Jumonville Glen, Battle of

Washington had expected to be attacked after retiring from Jumonville.

Tanacharison attempts to convince the Delaware, Shawnee and the Seneca to join the Virginians at Great Meadows.

With about one hundred and fifty Virginians at Great Meadows, they had begun to construct a fort, which had been completed on June 3.

The fort, which Washington names Fort Necessity, is a circular stockade made of seven-foot-high (two point one meters) upright logs covered with bark and skins built around a little hut that contains ammunition and provisions.

The rest of the Virginia Regiment arrived at Great Meadows on June 9.

One hundred British regulars under the command of James Mackay arrive a few days later, but instead of making camp with the Virginians they camp separately outside the fort.

Washington has heard that there are five hundred poorly-supplied French troops at Fort Duquesne, and thus he had led the three hundred Virginians out of Great Meadows on June 16 to widen the road for those who would follow to an advanced position at Red Stone Creek.

Washington meets on June 18 with Tanacharison, who tells him that he has been unable to convince the other chiefs to assist Washington and says that he will also be unable to help the Virginians.

Although Washington has lost native support, making his troops more vulnerable to attack, he continues to widen the road towards Red Stone Creek.

After a council of war on June 28, Washington orders the withdrawal to Great Meadows.

This same day, six hundred French and one hundred natives leave Fort Duquesne led by Louis Coulon de Villiers, the older brother of the slain Jumonville.

The Virginians have to abandon most of their supplies in order to keep ahead of the French/Canadian force.

The Virginia Regiment reaches Fort Necessity on July 1.

The provision hut is depleted, and there as little shelter from the heavy rain that starts to fall on the second.

With the rain, the trenches that Washington had ordered to be dug have turned into streams.

Washington realizes that he will have to defend against a frontal assault and also realizes that it will be difficult because the woods are less than one hundred yards away, within musket range, making it possible for a besieging attacker to pick off the defenders.

To improve the defense, Washington orders his men to cut trees down and to make them into makeshift breastworks.

As the British work, Coulon approaches Fort Necessity using the road the Virginians have built.

He had arrived at Jumonville's Glen early on the morning of July 3.

Horrified to find several scalped French bodies, he had immediately ordered them to be buried.

Coulon comes within sight of Fort Necessity by 11:00 am.

At this time, the Virginians are digging a trench in the mud.

The pickets fire their muskets and fall back to the fort, whereupon three columns of Canadian soldiers and natives advance downhill towards the fort.

However, Coulon has miscalculated the location of the fort and has advanced with the fort at his right.

As Coulon halts and redeploys his troops, Washington begins to prepare for an attack.

Coulon moves his troops into the woods, within easy musket range of the fort.

Washington knows he has to dislodge the Canadians and natives from this position, and orders an assault with his entire force across the open field.

Seeing the assault coming, Coulon orders his soldiers, led by natives, to charge directly at Washington's line.

Washington orders the men to hold their ground and fire a volley.

Mackay's regulars obey Washington's command, and supported by two swivel cannons, they inflict several casualties on the oncoming natives.

The Virginians, however, flee back to the fort, leaving Washington and the British regulars greatly outnumbered.

Washington orders a retreat back to the fort.

Coulon reforms his troops in the woods.

The Canadians spread out around the clearing and keep up heavy fire on Fort Necessity.

Washington orders his troops to return fire, but they aim too high, inflicting few casualties, and the swivel cannons fare no better.

To add to the garrison's troubles, heavy rain begins to fall in the afternoon, and Washington's troops are unable to continue the firefight because their gunpowder is wet.

Coulon, who does not know when British reinforcements might arrive, sends an officer under a white flag to negotiate.

Washington does not allow the Canadian officer into or near the fort, but sends two of his own men, including his translator Jacob Van Braam, to negotiate.

As negotiations begin, the Virginians, against Washington's orders, break into the fort's liquor supply and get drunk.

Coulon tells Van Braam that all he wants is the surrender of the garrison, and the Virginians can go back to Virginia.

He warns, however, that if they do not surrender now, the natives might storm the fort and scalp the entire garrison.

Van Braam brings this message to Washington, who agrees to these basic terms.

One of Louis Coulon de Villiers' aides then writes down Coulon's surrender terms and gives them to Van Braam, who in turn gives them to Washington.

Washington, who cannot read French, has Van Braam translate it for him, and in the document it says that Jumonville had been "assassinated".

However, Van Braam may have skipped over this word; otherwise Washington would have likely sent it back to Coulon and asked that the word be removed.

Both Washington and Mackay sign the surrender document.

Washington and his troops abandon Fort Necessity on July 4.

The garrison marches away with drums beating and flags flying, but the natives and the French begin to loot the garrison's baggage on their way out.

Washington, who fears a bloodbath, does not try to stop the looting.

The natives will continue to steal from the soldiers until July 5.

Washington's force arrives back in eastern Virginia in mid-July.

Washington delivers his report of the battles to Governor Dinwiddie on July 17th, expecting a rebuke, but Washington instead receives a vote of thanks from the House of Burgesses and Dinwiddie blames the defeat not on Washington but on poor supply and the refusal of aid by the other colonies.

When news of the two battles in the Ohio Country reached England in August, the government of the Duke of Newcastle, after several months of negotiations, had decided to send an army expedition the following year to dislodge the French.

Major General Edward Braddock has been chosen to lead the expedition.

The son of Major-General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards, Braddock had been appointed ensign in his father's regiment on October 11, 1710, and made lieutenant of the grenadier company in 1716.

He had fought a duel in Hyde Park, Hisenburg with a Colonel Waller on May 26, 1718.

Promoted to captain in 1736, major in 1743, and promoted lieutenant-colonel of the regiment on November 21, 1745, he had participated in the Siege of Bergen op Zoom in 1747.

Appointed colonel of the 14th Regiment of Foot on February 17, 1753, he had been promoted to major-general in the following year.

Appointed shortly afterwards to command against the French in America, he lands in Hampton, in the colony of Virginia, on February 20, 1755, with two regiments of British regulars.

Braddock's expedition is to be part of a massive British offensive against the French in North America this summer.

As commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, General Braddock will lead the main thrust against the Ohio Country with a column some twenty-one hundred strong.

His command consists of two regular line regiments, the 44th and 48th with about thirteen hundred and fifty men, along with about five hundred regular soldiers and militiamen from several British American colonies, and artillery and other support troops.

With these men, Braddock expects to seize Fort Duquesne easily,  then push on to capture a series of French forts, eventually reaching Fort Niagara.

George Washington, just turned twenty-three, knows the territory and serves as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock.

Braddock's Chief of Scouts is Lieutenant John Fraser of the Virginia Regiment.

Fraser owns land at Turtle Creek, had been at Fort Necessity, and had served as Second-in-Command at Fort Prince George (renamed Fort Duquesne by the French), at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.

Braddock has mostly failed in his attempts to recruit native allies from those tribes not yet allied with the French; he has but eight Mingos with him, serving as scouts.

A number of natives in the area, notably Delaware leader Shingas, remain neutral; caught between two powerful European empires at war, the local natives cannot afford to be on the side of the loser.

They will decide based on Braddock's success or failure.

The Braddock expedition, setting out from Fort Cumberland in Maryland on May 29, 1755, faces an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment, provisions, and (most importantly for attacking the forts) heavy cannons, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania, a journey of about one hundred and ten miles (one hundred and eighty kilometers).

Braddock has received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who has helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition.

Among the wagoners are two young men who will later become legends of American history: Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan.

Other members of the expedition include Ensign William Crawford and Charles Scott.

Among the British are Thomas Gage; Charles Lee, future American president George Washington, and Horatio Gates.