Roads and Military Provisioning During the French and Indian War (1754–1763): The Faunal Remains of Fort Shirley, PA in Context

Martin Welker,Jonathan Burns,Shane Billings,Sarah Mcclure

doi:10.5334/oq.40

Abstract

Early British generals faced serious challenges in delivering and storing sufficient provisions for 18 th century British soldiers and colonial militia. This analysis investigates the influence of developed road systems that facilitated delivery of provisions and resulted in distinctive dietary patterning. The comparison of faunal data from forts located on major road systems with frontier garrisons and associated Native American villages like Fort Shirley and Aughwick Old Town, a short-lived (1754–1756) French and Indian War frontier fortification in central Pennsylvania, indicates a significantly reduced reliance on domestic livestock at these more inaccessible locations. These results suggest that road infrastructure heavily influenced military provisioning, encouraged adaptation to frontier living through reliance on wild game, and resulted in varied dietary practices at military installations in eastern North America.

Highlights

The logistics of supply delivery are one of the primary challenges to sustaining any military campaign
One of these is documented in the correspondence between George Croghan, the captain in charge of Fort Shirley, and James Hamilton of the Pennsylvania Colonial Government dated to 1755 which suggests that delivery of supplies to Fort Shirley and other frontier fortifications was irregular and unreliable (Wainwright 1965)
To test whether the abundance of domestic livestock in the diets of soldiers at French is influenced by site accessibility, faunal material from Fort Shirley was analyzed (Table 3) and integrated into a dataset of French and Indian War fortifications (Tables 2 and 4)

Summary

Introduction

The logistics of supply delivery are one of the primary challenges to sustaining any military campaign. E xtensive documentary and archaeological research has been devoted to military provisioning practices in the Roman Army, and later 16th–19th Century English, French, Spanish, and American armies in Europe, and both eastern and southwestern North America (Crass and Wallsmith 1992; Cubbison 2010; King 1984; Parker 1970; Pippen 2010; Poirier 1976; Rogers, Bartholomew & Armstrong 1998) These analyses indicate a widespread reliance on domestic crops and livestock which could be produced or purchased in large enough quantities to provision armies and garrisons and highlight the use of local sources in provisioning (Cubbison 2010; King 1984; Parker 1970; Tokar 1999). One of these is documented in the correspondence between George Croghan, the captain in charge of Fort Shirley, and James Hamilton of the Pennsylvania Colonial Government dated to 1755 which suggests that delivery of supplies to Fort Shirley and other frontier fortifications was irregular and unreliable (Wainwright 1965)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion