Which British general led the Forbes Expedition toward Fort Duquesne?

The British general who led the Forbes Expedition toward Fort Duquesne was John Forbes.

Brigadier-General John Forbes received command of the 1758 British campaign to capture Fort Duquesne, the French post at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. The expedition followed the disastrous 1755 campaign led by Edward Braddock, so Forbes adopted a more methodical approach.

His army built the Forbes Road across Pennsylvania, established fortified supply positions, and advanced with roughly 6,000 regulars and colonial troops. Forbes was seriously ill and did not always remain at the front; Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bouquet handled much of the field direction. George Washington also served with the expedition’s Virginia contingent.

The French abandoned and destroyed Fort Duquesne on November 24, 1758, before the main British force arrived. The expedition therefore succeeded without a conventional siege. A common mix-up is crediting Bouquet or Washington with overall command: both were important participants, but Forbes was the expedition’s named commander.