French & Indian War

'

Wars and Battles, 1754-1763- Prelude to the War for Independence

The early colonial wars between France and Britain were fought primarily in Europe; American events played relatively minor roles. After three rounds, no clear victor had emerged.

Following the third of these conflicts, King George's  War (1740-1748), French authorities in North America began to establish a string of forts in the Ohio country west of the Allegheny Mountains. Their intent was to keep fur-trapping and trading activities in the hands of French citizens and to deny the area to land-hungry American colonists. (See Development of New France.)

In the 1740s a group of Virginians received from the Crown a massive land grant for lands in the Ohio valley. The subsequent Ohio Company was established for the purpose of investing in western lands and, secondarily, for engaging in the fur trade. Understandably, tensions between the contending powers mounted rapidly.

The picture was further complicated by the allegiances of the area's natives. As a rule, most of the tribes tended to favor the French who enjoyed a reputation for conducting business more fairly than the British. Further, the French trappers and traders did not threaten to inundate the region with settlers, unlike the British colonists.

In 1753, George Washington and a small group of men were dispatched into the disputed territory by Virginia lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie, himself a member of the Ohio Company, as were Washington and his brother Lawrence. The intent was to deliver a letter of protest to French officials, who summarily refused the request to vacate.

During this journey, Washington noted a strategically located site at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where the Ohio River is formed and is the location of present-day Pittsburgh. Acting later on Washington's intelligence report, British officials sent a small force to the area where they began to construct a fort. Their labors were interrupted by a much larger French contingent, which chased off the British and completed the fortification, naming it Fort Duquesne.

The Battle of Great Meadows

On May 28, Washington's  forces surprised a group of French and Indians, inflicted heavy casualties and took a number of captives. The colonial forces then hastily constructed  the aptly named Fort Necessity, in the Great Meadows not far from Fort Duquesne.

On July 3, the French forces struck back. After a day-long battle-the first of the French and Indian War-Washington signed terms of surrender and returned with his defeated men to Virginia. The French commander treated his opponents leniently in the hope of avoiding a broader conflict. Nevertheless, the opening shots of the French and Indian

War had been fired.

While Washington was engaging the French in western Pennsylvania, colonial delegates gathered in Albany in an effort to prepare for the coming war.

The conflict then proceeded through three phases:

Summary of 1st phase:

The early period of the war saw localized action in North America and began with Washington's loss at Fort Necessity. Neither side committed much in the way oftroop strength or resources to the effort. Most of the action was confined to attempts to capture the opponent's fortified positions on the frontier.

First Phase

The French and Indian War, 1754-1756

Commencing with Washington's  defeat at Great Meadows (July 1754), the French maintained the upper hand in an undeclared war that was really a struggle for turf in North America.

The major event in this initial phase was the overwhelming defeat of General Edward

Braddock in the shadow of Fort Duquesne in July 1755.

Another significant setback for the British cause in 1755 was the failure of Massachusetts govemor William Shirley to take the French position at Fort Niagara, the gateway to the West.

Two events offered some encouragement to the British effort. In June, Shirley and his forces succeeded in taking Fort Beausejour, which occupied a strategic position between Nova Scotia and Acadia. As a security measure - -a move that still generates bitterness today-the British expelled many of the French-speaking "Acadians" from Nova Scotia, fearing that they would provide aid to the enemy.