00:00 - The following program was financed by a grant from America

00:04 - 250 PA.

00:37 - Tucked within the exhibit.

00:39 - You'll find a couple of spaces where you can look out

00:41 - over the walls of Fort Pitt and see what soldiers

00:45 - standing on the ramparts would have seen in 1775 or so.

00:49 - So you just get a sense of of the forks of the Ohio

00:52 - and what made this land so significant during that period?

00:56 - My name is Mike Burke.

00:57 - I'm the assistant director here at the Ford Museum,

00:59 - and we're part

01:00 - of the History Center system

01:01 - of museums here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

01:05 - The forks of the Ohio River, where Pittsburgh now stands,

01:08 - was, kind of a refuge for various native

01:11 - groups have been pushed west due to colonization.

01:14 - So they had settled in the area,

01:16 - around the same time that it became, a place

01:19 - of international interest for the British and the French.

01:22 - The British want to, you know,

01:23 - possibly expand settlement over the mountains.

01:25 - At some point.

01:26 - The French want to secure

01:27 - their inland empire, which connects

01:29 - Canada and Louisiana, their two main colonies.

01:32 - And the best way to do that is to come down the Ohio River,

01:36 - to where Fort Pitt, now stands. And,

01:39 - by doing so, control the whole interior of the continent.

01:44 - In the very early stages,

01:46 - when the British and French become interested in this land,

01:49 - it's actually the local, Seneca population

01:53 - that's very interested in keeping the French out.

01:56 - The French have been kind of putting lead plates

01:58 - at various places, marking ownership,

02:00 - throughout the,

02:01 - what's now the Allegheny and the Ohio River valleys,

02:04 - kind of staking their claim to the region,

02:06 - which really incenses the local native population.

02:09 - And so a local, leader

02:11 - on Iroquoian leader named Chanel Garrison asks the British

02:15 - and the Virginians in particular, to intervene.

02:17 - And so they put a fort here, called

02:19 - that's later called Fort Prince George.

02:21 - That's the very first fortification

02:22 - at the forks of the Ohio River.

02:24 - And it's said that tonight

02:25 - garrison actually helps to lay the first log

02:27 - of that, of that, sort of fortified storehouse himself.

02:31 - The French show up no sooner than the British

02:35 - hang the gate on this structure and evict them.

02:37 - It's, kind of a bloodless victory for the French.

02:39 - The British are

02:40 - allowed to march off the French, then tear down that structure.

02:44 - We think we're using some of the timbers

02:46 - to build Fort Duquesne, which is here from 1774 to 1758.

02:50 - And then finally, in November of 1758, the British successfully

02:56 - take control of the points again without a real confrontation,

02:59 - and begin to build Fort Pitt in the summer of 1759.

03:08 - This location really is the key to the interior

03:11 - of the continent, and in various expeditions,

03:15 - the British are trying to build a road out here.

03:18 - General Edward Braddock tries to build a road,

03:21 - from Virginia to Fort Duquesne in 1755.

03:24 - He's defeated at the battle of the Monongahela.

03:27 - The Pennsylvanians

03:28 - then tried to build the Forbes Road connecting.

03:30 - But everybody wants control

03:31 - of the rivers in this region because, of course,

03:34 - you know, the the with a short portage,

03:36 - you can connect the Great Lakes, actually, the Saint Lawrence

03:38 - River Valley and the Great Lakes to the upper Allegheny,

03:41 - down to the point where Pittsburgh now stands.

03:44 - And all the way down to the Mississippi

03:46 - and the Gulf of Mexico.

03:48 - And then, of course, pick up an Atlantic route.

03:50 - So this piece of ground is sort of critical

03:53 - to controlling trade,

03:55 - controlling the interior of the continent,

03:57 - controlling relations with the native nations

04:00 - who occupy this territory.

04:01 - It's a very important piece of ground.

04:05 - So the forts that were

04:05 - here were pretty small in the 1750s.

04:09 - Transport or Fort Prince George and Fort Duquesne.

04:12 - Pretty small fortifications.

04:14 - Fort Pitt is absolutely massive.

04:16 - The parade ground on the inside is about an acre square.

04:19 - It's built to house about 700 to 1000 troops.

04:22 - And it had been diminished,

04:24 - through sort of lack of maintenance and,

04:27 - a couple of big floods that took place in the 1760s.

04:30 - So on the eve of the American Revolution, Fort Pitt had been,

04:34 - sort of repaired somewhat by the Virginians in 1774.

04:39 - They pick it around the outside of it

04:41 - so that would have had pickets or palisades,

04:43 - kind of around the perimeter.

04:45 - The fort, I think, at that point is probably in

04:48 - something of disrepair.

04:49 - The British actually abandoned Fort Pitt

04:51 - or decommissioned it in 1772, so it sat vacant for a short

04:55 - period of time.

04:56 - Some of the buildings in the inside were torn down.

04:58 - So it's sort of, a diminished version

05:01 - of its original construction in 1761, when it was completed.

05:10 - What's interesting in terms of the

05:12 - the way the revolution unfolds out here,

05:14 - people are very kind of tuned in to politics

05:17 - and the political situation in the East and the tensions

05:20 - that are unfolding.

05:21 - But out here, Virginia and Pennsylvania are still

05:24 - actively feuding over control of Pittsburgh.

05:27 - They have overlapping charters,

05:30 - that both sort of encompass this region.

05:32 - It's sort of nebulous,

05:33 - and they're both jockeying for control for the reasons,

05:37 - you know, of of controlling the rivers and access to trade

05:40 - and all these things.

05:41 - And so they're actively,

05:43 - locking each other up in jail and, you know, exchanging verbal

05:46 - blows over control of Pittsburgh on the eve of the revolution.

05:50 - What really changes

05:51 - things is news of the Battle of Lexington and country.

05:55 - This comes down to, you know, from New England.

05:58 - By mid-May, news arrives here that the British have fired

06:02 - on colonial militia outside of Boston, and that

06:06 - causes everybody around here to spring into action.

06:09 - They still don't like each other,

06:10 - but they're willing to

06:11 - kind of go along and be on the same side.

06:13 - And that actually takes a little help.

06:15 - A little

06:15 - goading from Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin

06:18 - and others to say, hey, guys, why don't you put aside

06:20 - your differences over this colonial dispute?

06:22 - We have a bigger problem. We need to address.

06:28 - For the first two years of

06:29 - the war, the Virginians kind of actively man the four.

06:33 - John Neville is the commander, of Fort Pitt.

06:37 - He's a Virginian officer.

06:38 - And by 1777,

06:41 - George Washington decides that this is

06:44 - such an important reason.

06:45 - And he has, his own history, of course, here in the West,

06:49 - he knows the importance of Fort Pitt.

06:51 - And so he decides to install a continental commander.

06:53 - And so in 1777, General Edward Hand, who had been

06:57 - a British soldier serving at Fort Pitt in the 1760s,

07:02 - then became a surgeon in Lancaster

07:05 - and then enlisted as an officer.

07:08 - Under Washington.

07:08 - He's put in place

07:09 - as the continental commander of Fort Pitt Hand.

07:13 - And all the continental commanders who are stationed out

07:15 - here have big dreams of doing a major expedition

07:20 - against the British or against

07:22 - some of the native tribes that are more hostile,

07:25 - to the American cause.

07:26 - In early 1778, hand launches an expedition out of Fort Pitt.

07:30 - Kind of attacks some of the the native settlements

07:32 - on the Cuyahoga River

07:33 - and kind of disrupt that, relationship

07:36 - between those tribes and the British.

07:38 - It's an abortive effort.

07:40 - And as they're returning Han's troops,

07:43 - it's continental troops, an American militia troops.

07:46 - Fire on some Delaware civilians, noncombatants,

07:50 - killing two women and a small boy.

07:53 - And the the campaign is,

07:55 - derisively known as the squad campaign after that,

07:58 - because they didn't actually engage

08:00 - the enemy, they actually fired on

08:02 - and killed some of the Americans

08:04 - principal allies at that point.

08:08 - In terms of the West, the

08:09 - British are based in two locations.

08:10 - One is Fort Nagra,

08:12 - on Lake Ontario, and the other is for Detroit.

08:15 - And so those are their two main hubs.

08:17 - As the American forces

08:19 - at Fort Pitt begin to lose,

08:23 - influence over the native tribes in the region.

08:26 - And these tribes increasingly kind of go

08:28 - over to the British side

08:29 - for their own, protection and for their own best interests.

08:34 - They launch campaigns out of Fort Detroit and raids

08:37 - along the frontier.

08:37 - So those are the two main British,

08:40 - strongholds in the West at that time.

08:42 - By 1777, the Americans,

08:45 - at Fort Pitt find that it's increasingly difficult

08:48 - to control their own,

08:49 - people, in military service out here on the frontier.

08:53 - And you have a string of native leaders,

08:56 - beginning with Chief

08:57 - Cornstalk of the Shawnee, who are killed as those tribes.

09:00 - Shawnees, Iroquoian folks in the Ohio Country start to defect

09:04 - over to the British raids along the frontier and creeks.

09:07 - And that's largely how people would have experienced

09:09 - the revolution in this region.

09:11 - Surprise attacks or raids on frontier settlements.

09:14 - And so places in Westmoreland County and places

09:17 - further to the south and west along the Virginia frontier.

09:20 - Those settlements kind of bear the brunt of those attacks.

09:24 - During the Revolution.

09:26 - The next commander after Edward Hand is Lachlan McIntosh,

09:30 - who had been an officer in Georgia

09:32 - and, comes to Fort Pitt as a continental commander.

09:35 - Washington, I think, actually believe

09:37 - that hand as a an officer who had settled in Pennsylvania,

09:41 - may have been a little bit too lax

09:43 - in terms of the Partizan dispute.

09:44 - And so McIntosh is brought in as a commander

09:47 - who's going to be nonpartisan,

09:49 - in terms of Virginia and Pennsylvania and,

09:52 - he hopes, well have some sort of an offensive mission

09:55 - kind of into the Ohio Country.

09:57 - McIntosh,

09:59 - like all

10:00 - commanders here in the West, recognizes that Fort

10:03 - Detroit is the place you need to capture

10:05 - if you want to stop raiding along the frontier.

10:07 - And if you want to kind of,

10:08 - bring peace to the Ohio Country

10:10 - and take this at a play as a British, theater of the war.

10:14 - And so he

10:16 - begins to implement plans for a mission against Detroit.

10:19 - The first thing

10:19 - he knows that he needs to do is secure the cooperation

10:22 - of the Delaware nation,

10:24 - whose territory he'll have to cross to get to Detroit.

10:26 - And so they hold a treaty here in, the fall of 1778.

10:32 - And with big promises, promising

10:35 - the Delaware is ahead at the position of a 14 state

10:39 - composed of tribes friendly to the American cause.

10:41 - They get the Delaware

10:43 - to sign this treaty and agree to allow the Americans

10:45 - to erect a couple of forts in that region.

10:47 - So they build Fort McIntosh on the Beaver River,

10:50 - and they build Fort Lawrence close to the Delaware,

10:54 - village of them.

10:56 - Daniel Broadhead,

10:58 - was a colonel in the eighth

10:59 - Pennsylvania Regiment, and he becomes the

11:01 - the commander, of Fort Pitt after Laughlin McIntosh.

11:05 - And he again, is like all the commanders here

11:09 - is kind of itching for some sort of an offensive campaign.

11:12 - In 1779, he takes that opportunity.

11:15 - There's a campaign under, John Sullivan,

11:18 - that is launched in 1779 to attack the Iroquois

11:23 - Confederacy, or the hood of the Shawnee

11:24 - Confederacy in what's now upstate New York.

11:27 - Washington really wanted to stop,

11:30 - the the influence of the Iroquois,

11:33 - who were traditional allies of the British.

11:35 - And so he asks Sullivan

11:37 - to lead this campaign into the heart of their country.

11:39 - Broadhead here at Fort Pitt, decides

11:42 - to attack the Western nations of the Confederacy, the Senecas.

11:46 - And can you guys, up the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt?

11:49 - And so that's the campaign that he launches in 1779.

11:54 - The goal of our new exhibition, which we call Pittsburgh's

11:56 - Revolution, is really to educate

11:58 - people coming to Pittsburgh from elsewhere,

12:02 - in the States and internationally about Fort

12:05 - Pitt significance during the war for independence

12:08 - and just how important this place was

12:10 - to controlling this vast Ohio country frontier.

12:13 - And also, we want to,

12:15 - have that message resonate with people from Pittsburgh

12:17 - who maybe don't realize

12:18 - how significant

12:19 - a location Pittsburgh is to the Revolutionary War

12:23 - and then how significant the revolution is to Pittsburgh.

12:25 - It changes Pittsburgh in major ways.

12:27 - Not at all.

12:28 - The same town before the revolution as it is after.

12:32 - One of the biggest changes that takes place, of course,

12:35 - is that Pittsburgh becomes part of Pennsylvania.

12:38 - So during the course of the revolution in 1779,

12:41 - the Pennsylvanians of Virginians meet in Baltimore,

12:45 - finally agree to settle this dispute.

12:47 - And then decide that Pittsburgh

12:48 - is going to be part of Pennsylvania.

12:50 - And then from the moment that it's part of this

12:53 - new state of Pennsylvania, it becomes subject to its laws.

12:56 - And so in 1780, at the passage of the act

12:59 - for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery,

13:01 - slavery free from an institution out here in the West.

13:04 - And so that changes the

13:06 - the demographic situation in Pittsburgh.

13:08 - It illuminates a whole

13:09 - population of people of which we now, knew very little about.

13:13 - And, it also helps

13:15 - to establish the basis for like a free black community

13:17 - in the early decades of the 19th century.

13:20 - So those are some big changes that take place for Pitt also

13:24 - becomes,

13:26 - become the

13:27 - jumping off points of Virginians

13:28 - have been much more interested in settling down the Ohio

13:31 - and Kentucky,

13:32 - and almost everyone who's going

13:34 - to the West comes through Fort Pierce.

13:36 - They outfit themselves

13:37 - here, they gather up supplies, they build their boats,

13:41 - and they they go down the Ohio from here.

13:44 - So I think it's in that period that Fort Pitt

13:46 - really starts to become the gateway to the West.

13:50 - One of the key objects that we've got on

13:51 - display is the flag of the first Battalion,

13:54 - Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

13:56 - And this is a flag that's made in 1775.

14:00 - As soon as the Pennsylvanians who are based at Hanna's Town,

14:04 - Virginians are kind of based here in Pittsburgh,

14:06 - the Pennsylvanians at Hanna's Town

14:08 - decide to form themselves into two battalions,

14:12 - and they declare that they're going to defend themselves

14:15 - against, hostile British troops and anybody else who invades

14:19 - this territory

14:20 - while still maintaining loyalty to King

14:23 - George, at least nominally.

14:26 - They're divided into two battalions.

14:27 - John Proctor is the head of one of these,

14:29 - and this is the flag of his battalion from 1775

14:33 - that still exists.

14:35 - And it is a British flag, actually,

14:38 - because they're still British subjects who are

14:41 - expressing their grievances.

14:42 - And so it's on a flag

14:44 - that we would call a red ensign or a red fly.

14:47 - It's like a red ground, kind of Burgundy silk

14:50 - with a Union Jack in the upper left, quadrant or canton.

14:54 - And on it is painted this symbol of a rattlesnake,

14:59 - with the words don't tread on me.

15:02 - And this is a symbol of the colonies,

15:05 - in the early years of the revolution,

15:07 - they use the rattlesnake,

15:09 - as this creature that's native to North America.

15:12 - And it's capable of defending itself,

15:15 - but it gives a warning, before it strikes.

15:18 - And so that's why they choose the rattlesnake as their emblem.

15:21 - And so the flag is this kind of, worn but very beautiful

15:25 - surviving artifact from that period.

15:27 - Patrick Henry is the first governor of the state

15:30 - of Virginia.

15:31 - Prior to that part of the revolution,

15:33 - there's a royal governor in place.

15:35 - Patrick Henry becomes the governor of Virginia,

15:38 - on the eve of the revolution, as things kind of start to unfold

15:42 - and the Virginians are extremely interested

15:43 - in occupying Pittsburgh at that point,

15:46 - they're still kind of carrying on this dispute,

15:47 - but they take the military lead in a lot of cases.

15:50 - So Patrick Henry in 1777 is writing to one of his,

15:55 - frontier lieutenants out here in the West,

15:58 - and he expresses his desire

16:01 - to have Fort Pitt defended to the last extremity.

16:04 - And he instructs this commander, to not give it up,

16:08 - but with the lives of himself and his people.

16:10 - So it gives a sense of how significant this place is.

16:14 - And Patrick Henry is,

16:15 - you know, a savvy enough politician and

16:17 - knows the military situation.

16:19 - So his interest is defending this place at all cost.

16:25 - Another set of objects that

16:26 - came into the History Center's collection,

16:29 - in the last few years,

16:30 - is a trunk and two canister that were owned by John Boorman,

16:34 - and it came down with the family story that these,

16:37 - were owned by him when he was the secret paymaster

16:40 - at Fort Pitt. And that was the family story.

16:42 - When we started to dig into that a little bit, we realized

16:45 - that, in fact, John Boorman was deputy paymaster general,

16:50 - stationed at Fort Pitt from 1779 to 1781.

16:53 - He is in charge of paying the troops

16:55 - in the Western Department.

16:57 - The family story is that he had to disguise himself

17:00 - as a peddler to come over the mountains,

17:02 - to avoid being robbed, and so he had this trunk

17:05 - that he stuffed currency into, and he had this tea canister

17:08 - they stuffed some coins into,

17:09 - and he covered them with handkerchiefs

17:11 - in the one case and tea and the other

17:13 - to kind of disguise his appearance.

17:15 - When we look at John Boorman's account book,

17:18 - which is actually part of the Debt Treaty

17:20 - Library and Archives, here at the History Center,

17:22 - we see that one of the first entries

17:24 - is that he came here to Fort Pitt

17:26 - with $200,000 in cash to pay the troops of this department.

17:30 - And so it all kind of, rings true with the family story

17:34 - in terms of this guy who's coming here to do

17:37 - the service for the

17:38 - for the continental Army,

17:40 - but also has to conceal his iden

17:48 - In this year, when, so much is happening

17:52 - historically, we're focused on America's 240th anniversary.

17:55 - We really want people to come here

17:58 - and experience that history firsthand,

18:00 - in a place that was central to the American war effort

18:04 - during the

18:04 - course of the Revolutionary War and and beyond.

18:07 - And so,

18:08 - if you're a local person in Pittsburgh,

18:10 - this is the history in your own backyard.

18:12 - If you're coming from elsewhere,

18:13 - this is probably the story

18:15 - of the revolution that you haven't heard.

18:16 - So we invite

18:17 - everybody to come out here for the NFL draft in April

18:21 - and and for the two 50th of the United States in July.

18:25 - And, get a sense of Pittsburgh's earliest history

18:28 - and its importance to the overall American story.