hington to retake it. Washington surprised a French detachment near
Great Meadows, and killed their commander, Jumonville. When a larger
expedition came against him, he put up a stockade near the site of
Uniontown, naming it Fort Necessity, which he was compelled to yield on
terms permitting him to march away with the honors of war.

V

The next year (1755) General Edward Braddock came over with two
regiments of British soldiers, and after augmenting his force with
Colonial troops and a few Indians, began his fatal march upon Fort
Duquesne. Braddock's testy disposition, his consuming egotism, his
contempt for the Colonial soldiers, and his stubborn adherence to
military maxims that were inapplicable to the warfare of the wilderness,
alienated the respect and confidence of the American contingent, robbed
him of an easy victory, and cost him his life. Benjamin Franklin had
warned him against the imminent risk of Indian ambuscades, but he had
contemptuously replied: "These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy
to your raw American militia; but upon the king's regular and
disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any
impression." Some of his English staff-officers urged him to send the
rangers in advance and to deploy his Indians as scouts, but he rejected
their prudent suggestions with a sneer. On July 9 his army, comprising
twenty-two hundred soldiers and one hundred and fifty Indians, was
marching down the south bank of the Monongahela. The variant color and
fashion of the expedition,--the red-coated regulars, the blue-coated
Americans, the naval detachment, the rangers in deerskin shirts and
leggins, the savages half-naked and befeathered, the glint of sword and
gun in the hot daylight, the long wagon train, the lumbering cannon, the
drove of bullocks, the royal banner and the Colonial gonfalon,--the pomp
and puissance of it all composed a spectacle of martial splendor unseen
in that country before. On the right was the tranquil river, and on the
left the trackless wilderness whence the startled deer sprang into a
deeper solitude. At noon the expedition crossed the river and pressed on
toward Fort Duquesne, eight miles below, expectant of victory. What need
to send out scouts when the king's troops are here? Let young George
Washington and the rest urge it all they may; the thing is beneath the
dignity of his majesty's general.

Meanwhile, all was not tranquil at the French fort. Surrender was ta