Background
He was a son of Colonel John Forbes of Pittencrieff, Dunfermline, Fifeshire.
He was a son of Colonel John Forbes of Pittencrieff, Dunfermline, Fifeshire.
"Though bred to the profession of physic, " he chose in 1735 to purchase a cornetcy in the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons, the Scots Greys. The War of the Austrian Succession brought to his regiment six years of service on the Continent and great honor, and to himself rapid promotion and various staff positions.
A lieutenant when the Greys reached Flanders, he became a captain and aide-de-camp to his colonel, Sir James Campbell, a year after Dettingen, and a major and deputy quartermaster-general after Fontenoy.
In 1745 he was a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and in 1750 lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. In February 17 he was given the colonelcy of the 17th Foot accompanied his regiment to Halifax.
His attachment to the Campbells and his staff experience assured him a place at Loudoun's table, and he served as adjutant-general until March 1758, continually offering valuable suggestions, and keeping the staff in good humor by a blunt and merry wit.
The promotions of December 1757 made him a brigadier-general in America only, and Abercromby assigned him, at Pitt's orders, the command of the expedition against Fort Duquesne.
His force consisted of Montgomery's Highlanders, a detachment of Royal Americans, and some five thousand provincials from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.
Forbes contended with the reluctance of the Pennsylvania Assembly and the absolute refusal of the Maryland Assembly to appropriate funds; the delayed arrival of his own train of artillery and his regulars; the "disagreements, constant jarring, and animosity among the troops of the various provinces"; the indifference of the inhabitants along the route, who were not eager to provide transportation; the impatience of his Cherokee allies, who withdrew early in the campaign; the suspicious attitude of the Western Indians; the rivalry of his own officers, among whom Bouquet and Grant were his chief supports; and the continual rainfall which turned a road constructed with much labor into a long morass.
But in spite of these and a "thousand little obstacles, " the army steadily penetrated into the wilderness, cut through Bedford and Ligonier, over Laurel Hill, the road which later became a highway of Western expansion, and at regular intervals built blockhouses which safeguarded communication with the East, and gave to this advance the character, not of a simple raid, but of a permanent conquest. Throughout the entire campaign Forbes was troubled by the malady which finally caused his death.
From September on he followed his advance parties in a hurdle slung between two horses, in which the least movement brought intense pain. Such suffering often caused explosions in his private letters, but in his actual relations with his army he preserved his plain, democratic manners and his wise discretion, and animated the whole force with his spirit.
He fully appreciated the importance of winning the French Indians, and gave his complete approval to the negotiations of Christian Frederick Post.
Not even the defeat of Grant's large skirmishing party at Loyalhanna prevented the eventual adherence of the Western Indians to the British. When finally a light column lay within striking distance of Fort Duquesne, the French garrison, deserted by the savages, evacuated the stronghold without firing a shot.
On November 25, five months after the expedition started, Forbes raised the British flag over the new "Pittsburgh. " He was carried back to Philadelphia a dying man, "a spectacle the most shocking and deplorable, " "looking like an emaciated old woman of eighty. " His body was buried with military honors in the chancel of Christ Church.
Such suffering often caused explosions in his private letters, but in his actual relations with his army he preserved his plain, democratic manners and his wise discretion, and animated the whole force with his spirit.