Fort Necessity was an aptly named structure erected in 1754 by Virginia provincial soldiers under the command of an inexperienced George Washington. The Virginians were the vanguard of a larger provincial army that intended to oppose the French occupation of the Ohio River forks (present-day Pittsburgh). Originally built as a storehouse, the small stockade at Fort Necessity became a makeshift military fort on July 3, 1754, when Washington and his 400 Virginians retreated to the site after attacking and killing a small French detachment in the forest at nearby Jumonville Glenn. A significantly larger force of French and Indians from Fort Duquesne reached the area during the early morning hours and laid siege to Fort Necessity throughout the day. The result was disaster. The fort occupied a shallow valley surrounded by wooded hills, which allowed the French and Indians to fire downhill into the small palisade with little obstruction. After an eight-hour firefight in a raging thunderstorm, during which time Fort Necessity began to fill with water, Washington surrendered. In exchange for the freedom of his troops, Washington signed a surrender agreement written in French, which he could not read. The document blamed Washington for the battle at Fort Necessity and provided much of the impetus for the British decision to send an army under General Edward Braddock to the Ohio forks the following year, which in turn marked the beginning of the Seven Years’ War in North America.
Further reading: Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (New York: Knopf, 2000).
—Daniel P. Barr
World History
