Geophysical Survey of the Friendly Fire Incident, French and Indian War, Pennsylvania

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fort Ligonier, constructed in 1758, was the advance post and the last in the line of supply forts constructed for Brigadier-General John Forbes’ Expedition to take Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War. A young George Washington was a Colonel stationed at Fort Ligonier. On November 12, 1758, there was a small skirmish between a British Virginia regiment, which was led by Lt. Col. George Mercer, and the French Army and their Native American allies. Col. George Washington was sent with approximately 500 Virginians to aid Lt. Col. Mercer’s men. However, during the skirmish, it was realized that the two Virginian regiments were firing on each other. By the end of the Friendly Fire Incident, there were approximately 20 Virginians dead on the battlefield. Washington notes that these men were to be buried the next morning, but it was not documented where they were buried. A non-invasive geophysical survey using both ground penetrating radar and a gradiometer were conducted to find any potential burials or features associated with the friendly fire incident in addition to any other features on the landscape. Ground truthing was conducted to confirm the presence of some anomalies identified in the geophysical survey.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39393.0