The Battle of Fort Necessity, or the Battle of the Great Meadows took place on July 3, 1754 in what is now the mountaintop hamlet of Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender. The battle, along with the May 28 Battle of Jumonville Glen, contributed to a series of military escalations that resulted in the global Seven Years' War.

The area was a high alpine meadow just west of the summit from the difficult pass to the east through the Allegheny Mountains sub-range, a site near where Braddock's Road jogs to the north into the Allegheny River watershed (through another pass near Confluence, Pennsylvania), and before the road west along Nemacolin's Trail begins its long steady sometimes steep descent to Uniontown, Pennsylvania and other parts of Fayette County along the relatively low altitudes of the Allegheny Plateau.

Prelude

Virginia Regiment

Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie ordered Washington to train and equip 100 militiamen from Fredrick and Augusta counties for use on the frontier. Due to years of neglect to the system of raising militia, Washington was unable to raise any militia from the counties. Dinwiddie went to the House of Burgesses which gave him a loan of 10,000 pounds to raise paid volunteers for the new regiment.Lengel p.31 Joshua Fry was placed in command of the regiment at the rank of Colonel, while Washington was placed 2nd in command as Lieutenant Colonel. Dinwiddie ordered Washington to march to the frontier with any volunteers he could get and it was planned that Fry would meet him along the way.Lengel p.31 Washington found volunteers quickly, but had few officers and he was forced to drill the men himself.Lengel p.31

March to the Frontier

On April 2 Washington led his 186 men out of Alexandria, Virginia to the frontier.Lengel p.32 When Washington reached Winchester, a few dozen volunteers were added to his force when Adam Stephen's force joined him. After some delay due to the shortage of wagons, Washington resumed his march on the 18th. Along the way, Washington received news that William Trent and his two companies of frontiersmen who had been sent ahead to the Forks of the Ohio to build a fort, were running low on provisions and a French force of 800 men was closing in.Lengel p.32 Washington rode ahead to try and reach the forks, but on his way he met Trent's ensign, Edward Ward, who told him that a French force of 1,000 men arrived at the Forks on the 17th. Since Trent was out on hunting in an attempt to collect provisions, Ward was left in command and the French gave him an hour to evacuate the fort.Lengel p.33 The ensign complied with the request, and the French tore down the British fort and began to build their own. Not wanting to lose the support of the Indian warrior Tanacharison by abandoning the area, Washington decided to build fortifications and await orders.Lengel p.33

Jumonville Glen

As Washington awaited orders, the French finished their fort and named it Fort Duquesne after their governor.Lengel p.34 Captain Contrecoeur, in command of the French forces in the fort, had been forbidden to attack the Virginians unless provoked, so he sent out his subordinate Joseph Coulon de Jumonville out with a party of men to order Washington out of the area on May 23. Washington received reports that a French force was approaching, and assuming that they were preparing a surprise attack, Washington ordered his men to dig in.Lengel p.35
On the 27th, Christopher Gist arrived at Washington's camp and told him that 50 French troops had stopped at his cabin and threatened to kill his cow and break everything in his house. In response, Washington sent out Captain Hog with 75 men to pursue the French troops.Lengel p.35 However, shortly after Hog left, Washington called together some young Indians and told them that the French had come to kill Tanacharison, and the Indians also left to go a pursue the French. That evening, Washington received a message from Tanacharison who said he had found the French encampment.Lengel p.36 Washington decided to attack himself and brought 40 soldiers with him towards Tanacharison's camp. That morning, they met with Tanacharison's 12 Indian warriors, and Washington and Tanacharison agreed to attack the French encampment.Lengel p.37 Washington ambushed the French, killing 10 to 12, wounding 2 and capturing 21.Lengel p.38

Murder

After the firing had stopped, Jumonville called Washington over to him and handed him some papers which said Jumonville was on a diplomatic mission.Lengel p.38 As Washington looked over the papers, an Indian, by some accounts Tanacharison himself, executed Jumonville, crushing his head with a tomahawk and washing his hands in Jumonville's brains.Lengel p.38

Fort Necessity

thumb|right|250px|Replica of Fort Necessity
After retiring from Jumonville, Washington expected to be attacked.Lengel p.39 Tanacharison attempted to convince the Delaware, Shawnee and the Seneca Indians to join the Virginians at Great Meadows. With about 150 Virginians at Great Meadows, they began to construct a fort, which was completed on June 3.Lengel p.39 The Fort was a circular stockade made of seven-foot high upright logs covered with bark and skins built around a little hut which contained ammunition and provisions. Washington named it Fort Necessity.Lengel p.39
By June 9, the rest of the Virginia Regiment arrived at Great Meadows, excluding Fry, who had fallen from his horse, broken his neck and died.Lengel p.40 Washington took his place as the Colonel of the Regiment. Days later, 100 British Regulars under the command of James Mackay arrived but instead of making camp with the Virginians, they made camp by themselves.Lengel p.40

Red Stone Creek

Washington had heard that there were only 500 badly supplied French troops at Fort Duquesne and thus he led the 300 Virginians out of Great Meadows on June 16 to widen the trail for those who would follow to an advanced position at Red Stone Creek.Lengel p.40 On the 18th, Washington met with Tanacharison who told him that he had been unable to convince the other Chiefs to assist Washington and said that he would also be unable to help the Virginians. Although he had lost Indian support, which made his troops more vulnerable to attack, Washington continued to widen the road towards Red Stone Creek.Lengel p.41
On June 28, after a council of war Washington ordered the withdrawal to Great Meadows.Lengel p.41 That same day 600 French and Canadians and 100 Indians left Fort Duquesne led by Louis Coulon de Villiers, the brother of Jumonville. In order to keep ahead of the French, the Virginians had to abandon most of their supplies.Lengel p.41 On July 1, they reached Fort Necessity.Lengel p.41

Colonial preparations

At Fort Necessity, the provision hut was depleted, and there was little shelter from the heavy rain that started to fall on the 2nd.Lengel p.41 With the rain, the trenches that Washington had ordered to be dug had turned into streams. Washington realized that he would have to defend against a frontal assault and also realized that it would be difficult because the woods were less than 100 yards away, within musket range making it possible for a besieging attacker to pick off the defenders.Lengel p.42 To improve the defense, Washington ordered his men to cut trees down and to make them into makeshift breastworks.Lengel p.42
As the colonials worked, Villiers approached Fort Necessity using the road the Virginians had built.Lengel p.42 Villiers went to Jumonville's Glen early on the morning of July 3, and was horrified to find several scalped French bodies and immediately ordered them to be buried.Lengel p.42

Battle

French attack

By 11:00 am on the 3rd, Villiers came within sight of Fort Necessity.Lengel p.42 At this time, the Virginians were digging a trench in the mud. The pickets fired their muskets and fell back to the fort, whereupon three columns of French soldiers and Indians advanced downhill towards the fort.Lengel p.42 However, Villiers had miscalculated the location of the Fort and had advanced with the fort at his right. As Villiers halted and then redeployed his troops, Washington began to prepare for the attack.Lengel p.42
Villiers moved his troops into the woods, within easy musket range of the fort.Lengel p.42 Washington knew he had to dislodge the French and Indians from that position, so he ordered an assault with his entire force across the open field. Seeing the assault coming, Villiers ordered his soldiers, led by Indians, to charge directly at Washington's line.Lengel p.43 Washington ordered the men to hold their ground and fire a volley. Mackay's regulars obeyed Washington's command, and supported by two swivel cannons, they inflicted several casualties on the oncoming Indians.Lengel p.43 The Virginians, however, fled back to the fort leaving Washington and the British regulars greatly outnumbered. Washington ordered a retreat back to the fort.Lengel p.43
Villiers restationed his troops back into the nearby woods.Lengel p.43 The French spread out around the clearing and kept up heavy fire on Fort Necessity. Washington ordered his troops to return fire, but they aimed too high, inflicting few casualties, and the swivel cannon fared no better.Lengel p.43 To add to the garrison's troubles, heavy rain began to fall that afternoon and Washington's troops could not keep their powder dry.Lengel p.43

Negotiations

Villiers, who did not know when reinforcements would arrive for the garrison, sent an officer under a white flag to negotiate.Lengel p.44 Washington did not allow the French officer into or near the fort, but sent two of his own men, including Jacob Van Braam, to negotiate with him. As negotiations began, the Virginians, against Washington's orders, broke into the fort's liquor supply and got drunk.Lengel p.44 Villiers told Van Braam that all he wanted was the surrender of the garrison and the Virginians could go back to Virginia. He warned, however, that if they did not surrender now, the Indians might storm the fort and scalp the entire garrison.Lengel p.44

Surrender

Van Braam went back to Washington, and then back to Villiers, to tell Villiers that the garrison was ready to surrender.Lengel p.44 One of Villier's aide wrote down Villier's surrender terms and then gave them to Van Braam who in turn, gave them to Washington. Washington, who could not read French, had Van Braam translate it for him and in the document it said that Jumonville had been "assassinated".Lengel p.44 However, Van Braam skipped over this word otherwise Washington would have likely sent it back to Villiers and asked that the word be removed. Both Washington and Mackay signed them.Lengel p.44

Aftermath

On July 4, Washington and his troops abandoned Fort Necessity.Lengel p.45 The garrison marched away with drums beating and flags flying, but the Indians and the French began to loot the garrison's baggage on their way out. Washington, who feared a bloodbath, did not try to stop the looting.Lengel p.45 The Indians continued to steal from the soldiers until July 5. Washington and his troops arrived in Virginia in mid-July.Lengel p.47 On the 17th, Washington delivered his report of the battles to Governor Dinwiddie, expecting a rebuke, but Washington instead received a vote of thanks from the House of Burgesses and Dinwiddie blamed the defeat not on Washington but on poor supply and the other colonies refusing to help.Lengel p.47
The battlefield is preserved at Fort Necessity National Battlefield, and includes a reconstruction of Fort Necessity.

Political consequences

When news of the two battles reached England in August, the government of the Duke of Newcastle, after several months of negotiations, decided to send an army expedition the following year to dislodge the French.Fowler, p. 52 Major General Edward Braddock was chosen to lead the expedition. His expedition end in disaster and the French remained in control of Fort Duquesne until 1758, when an expedition under General John Forbes finally succeeded in taking the fort.Fowler, pp. 159–163
Word of the British military plans leaked to France well before Braddock's departure for North America, and King Louis XV dispatched a much larger body of troops to Canada in 1755.Fowler, p. 64 Although they arrived too late to participate in Braddock's defeat, the French troop presence led to a string of French victories in the following years. In a second British act of aggression, Admiral Edward Boscawen fired on the French ship Alcide on June 9, 1755, capturing her and two troop ships carrying some of those troops.Fowler, pp. 74–75 Military matters escalated on both North American soil and sea until France and Britain declared war on each other in spring 1756, marking the formal start of the Seven Years' War.Fowler, p. 98