Reconstruction of the Fort Necessity stockade. National Register of Historic Places 66000664. IMG_1843
Returning home from a visit to Pittsburgh, we found the Pennsylvania Turnpike has been closed due to an accident. Traffic was detoured at New Stanton. We decided to follow US Highway 40 to where we could rejoin at Hancock, Maryland. Serendipitously, signs came up for For Necessity Battlefield. A chance to turn a detour into a visit to an historic site. We pulled in to the visitor center parking lot. A park ranger was on duty, but Susan and I were the only visitors on a snowy day. We watched the park film about George Washington and the mission that led to the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754.
Washington was in his twenties when he led of Virginia Militia into the frontier to convey a request to the French at the Forks of the Ohio (todays Pittsburgh) to vacate the region. The Virginia colony wanted its traders and settlers to be able to move unobstructed into the Ohio Country and todays southwestern Pennsylvania. Both the British and the French were trying to establish alliances with the Native Americans in the region. A clash between French forces and Washingtons militiamen and their Mingo tribal
On July 4, 1754 French troops pulled up most of Fort Necessitys white oak posts and piled them against what was left of the stockade. Then they lit it all on fire. Buried below ground, these post ends survived the blaze and were unearthed by archaeologist J.C. Harrington almost 200 years later. IMG_1832
allies led to the death of Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, the It was disputed who had killed Jumonville. Washington, anticipating a French counterattack, established a stockade he called Fort Necessity. The expected French attack led to Washingtons surrender. As part of the surrender terms, Washington took responsibility for Jumonvilles death. The battle at Fort Necessity in the summer of 1754 was the opening action of the French and Indian War, which escalated into the Seven Years War.
The Visitor Center also includes exhibits on the National Road. The National Road was built in between Cumberland, Maryland and Vandalia, Illinois. By 1818 it had reached Wheeling on the Ohio River. The road largely followed Washingtons route into the frontier, which later became an improved military wagon road under British General Braddock (Braddock Road). In the 20th Century, the route became US Highway 40. The National Road enabled settlers, stagecoaches and traders to travel into the Ohio Country and beyond.
