Pittsburgh: The Story of a City

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THE British campaign of 1758 in Pennsylvania was under the direction of the doughty, dourly handsome General John Forbes, known in western legend as the "Head of Iron," who, since he was already in the last stages of the malady that was to cause his death the next year, had to do his marching in a litter. His right hand was a Swiss lieutenant-colonel of the Royal American Regiment, Henry Bouquet, a soldier who had been trained in the wars of the European continent, but who was probably the first to develop the open order of battle that was to prove so effective against the Indians and that has become a basic principle of modern warfare. The summer of 1758 was spent by Forbes in mobilizing his six thousand motley troops, drawn from the regular army and colonial militia, and in hewing a road over the Raystown Path--a route selected in spite of the protests of Washington, who accompanied the army as one of the colonels of the Virginia troops. Evidently the interests of the Ohio Company still figured in the thoughts of loyal Virginians.

The advance, which was extremely cautious--Forbes, be it recorded, was a Scotsman--was well protected by fortified camps; and a screen of scouts so effectively veiled the movement that for several months the French, perhaps grown lax under the leader

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