CHAPTER XVIII.

The French Regime in Western Pennsylvania.

The word regime here seems inadequate to express the exact shade of meaning desired, however it will apply if taken in its secondary meaning-administration.

After the defeat of Braddock the French were in complete control of all of North America between the Rocky Mountains and the Apallachian ranges. For more than four years their fort at the Forks of the Ohio was strongly garrisoned, and was the starting point for the ravaging bands of their red allies who brought desolation upon the borders of Pennsylvania and far within them. "The French position on the Ohio was as a floodgate," says Sargent, "to open ruin and woe upon the adjacent colonies, and though its destruction was ever a main object, yet opinions differed as to the wisdom of attacking it directly or through connections on the Great Lakes." A few days after Braddock's battle the Indians dispersed, returning to their homes as was usual with them after a decisive battle. Then but a small French force remained as a garrison at Fort Duquesne and a third of Braddock's army would have been sufficient to have captured it. And herein stands forth the unsoldierly conduct of Dunbar and his men.

After July 9, 1755, until the taking of the French fort here by Forbes November 25, 1758, we have only occasional and transient glances at the place. April 1, 1756, one Paris, first name not given, with a scouting party from Fort Cumberland fell in with a small body of Indians commanded by a French officer named Donville. An action took place and Donville was killed.1 The following instructions were found upon him:

Fort Duquesne, 23d.

March, 1756.

The Sieur Donville, at the head of fifty savages, is ordered to go and observe the motions of the enemy in the neighborhood of Fort Cumberland. He will endeavor to harass their convoys and burn their magazines at Gonococheaque, should this be practicable. He must use every endeavor to take prisoners who may confirm what we already know of the enemy's designs. The Sieur Donville will use all his talents and all his credit to prevent the savages. from committing any cruelties upon those who may fall into their hands. Honor and humanity ought in this respect to serve as guides. DUMAS.

It appears that Contrecœur had gone and Dumas was in command at the fort. Craig remarks that from this fact it is possible to reconcile the humanity evinced in this order of Dumas with the cruelty maniiested Juy 9, 1755. He notes further that the extent to which Pennsylvania and Maryland were laid open to the ravages of the enemy by Braddock's defeat is shown in the suggestion that Donville might destroy maga

1This officer's name was most probably Douville. It was found Donville in "Penna. Archives," First Series, Vol. VI, which form Sargent and Craig have followed. See "Braddock's Expedition;" p. 224, and the "Olden Time;" Vol. I, p. 75.

zines on the Conococheague, in the present counties of Franklin in Pennsylvania, and Washington in Maryland.2

Craig fixes the date of Contrecœur's departure as March 23, 1756, and in the "Olden Time" paragraph last cited (p. 76), says that Dumas' directions were highly creditable to him as a humane as well as a gallant soldier. He is right, for M. Dumas was a soldier in all the significance that the word implies, and before the end of his long service attained high rank in the armies of France as noted in the preceding chapter.3 Sargent states that Contrecœur continued in command at Fort Duquesne for several months after the battle. "It does not appear," says Sargent, "that he was considered to possess all the requisite talents for the maintenance of his difficult and precarious disposition; but it was not until after Montcalm's arrival in May, 1756, and his conference with Vaudreuil at Montreal that Contrecœur was superseded by the more energetic Dumas."4

Several historians, Parkman especially, have sought evidence on this disputed point, which led Dallas Albert to sum up the whole controversy in these paragraphs:

That Fort Duquesne was built by Contrecœur as the commander of the expedition and the chief officer in this region, and that it was under his command for a time, has never been called in question. But since the discovery of the Register and other documents of a later period, a dispute has arisen as to who the actual commander of the fort was at the time of the battle of Braddock's Field. On this subject Father Lambing in his translation of the Register says:

It was formerly asserted that he, Contrecoeur, was in command at the time of the battle of the Monongahela, more commonly known as Braddock's defeat; and that he was succeeded early in the spring of 1756 by M. John Daniel, Esquire, Sieur Dumas, Captain of Infantry. It was farther stated that he was by no means disposed to favor Beaujeu's proposed attack upon Braddock's army. But the discovery of the Register, now published, would appear to prove this long entertained opinion erroneous; for in the entry of the latter's death, he is said to be "commander of Fort Duquesne and of the army." But on the other hand, there is not wanting evidence which would go to show that Contrecoeur was in command. He was commander of the fort from the date of its construction, but in the winter of 1754-5, he asked to be relieved, and the Marquis Duquesne, the Governor-General, dispatched Captain Beaujeu to relieve him, ordering him at the same time to remain at the fort until after the engagement with the English.

Albert has the following:

Francis Parkman, after giving the matter special attention in view of the statements made on the basis of the baptismal register and elsewhere, has added a lengthy note as an appendix to the latest edition of his "Montcalm and Wolfe," in which he says: "It has been said that Beaujeu, and not Contrecoeur, commanded at Fort Duquesne at the time of Braddock's Expedition. Some contemporaries, and notably the chaplain of the fort, do, in fact, speak of him as in this position; but their evidence is overbourne by more numerous and conclusive authorities, among these, Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, and Contrecoeur himself, in an official report."

2"History of Pittsburgh;" pp. 52-54. "Olden Time;" Vol. I, pp. 75-76. 3See "Braddock's Expedition;" Sargent, p. 224.

4"Braddock's Expedition;" p. 269.

In the reports referred to by Mr. Parkman, the Governor of Canada states that Contrecoeur was the Commandant at the Fort on the 8th of July, and that he sent out a party, which was commanded by Beaujeu, to meet the English. In the autumn of 1756, the Governor in asking the Colonial Minister to procure pensions for Contrecoeur and Ligneris, stated that the former gentleman had commanded for a long time at Fort Duquesne from the first establishment of the English and their retirement from Fort Necessity to the defeat of the army under General Braddock.5

M. de Ligneris relieved Dumas of the command some time late in 1756, as he is named as the commander on the 27th of December of that year. De Ligneris retained command until the French were expelled from the soil of Pennsylvania. He was one of the last to leave with his men from the burning Fort Duquesne, whence he retired to Fort Machault (Venango) where we hear of him later.6

The battle on the Monongahela was fought on the last day of Duquesne's term of office. The next day the celebrated Pierre Francois Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, assumed the duties of governor of New France. This was July 10, 1755. Vaudreuil was troubled. There was cause for it. He wrote De Machault that very day a long letter from Quebec. One paragraph reads:

I had the honor to inform you that I should order 400 men whom I would take from Presque' isle, to fall back on Niagara, but the danger to which Fort Duquesne is exposed has caused me to change my mind.

The danger to Fort Duquesne was then over. Yet Vaudreuil had not heard the news on July 24, for on that day he wrote again, quite at length, to Machault, this time from Montreal. He began:

My Lord: I had the honor to report to you in my letters of the 2d and 10th of this month, the sad condition of the Colony; that it was so much the more surprising too, as it was quite unexpected by me relying on the assurance which the Marquis Duquesne had given me that the government was quiet, that he had provided against everything and that there was not a semblance of any movement on the part of the English.

When Braddock's battle was fought there had been no declaration of war, and none for months later-not until May 26, 1756. Hostilities had been going on all that time. We find Vaudreuil writing a few days after the last letter:

Fort Duquesne is really threatened. On the 7th of this month the English were within 6 or 8 leagues of it; I am informed by letter that they number 3000, being provided with artillery and other munitions for a siege. I would not be uneasy about this fort if the officer had all these forces, they consist of about 1000 men, including regulars, militia and Indians, with which he would be in condition to form parties sufficiently considerable to annoy the march of the English from the first moment he had any knowledge thereof; these parties would have harassed, and assuredly repulsed them. Everything was in our favor in this regard, and affording us a very considerable advantage. But unfortunately no foresight had been employed to supply that fort with provisions and munitions of war, so that the Commandant, being in want of one and the other, is obliged to employ the major portion of his men in making journeys to and fro for the purpose of transporting those provisions and munitions which cannot even reach him in abundance, in consequence of the delay at the Presqu'isle portage and the

5"Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania;" edited by George Dallas Albert, Vol. II, pp. 65-67. "Register of Fort Duquesne;" copied from the Records in Canada, by John Gilmary Shea, LL. D., and edited with a historical introduction by Rev. A. A. Lambing, A. M. Pittsburgh. 1885. See also "Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, Chap. VII, and "Penna. Archives," Second Series, Vol. VI.

6"Montcalm and Wolfe;" Vol. II, pp. 350, 360. Pitts.-24