Rangers of the Ohio Company

                                   A Brief Time Line of

                               The French & Indian War

  Pre-War Events that Set the Stage for the Clash of Empires

   1702-1713  War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War) ends with Treaty of Utrecht.

  1735-37  Lord Fairfax’s first trip to America to inspect his Northern Neck Proprietary.

  1740-1748  War of Austrian Succession (King George’s War) ends with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle.

  1743  Virginian James Patton petitions for 200,000 acres on branches of the Mississippi.

  1744  Treaty of Lancaster; Iroquois give land west of the Alleghenies to the Ohio River to the British.

  1747  Thomas, Lord Fairfax, returns to live in Virginia.

  1748  Ohio Company organized by Virginia gentry and merchants. Joseph Edwards has his 400 acres surveyed on the Cacapon River.

  1749  Celoron de Bienville travels down the Ohio River as far as the Miami River claiming land for France.

  The Ohio Company of Virginia receives a grant of 200,000 acres on the Ohio River and constructs their first storehouse at Wills Creek on the Potomac.

                                                              

  1750-51 Christopher Gist makes two trips into the Ohio country surveying locations for the Ohio Company.

  1752  Marquis de Duquesne becomes governor-general of Canada and begins to fortify the route down the Ohio River. Logstown Treaty: The British try to cement              the earlier transfer of lands east of the Ohio to the British by the Iroquois.  The French attack Pickawillany.

  1753

  January  William Trent, an agent for the Ohio Company, arrives at the mouth of Redstone Creek (present day Brownsville PA) with a small working force to construct a store house for the Ohio Company.  This is to serve as a supply base for the construction of a fort for the Ohio Company near or on the Forks of the Ohio River.

  May – July  Fort Presque Isle (present day Erie, PA) is built by the French, who then build a portage road south to a new post at LeBoeuf on French Creek, at present-day Waterford, PA.

  Fall  The French seize John Fraser's cabin, a trader for the Ohio Company, at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River (present-day Franklin PA), and establish a presence there which will become Fort Machault.

  October  George Washington, whose family had a financial interest in the Ohio Company, is commissioned by Lt. Gov. Dinwiddie to represent the Crown by carrying a letter to the French, ordering them to vacate the British territory.

  November  Christopher Gist, an agent of the Ohio Company, joins George Washington at Wills Creek (present day Cumberland, MD) and they travel to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. George Washington, after standing at the point where the Ohio River begins, writes in his journal, "As I got down before the Canoe, I spent some Time in viewing the Rivers, & the Land in the Fork, which I think extremely well situated for a Fort; as it has the absolute Command of both Rivers."

  Washington and Gist arrives at the Shawnee Indian town of Logstown (present day Ambridge PA) to obtain information about the location of French forts. They leave Logstown for Fort Venango (which replaced Fort Machault), accompanied by the Seneca leader Half-King (Tanacharison) and "two old men and one young warrior."

  December  Washington and Gist arrives in Fort Venango and attempts to deliver the letter to the French. They instruct him he needs to travel further north to Fort LeBoeuf.   They arrive at Fort LeBoeuf and after completing an unsuccessful diplomatic mission, they leave Fort LeBoeuf to begin the journey back to Williamsburg, however, while at Fort LeBoeuf Washington is able to gather important intelligence about the French forces.

  George Washington is shot at, by an Indian that was traveling with him, near "Murthering Town", but escapes harm. Washington & Gist, in trying to cross the Allegheny River, near the Delaware Indian village of Shannopin's Town, fall off the raft and nearly drown. They spend the night on an island and cross the river on the frozen ice the next day.

                                                                  The First Shots of the War are Heard

                                                                                

  1754

  January
  George Washington arrives in Williamsburg and delivers the French commandant's negative reply to Gov. Dinwiddie, thus setting the stage for the French and Indian War.

  February

  William Trent, is commissioned a Captain of the Virginia militia (and is an agent for the Ohio Company), and is ordered to raise 100 men and descend the Monongahela River and build a fort to be called Fort Prince George, on the triangle between the Monongalia and the Allegheny rivers.  George Washington, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia militia, is instructed to raise a company of 50 men from Frederick County and 50 men from Augusta County, and march to support Captain Trent and Fort Prince George.

  April
  British Fort Prince George, a trading fort for the Ohio Company, is surrendered to the French at the Point (present day Pittsburgh PA); The French now control the Forks of the Ohio and immediately begin the construction of Fort Duquesne.

  May
  George Washington leads 40 men from an encampment (near present-day Uniontown PA) to an Indian camp where 10 or 11 warriors joined them. They set off to investigate reports of a French camp a few miles away.  Not long after dawn, the two forces exchanged fire, leaving four Virginians and fourteen Frenchmen dead or wounded. The French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, is killed by Tanacharison (Half King), the leader of a band of Mingos allied to the British, with a tomahawk and washes his hands in Jumonville’s brains.  Washington builds Fort Necessity (near present day Farmington PA) preparing for the French attack.

  July

  The French and their Indian allies attack Washington’s troops who had built a "fort of necessity", killing or wounding one-third of Washington's men after a day of constant firing in heavy rain. Washington surrendered, and on July 4 and was allowed to retreat back to Virginia with “the Honors of War” after signing a poorly interpreted document declaring that he assassinated Jumonville.

1754 Albany Plan of Union

  1755

  July
  Following Washington’s surrender at Fort Necessity, the British government send Major General Edward Braddock and a force of 1,300 British regular and colonial militia to seize Fort Duquesne. On July 9, 1755, after a double fording of the Monongahela River to the site of present-day Braddock, they encountered about 900 French and Indian troops. In the ensuing three-hour firefight, Braddock’s command is soundly defeated and suffers more than 1,000 casualties before the survivors flee.  Two waggoners, Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan, escape the massacre.

  General Braddock, mortally wounded, dies near the burned ruins of Fort Necessity, and his body is buried under the road so that it cannot be found. Braddock's defeat unleashes two years of attacks by the Indians, and effectively rolls the Pennsylvania frontier back to Carlisle, barely 100 miles from Philadelphia.

  1756

  May
  French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm arrives in Quebec. He does not like depending on American Indian allies and changes the way the French fight the war.

  England formally declares war on France and fighting spreads to the West Indies, India and Europe.

  July
  Fort Granville (present day Lewistown PA) is destroyed by the Delaware war chief Captain Jacobs.

  British Lord Loudoun arrives in New York where he threatens the colonies and treats them badly. They do not like his behavior and resist helping him, hurting the war effort.

  August
  The French capture the British Fort Oswego (present day Oswego NY) and take control of Lake Ontario.

  September
  Pennsylvania Colonel John Armstrong embarks on a secret, retaliatory surprise attack against the Indians, attacking and destroying the village of Kittanning PA. An explosion kills Captain Jacobs and his family and liberates 11 prisoners.

  1757

  March
  A letter arrives from British Secretary of State William Pitt, changing the policies of Lord Loudoun. The colonies now become very supportive of the war.

  August
  The French capture Fort William Henry (present day Lake George NY). However, the French do not consult with their Indian allies about the surrender. The surrender agreement angers the Indians, since the British troops are allowed to leave the fort.  The next day the enraged Indians attack and capture or kill hundreds of British soldiers.

  1758

  July
  Despite having many more troops, the British did not take Fort Ticonderoga (present day Ticonderoga NY).

  June – July
  The British capture the fortress at Louisbourg Nova Scotia. This opens the St. Lawrence River and the water route into Canada.

  August
  The British capture Fort Frontenac (present day Kingston, Ontario). This fort supplied all the French forts in the Ohio River Valley and further west.

  September
Brigadier General John Forbes' men construct Fort Ligonier (present day Ligonier PA), the rallying point for the last stage of Forbes' march to take the French Fort Duquesne.

  October
  The Ohio River Valley Indians sign the Treaty of Easton, promising not to fight for the French. In return the British promise not to settle the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains after the war.

  With supplies and native allies dwindling, Fort Duquesne commander Francois-Marie le Marchand, Sieur de Ligneris, launches a desperate raid to destroy Fort Ligonier. In the ensuing three-hour battle, Pennsylvania Colonel James Burd loses dozens of men but successfully defends the fort.

  November
  Encouraged by reports that the French garrison at Fort Duquesne is shrinking and that their allies, the Delaware Indians, are prepared to abandon the French and make peace, General Forbes decides to mount an early assault.

  As the British forces march towards Fort Duquesne, the French set fire to the fort, blow up its walls, and retreat up the Allegheny River. The British seize control of the Forks and the area is named Pittsburgh.

 

                                                                

  1759

  Spring

  The British begin construction of Fort Pitt.

  July
  The Iroquois Indians decide to ally with the British and help them defeat the French at Fort Niagara NY. The French surrender Fort Niagara to the British and their Indian allies after a long fight.  The British capture Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point NY.

  September
  The French surrender the city of Quebec, Canada after the British defeat them in an early morning battle just outside the city.

  1760

  September
  The British capture Montreal Canada and the fighting ends between the French and the British in North America. The British and French still fight in other parts of the world for the next two years and small skirmishes--especially Indian raids--occasionally broke out in the colonies and along the Canadian border.

  Fall

  The Indians in particular were angered by the provisions of peace that left little room for their concerns. One of the reasons they agreed to fight--on either side of the war--was to ensure that they would retain the sole rights to their land. Instead, the exhausted Indians were faced with the immediate encroachment of British speculators, traders, and settlers

  1761 Fall
British General Jeffery Amherst changes the trading practices with the Indians. The new rules cause the Indians to suffer great hardship and begin to turn against the British.

  1762

  June – August
  The British capture the Spanish city of Havana, Cuba and bring another European power, Spain, into the war.

  1763

  February
  The Spanish, French and British sign a peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris. Much of North America changes hands as the British gain most of the land north of Florida and east of the Mississippi & Missouri Rivers.

-France – Lost Canadian possessions, most of their claim to India, and the claims to lands east of the Mississippi River.

-Spain – Gained all French lands west of the Mississippi River, New Orleans, and lost Florida to England.

-England – Gained all French lands in Canada, exclusive rights to the Caribbean slave trade and commercial dominance in India.