Fort Edwards is one of the earliest home sites of Hampshire County (West Virginia's oldest county) and as one of the few known Virginia frontier fort sites of the French and Indian War, it is a reminder of the valiant men and women of this nation who struggled to forge a community out of the wilderness.
The Fort Edwards site is located along the northern boundary of Capon Bridge, in what is now West Virginia. It remains surrounded by fields, forests and mountains much as it was in the 1750's when France and England were in their final showdown for possession of the North American continent.
From this fort on April 18, 1756, a group of soldiers of Col. Washington's Virginia Regiment went in pursuit of a few Indians and some of them stumbled into an ambush of over 100 French and Indian raiders. The ambush killed seventeen men and sent chills through the Burgesses in Williamsburg. This battle near Fort Edwards was the largest of the French and Indian War to have occurred in present West Virginia.
Unlike other fort sites used by the Colony of Virginia during the same period, the Edwards site has remained virtually undisturbed for nearly 250 years. It offers a rare look at a fort site of this period and may also provide a window into the life of a frontier settler.
