Robert Rogers Expedition from Fort Pitt to Detroit
Fort Pitt commander Robert Monckton needs a line of communications from his fort to Fort Niagara. He sent our Robert Stewart (Stewart Street Winchester VA is named after him) to Venango to take over the old destroyed French Machault and rebuild a fort there. He was there August to December 1760. Jeffery Amherst, Supreme command of all North American forces orders Fort Pitt commander Robert Monckton to instruct Robert Rogers to inform the French garrison in Detroit that France has surrendered Canada. France is still holding on to its vast Louisiana territory stretching up to the Illinois and Ohio. Rogers and his expedition leaves from Fort Pitt 10 Oct 1760 and arrives in Detroit 11 Nov 1760.
Rogers splits his expedition from Pittsburgh to Detroit into two. One by land. One by water.
Meanwhile Robert Stewart (Stewart Street Winchester VA named after him) is in Venango. Shows up as Wenango on this 1771 map.
“A new and accurate map of part of North-America . . . ” (detail, 1771), showing the relative positions of Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt (Duquesne) marked, with the contested Ohio country in between. Seneca and other Iroquois settlements were along the southern shore of Lake Ontario and to the east. (Library of Congress)
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 10/3/2024, updated 10/6/2024
Table of Contents
Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers and his Rangers and others leaves Pittsburgh 10 Oct 1760 and arrives just outside the French Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit 11 Nov 1760.
This will be Robert Rogers' last expedition during the French and Indian War. His rangers will be retired.
Travelling with him is George Croghan, deputy to Sir William Johnston who is Supt of Indian Affairs northern department. Croghan is also making money as a trader with the western Indians at Fort Pitt. And Alexander McKee is Croghan's assistant. Alexander Mckee was born of an Indian mother, has an Indian wife and knows their languages.
Fort Pitt commander Robert Monckton orders George Croghan and Alexander McKee, to accompany Robert Rogers as his Indian eyes. They know this territory better than Robert Rogers.
"Monckton was relieved of his duties at Quebec on 26 October 1759 and was reassigned to New York for convalescence. He eventually recovered from his wound and, in 1760, was appointed Colonel of the 17th Regiment of Foot and commander of the British forces in the southern provinces (the provinces south of New York). Here, Monckton was charged with consolidating control of the area around Fort Pitt, as well as the Niagara region and the old French fortifications in the Alleghenies. In 1761, Monckton was promoted to the rank of major-general."
ROGERS EXPEDITION
"The ROGERS EXPEDITION, led by Maj. Robt. Rogers, crossed the south shore of Lake Erie in Nov. 1760 by boat and on foot, with the objective of taking command of Ft. Detroit following the French & Indian War.
Existing journals indicate that the Cleveland area furnished at least 1 landing site.
With Presque Isle as a starting point, the main group under Rogers traveled westward by bateaux, stopping at various locations along the way.
Simultaneously, Rogers ordered Capt. David Brewer to travel by land, driving a herd of 40 oxen.
Accompanying Rogers was GEO. CROGHAN, a trader and deputy superintendent of Indian affairs under Sir Wm. Johnson. His familiarity and friendship with the Indians aided the safe passage of the expedition and eased tensions upon their arrival at Ft. Detroit.
Journals of both Rogers and Croghan relating this journey include a description of a meeting with a group of OTTAWA Indians from Detroit. Some historians maintain that the location of this meeting was the CUYAHOGA RIVER, but the journals fail to agree on dates and locations and contain uncertain names of rivers and creeks. Recent opinion favors the CHAGRIN RIVER as the location of the meeting."
Robert Stewart
Meanwhile our Robert Stewart, the namesake of Stewart Street of Winchester VA is in Venango, where the French Fort Machault was. He was ordered to go there in July 1760. Robert Stewart is ordered to build a new fort there. He is also ordered to consolidate control of the area. Fort Pitt commander Robert Monckton needs a line of communications from his fort to Fort Niagara. He arrives in Venango in August 1760. He stays there until end of December 1760. He returns to Fort Pitt in January 1761 and then travels back to Winchester, arriving in Winchester 11 Feb 1761 and writes a letter from Winchester Virginia to Burgess George Washington on 15 Feb 1761. It is interesting Stewart datelines his letter Winchester instead of Fort Loudoun. He writes of that expedition and time in Venango: "I arrivd here the 11th Inst. after the most severe and longest Campaign I ever Serv’d . . . " footnote 1.
Founders Online Footnote 1. Gen. Robert Monckton in July 1760 ordered Stewart to march from Winchester with a small detachment to Venango and there rebuild the fort destroyed by the French (Monckton to Henry Bouquet, 28 July 1760, in Waddell, Bouquet Papers, 4:658–61). Too few men and a shortage of food made his task difficult. He was relieved in late December and returned to Fort Pitt where he remained most of January before returning to Winchester via Fort Cumberland (see particularly Stewart to Mordecai Buckner, 23 Dec. 1760, and Bouquet to Monckton, 26 Jan. 1761, ibid., 5:201–3, 265–66).
Virginia Regiment in the South and at Fort Pitt
Founders Online Footnote 4. In March 1760 the assembly provided for the addition of 300 men to the Virginia Regiment to serve exclusively on the southwestern frontier while the rest of the Regiment was to serve “in conjunction with his Majesty’s forces, and be employed in such manner as the commander in chief shall appoint and direct” (7 Hening 346–53). In May with the outbreak of the Cherokee War the assembly voted to add another 700 men to the forces on the southwest frontier (ibid., 357–63). When Col. William Byrd went to join the expedition against the Cherokee (see note 3), Lt. Col. Adam Stephen became the senior officer of that part of the Virginia Regiment left to the disposal of General Monckton in Pennsylvania, but Monckton put Stewart in command of a small force made up of men from the Virginia Regiment and of Pennsylvania soldiers which he sent up to refortify Venango above Pittsburgh in the summer of 1760 (see Col. Henry Bouquet to Maj. William Walters, 11 Aug., and Stewart to Bouquet, 28 Aug. 1760, in Waddell, Bouquet Papers, 4:687–88, 709–10).
June 3, 1760 letter
Fort Detroit
The French called it Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit.
Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a French and later British fortification established in 1701 on the north side of the Detroit River by Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac. A settlement based on the fur trade, farming and missionary work slowly developed in the area. The fort was located in what is now downtown Detroit, northeast of the intersection of Washington Boulevard and West Jefferson Avenue.
On 29 November 1760 in Detroit, Rogers received the submission of the French posts on the Great Lakes; during the spring 1761, Rogers and his Rangers occupied Fort Michilimackinac and Fort St. Joseph. It was the final act of his command. Shortly thereafter, his rangers were disbanded. Monckton offered Rogers command of a company of regulars in South Carolina but, after visiting the place, Rogers chose instead to command another company in New York. That unit was soon disbanded, however, and Rogers was forced into retirement at half-pay.
The name Pontchartrain itself comes from the place in France where Phélypeaux's château is situated. It is thought that this name originates from it being where a bridge (French: pont) crossed the river Mauldre on the ancient route from Lutèce to Chartres (chartrain).
The estate of current Château de Pontchartrain was mentioned first time around 1325. The original manor was abandoned in the 16th century. Paul Phélypeaux was the king's counselor in 1610 and the founder of the Pontchartrain branch of the Phélypeaux family, who kept the chateau for two centuries. His son Louis I Phélypeaux had the main building built between 1633 and 1662.
Louis II Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain, Jean's brother, assumed the name of the property, where he assigned brother François Romain and André Le Nôtre to raise the chateau and in 1693 to design a magnificent park. After his wife died he was grief-stricken and resigned all his offices, which contemporaries thought he had never seen according to his friend Saint Simon. He retired to Ponchartrain, where he died.
After the chaos of French Revolution in 1801 the Duchess of Brissac sold Pontchartrain to the industrialist and speculator Claude Caroillon Destillières, a leader of the 'Black Band' syndicate of businessmen enriched by the Directory who specialized in the purchase and liquidation of the great aristocratic estates.
Robert Rogers Counterfeit story
Rogers Rangers never came to Fort Loudoun. They operated in NY and Canada mostly. They got most of the glory. In many ways deservedly so. The Rangers were the closest to the style of Indian warfare.
We had our own Rangers at Fort Loudoun.
For a time Rutherford's Rangers garrisoned Fort Loudoun. We had other Ranger companies at 2 Ranger forts on the Patterson Creek too - Fort Cocks and Fort Ashby.
But for now, we just take a look
at those legendary Rogers Rangers.
In particular we want to know if Robert Rogers was guilty of counterfeiting money.
According to several sources, Rogers is guilty.
See proof in here.
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Robert Rogers lost a battle in Pontiac's War
"The Battle of Bloody Run was fought during Pontiac's War on July 31, 1763, on what now is the site of Elmwood Cemetery in the Eastside Historic Cemetery District of Detroit, Michigan. In an attempt to break Pontiac's siege of Fort Detroit, about 250 British troops attempted to make a surprise attack on Pontiac's encampment.
Pontiac was ready and waiting, possibly alerted by French settlers, and defeated the British at Parent's Creek 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the fort.
However, he did not accomplish the destruction of this British force which would have greatly demoralized the British and dissuaded more British efforts to break the Indian siege of Fort Detroit.
The creek, or run, was said to have run red with the blood of the 20 dead and 41 wounded British forces and was henceforth known as Bloody Run.
The British forces retreated with all their wounded and all but seven of those killed.[1]
The attack's commander, Captain James Dalyell, was one of those killed.[2]
After learning of Dalyell's death, General Jeffery Amherst offered a £200 bounty to anyone who would kill Pontiac.
The famous frontiersman Robert Rogers was one of the British commanders in this battle."
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