- [Announcer] Funding for this program was made possible by the members of WQED and the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

Thank you.

(orchestral music) - [James] This area was formative to the United States of America.

(orchestral music) - [Robert] A famous volley by George Washington in the Backwoods of America set the world ablaze.

(orchestral music) - [Commander] Aim, fire!

(guns bang) (orchestral music) - [James] These battlefields are important.

They're crucial because they are a reminder of a pivotal time in the history of the colonies, and in that transition from colony to nation status.

All of these forts play crucial roles in securing the British colonial presence in this region.

They're symbols of that great imperial struggle between the British and the French.

They're also symbols of the complexities of the American relationship with native peoples.

So Fort Pitt, Fort Ligonier, Bushy Run, they're all examples of this complex history between the American colonies, later the United States, and the native peoples of this region.

(orchestral music) (birds chirping) - [Robert] Washington heard that there was a party of 20 men East of Fort Necessity at a place called Jumonville Glen.

(brooding music) Coming to ask Washington to leave, to get off French land.

(brooding music) British were on top of the rocks, it's a big rock wall there, and the French were down inside, it was raining, there was one guy out with dysentery in the woods.

British came up and they fired on the French.

So the rules of engagement were that you would not kill an injured officer, but Tanacharison was his name, they called him 'Half King', was a Seneca, he didn't play by the rules.

Saw Jumonville lying on the ground, and he tomahawked Jumonville right in the head.

The guy comes back, sees all the dead people, walked back to Pittsburgh, well, to Fort Duquesne.

And he tells his brother-in-law that, "Sir, your brother-in-law's dead."

So the French take an army out, they go down Monongahela river, to Brownsville.

They get off at Brownsville, and they march out to Fort Necessity, to the Great Meadows.

(dramatic music) At the Great Meadows, they surround the Fort, (dramatic music) and they put cannons up on the Hills, and they fire down into the Fort.

Half King left Washington the night before the engagement.

He said, "Why would you build a Fort in the saddle between two hills?"

(somber music) - [Tom] This is where Washington learned the lessons of warfare, the lessons of leadership, that were required to win a war against the powers of Great Britain.

(somber music) The war that started here set in motion events that would lead to the colonies breaking away from Great Britain.

The first thing they had to do was remove the threat of the French, that happened as a result of this war, setting the colonies, working together, and the policies that were enacted as a result of this war, led directly to the colonies coming together, uniting to form states in America.

(orchestral music) After the battle, the French burned the Fort, they had no desire to have a Fort here, it was a Fort of necessity, it was not a really a strategic Fort, Washington built it here because he needed a Fort.

Might've been called Fort Necessity because that was what was inside at his necessities.

The French burned the Fort, and for a long time, all that was here were the remains of the earthworks.

There was a wetland, they were starting to settle in.

In 1954, in preparation for the 200th anniversary of the battle, Park Service had an archeologist come out, and they discovered the shape, the location of the Fort, and the current reconstruction is on the exact location of Washington's original Fort Necessity.

(uplifting music) There's two campaigns that passed through this area, Washington's 1754 campaign, and Braddock's 1755 campaign.

The objective of both of those campaigns was to capture Fort Duquesne.

- [Matt] So the Braddock's Battlefield History Center is to talk about the battle of the Monongahela that happened on July 9, 1755.

And we are right on the exact spot of where the battle actually occurred.

And probably the most crucial moments of that battle, and how we know it as a defeat of the British, actually happened right here.

As this group of Braddock's Army, the advanced party is moving forward, they are going to run into the French that are in the road.

- [James] Braddock was trained in this European military tradition of tight formations, open field pitch battles, a very formalized, almost ritualized military encounters.

That wasn't the way things were done in most parts of North America.

He was blind to a lot of the tactics of ambush that would be utilized by colonists and native peoples alike.

(gentle music) - [Matt] "The native American warriors have already begun to move down the sides of Braddock's column, raining down deadly fire into those soldiers, causing them to fall like autumn leaves," as one quote put it.

And as this battle goes on, and General Braddock, many of his officers actually being killed or wounded, he would be mounting his fifth horse after four have been shot out from under him, and he will be struck himself.

Now, of course Washington, who's going to be near the general during the most of this battle, is going to see that general Braddock has fallen, they're going to wrap him in his officer sash and remove him from the field.

This army falling into disorder and retreat across the Monongahela.

So General Braddock was actually put in a tumble cart, they're heading back to where Dunbar's Camp is, which is near Fort Necessity, and that is going to be close to where they bury General Braddock.

(gentle piano) - [Robert] The chaplain was injured in the battle, so Washington read the eulogy.

And they buried Braddock four or five feet down into the road so the Indians wouldn't find them.

Then they marched horses over them, ran wagons over them, soldiers marched over him.

- It's actually going to be in the early 1800s that they're doing construction on the road, and are able to find where general Braddock was.

Later on, his remains were put under where the monument is now, next to Route 40.

(brooding orchestral music) - [Robert] Forbes built this Fort as a jumping off point to attack Fort Duquesne.

This is the first Fort West of the Appalachian mountains.

- [Erica] General John Forbes recognized the importance of supplies and he constructed, or reinforced, a fortification to protect supplies about every 50 miles along the way.

Westward expansion was really made possible by Fort Ligonier.

And it really represents a pivotal moment in American history in the 18th century, before we were even the United States.

(somber piano) Before Ligonier was constructed in 1758, the site of Fort Ligonier was chosen because it was higher ground, it had natural defences, like cliffs along the one side of it that went down to the Loyalhanna Creek.

There was also a fresh spring that would provide drinking water for the forces there.

It took around 1,500 to 2,500 soldiers around four months to construct the Fort.

And at its peak, there were over 5,000 people associated with the British Army here, it was like a moving city where you had to bring everyone and everything with you in order to sustain that population in the middle of nowhere 'cause this truly was the Wild West in 1758.

(gentle music) The main battle that happened here was on October 12th of 1758.

The previous month in September, there was an ill-fated attack by Major James Grant on Fort Duquesne.

He had disobeyed orders, he was supposed to just be on a scouting mission, and he attacked Fort Duquesne based on some poor intelligence that he had, and was quite decimated, his forces were really torn apart during that battle, which is known as Grant's Defeat.

So in retaliation, forces from Fort Duquesne came to attack Fort Ligonier which was the closest British fortification to Fort Duquesne.

And it was ultimately the artillery here at Fort Ligonier that won the day for the British Army, and repelled the French and their American Indian allies.

(gentle music) A young George Washington was here in 1758 as a Colonel in the Virginia Regiment.

(suspenseful music) While he was here at Fort Ligonier, there was a skirmish a couple of miles from Fort Ligonier, and the goal of Washington going out as reinforcements for Mercer, was actually to try to surround and rout the enemy of French and American Indians that were engaging Mercer's troops.

But unfortunately the time of day, it was late afternoon, it was starting to get dark, there was fog rolling in, so it became more difficult to see who you were engaging.

On top of that, the Virginia Regiment really didn't have uniforms at this point, they were worn out and they were instructed to wear Indian dress, so they appeared to look like some of the French Milice and American Indians who were attacking them.

Mistaking each other for the enemy under these conditions, there was a devastating friendly fire incident, where the Virginians ran into each other rather than the enemy.

After a little while some of the officers, including George Washington, realized what was really happening, and very bravely risked their lives, running down the line of fire, throwing the soldiers' muskets up with their swords to get them to stop.

And when they finally did, there were around 40 Virginians that had been killed during this encounter.

And it was something that haunted Washington for the rest of his life.

However, there was a silver lining, because they managed to capture, in the woods, three French prisoners, one of which who gave them very good intelligence that Fort Duquesne was weak, and that it would be poised for an attack that year.

- [Michael] Forbes made the decision sort of on the spot to make that final march against Fort Duquesne.

So he and his men, including Washington and Henry Bouquet, made that last march between Ligonier and Fort Pitt, and they were a few miles off when they heard a great explosion.

They had some native guides who later returned to them to let them know that the French had evacuated Fort Duquesne and blown up the powder magazine.

So that would have been on November 24th, 1758.

The following day, about 6:00 p.m.

on November 25th, Forbes' Army arrived here at the point, and probably on the spot, named the place Pittsburgh, we think.

He had actually given that name Pittsboro to the post at Loyalhanna, but quickly changed names and renamed this place Pittsburgh, or Pittsboro.

Forbes himself left here soon after, and by March of 1759, just a few months later, he had passed away.

In the months after the British victory takeover at Fort Duquesne, they began plans for this extremely large complex that would later be known as Fort Pitt.

So construction began in September of 1759, and it took about two years to complete.

(gentle music) The British, when they constructed Fort Pitt, always believed that the French would return to try to take control of the point again, which coincidentally never materialized.

The French Fort at Niagara fell in 1759, and their attentions were turned further to the Northward, and so Pittsburgh was never attacked by the French.

Prior to constructing the museum here at the point, the archeologists that were in charge did a survey of the perimeter of Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne, they were using period maps, and they were also using modern archeological techniques to determine exactly where the outline of the Fort was.

And nowadays, the walls of the museum and the exterior are brick.

In reality, when Fort Pitt was in existence, the majority of the Fort that was constructed of earth and walls, and so the walls of the Monongahela bastion in the 1750s and '60s would have been composed of earth and sod.

(gentle music) The first thing that you see when you come into the Fort Pitt museum is a large 16 foot diorama that shows Fort Pitt as it would have appeared about the year 1765.

(gentle music) You can see a reconstruction of a fur trader's cabin from the 1760s and get an idea of the fur trade, which was one of the first big industries that sprung up in Pittsburgh.

You also see a soldiers' barracks to show what soldiers' living conditions were like.

And then on the second floor of the museum is where you see all the artifacts that are part of the collection.

Two of the most important artifacts in the museum are first a flag of the independent battalion of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

It's actually a British flag from the 1770s that has a rattlesnake emblem with the phrase don't tread on me.

And that's the flag of John Proctor's independent battalion.

And so the men at Hanna's Town who were underarms at that point and gathering in the Eve of the American revolution.

The other really significant object is a powder horn that depicts Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio.

And we think it was made by a soldier in John Forbes' army in 1758.

So it's a British object we think that depicts a French Fort right at the moment the British captured at Fort Duquesne.

And so as such, it's probably one of the earliest surviving objects to have been made in Pittsburgh when it was called such.

Most of the tribes in Eastern North America had allied themselves with the French.

And if you think about their motivations in doing so the French were here to trade furs extract resources from the land but not necessarily to come and colonize the land.

And that was always the fear with the British.

And it's at that point in 1763 after the French have lost the war.

And you know, most cases gone back to France that these various tribes in this part of the country mount this defensive war to try to push the British back across the mountains.

So the only two forts that did not fall were Detroit and Pittsburgh.

However, in the summer of 1763 for about two months this multi-nation army or force of American Indians led by an Ottawa war chief named Pontiac.

They laid siege to Fort Pitt.

That was part of a larger conflict known as Pontiac's uprising.

The Fort was in great jeopardy.

They very nearly ran out of supplies and fresh water.

The American Indian force that was laying siege to Fort Pitt in the summer of 1763 knew that Colonel Henry Bouquet was on the march to come to the aid of Fort Pitt.

And so in August of that year, they abandoned the siege of Pittsburgh and left to meet Henry Bouquet on the road at Bushy Run.

(gunshots) - [John] Significance of Bushy Run battlefield in 1763 the native Americans had put under siege Fort Pitt and a relief column heading from Carlisle through the state was on its way to Fort Pitt to relieve the siege.

And here the native Americans decided to attack the relief column headed by Colonel Bouquet.

And there was a two day battle here at the battle of Bushy Run.

One of the few engagements the Native Americans ever had that lasted two days.

Eventually Colonel Bouquet did defeat the Native Americans and did force his way into Fort Pitt and raise the siege of Fort Pitt.

- Make ready, three set, and... (fires) - [Colleen] So we're sitting at the top of Edge Hill.

Edge Hill was where Colonel Bouquet brought all of his relief forces for Fort Pitt.

So at the time this was actually an old growth forest.

So the trees would have been, you know, 18, 20, to cross.

You could easily hide two or three people behind them.

This is why the ambush was so successful because you had no idea anyone was behind any of the trees as you were coming through.

And this was only a very small path through the forest.

In fact, if you look between the two lines of trees, that's about all the path that you would have.

So that was one of the reasons Colonel Bouquet switched to pack horses.

When he arrived at Fort Ligonier, everything was in wagons, but he realized that if they encountered any problems turning a wagon in this tight radius would just be about impossible.

So because he used the pack horses, he was able to turn the column around and get them back up here.

Otherwise he would've had to abandon the wagons in place, and all of the relief for the Fort would have been basically given to the Native Americans.

So this old growth forest, it also acted as a natural dampening.

You had a very quiet kind of eerie feel to the place.

(suspenseful music) Colonel Bouquet got to the bottom of Edge Hill.

That's when he encountered the Native American ambush.

So down there, it became a large congested chaotic mess.

And it took about six hours for Colonel Bouquet to gather all of his troops up, turn the entire column around and bring them back up here to the top of Edge Hill.

So as Colonel Bouquet brought his troops back up here, he settled in this natural clearing where he entrenched his soldiers and he was able to plan for the next day.

And as he did that, he formed a flour sack fort out of the bags that were on the back of the pack horses, just large enough that he could place the wounded soldiers in there and obscure them from view.

Colonel Bouquet also went and he put all of the horses and the cattle that remained in this small little dip on top of the Hill.

And that became very important the next day In the morning he selected a few soldiers to start a retreat back to Fort Ligonier.

And what they did is they went down over the hillside and disappeared from view.

So the native Americans thought this was an actual retreat.

As the next group came up ready to form the next line to leave, they realized that if they waited too long, Colonel Bouquet would follow with one of those lines and he would disappear back to Fort Ligonier and they would have no chance of capturing him, killing him and using him as a bargaining tool to get Fort Pitt.

So as the next group got ready to leave the Native Americans rushed in from where they had been to attack the British forces.

Now the British were ready for this.

They've been planning this.

So they were ready with their muskets, with their bayonets, went down behind all the cattle and the horses that were there.

Native Americans were sandwiched between two forces and they realized that there was no avenue for them to really win with this tactic.

So at the end of the day, Colonel Bouquet was able to win the Two Day Battle of Bushy Run by using a different set of tactics and forcing the Native Americans out of their comfort zone.

So because of Colonel Bouquet's victory here, he was later able to go on and by August 10th, relieve Ford Pitt and at the end of Pontiac's floor you had the gateway to westward expansion was open.

Colonists started coming further West and creating towns and communities.

And this opened up a lot of possibilities and it led the way for the American Revolution.

- Gun ready!

Under score!

Prepare, fire!

(shot) - [Lisa] The settlers had come from Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, because they wanted land, something they weren't able to acquire.

And from their perspective, nobody was using it.

So at the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 the Penn family negotiated with the Iroquois to purchase area West of the Allegheny mountains.

It was the area South and East of the Ohio river.

So South, what's now South Western Pennsylvania.

And the problem with that was the Iroquois weren't using it.

It was mostly the Ashani and so forth that were using this area.

So that led to problems later on, but that did open up Southwestern Pennsylvania for legal settlement.

So the land office in Pennsylvania opened on April 3rd, 1769.

Robert Hanna submitted an application for 360 acres along the Forbes road.

And that's how Hanna's Town started.

The first English courts West of the Allegheny mountains were held in Hanna's Town in 1773.

Justices heard criminal cases such as theft and assault, but they also heard civil cases such as property disputes.

But right next door is the bar area where people would go to buy their liquor in their spirits.

And as a tavern, we would of course, welcome guests to spend the night.

They could buy a meal here.

People didn't care a lot about privacy in the 18th century.

So most people would go upstairs to the Traveler's bedroom to sleep.

And when you came to a tavern like this, you didn't rent a room or even a bed.

You rented a place to sleep.

- [Interviewer] So you rented a place to sleep which meant what?

- Well that you might be sharing your bed with strangers, or you might be sleeping on the floor, but that was normal.

Again, it's what you expected.

The nearby Fort protected the townspeople when British and Indian forces attacked them.

- Company!

Make ready!

Fire!

(shots fire) - [Narrator] Settlers at Hanna's Town were fed up with what the British were trying to do to them.

So they formed what was called the Hanna's Town resolves where they decided they were going to take the war to the British.

Many men from Hanna's town fought in the revolutionary war.

(uplifting strings) - [Lisa] We just finished our reenactments and the people are leaving.

I'm quite proud of that.

And I think it speaks well to our school program and also to our programming here, because nobody else can say they were the first English courts West of the Allegheny mountains.

Only we have that story.

(suspenseful music) - [James] These struggles that are centered around these forts are pivotal moments in American history that shaped the contours of how the nation of the United States developed.

- Our collection is world-class.

And you get to make a personal connection with the past by actually walking the grounds where history happened.

- Preservation of these battlefield sites is important because they provide a connection to the people and events that make up the early history of our region.

Without them, we don't have that link that makes it more difficult to understand where we are in the present and where we're going in the future.