Stories after Grant's Loss
Colonel Bouquet wrote to General Forbes, "They would probably have been cut to pieces but for Captain Bullett [ Bullitt] of the Virginians who with 100 men sustained the battle with all their forces until, having lost two-thirds of his men, he was pushed in the direction of the river, where he found the poor Major [Major Andrew Lewis]. "
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Captain Bullitt urged Major Andrew Lewis to retreat but the Major told Capt Bullitt, "that he would not leave the field of battle as long as there was a man who would fight. "
"My heart is broke," said the Major. "I shall never outlive this day."
Source:
Page 135 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison.
Those are Grant's Highlanders on the hill, dubbed Grant's Hill after his defeat and long since levelled. But down near the river is where Captain Bullitt found Major Andrew Lewis. Fort Duquesne is seen in the distance. By now the morning fog has cleared.
Bouquet and Grant wrote favorably of Captain Bullitt's heroic efforts to save the men. We tell you about him when he was Lt Thomas Bullitt. Thomas Bullitt was at one point, the commanding officer of Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA in March 1758, handling a potential Cherokee revolt. See his story here.
Colonel George Washington reports on 28 Sept 1758 to Lt Gov Fauquier what he heard, since he was not there: "The troops were divided—which caused the Front to give way, and put the whole into confusion—except the virginians, commanded by Captn Bullett, who were (in the hands of Providence!) a means of preventing all of our People from sharing one common fate."
This picture seems more representative of who was on the hill.
According to the Heinz History Center website:
Grant’s Defeat, by Nat Youngblood
Painted in 1968 for display in the soon-to-be-completed Fort Pitt Museum, Youngblood’s painting shows the disastrous defeat of Major James Grant’s force of Highlanders,
There's so much more to the story.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 9/25/2022, updated 9/26/2022, 10/26/2022
Casualties, KIA, Prisoners:
"Of the 38 officers engage, 22 would become casualties (nearly 58 percent). Of the 860 soldiers, 355 would be killed or captured (39 percent), and another forty (.046 percent) would return wounded, " writes Cubbison in his book on Forbes Expedition referenced below.
For more details on who they were, see below.
Of particular people we are tracking, we notice Ensign Colby Chew was killed. He was the one who went with Cherokee Conjurers to spy on Fort Duquesne over the last few weeks. We told that story here.
Another figure is Major Andrew Lewis and the leader of this expedition, Major James Grant were taken as prisoner to Montreal. See the list of French prisoners below.
Thomas Gist and Robert Kirk were taken by the Indians and adopted.
Thomas Gist was son of Christopher Gist who accompanied George Washington on the 1753 trip to Fort LeBoeuf. See Gist's Journal. See GW's Journal. Thomas Gist's brother is Nathaniel Gist who alleged to have sired George Guess, aka Gist, aka Seqoyah, the Cherokee who came up a Cherokee "syllabary", a way to create a written language for the Cherokee.
Robert Kirk wrote a memoir which had both fake and real mixed in his book. There's an indepth book on Robert Kirk by Ian McCulloch and Timothy Todish, illustrated lavishly by the artist Robert Griffing.
Another major player was Forbes' chief road engineer, Charles Rohr. He would still be alive if Grant had retreated before daylight, but he did not follow any of Bouquet's specific orders on when to retreat, except sounding the drums and even that was done at the wrong moment.
Colonel Henry Bouquet wrote detailed orders. One of them was this:
"But if through spies or himself he considered that he had been discovered, he should think only of retreating." Page 124, Cubbison.
They had been discovered but still Grant wanted to not leave without some accomplishment. So he sent the main engineer Charles Rohr to get a better plan of the fort. And then at the same time sounded the drums and Reville to leave.
CASUALTIES
See List of Casualties in the First Virginia Regiment on 14 September 1758 from GW reporting to Lt Gov Fauquier in a letter dated 25 Sept 1758
More information on prisoners and casualties here in a letter from GW to Lt Gov Fauquier dated 28 Sept 1758.
GW moves from Fort Cumberland to Raystown
This battle was on September 14, 1758.
It was no longer necessary for Colonel George Washington to play the role of decoy sitting at Fort Cumberland.
Cubbison in his book surmizes that the French still thought the main army was coming up Braddock's Road.
Cubbison surmises that's why Grant's 800 some men were able to arrive in the dark undetected.
But Founders Online makes no note of any decoy strategy.
Instead Founders Online still notes the argument ongoing about reusing the Braddock Road.
Forbes finally made it to Raystown on the night of 15 Sept., and GW was there the next night. Forbes sent GW back down to Fort Cumberland on 17 Sept. to fetch the Virginia forces, and GW returned to Raystown with Byrd and the Virginia troops on 21 September. - -
Forbes took the occasion to inform the two Virginia colonels of his feelings about their vocal opposition to the route he had chosen for his army to follow from Raystown to Fort Duquesne. He reported the interview to Colonel Bouquet on 23 Sept:
Description of battle:
Pages 122 to 140 of 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.
See review of this book here:
1st Va Regiment casualties
on 14 September 1758.
This list was written 25 Sept 1758
A list of the mens Names Belonging to the 1st Virginia Regiment, that was kild in last Action near Fort du Quesne Septr 14th 1758
French List of their Prisoners:
François-Marie Le Marchand, sieur de Ligneris, the commandant of Fort Duquesne, probably enclosed in his letter to Bouquet of 22 Sept. 1758 his “Liste des officiers Anglais faits prisonniers auprès du fort Duquesne le 14e de ce mois,” 22 Sept. (Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 2:534–35).
The officers taken prisoner besides Maj. James Grant and Maj. Andrew Lewis were Capt. Hugh McKenzie and Ens. John McDonald of the Highlanders, Lt. William Rider (Ryder) and Ens. Edward Jenkins of the Royal Americans, and Ens. Henry Haller of the Pennsylvania forces. For the initial report of casualties, see GW to George William Fairfax, 25 Sept. 1758, n.2.
Founders Online Footnote 1
Adam Stephen's List to Bouquet:
“A List of Officers and Soldi⟨ers⟩ [Killed] ⟨mi⟩ssing wounded and Return’d from the Action near Fort Duquesne. Septr 14th 1758,”
is an imperfect copy, in GW’s hand, of the list printed in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 2:508–9. It names the officers of the various units making up the expedition and indicates which ones were reported killed, wounded, and safely returned.
(For GW’s emendation of this report noting that seven of the officers originally reported dead were in fact prisoners, see GW to Fauquier, 28 September.)
The document also gives the number of soldiers in each unit and how many of these were reported dead and missing.
In the Royal American Regiment, 4 of 6 officers were reported killed or missing (2 of the 4 were prisoners) and 35 of the 108 soldiers were killed and 3 were wounded.
Ten of the Highland officers were listed as dead or missing (3 of whom, including Grant, were in fact prisoners), 2 wounded, and 4 unharmed, while 131 soldiers were killed or missing, 24 wounded, and 162 unharmed. The copy in the Bouquet Papers erroneously lists 187 soldiers killed.
The casualties reported from the 1st Virginia Regiment were given as 6 officers and 62 men killed or missing, 1 officer and 2 men wounded, leaving 104 unharmed; it turned out that Maj. Andrew Lewis and Thomas Gist were prisoners rather than among those killed.
The North Carolinians lost 4 soldiers killed or missing, and they had 2 wounded and 7 unharmed.
The Marylanders lost 1 of their 4 officers and had one wounded, while 21 of their 71 soldiers were killed or missing and 6 wounded.
An ensign in the 2d Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment reported killed was found to be a prisoner, and of 122 Pennsylvania soldiers 20 were killed or missing and 5 were wounded.
The printed copy in the Bouquet Papers also lists two of 14 Delaware soldiers as killed or missing. There are some differences in the totals in GW’s copy of the list and the one in the Bouquet Papers. GW later learned that, in addition to the 7 officers, “2 Sergeants and 30 private men” thought dead were prisoners (GW to Fauquier, 28 Sept. 1758).
Founders Online Footnote 2
Founders Online letters of note
From George Washington to Henry Bouquet, 2 August 1758
List of stopping points and depots and discussion of which road:
Founders Online details 24-25 September 1758
Orderly Book, 24 September 1758 (Washington Papers)
Camp at Reas Town Sunday Septr 24th 1758 G. O. Parole Lond[ond]erry Field Officer for to...
This contains a list of deserters and other insubordination sentenced to floggings and execution by fire squad.
Camp at Reas Town Munday Septr 25th 1758 G. O. Parole Belfast Field Officer for to morrow Colo....
This contains a list of deserters and other insubordination sentenced to floggings and execution by fire squad.
Your acceptable favour of the 15th I had the pleasure to receive Six days afterwards. I greatly...
Do we still misunderstand the true meaning of each others Letters? I think it must appear so, thô...
A love letter?
I think it incumbent upon me to give you the following account, altho’ it is with very great...
Report on the battle
Enclosure: List of Casualties in the First Virginia Regiment on 14 September 1758, 25 September 1758
A list of the mens Names Belonging to the 1st Virginia Regiment, that was kild in last Action...
Below updated 929pm 5/7/2023
1759 House of Burgesses Journal
Saturday, the 17th of March. 32 Geo. II. 1759.
(meaning 32nd year of King George II)
A Reprefentation of Adam Stephen, Esq; Lieutenant-Colonel in the Virginia Regiment, in Behalf of the surviving Part of a Detachment of the said Regiment, which was engaged in a Skirmish before Fort Du Quesne, under the Command of Major Grant, setting forth That the said Detachment being over-powered by Numbers of the Enemy, was obliged to retreat, with the Loss of their Blankets and Shirts, and praying the Consideration of the House, was presented to the House and read.
updated 5/11/2023
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Tuesday, the 20th of March. 32 Geo. II. 1759.
(meaning 32nd year of King George II)
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M' Wythe, from the Committee to whom the Reprefentation of Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Stephen, of the Virginia Regiment, in Behalf of the furviving Part of a Detach- ment of that Regiment which was engaged in a Skirmifh before Fort Du Quefne, under the Command of Major Grant, was referred, reported. That the Committee had had the fame under their Confideration, and had agreed upon a Report, and come to a Refolu- tion thereupon,which he read in his Place, and then delivered in at the Table, where the fame were again twice read, and agreed to by the Houfe, as follow:
It appeared to your Committee that the Forces commanded by Major Grant, in an Expedition againft Fort Du Quefne, when they approached that Place, by his Orders, left behind them their Baggage, leaft it might retard their March and encumber them in Time of Adtion: And that 100 Men of the Detachment from the Virginia Regiment, in the Skirmifh near the Fort, overpowered by a much fuperior Number of the Enemy, were compelled to retreat, with the Lofs of their Blankets and Shirts, which they have been fmce obliged to fupply out of their Pay; and thereupon,
Refolved, That the faid furviving Part of the Detatchment of the Virginia Regiment ought to be allowed the Sum of ;i£i75.
Ordered, That the Treafurer's Accounts be referred to M"' Charles Carter, M"' Bland, M' Page, M^ Dudley Digges, M'' Harrifon, M'^ Pendleton, M.'^Cary, M'^ Lewis, TA^ George Johnfton, M' Thomas Lee, M"" Richard Henry Lee, and M'' George Mafon ; That they do examine into the feveral Articles thereof, and report the Balance as it fhall appear to them, to the Houfe.
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Petition of a wounded soldier at Grant's Hill in Sept 1758
Thursday 8 Nov 1759
4th Session
page 133, November 1, 1759 to of November 21, 1759
M'' Bland reported. That the Committee to whom the Petition of Peter Menzie was referred, had had the same under their Confideration, and had agreed upon a Report, and come to a Refolution thereupon, which he read in his Place, and then delivered in at the Table, where the fame were again twice read, and agreed to by the Houfe, as follow :
It appears to this Committee,
That the Petitioner was enlifted as a Soldier in the first Virginia Regiment : That he always behaved well and as a good Soldier during his Continuance in that Ser\'ice: That in the Adlion on the Ohio, under the Command of Major Grant, he received a Wound in his left Arm, near the Wrift, which fliattered both bones in fuch a Manner as to render him incapable of getting his Livelihood.
Refolved,
That the faid Peter Menzie ought to be allowed the Sum of £30, to be paid by the Publick, in full Compenfation for the Injury he has received by Means of the faid Woimd.
updated 10/8/2023
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