Stanwix names Fort Pitt in Nov 1759
John Stanwix is the one who names this new big fortress, "Fort Pitt" on 20 Nov 1759.
Proof of this claim is found in a letter:
Gen. John Stanwix letter to William Pitt, Nov. 20, 1759, in Gertrude S. Kimball, ed., The Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (New York, 1906), II,211-12. -- WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 1965
Forbes named the area of The Point, the area of the three rivers as "Pittsbourgh" or "Pittsbourg" in his letters. That name was in honor of William Pitt, considered the master mind of the strategy of this global war. Before he died a smaller fort was built by his men, in anticipation of building a much larger fort -- a fort that was presumed to last forever.
It was that big fort that got its name by John Stanwix. Prior to this naming, the letters of the officers dateline their letters "Pittsburg."
Prior to 20 Nov 1759, the dateline for the place was Pittsburg, not Fort Pitt.
#169 (p.151) December 12, 1759
Executive Journals , Council of Colonial Virginia 151
The Governor was pleased to communicate to the Board , two Letters from Col. Byrd , dated Pittsburg the 29th of Octor .
Also a Letter from Lt. Col. Stephen dated the same Day and Place ,
informing of the Situation of Affairs in those Parts , and the Circum- stances of the Regiment .
Who is this John Stanwix (1690-1766) ?
And more particularly,
Where was this leader in the colonies during the French and Indian War?
Head of Southern District
On 1 January 1756 John Stanwix was made colonel-commandant of the 1st battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment. Stanwix was given the commad of the Southern District during 1757. He made his headquarters were at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was appointed brigadier-general on 27 December of that year. From wikipedia.
Carlisle
Stanwix didn't name that town, but it is interesting to note he was in the parliament representing Carlisle England even while he was in the colonies performing his military duties. " . . . in 1750, he was appointed Governor of Carlisle, and also represented the town in the British parliament as the Member of Parliament for Carlisle (1741–42 and 1746–61)." From wikipedia.
Leaves Southern District
John Stanwix had by this time [April 1758? ]
left Pennsylvania for New York to become a brigadier under Maj. Gen. James Abercromby (b1706 – d1801), the temporary commander in chief of the British forces in North America after Lord Loudoun’s removal. From Founders Online footnote 1 to a letter GW writes on 10 April 1758 congratulating Stanwix on his promotion to go to New York under Abercrombie. But GW worried who would replace Stanwix.
Fort Stanwix
This Fort Stanwix was constructed in the area of what is now known as Rome New York. John Stanwix was on assignment to the New York area under Abercombie.
Back to Southern District
Stanwix is back to leading the Southern District again, but instead his headquarters was not Carlisle as it was last time. This time it is Pittsburgh.
General Forbes having died, March 13th, 1759, . . . . was succeeded by General John Stanwix as commander of His Majesty's regular troops, and those to be raised by the Provinces, for the Southern Department.
The announcement of the appointment of Stanwix and of the death of Forbes, was made by Gen. Amherst, Commander-in-Chief, on the 15th of March, 1759. From http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/frontierforts/ff26.html
Stanwix names Fort Pitt
Forbes named the area "Pittsbourgh or Pittsbourgh". The name had many spellings during that time. Forbes gave that area that name 1 Dec 1758 before the big fort ever got built.
John Stanwix is the one who names this new big fortress, "Fort Pitt" on 20 Nov 1759.
When Forbes asserted control of the 3 Rivers, a smaller un-named was buiilt before a new and much bigger fort was built. Forbes named the area of the 3 River, Pittsbourgh.
Proof of this claim is found in a letter:
Gen. John Stanwix to William Pitt, Nov. 20, 1759, in Gertrude S. Kimball, ed., The Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (New York, 1906), II,211-12. -- WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 1965
In 1759 Stanwix returned to Pennsylvania, built and named Fort Pitt, and surmounted the works with cannon. He worked with George Croghan, the deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, to secure the good will of the Indians. On 19 June 1759, Stanwix was appointed major-general, but he was relieved by General Robert Monckton on 4 May 1760 . . . From wikipedia.
His Name and his Ending
He was born John Roos, the son of Rev. John Roos, rector of Widmerpool, Nottinghamshire. In 1725 he succeeded to the estates of his uncle Thomas Stanwix MP and adopted the name of Stanwix. From wikipedia.
Sadly, Stanwix,
along with his wife and daughter,
were lost at sea
while crossing from Dublin, Ireland,
to Holyhead, Wales
when the packet The Eagle
went down on October 29, 1766.
Stanwix, 76, had been on his way to London to attend parliament. There were no survivors.
An engraving commissioned,
by someone who loved
Fidelia Stanwix,
[the daughter of John Stanwix]
in the years following her death.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
There's always more.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Compiled by Jim Moyer, 11/24/2023, updated 11/26/2023 , 12/13/2923
Table of Contents
More on John Stanwix
Fort Stanwix
There is lettering cropped off from this photo:
In memory of General Stanwix's daughter who was lost in her passage from Ireland.
Angelica Kauffman pinxt. W.W. Ryland Engraver to his Majesty sculp.
Lettering continues with a poem:
On the dark bosom of the faithless main Where stormy winds and roaring tempests reign, Far from her native fields and friendly skies, In early death's cold arms Fidelia lies. Ah! spare to tell (for she is now no more) What virtue beauty sweetness charm'd before Here let the pensive muse in silence mourn Where friendship to her name has rais'd the sacred urn
Source
The Name of Fort Pitt
In 1759 Stanwix returned to Pennsylvania, built and named Fort Pitt, and surmounted the works with cannon. From wikipedia.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE Pennsylvania State Universityhttps://journals.psu.edu › article › download by JW Huston · 1965 · Cited by 6 — British maintained control of this fortress to which General John. Stanwix had given the name Fort Pitt.
Pittsbourgh
The genesis of the name comes from General Forbes naming the area with different spellings as Pittsbourg in a letter 26 Nov 1758 to Abercrombie and Amherst, and as Pittsbourgh in a letter 27 Nov 1758 to William Pitt, known as one of the first Prime Ministers before Prime Minister became an official name. Forbes had Scottish background, and at the time a renaissance of science and knowledge and teaching was occurring at Edinbourgh.
George Washington guessing on the spelling (which was not standard on many words) and being used to his local version of burgh, spelled it Pittsburgh in a letter to Forbes' second in command, Colonel Henry Bouquet. But George was not the name creator. That was Forbes' invention.
Then through word of mouth, during this time of 1758 and 1759 and onward , many letters show the name simplified to Pittsburg.
General Forbes' Letter to William Pitt
Pittsbourgh. 27th Novemr. 1758.
Camps and Fort names
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 "
Stanwix Arrival - 1st letter to GW
This letter certainy establishes John Stanwix his authority over Colonel George.
Look at the list of munitions and supplies he demands.
He's sending 9 wagons pulled by 4 horses each to pick this up.
100 Barrell’s of Gun powder
3 Tons of Lead
12000 Flints for Musquets
100.Reams of Stronge Cartradge Paper
50.pounds of Macth
50.pounds of Brimstone
50.pounds of Saltpeter
50 three pound Ball.
GW writes back that not all these supplies exist at Fort Loudoun.
Especially the cartidge paper. GW bought those himself while he attended Loudoun's convention of Governors in Philadelphia
Letter from GW to Stanwix leaving 10 April 1758
To John Stanwix To Brigadier-General Stanwix Dear Sir,Ft L[oudoun] April 10th 1758.
Pe[r]mit me, at the same time I congratulate you (which I most sincerely do) upon the promotion you have met with, and justly merited; to express my Concern at the prospect of parting with you. I can truly say, it is a matter of no small regret to me! and that I shou’d have thought myself happy in serving this campaign under your immediate command. But every thing I hope, is ordered for the best; and it is our duty to submit to the will of our Superior. I must nevertheless beg, that you will add one more kindness to the many I have experienced, and that is, to mention me in favorable terms to General Forbes (if you are acquainted with that Gentleman) not as a person who would depend upon him for further recommendation to military preferment, for I have long conquered all such expectancies (and serve this campaign merely for the purpose of affording my best endeavours to bring matters to a conclusion) but as a person who would gladly be distinguished in some measure from the common run of provincial Officers; as I understand there will be a motley herd of us.1
Nothing can contribute more to His Majesty’s Interest in this Quarter, than an early campaign, or a speedy junction of the Troops to be employed in this Service.
Without this,
I fear the Indians with difficulty will be restrained
from returning to their nation before we assemble;
and in that event, no words can tell how much they will be missed.
It is an affair of great importance, and ought to claim the closest attention of the Commanding Officer;
for, on the assistance of these people, does the security of our march very much depend. There should be great care taken, also, to lay in a supply of proper Goods for them:
The Indians are mercenary; every service of theirs must be purchased: and they are easily offended, being thoroughly sensible of their own importance.
Upwards of 5,00 are already come to this place,
the greatest part of whom are gone to war:
many others are daily expected,
and we have neither arms nor clothes (proper) to give them:
nor indeed is it reasonable to expect,
that the whole expence accruing on account of these people,
should fall upon this Government—
which hath already in this, as well as in many other respects,
exerted her utmost abilities for His Majestys Interest,
and in the present case,
shares only an equal proportion of the advantages arising from Indian Services.
These crude thoughts are hastily thrown together: if you find any thing contained in them which may be useful, be pleased to improve them for his Majestys interest.2
The latitude which you have hitherto allowed me—joined to my zeal for the Service, have encouraged me to use this freedom with You Sir, which I should not chuse to take, unasked, with another.
If it is not inconsistent, I should be glad, before I con[c]lude to ask, what regular troops are to be employed under Brigad. Gen. Forbes, and when they may be expected?3
also, where they are to rendezvous? Ft Frederick, I hear, is mentioned for this purpose, &, in my humble opinion, a little improperly: In the first place, because the country people all around are fled, and the troops will, consequently, lack those refreshments so needful to Soldiers. In the next place; I am fully convinced there never can be a road made between Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland that will admit the transportation of carriages: for I have passed it with many others, who were of the same opinion. And, lastly—because this is the place to which all Indian parties, either going to, or returning from war, will inevitably repair.4
I am, with most sincere Esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient, and obliged humble Servant,
G:W. LB, DLC:GW.
Founders Online Footnotes:
1. John Stanwix had by this time left Pennsylvania for New York to become a brigadier under Maj. Gen. James Abercromby (1706–1801), the temporary commander in chief of the British forces in North America after Lord Loudoun’s removal. John Forbes (1707–1759), a Scot, colonel in the 17th Regiment, and until now adjutant general on Loudoun’s staff, was given the rank of brigadier general to command the expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. It was after hearing that the Virginia forces would take part in Forbes’s campaign, and perhaps after learning that General Forbes wished him to take part (see GW to Forbes, 23 April, n.1), that GW left Williamsburg in late March to resume active command of the Virginia Regiment at Fort Loudoun. When formed in early summer 1758, Forbes’s army was made up of about five thousand provincial troops, including a second Virginia regiment commanded by William Byrd III, and nearly seventeen hundred regulars.
2. For William Byrd’s mission to Carolina to recruit Cherokee warriors for the upcoming campaign, see Byrd to John Forbes, 30 April, quoted in GW to John Blair, 9 April 1758, n.2.
3. On 1 May 1758 General Forbes wrote from Philadelphia to William Pitt: “The Regular Forces destined for the Operations upon the frontiers of the Southern Provinces and the Ohio, are thirteen Companys of [Archibald] Montgomerie’s Highlanders, and four Companys of the first Battalion of the Royal American Regiment. The ten Companys of the former are not yet arrived from South Carolina. The three additional Companys [of the Highlanders] who are in this Province, have one third sick, and the remainder have not yet recovered strength enough for Service, occasioned by their long passage from Britain. The four Companies of the first Battalion of Americans are got to this place, they are sickly, being just arrived from South Carolina, and they want fifty Men to compleat them, which will be impracticable to fill up, as the Provinces are giving so high Bountys for raising the Men they are to furnish during this Campaign” (James, Writings of Forbes, 76–78). Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet (1719–1765), the new commander of the 1st Battalion of the Royal American Regiment (60th) and Forbes’s second in command for the 1758 expedition, sailed from Charleston, S.C., with his five companies of the 1st Battalion at the end of March for New York and then for Philadelphia, arriving there with his troops in early May. The four companies of the 1st Battalion of Royal Americans that Stanwix had commanded were at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The “three additional Companys” of the 1st Highland Battalion (77th Regiment of Foot) landed in Philadelphia on 22 April, but Archibald Montgomery (1726–1796), lieutenant colonel commandant of the Highlanders, did not arrive in Philadelphia until the beginning of June with the ten companies that he had taken to South Carolina. See note 1.
4. Both Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland were in Maryland, manned by a total of about three hundred Maryland soldiers. Fort Frederick was on the Potomac about fourteen miles upstream from the mouth of Conococheague Creek and almost due north of Winchester. About forty miles upstream, Fort Cumberland was at Wills Creek. GW’s fears that Winchester was not being thought of as the staging area for the planned expedition were well founded, for as early as 21 March Forbes wrote Gov. Horatio Sharpe of Maryland: “I propose Canegocheeque for a Rendevouze for the Pensilvania Troops, and Regulars from Philadelphia” (James, Writings of Forbes, 61–63). Forbes’s initial notion was to have a road cut on the north side of the Potomac from Fort Frederick up to Fort Cumberland, and from there to reopen Braddock’s Road to Fort Duquesne. It was Gen. James Abercromby’s expectation that Fort Cumberland would be the main base from which the march up Braddock’s Road to Fort Duquesne would be staged (Scottish Record Office: Dalhousie Muniments). But by early May Forbes had discarded the plan to use Conococheague as a rendezvous point and was by then determined to seek an alternative to Braddock’s Road. The Pennsylvania troops and the regulars at Philadelphia, it was decided, would open up a road from Shippensburg to Raystown (Raes Town), Pa., north of Fort Cumberland, and from Raystown the army would seek a shorter and better route to the Forks of the Ohio than the one Braddock had taken in 1755. General Forbes later explained that John St. Clair, who left Philadelphia about 1 May, first suggested to him and then persuaded him “to take the road by Raestown, I having previous to this ordered our Army to assemble at Conegochegue” (Forbes to Henry Bouquet, 23 July 1758, ibid., 156–58). On 7 May Forbes wrote Gen. James Abercromby about his plans to “clear the roads, and build a pallisaded Deposit . . . at Rays town” (ibid., 87–88), but until as late as 10 May GW was still assuming that the army would rendezvous at Fort Frederick in Maryland (GW to John Blair, 4–10 May).
The plan to cut a road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland was revived in June (see particularly Bouquet to GW, 1 July), but the Maryland road when cut played no real part in the expedition. What GW and other Virginians became most insistent about was that Forbes’s army in its march toward Fort Duquesne should use Braddock’s Road, which led directly into Virginia at Fort Cumberland, and not cut a new road from Raystown, which would provide a direct connection between the Ohio country and eastern Pennsylvania. For GW’s active opposition to Forbes’s plan to build a new road, and for the reactions of Forbes and Bouquet to GW’s role in this, see particularly GW to Henry Bouquet, 2, 6 Aug., to Francis Halkett, 2 Aug., to John Robinson, 1 Sept., and to Francis Fauquier, 2 Sept. 1758, and the notes for all of these documents.
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Rebuilding Fort Stanwix in Rome NY
That fort named Fort Stanwix got support in the 1960s to rebuild in Rome NY state during Jacob Javits and RFK. We saw how the town cleared the area to reconstruct the fort. It certainly was not easy. We wish to do that for Fort Loudoun Winchester VA. If not a complete reconstruction then a partial one. And we hope one day visitors can hold up their mobile phone and point it anywhere on the property and see the fort in a virtual way --- what Fort Loudoun looked like right at that spot.
The story of digging and building Fort Stanwix
The Fort Stanwix that visitors experience today is relatively modern, built between 1974 and 1976 as a modified reconstruction of the original fort. Located on the site of the historic fort, the construction incorporated historic drawings and archeological studies to replicate the presumed appearance of the fort.
Jacob Javits helping
Exactly how the National Park Service came to be directly involved in managing Fort Stanwix is not clearly explained in the available documents, but it can be assumed that there was political pressure from the New York Congressional delegation, which included the powerful Senator Jacob Javits.
' John A. Carver to Jacob K. Javits, July 2, 1962, Stanwix-HC; "Statement on Fort Stanwix and Oriskany Battlefield, in New York State,"
Pages 89 ,87
FOR THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY AND FORT STANWIX (1962), 2003 A letter from Jacob Javits, Kenneth B. Keating, and Alexander Pirnie to Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, supporting the inclusion of Fort Stanwix and Oriskany Battlefield in the Registry of Historic Landmarks.
Page 68
Working Notes
Will reorganize later
John Stanwix (d. 1766) had been in the army for fifty years in 1756 when he became colonel of the 1st battalion of the Royal American Regiment (62d Foot, later 60th).
Stanwix remained in America until 1760, advancing to brigadier general in 1758, major general in 1760, and lieutenant general in 1761 after his return to England.
Footnote To George Washington from John Stanwix, 23 May 1757
1. John Stanwix had by this time [April 1758] left Pennsylvania for New York to become a brigadier under Maj. Gen. James Abercromby (1706–1801), the temporary commander in chief of the British forces in North America after Lord Loudoun’s removal.
John Forbes (1707–1759), a Scot, colonel in the 17th Regiment, and until now adjutant general on Loudoun’s staff, was given the rank of brigadier general to command the expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758.
It was after hearing that the Virginia forces would take part in Forbes’s campaign, and perhaps after learning that General Forbes wished him to take part (see GW to Forbes, 23 April, n.1), that GW left Williamsburg in late March to resume active command of the Virginia Regiment at Fort Loudoun. When formed in early summer 1758, Forbes’s army was made up of about five thousand provincial troops, including a second Virginia regiment commanded by William Byrd III, and nearly seventeen hundred regulars.
Footnote to letter From George Washington to John Stanwix, 10 April 1758
Correspondence with Brigadier General John Stanwix, General James Abercromby, General James Murray and Colonel James Robertson
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