Robert Stewart's Report on "camp at Pittsburg" Sept 1759
Robert Stewart writes to George Washington on 28 Sept 1759. Despite George Washington's retirement at the end of 1758 from military leadership, GW still has power as a Burgess. GW still has networking influence.
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Robert Stewart's letter is full of details. The focus here is on one detail - the new British fort. It doesn't have an official name yet.
This new fort is going to dwarf the former French Fort Duquense. It is not going to sit over the old French Fort. It is going to be positioned more towards the Monongahela river side. And how big? So big it is going to put the lie to former promises that the white footprint will be light, that this area will still allow the Indians their hunting grounds. This biggness is going to grow until the Indians cannot ignore its meaning. These interlopers are staying. More are coming.
We plot the progress of this big fort.
This location at "the Point" is the whole point of why Fort Loudoun Winchester VA was built and why a whole network of forts were built. The French no longer could use this as a base, like an al qaeda, to orchestrate Indian raids far into the Winchester VA area.
Stewart Street in Winchester VA
Robert Stewart is also interesting to Winchester VA because there is a street named after him. He had spent much time during the building of Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA. He had a broader fame too. He was well known for his part as head of the Light Horse in Braddock's Defeat. He and George Washington were both credited as carrying Braddock on his sash. That sash looking ornamental and distinctive of high rank, also served the function of being a stretcher. And sadly this man, so close to winning a good position and comfort, never did attain it. He did ask for help from George Washington after the War of Indpendence, but Washington could not give him a position so when many other men risked their lives for the new country. Robert Stewart had remained a loyalist and did not help in the independence effort.
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Look at that dateline of Stewart's letter above. It shows no official name of Fort Pitt. Also it ascribes the area belonging to Pennsylvania. This area is in dispute since before Braddock's Defeat in 1755 and reaches a boiling point of civil war in the heart of the battle for Independence from England in the mid 1770s. At one point both PA and VA had overlapping counties with taxing and court authority.
Compare the letters marking the points of the fort from above to below.
Our Camp at present resembles a Military Colony,
where Labour, Industry and Arms, go hand & hand;
you can’t cast your Eyes any where, without seeing, Tradesmen & handicrafts of various kinds at work, and often the same Men alternatively Soldiers & Mechanicks,
this hightned by a view of three glorious Rivers, and the many Beauties Nature has been so lavish in adorning this place and it’s Environs, forms a most delightfull Prospect, terminated by high romantic Mountains, which nearly encircle it: in fine the more I see of this Charming Country, the more I’m enamour’d with it,
which leads me to enquire after what Steps have been taken, in secureing to us, those Lands which poor Capn Gist [Capt Christopher Gist died 25 July 1759] was to have enter’d for us, I hope the needful is done [putting in claims for the promised land to Dinwiddie's 1754 Proclamation] , they surely will soon be very valueable.
We have here besides the Artillery, the 1st Battn of R[oyal] A[merican]s, 656 R[ank] & F[ile] of ours, part of our Artificers and about 80 Pens., [Pennsylvania] the rest of our Artificers and the 1st Battn of Pens. [Pennsylvania] are daily expected;
and by the great pains the General has taken, his indefaticable application to Business & constant regard to the Interest of the Service, we seem to run no risque of wanting, & will be able to maintain a respectable Garrison at this place in the Winter.
The Troop⟨s⟩ here are incessantly employed on the Works, expediting which, engages the General’s closest attention; he himself overlooks them every Day (sundays not excepted) almost from Reville to Retreat Beating; and as many Guards as are now become unecessary, very few are Mounted, and these Releiv’d but once a week.
This Fort, which is yet but in embryo,
will when finish’d, be the grandest that has yet been in this new World, but it will require much Time great perseverence and immense Labour: The Engineers & indeed almost everybody else, are so extremely Bussie that I cannot for some Time possibly procure a proper Plann of it, but that you may form some Idea of it
I inclose you a Rough Sketch, done with a Pencil & without Rule &Ca and so soon as I can get a proper one, will do myself the pleasure of transmitting it to yo⟨u;⟩
it’s hop’d the three Bastions on the Land side and all the Barracks will be finish’d this year and the rest will be Stockaded till next Spring.3
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To emphasize that last prediction in Robert Stewart's letter above:
3 Bastions on the landside and all the barracks are to be finished by this year of 1759, meaning by the end of 1759?
The rest will be stockaded in the Spring of 1760.
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In this picture of modern Pittsburgh,
two forts are outlined.
The more visible outline is the smaller fort of Fort Duquesne.
The less visible outline is that of Fort Pitt showing above and below that bridged highway.
Compiled by Jim Moyer 9/13/2023, update 9/23/2023, 9/24/2023
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Stories of Robert Stewart
Robert Stewart is also interesting to Winchester VA because there is a street named after him. He had spent much time during the building of Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA. He had a broader fame too. He was well known for his part as head of the Light Horse in Braddock's Defeat. He and George Washington were both credited as carrying Braddock on his sash. That sash looking ornamental and distinctive of high rank, also served the function of being a stretcher. And sadly this man, so close to winning a good position and comfort, never did attain it. He did ask for help from George Washington after the War of Indpendence, but Washington could not give him a position when many other men risked their lives for the new country. Robert Stewart had remained a passive loyalist and did not help in the independence effort.
Jul 9, 2019 published
Apr 18, 2023 published
April 2023 published
Apr 18, 2023 published
Sep 13, 2023 published
Sep 13, 2023 published
Sep 13, 2023 published
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The Renaming
A quote from Cubbison's book on the Forbes Expedition:
On December 1 [1758],
Forbes issued those orders that remain today as his most enduring legacy in North America. Specifically, he named the posts upon which he had expended so much labor and effort:
"General Forbes is please to name the different Posts as follows & all Officers serving in the Army are desired to give them their several appelations either in Writing or otherwise;
Late Fort Duquesne = Pittsburgh
Loyal Hannon = Fort Ligonier
Ray's Town = Fort Bedford "
Source:
Page 179, The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison. More on this author here. And a review here.
The letters by all the top officers --
all refer to Reastown (Raystown) and to Loyalhanna -- not Fort Bedford, not Fort Ligonier until after the French abandoned Fort Duquesne
More detail on why those name changes
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Progress in "Pittsburg"
.Pittsburg in June 1759
.Founders Online footnote 3. Maj. Gen. John Stanwix arrived at Pittsburgh at the end of August 1759, and on 3 Sept. his engineer Capt. Harry Gordon initiated work on the permanent fort, Fort Pitt. Stewart probably left Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania with Lt. Col. Adam Stephen on 18 Sept., arriving at Pittsburgh with supplies and about one hundred and fifty men and officers on 23 Sept. 1759. Stewart’s sketch of the proposed fort has not been identified..
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