[Boogieman]

Oh no?

“The following year he led another expedition to the area to assist in the construction of a fort at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Before reaching that point, he and some of his men, accompanied by Indian allies, ambushed a French scouting party. Its leader was killed, although the exact circumstances of his death were disputed. This peacetime act of aggression is seen as one of the first military steps leading to the global Seven Years’ War.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_in_the_French_and_Indian_War

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yes I know, but generally he fought under “European” standards, because he had to. Indeed in the backwoods it was hard to fight anything but “guerrilla”, and he learned alot from Indians, but in the RevWar despite all the myth-making, the rebel forces almost always fought conventionally. The most unconventional part about Washington was his sneakiness with leaving the enemy behind unawares. He was trying to save his armies. Guerrilla warfare was basically just for very small skirmishes, and that is because muskets simply do not lend themselves to surprise and hiding. So the fighting depended on the ground.

Mixing guerrilla and conventional forces then would’ve been like the mixing of technology in WWI. It simply couldn’t happen in the RevWar; whereas WWI shows just how disastrous and awful mixing technology and methods can be.

[Pharmboy]

As much of Wikipedia, this is not quite on plumb. Washington's group happened upon the encamped French--they were in a gully, and the colonials watched them from above. The shot fired might have been purposeful, but reports said it was accidental...we will never know. Not hard for a flintlock to fire accidentally. One shot started it, and there had never been an 'ambush' of the French planned or executed at that time.

At any rate, when the dust settled, a French emissary was dead and hostilities began.