Wednesday, October 2 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, October 5, 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: David Preston
Tour Registration: $775.00 (double occupancy) – $795.00 (single occupancy)
THIS TOUR HAS A REGISTRATION DEADLINE OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2019
An often overlooked event of the colonial period is Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. Faced with English settlers streaming across the Appalachian Mountains and new British imperial policies following the French and Indian War, various tribes, loosely led by the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, rose up to save their native lands. Bloodshed was rampant on the Ohio and Pennsylvania frontiers as British outposts fell like dominos. Likewise, Great Britain’s coffers were drained as the cost of troops, sent to quell the uprising added to an already staggering national debt from the last war with France. One of Great Britain’s solutions, the Proclamation of 1763 was a vain attempt to keep colonists east of the mountains; it failed and quickly became one of several causes of the American Revolution. Our historian will discuss the entire scope of Pontiac’s Rebellion, including incidents and battles we will not see on this tour.
On our first day we will visit the reconstructed Fort Ligonier. The original fort was built in 1758 by Maj. Gen James Forbes during his campaign to capture Fort Duquesne (later renamed Fort Pitt.) Fort Ligonier was the jump off site for Col. Henry Bouquet’s expedition to relieve Fort Pitt during Pontiac’s Rebellion. The reconstructed site is an extraordinary example of an18th century fortification. Its museum, recently renovated in 2017, displays a set of pistols owned by Lafayette and given to George Washington. The fort’s artillery train is an excellent example of 18th field pieces and support vehicles. After lunch at a historic restaurant in Ligonier, we will visit the Bushy Run Battlefield for an extensive walking tour where Bouquet’s Highlanders’ forced a great victory over some 400 Delaware, Mingo, Shawnee and Huron tribesmen. The 200+ acre battlefield sits pristinely against a rural landscape.
Our second day will start with a visit to the Fort Pitt Museum in downtown Pittsburgh where the Monongahela and Allegany rivers join to form the Ohio River. An excellent museum gallery was opened for the 250th Anniversary of the French and Indian War. We’ll also see the Fort Pitt Block House, built by Bouquet in 1764 and the only original structure left at the Fort Pitt site. While in Pittsburgh we’ll stop atop Mount Washington to see the “Point of View” sculpture which commemorates a 1770 meeting between George Washington and Guyasuta. After leaving Pittsburgh, we’ll travel north along the Historic Washington and Indian Trail, the route the young Virginian took to Fort LeBoeuf in 1753. We’ll stop in Franklin, PA at the site of Fort Venango which fell to the Indians on June 16, 1763. Before reaching Fort LeBoeuf, we’ll stop at the grave site of Guyasuta, the Seneca Iroquois who opposed Bouquet at Bushy Run. Our next stop will be the Fort LeBoeuf Museum. This fort likewise fell to Pontiac’s allies two days after Fort Venango. We’ll have dinner and spend the night near Erie, PA.
Our first stop on day three will be the site of Fort Presque Isle, another Indian victory in 1763. Next we’ll visit the Devil’s Hole battlefield, the scene of a double massacre on September 14, 1763. A returning supply convoy was attacked by Senecas along the Niagara portage with only three survivors; a British relief column was likewise massacred with no one left alive. After lunch we’ll stop at Old Fort Niagara, another outstanding example of 18th century fortifications. The fort is unique with its 1726 “French Castle” facing the parade ground. During Pontiac’s war, Fort Niagara would be the staging point for a new expedition led by Col. John Bradstreet. Throughout the spring and summer of 1764, British and provincial regiments gathered at Niagara. The troops improved the defenses of the portage by building redoubts along the road from the Lower Landing to Fort Schlosser. A new post, named Fort Erie, was established on the shore. In early August, Bradstreet led his expedition from Niagara to relieve Detroit. In addition, a huge peace council between Sir William Johnson and the Great Lakes Indians was held at the fort. We will return to our headquarters hotel, having dinner along the way.
NB: This tour has a registration deadline of September 1, 2019.
What’s included: Two nights lodging, two dinners, three lunches, motor coach transportation, beverage and snack breaks, a map and materials package, all admissions and gratuities, and the services of three experienced tour leaders/historians. Our hotels will provide a complimentary breakfast each day. Tour participants are responsible for transportation to the headquarters hotel, and securing a room reservation, if necessary, on October 2 and 3. Dinner is on your own except on October 4 and 5. Tour goes out rain or shine. Please see our policy page for information about cancellations.
Hotel: We have arranged with the headquarters hotel for a group room rate of $109.00 per night plus tax. Please call the Holiday Inn Express, 105 Stone Quarry Road, Monaca, PA 15061 at 724-728-5121; ask to reserve your room under our group code: AHT for October 2 and 3. This rate will be guaranteed until September 1, so please make your reservations early. Your room on October 4 and 5 is included in the registration fee.
Tour Leader: David Preston is the Westvaco Professor of National Security Studies at The Citadel and author of the award-winning Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution which won the prestigious Gilder-Lehrman Prize for Military History along with four other book prizes. His first book, The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667-1783 (2009), was hailed as an innovative study of how French, British, and Indian communities coexisted near the Iroquois Confederacy. The Texture of Contact received the 2010 Albert B. Corey Prize, for best book on American-Canadian relations. David led a very popular tour of Braddock’s Defeat for us in 2017.
Register Online: THIS TOUR HAS A REGISTRATION DEADLINE OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2019
Register by phone, e-mail or postal mail:
- Phone: 1-703-785-4373
- Email us at: info@AmericasHistoryLLC.com
- Postal mail: America’s History LLC, P. O. Box 1076, Goochland, VA 23063
Where does this leave from and where does it return?
The Pontiac’s Rebellion tour will leave from the Holiday Inn Express in Monaca, PA as described under the tour’s hotel section and return to the same hotel. Click the “Read more” link on the tour page description to access this information. Bruce Venter