COULONDEVILLIERS, LOUIS
Coulon de Villiers, Louis
(August 10, 1710–November 2, 1757)
French Army Officer
C
oulon de Villiers was a capable army of-
ficer who humbled George Washington
outside the walls of Fort Necessity.
Having avenged his brother’s death, he was
magnanimous enough to allow the Americans
to leave French territory alive.
Louis Coulon de Villiers was born in
Vercheres, Quebec, on August 10, 1710. As a
young man he entered military service as a
cadet in his father’s command at Fort Saint
Joseph in present-day Michigan. In 1733,
Coulon participated in a bloody attack upon a
Fox Indian village and was wounded, having
also suffered the loss of his father and elder
brother, both of whom were killed. The fol-
lowing year he was commissioned a second
ensign in the colonial regulars and was dis-
patched to Louisiana. There, in 1739, he ac-
companied Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de
Bienville’sunsuccessful expedition against
the Chickasaws. Coulon returned to Canada
soon after and was posted to Fort Frederic
(now Crown Point), New York, in anticipation
of King George’s War. In 1748, he rose to lieu-
tenant and two years later assumed command
of Fort des Miamis (now Fort Wayne, Indi-
ana). There he gained great renown for his
ability to work with the neighboring tribe, the
Miamis, and used his influence to isolate them
from English influence. Following his return
to Montreal in 1753, Coulon advanced in rank
to captain.
By 1754, the Ohio Valley had become the
locus of confrontation between France and
England, primarily through the relentless ad-
vance of American settlers and land specula-
tors onto Indian and French territory. In the
spring of that year, a party of 500 Virginians
under Lt. Col. George Washington had en-
sconced themselves on French territory.
When a party of 30 Canadian soldiers led by
Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville,
Louis’s younger brother, attempted to serve
an eviction notice, he was ambushed and
killed along with several men. At this time,
Louis Coulon was advancing upon Fort
Duquesne (Pittsburgh) with reinforcements.
He arrived just as the commander, Capt.
Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur,
was about to lead a large expedition against
Washington’s men to remove them by force.
Stung by the loss of his younger brother,
Coulon demanded and received the right to
lead the expedition and extract revenge. He
then departed with 500 men and a large body
of Indians, heading southeast.
As the French column traversed miles of
wilderness, they encountered the site of Ju-
monville’s ambush and buried several corpses
that had been scalped and left exposed. This
grisly find only heightened Coulon’s resolve,
and he continued advancing upon the enemy.
On July 2, 1754, his scouts discovered Wash-
ington’s men hunkered down behind a crude
log redoubt christened Fort Necessity (near
Farmington, Pennsylvania), for obvious rea-
sons. Outnumbered and fearing bloody retali-
ation, American morale was low. Coulon
promptly surrounded Fort Necessity and
commenced a withering fusillade over the
next nine hours. The result of this exchange
was three French killed and 17 wounded
against a loss of nearly 100 American casual-
ties. French ammunition was running low;
combined with fears of American reinforce-
ments, this induced Coulon to offer the garri-
son terms of surrender. Accordingly, on July
4, Washington was allowed to depart with
honor and returned to Virginia unmolested.
This was quite magnanimous of Coulon, con-
sidering the recent loss of his brother, but he
had achieved his objective without further
bloodshed. Moreover, the Americans were
forced to agree to return all prisoners and
abandon all fortifications west of the Alleghe-
nies in exchange for two hostages. Unwit-