“FORBES EXPEDITION”
MAKING OF HISTORY IN SOMERSET COUNTY FRONTIER
In 1758, Somerset County was thrust
onto center stage of a developing drama -“French & Indian War” - the
outcome of which would shape world history.
Great Britain’s commander-in-chief
of military forces had been given three major missions; one being build a road
from Carlisle to Fort Duquesne, move an army of 7,000 soldiers across the
“Allegheny Front” to Fort Ligonier, and subsequently attack / capture Fort
Duquesne. The outcome of this mission would determine which nation would
dominate the Ohio Valley - France or Great Britain.
Brigadier General Forbes was appointed
commander of this daunting mission. Since Forbes was ill, he assigned Colonel
Henry Bouquet, a Swiss soldier-of-fortune and future naturalized Pennsylvania
citizen, as his second in command. The singular most difficult part of his
assignment would prove to be the establishment of a road, usable by supply
wagons and cannon carriages, across the Laurel Highlands.
Colonel Sir John St. Clair, Deputy
Quarter Master General in America, would write to Bouquet:
Sunday Evening, four o’clock, August
9, 1758
from Camp on your Side of Alleganys
Dear Sir,
I have this moment returned from
the Roads and received yours (letter) of the 11th by Capt. Armstrong. I have
seen Col. Stephens & Capt. Field who promise to meet me on thursday, on the
Top of the mountain. But I shall not be able to finish the digging up this Gap [presently known as Rohr’s Gap] by this time. Send me as many
men as you can with digging Tools, this is a most diabolical work, and whiskey
must be had. I told you that the road would take 500 men 5 days in cutting to
the Top of the Mountain, I mean that number besides the Guard of the Camp &
Covering partys.”
Colonel James Bard, Commander , 2nd
Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment wrote to Bouquet; “Camp at Fort Dewart,
26th August 1758, 7am,
Dear Sir,
I arrived here yesterday a Noon with troops & last night only
The Train (1st Division of the artillery train) and fourty of our Wagons were
able to gett up the Hill [Rohr’s
Gap], this Morning
the Royall Americans, Highlanders, & part of my Battalion are marched from
hence with the train & fourty Wagons, the other part of my Battalion waits
to escort the Remainder of the Wagons which are not as yett got up the Hill; we
hope tonight to Encamp the whole three miles On the other side of Edmonds
Swamp.”
Precious few landmarks of The
Forbes Expedition remain; Rohr’s Gap, Forbes Road, Fort Dewart are exceptions.
These vestiges, of an historical event of international importance, must be protected
and shared. We owe this to future generations of Americans.