Fort Bedford
Fort Bedford was constructed during the French and Indian War by British troops under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet by order of General John Forbes.
Forbes intended to launch a large invasion from eastern Pennsylvania by hacking a new pioneer wagon road over the Allegheny Mountains.
His plan called for a string of forts and blockhouses to guard the supply road from hostile bands of Native Americans.
Bouquet chose a spot adjacent to the Juniata River west of a strategic gap in the Evitt Mountain called "the Narrows".
The new fortification was laid out on a bluff above a branch of the Juniata River about a mile west of Wray's trading post (known as 'Raystown').
Period documents including the Amherst Map of 1758 and the Lukens Survey of 1766 have helped to identify the possible site of the fort.
The building at that site consists of the original half-timber two-story structure which has been determined to have been built in 1758, concurrent with the construction of the fort.
It has been identified as the only existing man-made structure associated with the French and Indian War in the continental United States of America.
It was used as a staging ground and central storage area for the British Army's push westward towards the French garrisons.
Instead they raided several local settlements and attacked supply trains bound for the fort, apparently hoping to starve out the garrison.
According to the autobiography of James Smith, leader of a colonial movement known as the "Black Boys", he and his men captured the fort in 1769.
The incident was portrayed in the 1939 Hollywood film Allegheny Uprising, starring John Wayne as James Smith.
During the period from 1777 through 1783, Sir Guy Johnson, commandant of Fort Niagara, sent British Lieutenants to attack and harass the settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier.
The lieutenants would take a platoon (between 5 and 25 British soldiers) and head southward through the Genesee Valley of present-day New York State.
George Washington stopped at the town of Bedford while leading troops into Western Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
