The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-23
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

Summit, Pa, Sept. Is.
In this neighborhood they still are
talking about George Washington
surrender of Fort Necessity. Some
hold that the surrender, while humili-
ating. was a military necessity. Others
say that had the future General Wash
ington had the ferethought to locate
Fort Necessity on a hill instead of in
hollow the surrender of the COM
hined British and American forces
might have been avoided. As it
turned out, the French and their In
dian allies crowned the surrounding
hills with riflemen and poured a MUIR
derous fire into the fort. 1t was the
only time Washington ever surren-
dered. It all happened in the French
and Indian wars of 1854, and, as in
dicated in a previous observation, the
| thing isn't settled to the satisfaction
of everybody yet. 1t is agreed. how
ever, that it was quite some battle and
the most pointed reverse ever sus-
tanned by a combined American and
British army. Men were there whose
names have become historic-Gage,
who, twenty years later, saw his routed
battalions receil in disorder from the
charge on Bunker Hill; Gates, the
future conqueror of Burgoyne, and the
subsequent father of this country, who
at the time was in command of the
Virginia riflemen.
General Braddock was the titular
i-ader of the expedition against the
French and Indians, and the adven-
tuFe turned out very unpleasantly for
him. He was killed shortly after he
arrived on the field and took COM
mand of his troops. and all that was
| mortal of him lies on an eminenee
| three miles east of this pin-point on
the map. The Indians did for him in
fI,1 ~ hi
| body to the hilltop and buried it, A
none too impressive monument marks
the spot. Fort Necessity is more in
| delibly eommemorated. A unitarian
project called the Fort Necessity Ga
rage marks its location. Very few
persons in this country notice menu-
ment. Fewer still take the trouble to
read the inscription; but anybody can
remember garage. Probably had
| Washington been in command of the
| expedition he could have saved it At
any rate, that is the opinion of many
! OF the old settlers in this vicinity. Gen
| eral Braddock was not on the field
when the battle began. He was down
| the river somewhere in the vicinity of
what is now Pittsburgh. When he
| arrived Washington had his Virginians
| fighting Indian fashion, each man be-
! hind a tree, and they were holding
| their own. General Braddock was
very indignant when he found out
| what was going on. 1t was a thing
that simply was not done. So he or
| dered Washington to form his Vir-
| ginianS into a hollow square, which
was the correct thing in those days.
What the French and Indians did to
| them was a shame. The command
practically was wiped out After Cen
| eral Braddock was killed Washington
led the fragments of what had been
an imposing army, consisting of seven
| or eight hundred men, into Fort Neces-
| sfty, from which address he SUISSE
quently surrendered them.
| In 1906, at the sugg estion of Thomas
| Jefferson, the Government laid out d
road from Washington by way of Bal
| tlmore to Columbus, Q. That was be-
| fore the Government got into the habit
| of meddling with everything, and the
| project created considerable talk
| among those who heard about it.. But
| gossip was not so generally diffused in
| those days, and doubtless many excel
lent American citizens have lived and
died without hearing of the National
| Old Trails road. For many years ii
| was the chief national artery pf COM
| merce and politics. The people drove
| their live stock and hauled their truck
| to the ultimate market over it. Pres
idents, Senators, Congressman, politi-
clans and circuit riders Travelled it to
and fro. Then the railroads came, and
the National pike. as it has been nick
| named, ceased to be a national artery
1t stopped doing a wholesale business
and devoted itself to the local retail
| trade. It was out of the picture for
| many years. When the motor car be-
| came a popular and almost universal
weapon the National pike was restored
to its pristine glory AS in 1906, the
| National pike is the longest hard sur
4 70 Oa6 in,
| 1t has the advantage of many of the
| other hard surfaced road projects in
! the respects that it actually exists. A
| good many of the hard surfaced roads
| are SO only on paper. But there ii
| winds up mountainside and down dale
for hundreds of miles thru the heart
of the country. And for that distance
| it presents a perfectly kept, hard and
even surface of ample width and dis
| closes many engineering feats of a
| high order. We have been on the Nat
| ional pike all day; we shall, Providence