A Charming Field for an Encounter -
Fort Necessity July 3, 1754 by Robert Griffing

In the summer of 1754, twenty-two year old George Washington led a force of Virginia and South Carolina troops in an attempt to gain control the strategic forks of the Ohio River where Pittsburgh now stands. After skirmishing with a small French party and killing its leader, Washington fell back to a small fortification named Fort Necessity at the Great Meadows, which he had described as “a charming field for an Encounter.” There, after a brief battle in a driving rain, he was forced to surrender, in what was a very inauspicious beginning to his military career.

Late in the morning of July 3rd, a gentry's musket signaled the arrival of the French and Indian force led by Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, brother of slain Jumonville. "We immediately called our men to arms", warned George Washington and Captain James Mackay later wrote, "and drew up in order before our trenches." The French and Canadians, according to one participants, skirted the south side of the meadow while the Indians, "shouting the war cry," advanced along the north.

Having moved forward with Captain Mackay and the South Carolina Independent Company (the depiction here), Washington was left exposed to the French fire and forced to retreat to the fort when the Virginians scurried back into their trenches. 

open edition paper print
Image size: 8.5" x 24"
Price: $75.00

Edition size: 125 artist signed and numbered giclée canvas prints
Image Size: 49"w x 18" h
Price: SOLD OUT