Battle of Fort Ligonier

On October 12, 1758, French and Indian fighters set out from Fort Duquesne to strike the British post at Fort Ligonier, still being built at the time, but were driven back. This clash, part of the French and Indian War, is remembered under two other names as well: the Battle of Loyalhanna and the Battle of Loyal Hannon.

Background

The disastrous Braddock Expedition had already ended in failure for the British, who could not wrest Fort Duquesne from French hands early in the French and Indian War. By 1758 a second attempt was underway, this time led by John Forbes, aiming to seize the same stronghold that the French and their native allies were using as a base for strikes against colonial settlements on the frontier. Forbes' men worked steadily to carve a road through the Allegheny Mountains, and by the start of September this route had reached a defensible spot known as Loyal Hannon, close to what is now Loyalhanna Township, Pennsylvania. At that point Henry Bouquet, commanding roughly 1,500 soldiers as Forbes' vanguard, set his troops to building Fort Ligonier so they would have quarters for the winter. French and Indian raiding parties out of Fort Duquesne kept up steady pressure on this position.

In response to these incursions, Bouquet gave James Grant permission to take 750 men and probe Duquesne's defenses in force. Grant, who seems to have hoped for a swift and glorious triumph, tried to seize the fort outright on September 14. He badly misjudged how large François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery's French contingent actually was, and the attempt ended with Grant taken prisoner and close to half his force killed or wounded. Lignery himself faced dwindling supplies, his lines having been severed after the British seized Fort Frontenac, and he decided to strike at the British camp in hopes of blunting their advance while seizing some of their provisions. Nearly his whole garrison was committed to this effort: 440 troupes de la marine together with 150 Delaware Indians under Keekyuscung, the combined force placed under Charles Phillip Aubry's command (not "De Vitri," as British sources mistakenly claimed).

Battle

During Bouquet's absence at another post along the army's route, Colonel James Burd of the Pennsylvania provincials held temporary command at Ligonier. He had posted men outside the fort to protect supplies, while others watched over the grazing animals roughly a mile and a half away. Scattered thinly across the area, these outlying guards bore the worst of the assault when French and Indian forces struck.

Once gunfire echoed toward the fort, Burd dispatched the Maryland Battalion, some 200 provincial troops, to meet the threat. The superior French numbers quickly pushed them back within the walls. By then the garrison as a whole, roughly 2,000 strong, had taken up arms. Burd then ordered the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion forward to reinforce the Marylanders, yet as the enemy pressed onward both units fell back into the fortifications. Among the defenders were three companies of North Carolina Provincials under Major Hugh Waddell.

British cannon fire eventually forced the attackers to withdraw, though they lingered nearby, waiting for nightfall to strike again. No effort seems to have been made to cut off the road, since Burd noted that reinforcements kept arriving throughout the afternoon. Near nine that evening, the French and Indians tried to storm one of the redoubts but were beaten back once more by artillery. Through the night they stayed close to the fort, firing on sentries, testing its defenses, and killing or capturing around 200 horses before finally retreating to Fort Duquesne.

James Smith later recounted how the French-allied Indians described the fight themselves. According to their account, they had encountered Forbes's army near Fort Ligonier and attacked, only to see their plan fail. They admitted that Forbes's soldiers were growing skilled in warfare and that many American riflemen fought alongside the redcoats, spreading out among the trees as sharp and elusive marksmen, which forced the attackers to abandon their effort and pull back. Smith added that the Indians confessed they could have easily overcome the redcoats alone, but they could not stand against Ashalecoa, or the Great Knife, the name they used for the Virginians.

Aftermath

For the attacking force, casualties turned out fairly modest. Montcalm, who held superior rank over Aubry, put French losses at two dead and seven injured, though Burd's own account mentioned burying four Frenchmen, a discrepancy worth noting. The toll on the British side ran higher: French sources claimed one hundred scalps taken along with seven prisoners, while British accounts listed twelve killed, eighteen wounded, and thirty one missing. Three men from the North Carolina Provincials lost their lives in the clash. Colonel Bouquet voiced sharp displeasure with his men's conduct, telling Forbes in essence that an enemy venture which ought to have cost them heavily instead showed how little regard the French held for British forces, and that his troops' performance among the trees only confirmed such scorn.

Work went forward on Ligonier in the meantime, and once Forbes reached the area on 2 November, a large scale push toward Fort Duquesne began. By 24 November, Lignery had already destroyed the fort himself, scattering his men to other posts to the north and west.

Fort Ligonier stayed in service through Pontiac's Rebellion before finally being abandoned. It was later rebuilt, and today the site holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places.