Fort Necessity
Fort Necessity, an earthwork redoubt and 53-foot diameter stockade on the Great Meadows in Lenapehoking, the Lenape homelands, an area contested by the Colony of Virginia and Nouvelle-France in 1754, now Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Situated where the Indian Run flows into the Great Meadow Run, the site chosen by George Washington offered natural protection on two sides, but the fort was dominated by wooded heights in musket range, which allowed an enemy to attack Fort Necessity without having to expose themselves in the open.
To protect the powder and food supplies of his command, 22-year old Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Militia had a 14′ × 14′ log cabin storehouse built, which was surrounded by a stockade to control access to these stores. The entrance of the stockade was 3.5 feet wide. The palisade stakes surrounding the storehouse, seven feet tall and made of split white oak with the flat side facing out, were set far enough apart to allow musket fire through the intervals. Filler stakes, four feet tall, were used to close the gaps on the inside of the stockade.
On July 3, 1754, the British colonial troops under Washington were defeated here by French and Native American Forces under Capitaine Louis Coulon de Villiers.