Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 100. Fought Necessity.

The French and Indian War had begun haphazardly. The governor of Virginia, Dinwiddie, was determined

to launch an offensive, but he was not a military man. Virginia had not launched a military operation by itself since the 17th century,

and here it was funding an expedition into the backcountry on a shoestring budget. This was in contrast to the French in Canada,

being mobilised to take the Ohio Valley.

The French had merely to arrive at the Ohio Forks to scare away the British forces led by

unsigned Ward. They decided to tear down the British fort and start from scratch. It was that bad.

Meanwhile, a very underpaid force led by Colonel George Washington was making its way westward to defend the force, which had already

been lost. Dinwiddie dismissed the officer's complaints, saying that they knew what they

signed up for when they agreed to serve on the campaign.

The other colonies were proving extremely reluctant to support Virginia, and the Cherokee and Kataba allies had not appeared.

This was the situation when word of the French capture of the fort reached

Washington on April 20th. Washington had to assess the situation. The main reason his 160,

untrained and unhappy, quote-unquote, soldiers, had signed up to this was the promise of land

around a fort that no longer existed. He had no reinforcements, and technically Britain and France

were still at peace, and Washington's orders were to defend the fort and destroy any force that tried to obstruct the project, which the French certainly had.

A more experienced commander would have read the situation and decided to hold back to see how things turned out.

But the young Washington decided to advance from his

current base at Will's Creek. Washington planned to move to an Ohio company fortified storehouse,

which was on Redstone Creek, eight miles from Will's Creek, and another 40 from the new French Fort de Cuesne on the Ohio Forks.

Washington could only move slowly, a couple miles a day, as he had to widen the forest track

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