Fort Cumberland was garrisoned from 1754 to 1765 amid disputes between Maryland and Virginia over its maintenance and control. In early 1756, Colonel Washington supported keeping a small garrison there to protect the fort, gather intelligence, and cover forces sent to the Ohio Valley, but afterward he favored abandoning it because it did not deter Indians and continually drained his command's resources. Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie never allowed him to abandon it, and the fort was finally abandoned in mid July 1765 when General Thomas Gage, then a lieutenant colonel, ordered the British troops removed. The fort grounds were occupied again in October 1794 as Virginia and Maryland troops assembled there before marching to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. Camped along Will's Creek, they were marched to the parade ground and reviewed by President Washington on October 19th before loud cheers from nearly all of Cumberland's residents. Washington, as commander-in-chief and in full uniform, backed by Generals Daniel Morgan and Henry Lee, reviewed the troops on the old parade ground, where earth mounds in the background may have been remains of the fort. George Washington both began and ended his active military career at Fort Cumberland. Cumberland was known as Washington Town for the two years before its creation by the state legislature on January 20, 1787, and Allegany County was created on December 25, 1789 out of the western part of Washington County, so both the city and county were at one time namesakes of George Washington.
