what did the british do to start the french and indian war

Many Americans call up of the Revolutionary War as the pivotal effect of eighteenth-century America because, to them, information technology represents the beginnings of our land. However, some historians contend that the French and Indian War was more than significant, as its events and aftermath started Americans on the path to independence.

The state of war tested the relationships betwixt America and the mother country.  The decisions that arose from the conflict acquired both the British and the Americans to question the nature of the colonial partnership.  After the French and Indian State of war, information technology began to become apparent that America and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland were developing culturally and socially along unlike lines, and the war exposed and exacerbated the fundamental differences between British and American goals.

George Washington was a pivotal figure in the French and Indian State of war from the earliest days.  For Washington the French and Indian War started in belatedly 1753, when he was selected every bit the British emissary to the French borderland institution.  It ended with the fall of Fort Duquesne to the combined British and colonial forces.  He was a young and ambitious man when he volunteered.  His actions--which reflected his lack of feel--and his ambitions helped make up one's mind the course of the war.

The war was as well an of import result in Washington's life and evolution.  His later decisions and deportment were influenced by his French and Indian War feel.  Washington's war experiences not just taught him valuable lessons about command and politics, they too caused him to re-examine his professional and personal goals.  The state of war both provided Washington with valuable military experience and shaped his perceptions of the relationship between the colonials and the British.  Washington emerged from the war equally a less naïve person.

Washington was an ambitious swain who wanted to pursue a military career.  Before his decease, Washington's older, one-half-brother Lawrence Washington had a brevet officeholder's committee in the regular British army during the British invasion of Cartagena[1] and served as the military machine adjutant for Virginia.  Information technology was common in eighteenth-century Virginia for official positions to laissez passer down within families, and it may accept been with this in mind that Washington actively sought to succeed Lawrence every bit a military adjutant.  The adjutants' role was to instruct the militia officers and soldiers in the use and do of their artillery, to increase subject field in the militia, and to teach the men of the lower classes how to exist more civilized. The colonial regime divided the colony into iv military districts; Washington lobbied for the adjutancy of the Northern Neck, which included his home.  Withal, Washington was appointed to the adjutancy of the Southern district, which stretched from the James River to the North Carolina border.  While he was disappointed not to receive the district closer to habitation, it was an honor for the equally non-yet-21-yr-one-time Washington (who had no military experience) to be appointed to the adjutancy with its £100 per year salary and a Virginia Major's commission.[2]

By the early on 1750s the French and British were in conflict in the Ohio Valley.  Since the beginning of European settlement in the seventeenth century, English settlement had slowly expanded west from the eastern seaboard, while French settlement moved south from Canada.  In the 1740s, British traders entered the Ohio Valley and began competing with already established French traders for Indian commerce.  In 1744 the Iroquois signed the Treaty of Lancaster with the British, which ceded Iroquois claims in Maryland and Virginia.  While the Iroquois causeless that this meant the Shenandoah Valley and land already within settled colonial boundaries, the British interpreted it as the entire area of English claim.  Virginia's charter specified that its western purlieus was the Pacific Body of water.

In 1745, the Virginia House of Burgesses began granting western country to Virginia-based land companies.[3]  The French saw this as a threat to their territorial claims, which were based on early exploration and settlement.  In 1752 France sent the Marquis de Duquesne to be the governor-general of Canada and to command French forces in Northward America.  Throughout the residue of 1752 and early on 1753, the French built strategically located forts throughout the Ohio Valley to protect their claims.[4]

Mission to the Ohio

Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie (National Portrait Gallery)The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, was particularly vocal in calling upon the British authorities, through the Privy Council, to stop French incursions into the Ohio Valley.  Dinwiddie had a significant financial interest in the Ohio Visitor and may have seen his investment threatened.  The Privy Council agreed to give the colonial governors the power to resist French incursions in America.  Male monarch George Ii's instructions stated that the governor was to erect forts, protect English language claims and remove any Indians or Europeans from English territory.  He authorized Dinwiddie to ask the House of Burgesses for money and to raise a militia.[5]  However, because Dinwiddie was feuding with the Burgesses[6] who refused to vote the funds for an armed trek against the French, he decided to transport an emissary instead.[vii]

Washington may accept heard about the expedition from his neighbor and patron, Colonel William Fairfax.  In Oct 1753, Washington traveled to Williamsburg to nowadays himself to Dinwiddie and to volunteer to be U.k.'s emissary to the French. [viii]  Washington was non explicit as to why he was willing to take on this consignment, but he may take hoped to ingratiate himself with the governor with the intension of succeeding to the Northern adjutancy.  Dinwiddie accepted Washington'due south services, perhaps because of his connections to the Ohio Company.[nine]

Dinwiddie instructed Washington to travel to Wills Creek (Cumberland, MD)--where the Ohio Visitor's fortified storehouse was located--and to hire Christopher Gist as a guide.[10]  From there, he was to rent porters and proceed to Logstown, an Indian settlement. At Logstown, Washington was to make up one's mind where the French forces were posted, request an Indian escort, and proceed to the French forts in the Ohio River Valley[xi].  Dinwiddie instructed Washington, once he arrived at the French fort, to present his letter from the Governor, expect for a respond, and request a French escort back to the Virginia settlements.  While waiting at the fort, he was to annotation troop strength, armaments, defenses, communications, and learn all he could nigh the French plans.[12]

Washington's outset official stop was at Logstown.  The Mingos, Shawnee and Delawares who lived in the Ohio Valley were client/allies of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The Iroquois Council appointed resident, village headmen within the subject field tribes in the Ohio Valley.  These 'half-kings' had the authority to give and receive diplomatic gifts for the Confederacy merely non to make contained treaties.[13]  The half king at Logstown was an adoptive Seneca named Tanacharison,[xiv] virtually commonly referred to past colonial Virginians as "Half King".  When Washington arrived at Logstown, he presented gifts and tried to convince Tanacharison to join an allegiance with the British.  Tanacharison seemed eager to ally with the British as he had his own grievances with the French.  Before he had met with the French commander--Captain Pierre Paul de la Malgue, sieur de Marin--at the fort at Presque Isle where he demanded that the French exit Indian territory.  The commander had refused to leave, claiming that the French owned the land.  He also had refused to have the wampum treaty belt Tanaghrisson presented (signifying the treaty with the Indians was broken).  Tanacharison was offended by this and was eager to give  the chugalug to the new regional French commander, Captain Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, at Fort LeBeouef.  He readily agreed to back-trail Washington to the French forts and to provide an official escort political party, although information technology would take a few days to set up for the journeying.  Washington wanted to go out right abroad and chafed over the delay.  When the group was finally ready, Washington was dismayed to find that the escort political party consisted of a few onetime chiefs and 1 immature hunter to provide fresh meat along the way.[15]

Washington and his party arrived at the starting time French fort, Venango,[16] on December 4.  The French had expelled a British trader named John Fraser from his trading postal service and were fortifying his buildings into a fort.  The commander, Helm Philippe Thomas Joincare, sieur de Chabert, greeted Washington cordially but refused to have his letter.  He insisted that Washington travel to the French senior commander at Fort LeBeouef.  Joincare also refused to accept Tanacharison's belt, but directed him to Fort LeBeouef as well.[17]

The party then traveled on to Fort Le Beouef, where they met with Captain Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the regional commander.  St. Pierre was also reluctant to accept the letter, suggesting that Washington should present it to the governor of Canada in Quebec.  Washington refused and waited for St. Pierre'southward response.  Every bit at Venango, Washington examined the fortifications.  The political party soon suspected that the French were trying to steal the Indians' allegiances.  St. Pierre was more than sympathetic and accommodating than Marin, although he too refused to accept the treaty belt.  At this point, Washington became convinced that the French were preparing to float a large armed forces contingent down the river as soon as the weather allowed.  He decided that he needed to warn Dinwiddie as soon as possible.[18]  As shortly as he received St. Pierre's response, Washington's party left, insisting that the Indians back-trail them.

In the waning days of December, the expedition became more difficult.  Washington and Gist noted in their journals that the Indians succumbed to French hospitality and booze before the party reached the last French outpost, and Washington left them behind.  As the weather grew increasingly worse, Washington ordered the porters to continue on their ain while he and Gist went overland on pes to make better time. After several harrowing experiences, Washington and Gist returned to the border of the Virginia settlement; Washington made haste to deliver his papers and impressions to Dinwiddie.[19]

Washington arrived in Williamsburg on Jan 16, 1754 and immediately reported to Dinwiddie.[20]  Dinwiddie was convinced that the French fort-building activity and St. Pierre's response were acts of assailment against Uk.  Furthermore he believed that the assailment was egregious enough to warrant a military response.  While the Governor's Council was willing to approve military action, the House of Burgesses was not.  Therefore, while the House of Burgesses was out of session, the Council authorized Dinwiddie to heighten a force to drive the French out of the Ohio.  Joshua Fry, a well-liked professor at the College of William and Mary, was deputed Colonel and appointed to atomic number 82 the trek.[21]  Washington was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and ordered to heighten men and prepare for the mission.[22]  While Washington was recruiting in Alexandria, Virginia, Indian trader William Trent was raising a visitor of 100 frontiersmen.  The frontiersmen'southward job was to build a fort as quickly as possible at the forks of the Monongahela to defend against farther French encroachment.[23]

Washington was instructed to recruit men from the militias in the western counties, presumably those most interested in keeping the frontier open.  The County Lieutenants were instructed to aid.  This was Washington's first feel with the difficulties of recruiting and retaining soldiers.  The local militias were in disarray, and few men were willing to volunteer for the low, daily wages paid by the army.  Under threat of a typhoon, some local officials offered Washington men who were straight from the canton jail![24]  Washington wrote to his younger blood brother, John Augustine, of his difficulties, "you may, with near equal success, endeavour to raize the Expressionless to Life again, as the force of this Country."[25]  When it became apparent that militias solitary would not provide enough men, Dinwiddie authorized a general enlistment with men to exist rewarded with country grants near the soon-to-be established fort.[26]

Washington also discovered that supplies were near as difficult to come by as men.  Most of the men who came to the army were poor.  They did not have wear or shoes let alone the guns the militia laws mandated.  John Carlyle of Alexandria was appointed Commissary of Supply; however, due to a lack of funds, he was unable to secure the necessary quantities of appurtenances.[27]

Nosotros daily Experience the bully necessity for Cloathing the Men, as we notice the generality of those who are to be Enlisted are of those loose, Idle Persons that are quite destitute of House and Habitation, and I may truly say many of them of Cloaths which terminal, render'south them very incapable of the necessary Service, as they must unavoidably be expos'd to inclement weather in their Marches &ca; and tin expect no other, than to meet nearly every difficulty that's incident to a Soldiers Life [.]  There is many of them without Shoes, other'south desire Stockings some are without Shirts, and not a few that have Scare a Coat, or Waistcoat, to their Backs; in short, they are equally illy provided every bit can well be conceiv'd. . .[28]

The supply issues likewise extended to nutrient, wagons, and horses.  The army was given the authority to impress wagons and teams, simply farmers hid their best wagons and horses from the impressers.  Washington wrote several letters to the governor asking for money and supplies with little consequence.  Washington was frustrated by the government's failure to provide money or to purchase necessary items.

Jumonville Glen and the Start of the War

Washington began marching his troops toward the borderland on Apr xviii, 1754.  He had only 159 men, few supplies, and fewer wagons.  His destination was the British fort under construction on the forks of the Monongahela.  Dinwiddie had heard that the French were gathering their troops to assault the fort sooner than expected.  His instructions were clear:

You are to human action on the Difensive, but in Case whatever Attempts are fabricated to obstruct the Works or interrupt our Settlemts by whatever Persons whatever, You are to restrain all such Offenders, & in Case of resistance to make Prisoners of or impale & destroy them.  For the rest You lot are to conduct Yrself as the Circumsts of the Service shall crave, & to deed equally You lot shall find all-time for the Furtherance of His One thousand[ajest]y'south Service, & the Good of his Domn. [29]

While on the march, Washington encountered the straggling remains of Ensign Edward Ward'south contingent in retreat from the forks.  The French had taken the British fort without a shot.  Faced with a vastly superior force, Ward had surrendered.[30]  Washington connected on with the understanding that reinforcements were on the fashion.  Fry was scheduled to leave Alexandria with 100 men.  Three independent companies[31] from South Carolina and New York were on the march.  North Carolina likewise reported that they were sending militia in support of the British and colonial cause.[32]  Assertive he was the advance portion of a big contingent of soldiers, Washington elected to proceed his mission and set his sights for the Ohio Company'south fortified storehouse on Red Rock Creek.[33]

Washington fabricated army camp in Nifty Meadows on May 24 and prepared to erect a minor fort.  He found the location favorable because there was a minor stream for h2o, ample forage, gullies that could serve as natural trenches, and an open field for boxing.  He reported to Dinwiddie that information technology was a "charming field for an encounter."[34] While Washington was in camp, scouts and traders in retreat from French forces on the frontier stopped to report that French parties were active in the expanse.  Washington felt that the French needed to exist cut off before they could report the British strength and location dorsum to the primary force.  He sent out a 75-man scouting party the morning time of May 27.  That dark, a messenger from Tanacharison arrived in camp to say that the Indians knew the French political party's location.  Washington detached forty men and rendezvoused with Tanacharison's warriors.

Jumonville Glen today (Rob Shenk)

Tanacharison and his warriors led Washington to the French military camp at the bottom of a deep glen, rimmed with rock. It was early on in the forenoon, and the Frenchmen were just get-go to stir.  Information technology is unclear whether one of the French saw the British and Indians surrounding the glen's rim and shot up or whether one of Washington'due south men fired down first.  Regardless of who began the substitution, Washington'due south force, shooting from the peak of the glen down into the camp, apace overcame the French.  Washington later on reported one man dead and three wounded while the French had suffered fourteen casualties, including the expedition'due south leader Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville.  As Washington began the process of accepting the French surrender, Tanaghrisson's Indians all of a sudden began to impale the wounded and scalp the dead French soldiers.  Washington was able to protect one of the wounded and all of the healthy prisoners.[35]

The surviving French prisoners insisted that they were an ambassadorial party and handed papers to Washington as proof.  They insisted that their instructions were to find the British and order them from French territory, not unlike Washington's mission of the previous wintertime.  The prisoners were taken back to Great Meadows, where Washington dismissed the idea that they were an diplomatic mission.  He argued that if they were ambassadors, they would accept openly approached the British encampment rather than hiding.  He speculated that they were there to spy on his troops and report back; their diplomatic papers were simply a ruse to be used if they were caught.[36]

Fort Necessity

Washington returned to Slap-up Meadows and in the following weeks readied for battle.  Fearing that the French and Indians would set on in retribution for his earlier set on on them, he pushed his men to complete the small, palisaded fort chosen Fort Necessity and deepen the trenches that radiated out from the fort.[37]  Washington bragged to Dinwiddie that the fort was strong enough "non to fear the set on of 500 Men."[38]  After Joshua Fry died[39], Washington was made the commander of the Virginia forces.  Soon the Contained Company from South Carolina under Helm James Mackay arrived at Neat Meadows with 100 men.  At the aforementioned time, Tanacharison's grouping of most 80 women, children, and a few warriors took upward camp in the field.  Two hundred additional Virginia troops marched in.[forty]  Washington began to plan his attack on Fort Duquesne.

Washington did non intend to make a stand at Fort Necessity;[41] rather he planned to make the Ohio Company's fortified storehouse at Red Stone Creek[42] his headquarters.  He and the Virginia forces[43] left Fort Necessity on June 16 bound for Red Stone Creek.  Forth the way, he stopped at Gist's New Settlement for a briefing with the local Indian tribes.  Washington hoped to convince the Delawares, Shawnees, and Iroquois to bring together his assail on the French.  All of the tribes were polite but refused to join him.  Word began to trickle in that the French were readying to attack the British forcefulness.  It became credible that Washington's troops did non take the free energy or power to arrive all the way to Ruby-red Stone Creek, then they turned back to Fort Necessity.  Washington hoped that promised and desperately needed supplies would take arrived at the Fort.[44]

At Necessity, Washington concentrated on readying the fort for a fight.  The men deepened and extended the trenches and connected a trench to the water supply.  They had already cleared brush to prepare the field for battle.[45] Washington yet assumed that Fort Necessity was well-located in Neat Meadows.  The footing was very marshy; the fort was located so that only ane side had ground house enough to support an attack.  He causeless that the French would come across on the field in the traditional, European way of boxing.

It began to rain early in the morn on July 3.  The French troops appeared about 11 that morning and avant-garde in three columns.  Washington ordered his men out of the fort and lined up to fight.  The French fired from most 600 yards and the British took their positions in trenches, now total of rainwater, to defend the fort.  When they had advanced to inside about 60 yards, the French scattered to the surrounding hillsides.  The French began an eight-hour bombardment of the little fort and the exposed British soldiers.[46]  "They then from every piffling rising—tree—stump—rock--and bush kept upwardly a constant, galding fire upon us. . ."[47] The French bankrupt off the attack at  8 pm that night and called for a parley.  Washington was immediately suspicious as to why the French would want to negotiate when they were so conspicuously winning.  He took stock of his resources.  All of his horses and livestock had been killed.  The pulverization was wet, and about of the men'southward guns were jammed with no hope of repair.  I third of his men were dead or wounded.  Some of the men had broken into the rum supply and were rapidly getting boozer.[48]  Washington sent his only French-speaking officers, Jacob van Braam and William Peroney, to discuss terms with the French.  After several exchanges, van Braam brought back the written terms.[49]

Fort Necessity  (Rob Shenk)

The terms were difficult to brand out.  They were written in French in very bad handwriting on a slice of paper rapidly getting wet from the pelting.  Information technology was nighttime and the British officers had only a fiddling candlelight with which to make out the terms.  No one but van Braam spoke or read French, and he had poor English language skills.  Equally they understood the terms, the British were welcome to leave their fort unmolested as long as they returned the French prisoners, left the area, agreed not to return for at least a year, and admitted to the "expiry" or "loss" of Jumonville.  The terms seemed especially liberal and generous; Mackay and Washington signed them.[fifty]  It was not until the give up document was more accurately translated and published that Washington and the British world understood that he had admitted to assassinating an ambassador on a mission of peace.[51]  Van Braam was roundly criticized for his translation failures and for a while was even defendant of treason.[52]

On July 4, 1754 Washington and all the British troops left Fort Necessity headed for the borderland town of Winchester, Virginia to regroup.  Forth the way and for months afterward, men deserted in droves.[53]  Dinwiddie was anxious for Washington to immediately recruit his regiment back to full strength and immediately return to the field before the campaign season was over in the fall.[54]  Tiring of the conflicts between colonials and regulars over who had say-so over whom, Dinwiddie planned to reorganize the Virginia regiment into independent companies commanded by captains.  He hoped to appoint Virginians to regular, captains' positions.  Washington did non want to serve at a lower rank than earlier, even if it came with a regular committee.[55]  When offered a commission he replied, "I think, the disparity between the present offer of a Company, and my old Rank, too nifty to await any real satisfaction or enjoyment in a Corps, where I once did, nor thought I had a right to, command."[56]  Washington resigned his Virginia control to Dinwiddie in October 1754 and returned to individual life to concentrate on his subcontract.

Braddock's March

Washington returned to military life in March 1755.  The British sent Brigadier Full general Edward Braddock to Virginia with British regular soldiers to have the main French stronghold of Fort Duquesne (near Pittsburgh, PA).  General Braddock offered Washington a place in his "family" on this trek.  This was Washington's kickoff opportunity to serve in a military machine entrada led past an experienced, professional officer.  He had renewed hope for a regular commission, although he denied it to several correspondents.[57]  The mission was non a success; the British were badly defeated at the Monongahela River.[58]  The British regulars broke and ran under the battery of French and Indian bullets.  Washington helped to organize the retreat.  Braddock died of his wounds, and Washington ordered him cached under the road he had cut.  Even though it was simply July, the next in command, Colonel Thomas Dunbar, put the regulars into winter quarters.

Dinwiddie refused to accept that the remains of the British forces were unwilling to return to the field.  He petitioned the House of Burgesses for funds and determined to send his Virginians out again.  He offered Washington the control.[59]  Washington insisted on certain conditions: he wanted a war machine chest from which to pay expenses; he wanted to select his ain officers; and he insisted on two aides d' army camp.  Dinwiddie agreed.  Washington set out to establish his headquarters at Winchester, Virginia.[threescore]

Washington had a Herculean task ahead of him in recruiting and supplying troops.  He spent a tremendous amount of time coordinating these efforts.  He as well had difficulty keeping men in the service one time recruited or drafted; they deserted in large numbers.  He wrote to the governor and members of the House of Burgesses pleading for a revision in the militia law.  He decried that the laws were written so as to exempt wealthy or fifty-fifty centre-class men from military service.  The laws were disproportionately aimed at drafting the extremely poor: men who were a accuse on the customs.  Washington was frustrated by the quality of the soldiers he could obtain.  "I see the growing Insolence of the Soldiers, the Indolence, and Inactivity of the Officers. . .I can evidently encounter that under our present Institution we shall become a Nusance: an insupportable charge to our Land, and never respond whatever one expectation of the Associates."[61]   "[A]s many of those [men] we have got are actually, in a mode unfit to Duty; and were received more than through necessity than choice; and will very badly conduct a re-examination."[62]  He found the militiamen to be wasteful and unmotivated.  Furthermore, the militia's short enlistment times made their service unreliable.  "[T]hese militia being raised only for a month, lose half the time in marchings out & home. especially those who come from the adjacent Counties, who must exist on duty sometime before they reach their Station; by which means double sets of men are in pay at the same time, and for the same Service."[63]  Washington was oft frustrated past the men he had and sought to overcome these deficiencies with stricter regulations and pleas to the Virginia regime for more support.

Supporting to the state of war was unpopular amid the people in the countryside.  Deserters were routinely hidden from the war machine.  Washington wrote of a local mob that freed several men from jail who had been drafted and were being held until they could be fastened to a regiment.  This was not an isolated act.[64]  Settlers too threatened, "to blow out my [Washington's] brains" when the ground forces tried to impress needed supplies.[65]  Washington was challenged in fulfilling his duty by the lack of support among the people he was fighting for and past the Virginia authorities'due south lukewarm support.[66]

Washington'due south mission as Virginia'due south commander-in-primary was to execute a strategy to maintain the Virginia frontiers.  After Braddock's defeat, the colonies' western borders contracted dramatically.  Indians mounted attacks on borderland settlements and isolated towns.  Washington said that the settlers were leaving the backcountry in droves for fear of Indian attack; the settlers were rapidly abandoning their farms and retreating to more secure areas.[67]  Virginia, along with Pennsylvania and Maryland, decided to erect and garrison a string of small, frontier forts.  They were meant to provide a wall of protection against Indian raids and French incursion.  Washington was skeptical of the programme from the outset, "It seemed to be the Sentiments of the House of Burgesses when I was downwardly, that a chain of Forts should be erected upon our Frontiers for the defense of the people: This expedient, in my stance, will never, without an inconceivable number of men, answer their expectations."[68]  In practice, the forts proved woefully inadequate to the job.  Very few could be considered forts in the true sense of the word.  About were small, poorly constructed affairs that offered footling protection and were difficult to defend.  Washington's dilemma was that the forts were spaced besides far apart--nigh 18 to 20 miles--to permit men to effectively patrol betwixt.  This left the settlers unprotected.  If the settlers took refuge in a fort, their farms were vulnerable.[69]  Although, Washington and his men acquitted themselves honorably, fighting about 10 minor conflicts and losing well-nigh 100 men,[70]  Washington was challenged in protecting the frontier.

The Forbes Expedition

And so, in 1755, the British frontier strategy changed.  The ground forces in America was reorganized to undertake iii major campaigns.  Washington and his First Virginia regiment were assigned to Full general John Forbes.  The Second Virginia regiment was constituted and raised nether Colonel William Byrd III; information technology also was placed under Forbes.  Forbes' mission was to lead an attack on Fort Duquesne.  Washington and Byrd were to be line officers under Forbes' command.[71]  The question of command was finally settled when it was decided that colonial officers could but be commanded past their regular counterparts and in a higher place.[72]  This was satisfactory to Washington, although he continued to hope for a regular commission.

Fort Ligonier (Rob Shenk)

Washington agreed with the strategy of marching a well-supplied, powerful force to Fort Duquesne.  Forbes' army consisted of between vi and vii thou regular and colonial forces.[73]  Washington disagreed with the road that Forbes decided to take.  Forbes intended to cut an entirely new western road, starting in Pennsylvania, rather than resurrect Braddock'southward old route.  Washington argued that it would exist easier to enlarge Braddock's route than to start once more.  Washington also knew that the army's route would subsequently funnel frontier trade back east.  He would take preferred that information technology travel along Braddock's road towards Virginia rather than along Forbes' proposed route to Pennsylvania.[74]  To Washington'south disappointment, Forbes refused to change his mind and proceeded to cut a new road through Pennsylvania.

The Forbes trek was carefully planned and executed.  Forbes' strength lay in his attention to detail and his resolve that the supply lines remain open.  He as well insisted that his underlings not human activity independently, but follow his orders exactly.  He was furious when he found out that several hundred men had been lost in an unauthorized, pre-emptive attack on Duquesne.[75]  Forbes was a good part model for Washington who learned from him the importance of supply in keeping an army in the field.

The entrada ended in November when the British forces finally took Fort Duquesne.  As the British moved closer, the French commander grew more concerned almost his power to defend his post.  He had few men and resources, his supply lines having been cut off a few months before when the British took Fort Frontenac.  He elected to abandon his post, and on November 23 he ordered the magazines blown up and the fort burned downwardly.  Leading an advance grouping, Washington reached the smoking remains of the fort on Nov 24, 1758.[76]  By the fourth dimension the British took Fort Duquesne without firing a shot, they had mounted a series of successful attacks on other French positions as well.  The French were at present losing the war.

Forbes was fortunate in his timing as the colonial enlistments were due to expire at the finish of November.  Nevertheless, Nov non only marked the end of many provincials' enlistments, it was besides to be the finish of Washington's involvement with the state of war.  He concluded his campaigns having achieved his original war machine goal.  Washington began the war with the expedition to the French, ordering them to leave British-claimed territory.  He ended the war when the French were quickly losing territory and in retreat.  Washington would render to Williamsburg at the end of the year and, finally, permanently resign his commission in the Virginia forces.  He had successfully stood for ballot to the House of Burgesses that twelvemonth and would accept his seat in February.  His proposal to the widow Martha Dandridge Custis had been accepted, and their wedding engagement was set for January.  Washington was gear up for new challenges as a legislator and a planter.

Washington began his military career with enthusiasm and a hope that he could rise in His Majesty'due south Service.  When he resigned his committee for the final time, it was with the cognition that he could not succeed under the conditions of his service, fifty-fifty though his "inclinations [were] strongly bent to arms."[77]  He finally accepted that a regular army commission at the rank he wanted would not exist forthcoming.  He had several offers of a captaincy, [78] just taking a lower rank than what he had held in the Virginia forces was unacceptable.  When he did serve with regular officers, information technology became apparent that the British had fiddling respect for the colonials or their abilities.  When he allowable his ain Virginia forces, he found the House of Burgesses unwilling to commit the money necessary to equip and support an regular army.  He was further frustrated past the lack of back up amid the people he was supposed to be protecting.  His initial enthusiasm, which led him to report at Jumonville's Glen, "I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the audio,"[79] had waned past the taking of Fort Duquesne.  However, years afterward, in the state of war for independence, he would phone call upon his French and Indian War military experience and apply the lessons he had learned.

By Elizabeth L. Maurer
Education Project Manager

[ane] Cartagena, Columbia is an island city and major South American port.   The Spanish held Cartagena in 1740 when the British ground forces and navy attacked their forts as part of a declared war with Spain.

[ii] Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, Young Washington, vol. i, New York, Charles Scribner'south Sons, 1948, 267-eight.

[3] Fred Anderson, Crucible of State of war; The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British Due north America, 1754-1766, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000,  23.

[4] Anderson, 31-32.

[5] Freeman, 274.

[6] The feud was over the pistole fee.  According to law, the governor was entitled to one pistole (coin of moderate value) every fourth dimension he used the seal of Virginia on official documents.  No governor had e'er been successful in collecting this fee from the assembly, though most had tried.  Dinwiddie was more adamant than most and refused to execute the seal on any official documents—similar new laws—until the fee was paid.  Dinwiddie eventually lost the fight.

[vii] Anderson, 41.

[8] Freeman, 273.

[ix] Washington's older brother Lawrence had been an investor in the Ohio Country Visitor.  Washington had executed several surveys on the Fairfax patents.  Lord Fairfax was too an investor.

[10]  Christopher Gist was a frontiersman and explorer.  He was hired by the Ohio Company in 1749 to survey country claims and explore the Ohio Valley.  He was agile in settling the frontier.  See Papers, vol. I, Colonial Serial, sixty-61 for the text of Washington'due south instructions.

[eleven] The British did non know the precise location of the French forts.  Dinwiddie and Washington knew that the Indians at Logstown knew their locations and the best routes to them, and this is the primary reason why Washington was sent to Logstown.

[12] Freeman, 276.  See Appendix Ii for the mileage of Washington's trip.

[13] Anderson, eighteen.

[fourteen] There are several spellings of this proper noun.  This is the National Park Service spelling.

[15] George Washington, The Journal of Major George Washington: An Account of His First Official Mission, made equally Emissary from the Governor of Virginia to the Commandant of the French Forces on the Ohio, Oct 1753-January 1754, Rule Books, The University Printing of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA; 1959), 13.  Washington did not understand Tanacharison's relationship to the Onondaga council and the extent of his powers.  The One-half King did not accept the authority to make treaties, and that is what Washington was essentially request him to do.  However, equally nominal allies of the British, he had to appease Washington as far as he could.  Tanacharison could return the treaty belt to the French and make known that the French had offended him.  He could non gamble taking a large body of warriors to the French forts because it might take been interpreted aggressively.  The Iroquois had succeeded for years in making both the French and English language believe that they controlled the remainder of ability in the Ohio Valley, and it was in their interests to maintain this façade. Meet Anderson, p. eighteen.

[16] Site of nowadays-twenty-four hours Franklin, PA.

[17] Washington'south Journal,  15.   Joncaire provided Washington a repast with swell quantities of wine.  Washington pretended to go drunk and eavesdropped as Joncaire and his officers discussed the French plans to control the Ohio Valley.

[18] Freeman, 311.

[nineteen] Meet  "Washington'south Return from the French Forts" essay for a more complete description of Washington's adventures upon his render from the French. See Appendix One for text of Dinwiddie's letter and St. Pierre's response.

[19] Anderson, 45.

[twenty] Freeman, 338.  Dinwiddie was pleased with Washington'southward accomplishments; shortly later on his arrival, Washington was rewarded with the armed services adjutancy for the Northern Neck.  Dinwiddie insisted that Washington publish his journal to enhance back up for driving out the French.

[21] Freeman, 338-9.

[22] Anderson, 45.

[23] Freeman, 334.

[24] Anderson, l.

[25]The Papers of George Washington, 1748-Baronial 1755, ed. Past W.Due west. Abbott, Colonial Series, vol. I, Charlottesville, Academy Press of Virginia, 289.  Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 28, 1755.

[26] Freeman, 334.

[27] Freeman, 336.

[28] Papers, Colonial Serial, vol. I, 73-4.

[29] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 65. Robert Dinwiddie to Washington, Jan. n.d., 1754.

[xxx] Freeman, 350.  Washington's papers.

[31] An Contained Visitor was a company of British regular soldiers recruited from amidst the colonials and commanded by regular officers.  They were not attached to specific regiments; therefore, they were contained companies.

[32] Freeman, 360.

[33] Freeman, 362.

[34] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 105.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie May 27, 1754.

[35] Anderson, 6.

[36] Freeman, 375.

[37] The fort was completed on June 2, four days after Jumonville.  See Anderson, 59.

[38] Papers Colonial Serial, vol. I, 124.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie June 3, 1754.

[39] Joshua Fry died after falling from a horse.

[xl] Anderson, 8.

[41] Anderson, 60.

[42] The exact location of the Cerise Rock Creek  building is not known, but it was south of present 24-hour interval Fayette City, PA.  It is about xxx miles northwest of Great Meadows.

[43] The Contained Company remained backside.  Washington and Mackay were in disagreement every bit to who was in the command.

[44] Freeman, 397-398.

[45] Freeman, 401.

[46] Freeman, 403.  Anderson, 62-63.

[47] Papers, Colonial Serial, vol. I, 172.  George Washington'due south Account of the Capitulation of Fort Necessity. 1786.

[48] Freeman, 405.  Anderson, 63.

[49] Peroney seems to have been injured or collapsed from earlier wounds earlier the decision of the negotiations leaving van Braam as the sole translator.

[50] Freeman, 408.  Anderson, 64.

[51] The published terms created quite a stir in France and Britain.  They portrayed United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland as the aggressor.  The French were outraged that an ambassador had been killed.  Washington defended himself by pointing out that Jumonville's behavior was very suspicious for an emissary; he believed Jumonville to be a spy using ambassadorial papers as a cover.

[52] Freeman, 413.

[53] Anderson, 65.

[54] Freeman, 431.

[55] Freeman, 441.

[56] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I., 225.  George Washington to William Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754.

[57] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 243, George Washington to Robert Orme, March 15, 1755; Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 250, George Washington to William Byrd, April xx, 1755.

[58] Run into "Washington and the Battle of Monongahela" essay for more consummate data on the expedition.

[59] Freeman, Washington, vol. 2., 109

[threescore] Papers, Colonial Serial, vol. II.,  5-6. Instructions from Robert Dinwiddie to George Washington, August 14, 1755.

[61] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. II, 102-103.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, October 11, 1755.

[62] Papers, Colonial Serial, vol. II,  335. George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, April seven, 1756

[63] Library of Congress, Washington papers drove, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw2&fileName=gwpage004.db&recNum=53&tempFile=./temp/~ammem_caaO&filecode=mgw&next_filecode=mgw&prev_filecode=mgw&itemnum=ii&ndocs=41, George Washington to John Robinson, November 1756.

[64] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. 2, xxx-ane.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, September 11, 1755.

[65] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. II, 102.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, October xi, 1755.  "In all things I run across with the greatest opposition no orders are obey'd but what a Political party of Soldier'due south or my ain drawn sword Enforces; without this a unmarried horse for the most urgent occasion cannot be had, to such a pitch has the insolence of these People arrivd by having every signal hitherto submitted to them; however, I accept given upward none where his Majestys Service requires the Contrary, and where my proceedings are justified by my Pedagogy's, nor volition I, unless they execute what they threaten i.eastward, to blow out my brains."

[66] Some contend that the Business firm of Burgesses did not adequately supply the Virginia regiment because they did not care almost borderland defense.  The most powerful members were keen planters from the Tidewater with little interest in the frontier.  They were more than concerned with potential slave uprisings.  They allocated 55% of the military budget to militias, which provided internal security, and 45% to the external security force: the Virginia regiment.  Come across Anderson  159-160.

[67] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. II, 105.  George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, October 11, 1755.

[68] Papers, Colonial Serial, vol. II, 334. George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, April seven, 1756.

[69] Anderson, 158.

[lxx] Anderson, 160.

[71] Freeman, vol. Ii, 397-8.

[72] James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience (1732-1775), Boston, New York, Toronto, London: Fiddling, Brown and Company, 1965. 194.

[73] Flexner, 194.

[74] Flexner, 206-7.

[75] Anderson, 272.

[76] Anderson, 282-iii.

[77] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 225-6.  George Washington to William Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754.

[78] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 225-6.  George Washington to William Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754.

[79] Papers, Colonial Series, vol. I, 118.  George Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754.

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