WASHINGTON STARTS A WAR (cont.)

(Now) LTC George Washington had no authority to do what he was about to do.  There had been no declaration of war between France and England, nor did Washington’s orders require him to interact more than to deliver a letter to the French commander.  Nevertheless, Washington’s council of war concluded an attack was necessary.  Leading a detachment of 40 men and 12 Native Americans under Washington’s ally Chief Tanaghrisson, Washington stumbled through the black, rain-soaked forest on the night of 27-28 May.  The men were quickly soaked and had trouble keeping their powder dry, but the rain worked to their advantage.  The French, unaware of the attack, had stacked their muskets in a dry spot under an overhanging rock.  Neither had Jumonville posted sentries.  As the morning mists began to part this day, Washington’s 50-odd men surrounded the French encampment in the quiet glen.

History debates what happened next.  Perhaps a wary Frenchman just rousing from his slumbers spotted the British.  Perhaps an eager militiaman opened fire himself but firing quickly erupted.  French soldiers bounding for their weapons were cut down mid-stride by the volley from Washington’s men.  Tanaghrisson’s tribesman rushed the camp and began clubbing those still standing.  Some Frenchmen managed to return fire, some ran for cover only to be ferreted-out by Tanaghrisson’s Indians.  In a short fifteen minutes the skirmish was over.  As the gunsmoke cleared ten of the Frenchmen lay dead, including Jumonville.  The Virginians had lost one killed and three wounded.  Tanaghrisson’s natives had scalped the dead before Washington could descend into the encampment, then demanded that the 21 surviving Frenchmen be turned over for a similar fate.  Washington refused.  The 21 prisoners were interrogated and sent back to Wills Creek.  Prophetically the young Washington reported back to LT Governor Dinwiddie his exhilaration, “I heard the bullets whistle, and believe me there is something charming in the sound.”

One Frenchman was absent the camp at the moment of the attack.  He escaped into the woods and carried news of Washington’s action back to Fort Duquesne.  Fearing a counter-attack, Washington built a log fortification at Great Meadow that came to be called Fort Necessity.  The counter-attack did come in July, by a far superior French force.  Washington wisely capitulated and was forced to sign a surrender document written in French.  Because he could not speak the language, Washington was unaware the document labeled his attack an unprovoked and unwarranted “assassination” of Jumonville.  This French characterization became the international insult that launched the French and Indian War!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 JUN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Rehabilitation Medicine

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Empires at War:  The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763.  New York, NY: Walker and Co., 2005.

O’Meara, Walter.  Guns at the Forks.  Pittsburgh, PA: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1979, pp. 77-92.

Nester, William R.  The Great Frontier War:  Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755.  Westport, CT: Preager, 2000, pp. 186-93.

Site visit.  Fort Necessity National Battlefield and Jumonville Glen.  Farmington, PA, 30 June 2007.

Site visit.  Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA, June 1987.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  MAJ Washington had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel after his departure from Williamsburg.

From the 10-gun brigantine of the Revolutionary War to our present Nimitz-class carrier CVN-73 there have been twelve US Navy warships named in honor of George Washington, more than any other individual and twice the number remembering John Paul Jones.

Today Fort Necessity and the nearby Jumonville Glen are preserved by the National Park Service as historical sites.  Fort Duquesne was eventually captured by the British and renamed Fort Pitt, after Sir William Pitt, then the Prime Minister of the English Parliament.  Fort Pitt lent its name to the town that grew up nearby, Pittsburgh.  Point State Park in what is now downtown Pittsburgh marks the site of these 18^th century forts.

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                                    WASHINGTON STARTS A WAR

We know it as the French and Indian War, in Europe it was the Seven Years War between England and France.  The war ignited in western Pennsylvania with control of North America as the ultimate goal.  The French had established colonies in the St. Lawrence and Mississippi River valleys.  French communications were maintained between these via the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and through Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence.   The English had settled the Atlantic seaboard.  But by the 1750s the English colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were expanding westward into the Ohio Valley.  Now a threat to French communication, Governor Ange Duquesne de Menneville in Quebec became alarmed (himself a Naval officer and son of an Admiral).  Small wonder then, that most of the engagements in the French and Indian War were fought in upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, and the Ohio and Michigan territories.

Most of the French troops in Canada were Marines from French warships calling on the colony.  In an attempt to secure the strategic confluence of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, Governor Duquesne sent a Marine expedition under Paul Marin de La Malgue into western Pennsylvania.  Neither the British nor the French had sufficient regular military strength to control the entire Ohio Valley, so both recruited Native Americans to guard their territories and in some cases fight alongside.  A subordinate officer in Marin’s force, Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, was sent ahead to build and garrison what became Fort Duquesne at the spot where the Ohio, Monongehela and Allegheny Rivers meet.  When Virginia’s LT Governor Robert Dinwiddie learned of this French “invasion,” he dispatched an officer in the British Colonial Militia, MAJ George Washington, with a letter to the French demanding their eviction.

Washington left the Virginia colonial capital of Williamsburg on 31 October 1753.  In addition to delivering Dinwiddie’s letter, he was instructed to forge alliances with native tribes along the way as well as construct a corduroy road over which artillery could be shipped at a later date.  Washington’s expedition launched from the spot where Wills Creek enters the Potomac River (present-day Cumberland, Maryland).  The going was rough, but by May 1754 they had reached an open flat 87 miles southeast of Fort Duquesne that they called the Great Meadow.  Here Washington learned from local Native Americans about an “800-man French force” reportedly moving down the Allegheny to reinforce Fort Duquesne.  In addition, a small reconnaissance of Frenchmen under Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville had been sent from Fort Duquesne to scout Washington’s activities.  At that moment, Washington learned, Jumonville was encamped not far from Great Meadow in a bowl-shaped glen in the woods.  Washington called the officers of his 180 militiamen, along with their allied Indians, to a Council of War…

Continued tomorrow…

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Empires at War:  The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763.  New York, NY: Walker and Co., 2005.

Nester, William R.  The Great Frontier War:  Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755.  Westport, CT: Preager, 2000, pp. 186-93.

O’Meara, Walter.  Guns at the Forks.  Pittsburgh, PA: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1979, pp. 77-92.

Site visit.  Fort Necessity National Battlefield and Jumonville Glen, Farmington, PA, 30 June 2007.

Site visit.  Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA, June 1987.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though the spark that triggered the Seven Years War flashed in North America, the fighting spilled over into many French and English territories.  Historians today site it as the first true “world war” in terms of its eventual scope.

Reminders of the French influence in western Pennsylvania can still be seen.  One of the more difficult links in the French line of communication was a 50-mile portage from the headwaters of a tributary of the Allegheny River through the mountains of western Pennsylvania.   That tributary is still known today as “French Creek,” and is indicated by a marker along modern Interstate 80.

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                                  THE BATTLE OF GREAT BRIDGE

Modern sailors stationed in the Norfolk area may be familiar with Battlefield Boulevard and Great Bridge, whose story follows.

GEN George Washington worried that the British might become lodged in Norfolk, Virginia.  Then the second largest city in the southern colonies, Norfolk was protected by water (and the Royal Navy) on three sides and by the quagmire of the Great Dismal Swamp to the south.  Should the British encamp at Norfolk, Washington’s sole approach would be a narrow strip of high ground with a single road running north to the city through the Dismal Swamp.  Nine miles south of Norfolk, where this road crossed the south branch of the Elizabeth River, sat the Great Bridge.  Here, to the south of the bridge, a 160-yard ribbon of high ground formed a natural causeway wide enough only for about six men abreast.

In November 1775, Lord Dunmore (John Murray, Royal Governor of Virginia) and 25 British Regulars threw together a small stockade named Fort Murray at the Norfolk end of the bridge.  To frustrate any Patriot advance, they took up the planking on the bridge.  At the same time, Patriot COL William Woodford entrenched his 700 militia on high ground of the causeway to the south.  His force included 100 Culpepper Minutemen armed with Pennsylvania long rifles–reportedly the best Yankee marksmen in the colonies.  The two sides stood across from each other until Royal Army CAPT Samuel Leslie arrived from Norfolk on December 8^th with 160 Regulars of the 14^th Regiment of Foot, and 240 loyalists and armed Negro slaves.  Fearing the rebels would be reinforced soon, the British opted to strike this following day.  Supremely confident British Regulars spurned the numeric odds.

In the wee hours of this morning, British grenadiers advanced from Fort Murray, replacing the bridge deck and establishing a strongpoint at its southern end.  Here, ten Royal Navy sailors from CAPT Matthew Squire’s squadron emplaced two 4-pounders.  Ahead lay 160 yards of narrow causeway directly fronting the Patriot breastworks.  When the grenadiers stepped-off, Patriot long rifles opened.  These were accurate at four times the range of the British “Brown Bess’s.”  Established British battle doctrine called for an ordered march weathering the opposing fire until the enemy could be brought under the bayonet–a tactic at which they would not succeed this day.  Indeed, the Culpepper men were able to flank from beyond the range of British muskets, enfilading the enemy lines the entire morning.  Fifty percent British casualties forced a retreat all the way to Norfolk, where rumors of an enroute 2000-man Patriot army panicked British forces and Tory loyalists.  They fled the city to warships in Hampton Roads.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14-15 Dec 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Site visit.  Great Bridge Lock Park, National Park Service Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, Chesapeake, Virginia, 19 May 2011.

Wilson, David K.  The Southern Strategy:  Britain’s Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775-1780.  Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2005, pp. 5-17.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  American patriots did take Norfolk unopposed in the coming days, and traded pot-shots with the British ships until New Years Day.  Then the British opened a bombardment of Norfolk, followed by the re-landing of troops with torches.  The city was set ablaze and burned to the ground, after which the British retired up the Chesapeake Bay.  The razed Norfolk nevertheless remained in Patriot hands, and Washington’s dire prediction never materialized.

Great Bridge today is a bedroom community for the Norfolk metropolitan area.  It can be reached by retracing the old Virginia to North Carolina road, now approximated by Battlefield Boulevard (so named for this battle) leading south from the city.

USS NORFOLK, a brig from the Quasi-War with France, the heavy cruiser NORFOLK (CA-137) (whose construction was halted after WWII), and the Cold War anti-submarine cruiser (CLK-1), later (DL-1), all remember the city of Norfolk.  Woodford County, Kentucky, is named for COL Woodford above, and our WWII transport WOODFORD (AKA-86) is named for Woodford Counties in Kentucky and Illinois.

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