The Siege on Fort Necessity, July 3rd, 1754

Vying for control of the Ohio River Country and the lucrative fur trade, on May 24th, 1754, Colonel George Washington with the support of 400 Virginia militiamen and independents built a fort "out of necessity" in the Great Meadows, a mile long and quarter mile wide marshy clearing flanked by the Laurel and Chestnut Ridge mountains.  Recognizing that Washington was planning an attack on the strategic Fort Duquesne located at the point of confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers, a powerful force of 600 French and Canadian militiamen and 100 Indians, led by Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, was sent to repel the intruders.  The French and Indian force approached Colonel Washington and his force of approximately 300 fit men along the forested hillside that overlooked Fort Necessity on a gray, warm rainy July 3rd morning in 1754.  Approximately 11:00am that morning, so began, the siege on Fort Necessity.

Out manned, ill prepared, and unable to fight in such rain soaked conditions, Washington signed the instrument of surrender July 4th, 1754.  The demoralized survivors preparing to limp back some 50 miles to Wills Creek (present day Cumberland, Maryland), shockingly recognized as one witness wrote, "what is most severe upon us, suddenly became clear, they were all our own Indians, Shawnesses, Delaware's and Mingo's."

The artists goal with this piece is to capture the moment, of Shawnee and Delaware Indian warriors, as they would have looked, just as the siege on Fort Necessity began.

Edition: 15             Price: Available upon request

Referenced from Crucible of War, author Fred Anderson