OFFICERS, DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES William H. Stevenson, Pittsburgh, Pa. -Omar S. Decker, Pittsburgh, Pa. Second Vice-President-------Hon. George B. Orlady, Huntingdon, Pa. Dr. Samuel B. McCormick, Pittsburgh, Pa. HISTORICAL MAGAZINE Vol. 5 No. 2 APRIL, 1922 Price 75 cents FORT PITT CHARLES W. DAHLINGER. (Continued from the January number) Under the Continental Congress General Hand had been appointed by the Continental Congress to the command of the Western Department, composed of the counties of Westmoreland and Washington in Pennsylvania, and Monongalia and Ohio in Virginia, with headquarters at Fort Pitt (1) because the people west of Pittsburgh had become fearful of an Indian uprising. (2) On June 1, 1777, he arrived at Fort Pitt, escorted by a troop of Westmoreland lighthorse militia. (3) The force under his command consisted of a few regulars, the balance being militia, and with these little could be accomplished against the Indians who were threatening. The boundary controversy between Virginia and Pennsylvania was still on, and Hand was early accused of taking sides with Pennsylvania. Then on March 28, 1778, he allowed the Loyalists, Mathew Elliott, Alexander McKee and Simon Girty, and two others whom he had under surveillance, through too much leniency, to escape from Fort Pitt to the British THE WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE is published quarterly, in January, April, July and October, by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Bigelow Boulevard and Parkman Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. It is mailed free to all members of the Society. Members may obtain additional copies at 50 cents each; to others the charge is 75 cents. To public libraries, universities, colleges, historical and other similar societies the annual subscription rate is $2.00. The annual dues of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania are $3.00, and should be sent to John E. Potter, Treasurer, Fourth Avenue and Grant Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. |