Fort Machault was a fort built by the French in 1754 near the confluence of French Creek with the Allegheny River, at present-day Franklin, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort was part of a line that included Fort Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, and Fort Duquesne.
The fort was built on a hill, 60 yards west of the Allegheny River. The fort was in the form of a parallelogram, about 75 by 105 feet (32 m). The curtain was made of hewed timber, stacked lengthwise. The four corners had bastions in the form of polygons. The bastions were built of saplings, eight inches (203 mm) thick, and 13 feet (4.0 m) in height. The gate fronted the river. Inside the fort were a magazine, several officer's barracks, with two stories and stone chimneys. The soldiers barracks consisted of 45 buildings outside the fort.
In December 1753, George Washington used the Venango Path to reach Fort Machault during his first expedition into the Ohio Country. Washington, with an escort of seven men and a letter from Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, protesting the French invasion of lands claimed by Great Britain and demanding their immediate withdrawal.[1] The French officer at the fort said he did not have the power to negotiate with the British. Therefore, he told Washington to go to Fort Le Boeuf instead to meet with a higher ranking officer.
Captain Chabert de Joncaire finished building Fort Machault in April 1754. The fort was named in honor of a prominent political and financier, Jean Baptiste de Machault D'Arnouville.
The French and Indian War began on May 28, 1754 with the Battle of Jumonville Glen.
In 1756, William Johnson, who had escaped from Native Americans, described the fort as a "Captain's command of about 50 men; the Fort of Stockades, very weak, and scarce of provisions . . . "
In 1758, Colonel Mercer, in a report from Fort Pitt, reported that there were about 100 soldiers at Fort Machault, where the French had 11 flat-bottomed boats called "batteaus" and a large gun the size of a quart pot "which they fire off by a train of powder."
In July 1759, the French began a campaign to capture Fort Pitt. Nearly a thousand French and Canadiens and a thousand Native Americans mustered at Fort Machault. The British, however, began a siege of Fort Niagara. The assault on Fort Pitt was abandoned, and available forces were sent to relieve Fort Niagara.
On July 25, 1759, the French surrendered Fort Niagara. In August 1759, the commander of Fort Presque Isle sent word to Fort Le Boeuf and Fort Machault to abandon their forts. The French burned Fort Machault to the ground.
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