JUMONVILLE, Pa. — As you head east, winding up the original national road and reach the peak of the Summit Mountain along the imposing Chestnut Ridge, if you are not paying close enough attention, you could easily miss the sign pointing left towards the national park that preserves one of the most important battles in early American history.

It was here that a young Lt. Col. George Washington, who was leading a company of colonial militia for the Crown — along with a handful of Mingo warriors and their chief, Tanacharison, known by local frontiersmen as the Half King — took by surprise a force of 35 French Canadians commanded by Joseph de Villiers de Jumonville.