Forbes’s next check was more ominous than Grant’s scrimmage. It was not administered by the French—though they followed up the decisive victory on Grant’s Hill with various attacks in force upon Fort Ligonier—but by the clouded heavens. A wet autumn set in early as if to make St. Clair’s road doubly “diabolical.” Forbes wrote Bouquet on October 15: “Your Description of the roads pierces me to the very soul yet still my hopes are that a few Dry days would make things wear a more favourable aspect as all Clay Countries are either good or bad for Carriages according to the wet or dry season. It is true we cannot surmount impossibilities nor prevent unforseen accidents but it must be a comfort both to you and I still that we proceeded wt Caution in the choice of this road and in the opinion of every Disinterested man, it had every advantage over the other. And I am not sure but it has so still considering the Yachiogeny & Monongehela rivers—so I beg yt you will without taking notice to any body make yourself master of the arguments for and objections against the two roads so that upon comparison one may Judge how far we have been in the right in our Choice. N. B. If any party goes out after the Enemy they ought to have instructions always with regard to the roads forward as likewise ye Communication twixt Loyalhana and the nearest part of Mr Braddocks road which want of all things to be reconnoitred in order to stop foolish mouths if it chances to prove anyways as good or practicable. May not such a communication be found without crossing Laurel hill?”
These are exceedingly interesting words when we know that failure stared Forbes in the face. This might mean official inquiry or court martial; in such a case there would have been, no doubt, question raised as to the “right” of Forbes’s and Bouquet’s “choice.” But the fact that Forbes desired to know the exact condition of Braddock’s Road, to get into it if it seemed best, and to prove the soundness of his judgment if it was found to be useless, is especially significant because it shows so plainly that the weary man already scented failure. In a few days he wrote again: “These four days of constant rain have completely ruined the road. The wagons would cut it up more in an hour than we could repair in a week. I have written to General Abercrombie, but have not had one scrap of a pen from him since the beginning of September; so it looks as if we were either forgot or left to our fate.”
Early in November the poor man was carried on over the mountains to Fort Ligonier where the whole army, approximately six thousand strong, lay. Hope of continuing the campaign had fled and the desperate prospect of wintering amid the mountains, with no certainty of receiving sufficient stores to keep man and beast alive, stared the whole army in the face. Nevertheless, at a council of officers it was decided to attempt nothing further that season.
In a few hours three prisoners were brought into camp who reported the true condition of affairs at Fort Duquesne. Bradstreet had destroyed the stores destined for the Ohio by the destruction of Fort Frontenac. Ligneris, the commandant, had consequently been compelled to send home his Illinois and Louisiana militia. The brave Post had succeeded in alienating the Ohio Indians. The remainder at Fort Duquesne were glad now to hurry away into their winter quarters in their distant homelands. The gods had favored the brave.
Immediately Forbes determined upon a hurried advance with a picked body of twenty-five hundred men, unencumbered. Washington and Armstrong hastened ahead to cut the pathway. A strong vanguard led the way. Behind them came the hero of the hour and of the campaign, Forbes, borne on his litter. The Highlanders occupied the center of the rear, with the Royal Americans and provincials on their right and left under Bouquet and Washington. On the night of the twenty-fourth the little army lay on its arms in the hills of Turkey Creek, near Braddock’s fatal field. At midnight a booming report startled them. Were the French welcoming the long-expected reënforcements from Presque Isle and Niagara—or had a magazine exploded? In the morning some advised a delay to reconnoitre. Forbes scorned the suggestion; “I will sleep,” he is said to have exclaimed, “in Fort Duquesne or in hell tonight.”
At dusk that November evening the army marched breathlessly down the wide, hard trace over which Beaujeu had led his rabble toward Braddock’s army and, without opposition, came at last within sight of the goal upon which the eyes of the world had been directed so long. The barracks and store-house of Fort Duquesne were burned, the fortifications blown up and the French—gone forever.
Two days later a weary man sat within an improvised house and with a feeble hand indited a letter to the British Secretary of State. And all it contained was summed up in its first words: “Pittsbourgh 27th Novemr 1758.” It was Pitt’s bourgh now. The region about the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela was known in Kentucky as “the Pitt country.”
The generous Bouquet expressed the sentiment of the army when he affirmed: “After God, the success of this expedition is entirely due to the General.” When Forbes’s physical condition is understood, his last campaign must be considered one of the most heroic in the annals of America. “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 populations had cause to bless the memory of the steadfast and all-enduring soldier.”[75]
Forbes soon became unable to write or dictate a letter. On the terrible return journey over his freshly-hewn road he suffered intensely, sometimes losing consciousness. He was carried the entire distance to Philadelphia on his litter, and in March he died. His body, at last free from pain, was laid with befitting honors in the chancel of Christ Church.
The following death notice and appreciation of General Forbes appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette March 15, 1759: