One of the most strategic sites to both the French and the English lay 200 miles south of Lake Erie. Both England and France claimed this land. The French because of Sieur de La Salle’s explorations of the 1670’s and the English because it was part of Virginia’s western border.

Both Virginian and Pennsylvanian fur traders had built posts at Logstown. In June 1752, the Marquis de Duquesne sent a war party of Ottawa and Chippewa to destroy the trading posts. All the traders were killed and the chief of the Logstown was said to be butchered. Duquesne then ordered two forts to be built to protect the headwaters of the Ohio. Therefore Fort Presque Isle was built on the banks of Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Fort Le Boeuf was built in Watertown, Pennsylvania.

Lieutenant Governor, Robert Dinwiddie wrote Le Boeuf’s commander, Captain Legardeur de St. Pierre demanding that he withdraw from the fort immediately for they were on British lands. St. Pierre politely informed Washington that he and his troops would be allowed to return home safely, but that if any British were to set foot on his land again, they would be met with force.

Once Dinwiddie received St. Pierre’s answer, he was astonished. He immediately convened the House of Burgesses to request funds to raise and equip troops. The House agreed and gave William Trent a promotion to captain and ordered him to recruit a force in order to raise a fort at the Forks of the Ohio.

On February 17th they began work on the fort. By mid April the construction had progressed to just above ground level. On April 18th French Captain Pierre de Contrecoeur and about 500 men arrived at the site and forced the Virginians to surrender the site. After Trent and his men began their way home to Virginia, the French completed the fort and named it Fort Duquesne.

On April 20th, Washington, now in command of an army of about 133 men as well as two companies, received news that three days earlier, the French had seized the new fort. On May 24th, the day after Jumonville marched from Fort Duquesne, Washington received a letter from chief Thaninhisson, also known as the Half-King, warning him that the French army was coming to meet him. The trader that had delivered Washington the letter also told him that he had seen two Frenchmen the night before and also that there was a strong detachment on its way.

After arriving at a place known as The Great Meadows, about 60 miles south of Fort Duquesne, Washington sent out a detachment. On May 27th, Christopher Gist reported that a party of 50 Frenchmen had tried to remove him of his post, to this Washington sent 75 men in pursuit of them. After sending out his Indian scouts, Washington received word that same night, that they [the Indian scouts] had seen two sets of tracks along the road which went down into a gloomy hollow, and that it was imagined that the whole party was hidden there.

After scouting the area where the Frenchmen were presumed to be hiding, Washington’s scouts returned and confirmed that there were about thirty Frenchmen camped in a gully about half a mile from the road. Washington then held a meeting with Thaninhisson where it was decided that they would attack together. Around seven or eight o’clock in the morning, Washington surrounded the camp and attacked. The results of the battle were ten Frenchmen, including their leader Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, the Sieur de Jumonville, lay dead or dying. The remaining twenty-two survivors fought bravely, but within fifteen minutes were forced to surrender.

After defeating Jumonville’s party Washington returned to The Great Meadows where he and his men built a crude stockade which they named Fort Necessity. When the French arrived, Washington formed his men in front of trenches hoping for a battle in the open. The French however took cover in the trees and fired on Washington’s men from there. Soon Washington had lost a third of his men to French fire. His attackers soon overcame Fort Necessity and Washington was forced to request terms of surrender on July 4th.

The French then allowed the British to bury their dead men and were allowed to return to Virginia. Washington left soon after with his men, except he left without Captains Robert Stobo and Jacob Van Braam. The French then returned to Fort Duquesne burning Gist’s settlements and the Ohio companies storehouse at Willis Creek.

Washington’s failure to capture Fort Duquesne ignited undeclared war between France and England in North America

The English create a four-part plan to prevent New France from expanding. First, capture Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Beauséjour (Acadia). Second, begin construction of Forts Edward and William Henry. On June 27, 1755, the British built and launched their first navel vessel on Lake Ontario, a move suggested by Benjamin Franklin.

Braddock's Defeat

After drilling his combined force at Fort Cumberland, Braddock marched into the Allegheny wilderness in June 1755. His advance was cautious and in good order, with the pioneers (engineers) hacking a road 12 feet wide through the virgin forest. Built on an old Indian trail, the road was widened and surfaced to accommodate both wagons and cannon. While the axe-men hacked the road, clearing as they went, often no more than four miles could be covered.

At far off Michilimackackinac, Charles de Langlade had been gathering Ottawa, Huron and Chippewa tribesmen to take up the hatchet against the English. With two hundred warriors in a fleet of canoes, he headed southward, paddling from dawn till dark in fine June weather. Early in June they arrived at Fort Duquesne and reported to Captain Lienard de Beaujeu, the French commander.

Indian scouts reported seeing Braddock s army advancing in three columns toward the Monongahela River. Commander de Beaujeu decided to intercept them there. Along with six hundred Frenchmen and Indians, Langlade marched to the Monongahela and concealed themselves in dense ravines along the river.

By July 7th, Braddock s army reached the Monongahela at a point about ten miles from Fort Duquesne. The French and Indians were waiting when the English arrived and broke ranks for their noon rations. Langlade wanted to attack at that moment, but Beaujeu hesitated: The British outnumbered them more than two to one. Langlade persisted--they could not halt the British in open battle, but they could stun them now from ambush.

On the morning of July 9th, Lt. Colonel Thomas Gage was ordered to lead a strong advance party across the river. The British had been forced to ford the river twice to avoid a narrow defile and were in engaged in a short skirmish at the second crossing with some thirty Indians who fled.

Waiting for them was Beaujeu, who had great difficulty in persuading his Indians to stay. Like them, he and his men were stripped for action and painted.

Braddock's men marched on. Suddenly, Beaujeu appeared, turned and waved his hat to the men behind him. He was killed almost at once, but the French and Indian losses were small. The redcoats swung from their columns into line as bullets tore into them from the trees. The French Canadians took to their heels, and only the prompt action of Captain Dumas and Charles Langlade, leading the Indians, prevented them from following the French. Yet despite this disarray in the enemy ranks, the British were doomed.

The British advance party was soon driven back into the main body of the army, which had advanced to meet it. With the enemy firing from cover, and the advance guard s attempted retreat, the troops could not form ranks. Confusion turned to panic, orderly withdrawal became a rout The British never saw their enemies; they fired blindly across the river. Crouching in trees and thickets, the shadowy Indians cut down the British regiments. They could not see their enemy and their whole training was foreign to the situation. So as the provincials sensibly took cover, the redcoats became confused and fired at them by mistake.

Indian marksmen soon picked off the officers on their horses, and their men went out of control. Braddock arrived and did his best with curses and the flat of his sword to restore order. But his men were broken up into heaving groups, totally without purpose, except for some of the colonials. The few British who tried to take cover, Indian fashion, incurred their leader's wrath.

Braddock had four horses shot from under him, while trying to rally his troops. He was shot through the lungs while mounting the fifth horse, and while his troops scattered, the Indians charged after them with tomahawks and scalping knives.

In horrible pain Braddock lingered four days, then his body was buried in the middle of the military road. The troops marched over the site so the Indians would not find and mutilate the body. In the end 977 of the 1,459 British and Provincial army, including 63 of the 86 officers, were killed.

The Indians, as usual, were too busy with plunder to follow: the booty that they took included Braddock s war chest. In it were all the British plans for the military operations in the south and west. It was George Washington brought the news of the disaster back to Dunbar.

Braddock chose William Johnson to lead the expedition against Crown Point. He was one of most important men in the colonies due to his closeness to the Mohawks of the Five Nations. Johnson raised an army of about three thousand volunteers from New York and New England, plus about five hundred Mohawks. Except for a few officers who had been at Louisbourg ten years earlier, his army was made up of farmers, and craftsmen who had never been in combat. Captain William Erie was his artillery commander and the only regular to serve with the expedition. Erie was in charge of eleven cannon, among them two thirty-two-pounders that fired iron balls six inches in diameter.

At the same time a large French force was crossing Lake Champlain for Crown Point. Baron Ludwig August Dieskau, a German in French service was the commander. Dieskau's army of thirty-two- hundred men, consisted of regulars, Caughnawaga and Abenaki. Although without artillery, and out numbered, he still felt confident.

Johnson gathered his army at Albany, New York. From there he moved up the Hudson River, both in boats and along the shore, to the point of entry to the Great Carrying Place, about 50 miles from Albany, there he began to construction of a fort. He called it Fort Edward, for a grandson of King George II. Though not quite completed, he left five hundred men to staff the fort, and moved the rest of the 1500 man army to a campsite near the southern shore of Lake George, which he named in honor of the king. It was his plan to move northward in stages, guarding well his lines of supply and retreat. He was unaware that Dieskau knew of his plans, (due to the captured battle plans of Braddock), and was waiting nearby.

Dieskau's Indian scouts had kept him informed of Johnson's movements. His plan was simple he would attack Fort Edward. This would cut Johnson's supply line, forcing him to either surrender or starve.

Soon, Johnson's Mohawk scouts discovered enemy tracks in the woods around Fort Edward. Thinking the enemy forces small, Johnson ordered Colonel Ephraim Williams to lead a detachment, locate the French camp, and destroy it.

At this, Old Hendrick, the Mohawk Chief, attempted to dissuade Johnson. His warrior's had said that there were many more in the war party than Johnson intended to send against it. But after Johnson persisted, Old Hendrick, agreed. So it was, that at dawn, September 8, 1755, the detachment left camp. Within an hour, a scout had informed Dieskau of the advance. With this news, he set an ambush on the potage road north of Fort Edward, and waited to trap the English.

Near midmorning, Colonel Williams and Old Hendricks, leading the column, rounded a bend in the road. Suddenly, a storm of musket ball tore into the column from both sides of the road. Many were killed, including Williams and Old Hendrick. The rest did not advance, or attempt to sustain the front, and soon it fell back upon them. A panic soon over came them and they retreated back to the main encampment.

Upon hearing the gunfire, Johnson ordered his drummers to sound the alert. The men ran for their weapons. Logs were used to form a low barricade, and wagons were turned on their sides. Captain Eyre had his men train their cannon on the road.

Johnson's men were soon caught up in the hysteria, and began to leave their posts. If the French had arrived at this time, it would have been a disaster.

Dieskau was unable to follow up on the ambush, due to fighting between his Indian allies. Some Abenaki had captured three Mohawks, and wanted to burn then at the stake. The Caughnawaga demanded that their cousins be spared. Dieskau arrived in time to stop any bloodshed, and soon convinced the Indians to settle their dispute after the battle. Still, almost an hour was lost before his army could move on the English.

The Canadians and Indians attacked from the woods on either side of the English camp.

Captain Erie's cannon returned the fire on the regulars. His cannon, loaded with canister, which were bags filled with musket balls, cut through the French lines like a scythe. When the French fire slowed, the British colonials opened fire with their rifles, and fowlers, picking off those still standing.

This was not what the Caughnawaga and Abenaki had expected. Suddenly they ran for the edge of the forest, out of gunshot range. They had odds were no longer in their favor. They would squat on their haunches and watch the white men kill each other.

Seeing this, Dieskau ran to the Indians to try and rally them. Before he could reach them though, he was shot in the knee, and fell. Before he could rise, he was hit twice again. He shouted to Captain Montrreuil, his second-in-command to take charge. But with Dieskau down, and the Indians out of the fight, the regulars began to falter.

Johnson's officers took advantage of this with a charge. The colonials leaped the barricade and began to charge. Now the fighting was hand to hand, men went at each other with tomahawk and knife, or bayonet. The French regulars soon broke and ran.

It was a squad of New Englanders that found Dieskau under a tree. Thinking him armed, they shot him again. Once he was subdued, he was taken to a tent, and placed on a cot. The Mohawks would have killed him, as revenge for chiefs lost in the battle, but William Johnson managed to prevent it.

With the end of this encounter, the fighting for the year came to an end. Johnson, knowing he could advance no farther, began building a fort along side the portage road at the southern end of Lake George. This one he named Fort William Henry in honor of King George's second grandson.

Dieskau's army retreated to Crown Point and began work on another fort ten miles to the south, where Lake George joins Lake Champlain. They called it Fort Carillon, "the Place of the Chorus of Bells", because of the sound of the water blending with the sound of the wind in the trees. It was said to sound like distant bells.

The first order for the building of a fort at Point Beauséjour, as the hill was known to the French, was that of the Marquis de la Jonquière, Governor General of Canada, to M. de St. Ours des Chaillons, Commander of the French forces in Chignecto, on November 8, 1750. In the spring of 1751, Lieutenant Joseph Gaspard de Léry was given the job of building a picket fort on this site at the head of the Bay of Fundy.

The fort was constructed in the shape of a pentagon. The walls were composed of heavy timber pickets forming a palisade, about fifteen feet high, braced on the inside at intervals. Each angle was enlarged to form a projecting bastion, strengthened on the inside by log platforms for cannon. In the middle of the one on the left of the main gate a powder magazine was placed. Just inside the gate was a small guardhouse. Inside the fort, between the bastions, four buildings stood. They were an officer's quarters, two barracks and a storehouse. In the angle of one bastion, a surface well was dug. The main gate was directed towards the north and slightly east, on the side of the fort which was opposite the Bay. In 1752, new plans were drawn in order to strengthen the fort. As a result, the palisade was fortified on the inside with a thick wall of timbers and earth, through which a casement (passage) ran along the curtains. Along the top of the curtain was built a small rampart, six feet wide and nine feet above ground level. On the outside of the wall ran a deep fosse (ditch). Beyond this was a glacis bordered by a palisade of heavy timber pickets. At the main gateway, the entrance was protected by a redan made of timbers. In each bastion were two lateral gun platforms with embrasure on their sides and another in the angle for a battery à barbette; outside this was a wide rampart, covered with sods.

It was a well-planned fort of five bastions, and mounted with 32 guns and mortars. The nucleus of its garrison was some 150 regulars of the Colonial Marine, commanded by Louis Du Pont Duchambon De Vergor, a captain of the same corps. The fort was an outpost of French strength. At the same time, the British built Ft. Lawrence a short distance away from the French fort. Fort Beauséjour was taken by the British in 1755 and renamed Fort Cumberland.