George Washington had been sent to the Ohio country as a British emissary in the winter of 1753-54 to tell the French, who had been building forts in the area, to leave. French officers politely told Washington they were not obliged to obey his summons and they were going to stay. Washington returned to Virginia and informed Governor Dinwiddie that the French refused to leave.

The governor immediately assembled a force of men to go to the Ohio River and construct a fort. Washington, as lieutenant colonel of the Virginia Regiment, was to gather men and supplies and build a road to the fort to reinforce the men who were there. By late May, Washington reached a large natural clearing known as Great Meadows. He made his base camp there but soon after, he received word that a party of French soldiers was camped in a ravine not far from his position. Washington met with Seneca chief, Half King, and made plans to contact the French camp. As the French colonel had not posted sentries, Washington and his men, including Half King and his 12 warriors, had easily surrounded the unsuspecting French.

A shot was fired and soon the glen was filled with the crash of musketry. In 15 minutes, 10 Frenchmen and 1 of Washington's men were lying dead on the field. Jumonville, the leader of the French detachment, approached Washington with some papers and insisted that he read them. As Washington did so, Seneca chief, Half King, came up and smashed Jumonville's skull with a tomahawk.

Controversy still surrounds the event that took place at Jumonville Glen (named after the leader of the French detachment who was killed there). However, it is widely agreed that the volley fired in the backwoods of America by a young lieutenant colonel, a Virginian named George Washington, set the world on fire, triggering the French and Indian War in North America and the 7 years war in Europe.