Fort Duquesne Archives - Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine

To Risk It All by Michael N. McConnell

Posted by Eugene Tesdahl on Aug 25, 2021 in | Comments Off To Risk It All General Forbes, the Capture of Fort Duquesne, and the Course of Empire in the Ohio Country by Michael N. McConnell University of Pittsburgh Press, 399 pp., hardcover $35 Michael McConnell restores urgency to the Seven Years’ War in To Risk It All. Eleven chapters explore, as the author notes, “How he [Brig. Gen. John Forbes] succeeded, and what his success meant to the subsequent...
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Fort Dewart on the Forbes Road

Posted by April Frantz on Feb 5, 2021 in | Comments Off Fort Dewart, which straddles the border of Bedford and Somerset counties in southern Pennsylvania, was a British military redoubt built in August 1758 during the French and Indian War, the North American conflict in the global Seven Years’ War (1756–63) between Great Britain and France. The small fortification was part of a chain of defensive forts and supply stops built by the troops of Gen....
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War in the Peaceable Kingdom by Brady J. Crytzer

Posted by Colin Calloway on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off War in the Peaceable Kingdom: The Kittanning Raid of 1756 by Brady J. Crytzer Westholme Publishing, 256 pp., cloth $28 The title of this book describes its content and contribution better than does the subtitle. The Delaware town of Kittanning on the Allegheny River was an important place – the residence of the war chiefs Shingas and Tewea (Captain Jacobs) and the source of multiple...
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Somerset County: Paths through the Roof Garden

Posted by William Gross on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off Referring to the high elevation and the scenic quality of the region, Gov. Martin G. Brumbaugh called Somerset County “the Roof Garden of Pennsylvania” at an annual Farmers’ Day picnic in 1916. Since then. the description has become a familiar and respected title; the words “Roof Garden” have been incorporated in the names of various businesses, and the complete...
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Fayette at the Crossroads

Posted by Walter Storey on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off Fayette County has always been at the crossroads, both literally and figuratively, its destiny shaped by its location, the incredible riches of its natural resources and the vitality of a people descended from almost every nation of Europe. It has a son of dual personality, geographically divided between mountains and lowlands, historically divided into two almost equal eras of economic...
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The Last Frontier: Venango County Indians, Oil, Ghost Towns

Posted by Carolee Michener on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off Venango County. Its name is derivation of a the Seneca Indian word earliest for explorers “French and Creek.” Its earliest explorers and settlers were the French, shortly followed by the English. At one time, the territory was claimed simultaneously by France, and the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. But Venango County’s rich history bespeaks vigorous pioneering a spirit...
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Bedford County: From Indian Trails to Tourist Resorts

Posted by William Clark on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off In the summer of 1728, thirteen brave pioneers made their way north through the wilderness from Virginia. The trail brought these Virginians into the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, where they settled, only returning to Virginia to bring their families north. The area was rich with game and several trapped along the streams. One built a gristmill and another a trading post. These members...
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Into the Valley of Death

Posted by Iola Parker on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off Horses, rearing in death, pitched their riders into a frenzied mass of red-coated soldiers, while Indians sprinted from tree to tree, leaping out to scalp the wounded and the dead. Even the dauntless Daniel Boone, then a young wagoner, cut his horses loose and fled for his life. George Washington, a volunteer lieutenant colonel, recounted years later that, “had I not been witness to the...
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The ‘State’ of Allegheny

Posted by George Swetnam on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off One of the first centers of the organization of the Republican party and scene of its first national convention in February, 1856, Allegheny County was strongly for Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. As the vote count proceeded, one of the leaders kept sending telegrams to Lincoln’s home in Illinois, keeping him up on the news that “Allegheny gives a majority of …...
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Transportation in Pennsylvania in 1776

Posted by Homer Rosenberger on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off During the Revolution, Pennsylvania was a central stage from the standpoint of geography, leadership, manpower, and supplies. Therefore, its transportation facilities were of special significance. The southeastern part of the State produced large quantities of the very materials needed by the Continental Army. A modest network of roads made possible the transporting of those materials to Valley...
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