Building Fort necessity

Here, in a rare meadow among the frontier forests, British soldiers began raising a small stockade in May of 1754. Lt. Col. George Washington and forty Virginia militia had skirmished with a small French detachment nearby on May 28; now Washington decided to build a "fort of necessity" to defend his 130 man regiment from a large French army he assumed would seek revenge.

Washington selected the fort's site in the field ahead. His soldiers split oak logs in half, then set them upright in a large circle about 53 feet across. Inside the stockade they built a 14 foot square log storehouse. Outside, they began digging trenches in the boggy ground. They finished building the fort in five days. By min-June, Washington received reinforcements, increasing the British force to almost 400, with promises that more British troops were on the way.