Part 3

VII

Pitt's letters inspired the Americans with new hope, and he promised to send them British troops and to supply their own militia with arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions at the king's charge. He sent twelve thousand soldiers from England, which were joined to a Colonial force aggregating fifty thousand men, the most formidable army yet seen in the new world. The plan of campaign embraced three expeditions: the first against Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, which was successful; the second against Ticonderoga, which succeeded after a defeat; and the third against Fort Duquesne. General Forbes, born at Dunfermline (whence have come others to Pittsburgh), commanded this expedition, comprising about seven thousand men. The militia from Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland was led by Washington, whose independent spirit led the testy Scotchman, made irritable by a malady which was soon to cause his death, to declare that Washington's "behavior about the roads was no ways like a soldier." But we cannot believe that the young Virginian was moved by any motive but the public good. On September 12, 1758, Major Grant, a Highlander, led an advance guard of eight hundred and fifty men to a point one mile from the fort, which is still called Grant's Hill, on which the court-house now stands, where he rashly permitted himself to be surrounded and attacked by the French and Indians, half his force being killed or wounded, and himself slain. Washington followed soon after, and opened a road for the advance of the main body under Forbes. Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, had just been taken by General Amherst, with the result that supplies for Fort Duquesne were cut off. When, therefore, Captain Ligneris, the French commandant, learned of the advance of a superior force, having no hope of reinforcements, he blew up the fort, set fire to the adjacent buildings, and drew his garrison away.

On Saturday, November 25, 1758, amidst a fierce snowstorm, the English took possession of the place, and Colonel Armstrong, in the presence of Forbes and Washington, hauled up the puissant banner of Great Britain, while cannons boomed and the exulting victors cheered. On the next day, General Forbes wrote to Governor Denny from "Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, the 26th of November, 1758," and this was the first use of that name. On this same Sunday the Rev. Mr. Beatty, a Presbyterian chaplain, preached a sermon in thanksgiving for the superiority of British arms,--the first Protestant service in Pittsburgh. The French had had a Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Baron, during their occupancy. On the next day Forbes wrote to Pitt with a vision of prophecy as follows:

PITTSBOURGH, 27th Novem'r, 1758.

Sir,

I do myself the Honour of acquainting you that it has pleased God to crown His Majesty's Arms with Success over all His Enemies upon the Ohio, by my having obliged the enemy to burn and abandon Fort Du Quesne, which they effectuated on the 25th:, and of which I took possession next day, the Enemy having made their Escape down the River towards the Missisippi in their Boats, being abandoned by their Indians, whom I had previously engaged to leave them, and who now seem all willing and ready to implore His Majesty's most Gracious Protection. So give me leave to congratulate you upon this great Event, of having totally expelled the French from this prodigious tract of Country, and of having reconciled the various tribes of Indians inhabiting it to His Majesty's Government.

* * * * *

I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Du Quesne, as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that now makes us Masters of the place.... These dreary deserts will soon be the richest and most fertile of any possest by the British in No. America. I have the honour to be with great regard and Esteem Sir,

Your most obed't. & most hum'le. serv't.

JO: FORBES.

VIII

As a place of urgent shelter the English proceeded to build a new fort about two hundred yards from the site of Fort Duquesne, which is traditionally known as the first Fort Pitt, and was probably so called by the garrison, although the letters written from there during the next few months refer to it as "the camp at Pittsburgh." This stronghold cut off French transportation to the Mississippi by way of the Ohio River, and the only remaining route, by way of the Great Lakes, was soon afterward closed by the fall of Fort Niagara. The fall of Quebec, with the death of the two opposing generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, and the capture of Montreal, ended the claims of France to sovereignty in the new world.

The new fort being found too small, General Stanwix built a second Fort Pitt, much larger and stronger, designed for a garrison of one thousand men. The Indians viewed the new-comers with suspicion, but Colonel Henry Bouquet assured them, with diplomatic tergiversation, that, "We have not come here to take possession of your country in a hostile manner, as the French did when they came among you, but to open a large and extensive trade with you and all other nations of Indians to the westward." A redoubt (the "Blockhouse"), built by Colonel Bouquet in 1764, still stands, in a very good state of preservation, being cared for by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The protection of the garrison naturally attracted a few traders, merchants, and pioneers to Pittsburgh, and a permanent population began to grow.

But the indigenous race continued to resent the extension of white encroachment; and they formed a secret confederacy under Pontiac, the renowned Ottawa chief, who planned a simultaneous attack on all the white frontier posts. This uprising was attended by atrocious cruelties at many of the points attacked, but we may take note here of the movement only as it affected Pittsburgh. At the grand council held by the tribes, a bundle of sticks had been given to every tribe, each bundle containing as many sticks as there were days intervening before the deadly assault should begin. One stick was to be drawn from the bundle every day until but one remained, which was to signal the outbreak for that day. This was the best calendar the barbarian mind could devise. At Pittsburgh, a Delaware squaw who was friendly to the whites had stealthily taken out three of the sticks, thus precipitating the attack on Fort Pitt three days in advance of the time appointed.

The last stick was reached on June 22, 1763, and the Delawares and Shawanese began the assault in the afternoon, under Simon Ecuyer. The people of Pittsburgh took shelter in the fort, and held out while waiting for reinforcements. Colonel Bouquet hurried forward a force of five hundred men, but they were intercepted at Bushy Run, where a bloody battle was fought. Bouquet had fifty men killed and sixty wounded, but inflicted a much greater loss on his savage foes and gained the fort, relieving the siege. As soon as Bouquet could recruit his command, he moved down the Ohio, attacked the Indians, liberated some of their prisoners, and taught the red men to respect the power that controlled at Pittsburgh.

In 1768 the Indians ceded their lands about Pittsburgh to the Colonies, and civilization was then free to spread over them. In 1774 a land office was opened in Pittsburgh by Governor Dunmore, and land warrants were granted on payment of two shillings and six pence purchase money, at the rate of ten pounds per one hundred acres.

Washington made his last visit to Pittsburgh in October, 1770, when, on his way to the Kanawha River, he stopped here for several days, and lodged with Samuel Semple, the first innkeeper, whose hostelry stood, and still stands, at the corner of Water and Ferry Streets. This house was later known as the Virginian Hotel, and for many years furnished entertainment to those early travelers. The building, erected in 1764 by Colonel George Morgan, is now nearly one hundred and forty years old, and is still devoted to public hospitality, but the character of its patronage has changed from George Washington to the deck roysterers who lodge there between their trips on the river packets. At the time of Washington's visit the lower story of the house was divided into three rooms, two facing on Ferry Street, and the third, a large room, on Water Street, and in this latter room was placed, in the year of Washington's stop there, the first billiard table ever brought to Pittsburgh. The mahogany steps from the first to the second floors, which were once the pride of the place, are still in the house. According to Washington's journal, there were in Pittsburgh in 1770 twenty houses situated on Water Street, facing the Monongahela River. These were occupied by traders and their families. The population at that time is estimated at one hundred and twenty-six men, women, and children, besides a garrison consisting of two companies of British troops.

In October, 1772, Fort Pitt was ordered abandoned. The works about Pittsburgh, from first to last, had cost the British Crown some three hundred thousand dollars, but the salvage on the stone, brick, and iron of the existing redoubts amounted to only two hundred and fifty dollars. The Blockhouse was repaired and occupied for a time by Dr. John Connelly; and during the Revolution it was constantly used by our Colonial troops.

With the French out of the country, and with William Pitt out of office and incapacitated by age, the Colonies began to feel the oppression of a British policy which British statesmen and British historians to-day most bitterly condemn. America's opposition to tyranny found its natural expression in the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fires of patriotism leapt through the continent and the little settlement at Pittsburgh was quickly aflame with the national spirit. On May 16th a convention was held at Pittsburgh, which resolved that

This committee have the highest sense of the spirited behavior of their brethren in New England, and do most cordially approve of their opposing the invaders of American rights and privileges to the utmost extreme, and that each member of this committee, respectively, will animate and encourage their neighborhood to follow the brave example.

No foreign soldiers were sent over the mountains to Pittsburgh, but a more merciless foe, who would attack and harass with remorseless cruelty, was impressed into the English service, despite the horrified protests of some of her wisest statesmen. American treaties with the Indians had no force against the allurements of foreign gold, and under this unholy alliance men were burnt at the stake, women were carried away, and cabins were destroyed.

With the aim of regaining the friendship of the Indians, Congress appointed commissioners who met the tribes at Pittsburgh; and Colonel George Morgan, Indian agent, writes to John Hancock, November 8, 1776:

I have the happiness to inform you that the cloud that threatened to break over us is likely to disperse. The Six Nations, with the Muncies, Delawares, Shawanese, and Mohicans, who have been assembled here with their principal chiefs and warriors to the number of 644, have given the strongest assurance of their determination to preserve inviolate the peace and neutrality with the United States.

These amicable expectations were not realized, and General Edward Hand came to Pittsburgh the next year and planned an expedition against the Indians. Colonel Broadhead took out Hand's expedition in the summer and burned the Indian towns.

The depreciation of paper currency, or Continental money, had by this time brought the serious burden of high prices upon the people. The traders, who demanded apparently exorbitant rates for their goods, were denounced in public meetings at Pittsburgh as being "now commonly known by the disgraceful epithet of speculators, of more malignant natures than the savage Mingoes in the wilderness." This hardship grew in severity until the finances were put upon a more stable basis.

In 1781, there was demoralization and mutiny at Fort Pitt, and General William Irvine was put in command. His firm hand soon restored the garrison to obedience. The close of the war with Great Britain in that year was celebrated by General Irvine by the issue of an order at the fort, November 6, 1781, requiring all, as a sailor would say, "to splice the mainbrace." This order read as follows:

The commissioners will issue a gill of whisky, extraordinary, to the non-commissioned officers and privates, upon this joyful occasion.

The Penn family had purchased the Pittsburgh region from the Indians in 1768, and they would offer none of it for sale until 1783. Up to this time they had held the charter to Pennsylvania; but as they had maintained a steadfast allegiance to the mother country, the general assembly annulled their title, except to allow them to retain the ownership of various manors throughout the State, embracing half a million acres.