Fort Bedford facts for kids

Fort Bedford was an important British fort built during the French and Indian War. It was located where the town of Bedford, Pennsylvania is today. The fort was shaped like a star and made of logs. It was built in the summer of 1758.

Why Fort Bedford Was Built

Where Fort Bedford was located

Fort Bedford was built during the French and Indian War by British soldiers. Colonel Henry Bouquet led the building project, following orders from General John Forbes. This fort was one of many British forts and small blockhouses. Their main job was to protect the British supply lines along the Forbes Road. This road was a new path built by the British. They used it to move into the Ohio Country and fight against the French fort, Fort Duquesne, which is now Pittsburgh.

Before this, a British general named Edward Braddock tried to capture the area where the Ohio River forks. His plan failed badly. So, General Forbes took over. He wanted to capture the important spot guarded by Fort Duquesne. Forbes promised not to make the same mistakes Braddock did.

Braddock had started his attack from western Maryland. But his supply lines were not well protected and were soon cut off. Forbes planned a bigger attack from eastern Pennsylvania. He decided to build a new wagon road right over the Allegheny Mountains. His plan also included building many forts and blockhouses along the road. These forts would protect the supply route from attacks by Native American groups.

After building Fort Juniata Crossing near today's Breezewood, Pennsylvania, Colonel Bouquet started planning Fort Bedford. It was the next big step towards the Ohio Country.

Building the Fort

An old drawing of Fort Bedford

Colonel Bouquet chose a spot next to the Juniata River. It was west of a mountain pass called "the narrows." The new fort was planned to be about a day's march from the previous fort. At first, it was just called the "camp at Raystown." Later, it was named Fort Bedford to honor John Russell, the 4th Duke of Bedford.

Bouquet spent time looking for the best place. He wanted a spot that was easy to defend and had fresh water. Since he couldn't find a single spot with both, the fort was built on high ground. The builders came up with a clever idea: they built a special protected walkway that went down to the Juniata River. This walkway allowed soldiers to get water safely. It's believed that Fort Bedford was the only fort in America built with this unique feature.

Today, no one knows the exact spot of the original fort. Even after many archaeological digs, no clear evidence has been found. Historians think it was somewhere along what is now East Pitt Street in the Borough of Bedford.

The fort was a star-shaped fortress made of logs. It had five points, called bastions. The walls surrounded an area about the size of one and a half football fields (1.45 acres). The main entrance was on the south side. It was protected by an earth mound called a ravelin. The north side, which faced the river, had the special walkway to the riverbank. The other sides of the fort were protected by a ditch, which was about 4 to 9 feet deep.

Fort Bedford's Role in History

Fort Bedford was very important during the French and Indian War. Some people called it the "Grand Central Station" for General Forbes's campaign. It was used as a main gathering place and a huge storage area for the British Army as they moved west. Colonel Bouquet and General Forbes even used it as their main office for parts of the campaign. After most of the army moved on, about 800 soldiers stayed to guard the fort. The fort didn't see much fighting during the war. It was mostly used as a supply base closer to the front lines.

As the French and Indian War ended in the frontier, the soldiers from Fort Bedford were sent to other forts. When Pontiac's War began, Captain Lewis Ourry was in charge of Fort Bedford. He had only twelve soldiers to guard the fort and more than 90 local families. Even though the fort was not strongly guarded, Native American warriors did not attack it directly. Instead, they raided nearby settlements and attacked supply wagons heading for the fort. They seemed to hope that cutting off supplies would force the soldiers to leave. But when more soldiers arrived with Colonel Bouquet in July 1763, most of the local raids stopped.

What happened to the fort in the years between the wars is not very clear. The British Army left the fort at some point. According to the story of James Smith, a leader of a colonial group called the "Black Boys", he and his men captured the fort in 1769. This story is only found in Smith's own book, so it might not be completely true. However, some historians think it could be true. Smith called this the first British fort to be captured in the time leading up to the American Revolution. This event was even shown in a 1939 Hollywood movie called Allegheny Uprising, starring John Wayne as James Smith.

In 1766, a man named Garrett Pendergrass asked the governor for money because his land was used for the fort. He said that "since the King's Troops evacuated that Fort..." This suggests the British Army had already left by then. Also, court records from that time do not mention Smith's capture of the fort. People only heard about it when Smith published his book thirty years later.

During the Revolutionary War, the fort was guarded by local soldiers from Bedford County who supported the American cause. The fort helped protect the settlers on the frontier from attacks by Native American groups allied with the British.

The Fort's End and Rebuilding Efforts

After the American War of Independence ended, new agreements in the 1780s, like the Treaty of Fort Stanwix and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, made people less worried about Native American raids in the area. Sometime during this period, the fort was left empty and taken apart. George Washington visited the town of Bedford in 1794 while leading troops to stop the Whiskey Rebellion. Records from his visit suggest that the fort had already been torn down by then.

In 1958, a reconstruction of one of the fort's five log blockhouses was built near the original site. This was done to celebrate the fort's 200th anniversary. We don't have any pictures of the original fort, so the rebuilt blockhouse might not look exactly like the ones from the 1700s. It looks more like blockhouses built in the American Midwest in the 1870s. Today, this rebuilt blockhouse is a museum run by The Bedford Heritage Trust.