“The French and Indian War (7 years war) was actually the first war in the defense of America.”
The titanic struggle for control of the North American continental interior. Some people call it the first true world war with the French taking it on the chin in Goa, India, if my mind is working right, along with big armies in Prussia and Austria battling it out, and colonies all over the place changing hands. A young Colonel Washington started our part the affair in Pennsilvania.
The aftermath was a true zentith in British world power.
At that time George Washington was still an English toady. He eventually came around to the right way to think about it ~ but it took him 20 years.
Col. Washington, gained invaluable experience in the French % Indian War. He actually started in Cumberland, Md., where he built a fort and then a road through very mountainous terrain, on his way West into Pa. and Fort Pitt/Duquesne, by way of Fort Necessity, where they were overwhelmed and surrendered.
He got his ass handed to him, but managed an amiable surrender to live and fight another day.
Valuable experience. Then General Braddock enters the picture to assist Washington. His fate was worse, shocking the Brits who believed Washington to be an incompetent Colonial and the reason for the initial defeat.
Washington was hardly a toad though. We were all British subjects prior to Revolution, to come a little later.