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
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
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