Fort Pitt
French Abandon Fort Duquestne.——Fort Pitt is Built.
On the evening of the 24th they encamped on the hills around Turtle Creek, and at midnight the sentinels heard a heavy boom as if a magazine had exploded. In the morning the march was resumed. After the advance guard came Forbes, carried in a litter, the troops following in three columns, the Highlanders in the center headed by Montgomery, the Royal Americans and Provincials on the right and left under Bouquet and Washington. Slowly they made their way beneath an endless entanglement of bare branches. The Highlanders were goaded to madness by seeing as they approached the Fort the heads of their countrymen, who had fallen when Grant made his rash attack, stuck on poles, around which their plaids had been wrapped in imitation of petticoats. Foaming with rage they rushed forward, abandoning their muskets and drawing their broadswords; but their fury was in vain, for when they reached a point where the Fort should have been in sight, there was nothing between them and the hills on the opposite banks of the Monongahela and Allegheny but a mass of blackened and smouldering ruins. The enemy, after burning the barracks and storehouses, had blown up the fortifications and retreated, some down the Ohio, others overland to Presque Isle, and others up the Allegheny to Venango.
There were two forts, and some idea may be formed of their size, with barracks and storehouses, from the fact that John Haslet writes to the Rev. Dr. Allison, two days after the English took possession, that there were thirty chimney stacks standing.
The troops had no shelter until the first fort was built. Col. Bouquet wrote to Miss Ann Willing from Fort Duquesne, November 25th, 1758, "they have burned and destroyed to the ground their fortifications, houses and magazines, and left us no other cover than the heavens—a very cold one for an army without tents or equipages."
Col. Bouquet in a letter written to Chief Justice Allen of Pennsylvania on November 26th, enumerated the needs of the garrison, which he hopes the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Virginia will immediately supply. He adds: "After God, the success of this expedition is entirely due to the general. He has shown the greatest prudence, firmness and ability. No one is better informed than I am, who had an opportunity to see every step that has been taken from the beginning and every obstacle that was thrown in his way." Forbes' first care was to provide defense and shelter for his troops, and a strong stockade was built around the traders' cabins and soldiers' huts, which he named Pittsburgh, in honor of England's great Minister, William Pitt. Two hundred Virginians under Col. Mercer were left to defend the new fortification, a force wholly inadequate to hold the place if the French chose to return and attempt to take it again. Those who remained must for a time depend largely on stream and forest to supply their needs, while the army, which was to return began their homeward march early in December, with starvation staring them in the face.
No sooner was this work done than Forbes utterly succumbed. He left with the soldiers, and was carried all the way to Philadelphia in a litter, arriving there January 18, 1759. He lingered through the winter, died in March, and was buried in Christ Church, March 14, 1759. Parkman says: "If his achievement was not brilliant, its solid value was above price; it opened the Great West to English enterprise, took from France half her savage allies, and relieved the western borders from the scourge of Indian war. From Southern New York to North Carolina the frontier population had cause to bless the memory of this steadfast and all-enduring soldier."
Just sixty days after the taking of Fort Duquesne, William Pitt wrote a letter, dated Whitehall, January 23, 1759, of which the following extract will show how important this place was considered in Great Britain.
"Sir:—I am now to acquaint you that the King has been pleased immediately upon receiving the news of the success of his armies on the river Ohio, to direct the commander-in-chief of His Majesty's forces in North America, and General Forbes, to lose no time in concerting the properest and speediest means for completely restoring, if possible, the ruined Fort Duquesne to a defensible and respectable state, or for erecting another in the room of it of sufficient strength, and every way adequate to the great importance of the several objects of maintaining His Majesty's subject in the undisputed possession of the Ohio," etc., etc.
In a letter dated Pittsburgh, August 1759, Col. Mercer writes to Gov. Denny: "Capt. Gordon, chief engineer, has arrived with most of the artificers, but does not fix the spot for constructing the Fort till the general comes up. We are preparing the materials for building with what expedition so few men are capable of."
There was no attempt made to restore the old fortifications, but about a year afterwards work was begun on a new fort. Gen. John Stanwix, who succeeded Gen. Forbes, is said to have been a man of high military standing, with a liberal and generous spirit. In 1760, he appeared on the Ohio at the head of an army, and with full power to build a large fort where Fort Duquesne had stood. The exact date of his arrival and the day when work was commenced is not known, but the work must have been begun the last of August or the first of September, 1759. A letter dated September 24, 1759, gives the following account: "It is now near a month since the army has been employed in erecting a most formidable fortification, such a one as will to latest posterity secure the British Empire on the Ohio. There is no need to enumerate the abilities of the chief engineer nor the spirit shown by the troops in executing the important task; the fort will soon be a lasting monument of both."
The fort was built near the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela unite their waters, but a little farther inland than the site of Fort Duquesne. It stood on the present site of the Duquesne Freight Station, while all the ground from the Point to Third Street and from Liberty Street to the Allegheny River was enclosed in a stockade and surrounded by a moat. It was a solid and substantial building, constructed at an enormous expense to the English Government.[C] It was five-sided, two sides facing the land of brick, the others stockade. The earth around was thrown up so all was enclosed by a rampart of earth, supported on the land side by a perpendicular wall of brick; on the other sides a line of pickets was fixed on the outside of the slope, and a moat encompassed the entire work. Casemates, barracks and store houses were completed for a garrison of one thousand men and officers, and eighteen pieces of artillery mounted on the bastions. This strong fortification was thought to establish the British dominion of the Ohio. The exact date of its completion is not known, but on March 21, 1760, Maj. Gen. Stanwix, having finished his work, set out on his return journey to Philadelphia.
Conspiracy of Pontiac and Col. Bouquet.
The effect of this stronghold was soon apparent in the return of about four thousand settlers to their lands on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, from which they had been driven by their savage enemies, and the brisk trade which at once began to be carried on with the now, to all appearance, friendly Indians. However, this security was not of long duration. The definite treaty of peace between England, Spain and France was signed February 10, 1763, but before that time, Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, was planning his great conspiracy, which carried death and desolation throughout the frontier.
The French had always tried to ingratiate themselves with the Indians. When their warriors came to French forts they were hospitably welcomed and liberally supplied with guns, ammunition and clothing, until the weapons and garments of their forefathers were forgotten. The English, on the contrary, either gave reluctantly or did not give at all. Many of the English traders were of the coarsest stamp, who vied with each other in rapacity and violence. When an Indian warrior came to an English fort, instead of the kindly welcome he had been accustomed to receive from the French, he got nothing but oaths, and menaces, and blows, sometimes being assisted to leave the premises by the butt of a sentinel's musket. But above and beyond all, they watched with wrath and fear the progress of the white man into their best hunting grounds, for as the English colonist advanced their beloved forests disappeared under the strokes of the axe. The French did all in their power to augment this discontent.
In this spirit of revenge and hatred a powerful confederacy was formed, including all the western tribes, under the command of Pontiac, alike renowned for his war like spirit, his wisdom and his bravery, and whose name was a terror to the entire region of the lakes. The blow was to be struck in the month of May, 1763. The tribes were to rise simultaneously and attack the English garrisons. Thus a sudden attack was made on all the western posts. Detroit was saved after a long and close siege. Forts Pitt and Niagara narrowly escaped, while Le Boeuf, Venango, Presqu' Isle, Miamis, St. Joseph, Quachtanon, Sandusky and Michillimackinac all fell into the hands of the Indians. Their garrisons were either butchered on the spot, or carried off to be tortured for the amusement of their cruel captors.
The savages swept over the surrounding country, carrying death and destruction wherever they went. Hundreds of traders were slaughtered without mercy, while their wives and children, if not murdered, were carried off captives. The property destroyed or stolen amounted, it is said to five hundred thousand pounds. Attacks were made on Forts Bedford and Ligonier, but without success. Fort Ligonier was under siege for two months. The preservation of this post was of the utmost importance, and Lieut. Blaine, by his courage and good conduct, managed to hold it until August 2, 1763, when Col. Bouquet arrived with his little army.
In the meantime, every preparation was made at Fort Pitt for an attack. The garrison at that post numbered three hundred and thirty, commanded by Capt. Simeon Ecuyer, a brave Swiss. The fortifications having been badly damaged by floods, were with great labor repaired. The barracks were made shot-proof to protect the women and children, and as the buildings inside were all of wood, a rude fire-engine was constructed to extinguish any flames kindled by the fire-arrows of the Indians. All the houses and cabins outside the walls were leveled to the ground. The fort was so crowded by the families of the settlers who had taken refuge there, that Ecuyer wrote to Col. Bouquet, "We are so crowded in the fort that I fear disease, for in spite of every care I cannot keep the place as clean as I should like. Besides, the smallpox is among us, and I have therefore caused a hospital to be built under the drawbridge."
Several weeks, however, elapsed before there was any determined attack from the enemy. On July 26th some chiefs asked for a parley with Capt. Ecuyer, which was granted. They demanded that he and all in the fort should leave immediately or it and they would all be destroyed. He replied that they would not go, closing his speech with these words: "Therefore, my brother, I will advise you to go home, * * * Moreover, I tell you if any of you appear again about this fort, I will throw bomb-shells which will burst and blow you to atoms, and fire cannon upon you loaded with a whole bag full of bullets. Take care, therefore, for I don't want to hurt you." On the night succeeding this parley the Indians approached in great numbers, crawling under the banks of the two rivers digging holes with their knives, in which they were completely sheltered from the fire of the fort. On one side the entire bank was lined with these burrows, from which they shot volleys or bullets, arrows and fire-arrows into the fort. The yelling was terrific, and the women and children in the crowded barracks clung to each other in abject terror. This attack lasted five days. On August 1st the Indians heard the rumor of Col. Bouquet's approach, which caused them to move on, and so the tired garrison was relieved.
When the news of this Indian uprising reached Gen. Amhurst, he ordered Col. Bouquet to march with a detachment of five hundred men to the relief of the besieged forts. The force was composed of companies from the Forty-second Highlanders and Seventy-seventh Regulars, to which were added six companies of Rangers. Bouquet established his camp in Carlisle at the end of June. Here he found every building, every house, every barn, every hovel, crowded with refugees. He writes to Gen. Amherst on July 13th, as follows: "The list of people known to be killed increases every day. The desolation of so many families, reduced to the last extreme of want and misery; the despair of those who have lost their parents; relations and friends, with the cries of distracted women and children who fill the streets, form a scene painful to humanity and impossible to describe."
William Pitt.
Strange as it may seem, the Province of Pennsylvania would do nothing to aid the troops who gathered for its defense. The Quakers, who had a majority in the Assembly, were non-combatants from principle and practice; and the Swiss and German Mennonites, who were numerous in Lancaster County, professed, like the Quakers, the principle of non-resistance, and refused to bear arms. Wagons and horses had been promised, but promises were broken. Bouquet writes again to Amherst: "I hope we shall be able to save that infatuated people from destruction, notwithstanding all their endeavors to defeat your vigorous measures." While Bouquet harassed and exasperated, labored on at his difficult task, the terror of the country people increased, until at last finding that they could hope for but little aid from the Government, they bestirred themselves with admirable spirit in their own defense. They raised small bodies of riflemen, who scoured the woods in front of the settlements, and succeeded in driving the enemy back. In some instances these men dressed themselves as Indian warriors, painted their faces red and black, and adopted the savage mode of warfare.
On the 3rd of July a courier from Fort Bedford rode into Carlisle, and as he stopped to water his horse he was immediately surrounded by an anxious crowd, to whom he told his tale of woe, adding, as he mounted his horse to ride on to Bouquet's tent, "The Indians will soon be here." Terror and excitement spread everywhere, messengers were dispatched in every direction to give the alarm, and the reports, harrowing as they had been, were fully confirmed by the fugitives who were met on every road and by-path hurrying to Carlisle for refuge. A party armed themselves and went out to warn the living and bury the dead. They found death and desolation everywhere, and sickened with horror at seeing groups of hogs tearing and devouring the bodies of the dead.
After a delay of eighteen days, having secured enough wagons, horses and oxen, Bouquet began his perilous march, with a force much smaller than Braddock's, to encounter a foe far more formidable. But Bouquet, the man of iron will and iron hand, had served seven years in America, and understood his work.
On July 25th he reached Fort Bedford, when he was fortunate in securing thirty backwoodsmen to go with him. This little army toiled on through the blazing heat of July over the Alleghanies, and reached Fort Ligonier, August 2nd, the Indians, who had besieged the fort for two months, disappearing at the approach of the troops. Here Bouquet left his oxen and wagons and resumed his march on the 4th. On the 5th, about noon, he encountered the enemy at Bushy Run. The battle raged for two days, and ended in a total route of the savages. The loss of the British was one hundred and fifteen and eight officers. The distance to Fort Pitt was twenty-five miles, which place was reached on the 10th. The enemy had abandoned the siege and marched to unite their forces with those which attacked Col. Bouquet at Bushy Run. The savages continued their hasty retreat, but Col. Bouquet's force was not sufficient to enable him to pursue the enemy beyond the Ohio, and he was obliged to content himself with supplying Fort Pitt and other forts with provisions, ammunition and stores.
It was at this time that Col. Bouquet built the little Redoubt which is now not only all that remains of Fort Pitt, but the only existing monument of British occupancy in this region.
The Indians abandoned all their former settlements, and retreated to the Muskingum; here they formed new settlements, and in the spring of 1764 again began to ravage the frontier. To put an end to these depredations, Gen. Gage planned a campaign into this western wilderness from two points—Gen. Bradstreet was to advance by way of the lakes, and Col. Bouquet from Fort Pitt. After the usual delays and disappointments in securing troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia to aid in this expedition, the march from Carlisle was begun, and Col. Bouquet arrived at Fort Pitt September 17th, and was detained there until October 3rd. He followed the north bank of the Ohio until he reached the Beaver, when he turned towards Central Ohio. Holding on his course, he refused to listen to either threats or promises from the Indians, declining to treat with them at all until they should deliver up the prisoners. Although not a blow was struck, the Indians were vanquished. Bouquet continued his march down the valley of the Muskingum until he reached a spot where some broad meadows offered a suitable place for encampment. Here he received a deputation of chiefs, listened to their offers of peace, and demanded the delivery of the prisoners. Soon band after band of captives arrived, until the number exceeded three hundred.
The scenes which followed the restoring of the prisoners to their friends beggar all description; wives recovering their husbands, parents seeking for children whom they could scarcely recognize, brothers and sisters meeting after a long separation, and sometimes scarcely able to speak the same language. The story is told of a woman whose daughter had been carried off nine years before. The mother recognized her child, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her mother tongue, showed no sign of recognition. The mother complained to Col. Bouquet that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her. "Sing the song to her that you used to sing when she was a child," said Col. Bouquet. She did so, and with a passionate flood of tears the long-lost daughter flung herself into her mother's arms.
Everything being settled, the army broke camp November 18th, and arrived at Fort Pitt on the 28th. Early in January Col. Bouquet returned to Philadelphia, receiving wherever he went every possible mark of gratitude and esteem from the people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the House of Burgesses of Virginia each unanimously voted him addresses of thanks, and on the arrival of the first account of this expedition the King promoted him to the rank of Brigadier General to command the Southern District of North America.
Conflict Between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
We have seen two of the most powerful nations of Europe contending for the possession of the "Forks of the Ohio." We have seen the efforts of the Indians to destroy the Fort and regain possession of their hunting grounds.
In October, 1770, Washington again visited the "Forks of the Ohio," this time on a peaceful errand. He reached Fort Pitt October 17, 1770, and he says in his Journal: "Lodged in what is called the town; distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semple's, who keeps a very good house of entertainment." He describes both the town and the fort, where the garrison at this time consisted of two companies of Royal Irish, commanded by Capt. Edmonstone. In this journal we find the following entry on October 18th: "Dined in the fort with Col. Croghan and the officers of the garrison; supped there also, meeting with great civility from the gentlemen, and engaged to dine with Col. Croghan next day, at his seat about four miles up the Allegheny."
Washington and his party, numbering nine or ten persons, with three Indians, continued their journey down the Ohio in a large canoe. On November 2nd, we find that the party "encamped and went a-hunting, killed five buffalos and wounded some others, three deer, etc. This country abounds in Buffaloes and wild game of all kinds, as also in all kinds of wild fowl, there being in the bottoms a great many small, grassy ponds or lakes, which are full of swan, geese and ducks of different kinds." The party returned to Pittsburgh November 21st, were again hospitably entertained, and on the 23rd mounted their horses on their return journey to Virginia. This was Washington's last visit to Fort Pitt.
Now, after the season of rest and quiet, there comes another contest, this time between the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The British Government, as the trouble with the colonies increased, deemed it advisable to abandon Fort Pitt and withdraw the troops. Maj. Edmonstone, then in command, sold the buildings and material October 10, 1772, to Alexander Ross and William Thompson, for fifty pounds New York currency. The fort was evacuated by the British forces in October, 1772, and in January, 1774, troops from Virginia sent by the Governor, Lord Dunmore, under command of Dr. James Connelly, took possession and changed the name to Fort Dunmore. Dr. Connelly was arrested by Arthur St. Clair, then a magistrate of Westmoreland County, of which Allegheny County was at that time a part, and put in jail, but was soon released on bail. He went back to Virginia, but shortly returned with civil and military authority to enforce the laws of Virginia. This contest continued for several years, until a prominent citizen wrote to Governor Penn: "The deplorable state of affairs in this part of your government is truly distressing. We are robbed, insulted and dragooned by Connelly and his militia in this place and its environs." Maryland, too, had contended, sometimes with the shedding of blood, for the possession of this important point. It was not until 1785 that commissioners were appointed, the boundary of the western part of the State finally run, and Pennsylvania established in the possession of her territory.
Revolutionary Period.
During the struggle for independence the settlements west of the Alleghanies had little to fear from the invading armies of Great Britain; but, influenced by the English, the Indians again began their ravages.
Fort Pitt at that time was under the command of Capt. John Neville, and was the center of government authority. Just two days after the Declaration of Independence, but long before the news of it could have crossed the mountains, we read of a conference at Fort Pitt between Maj. Trent, Maj. Ward, Capt. Neville and other officers of the garrison, with the famous Pontiac, Guyasuta, Capt. Pipe and other representatives of the Six Nations. Guyasuta was the chief speaker. He produced a belt of wampum, which was to be sent from the Six Nations to other western tribes, informing them that the Six Nations would take no part in the war between England and America and asking them to do the same. In his address Guyasuta said: "Brothers:—We will not suffer either the English or the Americans to pass through our country. Should either attempt it, we shall forewarn them three times, and should they persist they must take the consequences. I am appointed by the Six Nations to take care of this country; that is, of the Indians on the other side of the Ohio" (which included the Allegheny) "and I desire you will not think of an expedition against Detroit, for, I repeat, we will not suffer an army to pass through our country." The Six Nations was the most powerful confederacy of Indians in America, and whichever side secured their allegiance might count on the other tribes following them.
Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair.
Instigated by the agents of Great Britain, it was not long before a deadly struggle began. Scalping parties of Indians ravaged the frontier, sparing neither age nor sex, and burning and destroying all that came in their path. Companies were formed to protect the settlements, whose headquarters were at Fort Pitt, and expeditions were made into the enemy's country, but with no very great success.
On June 1, 1777, Brig. Gen. Edward Hand took command of the post and issued a call for two thousand men. He did not receive a very satisfactory response to this call. After considerable delay, he made several expeditions against the Indians, but was singularly unfortunate in his attempts. These fruitless efforts only emboldened the savages to continue their ravages.
In 1778, Gen. Hand, at his own request, was recalled, and Brig. Gen. McIntosh succeeded him. Gen. McIntosh planned a formidable expedition into the enemy's country. He marched to the mouth of the Beaver, where he built a fort and called it Fort McIntosh; then he advanced seventy-five miles farther, built another fort, and called it Fort Laurens; but on hearing alarming reports of the Indians and for want of supplies, he left Col. John Gibson with one hundred and fifty men there and returned to Fort Pitt. The depredations of the Indians continued, and Gen. McIntosh, utterly disheartened from the want of men and supplies, asked to be relieved of his command. He was succeeded by Col. Daniel Brodhead, who, like his predecessor, planned great things, but never had the means of carrying out his plans.
By this time Fort Pitt was badly in need of repairs, and the garrison, half-fed and badly equipped, was almost mutinous. In November, 1781, Gen. William Irvine took command of the post. He describes the condition of the fort and of the soldiers as deplorable. He writes: "The few troops that are here are the most licentious men and worst behaved I ever saw, owing, I presume, in a great measure to their not hitherto being kept under any subordination or tolerable degree of discipline." The firmness of the commander soon restored order, but not without the free application of the lash and the execution of two soldiers.
The winter of 1782 and 1783 was comparatively quiet, and October 1st, 1783, Gen. Irvine took his final leave of the western department. The State of Pennsylvania acknowledged her gratitude for this service by donating him a valuable tract of land.
In 1790 there was another Indian outbreak. Maj. Isaac Craig was then acting as Quartermaster in Pittsburgh. On May 19th, 1791, he wrote to Gen. Knox, representing the terror occasioned by the near approach of the Indians, and asking permission to erect another fortification, as Fort Pitt was in a ruinous condition. This request was granted, and Maj. Craig erected a fortification occupying the ground from Garrison Alley to Hand (now Ninth) Street, and from Liberty to the Allegheny River. This he named Fort Lafayette.
The expeditions of Gen. Harmar and of Gen. St. Clair against the Indians had been ineffectual and disastrous. In 1794, Gen. Anthony Wayne was more successful, and defeated and scattered the Indians so effectually that they never again gave trouble in this region.
FOOTNOTE:
[C] There is a wide discrepancy in the authorities as to the cost of Fort Pitt; some state the cost as six hundred pounds, others give it as sixty thousand pounds.