The history of the
victory at Kittanning (PA) by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong on
September 8, 1756, has been recorded in various historical journals.
A word by word account of Armstrong’s attack on the Indian village of
Kittanning, Pennsylvania as reported to his superior officer is published in
various old books on Western Pennsylvania. William A. Hunter, historian with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania recorded the history in various publications. See References.
In the spring of 1756 the French and Indian War became painfully real to
Pennsylvanians living west of the Susquehanna (River). The first scattered
Indian raids, in the fall of 1755, had been interrupted by winter, but now were
resumed in earnest. Incited and aided by the French enemy, recently established
in western Pennsylvania, Delaware and Shawnee Indians, under their leaders,
Shingas and Captain Jacobs, swept down to burn, kill and capture.
In Pennsylvania, Braddock’s defeat on July 9, 1755 had brought war to a
province unwilling to take military action and unaccustomed to military
planning. Fearful of French military funds and forces, Governor Robert Hunter
Morris had at first, in the summer of 1755, extemporized local defenses in the
Cumberland Valley, between Carlisle and the Maryland line.
By September of 1756 it was estimated that one thousand men, women and children had been slain by the Indians, or carried into captivity. Property to an immense amount had been destroyed, and the peaceful pursuits of civilized life were suspended along the whole frontier.
The Province had built and garrisoned four forts west
of the Susquehanna; Fort George, Fort Granville, Fort Shirley, and Fort
Lyttelton. The frontier attacks reached a climax on July 30, 1756, when a force
of Indians headed by Captain Jacobs and supported by fifteen Frenchmen besieged
Fort Granville and, having set fire to the place killed the lieutenant
(Lieutenant Edward Armstrong) then in command, and forced the garrison to
surrender. This destruction of a Provincial fort called for revenge and also for
a reorganization of defenses for greater strength and better protection. The
chief responsibility for these tasks lay upon Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong,
commander of the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, which garrisoned
the forts west of the Susquehanna, (and brother of dead Lt. Edward Armstrong.)
Accordingly, with the approval of Governor Morris, the officers drew up secret
plans for the attack upon the Indians.
It had been learned from escaped prisoners that the Indian leaders,
Shingas and Captain Jacobs had their headquarters at Kittanning, on the
Allegheny River (above Pittsburgh). This was a site of early Delaware
settlements on the Ohio, dating from the 1720’s, and had long been known to the
Pennsylvania traders who accompanied and followed these Indians from the
Susquehanna. The Delaware name of the place meant at the great river; and the
Iroquois name, Atique, was of similar significance; it was a major landmark on a
route running westward from the lower Susquehanna to the prairie country south
of the Great Lakes. To this place Shingas had removed in 1754 from the forks of
Ohio.
Marching by various routes, 300 men of Armstrong’s six garrisons assembled
at Fort Shirley, the most advanced of the forts, and on Monday August 30, the
main body of troops set out from this place, preceded by an advance party which
they overtook at the Allegheny Mountains on Friday, September 3. From this place
scouts went forward to reconnoiter. Upon their return the next day, the troops
stored their supplies on scaffolds, and set out on an unbroken march, continuing
into the night of September 7, to Kittanning.
The attack began at
daybreak, September 8, 1756. The Indian leader Captain Jacobs was killed.
Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong’s official report listed his losses at 17 men
killed, 13 wounded and 19 missing. Of the 19 missing, 3 were later reported
alive. The Indians reported their losses as seven men and two women. The Indian
leader Shingas escaped.
The attack on Kittanning was a moral victory. It improved the spirits of the
settlers, and the Delaware Indians abandoned their settlement at Kittanning,
retiring to the protection of the French Forts, and to less exposed towns on the
Beaver River and western settlements.
However, the raid was not without problems. Armstrong and his men miscalculated the size of a band of Indians at what has become known as Blanket Hill. It was there that many of Armstrong's men died. Click Here for more information on Blanket Hill.
REFERENCES
- Hunter, Wm. A., "Victory at Kittanning", Pennsylvania Historical Journal,
Vol. XXIII, No. 3, July, 1956.
- Hunter, Wm. A., S. K. Stevenson, D. H. Kent, "Armstrong’s Victory at
Kittanning", PA Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA, 1956.
- Wm. A. Hunter, "Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier (1753-1758)",
Harrisburg, PA 1960, p 405.
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