USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 76
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I have not time to give you a detail of our proceedings and approaches towards the enemy, or of the hardships and difficulties that we neces- sarily met with ;- all that will soon come out-but I assure you after receiving the ground of a fort, I have great reason to be most thankful for the part that the French have acted.
As the conquest of this country is of the greatest consequence to the adjacent provinces, by securing the Indians our real friends for their own advantage, I have therefore sent for their head people to come to me, when I think, in few words and few days to make everything easy. I shall then set out to kiss your hands, if I have strength enough left to carry me through the journey.
I shall be obliged to leave about two hundred men of your provincial troops to join a proportion of Virginians and Marylanders, in order to protect this country during winter, by which time I hope the provinces will be sensible of the great benefit of this new acquisition, as to enable me to fix this noble, fine country to all perpetuity under the dominion of Great Britain.
I beg the barracks may be put in good repair and proper lodging for the officers, and that you will send me with the greatest despatch, your opinion how I am to dispose of the rest of your provincial troops ; for the ease and convenience of the provinces and the inhabitants. You must also remember that Colonel Montgomery's battallion of 1,300 men and four companies of Royal Americans, are, after so long and tedious a campaign, to be taken care of in some comfortable winter quarters.
I kiss all your hands, and flatter myself that if I get to Philadelphia, under your care and good company I shall yet run a good chance of re- establishing a health that I run the risk of ruining, to give your province all the satisfaction in the power of my weak abilities.
I am, sir, with great esteem and regard, your most obedient and humble servant, JO. FORBES.
To Gov. DENNY.
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P. S .- I must beg that you will recommend to your Assembly the building of 'a block-house and saw-mill upon the Kiskiminetas near Loyalhanna, as a thing of the utmost consequence to the province, if they have any intention of profiting by this acquisition.
I send the new levies to Carlisle, so beg you will lose no time in sending up Mr. Young to Commissay to clear them.(1)
FORT DUQUESNE, Nov. 26, 1758.
"REV'D SIR :- I have now the pleasure to write you from the ruins of the fort. On the 24th, at night we were informed by one of our Indian scouts, that he had discovered a cloud of smoke above the place, and soon after another came in with certain intelligence that it was burnt and abandoned by the enemy. We were then about 15 miles from it, a troop of horse was sent forward immediately to extinguish the burn- ing, and the whole army followed. We arrived at 6 o'clock last night, and found it in a great measure destroyed. There are two forts about 200 yards distant, the one built with immense labor, small but a great deal of very strong works collected into a little room, and stands on the point of a narrow neck of land at the confluence of the two rivers. It is square and has two ravelins gabions at each corner. The other fort stands on the bank of the Allegheny, in the form of a parallelogram, but not so strong as the other. Several of the out works are lately begun and still unfinished. There are, I think, 30 stacks of chimneys standing- the houses all burnt down. They sprung one mine which ruined one of their magazines. In the other we found 16 barrels of ammunition, a prodigious quantity of old carriage iron, barrels of guns, about a cart load of scalping knives. They went off in such haste they could not quite destroy their works as they intended. We are told by the Indians that they lay the night before last at Beaver creek, 40 miles down the Ohio from here. Whether they buried their dead in the river or carried them down in their batteaux, we have not yet learned. A boy 12 years old who has been their prisoner two years, who escaped on the 2d inst., tells us, they had carried a prodigious quantity of wood into the fort, that they had burnt five of the prisoners that they took at Maj. Grant's defeat, on the parade, and delivered others to the Indians, who were tomahawked on the spot. We have found numbers of dead bodies within a quarter of a mile of the fort unburied, as so many monuments of French humanity! A great many Indians, mostly Delawares, are gathered on the Island last night and this morning, to treat with the General, and we are making rafts to bring them over. Whether the General will think of repairing the ruins or leaving any of the troops here, I have not yet heard. Mr. Beatty is appointed to preach a thanks- giving sermon, for the remarkable superiority of his Majesty's arms. We left all our tents at Loyalhanna, and every convenience except a blanket and knapsack. You will excuse the errors of haste, and believe me to be,
Rev'd sir, your most obedient servant,
To Rev. ALLISON.
JOHN HASLET.
(1) Prov. Rec. Vol. 2, p. 378-'9.
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CAMP AT FORT DU QUESNE, 28 Nov. 1758.
SIR :- I have the pleasure to inform, that Fort Du Quesne, or the ground rather upon which it stood, was possessed by his Majesty's troops on the 25th inst. The enemy, after letting us get within a day's march of the place, burned the Fort, and ran away by the light of it, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men, according to our best information. This possession of the Fort has been a matter of surprise to the whole army, and we cannot attribute it to more probable causes, than the weakness of the enemy, want of provisions, and the defection of their Indians. Of these circumstances we were luckily informed by three prisoners, who providentially fell into our hands at Loyal Hanna, when we despaired of proceeding fur- ther. A council of war had determined that it was not advisable to advance this season beyond that place ; but the above information caused us to inarch on without tents or baggage, and with only a light train of artillery. We have thus happily succeeded. It would be tedious, and I think unnecessary, to relate every trivial circumstance that has hap- pened since my last. To do this, if needful, shall be the employment of a leisure hour, when I shall have the pleasure to pay my respects to your Honour.
The General intends to wait here a few days to settle matters with the Indians, and then all the troops, except a sufficient garrison to secure the place, will march to their respective governments. I give your Honour this early notice, that your directions relative to the troops of Virginia may meet me on the road. I cannot help reminding you, in this place, of the hardships they have undergone, and of their present naked condition, that you may judge if it is not essential for them to have some little recess from fatigue, and time to provide themselves with necessaries. At present they are destitute of every comfort of life. If I do not get your orders to the contrary, I shall march the troops under my command directly to Winchester. They may then be disposed of as you shall afterwards direct.
General Forbes desires me to inform you, that he is prevented by a multiplicity of affairs, from writing you so fully now as he would other- wise have done. He has written to the commanding officers stationed on the communication from hence to Winchester, relative to the Little Carpenter, a Chief of the Cherokees, the purport of which was to de- sire that they would escort him from one place to another, to prevent his doing any mischief to the inhabitants.
This fortunate, and indeed, unexpected success of our arms will be attended with happy effects. The Delawares are suing for peace, and I doubt not that other tribes on the Ohio will follow their example. A trade, free, open, and on equitable terms, is what they seem much to desire, and I do not know so effectual a way of riveting them to our interest, as by sending out goods immediately to this place for that pur- pose. It will, at the same time, be a means of supplying the garrison with such necessaries as may be wanted; and, I think, the other colo- nies, which are as greatly interested in the support of this place as Vir- ginia, should neglect no means in their power to establish and maintain a strong garrison here. Our business, without this precaution, will be
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but half finished ; while, on the other hand, we shall obtain a firm and lasting peace with the Indians, if this end is once accomplished.
General Forbes is very assiduous in getting these matters settled upon a solid basis, and has great merit for the happy issue to which he has brought our affairs, infirm and worn down as he is. At present I have nothing to add, but the strongest assurance of my being your Honour's most obedient and most humble servant,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
To Gov. FARQEIUR :
It now became necessary for the defence of this place, that a new work should be erected. There was of course, great difficulty in sup- plying a large force with provisions, at so great a distance from the set- tlements, at so late a season of the year. It was therefore determined to erect a small work, to be occupied by two hundred men, and march the rest of the army into the interior. A small square stockade, with a bastion at each angle, was erected on the bank of the Monongahela, between Liberty and West streets. This was built in 1758, but was only intended for temporary occupancy.
In the year 1759, General Stanwix erected a fort here, at an expense of sixty thousand pounds sterling. "This work," says N. B. Craig, " was four sided, though not all equal, as Washington erroneously stated in his journal, in 1790. Washington also had the following remarks: two sides of which, near the land, are of brick, the others stockade."
"The earth around the proposed work was dug and thrown up so as to enclose the selected position with a rampart of earth. On the two sides facing the country, this rampart was supported by what military men call revement-a brick work, nearly perpendicular, supporting the rampart on the outside, and presenting an obstacle to the enemy not easily overcome. On the other three sides, the earth in the rampart had no support, and of course it presented a more inclined surface to the enemy-one which could be readily ascended. To remedy, in some degree, this defect in the work, a line of pickets was fixed on the out- side of the foot of the slope of the rampart. Around the whole work was a wide ditch, which would of course be filled with water when the river was at a moderate stage.
" In summer, however, when the river was low, the ditch was dry and perfectly smooth, so that the officers and men had ball-alleys in the ditch, against the revements. This ditch extended from the salient angle of the north bastion-that is the point of the fort which approached the nearest to Marbury street, back of the south end of Hoke's run- down to the Allegheny, where Marbury street strikes it.
" This part of the ditch was," says N. B. Craig, " during our boy- hood, and even since, called Butler's Gut, from the circumstance of Gen. Richard Butler and Col. William Butler residing nearest to it; their houses being the same which now stand at the corner on the south side of Penn and east of Marbury. Another part of the ditch extended to the Monongahela, a little west of West street, and a third debouche into the river was made just about the end of Penn street."
In the spring of 1760, General Stanwix left Fort Pitt, and left there a garrison of 150 Virginians, 150 Pennsylvanians, and 400 of the first
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battalion of Royal Americans, all commanded by Major Tulikens .- During this summer, (1760) several other companies were here. "Gen. Monckton arrived here June 29th, and immediately gave orders for the march of a large detachment of the army to Presque Isle, (Erie.) On the 7th of July, four companies of the Royal Americans, under com- mand of Col. Bouquet, marched from Pittsburg towards Presque Isle, as did also Captain McNeils company of the brig. regiment. On Wed- nesday following, Col. Hugh Mercer, with three companies of the Penn- sylvania regiment, under Captains Biddle, Clapham and Anderson, and two days after, two other companies of the same regiment, under Cap- tains Atlee and Miles, were to follow."
"In 1763 an arrangement was made between the Shawanese, and other tribes of Indians, along the Lakes, and on the Ohio, and its trib- utary streams, to attack, simultaneously, all the English posts and frontier settlements. In the execution of this plan, they captured Le Bœuf, Venango, Presquile, Michilimackinac, and various other posts, which were feebly garrisoned, and murdered all the prisoners. As a part of this great scheme of operations, Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the Indians, who cut off all communication with the interior of the country, and greatly annoyed the garrison by an incessant discharge of musketry and arrows. The commanding officer, Capt. Ewyer, and the garrison, (which was increased by the Indian traders, who had escaped massacre and taken refuge in the fort) made a gallant defence.
" Col. Bouquet was detached from Carlisle, to relieve the beleaguered posts, and after a severe conflict with the Indians, at Bushy Run, he arrived at Fort Pitt on the 9th of August, 1763. In the action of the 5th August, 1763, the Indians were severely handled, several of their principal Chiefs were killed, and they were so much dispirited that they immediately abandoned their operations against Fort Pitt, and retired to their towns on the Muskingum and farther west. In October, 1764, Col. Bouquet marched on an expedition against the Indian towns on the Muskingum. He reached the Indian towns near the forks of that river, without opposition, and there dictated terms of peace to them.
"It was during this year, 1764, probably after the treaty had removed all fear of the Indians, that the old military plan, being that portion of the city lying between Water street and Second street, and between Market and Ferry streets, was laid out. During this year also, was erected the brick redoubt still standing, a little west of Stanwix street, and north of Penn street, being the only remaining monument of British industry within our city limits. In a stone block, in the south face of this redoubt is still to be seen this inscription, "Col. Bouquet, A. D., 1764 .*
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In 1774 the inhabitants of Pittsburg were greatly alarmed, fearing
* In our early day, says Mr. 1. Harris, the ditch that ran from the Allegheny river through Marbury, down Liberty and Short street, to the Monongahela, and the Mound, and several old brick and log houses, that composed a part of old " Fort Pitt," were standing conspicuous. Several of our first houses were built of old brick, especially, the large three story brick house at the corner of the Diamond and the Market house, where the late Mr. Irwin kept tavern and the first Court in Allegheny county was held.
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the horrors of an Indian war again, as appears from the following peti- tion addressed to John Penn, Esq., Governor of Pennsylvania :
PITTSBURG, June 14, 1774.
In this petition it is set forth that there was great reason to apprehend that that country would be immediately involved in all the horrors of an Indian war. The petitioners say-" That our circumstances at this critical juncture, are truly alarming-deserted by the far greater part of our neighbors and fellow subjects, unprotected with places of strength to resort to, without ammunition, provisions, and without almost every other necessary store; our houses abandoned to pillage ; labor and in- dustry entirely at a stand, our crops destroyed by cattle ; our flocks dispersed; and the minds of our people distracted with the terrors of falling along with their helpless and unprotected families, the immediate victims of savage barbarity. In the midst of these scenes of desolation and ruin, next to the Almighty, we look up to your Honor, hoping from your known benevolence and humanity, such protection and relief as to your Honor shall seem meet."
Ens. Makay, Devereux Smith, Wm. Butler, James O'Hara, Samuel Mckenzies, John Ormsby, John McCallister, Andrew Robinson, Ed- ward Thompson, Wm. Evans, Wm. McClellan, Wm. Lea, Frederick Henry, John Henry, Christopher Miller, John Stewart, Richard Car- son, James Carnahan, John Chilton, John Carnahan, Peter Eckley, Edward Murry, Wm. McConnell, James Kyle, Benjamin Coe, Joseph Kyle, John Worf, Robert Patterson, Reuben Powell, Peter Coe, Wm. Elliott, John Emerson, Adam McClintick, James Neely, Leaven Coop- er, Nathaniel Field, Alrich Allen, David Watson, John Cleghorn, Ste- phen Lowry, Silas Miller, John Carnahan, Wm. Stuart, Clemence Findley, John Findley, Andrew Findley, Robert Thompson, Samuel McGomery, Thomas Carrol, James Patterson, Arthur St. Clair, James Pollock, David Sample, Michael Huffnagle, Samuel Shannon, Samuel Smith, James Dugan, George Hutcheson, Geo. McDowell, Nathan Young, Michael Coffman, Wm. Piper, George Glen, David McCann, Alex. Johnston, John Cavenaugh, Robert Mickey, David Mickey, Alex. McDowell, Robert Nox, James McDowell, Thomas Bleack, David Tomson, Jacob Meens, John Smith, John McNaghar, Hugh Lorrom- mer, Benjamin Sitten, Thomas Sutton, H. Slatten, Daniel Lavoyer, James McCurdy, Abel Fisher, Robert Porter, John Livingston, Robert Laughlin, Samuel Shenon, Charles Kille, Dudley Dougherty, Hugh Hamill, Richard Shannon, John Weesnor, John Shannon, Joseph Gas- kins, Robert McDowell, John Jordan, John Smith, Thomas Galbraith, Samuel Evans, Henry Fitzgerald, Edmond Mullally, James Thompson, William Mckenzie.
"From this time until the close of the Revolutionary War, but little improvement was made at Pittsburg. The fear of Indian hostilities, or the actual existence of Indian warfare prevented emigration. In 1775, the number of dwelling houses within the limits of our present city, did re not, according to the most authentic accounts, exceed twenty-five or thirty. " During the Revolution, the Penn family were adherents of the British Government, and in 1779, the Legislature of this State confis- cated all their property, except certain manors, &c., of which surveys
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had been actually made and returned into the land office, prior to the 4th of July, 1776, and also, except any estates which the said Penns held in their private capacities, by devise, purchase or descent. Pitts- burg and the country eastward of it and south of the Monongahela, containing about 5800 acres, composed one of these manors, and of course remained as the property of the Penns.
"In the spring of 1784, arrangements were made by Mr. Tench Francis, the agent of the Penns, to lay out the manor of Pittsburg, in town lots and out lots, and to sell them without delay. For this pur- pose he engaged Mr. Geo. Woods, of Bedford, an experienced surveyor, to execute this work. In May, 1784, Mr. Woods arrived here, bringing with him as an operative surveyor, Mr. Thomas Vickroy, of Bedford county, who was then a very young man, and now (1840) lives and enjoys vigorous health, at a good old age. Through their activity and industry, the work was soon completed, and the lots and out lots being placed in market, seem to have been very rapidly purchased. From this time improvement seems to have commenced here-mechanics and traders composed a greater proportion of the population. In 1784, Arthur Lee, a conspicuous diplomatist during our Revolution, was ap- pointed a commissioner to treat with the Indians, and on his way passed through Pittsburg. In his journal we find the following notice of this place : "Pittsburg is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log houses, and are as dirty as in the north of Ireland, or even Scotland. There is a great deal of small trade carried on; the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per cwt. from Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take, in the shops, money, · wheat, flour and skins. There are in the town four attornies, two doc- tors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor chapel. The rivers encroach fast on the town ; and to such a degree, that, as a gen- tleman told me, the Allegheny had within thirty years of his memory carried away one hundred yards. The place, I believe, will never be very considerable." If Mr. Lee could now visit the valley of the head of the Ohio, he would find here, a free white population exceeding that of the six largest cities and towns in the Old Dominion. The appear- ance of Pittsburg at that time, was not such as would excite extravagant expectations. A small town, composed of two or three brick redoubts, converted into dwelling houses, and some forty or fifty round or hewn log buildings, inhabited principally by poor mechanics and laborers, would have a very discouraging aspect to the eye of a Virginia gentle- man, who had visited London, Paris and Madrid. But these mechanics and laborers were free, had the directions of their own exertions, were industrious, were striving for the advantages of themselves and their offspring, and the possession and enjoyment of the produce of their own labor were secured to them by equal laws. These circumstances, aided by the natural advantages of this situation, in less than fifty years, con- verted a village of a few petty log houses, into a large, wealthy, and rapidly increasing city.
" Discouraging as were the appearances of things in 1784, yet ir 1786, John Scull and Joseph Hall, two poor but enterprising young men, boldly determined to risk their little all in a printing establishmen
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here, and on the 29th of July, of that year, issued the first number of the Pittsburgh Gazette. The publication of a paper, by disseminating information, and attracting attention to the place, no doubt contributed to the growth of the town ; it therefore deserves to be mentioned as one of the causes of the rise of a frontier village to a great city.
"About this time the tide of emigration from Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia to Kentucky commenced, and in its progress it contributed to the advancement of the place, not only by leaving portions of the funds of the emigrants, in exchange for the means of transportation and supplies, but occasionally leaving here some of the emigrants themselves.
" The Indian wars, too, which raged on our Northern and Western fron- tier, until Wayne's treaty, in 1795, by collecting here large bodies of troops, thus creating a demand for the produce of farms and shops, con- tributed greatly to the prosperity and growth of our town. On the 24th September, 1788, an act passed creating the county of Allegheny, out of parts of Washington and Westmoreland counties. By this act the Courts were appointed to be held at Pittsburg, until certain trustees named in the act, should erect suitable buildings on the reserved tract opposite Pittsburg. By the act of the 13th April, 1791, this provision of the act of 1788 was repealed, and the trustees were authorized and required to purchase lots in Pittsburg for a Court House and Jail.
" 'The creation of a separate county, and the consequent establishment of county offices, and the frequent assemblage here of jurors, suitors and witnesses, operated to the advantage and improvement of the place. The most important event, however, in the early history of our town, was the Western Insurrection, in 1794. This disturbance compelled the Government to send a large number of troops to this neighborhood. These troops were principally volunteers ; active, enterprising young men, many of whom were so pleased with Pittsburg and the surround- ing country, that after performing their tour of duty, they returned home merely to make the necessary arrangements for a permanent settlement here. From that time the progress of this city has been regular, and scarcely interrupted, except by the reaction which took place after the late war.
" In addition to the foregoing ' Brief Sketch,' a few statistical and appropriate facts relative to the progress of our town, at an early period, will here be added.
"In an article written by the late Judge Breckenridge, then a young attorney, and published in the first number of the Pittsburg Gazette, the number of houses in the town of Pittsburg. was stated to be about one hundred. Allowing to each house five inhabitants, which is probably quite enough, the population would be about five hundred.
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