Fort Necessity National Battlefield is a historical park in southwestern Pennsylvania, most of its units being located along U.S. Highway 40. The main unit includes a visitors center and the reconstructed namesake fort. The original fort was built in 1754 under the command of a young British officer named George Washington, and destroyed by French troops after they and their Indian allies defeated the British in the Battle of Great Meadows and then allowed them to retreat. This and other skirmishes would turn out to be merely the prelude to the French and Indian War, in which the British were victorious.
The reconstructed fort is a short walk from the visitors center. On the hill behind the fort is Mount Washington Tavern, another unit of the park, which may be reached either by trails from the fort or by driving westward on U.S. 40 from the visitors center.
Inside the fort is this one small wooden building.
The fort is mostly surrounded by earthworks. I don't know if the cannon is authentic to the period, or how many of them the British had during the fort's brief existence.
About a mile west of the visitor's center and fort is the grave of British General Edward Braddock, who after the surrender and destruction of Fort Necessity led a British force toward the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). The British were again defeated and Braddock was killed. After Washington presided at Braddock's funeral, the general was buried underneath a road which had been previously been built under their command. Today, the road passes just to the left of this marker, looking west.
The stairways on both sides of the road were closed, but another walkway led to the actual grave. In 1804, General Braddock's remains were discovered and re-interred. In 1913, this monument was built over his final resting place.
Westward and downhill from the roadside marker seen above is another marker, indicating where General Braddock was originally buried.
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