Editing Fort Prince George (section)

== Capture ==

On March 4 1754, a French detachment under [[Michel Maray de La Chauvignerie]] discovered the fort under construction. Chauvignerie immediately reported to  [[Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur]] at Venango,<ref name = "Kent">[https://www.academia.edu/37292956/PAPIERS_CONTRECOEUR_Le_Conflit_Angelo_Francias_Sur_L_Ohio_De_1745_a_1756_English_Translation_by_Donald_Kent_1952 ''Papiers Contrecoeur: Le Conflit Anglo - Français Sur L'Ohio de 1745 à 1756.'' English translation of documents in the Quebec Seminary by Donald Kent, 1952]</ref>{{rp|129}}<ref name = "Temple">[https://books.google.com/books?id=aQ8QAQAAMAAJ Henry Wilson Temple, "Logstown," ''The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine,'' vol. 1, no. 1, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania., 1918. Pp 248-258]</ref> that "The scouts...took notice [of] an advanced house almost made, which is to serve as a [[Gunpowder magazine|Magazine]], but because of the distance they could not know in what manner they were constructing their fort, since it was still only marked out."<ref name = "Cherry">[https://books.google.com/books?id=qA6IDwAAQBAJ Cherry, Jason A. ''Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost: Captain Trent's Fort.'' Charleston, SC: HISTORY Press, 2019.]{{ISBN|1467141623}}</ref>{{rp|54}} [[Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville|Governor-General Duquesne]] wrote immediately to Contrecœur: "From the letter from Sieur La Chauvignerie of March 11, it appears that the English are planning to settle at the mouth of [the Allegheny River], since there is already a storehouse built there. You must hasten, Sir, to interrupt and even destroy their work from the start, because their consolidation would lead us to a siege...which it would
be wise to avoid, considering the bad state of the finances of the King."<ref name = "Kent"/>{{rp|132}}

At that point, only a storehouse had been built, as Trent's men were still clearing the land and preparing stakes for the palisade. They had been subsisting on flour and corn they brought with them, along with meat traded to them by Native Americans from Logstown, but their supplies were running low. They were anticipating the arrival of now Lieutenant Colonel Washington and his troops, but on March 17, Trent decided to travel to [[Wills Creek (North Branch Potomac River tributary)|Wills Creek]] to obtain more supplies, leaving Ensign Edward Ward in command, as Lieutenant Fraser was at his own plantation at [[Turtle Creek (Monongahela River)|Turtle Creek]], tending to personal business.<ref name = "MacGregor"/>{{rp|367}} 

On April 13, Ensign Ward received word via [[Robert Callender (frontiersman)|Robert Callender]] that a French military force was descending the Allegheny and would arrive within days.<ref name = "Cherry"/>{{rp|61}}<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|48}} Alarmed, Ward went to inform Lieutenant Fraser, but there was nothing they could do except abandon the fort, in violation of their orders. Fraser refused to return to the fort, leaving Ward to confront the French. Ward returned to the construction site and had his men erect a [[stockade]] wall around the storehouse, completing it on April 16.<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|49}} Ward was determined to "hold out to the last extremity before it should be said that the English had retreated like cowards before the French forces appeared" as that "would give the Indians a very indifferent opinion of the English ever after."<ref name = "MacGregor"/>{{rp|367}} In his deposition of June 30, 1756, Ensign Ward reported that "there was no Fort but a few [[Palisade]]s he ordered to be cut and put up four days before the French came down."<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|52}}

In April, a force of more than 600 men{{#tag:ref|Sources disagree on the number of men under Contrecœur's command. Ensign Ward testified in 1754 that witnesses later informed him that the French arrived in 360 pirogues and batteaux, each carrying 4 passengers, although 18 of the boats carried light cannon, and he estimated that close to a thousand French troops and Indians were in the force. In 1756 Ward testified that the French were "eleven hundred in number." Trent reported 700 men and 9 cannons.<ref name = "Cherry"/>{{rp|61}} Dahlinger, after a careful examination of French documents including the diary of one of Contrecœur's soldiers, concludes that the force consisted of "from five to six hundred men."<ref name = "Dahlinger">[https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/viewFile/1576/1424 Charles W. Dahlinger, "The Marquis Duquesne, Sieur de Menneville, Founder of the City of Pittsburgh," part 2, ''Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine,'' 15, August 1932]</ref>{{rp|135}} Other sources also report between 500<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9IGYcIkA3yAC Schumann, M., Schweizer, K. W. ''The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History.'' London: Routledge; Taylor & Francis, 2012]</ref>{{rp|15}} and 600<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|49}} French soldiers, arguing that Ward exaggerated the number to gain sympathy.|group="Note"}} under the command of Captain Contrecœur traveled in [[pirogues]] and [[batteaux]] down the Allegheny River from Venango, landing at [[Shannopin's Town]].<ref name = "Dahlinger"/>{{rp|135}}<ref>[https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Shannopin%27s%20Town&s=1511311111&r=2 "From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Partridge, 8 May 1754," ''Founders Online,'' National Archives,''The Papers of Benjamin Franklin,'' vol. 5, July 1, 1753, through March 31, 1755, ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962, pp. 272–275.]</ref> On April 18 the French Commander sent Captain Francois Le Mercier, two drummers and an interpreter to present Ensign Ward with a [[summons]] stating that the French Army intended to lay siege to the fort, and commanded Ward to "retreat peaceably with your troops" and "not to return." Ward and his men were given one hour to leave. Ward, on advice from Tanacharison, who was present, requested that the French wait until Ward's commanding officer, Captain Trent, returned, but Contrecœur refused. Ward then asked if the British might wait until the following day to leave, and Contrecœur agreed. He then invited Ward to dine with him, and Ward accepted. At dinner, Ward politely refused to discuss military or political matters, and declined Contrecœur's offer to buy Ward's carpentry tools.<ref name = "Cherry/>{{rp|68}}

According to Ward, "the French entered, but behaved with great civility [and] said it might be their fate ere long to surrender it again so they would set [us] a good example. They however immediately went to work removing some of the logs as they complained the fort was not to their liking, and by break of day next morning 50 men went off with axes to hew logs to enlarge it." Tanacharison "stormed greatly at the
French and told them it was he Order'd that Fort and laid the first Log of it himself, but the French paid no Regard to what he said."<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|50}} The British withdrew, and the French destroyed the partially built fort in order to construct their own.<ref name = "Hunter"/>{{rp|51-52}}