The Battle of Fort Necessity

The Battle of fortress necessity, also get along as the Battle of The Great Meadows, is considered the flashpoint of the French and Indian war that started on the morning of July3, 1754. The battle between British and French forces and their individual Indian allies, took place 65 miles north of stronghold Duquesne (located at the forks of the Ohio River) in the Ohio River Valley in present day Pennsylvania (Purvis 143).Most nonably the commandant of the British Colonial forces was a 23 year old, Virginia military officer, by the name of Lieutenant Colonel George working capital who initially had been sent into the area with cc men to assist with and protect the construction of a British meet at the forks of the Ohio. On April 20, 1754 news arrived that the French had already seized the fort and renamed it Fort Duquesne.(Marston 11,12). Washington began construction of Fort Necessity on 24 whitethorn after receiving intelligence that a party of French troops were woful agai nst him (Marston 12). On 27 and 28 May, Washington took 40 militia soldiers and with the forethought of his Indian ally, Half king of the Iroquois Confederacy, ambushed the French party killing 10 of their cast, including their commander Joseph Coulon de Villiers (North 72).Washington knew that a strong French attack was imminent and retired to Fort Necessity to make preparations. With the arrival of Captains Lewis and Mackay and about 100 regular British soldiers a 2 few days before the battle brought the amount of the garrison of Fort Necessity to around 400 men (Axelrod 216). On the morning of 3 July, 900 French and Indians, under the command of, Louis Coulon de Villiers (Joseph Coulon de Villiers brother), surrounded and attacked the fort.Washington had misjudged the quad from the wooden palisade his men had constructed to the wood line making their positions at bottom musket range as well as having dug their entrenchments too shallow, to lonesome(prenominal) about a depth of 5 feet. To make matters worse, it had begun to rain peeing logging the British trenches and fouling their muskets. After nine hours of fighting, with their supplies depleted and suffering not only losses under fire, but a considerable number of desertions, Washington accepted the inevitable and quited to the French (Marston 13).It would be the only surrender of his military career. 3 Works Cited Axelrod, Alan. Blooding at Great Meadows Young Georg Washington and the Battle that Shaped the Man. Philadelphia Running Press, 2007. Marston, Daniel. The French-Indian War, 1654-1760. London Taylor and Francis, 2003 North, Sterling. George Washington Frontier Colonel. new-made York Sterling Publishing Co, 2006 Purvis, Thomas L. A Dictionary of American History. Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing, 1997