Abstract

For generations France and Great Britain had sparred over territory in North America. ¹ In an attempt to assert their claim, early in 1754 the French began construction of Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers. News of the French presence alarmed the English, and in the spring Virginia’s Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie dispatched Lieutenant Colonel George Washington with a small party of Virginia militia, accompanied by native allies, to challenge the French. Learning from his scouts that the English were near, Duquesne’s commander dispatched a force to find the English and advise them of their trespass. ²