Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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and Indians. The effect of the defeat was disastrous. Colonel Dunbar, who com- manded the rear of Braddock’s Army that had not taken part in the battle, refused to advance or to stand his ground, and withdrew to Philadelphia, leaving the entire border at the mercy of the French and Indians. FORT NECESSITY, JULY 4, 1754 From a painting by David Shriver Stewart (From A Toung Colonel from Virginia, used by permission of the Fort Necessity Memorul Association] When William Pitt became Prime Minister of England, he sent substantial military and naval forces to America. France did not re-enforce her armies, so that the French forces in America were left to their fate. Washington had always urged that another expedition be sent against Fort Duquesne; and at last in 1758, an expedition was organized under Brigadier Gen- eral Forbes, with Washington at the head of the Virginia troops. A notable contrast to General Braddock’s disregard of George Washington’s advice was the respect shown by General Forbes, who asked the young officer to make for him a plan of march. The value of this plan was so apparent that it was adopted and followed. General Forbes’s expedition advanced slowly. The making of a new road through the wilderness was difficult, and the approach to Fort Duquesne was de- layed until in danger of being halted by winter weather. It is true that the French defeated an advance guard of the British under Grant, but General Forbes’s whole [11]

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PECEA10R the night. Fortunately, the river froze over before morning, and they were able to push on toward Virginia. The following year the Ohio Company made preparations to build a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers. To complete and defend this fort, Dinwiddie raised a troop under Colonel Fry to whom Washington became second in command. In April Washington, with less than four hundred men left Alexandria. Two months later he arrived at Great Meadows, nine miles east of the present city of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. At this place, he started to build a fort, meanwhile being on tbe lookout for French scouts. On May 28, with the aid of friendly Indians, Washington surprised a scouting party of French under Jumonville. Jumonville was shot at the first firing, and a letter of instructions found on him betrayed the real errand of the French. Shortly after this, the death of Colonel Fry placed Washington in command of the expedition. He advanced towards Fort Duquesne, but his scouts warned him that the French had been re-enforced. Feeling that the expedition would result in failure, Washington retreated to Great Meadows, and strengthened Fort Necessity. On July 3, the French attacked his forces. The French had the advantage during the whole battle. For nine hours in pouring rain, Washington withstood forces numbering twice those which defended Fort Necessity. The French finally requested a parley which Washington refused because he feared it might be strategy to gain admittance to the fort. The request was repeated with the additional sug- gestion that an officer might be sent to treat with them. At midnight, it was agreed that both sides should leave the battlefield in the morning with all the honors of war. Washington immediately set out for Williamsburg, Virginia, to make his military report to Dinwiddie. He succeeded in having his men fully commended for their services, but much to bis surprise. Governor Dinwiddie reduced his rank from major to that of captain. Washington immediately resigned his command. Historians have regarded this campaign as a defeat, but in the light of sub- sequent events, it proved both a military and a moral victory. Moreover it marked the beginning of the French and Indian War. The British government immediately prepared for military operations in America. General Edward Braddoek, appointed generalissimo of all the forces in the colonies, invited Washington to join his staff as aide-de-camp for a campaign against Fort Duquesne. On April 20, 1754, Brad- dock started from Alexandria and advanced to Cumberland. At Great Meadows, Washington became ill but Braddoek pushed on till he was within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne. Here Washington joined him just in time for an attack by the French and Indians. Braddoek would not take advice in regard to methods of Indian warfare. As a consequence his army fell into an ambush and was overwhelmingly defeated. Braddoek himself was mortally wounded; and only the action of Washington and the Virginia riflemen saved the entire army from being cut to pieces by the French [10]

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army was too strong for them; they abandoned and burned Fort Duquesne and retreated down the Ohio. General Forbes took possession of the smoldering ruins, had the fort made defensible, and renamed it Fort Pitt in honor of the Prime Minister of England. The downfall of Fort Duquesne ended the border troubles, as Washington had pre- dicted it would. The restoration of order on the border ended the war for Virginia; hence the end of 1758 was the end of George Washington’s military service in the French and Indian War. Washington’s next expedition into the west was a peaceful one, when, twelve years later, he went out in interest of the land promised to the soldiers who had enlisted for the Fort Necessity expedition. The total amount to be given to the soldiers was 200,000 acres; of this Washington was entitled to a tract of 15,000 acres. Impatient over the delay in securing the land for the soldiers, Washington volunteered to take the matter in hand and perfect the grants for his old friends. In August, 1770, he was authorized by a conference of the officers of the troops to act as their representative to secure the lands. In October, he started for the Kanawha River. In November, after a journey which was easy in comparison with his earlier ones, he marked out at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River some corners of the Soldiers’ Land. By November, 1772, the entire 200,000 acres had been obtained, and most of the certificates of title de- posited. Of this land Washington eventually secured, by purchase from other sol- diers, 32,373 acres. It was partly in interest of these lands, but more particularly to plan for the development of this great West that he made his last trip into wes- tern Pennsylvania in 1784. [12]