The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1899-03-01

1OuuOu diiu HuDiicHcQ tutte. was IT
garded in England as document o
r no little Importance for the ligh
/ which it shed on the designs of tn
r French government with respect Il
! the Ohio Valley, and the disputed
; territory to the westward. In fact
this was the inception of that lon.
and bloody French and Indian War
: which, for so many years, devastated
all the border land.
Governor Dinwiddie was now assur
! ed that all attempts to extend tn,
settlements towards the Ohio would
be forcibly resisted by the French
He convened the assembly o. the state
and recommended that active meas
ures of preparations for war be taken
Virginia voted TO raise a regiment
OF six companies. Washington, on
account of his youth, refused the
command of this regiment, and it was
given to Colonel Fry; but in the early
part Of the campaign which was
directed toward the Ohio-by the
death of the colonel, the command
devolved on Washington who was next
IN rank.
| Washington had especially recon-
mended that fort be established at
the Forks of the Ohio, now Pittsburg;
and one company under Capt Trent
was sent forward to take possession OF
that point.
While the building of the fort was
in progress, Capt. Trent's company was
attacked by force Of French and In
dams and compelled to abandon the
work.
The French completed the fort for
their own use, and named it Fort
Duquesne, in honor of the governor of
Canada!
With less than four-hundred men
Washington had advanced as far as
the Great Meadows, where leading enc
of his companies in advance, he fell
upon detachment OF the enemy, and
a bloody encounter ensued. The
French commander, Jumonville. with
a large part of his command were kill
ed, and a number captured Anticl-
pating an attack by re-enforcements
from Fort Duquesne, he built a fort
on the Meadows, nov Fayette county
Pa. and named it, Fort Necessity.
Here, Washington was surrounded
by superior force of French and In
dams and was compelled TO surrender
the post. This was in June 1854,
and his command was allowed to
march out from the fortress with the
honors Of war; and return to the settle
ments unEolested; but he was COM
PEELED to leave his artillery to the cap
tors.
Thus the year 1854 closed with the
French and Indians in complete pos
session OF the Ohio Valley.
But active hostilities had now be-
gun between France and England
known as the .'Seven Years War;
which involved the Colonies. Both
nations sent across seas, their veteran
regiments that had won renown on
the battle fields of Europe, but which
were destined to meet with defeat and
disaster, almost without exception,
when contending with the pioneer
settlers, or the wild Indian of the
forest.
In the year 1855 the English plan
ned four expeditions to proceed against
the French, although war was not
formally declared between the nations
until the following year.
OF these expeditions, the first was
directedagainst Fort Dusquesne, under
General Braddock: the second against
Niagara and Frontenac on Lake On
tario, under Gov. Shirley of Massa-
chusetts; the third against the AGA
dian Peasants, on the Bay of Funday,
was commanded by Col. Winslow.
New Highlander, the fourth under Sir
William johnson with New England
troops. was directed against Crown
Point.
The first and second of these expe-
ditions, as is known, failed: the third
succeeded in driving the unarmed
Acadian Peasants from their homes in
the Acadian land; and upon which
circumstance is based the story of
Evangeline, by Longfellow, the most
beautiful and pathetic story in Amer
lean literature. Sir William Johnson
with the fourth expedition, gained a
victory on Lake George but failed to
follow up this success and the cam
paign of 1855 ended on the whole.
more favorably for the French than
for the English.
The world knows the story of Brad
docks march through the wilderness,
and of the massacre on the fatal field
where he fell, on the 9th of July 1855
Ion the banks of the Monongahela. It
knows also of the heroic stand made
by Washington and his backwoods
Vlrginiaps whose uniform was the
s'hunting-shirt" and whose weapon
the long-rifle but who held at bay the
savages, and rescued the remnant of
the proud British army.
Thus the war waged with varying
fortune until in the latter part of the
year 1853 when Quebec fell to the vic
torious troops of Gen. Wolf On the
plains of Abraham, and the French
power was broken in America. But
even after the French army was gone
from the Ohio Valley, the Indian
chief, Pontiac, by his conspiracy with
the western tribes, kept up the tur-
MOL of war for more than year.
The mercurial Frenchman, more
than any of the white race, affiliated
with the wild Indian; they were allies
and whatever the fate of the military
expeditions, the blow ever fell most
heavily on the white, English settlers
of the wilderness. The savages fol-
lowed in the wake of the armies and