George Washington: Encyclopedia II - George Washington - French and Indian War: 1754-1763

George Washington - French and Indian War: 1754-1763

At twenty-two years of age, Washington fired some of the first shots of what would become a war between colonial powers. The trouble began in 1753, when France began building a series of forts in the Ohio Country, a region also claimed by Virginia. This was part of an overall strategy by the French, with the support of the indigenous population, to destabilize the American frontier and tie up British military forces in the American colonies. Robert Dinwiddie, the governor of Virginia, had young Major Washington deliver a letter to the French commander, asking them to leave. After the publication of Washington's accounts of this tale appreared in local newspapers, he became a legend. The French refused, and so, in 1754, Dinwiddie sent Washington, now promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the First Virginia Regiment, on another mission to the Ohio Country. There, Washington and his troops ambushed a French Canadian scouting party. After a short skirmish, Washington's American Indian ally Tanacharison killed the wounded French commander Ensign Jumonville. Washington then built Fort Necessity, which soon proved inadequate, as he was compelled to surrender to a larger French and American Indian force. The surrender terms that Washington signed included an admission that he had "assassinated" Jumonville. (The document was written in French, which Washington could not read.) The "Jumonville affair" became an international incident and helped to ignite the French and Indian War, a part of the worldwide Seven Years' War.

Washington was later released by the French, on parole, with his promise not to return to the Ohio Country for one year.

Washington was always eager to serve in the British Army, which, on the other hand, had a low regard for colonials. His opportunity came in 1755, when he accompanied the Braddock Expedition, a major effort by the British to retake the Ohio Country. The expedition ended in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela. Washington distinguished himself in the debacle—he had two horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat—yet he sustained no injuries and showed coolness under fire in organizing the retreat. In Virginia, Washington was acclaimed as a hero, and he commanded the First Virginia Regiment for several more years, although the focus of the war had shifted elsewhere. In 1758, he accompanied the Forbes Expedition, which successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne.

Washington's goal at the outset of his military career had been to secure a commission as a regular British officer—rather than staying a mere colonial militia officer. The promotion did not come, and so, in 1759, Washington resigned his commission and married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children. Washington adopted her two children, but never fathered any of his own. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon where he took up the life of a genteel farmer and slave owner. He held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "French and Indian War: 1754-1763", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki