GEORGE WASHINGTON

After receiving information on French forts along the Allegheny River, Governor Dinwiddie sent a young officer by the name of George Washington to deliver a letter to the French ordering them to leave. Washington , twenty-one at the time, was to negotiate boundaries with the French who refused to give up any of their forts. What followed was a short skirmish with the French in which an officer, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville was killed. Washington pulled his men back and began construction on Fort Necessity to prevent a counter attack by the French. However, a French contingent coming out of Fort Duquesne ( Pittsburg ) eventually forced Washington to surrender thus igniting a nine year long struggle for dominance over the North American continent.