Dusk! The last shot of the first battle has been fired. The soldiers, the hungry, the
injured and the weary, have retired to their camps. A man is seen lying on the ground
calling out for his mother to come and rescue him from this hell on earth that has
become his life. He is in such pain and agony one can only imagine. Another soldier
is seen on the ground next to the other, only this one is dead, one of thousands. A
massacre has been, and many more will come. This is the French and Indian War.
The French and Indian War, or the Seven Years War as the Europeans called it,
was known as the first world war and has a few different beginnings. Hostilities first
began in 1629 with the English occupying Quebec from 1629 until 1632. In 1752,
Robert Dinwiddie started granting land to citizens of his colony, setting in motion the
events that inevitably would lead to the war in 1756. Another conflict was brought
about when a young Virginian, George Washington, was ordered in 1753to tell the
French they were occupying Virginia's territory. On his next mission, to gain British
Control in the west, Washington heard of the surrender of Fort Prince George so he
set up camp in Great Meadows which was just southeast of the fort.
He received a report that a nearby French assemblage with intentions to attack.
This caused Washington to launch an attack against the French camp so as to gain
the advantage over them. This is considered the first battle of the, at the time not yet
declared, French and Indian War. Washington was defeated by an unmatched force
which was launched from Fort Duquesne. This left the French sway over the entire
territory west of the Allegheny Mountains.
In 1755, Major General Braddock was made commander-in-chief of the British
forces in America. Almost as soon as he arrived, he began making plans to take back
...