John Ormsby (Pittsburgh) - Military Career

Military Career

John Ormsby was a soldier in the French and Indian War. Ormsby was "offered a captain's commission in the colonial contingent of General Braddock's army," but was unable to take any position in the army until 1758, due to a malarial fever lasting three years. When he could join the army, he fought under the command of John Forbes and George Washington to capture Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758.

Ormsby served as King's Commissary as well as paymaster during the erection of Fort Pitt under John Stanwix from 1759 to 1760. He lived in Fort Pitt in 1761.

During Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, Indians destroyed his property, stole his horses and goods, and murdered his employees, although there is some controversy about who actually destroyed his property. He later claimed that Stanwix had ordered his house and store destroyed because the Indians were using its provisions and the structures as shelter during their attacks on the fortifications. Ormsby aided in the defense of Fort Pitt during the rebellion. The Indians cut off all supplies to Fort Pitt and maintained a constant offensive. John Ormsby wrote of this, "there was not a pound of good flour or meat to serve the garrison and a number of the inhabitants who joined me to do duty." English troops under the command of Henry Bouquet arrived with food and munitions and defeated the Indians surrounding Fort Pitt.