“ 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. ”

“ Still others have been transferred to distant and irrelevant localities, and an old resident, returning from the world of shades would be sadly confused if looking for old landmarks, Fort Pitt and all pertaining to it, excepting only the Block House, vanished long ago. There is nothing left of the later age which saw "Rice's Castle" in its glory. The new industrialism is steadily and rapidly blotting out the picturesque and historic all around us. Let all good Pittsburghers unite to preserve the little that is left, the Redoubt built by Col. Bouquet in 1764. ”

“ 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." ”

“ The ground was strewn with the dead and dying, maddened horses were plunging about, the roar of musketry and cannon, and above all the yells that came from the throats of six hundred invisible savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror indescribable. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In October the rain changed to snow, while all this time Forbes was chained to a sick-bed at Raystown, now Fort Bedford. In the beginning of November he was carried from Fort Bedford to Fort Ligonier in a litter, and a council of officers, then held, decided to attempt nothing more that season, but a few days later a report of the condition of the French was brought in, which led Forbes to give orders for an immediate advance. On November 18, 1758, two thousand five hundred picked men, without tents or baggage, without wagons or artillery except a few light pieces, began their march. ”

“ Pittsburgh has always been preeminently a hospitable city, and it is possible that in no other town of its size is there as much entertaining. At weddings, too, the display of presents is an object of surprise to the out-of-town guests, unused to such lavishness. Tracing our Provincial characteristics back to their remote origins, we discover that Pittsburgh at the end of the nineteenth century, in the grip of hereditary, imitates the traders and early settlers in this region, who were in the habit of entertaining whole tribes of Indians, and of making them [Pg 59] frequent gifts. ”

“ When the scouts brought the intelligence that the English were within six leagues of the fort, the French, in great excitement and alarm, decided to march at once and ambuscade them at the ford. The Indians at first refused to move, but Beaujeu, dressed as one of them, finally persuaded them to march, and they filed off along the forest trail that led to the ford [Pg 16] of the Monongahela—six hundred Indians and about three hundred regulars and Canadians. ”

“ Inspired by the suggestion of hereditary, the imaginative mind turns to the past for other instances. On any pleasant Monday morning during the spring or summer months the thrifty housekeepers in Fort Street or Point Alley, and in the shadow of the Block House itself, may be seen doing their week's washing in front of their houses. ”

“ 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 [Pg 45] Fort Pitt, and expeditions were made into the enemy's country, but with no very great success. ”

“ After trying in vain to stop the flight, he was lifted on a horse, when, fainting from the effects of his mortal wound, some of the men were induced by large bribes to carry him in a litter. Braddock ordered a detachment from the camp to go to the relief of the stragglers, but as the fugitives kept coming in with their tales of horror, the panic seized the camp, and soldiers and teamsters fled. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ As far as the eye or mind could reach a prodigious forest vegetation spread its impervious canopy over hill, valley and plain. His next post was on the Loyalhanna Creek, scarcely fifty miles distant from Fort Duquesne, and here he built a fortification, naming it Fort Ligonier, in honor of Lord Ligonier, commander-in-chief of His Majesty's armies. Forbes had served under Ligonier, and his influence, together with that of the Duke of Bedford, secured to Forbes his appointment. ”

“ Dinwiddie then ordered Washington to advance. In order to do so, a road must be cut for wagons and cannon, through a dense forest; two mountain ranges must be crossed, and innumerable hills and streams. Towards the end of May he reached Great Meadows with one hundred and fifty men. While encamped here, Washington learned that a detachment of French had marched from the fort in order to attack him. They met in a rocky hollow and a short fight ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, the commander, was killed; all the French were taken prisoners or killed except one Canadian. ”

“ Doubtless he wondered what the stern Spanish campaigner would have done if brought to the western wilderness to fight the red man, and, if he lived to return to his English home with his scalp intact, it is more than probable that Ensign Francis Howard's tales of America warfare and adventure were the delight of many a hunting dinner or evening fireside. ”

“ The prisoners taken in the Jumonville affair were to be released, Capt. Van Braam and Major Stobo to be detained as hostages for their safe return to Fort Duquesne.
This defeat was disastrous to the English. There was now not an English flag waving west of the Alleghanies. Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne, and Washington began his wretched march to Will's Creek. No horses, no cattle, most of the baggage must be left behind, while the sick and wounded must be carried over the Alleghanies on the backs of their weary, half starved comrades. ”

“ He only resembled Braddock in his determined resolution, but he did not hesitate to embrace modes of warfare that Braddock would have scorned. He wrote to Bouquet: "I have been long of your opinion of equipping numbers of our men like the savages, and I fancy Col. Burd of Virginia has most of his men equipped in that manner. In this country we must learn our art of war from the Indians, or any one else who has carried it on here." He arrived in Philadelphia in April 1758, but it was the end of June before his troops were ready to march. ”

“ 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 [Pg 39] at all until they should deliver up the prisoners. Although not a blow was struck, the Indians were vanquished. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then arose the question of opening a new road through Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne, or following the old road made by Braddock. Washington, who commanded the Virginians, foretold the ruin of the expedition unless Braddock's road was chosen, but Forbes and Bouquet were firm and it was decided to adopt the new route through Pennsylvania. Forbes was able to reach Carlisle early in July, but his disorder was so increased by the journey that he was not able to leave that place until the 11th of August, and then in a kind of litter swung between two horses. ”

“ Of Braddock, Governor Dinwiddie's Secretary, Shirley wrote to Governor Morris: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for being disqualified for the service he is in, in almost every respect." Braddock issued a call to the provincial governors to meet him in council, which was answered by Dinwiddie of Virginia, Dobbs of North Carolina, Sharpe of Maryland, Morris of Pennsylvania, Delancy of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts. The result was a plan to attack the French at four points at once. ”

“ On making his report Washington recommended that a fort be built at the "Forks of the Ohio."
Men and money were necessary to make good Governor Dinwiddie's demand that the French evacuate the territory they had appropriated; these he found it difficult to get. He dispatched letters, orders, couriers from New Jersey to South Carolina, asking aid. Massachusetts and New York were urged to make a feint against Canada, but as the land belonged either to Pennsylvania or Virginia, the other colonies did not care to vote money to defend them. ”

“ When darkness came a parley was sounded, to which Washington at first paid no attention, but when the French repeated the proposal, and requested that an officer might be sent, he could refuse no longer. There were but two in Washington's command who could understand French, and one of them was wounded. Capt. Van Braam, a Dutchman, acted as interpreter. The articles were signed about midnight. The English troops were to march out with drums beating, carrying with them all their property. ”

“ Gay blankets, red paint, strings of wampum and barrels of whiskey are not now exchanged at Christmas and on New Year's Day, or shown at wedding feasts, as we have improved somewhat upon the primitive customs of our forefathers, but the instinct is unchanged. ”

“ 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. ”