VII

Pitt's letters inspired the Americans with new hope, and he promised to send them British troops and to supply their own militia with arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions at the king's charge. He sent twelve thousand soldiers from England, which were joined to a Colonial force aggregating fifty thousand men, the most formidable army yet seen in the new world. The plan of campaign embraced three expeditions: the first against Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, which was successful; the second against Ticonderoga, which succeeded after a defeat; and the third against Fort Duquesne. General Forbes, born at Dunfermline (whence have come others to Pittsburgh), commanded this expedition, comprising about seven thousand men. The militia from Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland was led by Washington, whose independent spirit led the testy Scotchman, made irritable by a malady which was soon to cause his death, to declare that Washington's "behavior about the roads was no ways like a soldier." But we cannot believe that the young Virginian was moved by any motive but the public good. On September 12, 1758, Major Grant, a Highlander, led an advance guard of eight hundred and fifty men to a point one mile from the fort, which is still called Grant's Hill, on which the court-house now stands, where he rashly permitted himself to be surrounded and attacked by the French and Indians, half his force being killed or wounded, and himself slain. Washington followed soon after, and opened a road for the advance of the main body under Forbes. Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, had just been taken by General Amherst, with the result that supplies for Fort Duquesne were cut off. When, therefore, Captain Ligneris, the French commandant, learned of the advance of a superior force, having no hope of reinforcements, he blew up the fort, set fire to the adjacent buildings, and drew his garrison away.

On Saturday, November 25, 1758, amidst a fierce snowstorm, the English took possession of the place, and Colonel Armstrong, in the presence of Forbes and Washington, hauled up the puissant banner of Great Britain, while cannons boomed and the exulting victors cheered. On the next day, General Forbes wrote to Governor Denny from "Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh,[A] the 26th of November, 1758," and this was the first use of that name. On this same Sunday the Rev. Mr. Beatty, a Presbyterian chaplain, preached a sermon in thanksgiving for the superiority of British arms,—the first Protestant service in Pittsburgh. The French had had a Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Baron, during their occupancy. On the next day Forbes wrote to Pitt with a vision of prophecy as follows:

Pittsbourgh, 27^th Novem^r, 1758.

Sir,

I do myself the Honour of acquainting you that it has pleased God to crown His Majesty's Arms with Success over all His Enemies upon the Ohio, by my having obliged the enemy to burn and abandon Fort Du Quesne, which they effectuated on the 25^th:, and of which I took possession next day, the Enemy having made their Escape down the River towards the Missisippi in their Boats, being abandoned by their Indians, whom I had previously engaged to leave them, and who now seem all willing and ready to implore His Majesty's most Gracious Protection. So give me leave to congratulate you upon this great Event, of having totally expelled the French from this prodigious tract of Country, and of having reconciled the various tribes of Indians inhabiting it to His Majesty's Government.

I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Du Quesne, as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that now makes us Masters of the place.... These dreary deserts will soon be the richest and most fertile of any possest by the British in N^o. America. I have the honour to be with great regard and Esteem Sir,

Your most obed^t. & most hum^le. serv^t.

Jo: Forbes.

[A] Local controversialists should note that the man who named the city spelt it with the final h.