With the weekend holiday approaching, today offers us a unique opportunity to examine the early career of an American icon: none other than George Washington. After making a name for himself as a surveyor on the frontier in the 1740's, it is not surprising that the Governor of Virginia appointed Washington to raise militia when trouble with the French surfaced in Ohio. His knowledge of the land and his relationship with the Native Americans of the region would prove invaluable in his first military trial.
Moving through the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania, Washington heard of a small French force harassing British subjects in the area. When the French overwhelmed a British garrison at the Forks of Ohio, Washington assumed that their next target would be his small band made up of Virginians, Indians and a few British regulars. Two-weeks march from home, dependent on themselves for supply and expecting no help from other Colonies, Washington ordered his men to dig in and await the French attack he knew would come.
The French were on their way indeed, but not exactly for the purpose Washington suspected. Under orders not to engage the Virginians unless provoked, the French sent a small detachment on a diplomatic mission to order the colonists out of the area. Misreading their intentions, Washington's men ambushed the detachment, killing some French soldiers in the skirmish and murdering the envoy Joseph Coulon de Jumonville once the fighting was over. The effect on the rest of the French was obvious, and soon after, they returned on much less diplomatic terms.
Fully expecting a response, Washington ordered his men to build a small fort, which they named Fort Necessity. Nearly out of supplies, the Virginians waited in their tiny circular fortifications. Setting out from their own encampment, Fort Duqesne (a settlement which eventually grew into the city of Pittsburgh), the French arrived on July 3, 1754. Initially, the Virginians and the British tried to fend off the advance in a skirmish line outside the fort. An attack from French-supporting Indians scattered the militia and forced the regulars back inside the walls. A heavy rainstorm compounded Washington's problems, and late that night for the first and only time in his career he surrendered his command.
It goes without saying that Washington's story does not end there. After abandoning the fort the next day and returning with his command to Virginia by mid-July, the colonists celebrated Washington as a hero for even attempting to stand up to the French. In Britain, however, the murder of the French envoy before the battle was seen as the spark that began the Seven Years War, or as it is known in North America, the French and Indian War. Most English statesmen were quite annoyed that a young Virginian ignited a conflict with the French that was eventually fought all over the world.
The actions during this ignominious beginning to his career would lead to the conflict that turned into one of the main causes of the American Revolution, his greatest triumph. In an interesting side note, July 3 would eventually become an important day in Washington's career. Not only did he surrender Fort Necessity on that date, but 21 years later to the day, on July 3, 1775, he was appointed commander of the Continental Army. While there were many dark days ahead for that command, their successes are obviously quite enduring. After all, what are we Yanks celebrating tomorrow?
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