Late in May 1754, as Washington’s ragged, ill-trained force of fewer than 150 men advanced through the tangled Pennsylvania forests to within forty miles of the forks of the Ohio, intelligence arrived that a party of French soldiers had been spotted. Washington moved quickly to intercept them. Indian guides led him, with about forty men, deeper into the dark wilderness. After a few hours they found their prey. There were thirty-five French soldiers. Having only a slight numerical advantage, Washington decided on a surprise attack. With stealth, he moved forward, until his men encircled the adversary. At the right moment, Washington screamed the order to open fire. A volley of shots poured down on the unsuspecting French.
Some were hit. The others fought back, but the firefight was brief. Caught off guard, and without adequate cover, the overpowered French surrendered. Washington’s Indian allies then went to work, and the young Virginian was unable, or unwilling, to stop them.
In all likelihood Washington, who never before had experienced combat, was “unmanned,” as the historian Fred Anderson has observed, possibly by the shocking carnage that he had just unleashed, including the realization that he had just killed, or mortally wounded, another man.
Momentarily disoriented, or perhaps in a rush of blood lust, Washington stood aside while the Indians massacred several of the French, together with their commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. Ensign Jumonville was tomahawked and scalped, after which Half King, the leader of Washington’s Indian allies, scooped out the Frenchman’s still warm brain and squeezed it with his hands.
What Washington did not know before he ordered the attack was that Jumonville was on a peaceful mission, not unlike that which had taken him to Fort Le Boeuf six months earlier.
Source:
Ferling, John E. “Join, Or Die.” A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic. Oxford University Press, 2003. 7. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (New York, 2000), 57-59.
On Washington’s youth, see John Ferling, The First of Men: A Life of George Washington (Knoxville, Tenn., 1988), 1-26; John Ferling, Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution (New York, 2000), 2-24; James T. Flexner, George Washington (New York, 1965-72), 1:9-92; Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington (New York, 1948-57), 1:15-375.
Further Reading:
Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville
Tanacharison or Tanaghrisson / “Half King”
Battle of Jumonville Glen, also known as the Jumonville Affair
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