Forbes, John

Cumberland County Goes to War: General Forbes' Campaign in 1758

Two hundred and fifty years ago Cumberland County was the focus of one of the three battles in 1758 that would change the outcome of the French and Indian War in North America. Carlisle, the new seat of Cumberland County, was the launching point for the third military expedition to attempt to take Fort Duquesne from the French and open up the Ohio country to English traders. General John Forbes would lead this campaign and succeed where others had failed.

The Rev. Thomas Barton's Conflict with Colonel John Armstrong, ca. 1758

Historical discussions of the Penn family's hereditary rule in Pennsylvania and of the authority exerted by its appointees conveniently stress that in 1764 the Proprietary faction tacitly entered into a successful coalition with Dissenting elements (predominantly Scots-Irish Presbyterians) and poorly represented city dwellers and frontiersmen.