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By Keith A.
Forbes and Lois A. Forbes at keithaforbes@btinternet.com
We are married Scottish and American respectively former authors, economic garden and travel writers and historians. We visited Pittsburgh personally to research this. General John Forbes, who died a bachelor and childless, was Keith's great great great great great great great great uncle. |
Scots soldiers were first officially attracted to the British (English)
Army when in 1757 in London, Cabinet Minister Mr. Pitt
(later, Lord Chatham) recommended to King George II that he employ Highlanders
in his service, as the best means of ensuring their loyalty. The king approved
the plan and letters of service were immediately drawn up to raise several
Highland regiments. Most clans responded positively and many battalions of men
signed up, some from the most remote parts of the Highlands. Clan chiefs or
their most favored kin obtained commissions.
But before this, in 1710 in north east Scotland, a distant cousin of Lord Forbes, a Colonel John Forbes, sired a son he also named John. There have been many John Forbes in history - (including another (later) British Army general who served in India). But this one more than deserves special mention.
Young John prudently avoided as a young man the warfare between the Scottish clans or the British Government and the Jacobites that had split Scotland from the early 1700s. He wanted to study medicine as a career. But in his second year as a medical student, he decided to become a soldier instead - in a Scots unit of the British Army. Well educated, he was accepted and commissioned in 1735 as a Lieutenant in the Scots Dragoons.
A capable and effective soldier, John Forbes won praise from General Lord Ligonier and others. His first significant appointment was as Quartermaster General in the Third British Army of the Duke of Bedford.
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Later, he served in various campaigns including Louisburg in Canada. As an infantry General, he earned his unique claim to fame as a Brigadier General and also as the Commander in Chief of a British Army in which Colonel (later, General and President) George Washington served as his aide. General John Forbes was a genuine British and American hero and made a significant contribution to their military history less than two decades before the American Revolution. He secured a large portion of the United States for the British Crown. He ensured the military and political future of America's first President. He made it possible for Colonel George Washington, as he was then, to meet his future wife, then the young widow Mrs. Martha Custis, daughter of John Dandridge, a gentleman of Virginia. General Forbes was 48 years old when he was dispatched to America in command of British soldiers and American troops recruited mostly in Virginia. His mission was to defeat the combined forces of French military units and American Indians who had earlier inflicted a crushing defeat on the valiant but ill fated British General Braddock (whose name was later given to a town in Western Pennsylvania). |
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General Forbes's name is stamped indelibly in the history of the USA and Pennsylvania. Without him, the vast western lands beyond the Ohio River might never have been settled by English speaking colonists. It was a complex time in conflicting British and French military strategies as they related to America well over two decades before independence from Britain. Although the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 had concluded the war between Britain and France, it had failed to establish the boundaries of their respective colonies in America. Both nations laid claim to strategic lands around the head waters of the Ohio River, for their rivers flowing into and out of western Pennsylvania that were navigable, long and important. In 1749 French intentions were to perfect a line of strong military fortifications all the way from French strongholds in Upper Canada on the St. Lawrence River to the mouth of the Mississippi River; in other words from coast to coast. |
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| In that year, under French General Celoron, the French Canadians sent an armed party of nearly two hundred men via 23 canoes, from Montreal via the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, then overland, to Lake Erie, then overland again, finally to the Allegheny River. There, they demanded that the British Governor of Pennsylvania withdraw all British settlers and military from what they believed was the territory of the French King. When the demand was refused, fighting broke out. Once again, the French and British were enemies, both determined to win their conflicting claims militarily. In March 1752 the French King appointed Admiral the Marquis Duquesne as Governor of Canada and conduct a war from Montreal and defeat the British and its colonial forces. |  |
| Initially, that French campaign was successful. General Braddock was the British General first appointed to defend the territory. To supplement his own British troops, including Scottish regiments of foot that had provided garrison duties, he recruited American militia from New York and Pennsylvania. Near what was then Aliquippa (now Pittsburgh), his British troops, not acclimatized to conditions in America, with the equally ill prepared American colonial militia, met up with a huge force of seasoned French veterans, French Canadian militia and their own allies, American Indians - who had been promised all the spoils of war including looting, captured women and more, if they would join in. | 
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That battle, on July 9, 1755, was a disaster for General Braddock and his British Americans. Most were captured and butchered by the Indians. They decapitated the Scottish soldiers and comrades and impaled them on poles. Only relatively few Americans and British survived. General Braddock lost his life and his aide, George Washington (pictured) then 23 years old and at the time a British Army Captain, was lucky to escape capture in the defeat. He observed the battle from a safe distance. The lost battle and its savagery caused an outcry of revulsion - and a demand for revenge, even as the victorious French and Indians dug themselves in. General Forbes exacted that revenge later, even though he was not a well man at the time. His overall leadership and loyalty of his men were key factors as force- marched through Pennsylvania, in one of the most rigorous campaigns ever mounted anywhere in adverse and hostile conditions. One of his Highland Regiments, raised in 1757 after the recommendation of Prime Minister Pitt (later, Lord Chatham), was Montgomerie's Highlanders (or 77th Regiment of Foot in official British Army parlance), from the names of its colonel, the Hon. Archibald Montgomerie, son of the Earl of Eglington. A popular man in the Highlands, Montgomerie (later Earl of Eglington and a General in the British Army, colonel-in-chief of the Royal Scots Greys, he died in 1796) personally soon formed into a regiment of thirteen companies of 105 rank and file each, a total of 1,460 effective men, with the requisite number of officers, 65 sergeants and 30 pipers and drummers. The Colonel's commission was dated January 4, 1757. The commissions of the officers were dated each a day later than his senior in the same rank. |
Montgomerie's Highlanders embarked as a regiment at Greenock for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were attached to the corps of British Army regulars, including the Royal American provincials under the overall command of Brigadier General Forbes. (They feature prominently in periodic battle reenactments at Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania). The final British Army military mission of the campaign was to attack and take Fort Duquesne from the French. The inclusion of Montgomerie's Highlanders brought the army of General Forbes to 6238 men in strength. They began in Philadelphia, then a British stronghold.
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The careful campaign planning yielded one unique, non-military benefit. General Forbes granted permission to his aide George Washington, by then an acting Colonel and in command of the Virginia recruited militia, to interrupt briefly his military duties to begin his serious courting of the widow Martha Dandridge Custis, whom he married in 1759. American history says much more about the marriage and life together of George Washington, the lady with whom he had been smitten and married - and his exploits that led to his victories in the American Revolution and election as first President of the United States. But it has never acknowledged the debt owed by Washington to General John Forbes. There is no mention at all of it on the Mount Vernon web site. This is one of the major omissions in American history. |
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Then came the much heralded forced march in 1758, during much of which General Forbes was carried on a litter, struck down by fever, but not so incapacitated that he could not make decisions. The brigadier and his troops reached Raystown, about 90 miles from Fort Duquesne, in September. Major Grant of Montgomerie's Highlanders was sent with 400 of his Highlanders and 500 provincials for a detailed assessment. When near the French fort, Major Grant advanced with pipes playing and drums beating, as if entering a friendly town.
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The enemy retaliated and were joined by Indians friendly to the French. Protected by thick foliage, they poured destructive fire upon the British. Major Grant tried to force his way into the wood, but was taken in the attempt. On seeing this, his troops dispersed. Only 150 Highlanders returned. More than 231 of them were killed or wounded. The latter included Captain Hugh Mackenzie; Lieutenants Alexander Macdonald, Archibald Robertson and Henry Munro; and Ensigns John Macdonald and Alexander Grant. Near Aliquippa, where the French and Indians had established formidable defenses, he roused himself to take personal command. |
| What he, Colonel Washington and their subordinates saw there, on the
French perimeters, was sickening - the skeletons and impaled skulls of the defeated
British and American forces led by General Braddock.
For some men of less stature it might have been regarded as an omen. For General Forbes it was an outrage that sparked his fiery Scottish soul to heights of fury, to seek and get revenge in full measure. In pincer movements devised by the General himself, the combined British American forces fell on the French and Indians. |
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Seeing the grisly methodology used especially by American, English and Scottish
soldiers, the French and Indians were in complete disarray.
They left their ammunition, military hardware and provisions as prizes for the British and American troops. The British Army inflicted such a complete defeat in October 1758 that the French campaign was never again attempted. Officers of Montgomerie's Highlanders Killed at Fort Duquesne included Captains William Macdonald and George Munro; Lieutenants Colin Campbell, Alexander Macdonald, Alexander Mackenzie and William Mackenzie. Many more are unaccounted for. |
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On November 25, 1758, General Forbes and Colonel Washington stood side by side as their troops marched into Aliquippa, to take formal possession of the land where two rivers - the Monongahela and Allegheny - meet to form a mighty third - the Ohio. At this place, they renamed the small town, originally the name of a ruling Indian Queen.
Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania, USA, one site of his victory
Staff officers with General Forbes were young and ambitious. Archibald Montgomery was also from Scotland. Henry Bouquet (of Montgomerie's Highlanders) was from Scotland and Switzerland. Others included John Armstrong, Joseph Shippen (a Princeton graduate and member of a prominent Philadelphia family), Harry Gordon - a noted military engineer, William Byrd, George Mercer of Virginia, George Croghan and John Ormsby. It was an impressive sight as the newly arrived army, wearing brilliant uniforms, marched in four columns, with flags flying and drums beating. They reached the camping ground, halted and took possession, while Colonel John Armstrong raised the flag, the Union Jack, over the British territory.
General John Forbes duly claimed, in his own words, "this prodigious tract of fine, rich country" in the name of his king. He and his army of several thousand had marched over rough, rugged Allegheny mountains and endured much in the way of hazards and hardships. The progress had been slow as a road - Forbes Road - had to be built ahead of them. It was bitter cold and as a special favor, an order was issued from the General that every working soldier could have, daily, a gill of spirits, diluted with water.
November 25, 1758, was of such great importance that London rejoiced and both New York and Philadelphia joined in the celebrations with military parades of their own. An American military historian recorded the event thus: "As the banner of England floated over the waters, the place, at the suggestion of General Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburgh. It is the most enduring monument to the famous English statesman William Pitt, the Peacemaker. Long as the Monongahela and Allegheny shall flow to form the Ohio; long as the English tongue shall be the language of freedom in the boundless valley which their waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed on the Gateway of the West."
He was one of the most renowned military heroes in the history of the Forbes Clan.
On Sunday morning December 3, 1758, in a very ill state and on a litter, General Forbes left Pittsburgh with a large staff, including the Highlanders, and returned by slow, painful stages to Philadelphia where he died on March 11, 1759. He was only 49 years old. He never went home to Scotland. He was buried in Christ Churchyard. By contrast, Washington had a much longer and luckier life. He served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. On his death in 1799, he was land rich, with 70,000 acres in Virginia and 40,000 acres in West Virginia.
The name "Duquesne" lives on, as an area of Pittsburgh, approached from the city end of Forbes Street. Duquesne University is a prominent building there, one of the many universities in Pittsburgh.
The "military" Forbes Road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, was mapped in 2002 by the Somerset Archeology Society of Pennsylvania. It will appreciate any information from any authoritative source. Mapping started at Fort Duart at the top of the Allegheny Mountain in Somerset County. Contact Georgia Sheftic, Somerset Archeology Society, 28ll Lincoln Highway, Stoystown, PA 15563, USA.
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Visitors to the attractive city of Pittsburgh - not at all the smoky steel city it once was, but a glass palace in many areas - can see the monument to General Forbes, where he and George Washington once stood. It is at Point State Park where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, separate up to that point, both feeding Pittsburgh, meet. They form the huge Ohio River, which connects ultimately with and becomes part of the mighty Mississippi River. Pittsburgh also has a long boulevard named Forbes Street. It stretches for miles, in various stages of affluence, from near Point State Park, through downtown Pittsburgh, nearly as far as Wilkinsburg. There is a Forbes Road from Carlisle to Pittsburgh built by the troops of General Forbes. There are many streets or roads in America named after a Forbes. The monument above pays tribute to the man who spent only a year in Pennsylvania and died and was buried at a relatively young age in Philadelphia. A further testament to him and his military campaign is at Ligonier, Pennsylvania. General John Forbes died without issue. Volume XXXV No. 4 (October 1978) of the William and Mary Quarterly, published by the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, says a great deal about General John Forbes in "Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740 to 1760" by Peter E. Russell. Photograph of the General John Forbes Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, taken personally by authors Keith and Lois Forbes, when the authors were there. At one point, Keith Forbes lived in Pittsburgh. |
1." I have a
written a Booklet "The Hike Master's Guide to the Forbes Road" - Fort
Bedford to Fort Ligonier. It was copywritten and my latest work has been to put
into 7 one day walks of about 10 miles. Much of the information has been
accumulated in 33 3-ring Binders, collected from researchers' notes and maps of
their collections that were given to me. My Boy Scout Troop and myself, Fred
Colley and others spent time locating the scars they recorded in the 1920's and
30's, and in 1968 the Hiking Trail was established for the 1976 Bi-Centennial
Hiking Program of Penn's Woods Council over it. As the years have passed, more
and more of those scars are being destroyed. I hope the booklets will help to
keep General John Forbes in the place to which he belongs in
history, since now the History Books give one paragraph. My Research Library
would fill a room if displayed."
John
P.Finnigan
&Oldhikemaster1@WMconnect.com
2. "I am an
18th century re-enactor of the 77th
Regiment of Foot, Montgomerie's Highlanders, Grenadier company. On
March 12, 3 PM, Christ Church, Philadelphia, our regiment is laying a wreath at
General Forbes's crypt and conducting a ceremony of mourning. I take it you live
in the UK, but I ran across your info on a website and thought you should be
informed of this ceremony. The ceremony was conducted with full 18th
century military honours, the 77th lads were in full uniform with
accoutrements and weapons. My home email is manyflags@adelphia.net.
Your servant, Co. Sgt. Major Malcolm MacWilliam, 77th Reg't of Foote, Grenadiers.
(Mark Hagenbuch).
Written by
By Keith A.
Forbes, at keithaforbes@btinternet.com.
© 2006. Revised: May 16, 2008
