Like many of us, George Washington fumbled his early attempt
at leadership. In fact, he botched it so bad that he launched a world war. We
call it the French and Indian War, the Europeans call it the Seven Years War. To
understand the American Revolution, we first need to visit Fort Necessity where
Washington surrendered to the French in 1754. This war, while ultimately won by
the British, led directly to the American Revolution. So Washington’s mistakes set
in motion two wars that transformed the world and helped create these United
States. The next several weeks’ postings in Driven by History will cover the
lead up to and then the American Revolution. We start with Fort Necessity, the
only NPS site that preserves and interprets the French and Indian War.
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| George Washington as an older man (From exhibit at Ft. Necessity's visitor center) |
In 1754, Lt. Col. Washington went west with a military force
to contest the French’s presence in the Ohio River Valley. When I arrived at
Fort Necessity’s visitors center, Ranger James took me to the mock-up
of the battle encased behind Plexiglas. He explained that Britain and France
had competing claims on North America which centered on the Ohio River Valley.
Virginia claimed it as an extension westward of its colony’s boundaries. France
had been in the region for years as its fur traders plied the waterways of the
Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers. These rivers also provided a vital link
between New France up north and Louisiana in the west. In a time of rough roads
and slow wagons, rivers served as the quickest way to travel long distances.
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| Map of the contested lands between England and France south of the Great Lakes (From exhibit at visitors center) |
James also offered some insight into George Washington. He
was twenty-three years old at Fort Necessity, with little formal nor military
education, but instead worked as a surveyor. He did have ambition, leadership
ability, and a capacity to learn from his mistakes. Fort Necessity was where
Washington began his military career.
To assert itself, the French established several forts in
the region, including driving the Virginians out of their small stronghold at
the forks of the Ohio River where Pittsburg now stand. The French expanded and
renamed it Fort Duquesne. In April, Lt. Col. Washington went to the region to
request that the French leave. They did not. The English then set up camp in a
marshy area called the Great Meadows which Washington thought was “a charming
field for an encounter.”
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| Replica of Ft. Necessity in the Great Meadow (Photo by Hunner) |
Scouts brought news that French group of soldiers were
nearby. At dawn on May 28 at Jumonville Glen, Washington with forty soldiers
and some Seneca allies attacked the French. Commanded by Joseph Coulon de
Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, the French fought back but were quickly
defeated, with ten dead and twenty-one captured. De Sieur was killed, perhaps scalped
by the Seneca chief Tanaghrisson, aka the Half King. Washington lost one man
and had two wounded. Paul Haney, a volunteer that led my tour down to the replica
of Fort Necessity, speculated that the Half King wanted the British and French
to fight each other so he goaded the English into this attack. This brutal
attack on a French party led to the American Revolution.
Suspecting that the French would quickly respond, the
English prepared for a counter attack by building a circular palisaded fort in
five days at the Great Meadows. Several days after the encounter, the commander
of the British forces, Colonel Fry, was thrown from his horse and died.
Washington became the commander in the field. Washington had about 300 men
under his command, which was reinforced later with 100 British regulars from
South Carolina led by Captain James Mackay. But perhaps a quarter of his men
were unfit for duty.
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| The view of Ft. Necessity from where the French stood (Photo by Hunner) |
On the morning of July 3, 600 French and 100 Indian allies
attacked Fort Necessity. They were led by Captain Louis Coulan de Villiers, the
slain Joseph’s brother. The French first killed all the cows and horses in the
fields outside of the small fort to prevent the English from leaving. Stiff action
lasted the whole day with casualties on both sides, and as rain came down harder
and harder, the English, pressured by the French and Indians, grew more desperate
in their fort. Around thirty of their soldiers had died.
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| Hut within Ft. Necessity where Washington signed the surrender document (Photo by Hunner) |
Then, Captain de Villiers offered peace terms and after a
long evening of negotiations, Washington surrendered. The British retained
their baggage and weapons and retreated to Virginia. The French burned Fort
Necessity. Lost in the translation of the surrender document from the French, Washington
accepted personal responsibility for assassinating Joseph de Villiers. Within a
couple of months, the French had the signed document back in Europe,
illustrating that the English were proud of being assassins.
The day long battle at Fort Necessity sparked the war
between England and France for the control of the North American continent. It
also initiated a wider war between these two colonial powers in Asia and on the
high seas. The Seven Years War ended in 1763 with the French expelled from
Canada and India.
Consequences, both intended and unintended, came from this victory.
An intended consequence was that the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains
opened up to settlement by the English colonists. For Britain’s Indian allies,
this was poor recompense. Treaties arose that moved them off of their ancestral
lands and created reservations for them, which were invariably broken as
settlers pushed ever westward.
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| War wampum belt (From exhibit at visitors center) |
An unintended consequence was that some of the key colonial military
leaders of the Revolution earned their stripes in this conflict. A more
significant unintended consequence was the changed relationship between England
and her colonies. Looking for ways to pay off both the war debt and the
expenses of running their expanded empire, King George III and Parliament turned
to the prosperous American colonies. The English argued: Didn’t the war begin
in the colonies? Didn’t the colonies need the continued protection of the British
military? Surely, the colonists grasped that they should pay their fair share.
So they placed more taxes on their American colonies.
While all the colonies were subject to taxes, the people in
Massachusetts proved particularly troublesome to the King’s wishes. So let’s
shift from Fort Necessity to Boston. I stopped by Faneuil Hall on a hot August
day and stood in line with several hundred people. I asked the man in front of
me if this was the right line for the visitor’s center and he shook his head: “No
I’m taking the oath.” On Thursdays, naturalization ceremonies occurred at the
Great Hall of Faneuil Hall. I congratulated
him and slipped into the ground floor and the NPS welcome center.
I got on a tour of part of the Freedom Trail led by Ranger
Bill Casey. He said that Faneuil Hall has protected the rights of Englishman
since 1742. These rights—to vote, to assemble, and to debate—were threatened by
the new efforts of the Crown. Bill asked us to complete James Otis’s
declaration in Faneuil Hall, “Taxation without representation is … tyranny.”
The colonists had no representatives in Parliament since the Lords did not want
to share their power with the provincials.
A particularly odious tax on the colonies was the Stamp Act
of 1765. It required revenue stamps on newspapers and most printed material,
even playing cards. Thus, the Stamp Act angered the influential people who
shaped public opinion—the newspaper editors, lawyers, and tavern owners. As a
result, open acts of rebellion flared, including the sacking of the Bostonian
homes of the Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson and his brother-in-law Andrew Oliver, a
stamp act commissioner. In response in 1768, the British sent troops to Boston
to quell the growing rebellion, which the Bostonians had to house.
The stamp required for all printed materials from the act of
1765.
On March 5, 1770, a lone British sentry marched between his
barracks and the customs’ house across the street. He cried out as a group of
youths pelted him with snowballs and rocks. Soldiers poured out of the nearby
barracks and tussled with the gathering crowd. A British solder fired, then
more shots rang out, killing five and wounding another eight. Ironically, one
of the first persons killed in the fight for freedom was Crispus Attucks, a
runaway slave who worked on the ships in the harbor. Future president John
Adams defended the British soldiers charged with murder since he felt that
without a fair trial, rule by mob threatened justice. Of the ten British
soldiers, two were convicted of manslaughter, the rest were absolved.
Nonetheless, the Boston Massacre escalated the conflict.
Ranger Bill ended our walking tour in front of the Old South
Meeting House, the biggest building in North America in the 18th century.
It could hold 4,000 to 5,000 people. At this Congregationalist Church, on December
16, 1773, Samuel Adams launched the Boston Tea Party. A group of men disguised
as Mohawk Indians stormed three ships in the Boston harbor and dumped 342
chests of tea into the frigid waters to protest the taxes. Parliament punished Boston with the Coercive
Acts, aka the Intolerable Acts, which closed the port until the equivalent of over
$1,000,000 in today’s dollars was paid for the tea. Only the governor, Gen.
Thomas Gage, could approve public assemblies. The British military now ruled
Massachusetts. Discontent grew in Boston and other cities in the colonies.
In next week’s blog, we will return to Boston and the shot
heard ‘round the world and then follow the war at other NPS and historic sites.
Also on August 25, the National Park Service turns 100. Please celebrate it by
going to a park, remembering past park trips, and letting your family, friends,
and elected representatives know what our parks mean to you. Party with your
parks!
Fort Necessity was designated a National Battlefield Site on
March 4, 1931 and a National Battlefield in 1961. Boston National Historical
Park was created on October 1, 1974.
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