Fort Duquesne, Battles of << doo KAYN >>, were military conflicts in 1755 and 1758, during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The battles took place near Fort Duquesne, the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. French and Indigenous (native) American forces fought against British Regulars, American colonial troops, and British-allied Indigenous American forces.
Background.
British and French forces in North America had clashed in a series of wars dating back to 1689. Both sides fought with the support of Indigenous American allies. The fighting centered on territorial claims and the control of fur-trading networks. See French and Indian wars.
By the mid-1700’s, the European rivals were competing for trading rights in the Ohio River Valley. In 1753, the French built a series of forts along the Pennsylvania frontier.
Fort Duquesne.
Early in 1754, Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie ordered Virginia provincial troops to build a fort at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join to form the Ohio River. The British, French, and local Indigenous peoples all claimed possession of the site. In April, before the fort was completed, a French force arrived and drove off the Americans. The French built a larger fort at the site. They named it after the Marquis Michel-Ange Duquesne, governor general of New France.
Great Meadows.
Governor Dinwiddie had sent Lieutenant Colonel George Washington to reinforce the fort with Virginia provincial soldiers. However, before Washington could arrive, he learned that the French now occupied the site. Washington and his men continued toward the fort. In late May 1754, they defeated a French reconnaissance (information-gathering) group in a skirmish near Great Meadows, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Fort Duquesne. The clash marked the first shots of the French and Indian War.
Washington and his men hastily built Fort Necessity at Great Meadows. In July, a French army forced Fort Necessity’s defenders to surrender, and the fort was burned to the ground.
First Battle of Fort Duquesne.
In mid-1755, British General Edward Braddock led about 2,200 British and American colonial troops toward the French position at Fort Duquesne. Washington served as an aide-de-camp (assistant) on Braddock’s staff. The large army moved slowly, so Braddock decided in mid-June to split his forces. He and an advance force of about 1,400 soldiers marched ahead. The remaining troops and most of the supply wagons followed more slowly. Indigenous American scouts from Fort Duquesne monitored Braddock’s movements. Indigenous allies of the French included Canadian Iroquois, Ojibwe (Chippewa), Ottawa, Potawatomi, and other groups.
On July 9, Braddock’s advance force crossed the Monongahela River, just a few miles southeast of Fort Duquesne. As the British column continued toward the fort, a force of about 250 French and Canadian soldiers and more than 600 Indigenous allies surprised them. The attackers caught their opponents in a crossfire and inflicted heavy damage. In three hours of fighting, about 450 British-allied soldiers were killed, and some 400 to 500 were wounded. Braddock himself died from his wounds a few days later. Washington later reported that he had two horses shot out from under him during the fighting. The battle—also known as the Battle of the Monongahela or Braddock’s Defeat—resulted in one of the worst British military disasters of the 1700’s. It allowed the French to increase offensive measures against their enemy.
Progress of the war.
In 1756, the Marquis de Montcalm took charge of the French forces in North America. The French captured or destroyed a number of British forts and settlements. Also in 1756, the British statesman William Pitt became secretary of state. Pitt devoted much of Britain’s economic resources to defeating the French in America. By 1758, Britain began to see improvements on the battlefield. During the summer, British forces captured forts in what are now Ontario and Nova Scotia.
Second Battle of Fort Duquesne.
In May 1758, British General John Forbes, with a force of nearly 7,000 British and American colonial troops, began a slow march toward Fort Duquesne. On September 14, French and Indigenous forces overwhelmed an advance party of about 800 men under British Major James Grant. About half of Grant’s men were killed, wounded, or captured. But in November, after learning of the approach of the main body of Forbes’s army, the French burned and abandoned Fort Duquesne. The French subsequently abandoned their other forts in the Ohio Valley. The British built a larger fort at the site of Fort Duquesne and named it Fort Pitt.
Later developments.
In 1759, British forces captured the Canadian city of Quebec. Montreal fell the following year, giving the British control of Canada. The French and Indian War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Under the terms of the treaty, France surrendered nearly all of its North American possessions.
