Fort Necessity is the site of Braddock’s Defeat during the French & Indian War. I first visited it on a trip to the metro DC area when I was in barely 21. I’ve been back a time or two but always when I was on my way somewhere else & only had time for a short visit. This time I had time for a leisurely lunch & even more leisurely visit to the site & its museum.
The fort was built as a last ditch defensive effort. The area is open meadow & did offer clear lines of fire but it also has a high water table. So it gets sloppy muddy wet whenever it rains & of course it rained heavily when it was built & used.
This is what the area would have looked like at the time from the defensive embankment. The small white rectangles near the tree line in the picture is the tree line location at the time of the battle.
I’d like one of these in working order for my yard. :-)
The shed in the center of the fort was built to shelter supplies & the wounded. The NPS has set up a few props to give a sense of this to the space.
I was here on a Thursday so there were just 2 volunteers on site. They have more on the weekends. They don’t do a battle, just demonstration firing along with camp open fire cooking etc. There is also a museum on site that was recently expanded.
I didn’t stop anywhere else today & camped in an Ohio state park for the night.
I built a bed for my van before I left for this trip. It worked out very well as did the Coleman 12 volt cooler. The bike was a last minute addition & I really enjoyed riding it around the park camping area.
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