Forbes Road - Edmunds Swamp
Shade Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Named for Edmund Cartlidge, Indian trader. A camp located here, on the Raystown Path, provided good grass for the horses of General Forbes' army in 1758. The site of the redoubt is marked two and a half miles north of here.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Forbes Road was the artery that carried a British and provincial army to seize the forks of the Ohio, opening the way for American westward settlement and helping decide the contest for the continent's interior.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1758, the French and Indian War — the North American front of a global struggle between Britain and France — reached deep into the Pennsylvania backcountry. The forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now stands, were the prize: whoever held that river junction controlled the gateway to the continent's interior, and France held it with Fort Duquesne.
This was the frontier in the fullest sense, a country of forests, ridges, and long-established Indian trading paths. One of those, the Raystown Path, threaded through the Alleghenies, and along it lay places known to traders long before any army marched — spots like this one, remembered for the practical gift of good grass.
Into that wilderness came a British and provincial army with a hard task: to push a road and a force through the mountains toward the French stronghold. The colonial world of Britain's American empire was about to be decided in country like this.
People & events
The place carries two names worth knowing. It was called for Edmund Cartlidge, an Indian trader whose work along these paths predated the war — a reminder that this route was a corridor of commerce and contact before it was a military road.
Then, in 1758, came General John Forbes and his army, cutting a new road westward toward Fort Duquesne. An army on the march lived or died by its logistics, and this camp on the Raystown Path offered something an eighteenth-century force could not do without: good grass to feed the horses that hauled its supplies through the mountains. Forage was not a luxury; it was fuel.
To guard the encampment, the army built a redoubt — a small earthwork fort — whose site is marked a couple of miles north of here. Together the campsite and the redoubt sketch the daily reality of the campaign: not battle, but the grinding, careful business of keeping an army fed, watered, and safe as it inched toward its objective.
Its place in the American story
Forbes Road was the artery that carried a British and provincial army to the forks of the Ohio, and its success helped decide the contest for the interior of the continent. When the French position at the forks fell, the door to westward settlement swung open.
That outcome rippled far beyond one campaign. The struggle for North America shaped the map, the alliances, and the tensions that would follow — including the frictions between Britain and its colonies that came after the war was won. A road cut through these ridges was a small part of a very large turning.
And notice who made the country legible in the first place: a trader like Cartlidge, whose paths the army followed. The frontier was never empty. The military road of 1758 was laid over routes of trade and travel that were already old, a truth this quiet spot preserves.
If you visit
Stand here and think about horses. It's an unglamorous detail, but it's the whole point of the place — a spot valued for its good grass, where an army paused to let its animals feed before pressing on through hard country. That practical need is what put this ground in the historical record.
The redoubt's site is marked a couple of miles north, so you can make a short journey of it and connect the camp to the little fort that guarded the route. Read the two together and the campaign stops being an abstraction and becomes a matter of grass, horses, and earthworks.
The setting still feels like the edge of the mountains, which is exactly what it was in 1758. Give it a few unhurried minutes, picture a supply-heavy army threading these ridges, and you'll feel how much of history turns on the plainest things.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edmund Cartlidge
- · General John Forbes
Related events
- · Forbes Expedition of 1758
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Forbes Road, 1758, Fort Bedford to Fort Duquesne - Edmond's Swamp (PLAQUE)
Shade Township, PA · est. 1930
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.
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.