Beschreibung:

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR]. BOUQUET, Henry (1719-1765), British General . Letter signed ("Henry Bouquet") to Captain William Trent, "Camp at Lawillhammer," (Loyalhanna, an advance post), 22 September 1758. 1 page, 4to, browned, 2-inch triangular piece torn from right edge, affecting a few letters of text, folds reinforced from verso with tissue . PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE An important letter to Trent, a former fur trader and agent of the Ohio Company, during a key early phase of Brigadier General Forbes' successful 1758 campaign against Fort Duquesne. Bouquet, a Swiss-born British officer who commanded the Royal American Regiment in 1754, was second in command of Forbes' expedition into western Pennsylvania (and was thus George Washington's immediate superior). Forbes had begun marshalling his large expeditionary army in early summer, by September 23, one day after this letter was sent, the British had assembled at Fort Bedford, 90 miles east of Fort Duquesne. Here, from his advance outpost, Colonel Bouquet orders Trent to take an Indian detachment on a scouting expedition against a key French post North of Duquesne on the Allegheny: "You are hereby ordered to march, with a detachment of the Cherokees and Cawtaba Indians towards Venango if agreeable to them, where you are to reconnitre the Enemy and to endeavor if possible to take a Prisoner, and to prevent as...in your power the Indians from committing an [attack] on the French that may fall into your hands." He cautions Trent to watch his Indian allies carefully: "In case you meet with the escort of French which is expected with Mr. Blanc who went to Fort Duquesne with a flag of truce, you are to use all your endeavors to prevent the Indians with you from falling upon that Detachment or offering any violence to them whatever." On the verso is an endorsement (by Trent?) explaining the mission's outcome: "Discovered the French Party had great difficulty in preventing the Indians attack[ing] them. Fell in with a large party of Indians killed [illegible] of the Delawares King & wounded some others." On October 21, the Indians chose to desert their French Allies; in response the outnumbered French garrison abandoned Fort Duquesne. Forbes and his army took possession on 25 November. The wilderness outpost was immediately renamed Fort Pitt.