An American Failure?

Bear-Bait #016

May 28, 2025

“Morning in a Pine Forest” by Ivan Shishkin

The Mission

A young Virginian steps into the thick, cold forest of the Ohio Valley. His shaky breath adding to the heavy fog sitting in the thick undergrowth.

Thanks for reading The Bear-Bait Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

At just 21 years old, he hesitantly accepted the assignment to head north and have a chat with the French.

“Get out, this is going to be ours.”

As young as he was, he was qualified.

The Virginian grew up a surveyor, learning the importance of land, trade, farming, and backcountry tenacity.

The year before, in 1753, he successfully led a scouting mission to find a French force gathering in the Ohio area, expanding their territory from Canada.

A big no-no from the British perspective. (Remember this is pre-revolution)

Showing excellent leadership, confidence, and resilience, he gained important intel on the invaders; all while surviving an attack from local tribes and a frozen river.

Now at 21, in 1754, he is assigned to go back with a militia and tell the French to move on or suffer the consequences.

He hesitated because of his greenness, but alas, north he went.

The Misfire

As The Virginian pressed on, he encountered a superior French force marching toward him.

The French detachment fires on him and his men, but he ends up getting the upper hand. The underdog sees the French raise their hands in surrender and ceases fire for a surrender.

“Why did you shoot at us? We’re diplomats,” The white-waving French say.

“We were just coming to talk to you, not to fight, monsieur,” they continue.

Not buying it, the Virginian snaps back. “Why did you open fire on us?”

The French wipe the accusations away by pulling out diplomatic papers and saying it’s a big misunderstanding.

Still not believing the story, the Virginian takes prisoners back to Fort Necessity, his rinky-dinky base of operations.

In the colder weather, they prepared for a counter attack from the French.

As they were recovering, bullets start to zing through the wood walls of the fort.

Lieutenant Virginia couldn’t even see where the muskets were firing from.

He wrote that he could see no enemy. Only powder smoke from every little tree, stone, and bush.

It was a slaughter.

After only a few hours, over 1/3 of the Virginia’s men were gone or wounded.

Soldiers slumped over in every corner. Wounded men crying out in desperation. A massacre.

Certain death of the entire militia was imminent.

The Mistake

With miracle timing, the French general calls for a ceasefire and offers up terms of surrender.

The French, with their native allies, would let the Virginians go with full military honors and safety…on one condition.

The Virginian must apologize for what happened.

This young leader, though proven capable, agreed in desperation.

The Virginian signed the papers.

“We’re sorry.”

This would end up being a mistake that costs over 1,000,000 lives.

He didn’t understand the treaty properly. The French general tricked him into admitting that they willingly and knowingly assassinated diplomatic messengers.

These colonists are still royal British subjects. Signing this paper, to the rest of the world at least, meant that Britain had openly attacked innocent French politicians.

There’s no way to make that look good.

This announcement from the French was the start of the 7 years war.

Over 850,000 British and French soldiers were killed, with an estimated 300,000 civilians lost as well.

If that was the end of the story for the Virginian, he would be forever known as the idiot that started one of the bloodiest conflicts of the modern era.

But that’s not his story.