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Episode 4 - The Battle of Fort Necessity
297 Plays5 months ago
Join us as we go over the first true battle of the French and Indian War! George Washington makes his stand against a French expedition out for revenge after the death of Jumonville. Can his ramshackle fort hold up? How do the British and the French with their native allies approach the battle differently? Why was July 4th a bitter date to remember for Washington for a decade before the British colonies declared independence on that same day? Learn all about it in this episode of Tales from the French and Indian War!
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Transcript
Introduction & Episode Focus
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Tales from the French and Indian War. i am your host, Jackson, and by my side, as always, is... your co-host, Matt.
00:00:22
Speaker
And today we are talking about the Battle of Fort Necessity. We have covered the intriguing and elusive truth behind the Jumonville Affair, but today's episode is going to be a bit more concrete.
Excitement & Coverage Outline
00:00:37
Speaker
We know what happened.
00:00:39
Speaker
We know how it turned out. But it's a very interesting and exciting look at one of the most formative experiences in George Washington's career in the beginning of the French and Indian War and for the fate of all of North America.
00:00:56
Speaker
Are you ready to get into this, Matt? I'm so ready. I'm sure the listeners are too. We've only taken four episodes now and have five if you're counting the intro to get into an actual battle. So it's nice to get the conflict kicked off officially and ah there will be many more battles to come. and ah But this will be this will be the first one and we'll kind of give you guys the rundown of what happened before the battle.
00:01:22
Speaker
um And then once we get into the battle, we've done some more detailed research on delaying what what happened ah throughout the day. from different primary sources at the time. So that should be fun to look into.
00:01:34
Speaker
And then we'll give you guys a ah very small conclusion on um what the outcome was and what the consequences of this battle were. But I think that's a good place to get started. Yeah, first battle, no no mere skirmish like the Jumonville Affair. It's exciting. Let's get into it.
The Jumonville Affair Recap
00:01:52
Speaker
So we left off with the Jumonville Affair having taken place. You know, the French party and the British met in a violent encounter spearheaded by George Washington.
00:02:04
Speaker
The French diplomat Jumonville, who I will remind everyone I am extremely distantly related to, ah was killed by the British allied Indian Tenegrison in Washington's group.
00:02:17
Speaker
And Washington has now just returned back to his camp after the event. And we left off last episode where he is writing back to Robert Dinwiddie, the Virginia governor who gave him his mission.
Washington's Confidence & Road Building
00:02:32
Speaker
And he writes that he has just completed a small palisaded fort in which, with his small numbers, he shall not fear the attack of 500 men. And that, listeners, is what we call foreshadowing.
00:02:45
Speaker
Yes, honestly, ah how perfect that he writes that. And then very soon after, a force of just over 500 men attacks, and we will get into how that goes down.
00:02:58
Speaker
See, he should said approximately 500 men, but since he said 500 men, anything above or below that, you weren't going to be prepared for. it Yeah, no. If the French had sent 500 exact, he would have been fine, but no.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, so during this time, this this period right after the Jumannville affair, which occurred on May 28th, 1754, Washington isn't just like sitting around and building this ramshackle fort.
00:03:27
Speaker
He's still going to try to continue his original mission given to him by Robert Dinwiddie, which is keep making a road up to Fort Duquesne so that when reinforcements come, especially with artillery, They can seize the fort from the French and then build their own British fort there in its place.
00:03:47
Speaker
So he's not just sitting there for like a month because this battle is going to take place on July 3rd and going up to the evening right by July fourth So he's not just going to be sitting in camp for a month waiting for the French to find out what he did Jumonville Glen and come at him. So he's building this fort as they're they're digging in.
00:04:08
Speaker
He's going to continue sending out men and accompanying them as they start continue to build the road up towards Fort Duquesne northwards. And he's continuously writing back to Robert Dinwiddie on how things are going, giving updates.
British Reinforcements & Tensions
00:04:26
Speaker
And then, and he he writes, for example, on June 25th, well, Robert Dinwiddie writes to Washington on June 25th, he is in hopes that when all the forces are collected in a body, that you, meaning George, will be able to turn the tables on the French and dislodge them from the fort and in time to take full possession of the Ohio River.
00:04:48
Speaker
So Washington is continuing with his orders while probably ruminating on, you know, the the ramifications of the events of the Jumanville affair.
00:04:59
Speaker
ah Washington at this time, ah can't recall his exact rank in the Virginia militia. Matt, do you know by chance, ah what his it was like it it might have been major or like colonel major.
00:05:13
Speaker
I don't really know how ranks work very well in the colonial militia. Yeah, I believe he was a major at this time. I could be wrong, though. i believe because he he was commissioned as... Was he commissioned as a major lieutenant? Now I can't...
00:05:28
Speaker
i feel like it was a major. But the reason I was bringing that up was because reinforcements were coming. They were on their way to join Washington. Washington at this point had about 200 Virginia militiamen with him.
00:05:43
Speaker
ah He was getting expecting some reinforcements led by Colonel Joshua Fry. And so Joshua Fry would have been the highest officer in charge. He would take the reins from Washington and kind of assess the situation and proceed from there.
00:05:58
Speaker
It's Washington. Again, at this time, he's still 20 years old. I guess he's done well to get the expedition this far, but he still doesn't have a lot of experience. So he's looking forward to Joshua Fry, the colonel, to arrive.
00:06:11
Speaker
ah Jackson, not to interrupt you, but we were both wrong. He was a lieutenant colonel at this Lieutenant colonel. I'm guessing... Directed journal in 1754. Okay, and I'm guessing lieutenant colonel then...
00:06:24
Speaker
ah To me, it sounds, well, I guess I don't really know what a lieutenant is. don't Lieutenant Colonel sounds a little higher than Colonel, but I guess not. Well, if we're going off of common or present-day military ranks, Lieutenant would be the lowest commissioned officer rank.
00:06:39
Speaker
So the Colonel would be one. Lieutenant Colonel would theoretically be one above that. So he likely got a promotion after his expedition the Ohio country the first time. Okay. Yeah, that's good to know. Yeah, I don't i know private, and then sergeant, and then general.
00:06:56
Speaker
that's the the I know it goes from low to high in that direction, but all the other ranks, I don't really know how they fit in everywhere. Anyway. However, unfortunately for Washington, Colonel Joshua Fry dies on the way up after he falls from a horse and the injuries he sustains will end his life just a day or two after that.
00:07:19
Speaker
So Washington is still in command, still in this very tenuous situation. During June, his camp in the Great Meadows is Fort Necessity.
00:07:32
Speaker
it is He's going to receive some visitors from the Indians of the Ohio Country, especially the more British-aligned Indians. Tenegrison, he is going around to the different Ohio Country Indians, trying to convince them to take up the hatchet against the French and to join the Virginians at Fort Necessity.
00:07:52
Speaker
ah So he's going around trying to convince them. Some will come. For example, an Indian chieftest known as Queen Aliquippa. for whom the modern town of Aliquippa is named just outside of Pittsburgh, although her village, I think, was more where McKees Rocks is rather than the present-day city of Aliquippa.
00:08:13
Speaker
But she comes with her... as Sorry, Jackson. Was she in an independent tribe, or was that part of a larger tribe? She was a Seneca. So that would have been one of the Indian or one of the Iroquois league nations.
00:08:26
Speaker
Okay. And she was more pro British. One of the, the, the main Indian players in this like current Pittsburgh area, like Western PA Ohio country.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay. And I, I assume that like any, any one-off Indian tribes that we talk about were likely somehow within the Iroquois Confederacy because as we'll see as we go on, the Iroquois Confederacy largely sides with the British.
00:08:54
Speaker
But that makes perfect sense. Thank you. Yeah. So she comes with about 85 Indians from her village and kind of set it up their camp right outside for necessity.
00:09:05
Speaker
Other Indians in the Ohio country, especially the Delaware, Shawnee, and some of the Mingo Indians, They will join up with the French at this time. you know, the French have built those chains of forts down.
00:09:18
Speaker
They've kicked the British out of the Forks of the Ohio and are building Fort Duquesne. It looks like they're the main presence. They've shown their force. So because of that, many of the Delaware and Shawnee living in the area will now be more pro-French and kind of move into their zone of influence.
00:09:36
Speaker
On June 14th, some trained regular reinforcements. when we When we say regular, that's like the term for a standard trained infantry soldier, like officially in the military, not just like a militiamen.
00:09:51
Speaker
So some regulars arrive from South Carolina under the command of Captain James McKay.
Native American Alliances & European Mindset
00:09:57
Speaker
He's an official member of the British Army and technically two ranks below Washington, but because he is officially part of the British british Army and Washington is just part of the Virginia militia and he's he's two ranks below Washington, he actually has no obligation to follow Washington's orders, which is going to cause some tensions throughout the the next few weeks.
00:10:22
Speaker
But he brings with him about... 100 regulars, I believe, and I think some provincials along with him too, bringing the total number of British up to 400 at Fort Necessity.
00:10:35
Speaker
But his troops, his redcoats, they are going to camp outside the fort and they are going to refuse to assist in any manual labor to help build the fort and shore up its defenses that is beneath them.
00:10:47
Speaker
And that work will fall to the militiamen, much to their disappointment. I think we'll see that too, going throughout the war that the British regulars and their, their commanding officers put down upon the, the provincial regiments. And even though, like you mention Washington outranked him getting a commission in the British army, especially as Washington we'll see later on as much more difficult than getting one in the colonial or in the provincial regiments. So I think there's a, there's some animosity between those two allies.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. and Yeah, we're going to see that tension later on the war. As you said, some it's going to be pretty rare for a British-born or British-raised commander or officer to really value and think or think highly of their American counterparts during this war. It's typically going to be that kind of like European superiority mindset.
00:11:45
Speaker
that That plagues both French and British officers. we We'll see that on both sides, where those from France or those from Great Britain, will they won't properly value the on-the-ground experience of the colonists and the Indians living there and been more accustomed to fighting there.
00:12:04
Speaker
So by late June... Most of the Indians who had come and were setting up around Fort Necessity, they end up leaving, including Tenegrison. So he had just went around trying to get people to move there, but he thinks that the fort is poorly made and poorly placed and that Washington isn't giving him enough like credit or and giving not giving him enough props for his knowledge of the of the land.
00:12:33
Speaker
And to Tenegrison's credit, the fort isn't really placed in a great spot. As we had mentioned in, i think, in the last episode, he's building this simple fort in an area called the Great Meadows, you know, in the thick, dense woods of southwestern Pennsylvania. There's a rare clearing and opening, and he puts this fort right in the middle of it.
00:12:58
Speaker
However, it's not like a massive meadow. It's called the Great Meadows, but it's really not that large of an area, and he is building it too close to the tree line and by a couple streams, so it's like on the lower ground.
00:13:12
Speaker
ah There's a hill to the, i think, might be the north side, think it is, of the fort. So it's just a little too close to the tree line, a little too much on the low ground.
00:13:24
Speaker
it isn't a great place to make a defensive stand. And Tanigrisen, he is not confident of the British ability to resist a possible French counterattack, which is less possible and more like a certainty at this point, considering there was an escapee from the Jumonville affair and the Indians that were part of it.
00:13:48
Speaker
They could also be telling the French what happened and hoping for rewards from the French for that information. I would just add, too, for a modern-day audience listening to where the fort was built might sound like a terrible idea, especially because if you're building a fort in a meadow that's surrounded by forests, then and we would think that you're giving the the attacker plenty of...
00:14:10
Speaker
uh area to fire from and hide behind which we'll see does come into into play but also just trying to get into washington's mindset here muskets in that time period and i mean throughout all of history are uh reliably inaccurate or inaccurate so you want to if you're defending a fort like this you don't want to build a fort in the woods Because then the musket fire from your fort becomes a lot less effective. It would be easier to hit trees or branches or stuff like that. are op And a lot easier for enemies to get up close to the fort and charge if it's in the middle of dense woods.
00:14:44
Speaker
Correct. So it was it was really a catch-22 there. i don't think that him building in the Great Meadows was any major tactical blunder, but it does have consequence consequences that we'll see.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yes. Yep. we We'll get into that shortly. So the Indians, the British-aligned Indians, end leaving, including Tenegrison, who really was the one who escalated the whole affair with ah him actually being the one killing Jumanville.
00:15:11
Speaker
Now he's going to dip out with the the rest of the British Indians. supplies are starting to run very low they're waiting for reinforcements and for more supplies from dinwiddie who's promising to get them over to them work is grueling both making and continuing the road onwards from the fort towards fort duquesne and then also like just erecting the fort chopping down trees starting to build some trenches it's It's morale is fairly low. And then there's the whole tensions with the redcoats, the regulars as well that we just covered.
00:15:47
Speaker
So you might be thinking, well, what are the French up to by this point? Now, surely they have had found out by now. So on June 26th, Contrecoeur, who is the the commander of Fort Duquesne at this time, he is receiving 1,000 French and Indian reinforcements, led Louis-Colon de Villiers.
00:16:09
Speaker
Now, Louis Coulon is the half-brother of Joseph Coulon de Villiers, also known as the Sieur de Joumonville. So Joumonville's half-brother is coming, leading troops, a thousand reinforcements to Fort Duquesne, and he is going to personally ask to lead a revenge expedition against Washington to avenge his brother, which also corresponds with Contrequer's orders to clear the British out of the Ohio country in the French claims.
00:16:39
Speaker
So Louis co Colon de Villiers, I guess was called de Villiers. He arrives on the 26th. On the 28th, he will leave the fort on his revenge attack, bringing with him about 600 French and 100 Indians of various nations, including Abenaki, Mississauga, Nipissing, Ottawa, Soto, Huron, some Iroquois, Shawnee, and Delaware, who have also, who have recently joined up with the French. Okay.
00:17:09
Speaker
In his journal, Davidier's journal, he writes that the first thing he did was to set up native scouts to avoid any surprise. And in his journal as well, he consistently mentions consulting with them frequently to determine the best route to take.
00:17:24
Speaker
He even mentions not wanting to do anything without first discussing with the natives, which is going to be an attitude that will really serve him well. And we will see, especially once we get into 1755 with Braddock's campaign, that this attitude and working with the natives is going to be a lot different than the British attitude for for a few more years in this war.
00:17:47
Speaker
And that will work to their detriment. So this this is one of the the strengths of the French strategies and officers that they are And especially because of their smaller numbers than the British, they are proactively working with the natives and leveraging their expertise and involving them as partners in their different enterprises.
00:18:10
Speaker
So that is going to help Davidier's expedition move forward, locate Washington's fort, and take the best route of attack. So they're going to sail down the Monongahela River.
00:18:21
Speaker
For those who weren't aware with the geography around Pittsburgh, the Allegheny River comes in from the northeast and the Monongahela River comes in from the southeast. Together they form into one river, the Ohio River.
French Retaliation & Battle Tactics
00:18:34
Speaker
So he's going down the Monongahela to the southeast towards Washington. They're going to end up passing through Jumanville Glen, where he's going to find where his brother was killed.
00:18:48
Speaker
And he's going to find still the some of the dead bodies are uncovered and just laying there. so they're going to bury them, say some prayers. And at this point, they're only six to seven miles away from Fort Necessity.
00:19:00
Speaker
That adds a little bit more to the revenge tour. you go to the old battle site and see see the fallen comrades that you're supposed to be avenging, and I'm sure it adds a little bit more fuel to the fire.
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta imagine just how he was feeling, whether it was like like he was the kind of guy maybe to like sink on his knees and cry out, or if he just smoldered with like an intensity, but outside he was stoic.
00:19:26
Speaker
but Yeah, very personal. Very personal for him here. Either way. So on July third In the late morning, the French and their Indian allies will come into contact with the British.
00:19:42
Speaker
They were out there digging a trench. The French and Indians who have approached the fort actually using the road that Washington and his men were building. And then once they heard of the French approach, they went back to the fort. So they get to take advantage of the the hard work of Washington and his militiamen.
00:19:59
Speaker
They come across the road, approach the fort. Once they get closer, they're coming through the woods. They approach the fort and then begin to take some cannon fire from the British swivel guns, which isn't too effective at this point.
00:20:13
Speaker
Washington and his men are going to form up in the meadow. You know, the typical line infantry warfare of this period. They line up in the meadow. Washington is expecting or hoping that the French will do the same. And then they'll have, you know, like a battle, a fair, quote unquote, battle out in the open field.
00:20:34
Speaker
But what ends up happening is the French are just going to fire two quick volleys from very far away, way outside of the effective range of a musket, which is about 60 to 80 yards.
00:20:45
Speaker
And then almost immediately after that, they're going to start to encircle the fort throughout the woods around it, all sticking close behind trees. Now, I mentioned the effective range of a musket is about 60 to 80 yards. And guess, Matt, how far away the tree line was from Fort Necessity.
00:21:05
Speaker
I'm going to say anywhere between 60 and 80. That is right. I went to Fort Necessity right after going to Jewinville Glen few weeks ago.
00:21:16
Speaker
And they have sign they have like signposts up around the fort showing where the original tree line would have been from 1754. And you can look around and see like all the signs while you're standing there. And it's like, yeah, I can see how that would be uncomfortably close to the fort.
00:21:33
Speaker
I wonder too, like if this was something Washington didn't realize until right at this moment when the French were approaching, because it's odd for him to have ah sallied out in a way and taken, I mean,
00:21:46
Speaker
from the sources I read, anywhere between 100 to 150 men outside the fort to stay in open ground. And it signals a desire from him that he doesn't want to be trapped in the fort, so to say.
00:21:59
Speaker
i see He immediately realized the disadvantage the fort was in um and would rather fight in the open field. Now, it could be, a too, like you said, that it was a conventional military approach at the time. but It also makes me wonder if this realization didn't dawn on him until this point um when the shots started ringing out.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you make a good point when you talk about possibly not wanting to get just kind of stuck in the fort. Well, the fort itself is only big enough to hold about 60 people. I think, I think I've got that somewhere in my notes. So it's not a spacious fort.
00:22:32
Speaker
If you're going to defend it, you're going to have to have the majority of your troops because he's got 400 outside the fort. Um, And they're still in the process of digging their trenches. They're like interrupted in their work by this French attack. So I think he is just kind of hoping.
00:22:48
Speaker
i mean, the British are at their best when they're organized and disciplined and fighting out in the open. So he's probably trying to play on those strengths while also just being a little inexperienced in how the French and the Indians fight.
00:23:02
Speaker
And that that's not how they're typically going to do things, especially with a force made up with Canadian militiamen and Indian allies, as well as French troops that are probably have some experience fighting out in the woods.
00:23:17
Speaker
Now, when you visited there, did you think it would feel cramped even with just 60 people in it? I could see how 60 people would be would be a little crammed.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't. And it was just a palisade with a storeroom in the middle. And the storeroom was pretty small, too. So, yeah, you'd be bumping into people with 60 guys in there.
Battle Challenges & Musket Fire
00:23:42
Speaker
So yeah, the battle has begun. The French and Indians have encircled the fort and the now are firing down upon the British. Washington's going to pull back his troops and they're all going to get in those trenches, the breastworks around the fort.
00:23:58
Speaker
I learned when I was there that they were called breastworks because there's like piles of earth that would go up to your breasts, basically. And that was where you'd like... It would be like cover, like you're just like moving earth.
00:24:12
Speaker
They put would put like a couple logs down and then to start covering it with earth, getting it up to about chest height. And they would use that for cover for these trenches. So the British pull back into the Breastworks.
00:24:25
Speaker
At this point, they have zero Indians fighting on their side, which is also emblematic of the different French and British attitudes towards Native Americans at this point in the war.
00:24:38
Speaker
That will change in years to come as the British start learning. But ah yes, they have zero Indians on their side while the French have about 100 The French are going to be using that high ground and the cover from the trees and bushes wisely and just start raining down fire into the encampment while the redcoats and militiamen are in the trenches, in the mud, because it had been raining the night before. And then during this battle, it's going to keep raining, so it's going to get muddy and wet, miserable,
00:25:12
Speaker
In Washington's journal, I believe he noted that the men were standing in water in the trenches up to their ankles, um so your feet are they sopping wet. It's hard to move around and find cover, let alone when you're facing the enemy that is practically in a 360-degree around you Yeah, yeah, yeah. Difficulty seeing them just because of the woods, but then also because of the rain, because of you know mud and sweat getting in your eyes.
00:25:40
Speaker
Also, at this time, its we've got to mention that weapons could be a little unreliable, especially in wet conditions. especially with powder too yeah with gunpowder getting wet guns can easily misfire ah two of the most common misfiring could be flash in the pan or failure to spark i believe flash in the pan is when like in the uh trying to remember from my visits for necessity with the reenactor was talking about but i i think i know a little bit about it it's a flash in the pan is when the powder in the pan lights, but then it doesn't light the fuse that would ignite the rifle. Right. There's like a little hole that goes into the, like the actual barrel of the gun where the most of the powder is, and that will propel the bullet. But when the the flash in the pan, the the spark, it doesn't transfer over to the barrel.
00:26:28
Speaker
Does that sound right? Yeah. That's, that's what I'm saying. A lot of it's because that the powder inside the barrel is getting wet with moisture and stuff. And, You don't you pour fresh powder in the pan, but you don't pour fresh powder.
00:26:42
Speaker
um Like so, if for example, if you had a flash in the pan that happens, you put fresh powder in the pan, but you want to put it in the barrel and the barrel powder is wet. And so it's kind of like a never ending cycle unless you kind of take the powder out and clean it. So ah it gets a little tricky.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah. And then I think failure to spark is just, you know, you, you, uh, I don't know. you we divert do You strike it or you flick it. you The striking, nothing happened.
00:27:11
Speaker
It's really the striking point on the musket is wet. So there wouldn't be a spark for the Flint. Yeah. So these kind of misfirings are happening, meaning the British return fire isn't as cohesive or as consistent as they would hope.
00:27:28
Speaker
And the firing is just going to keep coming in from the French and Indian side. And this battle started at late morning and it's going to keep lasting hours and hours Because battles at this time, I mean, you got to think.
00:27:41
Speaker
I think it was, I've heard like the most trained soldiers operating at peak efficiency could maybe fire like a musket maybe three times in a minute if they're excellent. Maybe just twice or something, two or three times a minute.
00:27:56
Speaker
So, you know, there's no machine guns out here. There's no, you know, tanks or anything like you're firing. Yeah. Maybe you'll hit someone. You're at 60 to 80 yards. So if you've got a clear target, you might be able to hit the guy you're aiming at. Maybe not.
00:28:11
Speaker
um But then if you miss or if you do hit your target, you want to hit find another one, you've got to spend the next 20 seconds or so reloading your musket just to get one more shot. So it's a much slower warfare than modern day.
00:28:26
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. And so to give to give the listeners an idea or a picture of kind of what this looks like. So um imagine you're playing a paintball game or something of that nature. And one team is all kind of gathered in one location and your team gets to be in the woods surrounding it.
00:28:43
Speaker
hiding behind whatever you want, trees, rocks, whatever. That's how this battle went on throughout the day. So it didn't really change as far as tactics on either side goes. The French youth, a lot of guerrilla warfare darting between ah cover points and moving freely throughout the woods. So not only could the British not see them well, they also couldn't target them easily because they would move positions frequently. And another thing that The French did that was kind of unconventional at the time as the French targeted officers of of the British that were exposed.
00:29:16
Speaker
So they they did shoot at leadership first, which is from my understanding the time period was kind of frowned upon. ah Since warfare was looked at more of a gentlemanly affair than it was a savage endeavor, officers were looked upon with more dignity. So you wouldn't shoot them first, but that did not apply in this situation.
00:29:35
Speaker
So not only were the British risking if they exposed themselves for a brief moment in time, they could be shot, but then also the officers were concerned about exposing themselves to give orders, which I thought was pretty interesting. Because like I said, we won't see that a lot. So...
00:29:50
Speaker
yeah so and since this isn't a large area the fort at salt is small and the trenches outside the fort are pretty small and compact you can easily see how officers are they're right in the thick of the action there's there's no safe place to like stand there and direct your troops like they just have to be right with the troops uh more so than normal in this kind of warfare correct yep and the like So the main battle of Fort Necessi, I would say, commences around 11 a.m.
00:30:23
Speaker
If we're talking about time stamps here, 9 a.m. is when we talked about that. The French first um appeared at the fort and the fighting took place. Originally, the first two volleys were fired outside in the meadows. But about two hours after that is when both sides settle in.
00:30:40
Speaker
um And then we kind of get into an intense firefight after that. So ah around 11 a.m., the British casualties were <unk>re really beginning to mount. Estimates in this first hour of the battle between 11 and 12 p.m., about 5 to 10 British were killed and around 10 to 20 were wounded, ah which we'll see is more than what the French see this entire battle. So in one hour, the french the British are kind of worn down already, and then it just kind of keeps on going.
00:31:10
Speaker
The French are able to maintain a steady fire this entire battle, and one reason is because they had dry powder. Since they were in the woods, they weren't exposed to the rain as easily as as the British were.
00:31:23
Speaker
ah But they also they had a ah greater supply of powder because they brought fresh powder from Fort Duquesne when they left. Whereas the the British had powder that was stored in their stock house in the middle of Fort Necessity. And as Jackson had noted, it had rained the night before. And so any powder left out of that stock house or that was exposed to the rain was sopping wet. So the the French were able to keep up that that rate of fire. And as we can imagine, that was demoralizing.
00:31:50
Speaker
for the British. There was livestock within the fort at this time, including horses, cattle, and dogs. All of those were targeted by the French. And those were the food supply for the British. So without those, morale sunk even more.
00:32:04
Speaker
And then, i mean, this continues. You'll see this trend kind of just going on throughout the day. So ah anywhere from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., the French just keep firing and firing and firing upon Fort Necessity. And it it really becomes a battle of attrition, but really only attrition on one side.
00:32:24
Speaker
it it's a very dire situation for the British. And it doesn't seem like there is a way out because they are encircled in a far, far distant back country, far away from the heartlands of the British colonies.
Casualties & Surrender Negotiation
00:32:39
Speaker
Correct. And by 3 The French and their native allies are only looking at approximately one to two killed um and five to 10 wounded.
00:32:51
Speaker
So by 3 p.m. that's going for four hours of continuous fighting and almost about seven or eight hours since the battle technically began. And they only have one or two men killed. So that shows you how how effective their their defenses and tactics were fighting in the woods.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, you got to imagine like these this battle's lasting, yeah, we'll say like like ten eight to ten hours, and that's got to just be exhausting. If you're a soldier involved in that, especially on the British side here with the mud and everything, but you cannot rest, really. i mean, you can get inside the fort for ammunition or for a brief breather or if you're wounded, but there's really no let up for eight to ten hours. That's like just constant...
00:33:39
Speaker
adrenaline constant mortal danger possible the shrapnel flying everywhere from musket balls bouncing off the fort hitting the the palisade walls and splinters are going everywhere you hear Indian war cries and just the and you look around the entire fort is surrounded by smoke from every different direction of all the different muskets firing it must have been utterly exhausting to be a normal soldier in the middle of all this Yeah, and also considering the fact, too, that with every volley from the French, the Palisade is getting withered down.
00:34:17
Speaker
It's not, i mean, is it's a wooden Palisade, but it will take a beating with sustained musket fire. ah So not only are you huddled behind this cover for...
00:34:27
Speaker
ah seven, eight hours going on at the same time, your cover is slowly getting depleted. ah So kind of get into this hopelessness mood that Jackson, I saw in your show notes and I had read about too, about the the British getting into the storehouse and kind of make themselves feel a little bit better, which...
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, because i mean, for a lot of the people there, especially as the the early evening starts to come on and the firing is not letting up and casualties are mounting more and more, pretty soon the fort is going to be filled with mostly just wounded men, because everyone who's still in good condition has to be outside defending.
00:35:05
Speaker
some of the British will break into that small storeroom and just start drinking down the rum supply and getting drunk because they think, well, we're going to get dot we're goingnna die. We're probably going to get scalped and butchered by the Indians out there.
00:35:18
Speaker
So might as well, you know, drink drink up all this rum. And you might wonder, like, why would a... like a military have a rum supply as part of their provisions.
00:35:30
Speaker
Well, one part was safe and clean drinking water definitely not something you can count on. So having rum or like cutting it with water can help kill the, bacteria and be a more safe drinking supply could also end up being good trading material for the indian nations as gifts because gifts from the europeans to the indians was a very very long-standing and expected tradition when engaging in diplomacy and among other things like guns powder iron like steel tools things like that alcohol was also a common gift that some indians would enjoy
00:36:10
Speaker
so that is why the rum was there i just learned about the the use of alcohol as a sanitary drinking option ah because as you said jackson there wasn't a lot of sanitary water sources and most fresh water sources uh they knew not to drink out of them because most of them were were tainted with animal feces or human waste or something of that nature so yeah they would use a lot of beer so getting if This is little off topic, but if you jump ahead into the Revolutionary War, a lot of soldiers were issued rations of beer, and this beer was very non-alcoholic. It would be close to like 1% or 2%, so um even less than like the light beers that we have today. But they didn't know why it was sanitary. like they didn't understand the science behind it, but they did know it was sanitary, and they knew it wouldn't make them sick.
00:36:58
Speaker
So that's why alcohol is so present in a soldier's diet. And sometimes it's all they would have in a day is some sort of alcohol. yeah a little a little different from today's day but i mean it was the best solution that they could come up with at that time and like there was a reason for it it was better than drinking know like cholera water malaria water whatever kind of sicknesses they could pick up from unpurified tainted sources of fresh water and then just to get into the conclusion of the battle here so yeah we're edging on like 5 p.m now
00:37:35
Speaker
So still daylight, but kind of getting into the the twilight hours of the of the evening. with ah Around 5 to 6 p.m., the Native Americans on the French side get more bold because the the fire from Fort Necessity is slowly weakening and becoming less frequent.
00:37:54
Speaker
They creep to within 50 yards of the fort and start... taking essentially pot shots at the British soldiers. So at this point, I mean, all hope is essentially lost for the soldiers inside for necessity as the Native Americans start closing around them.
00:38:11
Speaker
And we're talking like, you know, they were already within musket range, but now they're within accurate musket range. So It becomes a hopeless situation.
00:38:21
Speaker
This is when the casualties for the British were reaching their peak ah between five and six and another five to 10 British soldiers were killed and another 10 to 20 wounded, but which puts the total from the entire day's fighting at around 25 to 30 killed on the British side with about 50 to 60 wounded, which is 25% ish of the original force that Washington had in the fort itself.
00:38:45
Speaker
a substantial amount of men that are killed and wounded on the British. And I think that that leads to the parlay that we'll see. Yes, so at about 8 p.m., and de Villiers notes in his journal that the musket fire from his French and Canadian troops, that their zeal was so great that he was starting to worry that they themselves might run out of gunpowder.
00:39:10
Speaker
And then, of course, they'd have to halt the attack. So as this is going on, even though the situation is very much in their control and in their advantage, At around 8 p.m., the French will call out and ask the British if they'd like to parlay.
00:39:26
Speaker
The ah French, they're just they state their their terms to the British representative who comes out, who is, I believe, Jacob Van Brown, ah along with another British soldier.
00:39:40
Speaker
They meet in a flag of truce. The French state that they merely wished to avenge the assassination of Jumonville and that they also wish, of course, for the British to leave French land.
00:39:54
Speaker
They warn the British that any more of a stubborn or prolonged defense on their part will probably make the wrath of their Indian allies all the more fiercer, which must have been spoken with some, you know, like a little look from their eyes and a certain intonation.
00:40:15
Speaker
de Villiers makes, he sends back the surrender terms, which are actually, and and for the most part, pretty generous. But on these surrender terms, Washington, who's signing them, actually signs a confession of assassinating Jumanville, which he, if he had exactly known what he was signing, would not have signed. He would have not. He would have not viewed it as an assassination. For him, it was a military operation. and
00:40:46
Speaker
i mean, he wasn't even the one who killed him himself. But Washington doesn't speak French or read French. And Washington's interpreter, Jacob van Bram, is a Dutchman. And he might not be as skilled in French as an interpreter should be in this kind of situation.
00:41:07
Speaker
But by account, by any account Washington does not realize that he is being asked to sign an assassinate assassination testimony.
00:41:19
Speaker
And he will say later on that he never assassinated any diplomatic officer. And it's also important to note that you know There's rain coming down, there's mud. the surrender document itself may have been unclear and that it was hard to read, even for Van Braum, let alone translating it into English for Washington.
00:41:41
Speaker
That's what I was going add. Some of the sources that I found said the document itself was really damp from the rain and it was hard to read originally. So it might not be that Jacob Van Braum was...
00:41:55
Speaker
inadequate as ah as a as an interpreter it might have been hard for anybody to read but yeah and there is uh it's not surprising why this happened yeah there is that ah certainly the conditions that made reading the document difficult but also there was an interesting hypothesis from alan eckert who wrote wilderness empire that's like a ah historical sort of non-fiction sort of historical fiction you know I mentioned it in the last episode, so it's you can't take everything it says for granted.
00:42:28
Speaker
But he hypothesizes and his like imagined account of the conversation that went down and like looking into people's thoughts at this moment. He hypothesizes that Van Braam intentionally mistranslated the word assassination to Washington, saying you it was just like the killing or the death of Jumonville rather than the assassination of Jumonville, because he saw the dire situation in the fort. He thought they would all die.
00:43:00
Speaker
and But if he translated it accurately, Washington might not have probably wouldn't have accepted, and then they would have went on fighting, and he thought they would have all died. So there's no real basis for that. There's not like a ah testimony of von Brahm later in his life saying that he intentionally mistranslated it. But is a fascinating idea for a pretty plausible reason that it could have been purposely mistranslated.
00:43:29
Speaker
Another thing, too, another possible thing that could have happened is, I mean, let's say if Washington knew it it meant assassinated. But he he also knew that the document wasn't French and he knew that he wasn't a native French speaker, even if he understood that the document said assassinate.
00:43:51
Speaker
He also probably knew that not signing that document meant the death of all, or most, if not all of his men in the fort. um So I think he also has a little bit of plausible deniability.
00:44:03
Speaker
ah He could sign it even if he knew. He can later say that, oh, we didn't know that's what that meant. Again, just a theory. Very possible. Very possible. Yeah, the specific part of the document that talks about this assassination ah have here, I'll translate into English for us.
00:44:22
Speaker
As our intention was never to trouble the peace and the good harmony that reigns or is established between two friend princes, returning the head of France and the head of England,
00:44:37
Speaker
but only to avenge the assassination that was made on one of our officers, a carrier of a summons, and on his escort party, as also to prevent any establishment on the lands of the king, my master.
00:44:56
Speaker
So these are just the two main... ah reasons that the French are stating for why they went out and attacked the British here at Fort Necessity.
00:45:08
Speaker
Jack, have to ask, as a fluent French speaker, when you read that that passage, how ah just how likely is it, in your opinion, that that could be mistranslated from assassinate to the killing or something of that nature? So yeah, there's different ah words in French for like murder, death, killing, assassination. This one, like if it was just the death of our officer, he would have said la mort de notre officier.
00:45:39
Speaker
But here he's specifically saying l'assassin qui a été fait sur un de nos officiers. So that is more like assassination or like intentional killing or like like a targeted killing, that kind of idea. Okay.
00:45:59
Speaker
so there is a substantial difference probably between the words that would have been used i'm just trying to understand like whether this was a ah very frequently uh misconstrued word or if it was an entire phrase yeah i think in this account what i had copied here and maybe it was misspelled or the spelling was different back then the the modern french word for assassination would be assassin if we look i'm just i've got a translator up here that i i like to use a lot If we just look for from English to French, if we just look up death, that's going to be more, you know, death. If we look up killing, that's going to be murder or more than sometimes it could be assassin.
00:46:44
Speaker
But if we look up assassination, that is first and foremost going to be translated as assassin, which is used here. yeah so I mean, words can mean different things, different context, of course, but the word chosen here is the most closely related to you know assassination, like a targeted killing.
Surrender Terms & British Retreat
00:47:05
Speaker
Oh, and there's a later on in this surrender document, there is some interesting foreshadowing for later in the war, particularly I'm thinking of the Battle of Fort William Henry, which we will get to, I think it's in 1757 1758, maybe 1757, think.
00:47:18
Speaker
or seventeen fifty eight maybe seventy fifty seven i think But the, uh, Davidier writes that we get, we accord, we grant grant to the English commander to withdraw with his whole garrison to return peacefully in his land.
00:47:34
Speaker
And we promise to prevent that any insult will be done by our French and to maintain as much as it will be in our power, all of the savages who are with us.
00:47:47
Speaker
So that that key phrase, like, maintain as much as it will be in our power, the Indians with us, is going to be a big foreshadowing for later in the war when the French cannot contain their Indian allies and their desire to loot the prisoners and take scalps and take some treasure and tools and booty back to their villages. Mm-hmm.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, so Washington has the night to read over the terms, think about them. On July 4th in the morning, Washington officially accepts the terms.
00:48:24
Speaker
So Washington's first big July 4th memory is not the official declaration of independence by the fledgling United States. His declaration her biggest and earliest July 4th memory is marching out of the fort in humiliation with his garrison and surrendering his only surrender of his entire career I believe wow so the the yeah the the British are allowed to leave and they leave in a hurry leaving a lot of their gear behind including some of their flags which in this time period like the standard
00:49:00
Speaker
The flag of your regiments, your companies, what have you, like protecting and holding on to those was very, very important. Capturing an enemy's standards was like a huge like feat of renown, a huge accomplishment, very symbolic.
00:49:18
Speaker
But they leave in such a hurry that they even leave some of those flags behind, as well as a couple hostages for the French, because they want to keep some hostages so that the hostages, the prisoners from the Jumannville Affair, the survivors of that, they could be returned, and then the French will return the English hostages, including Jacob Van Brann and Robert Stobo.
00:49:41
Speaker
Now, I know that, so I believe the British were allowed to leave with the honors of war. And yes I believe that means that they were allowed to take one cannon with them.
00:49:51
Speaker
Is that correct? Yes, one of the the swivel guns. Because i they didn't have any big artillery there. They just had the smaller cannons. But I do believe they were allowed to march out of the fort with their one little swivel cannon behind them.
00:50:04
Speaker
symbolic piece yes very symbolic we'll see that later in the war as well that kind of those kind of symbolic surrendering very honorific but yeah uh matt what were the casualty figures you had again for the british i want to compare with the one the the figures that i had listed here and see if we got the same numbers or if there's any differences I believe the casualty figures I found were around 25 to 30 killed and approximately 50 to 60 wounded. So you're looking at anywhere from 75 90 total casualties.
00:50:40
Speaker
Okay, I had and the the sources I was looking at, I had about 31 killed and 70 wounded, putting at 101 total casualties, which would be right about 25% casualty rating.
00:50:55
Speaker
And then for the French and Indian side, i have 3 killed 19 wounded. listed three killed and 17 wounded so okay yeah pretty pretty similar there but essentially that's a three percent casualty rating versus a 25 casualty rating so pretty stark difference But at least Washington's alive. His men are alive. The wounded can get out of there.
00:51:20
Speaker
They can return back to Virginia, if perhaps in shame, at least with their their lives still among them. So that is a small victory in the midst of a large and clear defeat for the British.
00:51:36
Speaker
One interesting note I have here at the end is that Tanigrisen, the man whose killing of Jumanville started this this, what led to this whole battle and to all this trouble for the British,
00:51:51
Speaker
He is going to die just later that year. So the man who started the conflict, or at least, you know, it wasn't all on him, obviously. The French and English had been ramping up escalations. Blows were going to come at
French Control & Future Conflict
00:52:04
Speaker
some point. But Tanigresen is the one who sparks the fire.
00:52:08
Speaker
who sets the conflict into an irreversible path. He's just going to die later that year, and he's not going to see how it ends. And then Scarawati, the other half-king of Logstown, representative of the Iroquois, he will end up burning down Logstown shortly after this battle for fear of French power and possible French attacks or driving them out because they were more pro-British.
00:52:33
Speaker
He's going to lead about 200 pro-British Indians in the Ohio country towards central Pennsylvania near Ogwick, which is now Shirley's Berg, Pennsylvania.
00:52:44
Speaker
So as we wrap up the Battle of Fort Necessity, it looks like the French are firmly in command of the Ohio country.
00:52:54
Speaker
We're at this point where I mean, it probably is not going to be it, it looks like. But for now, for 1754, that's going to be the the status quo.
00:53:06
Speaker
France are installed and they repelled the the largest British force to try to contest that control. Now, both powers are not at war yet. France and Great Britain, still not at war.
00:53:19
Speaker
I don't think France or Great Britain even knows about the Jumonville affair yet. You know, news takes weeks and weeks and months to get to the coastal ports and then cross the Atlantic.
00:53:30
Speaker
So it's a very colonial affair right now, but there's still a chance that maybe diplomacy, maybe fears of mutual destruction could cause this to quiet down.
00:53:44
Speaker
But Matt, do you think that is very likely? Uh, no, especially since, especially since we had some, uh, British regulars and French regulars in combat here.
00:53:55
Speaker
it's not, these aren't just provincial troops fighting provincial troops. There were regulars involved and regular, uh, British officers as well. So, um, and then also the fact that over a thousand people involved in this battle too, much bigger than anything previous between French and British, uh, in this time of peace.
00:54:13
Speaker
Yes, and then we'll see the the word of Washington's surrender and the terms where he admitted to assassinating Jumanville will spread like wildfire. Yes, it's going to cause a huge scandal, huge diplomatic embarrassment for the British.
00:54:29
Speaker
correct So yeah, this is just a start to start to the French and Indian War. That's what this podcast is about. just ah Just now getting into it finally. Yeah, this is this is not the end.
00:54:41
Speaker
This is good news for our listeners, not so good news for the... Yeah, and that was it. That was the French and Indian War. It's over. right, thanks for listening. It was great podcast, Matt. Honored to do this with you Yeah, no, no, we still have a ah long, long ways to go So stick with us. And if for those of you supporting the the British out there and rooting for them, we promise it gets better.
00:55:03
Speaker
This isn't the whole war. And for those of you hoping the best for the French, you're my people. Yeah, you're probably related to Jackson. Probably.
00:55:15
Speaker
All right. Well, yeah. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Tales from the French and Indian War. Make sure to rate this podcast highly. Leave some comments for us if you want us to read them. Share it with some other history-loving friends or even friends who don't love history.
00:55:33
Speaker
I've gotten some some family members who aren't really into that kind of thing to to to listen to every episode. So go ahead and share it around. We appreciate you listening and tuning in. Yep. And just add onto that, make sure you follow us or add us to your favorites on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and you'll get notifications every time we put out a new episode. And yeah, happy to keep this going.
00:55:56
Speaker
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00:56:08
Speaker
Yes. All right. Thanks, guys, so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.