Forbes Road - Washington & Bouquet Meeting
Cumberland Valley Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Near this site on July 30, 1758, Cols. Bouquet and Washington discussed proposed routes by which Gen. Forbes' army would attack French Ft. Duquesne. Bouquet preferred the route due west from Bedford, while Washington advocated Braddock's 1755 road to the south. Forbes himself chose the route from Bedford, and as a result occupied the ruins of Ft. Duquesne on Nov. 25, 1758. Forbes Road encouraged subsequent westward expansion through Pa.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On July 30, 1758, at the height of the French and Indian War, two colonels — Henry Bouquet and a young George Washington — argued strategy near this site. The question was how to reach and take French Fort Duquesne: Bouquet favored cutting a fresh road west from Bedford, while Washington pressed for Braddock's ill-fated 1755 route to the south. General Forbes chose Bouquet's path, and his army occupied the ruins of Fort Duquesne that November.
Why it matters
Forbes Road secured British control of the forks of the Ohio and became a highway of westward migration, helping decide both a war and the future course of American expansion.
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Related people
- · Henry Bouquet
- · George Washington
- · John Forbes
Related events
- · French and Indian War
- · Forbes Expedition of 1758
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bedford Village
Bedford Township, PA · est. 1947
Founded around 1750 as Raystown, this frontier settlement guarded the wilderness gateway to the Ohio country. In 1758 the British raised Fort Bedford here and used it as a staging base for the Forbes and Bouquet expeditions that drove the French from the forks of the Ohio during the French and Indian War. A generation later, in 1794, President Washington reviewed his militia army here on the march against the Whiskey Rebellion.
Bedford Village
Bedford Township, PA · est. 1947
Founded around 1750 as Raystown, this frontier settlement guarded the wilderness gateway to the Ohio country. In 1758 the British raised Fort Bedford here and used it as a staging base for the Forbes and Bouquet expeditions that drove the French from the forks of the Ohio during the French and Indian War. A generation later, in 1794, President Washington reviewed his militia army here on the march against the Whiskey Rebellion.
Forbes Camp
Schellsburg, PA · est. 1947
In 1758 General John Forbes cut a new military road across the Pennsylvania mountains to strike the French at Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh now stands. His army halted at the Shawnee Cabins camp near this spot, one link in the chain of fortified camps that made the slow, methodical advance possible. The campaign ended with the French abandoning and burning the fort, opening the Ohio country to British control.
Bedford Village
Bedford, PA · est. 1947
Founded around 1750 as Raystown, this frontier settlement guarded the wilderness gateway to the Ohio country. In 1758 the British raised Fort Bedford here and used it as a staging base for the Forbes and Bouquet expeditions that drove the French from the forks of the Ohio during the French and Indian War. A generation later, in 1794, President Washington reviewed his militia army here on the march against the Whiskey Rebellion.