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Posted on 05/25/2005 10:00:34 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Rather than repeat Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock's disastrous march on Fort Duquesne through western Virginia in 1755, in 1758 Brig. Gen. John Forbes took a new route -- carved through the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania.  The Native American caught between the struggling superpowers of Britain and France. All three were victors in their time, and losers in the end. Rationally, the decision was an easy one. His troops, having struggled through the wilderness of central Pennsylvania, were poorly fed, sick and deserting in alarming numbers. Provisions were difficult to transport by way of the crude road cut through virgin forests and over the four wall-like ridges of the Alleghenies that lay between Ligonier and Forbes' supply base in Carlisle; in winter they would be impossible to obtain. The number of hostile Indians encamped at Fort Duquesne was difficult to determine. Unclear, too, was the precise size of the French garrison. Moreover, even if the British and Americans reduced the fort, they were uncertain of holding it throughout the winter. In the laconic conclusion of Lt. Col. Bouquet, "The risks being so obviously greater than the advantages, there is no doubt as to the sole course that prudence dictates." Forbes and his officers agreed to delay the attack on Fort Duquesne until early the following year. Within two weeks, however, the circumstances besetting Forbes' army underwent so dramatic a change that his expedition would stand out, in the words of historian Lewis C. Walkinshaw, as "one of the greatest in American history." Appreciating this paradox may be counted among the essential challenges confronting scholars of the French and Indian War.  Indian scouts watch as Gen. Braddock's troops ford a river on the way to attack Ft Duquesne The campaign to seize Fort Duquesne had its origins in the French and British struggle for control of the fertile Ohio River valley. Erected at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers -- the "Forks of the Ohio," site of today's Pittsburgh -- Fort Duquesne revealed its strategic importance soon after its construction. At Great Meadows, Lt. Col. George Washington's attempt to secure a foothold for Virginia in western Pennsylvania was checked on July 4, 1754, when a French force based at Duquesne forced him to surrender the poorly situated Fort Necessity. During the summer of 1755, a British expeditionary force commanded by General Braddock set out to seize Fort Duquesne. As nearly every schoolchild has learned since, Braddock's army, advancing north along the Monongahela, was ambushed and routed, and its commanding officer mortally wounded on July 9. A disaster for Braddock's combined colonial and royal army, the defeat also allowed the French and their Delaware and Shawnee allies to use Fort Duquesne as a base from which to raid with impunity the British settlements recently established on the western margin of the Susquehanna River.  "Plan of Fort Duquesne," c.1754-1758. The French built the first substantial fort on the point at the Forks of the Ohio, now modern Pittsburgh and the location of Fort Pitt. Named for the Marquis de Duquesne, Governor of New France, the fort was declared not "worth a straw" but defied all British attempts to capture it for more than four years. British colonials on the Pennsylvania frontier panicked and began directing a stream of letters to Philadelphia, as well as to one another, recording the terror that swept through Cumberland and western York counties like a wildfire, and urging their provincial leaders to send soldiers and to build forts. Pennsylvania Governor Robert Hunter Morris could do little, however. Thwarted by a legislature that was dominated by the pacifist Quaker faction, he could not immediately obtain the militia and supply bills needed to meet the emergency. Morris did find a way around the assembly's stubbornness, though. Invoking powers he enjoyed under royal charter, he raised volunteer units of militia known as "associated companies." He also initiated the building of a defensive chain of fortifications beginning at the Delaware River and running west and southwest to the Maryland border. Notwithstanding Colonel John Armstrong's destruction of the Delaware staging point of Kittanning in the autumn of 1756 -- a great morale-booster to the people of the Pennsylvania frontier -- the French and their allies continued to harass the frontier with lightning guerrilla raids. They also launched several well-organized military operations in the latter part of 1757 and early 1758. The British colonists soon reported "a large Body of Troops…with a Number of Waggons and a Train of Artillery," in the words of John Dagworthy, marching south along the Braddock road toward Fort Cumberland in Maryland. Even as they threatened the southern access into the Ohio Valley, the French also began advancing east along a northerly route from Forts Niagara and Duquesne toward Fort Augusta on the Susquehanna (today's Sunbury), Pennsylvania's most powerful frontier outpost. At one point, Colonel Conrad Weiser reported that the French had actually cut a road to within 10 miles of Augusta.  Late in 1758, the British finally countered with a grand strategy for reversing the tide. In a three-pronged offensive, they would attack the French at their stronghold in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia; drive them from the Champlain–Lake George valley of New York by taking Fort Carillon; and eliminate the small chain of forts extending south from Lake Erie to Fort Duquesne. To accomplish that third objective, the War Office appointed Brig. Gen. John Forbes to command a combined provincial and Regular British expeditionary force. Instead of using the old Nemacolin Indian trail that ran west then northerly from Fort Cumberland in Maryland as Braddock's army had done, Forbes decided to blaze a new trail to the west. Besides its association with his predecessor's disastrous campaign, the old road required several river crossings over the treacherous Monongahela and Youghiogheny. Forbes wanted to take a shorter route, using only one easy crossing (of the Juniata), which could also give him easier access to Pennsylvania's fertile eastern farmlands and its busy port.  General John Forbes Forbes did not completely abandon the old Braddock road, however, and even had work parties clearing and grading it. He believed that by not irretrievably rejecting the Braddock road, while simultaneously advancing on Duquesne over a route even he had not worked out completely, he would have a ready alternative route should he change his mind and keep the French uncertain of his movements, thus compelling them to widely disperse their reconnaissance elements. In this he succeeded, for by the time Duquesne's commandant, François-Marie Le Marchal de Lignery (Ligneris), had obtained unambiguous intelligence regarding the route of Forbes' advance, the British had virtually secured their foothold at Fort Ligonier. Building his road involved Forbes in two significant difficulties. First, nobody was certain how to penetrate Pennsylvania's largely uncharted western forests, nor where or how to clear an adequate way over four or five steep ridges of the Alleghenies that could carry not only 6,000 soldiers but also the continuous supply columns and wagons required to sustain that army.  The line of forts built on the Forbes road to Fort Pitt in 1758. These forts, garrisoned by British regulars and the provincial troops of Pennsylvania and Virginia, needed supplies for the garrisons. The South Branch Valley was uniquely positioned to take advantage of this need. Supplies were collected at Fort Pleasant, contractors were hired to move supplies to Fort Cumberland. From there the contractors moved northward on the road connecting Fort Cumberland with Fort Bedford. From there the contractors traveled on the new road built during the 1758 Forbes expedition until arriving at Fort Pitt. Second, the Virginians, led by Colonel George Washington, did not want Pennsylvania to open a route into the Ohio territories, which both provinces claimed. Virginia's own interests lay in repairing the Braddock road that already gave it direct access to the Forks of the Ohio. This resistance by Virginia burgeoned into a major dispute within Forbes' command and threatened to undermine his campaign.
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That one deserves a report. Been on the lookout for that info for quite a spell.
"Snippy was reading soemthing she saw yesterday saying that there were 3 Frenchmen for every American at Yorktown."
We've had the rainiest May on record.
There were no less than 21 regiments (estimated to total 6,500 to 8,000 men) of loyalists in the British army. Washington reported a field army of 3,468. About a third of Americans opposed the Revolution.
At Yorktown, the victory that won the war, Frenchman outnumbered Americans almost three to one!
Washington had 11,000 men engaged in the battle, while the French had at least 29,000 soldiers and sailors. The 37 French ships-of-the-line played a crucial role in trapping the 8,700 strong British army and winning the engagement.
I've lived in Wichita Falls for 4 years. Every year has been a drought year. You'd think they'd buy my house from me to get me to move out - just in case it was me that brought the drought!
scuse me, i gotta call city hall, i need to get this house sold.
I like that link. Interesting stuff Maynard.
On my mother's side, Priscilla Carpenter - the "Speak for yourself, John Alden" girl, Mayflower passenger, is both an aunt and a grandmother as far as my grandad could figure.
The whole bunch of my ancestors, as far as I can find out, all had a below median annual income, shall we say. My dad put it "They didn't have a pot to p*** in."
Make a post on the number of French at Yorktown, please, and thank you.
Ah, yes, I was not including DeGrasse's men. Likely the fleet had roughly 25,000 crewmen. This was an all out French naval effort. Worked just fine.
Was trying to figure out how I had missed such a large number of French infantry, artillery, cavalry, etc.!!! Logistics would have been real difficult for a force like that there and then.
I believe that french ships of the line during that time had crews of around 800. That's a lot of men in 37 ships. ;-)
It's been a beautiful day. 4 crooked TN state pols have been arrested and charged..3 dems and 1 RINO. 1 of them is the uncle of US Rep harold ford JUNIOR!
Your family history is fascinating! Thanks for sharing all that. I bet the tales you heard growing up were richer than anything in the movies nowdays. :-)
I was reading about this on FR. Lots of happy folks in Tennessee, hope it all sticks!
At Yorktown, the victory that won the war, Frenchman outnumbered Americans almost three to one!
Washington had 11,000 men engaged in the battle, while the French had at least 29,000 soldiers and sailors. The 37 French ships-of-the-line played a crucial role in trapping the 8,700 strong British army and winning the engagement.
If you are familiar with the terrain, you must have heard of the McGillicuddy Reeks mountain range. That would be where my family name came from.
Me too. This is LONG over due. Hope they keep going and get former gov taxquist and his crew too.
Hi miss Feather
How do you do?
Como esta?
Yo dudes?
What up?
Snicker Snicker
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
The Apollo 10 spacecraft approaches touchdown in the South Pacific recovery area to conclude an eight-day lunar orbit mission. Splashdown occurred at 11:53 a.m., May 26, 1969, about 400 miles east of American Samoa. Note that in this photo the capsules parachutes are fully deployed.
Howdy ma'am
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