CONTRECOEUR, Captain, French soldier, born about 1730. He was a captain in the French marines, and in 1754 conducted a force of 1,000 men, mostly Indians, with eighteen cannon, down the Allegheny River in boats, for the purpose of preventing the British authorities or the Ohio company from planting settlements in the Ohio valley, which was claimed by the French under the treaty of Aix. Ensign Ward, of Capt. Trent's company, had partly constructed a fort at Ohio Fork, now Pittsburgh, the spot recommended for the purpose in Washington's report. He surrendered the works to Contrecoeur, who finished the stockade, called it Fort Duquesne, and maintained there a garrison of about 250 Frenchmen, and sometimes as many as 500 Indians. When Braddock advanced with more than 2,000 men, although the garrison was demoralized by fear, Capt. Beaujeu, who had come to relieve Contrecceur, determined to attack the approaching army, and, while he carried out the brilliant attack that resulted in the rout of Braddock's army, 9 July, 1755, Contrecceur, to whom the French official reports erroneously give the credit of the victory, remained at the fort. As Beaujeu had been shot, the command again devolved upon Contrecceur, who was responsible for the atrocities committed by the Indians.