Battle of Fort Necessity: Washingtons First Command
18th Century
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22m
Ever since the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, Europe has seen six years of uneasy peace. That peace is about to be broken, but not on the battlefields of Europe as had been the trend for the past half-century, but rather in the frontier wilderness of the Ohio River Valley in North America. There, a young, 22-year-old George Washington, in command of the Virginia Regiment of Provincials, inadvertently starts what will become the first true "world war" when he fires on a group of French troops at Jumonville Glen. In the aftermath of this little skirmish, Washington's Native Indian allies attack the surrendered Frenchmen, triggering a diplomatic incident that will lead to French retaliation at the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3rd, 1754, marking the start of the French and Indian War - the North American theater of the larger Seven Years' War.
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