FORT DU QUESNE, kin, colonial fort in Pennsylvania erected at the confluence of the Allegheny and 'Monongahela rivers and upon the site of the present city of Pittsburgh (q.v.).
It was begun in February 1754 by a force of Virginians under Capt. William Trent, and Ensign Ward, who had been sent forward by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to erect a fortification of sufficient size to be a warning to the French against further intrusion on Eng; lish territory. On 17 April, before the work had been completed, the Virginians were at tacked by a force of 700 French and Indians and were compelled to leave the fort, which was then enlarged and completed ,by the French, who named it Du Quesne. Near the fort, on 9 July 1755, took place the terrible defeat of the British General Braddock (q.v.), who was ambushed there by a detachment of French and Indians while on his way to retake the fort from the French. The fort and surrounding territory remained in the possession of the French until 25 Nov. 1758, when General ForbeN leaving Philadelphia early in in command of an army of 10,000 British and Colonial troops, with a few Indian allies, met Col, George Washington (q.v.), and together cap tured it, not, however, till the French had fired it and fled. It was then, at Washington's sug
gestion, renamed "Pittsburgh?' in honor of the British Prime Minister, William Pitt.
The fort was occupied for the winter by a small garrison and in 1759 General Stanwix built Fort Pitt, which was the scene of many engagements during the Indian wars and the French and Indian War. During the period of Pontiac's Conspiracy in 1763 the Indians be sieged the fort, then under command of Cap tain Ecuyer, from 22 June to 6 August, but were twice defeated by troops from the fort and were finally driven off by a force of 500 British regulars under Col. Henry Bouquet, who bad been sent by General Amherst. Bou quet, a short time afterward, built a brick blocichouse not far from the fort and this "Old Blockhouse," which is still standing, is the only remnant of the extensive fortifications erected by the British during their occupancy of the vicinity till the outbreak of the Ameri can Revolution. This remnant is now owned and is being preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution. See COLONIAL WARS IN A MPtICA, 1755-63—Seven Years' War; 1758, Louisburg . . . Du Quesne; Pon tiac's War.