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Trails, Taverns, and The Road to War
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5 of 9)
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The Road to War
The French and Indian War (1755-1763)
has been called “the war that made America” since it set
the stage for the American Revolution.
In the settlement that was to grow into Rockville, as
in most of colonial America, one of the major, although
unintended, consequences of this war was that attitudes
towards British rule changed profoundly. |
The French
and Indian War, sometimes called the Seven Years’ War,
was part of a conflict that pitted Britain and France in
a struggle for economic and military advantage across
North America, Europe, India and the Caribbean. It was
the first truly global war, and it began over control of
the Ohio River Valley.
By the mid-1700s, French colonists had moved south
from Canada and
were trading with the Indians in the land west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Meanwhile, British colonists on
the eastern seaboard wanted to establish settlements in
the Ohio River Valley. Not surprisingly, most Indian
nations allied themselves with the French, their trading
partners, against the British who wanted to carve the
land into farms.
 Both
the French and British began building
forts
along the waterways of the Ohio
River Valley in a struggle to control the area. One of
the most important of these,
Fort Duquesne, a French
outpost, was situated at present-day Pittsburgh, where
the Monongahela and and Allegheny Rivers meet to
form the Ohio River.
Plan of Fort
Duquesne, c. 1754 -1758. The fort was declared not
"worth a straw"
but defied all British attempts to capture it for more
than four years.
Cliché Bibliotheque nationale de France,
Paris (Click on
image to enlarge.)
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George
Washington
In 1754, George Washington, then a 22 year old officer
in the Virginia militia, was sent with a small company
to assert British control over the forks of the Ohio.
Following a brief skirmish with the French on May 28,
Washington ordered the construction of
Fort Necessity 50
miles west of modern-day Cumberland, Maryland. Five
weeks later, the French attacked the fort. Outnumbered,
Washington surrendered for the only time in his military
career. |
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(Click on image to enlarge.) |
Charles Wilson Peale's 1772 commemorative portrait,
George Washington
in the Uniform of a British Colonial
Colonel, the rank Washington held during the French
and Indian War period.
Washington-Custis-Lee Collection,
Washington and Lee University
The
French were left in control of the forks of the Ohio
River,
but England and France began sending supplies and troops
in preparation for more extended fighting. In part,
Britain was responding to requests for help from its
American colonies as French-inspired Indian attacks
terrorized British settlers along
the western frontier.
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Major
General Edward Braddock, a career officer with 45 years
of military experience, arrived in Virginia in February
1755 to take command of British forces in North
America. Braddock’s plan was to capture Fort Duquesne.
Setting up headquarters in Alexandria, he spent weeks
organizing his forces and meeting with colonial
officials in a frustrating attempt to gain cooperation
and assistance. At Braddock’s request, George
Washington became his aide-de-camp. |
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J. Thomas Scharf,
History of
Western Maryland
(Click on image to enlarge.) |
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