Battle of Fort Duquesne

From Freepedia

Battle of Fort Duquesne
Image:FortDuquesne.jpg This engraving by Alfred Waud depicts the British occupation of the remains of Fort Duquesne on November 26.
Conflict: French and Indian War
Date: September 14, 1758
Place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Outcome: French victory
Combatants
France	Britain
Commanders
François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery	James Grant
Strength
500 militia and natives	800 regulars and militia
Casualties
16 dead or wounded	300 dead 100 captured
Seven Years' War: French and Indian War Jumonville Glen – Great Meadows – Fort Beauséjour – Monongahela – Fort Oswego – Fort William Henry – Carillon – Fort Duquesne – Ticonderoga – Fort Niagara – Quebec – Sainte-Foy

The Battle of Fort Duquesne was a failed attempt by elements of General John Forbes' British-American army to capture French Fort Duquesne during the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War in the United States).

On September 14, 1758, Major James Grant of the 77th Regiment of Foot led 800 men to Fort Duquesne as part of the overall British invasion of the Ohio Valley. de Lignery, aware of these movements, dispatched some 500 men in ambush. Surrounded, the British fought viciously, but unaccustomed to the tactics of North American warfare, inflicted little real damage to the French. Grant was taken prisoner along with 18 of his officers.

Though the French had won a stunning victory, nearly annihilating the 77th Highlander Regiment as a fighting force, de Lignery understood that his meager army, built atop a rapidly-crumbling network of alliances with native tribes, could not hold Fort Duquesne against the bulk of the British invasion force totalling 6,000 men under General Forbes. The French continued to occupy Duquesne until November 26, when its retreating garrison demolished and abandoned it. Anglo-American armies rebuilt Fort Duquesne, naming it Fort Pitt.