on his march to Presqu' Isle with a Detachment of the Royal Americans to join Major Rogers.[1]
- ↑ Captain Donald Campbell was a Scotch officer who came to America with the 62nd regiment in 1756, and was made captain of the Royal Americans
found in the same volume, pp. 246-253, 260, 266, 283-289. These all relate to Indian affairs, and the information being brought in by his scouts and messengers of conditions in the country lying westward—of the agitation, alarm, and confusion among the Indian hostiles, who were eager to give in their allegiance to their conquering English "brothers." This journal of the voyage to Detroit admirably supplements that of Major Robert Rogers, commandant of the party which Croghan accompanied, whose account has been the standard authority. It was published in Dublin, 1770, and several reprints have been issued, the best of which is that edited by Hough, Rogers's Journals, 1755-1760 (Albany, 1883).—Ed.
Major Robert Rogers, the noted partisan leader, was born in New Hampshire. On the outbreak of the French and Indian War he raised a company of scouts known as "Rogers's Rangers," who did great service on the New York frontier. After receiving the surrender of Detroit and attempting in vain to reach Mackinac, he was again sent to Detroit to relieve the garrison in Pontiac's War, after which he proceeded against the Cherokees in the South. About this time he was retired on half pay, and visited England, where he published his journals, and a Concise Account of North America. In 1766, he was assigned to the command of the important post of Mackinac, and there schemed to betray the fort to the Spaniards. The plot having been discovered, he was tried in Montreal, but secured an acquittal, when he visited England a second time, only to be thrown into prison for debt. During the Revolution he led a body of Loyalists, and having been banished from New Hampshire retired to England (1780), where he died about 1800.—Ed.
Fort Presqu' Isle was built by the French expedition under Marin in the spring of 1753, on the site of the present city of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a post of much importance in maintaining the communication between Niagara, Detroit, and the Forks of the Ohio. After the fall of Fort Duquesne at the latter site (1758), a large garrison was collected at Fort Presqu' Isle, and a movement to re-possess the Ohio country was being organized, when the capture of Niagara (1759) threw the project into confusion. Johnson sent out a party to relieve the French officer at this place, and a detachment of the Royal Americans commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet advanced from Fort Pitt and took possession of the stronghold. The fort was captured by Indians during Pontiac's conspiracy (June 17, 1763), as graphically related by Parkman. After this uprising, a British detachment controlled the place until the final surrender of the posts to the United States in 1796. Within the same year, General Anthony Wayne, returning from his fruitful campaign against the Indians, died in the old blockhouse of the fort. Some remains of the works are still to be seen at Erie.—Ed.
