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Sunday, June 30, 2002

By Len Barcousky, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

George Washington probably had nightmares about July in Western Pennsylvania.

	An oak stockade and portable field artillery were not enough to protect George Washington and his 400-man force from the French at Fort Necessity on a rainy July 4, 1754. Photo Journal Historical Tourism Washington in Western Pennsylvania A timeline If you go . . . George Washington's Western Pennsylvania

Shortly after midnight on July 4, 1754, he had been forced to surrender to French forces at Fort Necessity in Fayette County.

On July 9, 1755, he came within inches of becoming one of more than 900 British and Colonial casualties in a battle fought near the banks of the Monongahela River, about 10 miles east of Downtown Pittsburgh.

It makes you wonder what he thought about the wisdom of the Colonies declaring independence in July 1776.

The 250th anniversary of Washington's first journey to Western Pennsylvania is approaching -- an expedition in the fall-winter of 1753-54 from Williamsburg, Va., to Fort LeBoeuf, in what is now Erie County.

Plans are under way in many communities to put up markers or to improve the identification of places linked to Washington. But there already are numerous historic sites to visit during a daylong driving journey around Pittsburgh.

Some of these have changed little since Washington sought fortune and honor on what was then the wild American frontier. Others would be unrecognizable to the tall, 21-year-old Virginian.

Washington faced hostile fire at least four times in this area. One skirmish took place on the slopes of Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County. He clashed there with a party of French soldiers, providing the first spark that ignited a worldwide "War for Empire."

	Audio interview Historian Robert Messner explains the importance of Western Pennsylvania in George Washington's resume as a military leader. (930K MP3) Messner describes the actions of Native American leader Charles Langlade, a relatively unknown participant in the defeat of General Braddock. (984K MP3) PG Staff Writer Len Barcousky reads George Washington's description of the Point, as it appeared in the 1750s. (1MB MP3) Tourists Cathy and John Taggart of Hickory, Washington County, talk about the value of families visitng historic places, especially when they're just a short drive away. (Audio quality impaired by high wind. 915K MP3) Visit the following sites to download players for Windows or Mac machines to listen to the file: Real Player Microsoft Windows Media Player WinAMP

That conflict is known here as the French and Indian War, but ultimately it involved France, Great Britain, North Americans in Canada and the United States, Native American tribes, Spain, several German states, Prussia, Austria and Indians in India.

For a Virginian, George Washington spent a lot of time in what is now southwestern Pennsylvania. But that's not really surprising, since Washington and his Old Dominion neighbors had claims on about 1.5 million acres around Pittsburgh.

Here are some of the more notable points of interest.

The Point

The triangle of land where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers come together to form the Ohio was a spot that Washington knew well.

"... I spent some time viewing the Rivers, and the land in the Fork; which I think extremely well situated for a Fort, as it has absolute Command of both Rivers." That's what he wrote of his first glimpse of Pittsburgh's Point on Nov. 22, 1753. Within months of Washington's visit, both the French and the British had recognized its strategic importance.

The British moved first, creating tiny Fort Prince George in February 1754 on the Mon River side of the Point. No sooner had it been built than about 500 French troops arrived, floating down the Allegheny in boats and canoes.

They burned the British stockade and built their own post closer to the Point. The likely location of the French Fort Duquesne is outlined with stones on the grass just behind the Point fountain.

The French held the Point until November 1758, when a combined British-Colonial force, including then-Col. Washington, occupied the smoking ruins of the French settlement. They built Fort Pitt, which became one of the most elaborate strongholds in North America.

The displays at the Fort Pitt State Historical Museum, located on the site of the great fort's Monongahela bastion, provide a good introduction to Washington's travels in the region.

The museum is under renovation. While some of its exhibits have seen better days, others provide a sense of the era. One of the best is a full-sized re-creation of a trader's cabin. Its log walls are lined with furs and trade goods, including hatchets, ribbons and tin pots. It even smells of wood smoke.

Small dioramas illustrate stories of other incidents in Washington's life: the 1754 skirmish at Jumonville Glen, the defeat in 1755 of Gen. Edward Braddock and his death and burial along the road that took his name.

Just outside the entrance to the museum stands one of Fort Pitt's original blockhouses, built in 1764. The thick walls of the brick building are pierced only by narrow rifle slits, making it almost impregnable to besiegers without cannon. It is the oldest building west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Braddock/North Braddock

The boroughs of Braddock and North Braddock are less than 10 miles up the Monongahela from the Point, but it took George Washington, his Virginia militia and the British Army more than three years to travel that distance.

The communities are named for British Gen. Edward Braddock, commander of the British and Colonial forces at the site of their worst defeat in the French and Indian War.

"The savage may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia," Braddock had told Benjamin Franklin before he began his disastrous journey to Western Pennsylvania. "But upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression."

He was proved fatally wrong.

The Edgar Thomson steel works line the river bank where two British regiments and Colonial militia crossed the Monongahela on July 9, 1755. Rail lines, houses, schools, businesses and an athletic field cover much of the mile-long battlefield.

Braddock earlier had split his army in two parts, leading more than 1,200 soldiers and militia in a dash to capture Fort Duquesne and leaving a slower moving contingent of about 800 two days behind. Braddock's plan was to move quickly to the Point and use his artillery to subdue Fort Duquesne. The French commander, Contrecoeur, planned to ambush them in the thick woods first.

In that killing ground on a hot July day about 900 Indians, Canadian volunteers and French soldiers needed about three hours to kill or wound more than two-thirds of Braddock's flying column.

The French and Indians took first aim at the officers, eventually killing about two-thirds of them and leaving the troops leaderless. Braddock rode over the field seeking to rally his men until he himself was shot.

While today's landscape would be unrecognizable to Washington, the topography has remained the same. Driving up Library and Jones streets from -- where else -- Braddock Avenue, modern visitors climb a steep hill. And when they are standing at ground zero on the battlefield -- now the center of a Little League field -- there is still tree-covered high ground on the right. It's from that height that unseen Indians and the French poured down musket fire on the British Regulars and militia troops.

Facing Jones Street and a nearby mansion built for steel magnate Charles Schwab is a life-size statue of a young George Washington.

He's looking west, in the direction of Fort Duquesne, a place he would only see in ruins. On the day of the battle along the Mon, Washington came very close to never seeing anything else. Although he was in the thick of the fight, he was one of the few officers not to have been wounded or killed. He later wrote that four bullets had passed through his coat while two horses were shot out from under him.

While little remains at the actual battlefield, two blocks away at the Braddock Carnegie Library, paintings, prints, maps and artifacts tell the story of Braddock's Defeat and the roles Washington and other prominent figures played that day. The one-room museum maintained in the library by the Braddock's Field Historical Society is well worth a visit.

The largest and probably most valuable artifact in the museum is a 6-foot-by-10-foot painting, "Braddock's Defeat," painted in 1858 by Emmanuel Leutze.

While Leutze's name may not immediately ring a bell, at least one of his other works should: "Washington Crossing the Delaware." "The Father of Our Country" has drawn much posthumous criticism for Leutze's depiction of him standing up in the boat.

The museum also boasts signed prints by local artists Robert Griffing and John Buxton illustrating other key scenes from the French and Indian War.

Display cases contain some 250 artifacts gathered from the battlefield and along Braddock's Road, the route that British troops cut through the Pennsylvania wilderness.

Amid the displays of bells, chains, musket parts, hatchets and cannon balls is the rusted tip of a spontoon -- a kind of lance that noncommissioned officers would use as visual rallying points for their troops.

There also is a misshapen musket ball. It illustrates the literal meaning of "bite the bullet" in the days when surgery was performed without anesthesia. Bob Messner, a board member of the Braddock's Field Historical Society, has found that adolescent boys love that anecdote.

Braddock's Grave

After their defeat above the banks of the Mon, the British and Colonials retreated in panic, leaving behind supplies, cannon and many of their wounded.

Even so, two days later when they reconnected with the second half of Braddock's army, they were still the largest military force in Western Pennsylvania. Historian Fred Anderson writes in "Crucible of War" that the British still could have turned around and probably taken Fort Duquesne. But with most of its officers dead and its 60-year-old commander dying, army morale was shattered.

Braddock died of his wounds on July 13 and was buried three days later in the middle of the road named after him. Washington presided at the service. Before expiring, Braddock had given his young aide-de-camp his blood-stained sash and it became one of Washington's most treasured possessions.

After Braddock was buried, Washington ordered the army wagons, horses and soldiers to tramp across the site to keep the site hidden from any pursuing Indians. The tactic worked too well. It wasn't until 1804 that Braddock's bones were discovered by workmen repairing what by then had become the National Road. The general's remains were reburied in a new grave near, rather than in the middle of, the cart way. Braddock's Grave is now marked with a 12-foot granite monument, that stands along modern Route 40, about eight miles southeast of Uniontown.

The Great Meadow, Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity

The year before this debacle, Washington had been in southwestern Pennsylvania as commander of Virginia militia units sent by Virginia Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie. His orders were to reinforce the small English garrison that had just built Fort Prince William, a stockade near the Point, on what is today the Post-Gazette's parking lot.

Before Washington could reach the fort, however, it was overwhelmed by French and Indian forces, who sent the British soldiers packing. Washington pushed on. He set up a base camp at Great Meadow, a spot just one mile from where he would bury Braddock a year later.

While he was at Great Meadow word reached him that French forces had been spotted in the area.

Early on the morning of May 28, 1754, he led a force of 40 men on an expedition to locate the French.

While the French and British were clearly heading toward a showdown over control of the Ohio Valley, the nations were still formally at peace. Nevertheless, Washington always maintained he had been at great risk of being attacked. According to historian Fred Anderson, however, the French had no lethal intent at the time. They were out to gather intelligence and were ready to parley with the British.

The Seneca chief, Tanacharison, known as the Half King, had his own agenda. He wanted the French out of the Ohio Valley, and evidence suggest that he maneuvered Washington, who was just 22, into a position to assist him.

French historians maintain that the commander of the French scouting party, Ensign Coulon de Jumonville, and his troops were ambushed by Washington and his men, who struck early in the morning.

Washington claimed that he was fired on first.

Jumonville Glen, named for the loser of the skirmish, may be as close as you can get to the atmosphere of the Pennsylvania frontier.

	The rocks at Jumonville Glenn failed to provide the French protection from a raiding pary led by George Washington. (Curt Chandler, Post-Gazette)

The glen is set well back and below the two-lane highway that provides access to the area. Except for forest sounds, it's quiet. Especially at dusk and at dawn, long shadows make it hard to see much among the trees, rocks and underbrush.

Today, the path from the parking lot to the top of the glen is paved and well marked. The view is the same that Washington and his men would have seen that late spring morning.

The path to the floor of the glen, where Jumonville and his men had made their camp, is steep and rough. If you stray off the paths and try to walk cross-country back up the hill, it's easy to get turned around amid the trees. It's also easy to imagine enemies, armed with rifles, tomahawks and war clubs hiding in the thick forest.

After the first volleys, the outnumbered French sought to parlay. But before Washington could accept Jumonville's offer, his Indian allies renewed the attack and Half King himself killed the French commander. The surviving French were taken prisoner.

Washington withdrew the seven or so miles back from the glen to the Great Meadow, where he ordered the construction of Fort Necessity. Simultaneously, he pushed on with road-building efforts directed to reaching Fort Duquesne when British reinforcements arrived.

However, while Washington thought he had captured or killed the entire French party, it turned out that one soldier, shoeless and sore-footed, made it back to Fort Duquesne to report on the fight with the British.

The French quickly assembled a force of 700 regulars, militia and Indians, and on July 3, they surrounded Fort Necessity.

Those who visit the reconstructed Fort Necessity on a rainy summer day can get some sense of what conditions might have been like for Washington and his 400 men. There was not enough room for the entire garrison within the wooden palisades. So most of his troops had to take partial cover behind the low trenches dug around the fort's perimeter. As the rain continued, those trenches filled with water.

The few Indian allies of the English had long since disappeared. The gun powder was wet, their muskets were jamming, and they became easy targets for the larger force of French and Indians firing from the cover of the surrounding woods.

And there was more bad news for Washington: the French commander was the brother of the slain Ensign Jumonville.

To the surprise of the fort's defenders, the French called for negotiations. Washington sent a Dutch-speaking officer, who also spoke French, to represent him.

Shortly after midnight on July 4, Washington capitulated. It was the first and only time in his military career that he surrendered.

Although the French described Washington's attack on their troops at the glen as "an unprovoked act of war," they agreed to permit the British to depart with their arms. In return, Washington had to sign a document written in French, which Washington couldn't read, stating that he had assassinated Jumonville. Later Washington claimed he had not understood what he was signing.

The following morning, he and his troops left, heading back to Virginia.

Washington has long been known as the Father of his Country. It turns out that he had at least partial paternity for the French and Indian War.