A Rout in the Wilderness
The upcoming July Fourth weekend, in addition to being the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, will mark the 250th anniversary of the start of the French and Indian War.
Throughout the first half of the 18th Century the French and the British were locked in a battle for control of the eastern half of the North American continent. Beginning with Jamestown in 1607, the English had established colonies along the Atlantic coast. Their land claims, however, stretched far into the American interior, across the Appalachian Mountains and into territory where the French already had a substantial presence trading with the Indians, which they were reinforcing with a series of fortifications. Of key importance was the Ohio River Valley which to the French represented a means of connecting Canada with Louisiana.
The British realized that in order to proceed with colonization across the Appalachians they'd have to confront the French. Toward that end, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, sent a young army officer named George Washington of the Virginia Regiment into the Ohio Valley in the winter of 1753-54 to try to persuade the French to abandon their claims. The French quite naturally refused, and when Washington reported back, it looked as though armed conflict would be inevitable.
Key to control of the valley was the Forks of the Ohio (modern-day Pittsburgh), where the Virginia Regiment in February 1754 began work on a fort which they named Prince George. Construction was supervised by Captain William Trent, and Washington was to provide reinforcements. In April, however, Washington, now a lieutenant colonel, learned that the French had demolished the Virginia Regiment's fort and replaced it with a larger one of their own which they christened Fort Duquesne.
Washington decided to forge ahead. Moving his troops from Wills Creek (now Cumberland, Maryland) he reached an area known as the Great Meadows, about sixty miles from Fort Duquesne, and had his men set up camp. Once his regiment was settled, however, Washington learned that some French troops were nearby. With the help of Seneca Indian leader Half-King, Washington and his men were able to surprise the Frenchmen on the morning of May 28, killing ten of them before the others surrendered. This victory, however, came at a cost. One Frenchman hadn't been with the others and managed to escape - presumably to warn his comrades at Fort Duquesne. Fearing retaliation, Washington immediately withdrew to Great Meadows and had his weary men build a structure he called the "fort of necessity".
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