When Gen. John Forbes gave Pittsburgh its name in November 1758, newspapers, magazines and pamphlets soon brought the news to English speakers from Philadelphia to Edinburgh.

The years between mid-1754 and mid-1758 had been among the hardest times ever on the Pennsylvania frontier.

Control of the Forks of the Ohio -- the place now known as Pittsburgh's Point -- was one of the main goals in the French and Indian War, which was the North American portion of the worldwide Seven Years' War.

For that reason, many of the opening battles of that long and bloody conflict had taken place in southwestern Pennsylvania. Most had ended in defeats for the British side, including George Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity in July 1754 and the massacre of Gen. Edward Braddock's British and Colonial Army a year later.

As Pittsburgh prepares for its 250th birthday next November, the Post-Gazette will publish stories every other Sunday drawn from contemporary accounts in the region's newspapers and periodicals. The stories will offer snapshots at critical -- and sometimes comical -- junctures over the past two-and-a-half centuries.

Additional coverage of Pittsburgh birthday.

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A new British government in London, however, led by William Pitt, had decided to follow an 18th-century version of the Colin Powell doctrine: Maximize the odds of success by sending forces in overwhelming numbers.

Unlike Gen. Braddock, the new British commander, Gen. John Forbes, sought alliances with Native Americans. He was eager to use them as scouts and to keep them from joining the ranks of French and French-Canadian fighters.

The British had demography on their side. By the 1750s, historians estimate, more than a million people were residing in their colonies, although many in Pennsylvania spoke German rather than English. In New France, which included all of Eastern Canada and much of the Midwest along the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys, there were only about 50,000.

By mid-1758 the tide of war was going against the French and their remaining Indian allies

"The accounts from America begin now to be more favourable than formerly," begins a report in the January 1759 edition of The Gentleman's Magazine.

The magazine, printed in London "by D. Henry and R. Cave at St. John's Gate," goes on to print excerpts from a dispatch sent by Gen. Forbes on his arrival in the smoking ruins of what had been the French-built Fort Duquesne.

Starting from Philadelphia, Gen. Forbes -- born like Andrew Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland -- had slowly maneuvered his army across Pennsylvania during the late summer and fall of 1758. Aided by colonial officers, including the ambitious George Washington, he and his underlings built a series of fortifications and supply depots across the wilderness. Each was located about a day's march apart.

They included Fort Loudon, Fort Bedford and Fort Ligonier -- all of which, like Pittsburgh, will mark their 250th birthdays next year.

Here is some of the text of the Gen. Forbes letter, as excerpted in The Gentleman's Magazine. A copy of the periodical, bound into book form, is in the collection of the Heinz History Center.

"I have the pleasure of acquainting you with the signal success of his majesty's arms over all his enemies on the Ohio, by having obliged them to burn, and abandon their Fort duQuesne, which they effectuated up on the 24th instant (Nov. 24, 1758), and of which I took possession with my light troops the same evening, and with my little army the next day. The enemy made their escape down the river, part in boats and part by land, to their forts and settlements upon the Missisippi, [spelled without the fourth S] having been abandoned, or, at least, not seconded by their friends the Indians, whom we had previously engaged to act a neutral part, after thoroughly convincing them, in several skirmishes, that all their attempts upon our advanced posts, in order to cut off our communications, were vain, and to no purpose; so now they seem all willing, and well disposed to embrace his majesty's most gracious protection.

"Give me leave, therefore, to congratulate you upon this important event, of having expelled the French from Fort duQuesne and this prodigious tract of fine rich country, and of having, in a manner, reconciled the various tribes and nations of the Indians, inhabiting it, to his majesty's government."

Before he left the Forks of the Ohio, Gen. Forbes took one other important action, describing it in a Nov. 27 letter to William Pitt, whom he saw as architect of the British victory.

"I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Duquesne," he wrote, "as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that now makes us Masters of the place."

After a difficult winter journey, Gen. Forbes made it back to Philadelphia, where he died on March 11, 1759. He was buried in that city's Christ Church.