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King of France. At various points along the Ohio
similar plates were hidden. Forts were built along
the Allegheny. This activity on the part of the
French alarmed Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia.
He determined to demand the withdrawal of the
French, and for his messenger chose George
Washington, then an officer of the Virginia militia.
Washington proceeded to Fort Le Boeuf, where he
delivered Dinwiddle's letter to the commandant,
Saint-Pierre, who promised to forward the letter to
the authorities in Canada. In the meantime he
would continue to hold the fort.
When Dinwiddie received the reply of Saint-Pierre, he knew that the time for action had come. He sent forward to the forks of the Ohio a party of forty men, who began the erection of a stockade, intended to surround a fort , on the site of the present city of Pitts- burgh. On 17 -April, 1754, while the EngUsh were still engaged at their work, a body of French and Indians from Fort Le Boeuf ordered them to leave the valley. The English conmiander was allowed to march off with his men. The French then completed the work thus begim, and in honour of the Governor of Canada called it Fort Duquesne. The surrender at the forks of the Ohio was soon known to the governors of Mary- land, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Virginia acted promptly and raised a force, of which Frye was commander, with Washington as lieutenant-colonel. Near a place called Great Meadows, Washington with a few men killed or captured a small party of French. On 4 July, 1754, he was himself besieged by a party of French and Indians, and after a brave resis- tance compelled to surrender. Thus was begun what the English coloni-sts called the French and Indian War. The British in 17.55 sent over Major-General Braddock as commander-in-chief in .America. The colonial governors met him at Alexandria, Virginia. Four expeditions were agreed upon: (1) an expedition from New York to Lake Champlain, to take Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and to move against Quebec; (2) an expedition to sail from New England and make such a demonstration against the French towns to the north-east as would prevent the French in that quarter from going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point ; (3) an expedition, starting from Albany, up the Mohawk toward its source, to cross the divide to Oneida Lake, then by the Oswego River to Lake Ontario and the Niagara River; (4) an expedition from Fort Cumberland, in Maryland, across Penn.sylvania to Fort Duquesne. Braddock himself took command of the fourth expedition. There was no opposition until his troops had crossed the Monongahela River and had arrived within eight miles of Fort Duquesne. Suddenly they came face to face with an armj' of the Indians and French. It was not in any sense an ambuscade, but the French and their Indian aUies instantly disappeared behind bushes and trees, and poured a merciless .and incessant fire into the ranks of the British. Br.addock would not allow his men to fight in Indian fashion: therefore they stood huddled in groups, targets for the Indians and the French, till the extent of his lo.ss compelled him to order a retreat. Had it not been for Washington and his Virginians the British force would probably have perished to a man. Braddock, wounded in the battle, died soon after- wards. The ex-pedit ion against Niagara was a failure. That against Crown Point was partially successful.
The French Government now appeared to .see vaguely the great importanceof the contest in Amer- ica. The demands of the European war had kept the French armies employed at home; therefore, no con- siderable force could be sent to America. The king, however, sent over the Marquess de Montcalm, the ablest French officer that ever commanded on this continent, and there followed for the British two years of disastrous war. Montcalm won over the Indians to the side of J>ance, captured and burned the post at
Oswego, and threatened to send a strong fleet against
New England. Until the elder Wilham Pitt became
influential in thecouncilsof Great Britain, no progress
was made against the French. In the year 1758 the
strong fortress of Louisburg surrendered to a joint
military and naval force under Amherst and Bos-
cawen. In the same year Washington took Fort
Duquesne, which was renamed Fort Pitt. Fort
Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, was destroyed by a
provincial officer named Bradstreet. With the loss
of Fort Duquesne this second disaster cut off the Ohio
country from Quebec.
On 8 July, 1758, General Abercrombie, with an army of at least 15,000 men, made a furious and persistent assault on the strong post of Ticonderoga. The fort was defended by RIontcalm with about 3100 men. The battle raged all day in front of Ticonderoga, its outlying breastworks, and its formidable abattis of fallen trees. When the British, under cover of dark- ness, withdrew, they left behind them 1944 killed, wounded, and missing. The French reported a loss of 377.
In a fiercely contested battle on the plains of Abraham, 13 Sept., 17.59, the French were defeated, and Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead. In the following year Montreal was taken, and the American phase of the war came to an end. In Europe the conflict continued until peace was made at Paris in February, 1763. By that treaty France gave to Spain, for her assistance in the war, all that part of the country lying west of the middle of the Missis- sippi River from its source to a point almost a.s far south as New Orleans. To Great Britain she sur- rendered all her territory east of this line.
From the beginning of the inter-colonial wars, in 1()S9, the Middle Colonies gave assistance to New England in its ex-peditions against the French strong- holds in Canada. When the last conflict broke out the lower states of the south sent troops into Pennsyl- vania. Some of these served under Washington at Fort Necessity. Whenever troops from the difi'erent colonies acted together, as they frequently did, they used the name "provincials" to distinguish them- selves from the British troops. There is a popular notion that all the proposals after 1643, when the ITnited Confederation of New England was formed, were suggested by military necessity. In a meas- vn-e, but not wholly, such necessity was the sole influence tending toward their union. As early as 1060 an agreement was entered into by Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina to restrict the production of tobacco. Even though nothing came of this com- mercial agreement, it indicates the existence among the colonies of interests other than military. As early as the eighteenth century (1720) Deputy-governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, submitted to the Lords of Trade and Plantations a plan, or a recommendation, for a union of England's North American colonies. In the treatises on the development of the idea of union this document is overlooked. It will be found, however, among the printed papers of Sir William Keith.
The French and Indian war was the prelude to the American Revolution. It trained officers and men for that .struggle. During its campaigns the com- mander-in-chief in the War for Independence acquired his first knowledge of strategy. This war relea.sed the colonies from the pressure of the French in Canada, and developed in them a consciou,snessof strength and unity. Besides it gave to the colonies .an unlimited western expansion. In this great acquisition of territory is to be found one of the earliest causes of the quarrel with the mother country-. Though the provinces h.ad foiight for territorial extension, a royal proclamation was issued (1763) forbidding present land sales west of the AUeghenies, thus reserving the conquered territory as a crown domain. Though
