FORT NECESSITY Washington NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD SITE PENNSYLVANIA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF French and English Rivalry Virginians under Colonel Joshua Fry proceeded Virginians and Indians started for the camp of THE INTERIOR: Oscar L. Chapman, Secretary westward from Virginia toward Monongahela. Jumonville, the French commander, which was National Park Service, Arthur E. Demaray, Director Rival claims between the French and English Washington, then a lieutenant colonel, was sec­ situated about 2 miles to the northward. to the trans-Allegheny territory approached a ond in command. While Fry remained at Wills Jumonville was taken by surprise. Ten of his men were killed; one wounded. Jumonville was among those killed. Twenty-one survivors were made prisoners, one man escaping to carry the news to the French at Fort Duquesne. In Wash­ ington's command only one man was killed and Fort two wounded. The man who was killed was buried on the spot. Surrender of Fort Necessity Mount Washington Tavern, located a few Old tollgate house built in 1814 on Old National Pike, a hundred feet from the site of Fort Necessity few miles east of Fort Necessity After the Jumonville fight, Washington Necessity undertook to fortify his position at Great The month of June was spent in opening a fort and began the attack. The fighting, which Meadows. He built a palisade fort during the road from Fort Necessity to a clearing in the began about 11 o'clock in the morning, con­ last 2 days of May and the first day of June. forest, known as Gist's Plantation, in the direc­ tinued sporadically until about 8 o'clock at National Battlefield Site In his journal entry for June 25, Washington tion of the forks of the Ohio. Alarming reports night. The South Carolinians fought in trenches speaks of this structure as "Fort Necessity." about the French reached Washington and it outside the fort. Washington and the Virginians On June 9, reinforcements reached Wash­ was decided to withdraw to Wills Creek, but were drawn up inside the palisade. Rain which ington, increasing his force of Virginians at Great Meadows, reached on July 1, was as far fell throughout the day soon flooded the marshy Within the reconstructed stockade at Fort Necessity Great Meadows to 293 officers and men. An as the exhausted troops could travel. The next ground. Both sides suffered heavily, although independent company of approximately 100 day was spent in strengthening Fort Necessity, the losses were greater among the Colonials •fa Washington's first major battle and the climax about 1750. Based on the English claims, Creek, where he died May 31, Washington men from South Carolina, under the command which enclosed only a small area of less than than among the French and Indians. opening engagement of a seven-year struggle the Ohio Company (organized in 1748 by a pushed on with a few companies over the of Captain Mackay, also arrived. With these one-third of an acre. After considerable negotiation, extending between England and France for control of group of Virginians) obtained a large grant of Nemacolin Trail. reinforcements came supplies and nine swivel Shortly before noon on July 3 a force of about from 8 o'clock in the evening until near mid­ North America 200,000 acres of land in the upper Ohio Valley The Jumonville Fight guns. 600 French and 100 Indians appeared before the night, following a proposal by Coulon and established a post at Wills Creek, now On May 24, 1754, Washington descended the de Villiers, brother of Jumonville and com­ Cumberland, Md. From here the Company hills to the east of Great Meadows. Despite mander of the French, that Washington capitu­ AT Fort Necessity, July 3, 1754, occurred started to open an 80-mile wagon road westward the fact that the open land in the meadow late, the terms were finally reduced to writing Jj\ the opening engagement of the French to the Youghiogheny River over the Nemacolin was nearly all marsh, a stop was made here and accepted by Washington and Mackay. The and Indian War fought by England and France Trail. ' Colonials were to withdraw with honors of war, and the site was considered to have military for the control of the North American conti­ Meantime, the French advanced southward retaining their arms and baggage. Their nine advantages. nent. Braddock's advance toward the forks of and westward from Fort Niagara, driving out swivel guns were to be surrendered. Three days later, on the evening of May 27, the Ohio in 1755 was a direct result of the English traders. Governor Dinwiddie of Vir­ a runner from Tenacharison, the Half King, a The Colonial troops marched away from Fort French success at Fort Necessity in Great ginia, in 1753, sent an expedition to warn the chief of the Senecas and a bitter foe of the Necessity and Great Meadows on the morning Meadows the year before. French to withdraw. He selected his adjutant French, arrived at Washington's camp at Great of July 4 for Wills Creek and from this point These events in the unbroken solitude of the for the Southern District of Virginia, George Meadows with the news that the hiding place returned to Virginia. The French destroyed Fort Indian wilderness were the opening episodes of Washington, to head the expedition. Wash­ of a body of French had been discovered on Necessity and then returned to Fort Duquesne a world-wide conflagration, known in America ington, then only 21 years old, made the journey Laurel Mountain. at the forks of the Ohio. as the French and Indian War and in Europe as in midwinter of 1753-54, but the mission failed. A party led by Washington, comprising 40 or the Seven Years' War, which ended in 1763 with Dinwiddie then sent a small force to build a more men, immediately set out from Great the French power being expelled from North fort at the forks of the Ohio River, where Pitts­ Meadows in darkness and at dawn reached Half The reconstructed stockade and the site of Great America and India. burgh is now situated, but the French drove off King's camp, only 6 miles away, after an Meadows as seen from the point where Washington The action at Fort Necessity was the first the Virginians and built Fort Duquesne on the arduous all-night march over mountain trails first saw the marshy opening in the forest. The old major episode in the military career of George site. Braddock Trail ran just to the left of the large tree in inky blackness and heavy rain. The united Washington. Early in April 1754, a small regiment of in the right foreground. Historical Areas in the Vicinity numerous stage stations on the old highway which, during the early part of the nineteenth Braddock's Grave—Following the failure at century, was the principal artery of travel be­ Great Meadows in 1754, England decided to tween the Atlantic seaboard and the Ohio send a large force against the French. On Sep­ Valley. The building contains a collection of tember 24, 1754, the Duke of Cumberland colonial documents, relics of the Fort Necessity appointed Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock as campaign, and military equipment. Captain General of all British soldiers in the American Colonies. This army of British and The Site Colonial troops left Alexandria, Va., on March Fort Necessity National Battlefield Site, con­ 15, 1755. They pushed westward to the Ohio sisting of a 2-acre plot, was acquired by the War Company's post at Wills Creek, which was Department in 1931 and was transferred in 1933 renamed Fort Cumberland, and hence over a to the National Park Service. The reconstructed FORT road, 12 feet wide, which Braddock ordered cut stockade, which now stands on the site of the through the forest past Fort Necessity toward original fort, was erected in 1932 by. the Fort the forks of the Ohio. Braddock was mortally Necessity Memorial Association. wounded in the Battle of Monongahela, and Fort Necessity is surrounded by a State Park died during the retreat of his defeated army. of 311 acres, including most of the 234 Vx acres NECESSITY His body was buried in the middle of the road at Great Meadows, which Washington bought at the site of the Old Orchard camp, about 1 in 1769 and held during his lifetime. Washington mile west of the site of Fort Necessity. In 1804, remains said to be those of General Braddock How to Reach the Site were discovered by workmen in the old roadbed Fort Necessity is located on U. S. No. 40,11 NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD SITE near a ravine. Later they were removed to the miles east of Uniontown, Pa. crest of an adjacent knoll. A monument marks PENNSYLVANIA this latter site in an area known as Braddock Service to the Public Park, along U. S. No. 40, a short distance west Information and literature relating to the site of Fort Necessity. This site is under the control may be obtained from the attendants at the of the Fort Necessity Chapter, Sons of the stockade which is open daily. A 16-page booklet American Revolution. containing a summary account of the battle of Site of Jumonville Fight—This area, the Fort Necessity, illustrations, and a map of the scene of the opening episode of the French and area may be obtained at the site and from the Indian War, is situated about 5 miles northwest Superintendent of Documents, Government of Braddock's grave and about 6 miles from Fort Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C, at 10 Necessity.