No one expected Joseph Coulon de Villiers (1718-1754) to be the cause of a worldwide conflict. A minor French noble, Sieur de Jumonville became an officer in the French army serving in America in 1733 at the age of fifteen, through the patronage of his lieutenant father. The elder Villiers died that same year, and Ensign Jumonville’s career was unremarkable until 1754 when he was assigned to Fort Duquesne (current-day Pittsburgh, PA).
As a minor officer who had not managed to distinguish himself by his mid-thirties, Jumonville could hardly have expected choice assignments, but even so, the task he took on in late May was unappealing. He was to lead a force of 35 men to confront a much larger company of Virginia colonial troops who were encroaching into what the French felt was their territory.
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