Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne was a fort located in what is now
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The British tried to wrest control of the area from the French for the security of English settlers in western
Pennsylvania and
Virginia and for control of transportation on the
Allegheny,
Monongahela, and
Ohio rivers. They sent 41
Virginians to build
Fort Prince George in
1754. This fort was never completed because when the
French, who controlled the
Ohio at the time, got word of the construction they sent in a large force to capture the fort. The French then resumed building the incomplete fort and renamed it to
Fort Duquesne.
The French held Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War. It became one of the focal points for that war because of its location in disputed territory.
The French held the fort successfully early in the war, turning back the Braddock Expedition led by General Edward Braddock. Three years later on November 25, 1758, British forces under General John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne after destroying it. They rebuilt it and renamed it Fort Pitt.
The Fort was located at the junction of the two rivers that form the Ohio River, on about the site of today's Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.