TDIH: George Washington Starts a War. Sort of.
His first combat was one factor that helped trigger the French and Indian War.
On this day in 1754, a young George Washington receives a message as he leads a Virginian regiment in an area near modern-day Pittsburgh. The contents of that message would soon push him into his first combat.
The incident was one factor that helped trigger the French and Indian War.
That war occurred roughly two decades before our war for independence. The dispute in those days centered on the Ohio Country. Who would own and control that land? The French? Or the English?
Twenty-two-year-old George Washington sat squarely in the middle of the dispute. Just one year earlier, he’d been dispatched to the region with a letter from Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie. The letter asked the French to withdraw. Washington was cordially received, but the French maintained that their claim to the Ohio Valley was “incontestable.”
In the spring of 1754, Virginia responded by raising a regiment of men. Washington was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and sent back to the Ohio Country with about 160 men. His task was to secure an area near the intersection of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (in present-day Pittsburgh). Washington was empowered to “make Prisoners of or kill & destroy” anyone who disputed British control of the region.
In the meantime, the French had taken the fort in the area, renaming it Fort Duquesne. Washington made his own small camp nearby and waited for reinforcements. But on May 27, he received a message: The French were approaching Washington’s position. Washington decided to go on the offensive. Early on May 28, he advanced toward the French position with 40 men. He was joined by about 12 Indian warriors. Together, the two encircled the French detachment of slightly over 30 men.
What happened next is disputed. Who shot first? Did the French try to surrender? Were they on a diplomatic mission or a military one? The Indian Half King spoke fluent French, but Washington did not. Thus, the Half King may have been left to interpret the French commander’s statements at a critical moment. Either way, the conflict was over quickly. When the dust settled, about a dozen Frenchmen were dead or wounded and 21 were captured. One of the dead was the French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, sieur de Jumonville.
In the French view, Jumonville was not a casualty of war. Not only was he on a diplomatic mission, they claimed, but he had been trying to surrender. Thus, killing him was murder.
As for Washington, he did not believe that the French were on a diplomatic mission. The next day, he wrote Dinwiddie, enclosing some papers from the French: “Officers pretend they were coming on an Embassy, but the absurdity of this pretext is too glaring as your Honour will see by the Instructions and summons inclos’d.”
A few days later, he wrote another letter describing the incident. “I fortunately escaped without a wound,” he wrote his brother, “tho’ the right Wing where I stood was exposed to & received all the Enemy’s fire . . . . I can with truth assure you, I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound.”
This and other experiences in the Ohio Valley shaped Washington. He learned and grew. One of his biographers has written of Washington: “Instead of going to college, Washington went to war.”
The American Revolution was coming, and the lessons Washington was learning during these years would be sorely needed—although, of course, Washington could not then know it.
Sources can always be found on my website, here.
We think of George Washington as a mature man whose experience and stature exudes leadership. It was skirmishes such as this where Washington gained his knowledge of war. George Washington was 22 years old and a Lt. Col. Imagine a 22 year old today with the responsibilities that Washington was given. People must have matured at a younger age than they do today.
Could it be that the good lord was providing young George Washington with the experience necessary to lead the American troops against the British during the Revolutionary War? Thank you Tara.
Washington did indeed have an incredible education in bearing arms and commanding troops. I think his experience at Fort Necessity strongly influenced his later career so that he was never trapped by a larger force again when he was in command. His later performance with General Braddock was incredible as he saved Braddock’s army. The expedition with Braddock proved that conventional warfare of his day was ineffective and that influenced his future battle plans. He received a good education in warfare!