Fort Cumberland

At the current location of the city of Cumberland, Maryland, a crude frontier fort was constructed at the confluence of Wills Creek and the Potomac River in fall 1754 by troops of the Maryland militia, under the command of Captain John Dagworthy, and under the overall command of Colonel James Innes, the commander-in-chief of colonial forces at that time. A few years earlier, Thomas Cresap had established a trading post nearby, and hired Native Americans including the local chief Nemacolin to blaze a shorter path across the Allegheny Mountains to Redstone Creek on the Monongahela River, which became known as Nemacolin's Path. Initially named Fort Mount Pleasant, it was renamed Fort Cumberland in 1755. Ft Cumberland figured prominently in the French & Indian War in 1755, when it became a rally point for British forces under command of General Braddock. The wood palisade fort is now gone, and occupying the site is the existing Emmanuel Episcopal Church, but the old fort tunnels still remain underneath. This fort once marked the westernmost outpost of the British Empire in America, and was the jumping-off point for General Braddock's disastrous expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Braddock was killed, a young officer of Virginia militia, George Washington, led the troops back to Fort Cumberland. At the fort, Washington clashed with Captain Dagworthy over the issue of military rank and which colonial officer should be in command: Washington was a major in the Virginia militia, outranking the Maryland captain, but Dagworthy countered that because he also held a royal commission as a captain in the Provincial Troops, he automatically outranked any colonial militia officer. Fort Cumberland was a supply center of basic provisions such as flour, salt, and lead for the Western Department of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The fort also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for British prisoners from about 1778 until the end of the war.

• Fort Ohio, Earlier fort built across the river in Ridgeley, West Virginia • Fort Sellers • Fort Ashby, Earlier fort built in Fort Ashby, West Virginia. • Fort Cocke, Earlier fort built upstream from Fort Ashby, West Virginia • Fort Pleasant (Fort Van Meter), On the upper South Branch