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Pittman was a lieutenant or captain in the British Army. He was an engineer and cartographer, and was stationed at Fort de Chartres in the later part of the 1760s. He was later stationed in the Illinois Territories. 

Pittman was a British army engineer. In 1764, he traveled up the Mississippi to New Orleans with Major Arthur Loftus. During his five years in the Gulf coastal region of Louisiana and West Florida he made numerous surveying expeditions.

Pittman's reconnaissance in America resulted in his publication of The Present State Of The European Settlements On The Mississippi; with A Geographical Description of that River Illustrated by Plans and Draughts (London 1770), the first English book on the topography, settlements, and inhabitants of the region.

Pittman died at 1775 and therefore relatively little is known about him.  Captain Pittman's letter-book together with some notes by his daughter Mary Pittman for the years 1771 to 1775 are held by the British Library.


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