Fort Prince George was an uncompleted

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

on what is now the site of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, at the confluence of the Allegheny and

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

s in

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia Co ...

. The site was originally a trading post established by

Ohio Company The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the settlement by Virginians of the Ohio Country (approximately the present U.S. state of Ohio) and to trade with the Native Ameri ...

trader

William Trent William Trent (February 13, 1715–1787) was an American fur trader and merchant based in colonial Pennsylvania. He was commissioned as a captain of the Virginia Regiment in the early stages of the French and Indian War, when he served on the wes ...

in the 1740s. Construction of Fort Prince George, named for the crown prince and later

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

), was begun in January 1754 by 41

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

ns. The plan to occupy the strategic forks was formed by Virginia Lieutenant Governor

Robert Dinwiddie Robert Dinwiddie (1692 – 27 July 1770) was a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 ...

, on the advice of Lieutenant Colonel

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, whom Dinwiddie had sent on a mission to warn French commanders they were on English territory in late 1753, and had made a military assessment of the site. Captain Trent commanded the force constructing the fort, but his men were captured by 1,000 French soldiers and Indians led by Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur. At the time of the French arrival, Trent was at Wills Creek for a conference, while his second-in-command, Lieutenant

John Fraser John Fraser may refer to: Politics *John Simon Frederick Fraser (1765–1803), commanded the Fraser Fencibles in Ireland and was (M.P.) for Inverness-shire *John James Fraser (1829–1896), 5th Premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, 18 ...

, was at his own plantation at Turtle Creek on the Mononghela River. Ensign Edward Ward was left to surrender the fort on April 18, 1754. The French attack was the hostile act of the war, and it led to

's own surprise attack at the

Battle of Jumonville Glen The Battle of Jumonville Glen, also known as the Jumonville affair, was the opening battle of the French and Indian War, fought on May 28, 1754, near present-day Hopwood and Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. A company of provincial ...

. Lieutenant Fraser was court-martialled for desertion at Williamsburg, but he was acquitted and later served as Chief of Scouts to General

Edward Braddock Major-General Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British officer and commander-in-chief for the Thirteen Colonies during the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American front of what is known in Europe ...

's army. This was the first of five forts that would be built to control the strategic "Forks of the Ohio". The French erected

Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne (, ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed a ...

after seizing Fort Prince George. Then the British built Fort Pitt after they captured the French post in the 1758

Forbes Expedition The Forbes Expedition was a British military expedition to capture Fort Duquesne, led by Brigadier-General John Forbes in 1758, during the French and Indian War. While advancing to the fort, the expedition built the now historic trail, the Forbes ...

. Mercer's Fort was a temporary British fort built to defend against a French counterattack while Fort Pitt was being constructed. The final fort in what is now downtown Pittsburgh was an American post called

Fort Lafayette Fort Lafayette was an island coastal fortification in the Narrows of New York Harbor, built offshore from Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of what is now Bay Ridge in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The fort was built on a natural island ...

and was located farther up the Allegheny River.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prince George French and Indian War forts Forts in Pennsylvania Colonial forts in Pennsylvania British forts in the United States History of Pittsburgh