Maryland Scaggs in the French and Indian War

The Maryland frontier militia during the French and Indian War was commanded by Capt. John Dagworthy.  Richard, James and Isaac were three Marylander Scaggs who enlisted in the militia on 9 October 1757.  They participated in the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne, a French fortress on the site of present-day downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This was the same fort that Gen. Edward Braddock failed to capture in 1755 when his command was annihilated by the French and Indians.

The Maryland militia was stationed at Fort Cumberland, a fort they shared with the Virginia militia.  This sharing created a lot of drama between John Dagworthy and the Virginia military commander at Fort Cumberland, George Washington.  Dagworthy thought his Royal commission as Captain superseded Washington's Virginia commission as Major.  Dagworthy's Maryland militia, including the three Scaggs men, joined the Forbes Expedition.

Military records of the Maryland militia show that all three Scaggs men enlisted on 9 October 1757.  Richard and Issac Scaggs deserted on 27 December 1758, the day after the celebration of the destruction of Fort Duquesne by the retreating French and subsequent capture by the British.  James Scaggs deserted on 23 January 1759, likely after the militia returned to Fort Cumberland.  My theory is that Richard and Issac Scaggs were likely brothers who deserted together with others after Fort Duquesne was captured and returned back to Maryland.  The militia hadn't been paid so I think many soldiers just got fed up and deserted.  The French had already abandoned the fort anyway.  I think James Scaggs was the James who married Susanna and eventually moved to Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.  It appears that Richard and Issac Scaggs were sons of the Richard Scaggs who married Mary Brashier in 1727, the progenitor of the R1b Skaggs family line.  All three Scaggs would have been born in the 1730s.  Richard married Sarah Selby in Maryland and settled on the "Chew's Folly" property there in Prince George's County.  Isaac shows up later in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1767 and Botetourt County in 1771.