How Young George Washington Started a World War - Seven Years War

Four decades before serving as the first President of the United States and two before he became the face of the American Revolutionary War as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was an unknown Virginia surveyor and militia officer trying to make a name for himself in a world of colonial rivalries. In the spring of 1754, the 22-year-old Washington set out with his Virginia regiment into the frontier wilderness of the Ohio country to drive out the encroaching French. Experiencing his first taste of battle during this expedition, young Washington would inadvertently fire the first shots of a world war that would later be known as the Seven Years' War. Our members and patrons will soon be able to watch an 18-episode series on the topic alongside 300 other exclusive videos. Join their ranks via the link in the description or by pressing the join button under the video to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our private discord, and much more. George Washington was born and christened at the tobacco farm of Pope's Creek Plantation in the colony of Virginia on February 22, 1732. George Washington was born into the fourth generation of a Virginia family whose colonial roots dated to 1657. His father, Augustine Washington, inherited Pope's Creek as a child and had several children from two marriages. George, the eldest son of Augustine's second wife, Mary Ball, inherited his father's reddish-brown hair and blue eyes, but saw little of him, as Augustine was often away on business and land speculation. A stronger early influence was George's older half-brother Lawrence, who returned from schooling in England in 1738. Polished, well-mannered, and aristocratic in bearing, Lawrence became an instant model for the six-year-old George. In 1740, Lawrence Washington joined Virginia's provincial forces in the War of Jenkins' Ear, later serving with Admiral Edward Vernon's Cartagena Expedition in Colonel William Gooch's American Regiment. Returning to Virginia in 1742, he settled at Little Hunting Creek Plantation, where George visited often, captivated by his brother's stories of war, distant places, cannon fire, and British regulars' contempt for colonial troops. In April 1743, George's father, Augustine Washington, died, leaving extensive lands, 49 enslaved people, and an iron mine. Lawrence, as the eldest son of Augustine's first marriage, received the largest share, including Little Hunting Creek, which he renamed Mount Vernon after Vernon. George and his siblings inherited Ferry Farm and several tracks near Fredericksburg. George Washington spent his teenage years taking lessons to become a land surveyor. By 1747, he was working as an assistant to licensed surveyors and earning an independent income for the first time in his life. He came under the patronage of William Fairfax, a prominent landowner who had been granted by royal charter the entire northern neck of Virginia and other lands to the west, around 5 million acres in total. William's English-educated son and heir, George William Fairfax, became fast friends with Washington. In March of 1748, the two joined one of the survey expeditions to chart out Fairfax lands in the Shenandoah Valley. The survey expedition was long and difficult, with the team moving through cold, wet weather across the rugged terrain of the Shenandoah Valley, and it was during this trek that Washington had his first encounter with Native Americans. With this experience under his belt, Washington would spend the next few years performing lucrative survey jobs for the Fairfaxes. While at home, Washington engaged in socialite activities with the wealthy Virginia gentry, where he entered into a friendship with George Fairfax's beautiful new bride, Sarah Carey, known by her peers as Sally. But in the spring of 1749, Lawrence came down with a serious cough which turned out to be tuberculosis, about which returned in 1751. That September, George accompanied his sickly brother to Barbados, in hopes that the weather there would alleviate Lawrence's worsening illness, but nothing helped. On July 26th, 1752, Lawrence Washington died, leaving behind a widowed wife and a daughter, and splitting ownership of the Mount Vernon property between them and George, with the title ultimately coming into the latter's possession in 1761. George was devastated by the death of his elder half-brother, a man whom he had always looked up to and strove to emulate. With the untimely deaths of his father and half-brother, George Washington was now the owner of a substantial plantation property in Virginia's northern neck, granting him a firmer standing with Virginia's gentry planter class. With his surveying experience, higher social status, and connections to the Fairfaxes, Washington came to the attention of Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who in the fall of 1753 would task the 21-year-old Washington with a mission of great importance. In the years after the 1748 Treaty of Isle-à-Chapelle ended hostilities in the War of the Austrian Succession, the French had increased their military presence in the colony of New France. Versailles was changing its grand strategy for colonial expansion in North America, and contending with its British rivals. Along with Canada, the French controlled lands in the west and down the Mississippi River as far south as Louisiana and Mexico, utilizing the rivers of the Ohio Valley to connect their colonial possessions, and hem in the British colonies along the eastern seaboard, with the eventual goal of pushing the British entirely off the continent. Beginning in 1749, the French built strategic forts and trade outposts throughout the Ohio River Valley, known as the Ohio Country. The growing French influence alarmed the British colonies, particularly Virginia, which had aggressive designs on the region. Virginia's interest was embodied by the Ohio Company of Virginia, founded in 1747 by wealthy planters, including Lawrence and Augustine Washington, which had obtained a royal charter for over half a million acres of land in the Ohio Valley. The Ohio Company quickly hired a surveyor, Christopher Gist, to explore their newly obtained lands and scope out the best places for settlement. And through Gist's pathfinding work between 1750 and 1754, the British strengthened their presence in the Ohio Valley, and were even granted permission from local Native American tribes in the region to fortify their trading post at Logstown. This expansion alarmed the French, and in 1753, the Governor General of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis Duquesne, ordered troops to build a new string of forts that would strengthen the line of their upper Ohio frontier. Posts were established on Lake Erie at Presque Isle, modern-day Erie, Pennsylvania, and at the head of French Creek, Fort LaBeouf. From here, the troops constructed riverboats and floated down French Creek to seize the on the Allegheny River. Governor Dinwiddie now received permission to establish his own forts in the region. Dinwiddie, a major shareholder in the Ohio Company, was told that he could build forts at the colony's expense so long as he first proclaimed to the French that those lands rightfully belonged to Virginia. Should these diplomatic efforts fail, then he was authorized to repel the French by force. Though the winter season was approaching, Dinwiddie chose George Washington, who was a major in the Virginia Militia, to deliver a message to the French as soon as possible. Washington departed Williamsburg on October 31st, 1753, traveling with Gist as his guide through heavy rain and early snowfalls. They reached Venango on December 4th, where French officers boasted it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio. Washington and Gist then pressed on to Fort LaBeouf, arriving after dusk on December 11th. There, Washington delivered Dinwiddie's ultimatum to the Post Commandant, Captain Jacques Lagardeur de Saint Pierre. After a day's deliberation, Lagardeur handed Washington a diplomatic but firm written refusal and saw the Virginians on their way. Their mission completed, Washington and Gist departed for Virginia on December 16th. Traveling through rough, snowy terrain and across ice-swollen rivers, Washington returned to Williamsburg on January 16th, 1754. There, he hurriedly wrote a to the Governor from his notes. Now that the French had openly refused Dinwiddie's demands, he would organize a military expedition to drive them out of the Ohio country by force. Once again, Washington would play a key role in the expedition. In early 1754, Dinwiddie sent Virginia Militia Captain William Trent with 100 men to build a fort at the confluence of the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers called the Forks of the Ohio, where modern-day Pittsburgh now stands. An arrangement was made with the local Mingo people of the Iroquois Confederacy, led by their chieftain Tanner Grissom, known to the Europeans as the Half-King, who sought to boost his own reputation and strength within the Iroquois through trade with the British. The Virginians had barely started construction when French soldiers forced them out of the area and built their own post, which they named Fort Duquesne. Meanwhile, newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Washington organized around 130 men to muster into the Virginia Regiment, then set out from Alexandria on April 2nd, 1754. They conducted a slow, arduous march through the frontier wilderness into the Ohio country, where Washington would build roads and outposts until reinforcements arrived under Colonel Joshua Fry, who would assume command. Washington's men reached a large clearing 50 miles north of Wills Creek on May 24th, called the Great Meadows, where he encamped to await developments. Four days later, Mingo warriors joined them under Tanner Grissom, who informed Washington that a group of French soldiers were camped out nearby to the west. Washington took 40 men along a narrow trail through the dark night to meet up with the Half-King's warriors near the French encampment. Conferring with the Half-King, Washington decided to attack the French troops bivouacked below in a rocky ravine. Utilizing the high ground, Washington's men and the Mingoes surrounded the French on the morning of May 28th, 1754. Who fired the first shot of the 15-minute Battle of Jumonville-Glen is unknown, but the Virginians quickly fired off a musket volley into the camp. The Virginians fired just two volleys before the French threw down their arms in panic and ran, only to be cut off by the Mingo warriors. They then turned back to surrender to Washington. Ten Frenchmen were killed, one wounded, and one escaped, while 21 soldiers were captured. The wounded French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, the Sieur de Jumonville, showed Colonel Washington his orders, which clearly explained he was on a surveillance mission with no hostile intent. But as his letter was being translated, the Half-King approached Ensign Jumonville and said in French, Thou art not dead yet, my father. Tanner Grissom then raised his tomahawk, swung it down over the Frenchman's head, splitting his skull open, and scalped him. The other warriors immediately began killing and scalping the wounded French prisoners, much to the stunned surprise of Washington. Despite now sparking a diplomatic incident, Washington had just experienced his first taste of battle, and he found it exhilarating. He would later write to his brother John on the skirmish, I heard the bullets whistle, and believe me, there is something charming in the sound. Washington led the remaining French prisoners back to his Great Meadows encampment. Back at camp, Washington sent his prisoners to Virginia under guard and put his troops to work building a timber fort in the meadow. The completed palisade, named Fort Necessity, surrounded a small storehouse for powder and supplies, with rifle pits and earthworks dug around it. Washington received word on June 6th that Colonel Fry had died in a horse-riding accident, making him senior officer of the Virginia Regiment. Three days later, reinforcements brought his numbers to 300 men and nine swivel guns. On June 14th, a 100-man unit from a South Carolina independent company of foot arrived under Captain James McKay, who quarreled with Washington over command, arguing his Crown Commission outranked Washington's provincial one. Washington refused to acknowledge any distinction, as the regulars ultimately built a separate camp within Fort Necessity. During the next two weeks, Washington journeyed out from the Great Meadows with a detachment to try to convince other native tribes to side with him against the French, but his efforts were in vain. But with his supply and manpower situation rapidly deteriorating, Washington returned to Fort Necessity, and his men and McKay's regulars began fortifying their camp's earthwork entrenchments after word reached them that a force of 600 French and Canadian soldiers, bolstered by around 100 allied Native American warriors, was advancing on Washington, led by Captain Louis Collant de Villiers, the older half-brother of the murdered Ensign de Monville. As Washington's starving men hastily improved their earthworks, the half-king grew frustrated by their dire prospects and decided not to be on the losing end of the coming battle, so he led his mingos out of the Great Meadows. At 9am on July 3rd, 1754, Washington received reports that the French were nearing the Great Meadows. He had just 300 men fit for duty to face the French and Native force of around 700, as one-fourth of his men were too sick, starved, or exhausted to be in fighting condition. Washington's troops occupied their entrenchments, and at 11am the first shot of the Battle of Fort Necessity was fired into the woods by a sentry. The French and their Canadian and Native allies emerged from the woods, opening fire on Washington's soldiers. Having based his military knowledge on reading European-style drill books, Washington led his Virginia Regiment out of their earthworks to form ranks in the meadow as the French fired at them ineffectively from 600 yards away. It soon became clear to Washington that the French would not abide by European-style rules of war and were remaining in place along the treeline to snipe at his men from a distance. And so, the Colonel ordered his men back into the rifle pits and they opened fire from behind their entrenchments. As the Virginians and Regulars exchanged fire with the French, the Canadians and their Native American allies maneuvered to a position from which to fire at them from 60 yards away. The Native American warriors tried to charge with their tomahawks, but a volley from the Virginians sent them reeling back. Washington's men hunkered down within their earthworks and within the fort's palisade walls, firing back with their muskets and grapeshot from the swivel guns. Before long though, the French managed to surround the fort, and casualties started to mount for the Virginians. The firefights dragged on well into the afternoon before storm clouds appeared overhead and unleashed a torrential downpour on the embattled soldiers. The trenches were soon pools of water and mud and the rain soaked their firelocks and ammunition. With the day closing, the fire from Fort Necessity gradually died off. That night, the French managed to open negotiations with Washington, who sent two men to meet them on the middle ground. When they returned to the fort with two copies of a surrender document written in French, Washington had a French-speaking Dutchman in his regiment, Jacob Van Bram, examine the rain-soaked documents for him and Captain Mackay. Van Bram tried his best to translate the soiled papers while huddled over candlelight with the two officers in the storeroom. The French terms, he read, allowed for Washington and his men to leave the great meadows in peace, taking any belongings they could take with them, while surrendering their swivel guns and muskets to the French. Washington would be granted full military honors and the French would occupy the vacated fort. Two captains of the Virginia regiment would have to remain behind as hostages until prisoners from Dumontville-Glen could be exchanged at Fort Duquesne. Washington agreed to all but the surrender of their muskets, due to their withdrawal through hostile native territory, which Captain Villiers agreed to. With the surrender terms before them, Washington and Mackay both signed the papers, but Washington was unaware that the second line of the document essentially had him admitting to assassinating Ensign Dumontville. The next day, the 4th of July 1754, George Washington and his men abandoned Fort Necessity and surrendered their first command post to the French under the beating drums and waving flags of full military honors. The Battle of Fort Necessity had cost Washington 30 men killed and 70 wounded, while Captain Villiers' losses amounted to just 2 French and 1 native killed and 17 men wounded. The next morning, the beaten troops of the Virginia regiment with Washington at their head began their long march back home as the French torched Fort Necessity behind them. Governor Dinwiddie was less than pleased upon Colonel Washington's return and immediately tried to put out the fires he had inadvertently started in a letter to the Crown. Washington's the Ohio Valley in the spring and summer of 1754 had an immediate impact on Anglo-French and Native American relations. Washington's unintended admission to murdering Ensign Dumontville damaged Great Britain's moral claim to ownership of North America and since the French captured Washington's journal at Fort Necessity, they had it translated and printed across Europe, to make the British appear as the hostile aggressors who had broken the peaceful settlement of the Ohio country by the French. What neither Washington nor anyone at that moment in time could realize was how the first unknown shot fired at Dumontville Glen on May 28, 1754 would eventually serve as the first shot preceding the larger Seven Years' War when it broke out in May of 1756. What had started as a small skirmish over Anglo-French land claims in the wilderness frontiers of the Ohio country would escalate into a global conflict on a scale never seen before, a war that set the stage for events that would unfold over the rest of the 18th century and beyond. Our members will soon start watching the full 18 episodes of our Seven Years' War series, along with 300 other exclusive videos. Join their ranks via the link in the description or by pressing the join button under the video to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our private discord, and much more. Please consider liking, subscribing, commenting, and sharing – it helps immensely. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.