired that her young son be received
into the council and be honored with an English name.
Washington decorated him with a gorget and named him
Fairfax, which he said meant "First of the Council.” Since
Colonel! Muse had brought several kegs of rum contributed
by Dinwiddie, it may be supposed that every man and the
Indian matron received a dram.

Within four or five more days, Capt. James Mackay
(pronounced MACK-ée) rode into camp at the head of
100 smartly uniformed, well-armed men of the South
Carolina Independent Company. They brought with them
60 head of cattle, some powder and ball, and 5 days’
ration of flour.

Dinwiddie had repeatedly cautioned Washington that
Captain Mackay held a commission signed by the King,
that his men, though citizens of South Carolina and
Georgia, were British Regulars, and that they expected
“suitable regard.” Washington and his officers, therefore,
were to “show them particular esteem" and would be
answerable “for any ill consequences of an unhappy
disagreement.”

Washington welcomed Mackay in a formal, military
manner and did not presume to give him orders. Mackay
picked his own campsite and mounted his own guard;
Washington did not inspect them. Washington sent over
the password and the countersign; Mackay returned them
with the information that he could not accept them froma
colonial officer,

The two men met and “reasoned calmly” over thorny
problems of protocol and rank. Mackay was not unfriendly,
but on these points he was inflexible: a royal commission
of any rank took precedence over any commission of any
rank signed by a colonial governor; and in any matters
that involved both his company and the Virginia Regiment,
he would give the orders. Washington replied as politely

25


that the French would send out a force to attack

him, and he straightaway set about to build a
stockade to protect his men and supplies. He chose as the
site the triangle of the two streams in the narrow part of
the Great Meadows.

He had his men select some 75 oak trees 9 to 10 inches
in diameter, cut them into logs about 10 feet long, and
split them lengthwise in half.He had another detachment
dig a trench about 2¥2 feet deep to form a circle with a
diameter of about 53 feet. The logs, with the bark still
‘on them, were then placed upright in the trench, edge to
edge, flat side out, the tops axed to a point. Fifty or more
smaller unsplit logs about 7 feet long were placed behind
these to close the gaps and to serve as gun rests. The
trench was filled in and the earth impacted. A gate 3¥2
feet wide, faced to the west, was hung between two
whole upright timbers.

In the center of the stockade the men built a low log
storehouse about 14 feet square, the roof of which was
covered with bark and hides. In this structure they placed
the powder, provisions, and several kegs of rum. Dr.
James Craik, the regimental surgeon-major, would use
this as an aid station when he arrived with the regiment's
other two companies.

The stockade would hold up to one company of 50
men; the others would fight from trenches and embank-
ments that surrounded the structure. Washington wrote to
Dinwiddie on June 3: “We have just finished a smal!
palisado'd fort in which, with my small numbers, | shall
not fear the attack of 500 men.” The next day he “had
prayers in the fort.”

The Half King had come to the Meadows on June 2 at
the head of 80 to 100 Indians. It was a dubious reinforce-
ment, for many of those who came were women, children,
and old men. Only half the braves were in a condition to
fight, and everyone expected to be fed from the regiment's
insufficient and dwindling stores. The Half King declined
the suggestion that he send all but his warriors to the Eng-
lish settlements. He had dispatched Monacatootha, carry-
ing the scalps of Jumonville’s dead, to persuade the Ohio
tribes to go on the warpath against the French, and he
would wait until he learned the results of that mission.
Washington, fortunately, was able to replenish his larder
with barrels of flour bought from a trader returning east,
though he paid an outrageous price.

More substantial reinforcements marched into camp on
June 9—the other two companies of the Virginia Regi-
ment, totaling 110 men and five officers, commanded by
Andrew Lewis and Robert Stobo. They were led by Maj.
George Muse, for the stout Colonel Fry, commander of the
regiment, had fallen off his horse and was mortally injured.
With the contingent came Captain Montour carrying a belt

{ fter the defeat of Jumonville, Washington assumed

> We have, with Nature's assistance, made a good Intrenchment, and, by
clearing the Bushes out of these Meadows, prepar'd a charming field

for an Encounter. cowmmeneon


were suffering even heavier losses. Lieutenant Mercier of
that company was wounded, continued to fight, was
wounded again, and was finally killed by a third shot as he
was being carried to Dr. Craik’s aid station in the stockade.
In the face of such casualties, Colonel Muse disgraced
himself by some act of cowardice that was later much
discussed but never specifically named. One story was
that he tried to flee with his men into the protection of the
stockade.

During the afternoon the firing slackened, diminished
by the rain and dwindling supplies of ball and powder on
both sides. The combatants, in the words of the historian
Francis Parkman, “could do little but gaze at each other
through a grey veil of mist and rain.’ Toward evening,
however, the rate of fire increased sharply, until it was
drowned entirely by what Washington called "the most
tremendous rain that can be conceived . . . that set every-
thing afloat.’" Now seemed a logical time for the French
and Indians to attack with bayonet and tomahawk. “Our
men," Washington said, ‘behaved with singular intrepidity,
and we determined not to ask for quarter but with our
bayonets screwed, to sell our lives as dearly as possibly
we could.”

While waiting, some of the wretched, rain-soaked, mud-
covered men discovered a source of instant courage and
good cheer. They broke open the kegs of rum in the store-
house and, along with about half the regiment, proceeded
to make themselves thoroughly drunk. Fortunately, the
French made no assault.

Instead, around 8 o'clock—30 minutes after sunset—
came an incredible call from the woods: “'Voulez-vous
parler?” (Do you wish to negotiate?””)

When this was translated for him, Washington refused
to reply. He was convinced that it was some trick by
which the French meant to get behind his lines and
discover the weakness of his position. The French called
again. No answer. They called again. This time Washington
called back an answer, either in his own voice or in French
by La Peyroney or Van Braam: No Frenchman would be
permitted to come within his lines. There was a lull, then
the French answer: The English could send an officer to
their lines to discuss terms. On their word of honor, he
would be allowed to return safely.

Washington agreed to negotiate on those terms. La
Peyroney, despite his wound, and Van Braam left the fort
together, crossed the field, and met with Captain de
Villiers and his second in command.

In his report on the battle, Villiers took pains to give all
the reasons that would justify his decision to give quarter
to an enemy in an apparently hopeless position. He had
thought of assaulting the fort, he said, and even prepared
bundles of fagots to set it afire. But his ammunition was
low, his powder damp, and his provisions almost gone.
He had no cannon with which to destroy the fort. His
French soldiers and Canadian militia were drenched from

34


yards wide and perhaps 2 miles long, fairly level, lying in
a wide valley between Laurel Mountain to the east and
Chestnut Ridge, the last barrier to the Monongahela,
looming on the west. The Meadows offered a rare benefit
in that heavily forested country: pasture for the horses and
cattle that were expected to come with the main body of
troops. For this reason, among others, Washington chose
it as an ideal base of operations and halfway station be-
tween the fortified positions at Wills Creek and Red Stone
Creek.

He placed his wagons and pitched his tents between
two shallow gullies that might serve as natural entrench-
ments. The ground was marshy in spots. Great Meadows
Run, a twisting, weed-grown stream some 10 feet wide in
places, and a smaller branch later known as Indian Run,
crossed the area; the camp was begun within the triangle
where the two streams joined. The site was bordered by
two low hills covered with forests of hardwood trees,
mostly white oak. It was, Washington informed Dinwiddie
with youthful extravagance, “a charming field for an
Encounter.”

Despite his extended forward position, Washington was
able to maintain frequent communication with the outside
world. To Dinwiddie he sent regular reports of his progress
and, especially, of his problems. He wrote of supply short-
ages, lack of reinforcements, and dissatisfaction among
officers and men at their hard work, low pay, and meager
diet. From Dinwiddie he received letters filled with prom-
ises, advice, orders, and reproaches for “‘ill-timed com-
plaints."’ To the camp came scouts with information,
deserters from the French forces, Indian runners with
messages from the Half King, and Indian spies with news
of activities at Fort Duquesne, the newly built French fort
at the Forks of the Ohio. American traders and trappers,
driven out by the French advance, passed through on their
way east, full of accounts of French conduct, strength, and
intentions. Many of the intelligence reports Washington
was receiving at this time warned of armed French con-
tingents sent out, or about to be sent out, to attack and
destroy him. Indeed, Washington, his officers, and his ad-
visors took it for granted that the armed French seizure of
territory far removed from French bases, and in an area
where they had never traded, was an act of war.

On the third day at the Meadows, Christopher Gist rode
in with news that 50 marauding French soldiers under
Captain La Force had just marched through his settlement
and “would have killed a cow and broken everything in
his house if they had not been prevented by two Indians”
he had left on guard there. Washington immediately sent
out Captain Hogg and 75 men—nearly half his force—on
a reconnaissance.

About 8 p.m. an Indian brave named Silverheels arrived
with a message from the Half King, who was encamped
about 6 miles away (at the site now known as Washing-
ton's Springs). The chief had seen the tracks of the

16


for FURTHER READING
Alberts, Robert C., The Most Extraordinary Adventures of
Major Robert Stobo, Boston, 1965.

Ambler, Charles H., George Washington and the West,
Chapel Hill, 1936.

Cleland, Hugh, George Washington in the Ohio Valley,
Pittsburgh, 1955.

Flexner, James Thomas, George Washington: The Forge
of Experience, Boston, 1965,

Freeman, Douglas Southall, George Washington, A Biog-
raphy (completed by J. A. Carroll and M. W. Ashworth),
7 vols., New York, 1948-1957. Vols. 1 & 2.

Gipson, Lawrence Henry, The British Empire Before the
American Revolution, 14 vols., Caldwell, Idaho & New
York, 1936-1969. Vols. 6, 7, & 8.

Hamilton, Charles, ed., Braddock's Defeat, Norman,
Oklahoma, 1959.

Harrington, J. C., New Light on Washington's Fort Neces-
sity, Richmond, 1957.

McCardell, Lee, /l/-Starred General, Pittsburgh, 1958.

Parkman, Francis, Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols., Boston,
1884, Many paperback editions available.

Sargent, Winthrop, The History of an Expedition Against
Fort Duquesne, Philadelphia, 1855.

63


and his baggage, and started off on foot with Gist. It was
not a dull trip. On the way to the Forks he was fired on by
an Indian. Crossing the Allegheny on a makeshift raft, he
was thrown into the river. He was rescued by Gist, and
they spent a freezing night in wet clothes on an island.
Just short of Wills Creek Washington met an oncoming
pack train of 17 horses carrying ‘materials and stores” for
a fort the Virginians were going to build on the Ohio. He
delivered the French reply in Williamsburg on January 16,
1754, having traveled almost a thousand miles in 11 weeks.

Governor Dinwiddie now had written evidence of
French intentions. He forwarded the reply to London, and
he put Washington's 6,000-word journal of his mission into
a pamphlet for circulation around the colonies, making the
young author known throughout America and England.
The British government gave Virginia £10,000 of ordnance
supplies and authorized the American colonies to mount a
joint program to hold back the French along the western
and northern frontier.

Such was the situation on that day in April 1754 when
Colonel Washington led his soldiers out of Alexandria on
his second journey into the Ohio Valley.


arly on the morning of Wednesday, July 3, 1754,
E one of Washington's scouting parties, supporting a

wounded sentry, returned to Fort Necessity with
information that the French were only 4 miles away. (The
scouts were afflicted either with bad vision or an attack of
hysteria, for they described the enemy as "a heavy,
numerous body, all naked."") Work was speeded up in an
effort to complete the entrenchments. Rain was falling.

The French emerged (fully clothed) in three columns
from the wooded hillside on the southwest side of the fort,
along the wagon road to Gist’s Plantation. They halted,
formed an irregular skirmish line, and began to advance
across the open field.

Washington and Mackay had a force of fewer than 400
men, only 284 of whom were fit for combat. Despite the
odds against them, they placed their men in dressed ranks
before the trenches, ready to repel a charge. As the
French advanced, the English stood as firm as trained,
disciplined veterans, and they did not panic at the French
war Cries and “dismal Indian yells” or at a force more
than twice as numerous as their own. As ordered, they
held their fire. Major Stephen discharged several ineffec-
tive rounds from the swivel guns.

The French halted several hundred paces from the fort
and fired a fruitless volley. Still the English held their fire.
The French reloaded, continued to advance, and fired
again. At this point Washington and Mackay decided that
the enemy did not intend to charge across the open field,
and they ordered their men to take up positions in the
trenches. Responding like the veterans they were, Mackay
and his company occupied the trenches most exposed
to enemy fire. After advancing to within 60 yards of the
English position, the French scattered to the woods to the
southeast, closest to the fort. The English now returned
fire at will.

Villiers wrote in his report of the battle: "As we were not
acquainted with the ground, we presented our flank to the
fort from which they began to cannonade us... . The
Indians, as we also, set up the cry, and advanced to meet
them: but they gave us not time to make our discharge:
they filed off, and withdrew into an entrenchment which lay
next to their fort. We then set about investing the fort: it
was advantageously enough situated in a meadow, the
wood of which was within musket shot of it. We came as
close to them as it was possible, to the end that his
Majesty's subjects might not be exposed without neces-
sity: tne fire was pretty brisk on both sides, and | repaired
to the place which most appeared to favor a sally [from
the fort].”"

The French took full advantage of the fact that they
could lie protected in the woods and rake the English
defenses with aimed musket balls. Some of the Indians
edged closer, but sharp fire from the swivel guns and the
men in the entrenchments made them scurry back to
cover after some casualties. None of Villiers’ men ventured

3


of the next moming, an Indian messenger Iralted into
camp with grim news. Chin! Monacatootha. a faithtil ally.
hint burned the village at Logstown, put his 200 people
inte Canoes. and started up the Ohic and the Monongahala
to seek English protectian, Swapping at Fort Ouquesne to
feconnoiter, he learned that the French had received
reilorcements and fresh supplies ana Were about to move
Soutt 16 attack,

Washington trusted the information, and he:-sent word
to Captain Lows to Dring in his'road buliders. He also pent
4 messenger to Captain Mackay al the stockade inviting
him to move forward te Giet's Plantation Then Washington
put ue Own men to preparing tie Belllement against! an
essaull.

Mackay and his soldiers arrived in a hurry about 2
o'cloak Saturday maming, A second Indian runnet came
in about the same time wilh werd that a very large force of
French and Indians had left Fort Ququesne the day before
and was paddling and paling |ts way up the Monongahela
fo Red Stone Greek

Washington called a ceunell ol officers io consider
whatwas most prudent and necessary to be done In the
present situatian of affairs.” The discussion ended ina


hit the head of a squirrel at 200 yards. The facts were
otherwise. Rifles, in the language of the Pennsylvania
Dutch country where they were made, were “seldom.”
Few of these men had even seen, much less battled with,
an Indian. Many were far from expert in the use of the
weapons they carried.

Their pay was low: eightpence, the monetary equivalent
of 15 pounds of leaf tobacco, per day. Most had enlisted
because Governor Dinwiddie had promised them that
200,000 acres of good frontier land would be divided
among deserving volunteers, with a special tax benefit for
15 years. But now that land was in imminent danger of
being taken over by the French, and these two companies,
though still untrained and ill-equipped, were being hurried
to the rugged and remote western frontier to head off an
army of professional soldiers many times their number.

Washington was already familiar with the country he
was to march through, occupy, and defend. As a commis-
sioned county surveyor at 18, he had helped to survey an
extensive area in the Shenandoah Valley where he now
owned several hundred acres near present-day Charles
Town, W.Va. Just 6 months before, during the winter of
1753-54, Governor Dinwiddie had sent him to deliver a
notice of trespass to French officers in command of forts
being built on and above the Allegheny River. Young
Washington had a burning ambition for recognition, and
this difficult and dangerous mission to a strange and hos-
tile country gave him an opportunity to make a name for
himself.

On that earlier trip he had engaged Jacob Van Braam
as his French interpreter. A 24-year-old native of Holland,
where he reputedly had served as a lieutenant in the
Dutch army, Van Braam had come to America in 1752 and
settled in Fredericksburg, Va. There he taught fencing and
French (though, in light of subsequent events, one won-
ders how well) and was a fellow-member with Washington
in Masonic Lodge No. 4. At Wills Creek Washington also
employed four “servitors,”” a trader who spoke an Indian
tongue, and, as guide, the renowned fur trader, surveyor,
and explorer Christopher Gist. Three years before, in
1750-51, Gist had spent 7 months exploring the western
country for the Ohio Company, a private, speculative land
corporation made up of an “association of gentlemen” in
Virginia and England.

Washington and his seven aides traveled northwest-
wardly from Wills Creek through the valley that held a
pleasant open area called the Great Meadows and on to
the Forks of the Ohio (the site of present-day Pittsburgh).
At Logstown, an Indian trading center 13 miles down the
Ohio River (near present-day Ambridge, Pa.), Washington
conferred with two Iroquois chieftains who ruled the In-
dians of the Ohio Valley: Tanacharison, called the Half
King, and Monacatootha, called Scarroyady by the

< Every Thing being ready, we began our march according 10

our Orders . . « « Gaorgewmanngnn


There on a Tuesday morning, Lt. Col. George

Washington mounted his best horse, gave a com-
mand, and to the sound of a single drummer marched a
column of troops westward out of the city. Among his regi-
mental papers he carried orders from Gov. Robert Din-
widdie of Virginia commanding him and his men to
occupy, fortify, and defend the Upper Ohio Valley against
a French army advancing southward from Canada. The
march led to Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, to
Wills Creek (Cumberland) in western Maryland, and on to
the Great Meadows in southwestern Pennsylvania where
Fort Necessity would soon stand. It led to frustration, to
short-lived victory, to fame clouded by censure, and to
perhaps the bitterest defeat George Washington was ever
to know.

As he started with his men toward the western moun-
tains, Colonel Washington was wearing the uniform of an
officer of the Virginia militia—red coat with white lace
cuffs, red vest and breeches, black boots, a black three-
cornered hat. He was only 22 years old, but a giant of a
man, standing, by one reliable account, 6 feet 4% inches.
A tigure of commanding presence and reserved demean-
or, an expert and graceful horseman, he undoubtedly
made an impressive appearance to those in Alexandria
who were watching.

His troops were less impressive. Some were in the regi-
mental uniform, but many wore combinations of uniform,
civilian cloth, breeches, and buckskin hunting shirts. There
were 132 men in the ranks, formed into two companies
commanded by Capt. Peter Hogg, 51 years old, and
Capt. Jacob Van Braam, 24, recently arrived from
Holland. The companies had a total of five lieutenants or
ensigns, two sergeants, six corporals, a drummer, a sur-
geon-major, and a gentleman volunteer from Sweden
named Carolus Gustavus de Spiltdorph. Several creaking
farm wagons carried the equipment and supplies, includ-
ing tents for some, but not all, of the men.

Washington had spent some difficult weeks recruiting,
equipping, and training his two companies. We honor
these men today for valiant service to their country, but we
must recognize, as did Washington, that most of them
were “‘self-willed and ungovernable . . . loose, idle per-
sons that are quite destitute of house and home.” They
bore names representative of 18th-century America: Bibby
Brooke, Michael Scully, Abner and Southy Hazlip, Peter
Effleck, Mathew Nevison, Argyle House, Demsey Sim-
mons, John Biddlecome, Ezekial Richardson, Godfrey and
Christopher Bomgardner. .. .

The men carried smoothbore muskets with an effective
range of about 60 yards, but few had bayonets. The
legend has somehow grown up that all colonial Americans
owned rifles, were expert Indian fighters, and, like Hawk-
eye in James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, could

T he story begins in Alexandria, Va., on April 2, 1754.

PLEASE RETURN TO:

3 TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER
DENVER SERVICE CENTER
NATIONAL PERK SERVICE


Frenchmen and thought he knew where they were hiding.
Washington at once assembled 40 men under Captain
Stephen, Captain-Lieutenant Van Braam, and Lt. Thomas
Waggener and set out to join the Indians and confront the
enemy force.

Silverheels led them, in Washington's words, ona
“march through heavy rain, with the night black as pitch
and by a path scarcely wide enough for a man. We were
often led astray for 15 and 20 minutes before we could
find the path again, and often we would jostle each other
without being able to see. We continued our march all
night long.'’ Seven men lost their way on the trail.

Daylight was breaking when the file reached the Half
King. Monacatootha was with him, but they had only 10 or
11 warriors, only a few of whom had firearms. The chiefs
agreed to join the attack and sent out two scouts to recon-
noiter the French position. The men ate whatever ration
they carried and dried and primed their flintlocks. The
officers and the two chiefs laid out their plan of operation.

The scouts returned and led the force to a point where
they looked down on the unguarded, unsuspecting enemy
camp (now Jumonville Glen). Washington counted more
than 30 French soldiers encamped at the bottom of a
small, narrow, secluded ravine in the forest, thick with
rocks and boulders. It was about 7 a.m. The men were pre-
paring their breakfast. Some were only half dressed

Stephen deployed his men at the left edge of the ravine.
Washington posted the rest of the command on the more
exposed position on the right. The Indians crept to a point
on the far side of the French.

Exactly what happened next is still uncertain, and in
1754 it became, with grave consequences, a matter of
partisan international dispute. The account most his-
torians, French and Canadian as well as British and Amer-
ican, now accept is that in placing his men Washington
accidentally let himself be seen at the edge of the ravine.
Some of the French soldiers saw him and called out in
alarm, pointing up in his direction. Others ran for their
muskets, stacked in a dry place beneath a rock ledge.

At that moment Washington ordered his men to fire.
The volley was echoed by Stephen's men on the left.
(Stephen later asserted that the fire was so nearly simul-
taneous that it was not possible to say who fired first.) One
of Washington's men was killed and several, including
Lieutenant Waggener, were wounded.

The French were dropping by twos and threes. Caught
in a hopeless position, they tried to escape at the far end
of the ravine, but came upon the Indians with their drawn
tomahawks, and turned to run back toward the Virginians,
hands in the air. The engagement lasted less than 15 min-
utes. Washington went down to accept the surrender, but
the Indians were ahead of him, scalping the dead and
killing and scalping the wounded. The surviving French,

>I ordered my company 10 fire... , cooeWnrevon


over Whom he presided. (Monacatootha
lied 7 men and laken

vad kil

was

tomahawk nf each ol his

) fights he

saners On his-chy

accompany the im

French outposts will 46 of his retainors

C=, J 1

the w rumbering aight) whites ur Indians
amar fw the fatest al Venango (naw Frank A
the point 60 miles south of Lake Eri whure Frenet Creek

empties into the 4 4 corimandant the

that Wash ae Wis

(now Waterford) another 40 mi

iat

d. to ink
ahted that he English
Libe Enyli

uid.

aier. in April 17

Washington dalivere:

letter demanding the “Pp

uMBtETIC

le departure” of ihe

French, The French carmman

te, but his written

or wid

to the suMMmanS

usend me lo retire

ey

hink mysell oblige

{ his mission acne

lished, Washingte

home by forced marches. Hey

oH his exhausted hy

tip te the hi







Willlam Poulson, Now a captain and.still wearing Stooo’s
sword Washington came out of feliramient to-sarve without
pay or rank as an aide on Braddoch’s staff

The army of almost 2.400 men—-the largest assemblage
Of troops ever sRen in North America—for ihe most part
followed Washington's “Virginia Road," leveling and
clearing it to 4 width of 12 feet Ina magnilicent feat of
engineering. After leaving Wills Creek, Braddock followed
Washington's advice-and divided his force; he lett the
heavier venicles-and armaments with Col Thomas Dunbar.
his second in-command, and pushed ahead more rapidly
with 13 pieces of artillery, 30 days” rations, a nerd of cattle
and 1,459 selectad men. On June 26 this:column reached
and passed Fort Necessity, now overgrown with weeds,
Ihe charred remnants of the palisades still visible. It made
Camp less than 2 miles bayond the ton, beside a-stream
known since ae Braddock's Run.

‘On the morning of July 9, the farce crossed the Monon:
gahela.a second lime ai Turtle Craek, a few miles above
the Forks of the Ohio. The calumny had meved with great
faullon, according to the precepts of European command,
with an advance guard welll out alead, llenking parties on
#ach side. and scouts ranging the Countryside. But the
sale and Ynoppesed second crossing of the river in splen:
did-array, band playing, banners flying. so close to the
Forks and ata place naturally suited for an ambuatt, led
{o.overcontidence and carelessness. The British units
crowded across the river and up a hiliside ina massed
column before the area had been scouted anc betors the
high ground that commanded the route had been secured

VERAUDOOK GEFEATEO
aioe § ttsy

BPADDOUA LEAVES FOR)
CUNBEHLANT JUN tz tre

a8 SNOuTE vrs
.


uebec, Niagara, Detroit, the Illinois country, the Forks of
the Ohio, and New Orleans. Indeed, to reach the Ohio from
Philadel phia or Williamsburg they had to cross seven moun-
tain ridges that stretched north and south across 60 back-
breaking miles, But they were hundreds of miles closer than
the French; and, unlike Canada, the American colonies were
filling up with immigrants hungry to own and settle the
lands on the western frontier. The French saw this thrust of
settlers to the west as an attempt to drive a barrier between
them and the Indians, and between their possessions in
Canada and Louisiana.

The Ohio Company of Virginia was eager to help Amer-
icans settle in the Ohio Valley, The British Crown had
granted the company 1/y-million acres in that region, and it
intended to develop the land for thousands of families. The
company had already built warehouses at Wills Creek and at
Red Stone Creek on the Monongahela River (at present-day
Brownsville, Pa.), and in 1754 it was the moving force be-
hind the attempt to forlify the Forks of the Ohio against
French encroachments.

This familiar situation of two powers competing for land,
trade, and strategic advantage was complicated by other con-
flicting interests. Virginia and Pennsylvania each claimed the
lands of the Upper Ohio Valley, and, indeed, they later
(1774) very nearly engaged in a comic-opera war to possess
them, The merchants of those two colonies were bitter rivals
for the Indian trade. And the Indians themselves claimed
the Obio country as a hunting ground open to all friendly
tribes but owned by none.

The number of Indians was not large—not more than
200,000 altogether east of the Mississippi and not more
than 2,100 warriors in the Six Nations Iroquois Confeder-
ation of Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas,
and Tuscaroras. But the few warriors were as dusive as
sharks in the sea, and at that time and in those circumstances
they he the balance of power between the French and the
English.

The Iroquois Indians had been allies of the British for
150 years, and they were blood enemies of those Canadian
Indians who had sided with the French. They were depen-
dent on British trade goods, which were of better quality,
greater variety, and priced lower than those of the French:
cooking utensils, tools, edged weapons, firearms, mirrors,
blankets, clothing, “mouth organs,” and scores of other
marvels of the white man’s culture. Now, however, in this
impending war between two nations of white men, the
Troquois resolved to remain neutral and at peace with both—
at least until they saw which side would win.

10


ANGLO FRENCH RIVALRY for she OHIO VALLEY
Hanidreds af volumes bave been written to devesibe and in
terpret the mid- herNisereet Biba between Prance and
England for supremacy in the vexine of the upper Obio
River. The baste tunes, however, were quite siniple,

The Trench oaned Canada to the farthest western ex
tenciom of the Great Lakes: they owned the Laniviana Terrie
tory at far louth wcthe Gulf of Mexira; amd they were
determined to own all of the immenve aren lying between. In
1749 they int a Lore armed fosce an a 2.000-mils expee
dition te visit the Indi tribes, drive out thé English traders,
anil bury lead plates clatming the land: drained by the Ohio
wrike me all ey en ull the territory at
oft wan Monntains. By the 1pring of 1734. they
were dni one a chatn of forts on Jake te alt Creeh.
and the upper Aleyheny River and were headed for the
Fovks MI the Ohia,

England and her American coloniay, of conrse, duct their

oun plans. They, ton, carmes veonersbip of the Ohio Valley
ond the vight 60 control the kwitian [wr trate. But they lacked
the magnificent cyitem of chrevt that connected Prenck



French in two months and a half at the latest.
Made out in duplicate on one of the posts of our block-
house the same day and year as before.

James Mackay
George Washington
Coulon de Villiers

B. History's Judgment on WASHINGTON

in the JUMONVILLE AFFAIR

Scholars, historians, and patriots have been arguing for
200 years the pros and cons of Washington's conduct in
the Jumonville Affair. For the most part, opinion has fol-
lowed national interest, the French and Canadians judging
him with varying degrees of severity, the English and Amer-
icans justifying his action in attacking the French force.

In the early 1940s, His Eminence, William Cardinal
O'Connell, archbishop of Boston, became interested in
the Jumonville story and took steps to search out the truth,
insofar as that was possible so long after the event. He
assigned a young priest of French-Canadian ancestry,
Gilbert Leduc, who was experienced in historical research,
to determine on the basis of available evidence what hap-
pened near the Great Meadows on May 28, 1754. Father
Leduc spent several years on a 235-page work, Washing-
ton and “The Murder of Jumonville,"" which was published
in 1943 by La Societe Historique Franco-Americaine.

Leduc concluded that Jumonville was engaged either in
espionage or scouting or both; that he had sent two men
back to Fort Duquesne to report on English movements;
that he did not conduct himself in the manner of a man on
a diplomatic mission; that the French had no eyewitness
account of the entire engagement and based their account
on stories told by Indians who were not there; that the
French intended to deal with Washington with force, as
they had already dealt with Ensign Ward at the Forks of
the Ohio; and that Washington could not be fairly blamed
for acting as he did.

That conclusion was supported in 1952 by the late Dr.
Marcel Trudel, professor of Canadian History at Laval Uni-
versity in Quebec and president of the Canadian Historical
Association. In an address delivered at a meeting of the
Institut d'Histoire de |'Amerique Francaise, he attested to
the soundness of Father Leduc’s scholarship and re-
search. He then cited newly discovered information in
Papiers Contrecoeur et autres Documents Concernant le
Conflit Anglo-Francaise sur I'Ohio de 1745 a 1756 (The
Contrecoeur Papers) Quebec, 1952. And he concluded
that Jumonville was "'killed in an engagement, and not
assassinated, as has been claimed incorrectly for too long
a time." The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Com-
mission published an abridged translation of Or. Trudel's
address in pamphlet form in 1954; it appeared in Penn-
sylvania History, Vol. XX!, pp. 351-81.

62


Villiers that the indian harrassment was a violation of their
agreement; Villiers did what he could to stop it, and he
released 10 Virginians who had been made prisoners by
the Indians. Washington recognized a number of
Delawares and Shawnees he had earlier received in his
camp as allies. “Sundry of them came up,” he wrote in a
passage striking for the mockery it reveals, “and spoke to
us, and told us they were our brothers, and asked us how
we did.”

It was almost 10 o'clock before Washington and
Mackay gave the command to march. The men carried
their arms and ammunition, some of their provisions, and
their wounded. They were able to go only 3 miles that day,
camping by a mountain spring in the evening. They were
harrassed by Indians when they resumed the march the
next day but were not openly attacked. At a suitable
distance, they left the badly wounded in the care of an
ensign, a sergeant, and 11 privates; they were to be picked
up in the first wagons that could be obtained. The walking-
wounded and the footsore moved more slowly and had
to be guarded by details assigned to that duty. At least
two of the men left behind to quard the seriously wounded
were taken prisoner by the Indians, held at Fort Duquesne,
and then sent to Canada.

When the French returned to the Forks of the Ohio, they
burned Gist's settlement and all the other houses and
cabins they encountered. They arrived at Fort Duquesne
‘on July 7.

The main column of English reached the safety and
comfort of Wills Creek on July 9 after 5 hard days on the
road. There Washington learned that the two companies
of New York regulars he had been expecting as reinforce-
ments had never left Alexandria. Their commander had
fallen ill, and the officers and men thoughtfully decided to
stay with him until he recovered. They probably would not
have been much help in any event, since the one barrel of
powder they had was useless and they lacked tents,
blankets, and provisions. The North Carolina company
had arrived in Virginia with almost no arms, but it came
well supplied with swine and beef cattle that it intended to
sell to raise money with which to buy weapons. That
company was due to arrive in Winchester almost any day.

At Wills Creek Washington had his regiment fall in for
roll call. Of the 293 officers, noncommissioned officers,
and privates who had assembled at the Great Meadows
one week earlier, 165 were in ranks and fit for duty. Thir-
teen men had been killed in action, 54 were reported as
wounded, 11 had been left on the road with the wounded,
29 of the walking disabled were presumed to be still on
the march, 19 were missing or had deserted, and 2 had
been delivered to the French as hostages.

Washington turned his regiment over to the disgraced
Colone! Muse and rode on to Williamsburg with Mackay,

< The number of the Killed on our Side was 30, and 70 wounded ....
Our Men behaved with singular Intrepidity. . . . wera Gneos.ioy28 1758


troops joined in the work. The trenches were extended and
improved. The swivel guns, capable of firing scatter shot
effectively from 100 to 200 yards, were emplaced. The

Half King watched these preparations, advised Washington
to continue to retreat to Wills Creek, and silently
disappeared with all his braves.

The French had in fact left Fort Duquesne at 10 o'clock
Friday morning with a force of 600 French and Canadian
soldiers and some 100 Indians—Hurons, Abenakis,
Nipissings, Algonquins, Ottawas, French lroquois, and
some Delawares who a few weeks earlier had been allies
of the English. Their leader was Capt. Louis Coulon de
Villiers, older half-brother of the slain Ensign Jumonville.
His orders were to “march against the English . . . in
order to avenge ourselves and chastise them for having
violated the most sacred laws of civilized nations.”

Villiers beached his canoes and boats at Red Stone
Creek, inspected the deserted Ohio Company warehouse,
and, thinking of the rough terrain ahead of him, decided
to leave there under guard his wheeled vehicles, cannon,
and reserve provisions. He wished to travel fast and light
and to engage the English before they could be reinforced.

At dawn on Monday, July 1, as the English were nearing
the end of their retreat to Fort Necessity, Villiers started
over the mountain trail to Gist’s plantation. He encountered
the road that had been so hastily abandoned 3 days earlier.
In camp that night he reviewed his situation and very
nearly decided to turn back to Fort Duquesne. His intelli-
gence reports told him that an English force of 5,000 men
was on its way to Washington's aid. His Indians were
nervous at being so deep in enemy territory and were
threatening to desert; the Algonquins did in fact leave
him. But at that moment a deserter named John Ramsey,
from the company that Adam Stephen had raised and
commanded, walked into camp and freely told of the
weakened condition and poor prospects of the English.
Villiers pushed on, camped at Gist's settlement, and at
dawn on Wednesday, July 3, left on the last leg of the
march. Five miles from Fort Necessity he halted his
column and walked to the glen where his brother and nine
of his command had been killed and scalped. In his report
he wrote simply, without expression of emotion, “Here |
saw some bodies still remaining.”


The Confrtence displayed by Braddonk's men wes not
matoned by ne Fre The Brilish seemed se formidable
in thell advance that the French Indians were unwilling
to fight, and the Frerich commander at Fort Duquesne
debated with hls ollicers whetherto burn the fort and
Hew oF make @ tdken resistance and eurrenciar with the
honors of wat Capt, Danial de Beaujen, who had arrived
6 few days eurliet, bersiiaded Ino commander at ihe
last momerit 16 give nim field command of the French
and Canadian troops, and then won the Indians over to
Joining him in anattack, He started out with 990 mer
three-fourths of ies Indians. Near Turtle Creek, atoul
a mile short of the tard across the Monongatele, hey
unexpedtedty fan headlong into the advansing British
column, Seaujeu was killed inthe fitat exchange of tire

The Canadians and tte Indians began to falter and then
to tlee. But the secend in command, Capt, Jaan Mumas,
achieved the most dilficull feat of rallying frightaned men
Thay fell into positions in Ihe woods fram which they could
life info Braddinek’s calumny fram the tront and both sides,
and they began to slaughter the British sdidiars

Two points canriot be made toe olten, sinner they cor
rect misconceptions thal are deaply ambedded In Ameri~
can folklore and are still sometines ignored by those
deaséribing {he Action, Braddock was nol ambustied, and
he was Not defeated betalise he fcllowed European mill
tary tactits on Ihe Americar frontier He was defeated.
rather, because he momeriarily departed from those tac-
lits In 4 fashitn that would have been condemned by any
competent military leader in Europe. Had Braddock
posted skirmishers and Hanking parties in.an effort to
determine thé exact alroumstances ot the enemy force
instead of btindly pushing his men forward to the sounds
of battle, the outcome might have bean totally ditfarent

> The Gouerad woe abomudyal Dobined the shoulder, ad Wi the
Birwert of whith tet died chirpe vbase alter —


unaninous resolution “that it was absolutely necessary to
return to our Fort at the Meadows and remain there.” Each
of the Virginia officers signed his name to the minutes of
the council

The Virginia Regiment and the Independent Company
broke camp around noon on Saturday and began to
prepare for the 13-mile retreat over the mountain
Unfortunately, Washington had sent all but two of his
wagons and teams back to Fort Necessity for the long-
promised supplies, and now he lacked means to transport
his food, tents, tools, powder, cannon, and ammunition.
He appropriated two wagons and teams belonging to
Croghan and threw out the furs and trade goods they
contained. Some powder, ball, and shot were loaded on
the officers’ horses; the rest was buried or scattered in the
woods. Teams of men were assigned to spell each other
in carrying the nine swivel guns. Washington paid $16 to
several of his men to carry his personal baggage. A
detachment started the cattle on the march.

Mackay’s troops took no part in these preparations;
they still would not break the rules of their trade by
performing such labor without extra pay.

The column plodded wearily up the west side of Chest-
nut Ridge, then turned due south through narrow mountain
defiles. It proceeded southeast along Chestnut Ridge and
down Chalk Hill. The rest stops became longer and more
frequent; the distances covered between them became
shorter. Montour’s woodsmen and the last few Indian
scouts disappeared. Several Virginians deserted, either to
go over to the French or to try to make their way back
alone to the eastern settlements. The column took almost
2 days to cover the 13 miles.

One hope kept the men on their feet and driving
forward: the thought that there would be supplies, food,
and reinforcements waiting for them at the stockade,
which had now been given the name Fort Necessity. But
when they staggered into the clearing of the Meadows,
they met with a stunning shock. There were no supplies,
no reinforcements—only their own drivers with their own
empty wagons.

In a council meeting at the fort, Washington and the
officers decided the men were in no condition to march
another 50 miles to Wills Creek. They would stay at Fort
Necessity, and if the French came that far to attack, they
would fight.

Shortly thereafter several wagonloads of flour arrived
from Wills Creek. The drivers brought word that two
companies of regular soldiers from New York had left ship
at Alexandria 20 days earlier. Even at a moderate rate of
march, they should soon be arriving at Fort Necessity with
fresh troops, heavy cannon, and provisions.

Washington distributed a ration of flour, sent an express
rider to Colonel Innes with an urgent plea for help, and
put the men to strengthening the fort. This time Mackay's




ing two sets of orders and had intended to use whichever
set best suited the circumstances. In his journal Washing-
ton wrote disdainfully:

Instead of coming as an ambassador should, publicly and in
an open manner, they came with the greatest secrecy and
looked for the most hidden retreats... They... remained
hidden there for two whole days, when they were no more
than five miles from us.... They pretend that the
called to us as soon as we were discovered. This is an abso-
lute falsehood, for I was then at the head of the file going
toward them, and I can affirm that, as soon as they saw us,
they ran for their arms without calling, which I should have
heard if they had done so.

He again referred to a consideration that he held to be
extremely important:

The Half King's opinion in this case is that they had evil
designs ... and that if we had been so foolish as to let them
go, he would never help us to catch other Frenchmen.

Washington gave the French officers some of his
clothes and sent them and the other prisoners back to
Wills Creek under guard of one of his lieutenants and the
Swedish volunteer, De Spiltdorph. Dinwiddie concurred
that the Frenchmen were proper prisoners of war and con-
gratulated his young commander on his first victory. He
realized the larger significance of what had happened,
however, and in his report to London he struggled to put
the best possible light on the attack. “This little skirmish,”
he wrote, “was by the Half King and the Indians. We were
auxiliaries to them, as my orders to the commander of our
forces was to be on the defensive.”

The incident was far from closed. The French prisoners
became pawns in a great international struggle; they were
destined to remain in Virginia a very long time. Over the
next several years the French government exploited “the

Jumonville Affair” expertly in a pamphlet* distributed Sitrerrremegrentinerto tne
throughout Europe to prove that the English had com- Socata

mitted the first act of aggression in the Ohio Valley. Of
Washington's “little skirmish,"" Horace Walpole, eminent
man of letters and son of a British prime minister, wrote,
“The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of
America set the world on fire.”


For half a century, General Braddock's grave remained
undisturbed beneath the road bearing his name, unknown
to the travelers and wagons passing over it. In 1804, how-
ever, a road crew repairing the trace near Orchard Spring
uncovered what they believed to be Braddock’s remains.
These were reinterred on an adjacent knoll and the site is
now a detached unit of the battlefield about 1 mile west on
U.S. 40.

The tiny sheltered vale in which Ensign Jumonville was
killed survives today relatively unchanged and proudly
bears his name. Ironically, the very obscurity which orig-
inally attracted the ill-fated French patrol to this glen has
saved it from the advance of modern civilization. Nestled
atop Chestnut Ridge, Jumonville Glen today offers a
unique opportunity to understand the true effect the land-
scape had on mid-18th-century military tactics.

Once the French threat to the Ohio Valley was elimi-
nated, roads and trails heading westward experienced a
new surge of traffic, which reached major proportions fol-
lowing the American Revolution. Small trails such as the
Braddock Road, used by Washington in the Fort Necessity
campaign in 1754 and by Braddock the next year, could
not handle these migrations. In 1806 Congress finally ap-
propriated funds for the construction of a major highway
connecting the Eastern Seaboard with the Ohio Valley.
The National Road, one of the first federally supported
public works projects of an emerging nation, still carries
travelers westward as present-day U.S. 40.


Here Van Braam came upon the words /'assassin. He may
never have seen the phrase before; or he may not have
known that the word assassination ed in English; or he
may not have realized that it means kill treacherously,
to murder by secret, planned assault.” Or he may simply
have been unable to decipher the word and so supplied
what he thought should have been there in relation to the
words that followed. Even when examined today under a
good light in the Montreal archives, the word is almost
indecipherable; indeed, when a clerk-translator rendered
it into English in Williamsburg a few weeks after the battle,
he first wrote assault, then crossed his word out and wrote
killing.

In any case, Van Braam, in translating the phrase
l'assassin, spoke some commonplace word like killing, or
death, or /oss, and gave a similar reading when the verb
assassinated appeared later. No officer raised any
objection, asked any question, or made any other
comment, as some most certainly would have done if the
word assassination had been spoken.

Van Braam continued:

.. which has been done on one of our officers, bearer of a
summons, upon bis party, as also to binder any establishment
on the lands of the dominions of the King, my master; upon
these considerations, we are willing to grant protection or
favor, to all the English that are in the said fort, upon the
conditions hereafter mentioned.

He translated the seven conditions.

First, Washington and the garrison could return to their
own country in peace. The French would offer no insult
and would to the best of their ability restrain the Indians
who were with them. Second, they could take with them
all their belongings excepting their artillery and “munitions
de guerre.” Third, they would be granted the honors of
war and could come out with drums beating and with one
small cannon, “wishing to show by this means that we
treat them as friends.” Fourth, they must lower the English
flag. Fifth, a detachment of French would receive the
surrender of the garrison and take possession of the fort
at daybreak. Sixth, since the English had no means of
transportation, they could leave their baggage under guard
and return for it later; but they must “give their word of
honor that they will not work on any establishment either in
the surrounding country or beyond the mountains during
‘one year beginning from this day.” (According to Stephen,
Van Braam translated the latter condition as “not to
attempt buildings or improvements on the lands of his Most
Christian Majesty,” and the English officers, denying that
the French king had any lands there, thought it needless
to dispute the point. It was not spelled out who the “‘they’”
were who must not work west of the mountains for a year,
and the officers assumed that it referred only to the troops
left behind to guard the stores. The point is important,

<The articles of surrender were wrote in a bad Hand, on wet and blotted
Paper 10 that no Person could read them but Van Braam who had
heard them from the mouth of the French Officer. sae wien


because Washington returned to Ihe area named in tess
than ane year and the French, by their interpretation of
The eandilian, charged that in so doing he broke his
parole.)

Finally, Washington was to turn over two of his captains
to be held as hostages until all the prisoners he had taken

In the Jumonyille any
Duquesne.

Washington decitared at once that they must fot agree
to lin over their arms and ammunition: without them they
would be al the mercy of the Indians on the return march
Van Braam went out for the third fires ta meet the French
and returned with the words munitions de Quetra crossed
out on both copies. Washington agreed thal Captain
Mackay should sign the document tirst, perhaps because
of tis admiration for Mackay’s conduct under fire
Captains Van Braam and Stobo either volumeersd to be or
were chosen as the hostages, They were obvious choices,
since One spoke somes French and boih were single mar
without family responsibilities

Stobo presanted his sword with a flourish and a little
speech to his campany |leutenant, Willlam Poulson. Van

gemen! ware delivered to Fort



forces for an assault on New York City, he wrote to his old
friend and comrade in arms, George Washington, now
commander in chief of the American army fighting Great
Britain. He recalled the dark and humiliating events of July
3 and 4 in 1754. Washington replied:
I did not let the anniversary of the 3rd pass off without a
geen remembrance of the escape we had at the Meadows.
he same providence that protected us... will, 1 hope, con-
tinue his mercies, and make us happy instruments in
restoring peace and liberty.
Stephen was a hero of the Battle of Brandywine, but he
was found to be intoxicated during the Battle of German-
town, and Washington dismissed him from his command.
He had a prosperous post-war career and an active po-
litical life in Virginia.

George Washington died at Mount Vernon on Decem-
ber 14, 1799, at the age of 67, after having rendered in-
comparable service to his country. He was a leader in the
Virginia opposition to British colonial policies. He was
commander in chief of the Continental Army through 8
hard years of the American War for Independence. He was
a delegate to and presided over the Constitutional Con-
vention of 1787. He was the first President of the United
States. Having experienced failure, frustration, and defeat
in the frontier war of 1754-1758, he was admirably pre-
pared to cope with the problems he faced for 21 years as
a national leader in war, politics, and international affairs.
He was intensely ambitious as a young man, but he lived
to reject, on principles of the highest honor, an invitation
to become dictator and lifetime ruler of his country.

56




spoke with certainty of a small stocade [sic] Fort made
in a circular form round a small house."

Harrington planned his 1953 excavations on the new
and bold premise that the ridges that had misled Freeman
Lewis were really the remains of the entrenchments, and
that the stockade was circular in shape within those en-
trenchments. That spring Harrington and his co-workers
sank three trenches across the area that such a circular
fort would have had to cross. Almost at once they discov-
ered a section of disturbed and discolored earth: this
marked the path of the narrow trench in which the stock-
ade wall had been set. When they reached ground water
level, each of the trench segments revealed remains of
the original post ends. In recalling that discovery, Harring-
ton said, “Nothing has ever remotely approached the thrill
| had when those bands of discolored earth appeared. .
And when we went deeper and found the first stockade
Post, | would not have traded it for a Pharaoh's grave
ship.”

The archeological team uncovered positive evidence
that the stockade was circular, about 53 feet in diameter,
with an opening to the southwest. It found post ends in
three sections, each section about 12 feet long, around
the arc of a circular wall. Further excavations showed that
the original entrenchments were on the site of the ridges
that for a century and a half had caused so much inac-
curate comment.

The team uncovered a variety of small items dating from
the time of the battle, including brass buttons, gun flints,
ammunition for the swivel guns, the tip of a sword scab-
bard, and pieces of broken wine bottles. The most impor-
tant finds, after the remains of the stockade itself, were the
musket balls, More than 100 such balls, carefully studied
and measured, revealed conclusively the type of shoulder
weapon used. All of the balls fall into categories used by
smooth-bore muskets and similar military weapons, laying
to rest the conjecture that rifles were used in the battle. A
representative selection of the relics uncovered during the
excavations is on display in the visitor center near the
battlefield.

On the basis of Harrington's findings, the present stock-
ade was constructed in the spring of 1954 of split logs of
irregular length and shape. The palisades are in the exact
location of the original stockade posts. The embankments
outside the fort are authentic restorations of those built by
Washington's men as defense positions during the brief
time between their return to the fort on July 1 and the be-
ginning of the French attack on the morning of July 3.

Besides the reconstructed stockade and Mount Wash-
ington Tavern, already discussed, there are several other
points of historical interest in the vicinity of Fort Necessity
National Battlefield. Principal among these are Braddock’s
Grave, Jumonville Glen, and the National Road.

59


There on a Tuesday morning, Lt. Col. George

Washington mounted his best horse, gave a com-
mand, and to the sound of a single drummer marched a
column of troops westward out of the city. Among his regi-
mental papers he carried orders from Gov. Robert Din-
widdie of Virginia commanding him and his men to
occupy, fortify, and defend the Upper Ohio Valley against
a French army advancing southward from Canada. The
march led to Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, to
Wills Creek (Cumberland) in western Maryland, and on to
the Great Meadows in southwestern Pennsylvania where
Fort Necessity would soon stand. It led to frustration, to
short-lived victory, to fame clouded by censure, and to
perhaps the bitterest defeat George Washington was ever
to know.

As he started with his men toward the western moun-
tains, Colonel Washington was wearing the uniform of an
officer of the Virginia militia—red coat with white lace
cuffs, red vest and breeches, black boots, a black three-
cornered hat. He was only 22 years old, but a giant of a
man, standing, by one reliable account, 6 feet 4¥ inches.
A figure of commanding presence and reserved demean-
or, an expert and graceful horseman, he undoubtedly
made an impressive appearance to those in Alexandria
who were watching

His troops were less impressive. Some were in the regi-
mental uniform, but many wore combinations of uniform,
civilian cloth, breeches, and buckskin hunting shirts. There
were 132 men in the ranks, formed into two companies
commanded by Capt. Peter Hogg, 51 years old, and
Capt. Jacob Van Braam, 24, recently arrived from
Holland. The companies had a total of five lieutenants or
ensigns, two sergeants, six corporals, a drummer, a sur-
geon-major, and a gentleman volunteer from Sweden
named Carolus Gustavus de Spiltdorph. Several creaking
farm wagons carried the equipment and supplies, includ-
ing tents for some, but not all, of the men.

Washington had spent some difficult weeks recruiting,
equipping, and training his two companies. We honor
these men today for valiant service to their country, but we
must recognize, as did Washington, that most of them
were “self-willed and ungovernable . . . loose, idle per-
sons that are quite destitute of house and home.” They
bore names representative of 18th-century America: Bibby
Brooke, Michael Scully, Abner and Southy Hazlip, Peter
Effleck, Mathew Nevison, Argyle House, Demsey Sim-
mons, John Biddlecome, Ezekial Richardson, Godfrey and
Christopher Bomgardner. ...

The men carried smoothbore muskets with an effective
range of about 60 yards, but few had bayonets. The
legend has somehow grown up that all colonial Americans
owned rifles, were expert Indian fighters, and, like Hawk-
eye in James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, could

T he story begins in Alexandria, Va., on April 2, 1754.

PLEASE RETURN TO:

3 TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER
DENVER SERVICE CENTER
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE


he pitche i at Fort Ni

] 4 Gaclaralinn iween

Hinically. the Wwe counties wa

Europe, bul the British Rf

arms theimterritory lost to the French in North Ametic:
February 1755 two full regiments of British loops lar
{i due course began a march to Ine Forks
of the Ohio. The mmander was Maj.Gen, Edward Brad

cars of army service and commander

did not proc.

in-chiel of all Griligh forces in North America. He had beet
chosen to hea rpaign In whict the Brilist
lonial Americans would attack the French forts in No
Scotia ss well es Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario, Growr!
Point on Lake Champlain, and Fort Duquesne on tne Ohio.
Braddock's regiments were supported by some 4()\)
Auxiliary Americans-and Indians, ing 1g a number of
those who nad marched and fought with Washington during
the Fort Nee

1

sity campalgn: Andrew Montour, Monaca
togina. Pater Hogg, Acar Stepher, William La Peyronby
Dr, James Craik, Christopher Gist; Garalus Hevis de

Spiltdorph, the gentleman adventurer from Sweden, and



now his firm friend, to render an account to Dinwiddie.
“Mr. Washington,” Mackay was reported as saying, “was
very sad company.”

At some unknown moment after the return to Williams-
burg, a clerk in a government office, or a scholar in his
library, or simply an interested reader who understood
French, looked up from the Articles of Capitulation and
announced that they twice contained the signed confes-
sion that Washington and his Virginians had “assassi-
nated" a French emissary. The shocking news raced up
and down the eastern seaboard and sped across the
ocean. Washington was thunderstruck. His honor and his
judgment impugned, he blamed Van Braam: “We were
willfully or ignorantly deceived by our interpreter.” Gov-
ernor Dinwiddie did a little fast improvising in his report
to London: “The interpreter was a poltroon, and though
an officer with us, they say he has joined the French. This
is the truth, reported by two of our officers and declared
on their honor.”

Due allowance was made in the colonies for Washing-
ton’s youth and inexperience and the shameful lack of
support and direction given him. There were some who
said privately that he had acted too recklessly out of a
desire for glory, but there were also some who understood
the remarkable way in which this young man, in his first
field command, had won the esteem of his officers and of
his “loose, idle fellows" and had molded them into an
effective fighting force. Dinwiddie had warned his com-
mander not “to make any hazardous attempts against a
too numerous enemy."’ Now the governor convinced him-
self, and said so in his correspondence, that he had given
Washington specific orders not to advance until joined by
the other forces and that Washington had disobeyed him.

Washington is almost invariably criticized for position-
ing his fort on low ground vulnerable to musketry from
hills on two sides. The criticism is not just, for no musket
ball fired from those hills could have reached the fort with
any effect. The distance was too great. Cannon trained
down upon it, of course, would have torn it apart; but an
enemy armed with cannon could have destroyed the fort
no matter where it stood.

Washington, however, did make two mistakes, one of
them fatal. He placed the stockade on ground so wet
and poorly drained that any trenches dug for protection
were almost certain to fill up with water. And the woods on
the southeastern side of the fort came to within 60 yards
of the stockade. This meant that enemy troops would have
both protection and concealment while firing within effec-
tive musket range. A more experienced commander would
certainly have cut back the woods to ground level for an-
other 15 or 20 yards. It should be remembered, however,
that Washington was working under adverse conditions,
and, despite his boast to Dinwiddie on June 3, designed
his fort only for temporary protection. He had no intention


an (pronounced CROW-an), Indian agent, trader, and land
speculator. To command a contingent of 18 American
scouts, Dinwiddie named Andrew Montour, the son of an
Oneida chief and of an educated half-Indian, half-French
mother. Montour was the leading interpreter at many
major conferences and a trusted adviser on Indian affairs
to the Pennsylvania government. He wore Indian orna-
ments and war paint and a strange mixture of Indian and
colonial dress.

Fifty-four-year-old Joshua Fry, whom Dinwiddie had
chosen to command the Virginia Regiment with the rank
of full Colonel, was an Oxford-educated engineer, map-
maker, and former professor of mathematics at The Col-
lege of William and Mary. Colonel Fry was a man of
some experience on the frontier, but he was, in Wash-
ington's opinion, too old and too fat to move with the
speed required of such a command.

Washington led his two companies into Winchester
about April 10, after a march averaging a respectable 11
miles per day. In that Scotch-Irish settlement of some 50
houses and cabins, he was welcomed by Captain Stephen
and his company. He found only a few of the wagons and
teams that had been promised, however, and in a week's
effort he was able to procure only 10 others. Unwilling to
lose more time, he set out with his three companies, now
totaling 159 men in ranks, for Wills Creek, 80 miles to the
northwest.

More trouble and worse news awaited him there. No
pack animals, no wagons, no supplies had been delivered,
nor were any expected. Within a few hours, Ensign Edward
Ward walked into camp with an alarming story. Left in
command at the Forks of the Ohio, he had just finished
hanging the gate on the flimsy stockade when an armada
of 350 canoes and boats containing “‘at least one thou-
sand” French soldiers appeared on the Allegheny River.
The Frenchmen took up positions with military precision,
trained several of their 18 cannon on the stockade, and
offered Ensign Ward a choice: surrender within one hour
or be bombarded and attacked by overwhelming numbers.
Ward surrendered. He and his men were permitted to
leave with their arms and tools.

Washington rented one of his horses to Ward and sent
him on to Williamsburg with his story. A few hours later
the frontiersmen in Ward’s company straggled into camp.
There they assessed the situation, decided privately to
resign the military life, and departed to attend to other
matters. The six companies raised for the Virginia Regi-
ment now numbered five—those commanded by Stephen,
Van Braam, Hogg, Lewis, and Stobo.

With these developments the whole shape of the Ex-
pedition to the Ohio was changed. Washington's original
mission had been to widen a trail to Red Stone Creek into
a wagon road and to reinforce and defend the English fort
at the Forks. Now a French force of superior numbers was


theme pressed their convictions with fervor. The earliest
post-battle visitors had reported that the fort was small
and round, but most people ignored their testimony or dis-
carded it as unreliable.

The first known disturbance of the fort site came in
1854 when a cornerstone was laid for a proposed memo-
rial to be erected during the centennial celebration. The
memorial was never built—fortunately, as it turned out.

With the stimulus of the 200th anniversary of Washing-
ton's birth, an organization of interested citizens made
plans in 1932 to reproduce the original stockade. They
built a large square fort, basing the design on the surface
remains and a little archeological study. A firing step was
constructed around the inner wail in accord with a design
common to frontier fortifications. The stockade and the 2-
acre tract on which it stood were deeded to the Federal
Government in 1932. The next year the National Park Serv-
ice took over the administration of this small area as Fort
Necessity National Battlefield Site. The name was later
changed to Fort Necessity National Battletield.

In the summer of 1952, J. C. Harrington, a National Park
Service archeologist, went to Fort Necessity and began
one of the most fascinating and productive excavations in
the annals of American historical archeology.

The logs of the 1932 stockade had begun to rot in
place, and Harrington decided to attempt to solve some
of the questions of Fort Necessity before rebuilding it
again into its existing form. He said frankly that his aims
were modest, ‘'with little expectation of finding more than a
few ‘relics’ and possibly the remains of certain entrench-
ments which, according to the records, lay outside a
stockade. . . . The chance of discovering any remnant of
the original stockade seemed very slight. . .. The repro-
duction constructed in 1932 was believed to be on the
original site, and on the whole, correct as to details.”

Work began in August 1952. Since the 1932 wall had
been mistakenly placed on top of the trenches, Harrington
was of course unable to find them. “The fact,” he later
wrote, ‘did not affect the research procedure, although
there is no denying that it dampened the enthusiasm of
the archeologist, particularly when the results of the first
season's work were completely negative."

The missing entrenchments prompted Harrington to re-
consider the entire body of available information. He faced
the fact squarely that no 18th-century designer had ever
piled earth up against the outside wall of a palisade. His
report for 1952 on the preliminary excavations advanced
tentatively the theory of a circular stockade. That theory
was supported when he came upon a deposition by one
of Washington's men dated 1754. The deponent was one
John B. W. Shaw, 20 years of age, who claimed that he
had participated in the battle. Shaw was somewhat weak
on sentence structure, but his report of the battle was col-
orful and generally in accord with the known facts. And he

58


ADMINISTRATION

Fort Necessity National Battlefield is administered by the National Park
Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. A park manager, whose
address is Farmington, PA 15437, is in immediate charge. As the
Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior
has basic responsibilities to protect and conserve our land and water,
energy and minerals, fish and wildlife, park and recreation areas, and for
the wise use of all those resources. The Department also has a major
responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for
people who live in Island Territories under U.S, administration.

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Alberts, Robert C.
A CHARMING FIELD FOR AN ENCOUNTER

1. Necessity, Fort, Battle, 1754.
2. Washington, George, Pres. U.S. 1732-1799.
1. Title E199.A33 937.2'6 75-619131

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 Reprint 1991


established there and would have to be driven out by an
army vastly larger than anyone in Williamsburg or London
had cortemplated. At this point, on the basis of the new
information supplied him by Ward, Dinwiddie might well
have made a complete reassessment of what he and the
Virginia Regiment were getting into. He did not

Despite overwhelming odds, Washington and his offi-
cers resolved to push on to the mouth of Red Stone Creek
on the Monongahela River. There they would wait for the
army and supplies which Dinwiddie had assured them in
letters from Williamsburg would soon follow. “We will en-
deavor to make the road sufficiently good for the heaviest
artillery to pass,"’ Washington wrote the governor, “and
when we arrive at Red-stone Creek fortify ourselves as
strongly as the short time will allow.” This, he felt, would
“preserve our men from the sorry consequences of inac-
tion and encourage our [!ndian] allies to remain on our
side."

He put a detachment of men on road building on April
25 and 6 days later left Wills Creek with the rest of the
regiment to join in the work. This was the hardest kind of
labor through rough and wild terrain, and progress was
slow—sometimes no more than 2 miles in a day. Over the
next 3 weeks the men cut a road over the Great Savage
Mountain, 2,850 feet above sea level with an ascent of al-
most 2 miles. They worked their way through a still, dark
forest known as Shades of Death, forded Casselman’s
River at the ‘‘Little Crossing,’’ and drove their road across
what is now the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. They
crossed Negro Mountain (2,908 feet), forded the Youghio-
gheny River at the “Great Crossing," climbed Laurel
Mountain (2,400 feet), and descended to a plateau some
1,700 feet above sea level.

Washington left the regiment at the Great Crossing to
explore the Youghiogheny in the hope that it might be
navigable northward to where it joined the broad, deep
Monongahela (at present-day McKeesport). With a lieu-
tenant, three men, and an Indian guide, by means of
canoe, raft, and wading, he proceeded 10 miles downriver
to the ''Turkeyfoot,"” where Casselman's River, Laurel Hill
Creek, and the Youghiogheny come together (at present-
day Confluence, Pa.). Some 8 miles farther on “we came
to a fall [Ohiopyle Falls], which continued rough, rocky
and scarcely passable, for two miles, and then fell, within
the space of fifty yards, nearly forty feet perpendicular.”
He turned back with the disappointing knowledge that the
Youghiogheny, even at high stage and even with portages,
could not be used as a water course to the Forks of the
Ohio.

On or about May 24 the regiment reached the Great
Meadows, 50 miles northwest of Wills Creek. This was an
open area of long grass and low bushes from 200 to 300

< The great difficulty and labour, that it requires to ammend
and alter the roads, prevents our Marching above 2, 3, or 4 Miles
@ Day... « Coornninogn






ol waripum Irom Dinwiddie to ihe Hall King: Crogtrar
came wilh lame excuses for his fallute to supply the provi.
sions he bad contracted lor He rode with a wagon lilled
wilt presenty arid medals forthe Indians. Dinwiddie kad
Intended 16 distritule these af Winchester at 6 Grand
Council of the chiefs of Ihe friendly tribes, anc he had in-
vested ina splendid uniform and writen a speech for the
oczasion. But the chiats did nol choose to go to Win-
chester, and atter waiting 16 days. the governor turnod
Over the presents io Croghan and returned to Willams:
berg, fundus al Indian: duplicity. at the ineliiciencyand
coruption at anny Cantractors, and al the “lethargy and
sunineness” that tad kept the alher colanial governors
from tultilling their promises of support tor the Ohi
Expedition

Muse brought laters trom Dinwiddie whist an-
nounced a number of promotions. Washington was an-
poirited'to the rank of tui celonal, replacing the lamented
Callonel Fry |p command of the Virginia Regiment. Muse
Was appointed 4 lieutenant colonel and Stephen a major
‘Cal. lames Innes of Mort Carplina, now on his way parth
with 300 British regulars, was the new commander in chiet
of (he expedition

The Great Meadows and ils stockade were row the
Centerst naw and broadened activities, of scenes (hat
excite the mind wilh their color and drama. A person can
stand at the ecige of the clearing today. look acrons the
Sweep of land. then rougher and more swampy than it
now, and itwgine the camp as it must have appéared in
June 601754. woulitnot have beer an orderly seeing by
present milltary standards There wee calile and hoster
gtazing: men performing thelr housekesping chores:
emnke tiging [rot Ine scattered cooking fires where small
groups kept 2 pol boiling, We can gitture detachments
Marching out wilh axes. sews, sledges, and rigging to

a”


A
CHARMING
FIELD

FOR AN
ENCOUNT®®

The Story
of George Washington's Fort Necessity

by Robert C. Alberts

Illustrated
by Daniel Maffia

Division of Publications
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C. 1975

PLEASE RETURN TO:

TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTE:!
DENVER SERVICE CENTER
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE




again hayond the tres line Fara time they turned thoir
fire on the grazing anitrais. kiting all'the harses, cattle,
oxen, and even the camp doga The English had thought
fo alaudhter all heir cattle but did net do so because Ihey
lacked sall Iu preserve the meal

The battle satiied into a steady exchange tn which
The- English were at a triarked disadvantage. They were
Sulnumbered, they could seldnrn see Ihe enamy concealed
If he woods. and they had to expose thempelves when
they fired.trom ihe trenches. Washington described the
Sortest as an “unequal fight with an enemy shellared
bohind the treos, ourselves without shelter. in trenches full
G! water, (fa settled rain, and the enemy galding (galling)
us on all Sites ing¢essantty trom thea woods *

Mier their first feve rounds, the swivel guns attracted.s
Goncentrated fine nat ellanced tham, Major Stephan
femover saverdl at thé logs in the stockade to provide a.
Hlgld Of fire at ground level, but, withaut a-solid target or a
Uharging enemy, te swivels were instfective, even whan
loaded with case oF 'scatler-shol "

The trenches wate pow knee-desp in water atid soft
mud. The damn powder and the dirt fouled the muskets
and there were, unfortunately, only two "worm attach.
ments” in the entire camp with which to remove the damp
Oharges from tho musket barrels

Amerncan casualties were mounting Washington's
Negro servant received a wound from Whitt te later died
Ensign William !.a Peyroney (Washington's adjutant) and
{he regimental sargeart-meajor wore disabled by wounds
Captain Lewis was twice wounded dul-stayed at his post
Some of the mer were injured Sy splinters shot away from
INE posts of Ihe Glackude or tram the storeliouse within it
Four men of Siabo's cainpany ware kilitd and seven ware
wounded, {he highest number of Casuallies incurred by
any ol thie tive Virginia companies. Mackay’s Independents

the Cotowd gate Orders te Grd. wiilth head doopg eth pes
Alacetty amd U Wehannred 0% ste emma sanity ¥8




as he could that it was obviously improper for a South
Carolina captain to give orders to a Virginia regiment.
Mackay did not agree. He further declared that he would
not permit his men to join in the road building or any
other non-military labor unless they were paid the one
shilling a day extra customarily allowed for such service
Washington described Mackay's conduct to Dinwiddie at
some length, and concluded: “'I can very confidently say
that his absence would tend to the public advantage.” He
would leave Mackay and his company at the Meadows, he
said, and “continue to complete the work we have begun
with my poor fellows; we shall have the whole credit, as
none others have assisted.”

On the morning of June 16, Washington had his men
load on the wagons nine small cannon—swivel guns—
that Muse's companies had brought with them. He formed
his regiment, mounted his horse, and gave the command
to march. We can be sure that the Carolina troops and the
Indians stopped whatever they were doing to watch the
departure. The first company had scarcely entered the
woods when the order was given to halt. One of the
wagons had broken down on the rough road. In his
journal that evening Washington wrote, “[We] were
extremely embarrassed.”

The regiment pushed on to Gist’s Plantation, which lay
on a foothill west of Chestnut Ridge (near present-day
Mount Braddock), at the end of a 13-mile road that had
taken 14 days to build. This was the Ohio Company's first
planned settlement, where 150 families were to be placed
on a large tract of 2,500 acres.

Washington made his headquarters in one of Gist's
buildings. He sent Captain Lewis with 60 men to continue
the road to Red Stone Creek, only 16 miles to the north-
west. And he prepared for a meeting with the Ohio Valley
Indians he had invited to Gist's.

About 40 braves showed up, several of them uninvited
Mingoes (Ohio Valley Iroquois) who announced bellig-
erently that they were there to report on the conference
for the French. The meeting lasted 3 days, and despite the
best counsel from Croghan, Montour, the Half King, and
Monacatootha, it ended in failure. Washington had too
few gifts and too little food to offer; the French were clearly
the stronger military force; and the Six Nations Council at
Onondaga had ordered the Ohio tribes to remain neutral
in this quarrel between the white men over who should
own the Indians’ land. The Indians disappeared into the
forests. The Half King and his warriors returned to their
camp at the Meadows and, despite the pleas of Montour
and Croghan, refused to rejoin the Virginians.

Work continued on the road for another 10 days, though
the men were becoming weak and ill from their hard
labors on a diet of parched corn and tough, lean, unsalted,
freshly slaughtered beef. On Thursday evening, June 27,

<I... called the Indians sogetber by the advice of the Half-King,
presented one of the medals, and desired him to wear it in remembrance
of his great father, the King of England . . . . crorewnnnyon


Ohio Valley comprised two of six companies of Vir-

ginia volunteers recruited for the expedition. Of the
other four, one company—33 armed frontiersmen and 8
artisans—was already at work building a stockade at the
Forks of the Ohio. Capt. Adam Stephen was raising an-
other company in Winchester. Capts. Andrew Lewis and
Robert Stobo were at Alexandria with the remaining com-
panies and would soon leave to join Washington on the
frontier. These six units together made up the Virginia
Regiment under the overall command of Col. Joshua Fry,
with Washington functioning as second in command. Ac-
cording to the plan, Dinwiddie’s agents would have an
adequate number of horses and vehicles waiting for the
regiment at Winchester and other provisions and supplies
at Wills Creek.

New York promised to contribute two companies, North
Carolina 350 men, Maryland 200 men. South Carolina
would send an Independent Company—that is, a company
of Americans enlisted, trained, and paid as regular troops
of the British Army but not attached to any British regi-
ment. Pennsylvania would not furnish any troops, since it
had no militia and its assembly was controlled by peace-
loving Quakers, but the governor promised £10,000—with
the restriction that it be used only to purchase grain.
Finally, Dinwiddie had convinced himself that he could
persuade the southern Indian tribes—Catawbas, Chero-
kees, and Chickasaws—to send 1,000 warriors to join in
fighting the French and Canadian Indians

Like Washington, the officers of the Virginia Regiment
were men of substance and good reputation in the Vir-
ginia colony, though their military experience was limited.
Except for an ensign and a lieutenant, all were older than
he. Five were natives of Scotland.

Peter Hogg (pronounced Hogue), captain, was the
oldest at 51. A native of Edinburgh, he had arrived in the
American colonies about 1745. It is probable that he had
seen service in Scotland's rebellion against England in
that year. He had married a few days before he joined
Washington's force in Alexandria

Adam Stephen, 30, senior captain, had been educated
in medicine at the University of Edinburgh and had served
as a surgeon on a British hospital ship. He joined the
Scots rebellion in 1745, emigrated to America, and set up
a practice of medicine and surgery at Frederick, Md.

Capt. Andrew Lewis, 34, born in North Ireland, had
come to Virginia as a boy and was now a figure of im-
portance in Augusta County. He was noted for his great
size, his strength, and a deportment that matched Wash-
ington's for dignity and reserve. A governor of New York
exclaimed after meeting Lewis, “The earth seemed to
tremble under him as he walked.”

Capt. Robert Stobo, 28, was the orphaned son of a well-
to-do Glasgow merchant. After a term at the University of
Glasgow, he had invested his inheritance in merchandise,

T he small force that Washington led into the Upper

i




Braddock lost about 975 of his 1,459 men engaged,
more than half of them being killed. William La Peyroney
was kiiled and scalped, as were Will Poulson and Carolus
de Spiltdorph. Braddock himself received a mortal wound.
Washington, who distinguished himself in the engage-
ment, helped carry the general off the field in a silk sash
(The sash is on exhibit at Mount Vernon today.) He and
Dr. Craik were at the general's side when he died on the
retreat. They buried him in a secret grave a mile and a half
northwest of Fort Necessity.

The other half of Braddock's army, some 40 miles away
and still the largest and best-equipped armed force in
North America, destroyed most of its supplies, fled to
Wills Creek, and then marched all the way to Philadelphia
to take up “winter quarters"’—in August.

Despite the affair at Fort Necessity and the clash on the
Monongahela, England and France remained “legally” at
peace until May 1756, when formal declarations of war
were proclaimed. in the months that followed, the Ohio
Valley reeled under almost incessant Indian attacks. For
more tnan 2 years Washington struggled with inadequate
forces to protect the Virginia frontier. In the fall of 1758,
he toox command of a brigade of colonial Americans
and marched westward across the mountains of Penn-
sylvania with still another army, this one under Brig. Gen.
John Forbes. This time the British were successful in driv-
ing the French out of the Ohio Valley. On November 25,
1758, Washington finally achieved the goal for which he
had worked and fought for 5 years: he helped raise the
British flag over the smoking ruins of Fort Duquesne.

Duquesne fell, then Fort Niagara and Quebec, and then
Montreal in 1760. The French and Indian War ended, and
though the Seven Years War continued for another 3 years
in Europe, India, and the West Indies, British rule replaced
the French empire in North America. The Americans were
now free from any threat of French expansion and, conse-
quently, from any need for protection from British arms.
The way was clear for the American colonies to seek their
independence.

53