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Article: Duquesne, Fort
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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DUQUESNE, FORT
DUQUESNE, FORT,
a French stronghold at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1753, the Marquis Duquesne de Menneville, governor of New France, moved to seize the Ohio Valley from the British. On the route from Lake Erie to the Allegheny River, forts were erected at Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango. In the same year, Robert Dinwiddie, British lieutenant-governor, sent George Washington to warn the French to cease encroaching on the Ohio Valley. The French refused to back down. In February 1754, an expedition of 800 Frenchmen left Montreal, and, on 17 April, took possession of the fort being built by the Ohio Company at ...