The Indians remaining about the fort were only too eager to treat with General Forbes.
Bancroft says: “Armstrong’s own hand raised the British flag on the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banner of England floated over the waters the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburgh.”
Captain James Smith, of the “Black Boys,”
Born in Chester County, November
26, 1737
One of the first captives of the French and Indian War in 1755 was James Smith, of the Conococheague frontier, in what is now Franklin County.
He survived a long captivity and afterward wrote a remarkable account of his experiences which were published in Archibald Loudon’s “Indian Narratives.”
He was born in Chester County November 26, 1737, and spent his early youth in that neighborhood. In 1755 he was living along the frontier in the vicinity of McDowell’s Mill, in present Franklin County, where he was employed by his brother William, who was a commissioner to build a road from the above mill to the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, over which it was intended to transport supplies for General Braddock.
When the builders reached the base of the Alleghenies a storehouse for supplies was placed in charge of Robert McCoy. The supply of meat was almost exhausted and McCoy dispatched young Smith to meet the wagons, bringing a fresh supply, and hurry along the cattle and provisions.
Before reaching the Juniata Smith met Arnold Vigorus, who advised him that the wagons were near at hand. Smith then started back with Vigorus, but when the wagons arrived at McCoy’s the wagoners reported they had seen nothing of Smith or his companion.