George Washington’s actions from 1753-1758 in Western Pennsylvania greatly affected the French and Indian war. In fact, he basically started it. George Washington himself was the spark that ignited the fire. He created this spark by raiding a peace party, killing Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, and signing a document proving him guilty. One of the reasons George Washington is guilty of starting the war is that he raided a peace party.
In 1754, Virginia’s Governor Dinwiddie sent George Washington, then a commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the newly created Virginia Regiment (a colonial militia), on a mission to the Ohio Country to surprise the French occupants and attempt to turn them out, thus securing valuable territory for Virginia. Around two hundred fifty-eight years ago this weekend Washington, a crew of 40 Virginians, and a dozen allied Iroquois warriors were somewhere in the mountains near the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia (today) marching toward infamy.Along the way, Washington’s regiment was destined to ambush a French scouting party, led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. This is where things get messy: Washington assumed their intent was foul play. At daybreak on May 28, he and his men ambushed the French camp (near what is now Jumonville in the SW corner of PA in the Laurel Highlands near Uniontown).
Without warning Washington gave the order to fire. The battle lasted only fifteen minutes. Suffering only one casualty of their own, Washington's men killed a dozen Frenchmen and captured over twenty more.This incident obviously got the French angry. Secondly, George Washington helped start the French and Indian War because he killed a French leader. When the British raided the peace party, they took captives including Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville.
Victory quickly turned to nightmare, however; in the aftermath of the battle, Tanaghrisson, the leader of the Iroquois in Washington's contingent, led a massacre of the surrendered French prisoners. Little did George Washington know, Tanaghrisson had his own reasons for seeking to deliberately provoke war between the French, British, and Iroquois.The first unarmed Frenchman killed was a noble officer, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, who was murdered instantly via a tomahawk blow to the head, thus killing of an unarmed prisoner of war. Killing an unarmed prisoner of war was a war crime—a war crime for which George Washington, as commanding officer, technically bore responsibility.
As Tanaghrisson had hoped, the revelation of Jumonville's death caused an international scandal, quickly igniting a globe-spanning military conflict known in Europe as the Seven Years' War and in North America as the French and Indian War.To top it all off, George Washington, also signed certain documents proving him guilty for murder. After Tanaghrisson had killed Jumonville, the gloves were off. It wasn’t long before the French and their Indian allies launched a swift counterattack. Fort Necessity was surrounded and Washington and his men, under siege, eventually surrendered. Tensions were at a fever pitch.
The French claimed that Jumonville’s party had been on a diplomatic (rather than military) mission and that the ambush and killing of the prisoners was unprovoked and unacceptable.The “Jumonville affair ” was an international incident of the first order. It was one among many events that led to the confrontation (between the two superpowers of the time) but it was the decisive spark that ultimately ignited the French and Indian War. After a series of embarrassing negotiations Washington was subsequently released by the French, with the promise not to return to the Ohio Country. The incident was a “black-eye” for the British, so much so that back in Virginia Governor Dinwiddie responded angrily; the disgraced Washington, faced with a demotion in rank, opted to resign from active military service.
As it turned out, the Jumonville Affair was not the end for George Washington in the French-Indian war, but it should have been. He created the spark that started the fire by raiding a peace party, killing Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, and signing a document proving him guilty. In fact, George Washington fired some of the first shots in the French and Indian war. George Washington’s actions between 1753-1758 in Western Pennsylvania affected the French and Indian War.
