Surrender Negotiations

Surrender Negotiations. Fort Necessity National Battlefield. , Soon after 8:00 p.m. on July 3, 1754, the British crossed this meadow to discuss the surrender terms being offered by the French under Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers. The timing was fortunate for the British as about half of their 400 soldiers were sick, wounded, or dead. Surrounded by some 700 French and Indians, they had little chance of escape. Over the next four hours, French and British officers negotiated the surrender details., At daybreak on July 4, the British marched from Fort Necessity between two facing ranks of French troops. The surrender terms allowed the British to carry out their arms, supplies, and wounded, and "return to their own country." Soon after it was vacated, the French burned Fort Necessity and left it in ruins., [Caption:] , The French surrender document (right) that Captain James Mackay and Col. George Washington signed was negotiated under difficult circumstances, mostly through a Virginia officer of Dutch descent who spoke French. Later, Washington discovered that the document included an admission that he had "assassinated" deVilliers' brother at Jumonville Glen on May 28.