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Archive for george washington

Washington’s Only Surrender

By Linda Tancs

Fort Necessity National Battlefield is a national battlefield site in Fayette County, nestled in the Great Meadow in the Allegheny Mountains of southwest Pennsylvania. The battle at Fort Necessity in the summer of 1754 was the opening action of the French and Indian War, a clash among British, French and American Indian forces for control of a vast territory along the Ohio River between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi. The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. George Washington, a 21-year-old military adjutant, volunteered as a British emissary to present notice to the French to quit their occupation of the Ohio River Valley. When the French refused to leave, Washington built his “fort of necessity” in a natural meadow while awaiting additional militia and British regulars. However, his bedraggled force was no match for the French column, and Washington ultimately surrendered to the enemy for the first and only time in his military career.

 

George Washington Remembered

By Linda Tancs

In December each year George Washington’s decisive victories against the British during the American Revolution are revisited.  In particular, his Continental Army’s famous crossing of the Delaware River from a stronghold in Pennsylvania on Christmas Day in 1776 is recounted in various re-enactments.  His plan was to attack the British at the Hessian-held town of Trenton, just across the Delaware River in New Jersey.  The prospects were dim, considering the beleaguered condition of the soldiers and the raging weather.  But the attack took the opposing forces by surprise, resulting in a victory that marked a turning point in the war.  Washington Crossing Historic Park will host a dress rehearsal on 12 December from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. prior to the Christmas Day event at 1 p.m.  Across another “pond” even more Washington memorabilia is available in England’s Northamptonshire at Sulgrave Manor, home of the President’s ancestors.

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