Warned that the French were advancing, he quickly set up fortifications at Great Meadows, Pa., fittingly naming the entrenchment Fort Necessity, and marched to intercept advancing French troops. In the resulting battle the French commander the sieur de Jumonville was killed and most of his men were captured. Washington pulled his small army back into Fort Necessity. Where he was surprised by a battle fought by the French all day, in the rain. Surrounded by enemy troops, exhausted, ammunition useless and food supply low. Washington surrendered. Under the terms of the surrender signed that day, he was allowed to march his troops back to Williamsburg, in embarrassment. .
Depressed by his defeat and angered by discrimination between British and colonial officers in pay and rank. Washington resigned his commission at the end of 1754. The next year, he volunteered to join British general Edward Braddock's expedition against the French. When Braddock was ambushed by the Indians and French on the Monongahela River, Washington, though ill, tried to gather the Virginia troops. Washington's own military reputation was enhanced, and in 1755, at the age of 23, Washington was promoted to colonel and appointed commander in chief of the Virginia militia, with responsibility for defending the frontier. Assured that the Virginia frontier was safe from French attack, Washington left the army in 1758. .
Washington entered politics, serving (1759-74) in Virginia's House of Burgesses. In January 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy and attractive young widow with two small children. After 1769, Washington became a leader in Virginia's resistance to Great Britain's colonial policies. At first he hoped for reconciliation with Britain, although some British policies had touched him personally. Prejudice against colonial military officers had rankled extremely, and British land policies and restrictions on western expansion after 1763 had seriously delayed his plans for western land conjecture.
