Forbes Expedition
Part of theSeven Years' War French and Indian War
Engraving ofGeorge Washington planting theUnion Flag on the ruins ofFort Duquesne
Date July - November, 1758 Location Ohio River Valley Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain British America	France Colony of Canada
Commanders and leaders
John Forbes	François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery
Strength
1,900 regulars 5,000 colonials	~500 militia and natives
Casualties and losses
350 killed wounded or captured	unknown

TheForbes Expedition was a British military campaign to captureFort Duquesne, led by Brigadier-GeneralJohn Forbes in 1758, during theFrench and Indian War. While advancing to the fort, the expedition built theForbes Road. TheTreaty of Easton served to cause a loss of Native American support for the French, resulting in the French destroying the fort before the expedition could arrive on November 24.

Similar to the unsuccessfulBraddock Expedition early in the war, the strategic objective was the capture of Fort Duquesne, a French fort that had been constructed at the confluence of theAllegheny River and theMonongahela River in 1754. The site is now located inPittsburgh's Golden Triangle in the downtown area (Or The Point)

Forbes commanded about 6,000 men, including a contingent of Virginians led byGeorge Washington. Forbes, very ill, did not keep up with the advance of his army, but entrusted it to his second in command, Lieutenant ColonelHenry Bouquet, a Swiss mercenary officer commanding a battalion of the Royal American Regiment.

The expedition methodically constructedForbes Road across what is now the southern part ofPennsylvania'sAppalachian Plateau region, staging fromCarlisle and exploiting the climb up via one of the few southerngaps of the Allegheny through theAllegheny Front, into the disputed territory of theOhio Country, which was then a largely-depopulatedAmerindian tributary territory of theIroquois Confederation.^[a] The well-organized expedition was in contrast to asimilar expedition led byEdward Braddock in 1755, which ended in the disastrousBattle of the Monongahela.

Working for most of the summer on the construction of the road and on periodic fortified supply depots, the expedition did not come within striking distance of Fort Duquesne until September 1758. In mid-September, a reconnaissance force was soundly defeated in theBattle of Fort Duquesne when its leader,Major James Grant, attempted to capture the fort instead of gathering information alone. The French had their supply line fromMontreal cut by other British actions and so attacked one of the expedition's forward outposts,Fort Ligonier, in an attempt to drive off the British or to acquire further supplies, but they were repulsed during theBattle of Fort Ligonier.

TheTreaty of Easton concluded on October 26, 1758, caused the remnants^[b] of theLenape (Delaware), Mingo, andShawnee tribes in the Ohio Valley to abandon the French and set up the conditions that ultimately forced them to move westward once again. The collapse of Native American support made it impossible for the French to hold Fort Duquesne and the Ohio Valley. When the expedition neared to within a few miles of Fort Duquesne in mid-November, the French abandoned and blew up the fort. Three units of scouts led by CaptainHugh Waddell entered the smoking remnants of the fort under the orders of ColonelGeorge Washington on November 24.

General Forbes, who was ill withdysentery for much of the expedition, only briefly visited the ruins. He was returned toPhiladelphia in a litter and died not long afterward. The collapse of Indian support and subsequent withdrawal of the French from the Ohio Country helped contribute to the "year of wonders" the string of British "miraculous" victories also known by theLatin phraseAnnus Mirabilis.

• Forbes Road
• Braddock Expedition
• Nemacolin's Path
• Beaver Wars
• Susquehannock peoples
• Erie peoples
• Shawnee

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• Cubbison, Douglas R (2010).The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.ISBN 978-0-7864-4739-8.OCLC 475664242.
• Fowler, William M (2005).Empires at war: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America 1754-1763. New York: Walker & Company.ISBN 0-8027-1411-0.
• Lowdermilk, Will H. (1878).History of Cumberland. Washington, DC.
• O'Meara, Walter (1965).Guns at the Forks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.OCLC 21999143.
• Sipe, C. Hale (1929).The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg.

• Forbes Expedition (George Washington's Mount Vernon)

• Iroquoian peoples
• Battles of the French and Indian War
• Battles involving Canada
• Battles in Pennsylvania
• 1758 in North America
• Conflicts in 1758

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata