Fort Necessity, Friendship Hill, & a Talent Show

 The story behind Fort Necessity is an interesting one.  Tensions between the English and the French where high with both trying to lay claim on land in the New World.  In early April of 1754, George Washington, a newly commissioned lieutenant colonel, started westward from Alexandria with part of a regiment of Virginia frontiersmen to build a road to Redstone Creek, present day Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela. He was then to help defend the English fort on the Ohio.  Along his journey, Washington learned that the fort had fallen into French hands but decided to continue on toward Redstone Creek and await further instructions. 

By late May of 1754, Washington had reached a large natural clearing known as the Great Meadows.  On May 27th, he received word that a party of French soldiers was camped in a ravine not far from his position.  That night,  Washington and about 40 men began an all night march to confront the French and learn their intentions.












About dawn, Washington met with a friendly Seneca chief, Half King, and made plans to contact the French Camp. As the French commander had not posted sentries, Washington and his men easily surrounded the unsuspecting French.

A shot was fired, no one really knows by whom, and soon the peaceful glen was filled with chaos. The skirmish lasted about 15 minutes. When it was over, 13 Frenchmen were dead and 21 captured. One escaped and made his way back to Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio. Washington's casualties were one man killed and two or three wounded.




 Soon after the smoke had cleared, French survivors claimed they had been attacked without cause by Washington. They claimed they were on the same sort of mission Washington himself had been on the winter before. That explained, they said, why they had been so easily surprised and why they had not posted sentries. Washington asked why, if the French were on a diplomatic mission, they were hidden in a ravine, off the trail, and in the area for perhaps a couple of days without approaching him.

Controversy surrounds the events that took place at Jumonville Glen, named after Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. He was the leader of the French detachment, and was killed there.
 
Fort Necessity was built as a fortification against inevitable attacks by the French because of the incident in the glen. 

The confrontation at Fort Necessity in the summer of 1754 was the prelude to the war fought by England and France for control of the North American continent. The struggle was known in North America as the French and Indian War and spread around the world as the Seven Years' War. It ended in 1763 with the removal of French power from North America and India. The action at Fort Necessity was also the first major event in the military career of George Washington. It was the only time he ever surrendered to an enemy. 

On a bluff overlooking the Monongahela River sits the country manor of Albert Gallatin, a Swiss immigrant who played a key role in this nation’s early adventure into democratic rule. He served as secretary of the treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison, and he secured funding for both the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804 to 1806. Lewis and Clark honored him in naming the three forks of the Missouri River. They are the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers; all flow through Montana.

When Gallatin built this home at Friendship Hill in 1789, it overlooked the edge of the untried western frontier and what Gallatin hoped would be a corridor to prosperity. The Monongahela drains to the Ohio River—a springboard to points west. The water route, however, proved unfeasible. Instead, the National Road and, later, railroads carried the nation west.

On a very different side note, our ward had a talent show and Kate decided (by herself) to jump rope for her talent.  Mind you, she isn't a jump rope expert...actually, quite the novice, achieving 3 or 4 awkward jumps before tangling her feet up in the rope.  She tried hard and succeeded in a couple of successful jumps.  She was so proud of herself, I was proud of her too.  I hope she holds onto that self confidence.