The Forbes Road, a historic military roadway in what was then British America, was initially completed in 1758 from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to the French Fort Duquesne at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh, via Fort Loudon, Fort Lyttleton, Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier. The road, initially about 220 miles long, was named for Brigadier General John Forbes, the commander of the 1758 British-led expedition that built the road during the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War). The Forbes Road and Braddock's Road were the two main land routes that the British cut west through the wilderness during the war. The task was complicated by the Appalachian Mountains' steep northeast-to-southwest ridges, a generally broken terrain between the ridges, heavy forestation, and numerous swamps and rivers.
Though the physical barriers of Braddock's and Forbes Roads seem mundane compared to later roads through the mountainous American west, they were nevertheless significant obstacles. Reginald Briggs observes of Forbes' Road, "Totaling only the more significant ascents and descents along the road, it was the equivalent of overcoming a single irregular obstacle more than 8,000 feet high, with the net result of only about 170 feet of elevation rise for the 217 miles from Carlisle to Fort Pitt."
In many respects, Forbes' Road is a misnomer. Col. James Burd did most of the initial work from Fort Loudon to Raystown (Bedford), Pennsylvania, in preparation for a major supply route southwest to connect with Braddock's Road in 1755. Col. Henry Bouquet improved upon Burd's road in 1758 and extended it to Ligonier, Pennsylvania, where he constructed the last major fortification on the road before the forks of the Ohio. From Ligonier, a rough trail was blazed through the Pennsylvania wilderness to the smoldering remnants of Fort Duquesne, with a more substantial, slightly southern route to follow later. Forbes, who suffered severe intestinal illness, directed most of the proceedings from a position well in the rear, though he was on hand to take possession of Fort Duquesne in 1758.
History
Controversy With Braddock's defeat in 1755, construction on Braddock's Road was stopped short, less than 10 miles from its goal of Fort Duquesne. To many, particularly from Virginia and the southern colonies, a continuation of Braddock's Road seemed a far more sensible solution than breaking a new path across the largely unknown Pennsylvania wilderness. There was uncertainty about whether such a northern route was even possible. Braddock's was a slightly longer path to the forks of the Ohio than Forbes' intended route but had the significant advantage of being mostly completed. In contrast, Forbes' route was little more than an uncertain footpath. A political element to the debate existed: a good deal of business and potential fortune was to fall upon the colony through which post-war traffic would flow. (Colonial boundaries in the west were still unsettled; both Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed the site of future Pittsburgh. There was, additionally, no lost love between the patrician Virginians and the Scots-Irish traders from Pennsylvania on the Ohio frontier.) In the early stages of the war, Virginia had contributed far more capital and soldiers to the war effort than had the parsimonious, Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania assembly. Southern partisans—most notably Col. George Washington—believed that their commonwealth deserved the more significant share of the proceeds.
Forbes' route passed through southern Pennsylvania, the most productive farmland in the colonies. Food, wagons, horses, and cattle were abundant—a claim sparsely-settled Maryland and northern Virginia could not make. While Braddock's Road was essentially a portage path between major watersheds—the Potomac, Youghiogheny, and Monongahela Rivers—Forbes' Road would stay to the high ground and encounter no major river crossings, thus avoiding the attendant problems of flooding, deep valleys, and exposure to ambush.
Forbes, ably assisted by Bouquet, initially seems to have intended to follow Burd's Road to "the Turkeyfoot" (Confluence, Pennsylvania), then follow Braddock's Road for the last 80 miles. There was a dawning realization that his army would be marching south for 40 miles, only to march north again in the face of potentially hardened military positions while crossing major flood-prone rivers through some very rugged territory. The direct distance from Fort Bedford to Fort Duquesne was very nearly the same as from Turkeyfoot to Fort Duquesne, but on higher ground, and offered the potential for a surprise attack on the French. And, it is quite possible that the Virginia contingent, particularly the ambitious young Col. Washington, pushed their argument beyond the patience of ForbesHulbert traces the correspondence in detail. Pp 81-123. at a moment when the Virginia colony was contracting from its frontier defenses while Pennsylvania was advancing directly into the heart of French territory.
Several other elements were also in play: following Braddock's Road could take Forbes' troops past Fort Necessity—site of Washington's defeat—and through the killing ground of Braddock's Field, where the picked-over skeletons of the massacred colonial army still lay unburied. Such an experience could not benefit the morale of Forbes' troops. Endless and extreme rains characterized the summer and autumn of 1758, so Braddock's Road may well have been impassable had that route been followed. Forbes was also keenly aware of broader strategic concerns unfolding: British colonial advances in the north against French positions, and a potential new treaty with the Natives which would strip the French of their most significant military advantage. Both these latter ventures proved successful for the British colonials. Forbes' deliberate advance won the day; Fort Duquesne, understaffed and out of supplies, was abandoned without a fight.
Construction Like General Edward Braddock, Forbes had the daunting task of establishing a road suitable for thousands of troops, supply wagons, and cannons across a largely unbroken wilderness. The initial footpath across south-central Pennsylvania was created by Native Americans, who likely followed game trails. European trappers and traders followed, making modest improvements and rudimentary settlements. As noted above, much of the preliminary work on the military road had been done by Col. James Burd in 1755, who built a road from Fort Loudon to Raystown (now Bedford, Pennsylvania), then southwest towards "the Turkey Foot" as a supply line to Braddock's army.
In contrast to Braddock's ill-fated expedition, Forbes proceeded with great deliberation, constructing forts and redoubts about every 40 miles, with smaller garrisons between. He also ordered the construction of smaller side-paths to parallel the main road when feasible to facilitate passing movements. Swamps were crossed with "bridges" of logs laid perpendicular to the path. Waterways were forded rather than bridged. Forbes explained in a letter to Pitt, "It was absolutely necessary, ... that I should take precautions by having posts along my route, which I have done from a project that I took from Turpin's Essay, Sur la Guerre. Last chapter 4th Book, Intitled Principe sur lequel on peut établir un projet de Campagne."Hulbert 80. Forbes cites https://archive.org/details/essaisurlartdela00turp/page/n8/mode/2up
Forbes' army took possession of the abandoned (and largely destroyed) Fort Duquesne from the French army on November 25, 1758. Forbes then built a much larger fort near the site, naming it Fort Pitt and christening the nascent village of "Pittsborough."
Construction of the Forbes Road made transportation of supplies, soldiers, messages, and trade easier between the eastern farms and cities and western portions of Pennsylvania and provided an important route west for settlers for many years after. The road was critical to the success of colonials in Pontiac's War as well as the Revolutionary War. In later years, Forbes' Road provided a more direct route from Philadelphia and the northern cities to the Ohio Country through Pennsylvania in comparison to Braddock's Road, which was constructed west from Cumberland, Maryland, then north into Pennsylvania."It is exceedingly difficult to find a graphic picture of a journey over Braddock's Road before 1800; contemporaneous descriptions of a journey over the Cumberland or National Road are not numerous. On the other hand, a volume could be filled with descriptions of the old Pennsylvania Road through Bedford and Ligonier. I believe the fame of the Cumberland Road was due rather to the fact of its being a national enterprise—and the first of its kind on the continent—than to any superiority it achieved over competing routes. The idea of the road was grand and it played a mighty part in the advancement of the West; but, such was the nature of its course, that it does not seem to have been the "popular route" from Washington to Pittsburg, the principal port on the Ohio River. Hulbert 195-196.
Following Forbes' Road Like many wilderness roads, there were often several generally parallel tracks, a new one carved when an old one became impassable or a better route determined. Consequently, modern efforts to trace the "original" Forbes Road may be an exercise in frustration; it is often impossible to determine the original track in those rare places when any track can be discerned. Early maps of Forbes Road are of varying utility; some are flatly incorrect. One of the most interesting may be found, with much explanatory text, in "The New Way to the Forks of the Ohio: Reflections on John Potts's Map of 1758."
While the National Road (US 40) largely follows Braddock's Road across the Appalachian Mountains from Cumberland into Pittsburgh, Forbes' Road through south central Pennsylvania occasionally dissolves into a morass of speculation from Rohr's Gap (on the Allegheny Front west of Schellsburg) to Murrysville, Pennsylvania, with only a few certain locators. In the most general sense, the Pennsylvania Turnpike follows the trend of Forbes's Road west from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to near Monroeville, Pennsylvania just east of Pittsburgh, at places obliterating the historic road. A slightly more accurate rendition of Forbes's Road may be achieved by following US 30 from Chambersburg to the junction of SR 66 west of Greensburg, then north on the latter to US 22 east of Murrysville. US 22 west eventually connects with Penn Avenue, which may be followed to the sites of Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt. Several historical markers may be found along this route.