Forbes Road, 1758, Fort Bedford to Fort Duquesne - Edmond's Swamp (PLAQUE)
Shade Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The fort stood a few rods west of this marker. The Forbes Road leads westward to Stony Creek Encampment 10.5 miles from Fort Bedford.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
During the French and Indian War in 1758, British General John Forbes cut a road westward across the Pennsylvania mountains to strike the French at Fort Duquesne. This marker records the chain of encampments and supply forts strung along that route, positioning Edmond's Swamp relative to Stony Creek and Fort Bedford. The Forbes Road became a lifeline for one of the war's decisive campaigns.
Why it matters
The Forbes Road opened the way to the forks of the Ohio — the future Pittsburgh — and helped decide the contest for control of North America between Britain and France.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1758, the French and Indian War had settled into a hard contest for the interior of North America, and the prize in the west was the forks of the Ohio, where the French held Fort Duquesne. Between the British forces gathering in eastern Pennsylvania and that strategic river junction stood something almost as formidable as an enemy army: the mountains.
Somerset County's high ground was rugged, forested, and nearly roadless — the kind of country that swallows supply wagons and slows an army to a crawl. Any force hoping to reach the Ohio had to solve the problem of movement before it could solve the problem of the French. That meant building a way through, mile by mile.
The answer was the Forbes Road, cut westward in 1758 as both a military highway and a lifeline. It was strung with encampments and supply posts, each one a measured stage in a slow, deliberate advance. Edmond's Swamp was one of those waypoints, its position fixed by the road relative to Stony Creek and the base at Fort Bedford.
People & events
The campaign takes its name from British General John Forbes, who led the 1758 expedition against Fort Duquesne. Forbes is remembered for a strategy that was patient to the point of grinding: rather than dash for the enemy, he built his road forward in stages, fortifying and provisioning as he went, so that his army could never be cut off from its supplies.
That approach turned road-building itself into the heart of the campaign. The chain of encampments — this one at Edmond's Swamp, others like Stony Creek nearby — were not glamorous, but they were where the war was actually being won: places to stockpile food, rest men and animals, and stage the next push deeper into the mountains.
The marker's plain arithmetic — that the road leads west to the Stony Creek encampment, ten and a half miles from Fort Bedford — is the campaign in miniature. Progress here was counted in miles of cut road and in the security of each new link back to the rear. Every stage held meant the army could safely take the next one.
Its place in the American story
The Forbes Road opened the way to the forks of the Ohio — the site of the future Pittsburgh — and the fall of the French position there was a turning point in the struggle for the continent. A campaign built on logistics rather than heroics helped decide whether Britain or France would dominate the North American interior.
But the road outlived the war that made it. Routes cut for armies have a way of becoming the paths of settlement, trade, and migration, and the corridor Forbes forced through these mountains helped orient the movement of people westward for generations afterward. A military necessity became a permanent seam in the map.
There is a lesson here that reaches beyond one war: campaigns are won by the unglamorous work of supply, engineering, and endurance. Edmond's Swamp will never be famous, but the string of camps it belonged to is exactly why the celebrated victory at the end of the road was possible.
If you visit
This is a marker for people who like to read the land. There is no fort left to tour — the plaque notes the post stood just to the west — so the reward is imaginative: picture an army hacking a road through this high, wet, forested country, one hard mile at a time.
Pay attention to the terrain itself. The ridges, the swampy ground, and the sheer effort it would take to move wagons through it are the whole story. Stand here and the general's slow, methodical strategy stops sounding cautious and starts sounding wise.
Edmond's Swamp is best experienced as one bead on a string. The Forbes Road markers were placed to be followed in sequence, each giving distances to the next camp and back to Fort Bedford. Trace them across Somerset County and the surrounding region and you can retrace a whole 1758 campaign — a road trip, quite literally, along a road built for war.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Forbes
Related events
- · Forbes Expedition of 1758
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Forbes Road - Edmunds Swamp
Shade Township, PA · est. 1952
In 1758, during the French and Indian War, General John Forbes cut a new military road west toward the French stronghold at Fort Duquesne. This spot along the old Raystown Path — named for Indian trader Edmund Cartlidge — offered good grass to feed the army's horses, a vital consideration for a force hauling supplies through the Alleghenies. A nearby redoubt guarded the encampment.
Forbes Road, 1758, Fort Bedford to Fort Duquesne- Stony Creek Encampment (PLAQUE)
Quemahoning Township, PA · est. 1930
On the 1758 Forbes Road, the Stony Creek Encampment served as a fortified supply headquarters — its "Ovens" baking bread for the army — during the French and Indian War campaign against Fort Duquesne. Fortifications rose just north of this site as General John Forbes staged men and provisions for the mountainous advance. The marker records its distance along the road from Fort Bedford.
Forbes Road - Stony Creek Encampment
Quemahoning Township, PA · est. 1951
During the French and Indian War, British General John Forbes cut a military road across Pennsylvania toward Fort Duquesne, and along it his army built fortified supply depots to feed the advance. The Stony Creek encampment stood just north of here, a stockaded storehouse on the route that then climbed toward Laurel Hill and the site of Tomahawk Camp. These depots kept Forbes's 1758 campaign supplied through the rugged Alleghenies.
Forbes Road, 1758, Fort Bedford to Fort Duquesne - Fort Dewart McLeans' Encampment (PLAQUE)
Juniata Township, PA · est. 1930
This plaque marks Fort Dewart, one of the small fortifications built along the Forbes Road during the French and Indian War and garrisoned for several years. Constructed under Colonel Henry Bouquet, it guarded the army's line of march as it pressed westward toward Edmond's Swamp and, beyond, Fort Duquesne. Such posts protected supply trains crossing the rugged Allegheny highlands.