Woods where French, British skirmished has become national park
A small cliff is the major landmark at Jumonville Glen. It sits atop Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County in southwest Pennsylvania. It was the site of a 15-minute battle in 1754 that changed the world.
JUMONVILLE, PA.: It was the skirmish that changed the world.
The 15-minute battle in 1754 in a remote wooded glen in southwestern Pennsylvania involved George Washington, American Indians and the military forces of France and Great Britain.
The result was the French and Indian War, a conflict most Americans care little about, although former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared it to be the first world war.
Said writer Horace Walpole: ''The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.''
France and England battled each other in what became a nine-year struggle for control of North America.
The flash point that started that war was Jumonville Glen,
atop Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County. That's about five miles east of Uniontown and one hour southeast of Pittsburgh. It's about 31/2 hours from Akron.
Today that glen, where blood was spilled in an event that led to Washington being called an assassin, is managed by the National Park Service.
Jumonville Glen is a peaceful spot with the rocky ravine where it all began, a kiosk, a few interpretive signs, a half-mile loop trail and restrooms.
It is managed as part of Fort Necessity National Battlefield. Surprisingly, it evokes a strong sense of the wild country that surrounded Fort Necessity in the 1750s.
The sandstone cliff is about 25 feet high, surrounded by trees and ferns.
To get there, take U.S. 40 east from Uniontown. At the top of Chestnut Ridge and opposite the historical Summit Inn Resort, turn left on Jumonville Road (state Route 2021) and proceed north about two miles. Turn right into the park.
In the 1750s, England and France were competing over rival claims to the colonial frontier stretching from Canada through the Ohio Valley to the Mississippi River.
In 1753, Virginia Gov. Robert Dinwiddie sent 21-year-old Washington to warn the French to withdraw from positions along Lake Erie and the Allegheny River. The French refused.
The following year, Washington, by that point a colonel, returned to Pennsylvania with troops to build a road for British settlers to Redstone Old Fort on the Monongahela River.
Washington and his regiment of Virginia frontiersmen reached a large natural clearing called Great Meadows at what is now Farmington, Pa. That became his base camp.
Washington then got word that a party of French soldiers was camped nearby.
On the night of May 27 amid storms, Washington and 40 men began an all-night march to confront the French.
At dawn, Washington met with a friendly Seneca chief, the Half King. His scouts led Washington about two miles to the French camp at Jumonville Glen.
The unsuspecting French had not posted sentries and were easily surrounded. A shot rang out. No one knows who fired first. Musket fire echoed through the wooded ravine.
In the end, 13 Frenchmen were dead, including commander Joseph Coulon de Villiers, sieur of Jumonville, and 21 were captured. One escaped and made his way back to Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio where Pittsburgh now stands.
In the battle, one British colonial died and two were wounded.
The French claimed Washington attacked without provocation. They claimed to be on the same sort of mission that Washington had been on the previous year. That explained why no sentries were posted and why they were so easily surprised, the French said.
Washington wanted to know why they were hidden in a ravine off a trail if they were on a diplomatic mission and why they had not approached him in the time they were in the area.
The French conveniently carried both military and diplomatic papers.
The verbal sparring reached Europe and triggered emotional responses in France and England.
After the skirmish, Washington knew that the French were well aware of his presence in western Pennsylvania. He sent his prisoners to Williamsburg and returned to the Great Meadows where he built a small circular wooden structure, his ''fort of necessity.''
It lies on the south side of U.S. 40 in Farmington, Pa., and about seven miles southeast of Jumonville Glen.
Five weeks later, about 600 French and 100 Indian allies attacked Washington and his 400 men at Fort Necessity.
At 8 p.m. on July 3, the French commander, Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers, the brother of the dead Jumonville, requested a truce to discuss Washington's surrender.
About midnight, the talks were completed and the British under Washington agreed to withdraw with honors of war, retaining their baggage, weapons and one of their swivel guns.
On July 4, the British left Fort Necessity for Wills Creek in western Maryland and then to Virginia. The French burned Fort Necessity and returned to Fort Duquesne.
Washington's forces suffered 30 dead and 70 wounded. The French-Indian force suffered three dead and 17 wounded.
Washington soon came under verbal attack from the French. One clause of the surrender document he signed declared he was guilty of the assassination of a French officer, Jumonville. Washington denied responsibility. He said the translation he had been given was not assassination but death or killing.
In 1755, the British were determined to oust the French from Fort Duquesne. Major Gen. Edward Braddock (Washington was a Braddock aide) and 2,400 men headed for the fort with the largest military force ever assembled in North America.
On July 9, the British crossed the Monongahela River and came under heavy attack. The French and Indians fought from behind rocks and trees, while the British stayed in European-style formation. The three-hour battle of Monongahela was one of the worst British defeats ever. More than 900 of the 1,400 British troops involved were casualties.
Braddock was wounded. He died four days later during the retreat and was buried under the road so he wouldn't be scalped. A 12-foot granite marker marking his burial spot lies on the north side of U.S. 40 between Fort Necessity and Jumonville Glen.
Visitors should also stop at Fort Necessity.
The reconstructed fort is 53 feet in diameter with a perimeter of 168 feet and surrounds a small wooden shed in the 903-acre federal park. The entrenchments outside the fort have been reconstructed.
The site, Washington once wrote, was ''a charming field for an encounter,'' words that would come back to haunt him.
The battlefield includes the Fort Necessity/National Road Interpretive and Education Center. It is a joint operation with the National Road Heritage Corridor. There is a picnic area and five miles of hiking trails. There is also a section of the Washington-Braddock road.
The military park gets about 90,000 visitors a year. It is the only national park associated with the French and Indian War.
Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $5.
Nearby is the Mount Washington Tavern, a one-time stagecoach stop on the National Road. The building dates to 1827-1828.
The road was the first federal highway and made it possible to get travelers and cargo over the Allegheny Mountains to Ohio and the Midwest via stagecoaches and Conestoga wagons. It was a major transportation route into the 1850s.
For more information, contact Fort Necessity National Battlefield, 1 Washington Parkway, Farmington, PA 15437, 724-329-5512, http://www.nps.gov/fone.
Another nearby attraction is the Searight Tollhouse on U.S. 40 five miles northwest of Uniontown in Fayette County.
It is one of two remaining of the six original tollhouses along the National Road from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling, W.Va., that was authorized by Congress in 1806. It was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1966.
The tollhouse, built in 1835, is open as a museum from mid-May to mid-October. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 to 6 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $1. Call 724-439-4422.
For corridor information, contact the National Road Heritage Corridor, 65 W. Main St., Suite 103, Uniontown, PA 15401, 724-437-9877, http://www.nationalroadpa.org.
For local tourist information, contact the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau, 120 E. Main St., Ligonier, PA 15658, 800-333-5661 or 724-238-5661, http://www.laurelhighlands.org.
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