news of the French move reached the Governor, he sent Washington,
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and a small armed force against
the invaders. The men were mostly half-trained militia whom Washington
had been drilling for some such emergency. They were raw soldiers, but
hardy fellows, who thoroughly believed in their young commander. He
himself, although but twenty-two, was a seasoned campaigner of the
wilderness. Now he was essaying his first trial as a soldier.

His men marched to a point about half-way to Fort Duquesne, blazing a
road for other troops to follow, and constructing a fort to serve as a
base of supplies. There he sent out scouts to reconnoitre. They
reported an advancing party of French who were ready to attack any
English whom they might encounter. Washington did not wait for them to
attack. He decided to attack first. Taking a force of about forty men
he made a night march in the pelting rain, to surprise the enemy. It
reminds us of his later famous exploit at Trenton.

"The path," he wrote, "was hardly wide enough for one man. We often
lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or twenty minutes, and
we often tumbled over each other in the dark."

However, at daybreak on this May day of 1754, they reached the camp of
their Indian allies; who in turn took them with stealthy tread to the
hollow where lay the French--waiting to ambush the colonists. But it
was their turn to be surprised, and they quickly sprang to their feet
and grasped their weapons.

Washington gave his men the order to fire--the first of many such
orders that were to come in the stormy days of two successive wars--and
in a sense this was the opening gun. A lively but brief skirmish
followed. The French lost their commander, Jumonville, and nine
others. The English lost only one man, killed, and two or three
wounded. The remainder of the French, twenty-two in number, were taken
prisoners.

The affair made a great stir, and was the forerunner of extended
hostilities. Washington foresaw the results immediately, and set his
men to constructing a fort which was called Fort Necessity. He had won
his first battle and it greatly inspired his troops. Writing
afterwards to his brother, Lawrence, he said: "I heard the bullets
whistle; and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound."

Their fort, however, was well-named. For presently the French and
Indians marched down upon them, nine hundred stro