French Forts burning down down down
News of the burning of “Venango, LeBeuff & Priscile” reached Pittsburgh by 12 Aug. [1759] . (Hugh Mercer to Stanwix, 15 Aug. 1759, in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 3:568), from Founders Online footnote 7.
These French Forts were known as Fort Machault (the area the British called Venango), Fort LeBoeuf (French for Beef) and Fort Presque Isle sitting on Lake Erie. These burn-downs were a result of the fall of French Fort Niagara in late July 1759, the kingpin fort in the supply chain.
This further eased the pressure on Pittsburgh and therefore by extension, Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
See a little story and map location of each of these forts. We always talk about something after it is gone.
N'wait. That's a British flag.
We use this picture because it is a link to an annual reenactment of a fort burning.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
There's always more.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Table of Contents
Fort Machault (English called the area Venango)
Fort LeBoeuf (French for Beef)
Fort Presque Isle (sitting on Lake Erie)
Compiled by Jim Moyer 237pm 8/13/2023, more to be added to this story, Name confusion added from a previous story 4/2023 and updated here on this story 8/20/2023
Fort Machault
See these links on that fort. The English always called the area of that fort the name Venango. This fort remained important because the French were building up an invasion force to retake the old Fort Duquesne Three Rivers Area where the English were building a town, "Pittsburg", and later a huge Fort Pitt.
Name Confusion
When you read contemporary accounts
you will often see
Fort Machault and Venango
used interchangeably.
The French built Fort Machault.
The English called the area Venango.
The French burned down Fort Machault in Aug1759.
The English built a new fort in 1760 nearby and called it Fort Venango, especially since they've been calling that area Venango for a long time.
Fort Machault
1896. THE FRONTIER FORTS OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. Pages 585-608.
Forts on the Pennsylvania frontier, 1753-1758 by Hunter, William A. (William Albert), published 1960, pages 136
Map location
Other possible location?
Orders to Stephen Adam to Attack Fort Machault
Supplying Pittsburg while invasion force still at Fort Machault
Fort LeBoeuf (French for Beef)
Washington delivered his famous letter in 1753 to tell the French to leave this area. Illustration of that event with some inaccuracies of uniform and hat is taken from:
Engraving depicting the Young George Washington meeting with French military commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1753, taken from The Book of the Colonies, by John Frost, published in 1846.
Fort LeBoeuf
Forts on the Pennsylvania frontier, 1753-1758
by Hunter, William A. (William Albert), published 1960, pages 79-80
Map location
History Markers
Fort Presque Isle (on Lake Erie)
Commemorative plaque in 1995:
Fort Presque Isle
Map location
Fort Niagara
Fort Niagara
Map location
Compiled by Jim Moyer 237pm 8/13/2023, more to be added to this story
Sources:
News of the burning of “Venango LeBeuff & Priscile” reached Pittsburgh by 12 Aug. (Hugh Mercer to Stanwix, 15 Aug. 1759, in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 3:568), from Founders Online footnote 7.
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