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French forces destroyed Pro-British Miami Village.
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The governor of Virginia dispatched the young George Washington to the upper Ohio to warn French away from the valley.
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Washington returned with troops to seize the regions most strategic point, the Forks of Ohio at modern Pittsburgh, defeated a French detachment.
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Washington and his troops was defeated in turn by the French and their Indian allies forced his surrender at Fort Necessity.
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British authorities dispatched Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Braddock and 1,400 regular troops tot the Ohio frontier. Braddock accepted Virginia and supplies from Pennsylvania.
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Braddock arrogantly ignored colonial advice about how to fight in Indian country. He led his army into one of the worst defeats in frontier history when he blundered into a French and Indian ambush at the battle of Monongahela, near present Pittsburgh. Braddock was killed, and other participants, such as Washington, Andrew Lewis, and young teamster Daniel Boone, barely made their way back to the settlements.
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A general assault followed on the Virginia frontier by Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo war parties. Settlers newly planted in the Greenbrier and upper New River valleys were killed, captured, or frightened back across the mountains, wile the older settlements in the South Branch and Potomac valleys came under heavy assault. Here a minority of residents held their ground, backed by a chain of small forts that Washington organized.
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Virginia's government responded to Braddock's defeat by raising an army of several hundred frontiersmen commanded by Andrew Lewis joined by around 100 Cherokee warriors. Lewis's orders were to march toward the Ohio via "Sandy Creek"(the Big Sandy River) and destroyed Shawnee villages in southern Ohio. Disaster followed, ill-disciplined, poorly supplied, an unlucky in the weather and scarcity of game they encountered, the expedition struggled for nearly a month before turning back.
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The Western Virginia remained open to assault until British regulars under Gen. John Forbes drove the French away from the Forks of Ohio, Present Pittsburgh and established Fort Pitt. This brought Ohio Indians back under British influence.
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When defeats in Europe, India, and the Caribbean led the French to accept a general settlement, they agreed to give up all their North American territory. The Indians confronted victorious British officials who to them seemed to have combined the imperious attitude of the French with greed of the frontiersmen. This resulted in further native resistance, this is known as "Pontiac's Rebellion."
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Finally, an uneasy peace settled over the Ohio Valley, though the basic issue of who would control the region remained unsettled.
