The Battle of Jumonville Glen was the opening battle of the French and Indian War. It was fought on May 28, 1754, near present-day Hopwood and Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. A company of colonial militia from Virginia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, and a small number of Mingo warriors ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens. Washington’s force killed Jum onville and some of his men in the ambush, and captured most of the others.
About Battle of Jumonville Glen in brief
The Battle of Jumonville Glen was the opening battle of the French and Indian War. It was fought on May 28, 1754, near present-day Hopwood and Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. A company of colonial militia from Virginia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, and a small number of Mingo warriors led by Tanacharison ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens. Washington’s force killed Jum onville and some of his men in the ambush, and captured most of the others. Since Britain and France were not then at war, the event had international repercussions, and was a contributing factor in the start of the Seven Years’ War in 1756. The exact circumstances of Jumsonville’s death are a subject of historical controversy and debate. The French and Canadiens used a statement made by Washington in his surrender to level accusations that Washington had ordered JumOnville’s slaying. A British colonial force led by George Washington was sent to protect the fort under construction in the Ohio Country. A larger French Canadien force had driven off a small crew attempting to construct a British fort under the auspices of the Ohio Company at present- day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, land claimed by the French. The incident drew the attention of not just the British, but also the Indian tribes of the area. Despite good Franco-Indian relations, British traders had become highly successful in convincing the Indians to trade with them in preference to the Canadiens, and the planned large-scale advance was not well received by all.
In particular, a Mingo chief also known as the ‘Half King’ became decidedly anti-French as a consequence. In 1753 authorities in New France became more aggressive in their efforts to expel British traders and colonists from this area, and in 1753 began construction of a series of fortifications in the area, including the Ohio River in what is now western Pennsylvania. Virginia Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent militia Major George Washington to the Ohio country as an emissary in December 1753, to tell the French to leave. When the French refused to leave, Washington returned to Williamsburg and ordered him to begin raising a militia regiment to hold the Forks of theOhio, a site Washington had identified as a fine location for a fortress. In February 1754 the French learned of Trent’s company on site and began building a storehouse and stockade with the assistance of a small force of 500 men. The same month a force of 800 Canadien militia and troupes de la marine departed for the Ohio Valley under thecommand of Claude Contrecœ de Contrecur, who took over the command from Saint-Pierre. On April 16, 1756, the French took over control of the site and built a fort at the forks of the Ohio River, which is now the site of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The British and Canadien forces from Fort Duquesne compelled Washington to surrender.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Jumonville Glen published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
