This Day in History: George Washington starts a war. Sort of.

On this day in 1754, a young George Washington receives a message as he leads a Virginian regiment in an area near modern-day Pittsburgh. The contents of that message would soon push him into his first combat.

The incident was one factor that helped trigger the French and Indian War.

That war occurred roughly two decades before our war for independence. The dispute in those days centered on the Ohio Country. Who would own and control that land? The French? Or the English?

George Washington, circa 1772

Twenty-two-year-old George Washington sat squarely in the middle of the dispute. Just one year earlier, he’d been dispatched to the region with a letter from Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie. The letter asked the French to withdraw. Washington was cordially received, but the French maintained that their claim to the Ohio Valley was “incontestable.”

In the spring of 1754, Virginia responded by raising a regiment of men. Washington was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and sent back to the Ohio Country with about 160 men. His task was to secure an area near the intersection of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (in present-day Pittsburgh). Washington was empowered to “make Prisoners of or kill & destroy” anyone who disputed British control of the region.

In the meantime, the French had taken the fort in the area, renaming it Fort Duquesne. Washington made his own small camp nearby and waited for reinforcements. But on May 27, he received a message: The French were approaching Washington’s position. Washington decided to go on the offensive. Early on May 28, he advanced toward the French position with 40 men. He was joined by about 12 Indian warriors. Together, the two encircled the French detachment of slightly over 30 men.

What happened next is disputed. Who shot first? Did the French try to surrender? Were they on a diplomatic mission or a military one? The Indian Half King spoke fluent French, but Washington did not. Thus, the Half King may have been left to interpret the French commander’s statements at a critical moment. Either way, the conflict was over quickly. When the dust settled, about a dozen Frenchmen were dead or wounded and 21 were captured. One of the dead was the French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, sieur de Jumonville.

In the French view, Jumonville was not a casualty of war. Not only was he on a diplomatic mission, they claimed, but he had been trying to surrender. Thus, killing him was murder.

As for Washington, he did not believe that the French were on a diplomatic mission. The next day, he wrote Dinwiddie, enclosing some papers from the French: “Officers pretend they were coming on an Embassy, but the absurdity of this pretext is too glaring as your Honour will see by the Instructions and summons inclos’d.”

A few days later, he wrote another letter describing the incident. “I fortunately escaped without a wound,” he wrote his brother, “tho’ the right Wing where I stood was exposed to & received all the Enemy’s fire . . . . I can with truth assure you, I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound.”

This and other experiences in the Ohio Valley shaped Washington. He learned and grew. One of his biographers has written of Washington: “Instead of going to college, Washington went to war.”

The American Revolution was coming, and the lessons Washington was learning during these years would be sorely needed—although, of course, Washington could not then know it.

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Primary Sources:

• David A. Clary, George Washington’s First War: His Early Military Adventures (2011)

• Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington, a Biography, Vol. I: Young Washington (1948)

• Edward G. Lengel, General George Washington: A Military Life (2005)

• Letter from George Washington to John Augustine Washington (May 31, 1754)

• Letter from George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie (May 29, 1754)

• Paul R. Misencik, George Washington and the Half-King Chief Tanacharison: An Alliance That Began the French and Indian War (2014)

• The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1751-1758  (Virginia Historical Society; 1883)

• Washington and the French and Indian War (Mount Vernon website)