James Burd

James Burd (March 10, 1725 – October 5, 1793) was a colonial American soldier in the French and Indian War, during which he played an important role in fortifying the Pennsylvania frontier.

[1]: 455 In 1756, he settled on a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but soon joined the military as an officer at the outbreak of the French and Indian War.

Burd felt ill-advised to repeat the blunder, and directed his engineer, instead, to erect the bastion fort on a high bluff overlooking both the Monongahela River and Dunlap's Creek.

From this site, at the Western terminus of Nemacolin Trail would develop Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and this former trading Post would grow to serve as a historic depot for river transport to Fort Pitt during the war and as the settlement expanded came to build many of the keel boats and later, steam boats that transported settlers to the Northwest Territory, Ohio Country and via the Missouri Valley, the far west and the Oregon Country.

His direct military involvement in the Revolutionary War was brief, however, as he resigned his post in December 1776 because of a dispute concerning rank and insubordination in his command and some criticism from the Committee of Safety.