This year marks 250 years since our country's founding on July 4, 1776. And in honor of the nation's semiquincentennial, KDKA-TV has embarked on a weekly series of stories that look to not only tell our nation's 250-year history but highlight "Pittsburgh's Path" in shaping the United States. It shouldn't really be any surprise that our first "Pittsburgh's Path" story is about none other than George Washington.

Before he became the general, president and Founding Father we all know today, Washington was earning his stripes, testing his resolve and learning from his defeats here in western Pennsylvania.

Andrew Masich, the president of the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, says that in his late teens and early 20s, Washington was an ambitious young man, looking to distinguish himself.

"By the time he was 16 years old, he had taught himself surveying and he got jobs in the western wilds surveying, taking jobs that older men wouldn't take, because they were too hard or too dangerous," Masich said. "And then, by the time he was 21, the Lt. Gov. of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, came to him and said, 'I need someone to go out to the forks of the Ohio and confront the French and tell them that they are trespassing.' And that's what got George Washington to Pittsburgh in the first place."

What would transpire between Washington and the French in the region over the course of the next several years would escalate into a global conflict between France and Britain. That conflict is known today as the French and Indian War — a war that the French say Washington directly started when in May of 1754, he and his men killed the French Commander Ensign Jumonville in an ambush near what is today Farmington in Fayette County.

Less than two months later and just a few miles away from the skirmish with Jumonville, Washington would be defeated by the French at Fort Necessity, and while he was allowed to return with his soldiers to Virginia, he was made to sign a document basically stating that he was responsible for the death of the French leader.

The following year, Washington found himself once again defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela, just 10 miles downriver from the French-held Fort Duquesne.

Washington survived the battle, but many of his fellow British soldiers did not. General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded during the fighting and the town that grew up at the site of the battle now bears the general's name, Braddock, Pennsylvania.

Then, in 1758, this time under the command of British General John Forbes, Colonel Washington once again found himself near Pittsburgh at Fort Ligonier.

Matthew Gault, the Director of Education at Fort Ligonier, says that on Nov. 12 of that year, while Colonel George Mercer was in a heated fight with French soldiers some two miles outside the fort, Washington rallied a force to help, only to find himself in the middle of another terrible situation.

"Washington, with his troops, they are moving through the wilderness, it's dark, it's difficult to see, visibility is very low," Gault explains. "And suddenly, someone sees a shadowy figure dart from one tree to another, a shot rings out and the natural instinct is to fire back, and a hot fire ensues, we have a skirmish going on. Someone is going to realize that this is not the enemy, the enemy have removed themselves from the field. And what Washington suddenly realizes is the worst possible situation. Colonel Mercer and his men are who they are engaged with now and who they are firing upon."

The event would go down in history as the Friendly Fire Incident. Washington is said to have raced down the firing line, knocking the muskets into the air when he realized what was happening. In all, some 40 militiamen were killed, wounded or went missing and Washington would later write that this incident was the most danger he was ever in during his military career.

Until recently, the site of the Friendly Fire Incident was unknown, but several years ago, thanks to a group of dedicated historians and archeologists, the location of the battle was found on private land in Ligonier Township. Though work at the site continues during the summer months, many of the artifacts that have been unearthed are now on permanent display at the Fort Ligonier Museum. 

Gault says that Washington's trials and tribulations in the region and his actions at things like the Friendly Fire Incident are still being debated and studied, and that the decisions that Washington made, both good and bad, not only helped to shape him, but in turn eventually helped shape the United States as a nation.

"He makes wrong decisions," Gault said. "He makes right decisions. He was a human being. And by learning from those and acknowledging the good and bad, you start to find someone who we can relate with, who young people can relate with today who they are able to see, you can make a mistake, and you can learn from it."