Battle of the Great Meadows

Battle of Fort Necessity
Part of the French and Indian War
The modern replica of Fort Necessity
Date July 3, 1754 Location Near present-day Farmington and Uniontown, Pennsylvania 39°48′50.9″N 79°35′13.58″W / 39.814139°N 79.5871056°W / 39.814139; -79.5871056Coordinates: 39°48′50.9″N 79°35′13.58″W / 39.814139°N 79.5871056°W / 39.814139; -79.5871056 Result French & Native American victory
Belligerents
Great Britain British America	France Colony of Canada French-allied natives (Hurons, Ottawas, Nipissings, et al.)
Commanders and leaders
George Washington   James Mackay	Louis Coulon de Villiers
Strength
100 regulars 300 militia	600 regulars, militia and Indians
Casualties and losses
31 killed 369 captured (70 of whom WIA)	3 killed 19 wounded

 Great Britain

The Battle of Fort Necessity (also called the Battle of the Great Meadows) took place on July 3, 1754, in what is now the mountaintop hamlet of Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender. The battle, along with the May 28 Battle of Jumonville Glen, contributed to a series of military escalations that resulted in the global Seven Years' War.

Washington built Fort Necessity on an alpine meadow west of the summit of a pass through the Allegheny Mountains. Another pass nearby leads to Confluence, Pennsylvania; to the west, Nemacolin's Trail begins its descent to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and other parts of Fayette County along the relatively low altitudes of the Allegheny Plateau.

Throughout the 1740s and early 1750s, British and French traders had increasingly come into contact in the Ohio Country, including the upper watershed of the Ohio River in what is now western Pennsylvania. Authorities in New France became more aggressive in their efforts to expel British traders and colonists from this area, and in 1753 began construction of a series of fortifications in the area. In previous wars, the Québecois had more than held their own against the English colonials.

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