The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

APPENDIX.] THE GREAT MEADOWS. 457
days before, and it was presumed they must by this time have reached
Will's Creek. An express was sent to hasten them on, with as much
despatch as possible.
Meantime Colonel Washington\ set his men to felling trees, and
carrying logs to the fort, with a view to raise a breastwork, and enlarge and strengthen the fortification in the best manner, that circumstances would permit. The space of ground, called the Great
Meadows, is a level bottom, through which passes a small creek, and
is surrounded by hills of a moderate and gradual ascent. This bottom, or glade, is entirely level, covered with long grass and small
bushes, and varies in width. At the point where the fort stood, it is
about two hundred and fifty yards wide, from the base of one hill to
that of the opposite. The position of the fort was well chosen, being
about one hundred yards from the upland, or wooded ground, on the
one side, and one hundred and fifty on the other, and so situated on
the margin of the creek, as to afford an easy access to water. At
one point the high ground comes within sixty yards of the fort, and
this was the nearest distance to which an enemy could approach under the shelter of trees. The outlines of the fort were still visible,
when the spot was visited by the writer in 1830, occupying an irregular square, the dimensions of which were about one hundred feet on
each side. One of the angles was prolonged further than the others,
for the purpose of reaching the water in the creek. On the west
side, next to the nearest wood, were three entrances, protected by
short breastworks, or bastions. The remains of a ditch, stretching
round the south and west sides, were also distinctly seen. The site
of this fort, named Fort Necessity from the circumstances attending
its erection and original use, is three or four hundred yards south of
what is now called the National Road, four miles from the foot of
Laurel Hill, and fifty miles from Cumberland at Will's Creek.
On the 3d of July early in the morning an alarm was received
from a sentinel, who had been wounded by the enemy; and at nine
o'clock intelligence came, that the whole body of the enemy, amounting, as was reported, to nine hundred men, was only four miles off.
At eleven o'clock they approached the fort, and began to fire, at the
distance of six hundred yards, but without effect. Colonel Washington had drawn up his men on the open and level ground outside of
the trenches, waiting for the attack, which he presumed would be
made as soon as the enemy's forces emerged from the woods; and he
ordered his men to reserve their fire, till they should be near enough
to do execution. The distant firing was supposed to be a stratagem
to draw Washington's men into the woods, and thus to take them at
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