Fort Necessity
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Fort Necessity
National Battlefield
George Washington – Coming of Age
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 at his family’s farm in Popes Creek, Virginia. His father,
Augustine, was considered to be in the middle tier of Virginia Society. Though not an aristocrat, he was a
planter and owned several tobacco plantations. In 1738, Augustine moved his family to Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington spent most of his youth at Ferry Farm, years that gave him a passion for farming. Washington was an impressive figure physically. As a teenager, George approached six foot tall, dwarfing
other boys his age. George Washington seemed a little uncoordinated as he tried to compete with other young
men for the attention of ladies. While this was not an advantage for George in his youth, later in life being the
tallest man in the room gave him a commanding appearance wherever he went. Washington eventually used a
determined desire and impeccable attention to detail to become very successful during the entirety of his
eventful life.
Shaping the Man
Adversity arrived in Washington’s life early. The
death of his father at age eleven prevented him
from attending school in England.
In 1748, at the age of 16, Washington began surveying. The Fairfax family, one of the most influential
families in Virginia, invited him to join an expedition to survey western Virginia. The Fairfax’s also
helped Washington to obtain the lucrative job as
a county surveyor. George worked hard, saved his
money and started to buy his own land.
Fighting the French and
Indians
Lessons Learned
While Washington was in Barbados with his older
half brother Lawrence, he contracted and survived small pox, a major killer in the 18th century.
Contracting the disease and surviving it immunized Washington to the virus for the rest of his
life.
When George was seventeen, Lawrence, who had
become Washington’s father figure, died from
tuberculosis. After Lawrence’s death, Washington
sought his first military post. He secured a commission as a major in the Virginia militia in 1753.
In 1753, George Washington
was sent north to a French
outpost, Fort Le Boeuf, to
warn them of being on English lands. Washington returned to Virginia with grim
news. The French had no
intentions of leaving the land.
Glen, the French on July 3rd forced a surrender of
Washington’s troops at Fort Necessity.
In the summer of 1754 Washington met the French
again in western Pennsylvania, but this time fighting erupted between the two sides. As a consequence of the May 28th Skirmish at Jumonville
Washington participated in sporadic fighting
throughout the rest of the French and Indian War,
fighting mostly Indians sympathetic to the French
cause in the frontier regions of Virginia.
During Washington’s campaign in Western Pennsylvania, he learned many lessons about war.
Prior to these campaigns, Washington’s only
knowledge of warcraft came from books and
from conversations with older brother Lawrence.
Washington learned three main lessons after the
battle at Fort Necessity. He applied these lessons throughout the remainder of the French and
Indian War and the Revolutionary War.
In 1755 Washington once again moved against the
French, but this time as an aid to General Edward
Braddock. Defeated by the French and Indians
on July 9th, George Washington is one of the few
officers who survived the fighting.
Lessons Learned
continued
Take care of your men.
Washington spent the spring and early summer of
1754 with poorly equipped and poorly supplied
men. The men’s physical condition prevented the
unit from fighting to its full potential. Even more
devastating was low morale. Desertion became
an issue. It was one of Washington’s own men
who informed the French of the location of Fort
Necessity.
In the Revolutionary War, Washington spent
much of his personal wealth to have the Continental Army at least partly supplied with such
necessities as food and clothing. He spent
£10,000 during the war. Even with such a large
personal monetary commitment, George had only
procured barely enough items to keep his army
together.
Always have an escape route.
Fort Necessity was the only time Washington
surrendered his army to the enemy. When Washington commanded the Continental Army he was
American Revolution
swept from the field numerous times. However,
he had always escaped to fight another day. The
strategy committed Parliament to continually send
supplies and troops to America from already depleted stockpiles in Great Britain. The tactic was
made famous by a Roman General named Fabius
Maximus. Fabius successfully defeated Hannibal
by engaging in a war of attrition with his army
against the more powerful Carthaginians. Washington applied it during the American Revolution
as well.
Do not fully trust those who send you out to
fight.
In 1754, the Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, promised him many things and did not deliver. According to George’s writings on April 25th,
1754, he was suppose to be supplied with seventy
two wagons from Winchester, Virginia to Will’s
Creek (Cumberland) Maryland. He only received
ten - in very poor shape. Later, in the Revolution,
Washington fought a constant political war with
the Continental Congress to supply his army.
Washington applied the lessons of 1754 throughout his later
military trials in Revolutionary War. The lessons learned at Fort
Necessity allowed him to maintain an army opposing British
forces in America for many years and eventually wear out the
British.
George Washington fought the only war with the British he
knew, a war of attrition. During the Seven Years War he had
seen how successfully the Native Americans could attack British
settlements and troop formations, then disappear quickly into
the forest leaving devastation behind. He applied those lessons
to fighting the British twenty years later with enough success to
defeat the British. General George Washington did not win many battles against the British. Over the
course of the entire Revolution, he won only three major battles.
In October of 1781, with the help of French army and naval support, Washington cornered General
Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown. The defeat of General Cornwallis finally brought Britain to look for a
diplomatic solution to end the fighting in North America.
And Beyond
After the American Revolution,
Washington became the first
president of the United States. He
served from 1789 to 1797. Washington finally retired to his Mount
Vernon home, where, in December of 1799, he died.
E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C A™
rev Jul-10
