Battle of Fort Ligonier

Battle of Fort Ligonier
Part of the French and Indian War
Plan of Fort Ligonier from an 1896 publication
Date 12 October 1758 Location present-day Ligonier, Pennsylvania 40°14′27″N 79°14′16″W / 40.24083°N 79.23778°W / 40.24083; -79.23778Coordinates: 40°14′27″N 79°14′16″W / 40.24083°N 79.23778°W / 40.24083; -79.23778 Result British victory
Belligerents
France Colony of Canada	Great Britain British America
Commanders and leaders
Captain Charles Philippe Aubry	Colonel James Burd
Strength
440 troupes de la marine and militia 150 natives	over 2,000 regulars and militia
Casualties and losses
Light	12 killed 18 wounded 31 missing

The Battle of Fort Ligonier (also known as the Battle of Loyalhanna or the Battle of Loyal Hannon) was a battle of the French and Indian War. On 12 October 1758, French and Indian forces directed from nearby Fort Duquesne were repulsed in an attack on the British outpost of Fort Ligonier, then still under construction.

Following the British failure to capture French-controlled Fort Duquesne in the disastrous Braddock Expedition early in the French and Indian War, the British in 1758 finally mounted a second expedition under the command of John Forbes to capture that fort, from which the French and their Indian allies had been organizing raids against British colonial frontier settlements. His expedition methodically constructed a road across the Allegheny Mountains, which had reached a place known as Loyal Hannon (near present-day Loyalhanna Township, Pennsylvania) by early September. Forbes' advance force, about 1,500 men under the command of Henry Bouquet then began the construction of Fort Ligonier for the purpose of establishing winter quarters. They were subjected to regular harassment by French and Indian raiding parties sent from Fort Duquesne.

To answer these raids, Bouquet authorized James Grant to lead 750 men on a reconnaissance in force of Duquesne. Grant, apparently seeking the glory of a quick victory, attempted the fort's capture on 14 September. Grant had seriously underestimated the size of François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery's French force, which resulted in Grant's capture and nearly half his men killed or wounded. Lignery, who was running low on supplies, and whose supply line had been cut by the British capture of Fort Frontenac, ordered an attack on the British position in the hopes of weakening the British advance and capturing some of their supplies. Lignery sent out virtually his entire garrison, 440 troupes de la marine and 150 Delaware Indians, under the command of Charles Phillip Aubry (not the "De Vitri" reported in British accounts).

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