Battle of Sideling Hill | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the French and Indian War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Delaware Indians | Great Britain | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Captain Jacobs? Shingas | Alexander Culbertson † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
66 to about 100 | About 50 Pennsylvania militia | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3–17 killed, 21 wounded [2] : 273 | 20 killed and 11–13 wounded |
The Battle of Sideling Hill (sometimes written Sidling Hill) was an engagement in April 1756, between Pennsylvania Colonial Militia and a band of Lenape warriors who had attacked Fort McCord and taken a number of colonial settlers captive. The warriors were taking their captives back to their base at Kittanning when they were ambushed by the militia, but with the help of reinforcements, the Lenape fought off the militia and escaped. [3] : 542–545 The battle is significant because it was the first engagement involving Pennsylvania Militia after Braddock's defeat. [4]
In 1753 William McCord obtained a land grant from the Penn family, on the western frontier of what is now Franklin County. This land and the surrounding area had been a favorite hunting ground for the Lenape people for centuries, and they had built temporary shelters in the area for use on hunting trips. McCord reportedly told them they were no longer welcome, and that they should stop roaming the land near his home. The Lenape assured him they would not cause him or his neighbors any problems and ignored his warning. McCord proceeded to burn their lodgings. The Indians withdrew from the area, but the attack in 1756 may have been motivated by this conflict. [4] [5]
Fort McCord (often referred to in contemporary documents as "McCord's Fort") was built in early 1756 near the base of the Kittatinny Mountain, north of Parnell Knob in western Pennsylvania. The fort was the fortified home of William McCord, and probably consisted of a stockade surrounding the farm buildings and a two-story blockhouse with loopholes through which to fire at attackers. [4]
A first-hand account of the attack on the fort and of the subsequent battle was written by Jean Lowry, William McCord's younger sister. She reports that most of the men had left the stockade during the day to engage in farming, and only Lowry's husband stayed there as a guard. On 1 April 1756, a band of Delaware (Lenape) Indians under the command of either Captain Jacobs or Shingas, attacked the fort, killed Lowry's husband and set the blockhouse on fire, forcing the women and children inside to surrender. They captured 27 settlers (Lowry says there were 21 captives, indicating that some had been killed). The Lenape then forced the captives to travel through the mountains for three days before stopping to rest. At dawn on 4 or 5 April, [Note 1] a group of Pennsylvania Militia, including many of Lowry's "friends and neighbors," attacked and were able to rescue the captives. According to Lowry, "only one Indian was killed and another wounded, upon which they all fled." Within a few minutes, however, the Lenape returned, killed a number of the militia, and recaptured the survivors of the Fort McCord attack. One of the male prisoners, probably a soldier, was tortured to death. Lowry and the other prisoners were then taken on to Kittanning. [6]
On 12 April 1756, the South Carolina Gazette published a letter describing the battle:
On 24 April 1756, Edward Shippen III wrote to Governor Morris to report hearing an eyewitness account of the battle:
Other sources report that, following the attack on Fort McCord, three companies of militia under the joint command of Captain Hance Hamilton (then commander at Fort Lyttleton), Captain William Chambers, and Captain Alexander Culbertson, had been sent in pursuit of the Lenape and their captives. [8] : 160 [9] : 104–106 Culbertson's company, reinforced by nineteen men from Fort Lyttleton, caught up with the Lenape three days after Fort McCord was attacked, and ambushed them at dawn, as described in Jean Lowry's account. In a two-hour engagement, both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the colonists were driven off by the arrival of reinforcements under the command of Shingas. [10] : 598–99 Captain Culbertson was killed and most of his men were killed or wounded before they withdrew from the battlefield. [11] Five captives, including two of William McCord's daughters, escaped and made their way to Fort Lyttleton. [12] : 561 Another captive, Mary McCord, William McCord's sister-in-law, was accidentally shot and killed by the militia. [4]
In a letter from Captain Hance Hamilton to Captain Potter, dated Fort Lyttleton, 4 April 1756, he says:
Doctor David Jameson, the surgeon at Fort Lyttleton, was seriously wounded and was left for dead on the battlefield, but he was able to return to the fort the next day. [4] Hamilton gives a partial casualty list of eight soldiers killed and seven wounded. [11] Chester Sipe reports that the Lenape suffered 17 killed and 21 wounded, "according to the statement of one of their number who was captured." [2] : 273 Sources state that 20 militia were killed and 12 or 13 wounded, although reports differ on this point.
Captain Jacobs was reported killed during the battle, however this was later proved untrue. He was killed during the Kittanning Expedition on 8 September 1756. [13]
Within a week of the battle, Governor Robert Hunter Morris issued a formal Declaration of War against the Delawares and established a bounty for the scalps of Indians. On 15 April a law was passed regarding the organization and behavior of the Provincial Militia, including punishment for desertion or mutiny by soldiers. [4]
The precise location of the Battle of Sideling Hill, and hence the burial site of the militia lost in the battle, has not been determined. Three possible locations have been proposed, based on contemporary documents:
Anderson's Grove: A 2003 report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission proposed that the Battle of Sideling Hill took place near Maddensville (a neighborhood of Springfield Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania), at the confluence of Little Aughwick Creek and Sideling Hill Creek at a place now known as Anderson's Grove. [1] : 25
Juniata Crossing: A few days after the battle, Captain Joseph Shippen wrote to his father, Edward Shippen III, describing the location of the battle:
Near Waterfall: The Indians may have been returning to Kittanning along the Raystown Path, an ancient Indian trail that runs from Clay Township through Bedford (formerly known as Ray's Town) to Logstown, northwest of Pittsburgh. [15] : 274–289 The battle may have taken place in the gap in the mountains created by Sideling Hill Creek, between the present-day towns of New Grenada and Waterfall on Pennsylvania Route 913. [16]
A stone monument with a Celtic cross, listing the names of the colonists killed and wounded as well as the civilian captives taken by the Indians, was erected in 1914 and can be found on Fort McCord Road in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. [17] [18] A historical marker at the site of Fort McCord, erected in 1947, lists the names of 20 soldiers killed and 11 wounded at Sideling Hill. [19]
Armstrong County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,558. The county seat is Kittanning. The county was organized on March 12, 1800, from parts of Allegheny, Westmoreland and Lycoming Counties. It was named in honor of John Armstrong, who represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress and served as a major general during the Revolutionary War.
Kittanning was an 18th-century Native American village in the Ohio Country, located on the Allegheny River at present-day Kittanning, Pennsylvania. The village was at the western terminus of the Kittanning Path, an Indian trail that provided a route across the Alleghenies between the Ohio and Susquehanna river basins.
The Kittanning Expedition, also known as the Armstrong Expedition or the Battle of Kittanning, was a raid during the French and Indian War that led to the destruction of the American Indian village of Kittanning, which had served as a staging point for attacks by Lenape warriors against colonists in the British Province of Pennsylvania. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong Sr., this raid deep into hostile territory was the only major expedition carried out by Pennsylvanian provincial troops during a brutal backcountry war. Early on September 8, 1756, they launched a surprise attack on the Indian village.
Shingas was a Lenape chief and warrior who participated in military activities in Ohio Country during the French and Indian War. Allied with the French, Shingas led numerous raids on Anglo-American settlements during the war, for which he was nicknamed "Shingas the Terrible" by the settlers. The colonial governments of Pennsylvania and Virginia responded to these raids by placing a bounty on Shingas.
Shamokin was a multi-ethnic Native American trading village on the Susquehanna River, located partially within the limits of the modern cities of Sunbury and Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania. It should not be confused with present-day Shamokin, Pennsylvania, located to the east. The village was the focus of missionary efforts, and then was the staging area for raids on English settlements in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. It was burned and abandoned by the Lenape in May, 1756. A few months later, Fort Augusta was constructed on the site of the village.
Fort Loudoun was a fort in colonial Pennsylvania, one of several forts in colonial America named after John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. The fort was built in 1756 during the French and Indian War by the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment under Colonel John Armstrong, and served as a post on the Forbes Road during the Forbes expedition that successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne. The fort remained occupied through Pontiac's War and served as a base for Colonel Henry Bouquet's 1764 campaign. In the 1765 Black Boys Rebellion, Fort Loudoun was assaulted by angry settlers, when their guns were confiscated after they destroyed supplies intended for Native Americans. The garrison retreated to Fort Bedford and the fort was abandoned.
Tewea, better known by his English name Captain Jacobs, was a Lenape chief during the French and Indian War. Jacobs received his English name from a Pennsylvanian settler named Arthur Buchanan, who thought the chief resembled a "burly German in Cumberland County."
Fort Granville was a militia stockade located in the colonial Province of Pennsylvania. Its site was about a mile from Lewistown, in what is now Granville Township, Mifflin County. Active from 1755 until 1756, the stockade briefly sheltered pioneer settlers in the Juniata River valley during the French and Indian War. The fort was attacked on August 2, 1756, by a mixed force of French troops and Native Americans, mostly Lenape warriors. The fort’s garrison surrendered the strongpoint to these attackers, who celebrated their victory and destroyed the stockade.
Fort Shirley was a military fort located in present-day Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1755 by George Croghan and later maintained by the Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. Fort Shirley was part of a defensive line of forts built in Pennsylvania during 1755 and 1756, at the start of hostilities with the French and their allied Native Americans. Although two French and Native American war parties were sent to capture it, Fort Shirley was never attacked. The fort served as the launching site for the Kittanning Expedition in September 1756, after which it was abandoned.
The Penn's Creek massacre was an October 16, 1755 raid by Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans on a settlement along Penn's Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. It was the first of a series of deadly raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native Americans allied with the French in the French and Indian War.
Kuskusky, also known as the Kuskuskies Towns, Kuskuskie Towns, or Kuskuskies' Indian Town, with a wide variety of other spellings, were several Native American communities inhabited near New Castle, Mahoning, and Edinburg, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, during the mid-18th century. It was not one town, but three or four contiguous towns of the Mingoes, Lenape, and Seneca, located along the Beaver River, at and above the junction of its east and west branches, the Mahoning River and the Shenango River. It is usually referred to in the plural.
Muskingum was a Wyandot village in southeastern Ohio from 1747 to 1755. It was an important trade center in the early 1750s, until it was devastated by smallpox in the winter of 1752. The town was repopulated for a short time afterwards, then abandoned again as a new community was established by Netawatwees a few miles to the east at Gekelukpechink. The city of Coshocton, Ohio was founded close to the site of the village in 1802.
Saucunk or Sawcunk was a town established by the Lenape and Shawnees. It was the site of a Catholic mission and was visited by Conrad Weiser, Christian Frederick Post and George Croghan. The Lenape chiefs Tamaqua, Pisquetomen, Captain Jacobs and Shingas all lived there temporarily. Saucunk was abandoned after the Battle of Bushy Run in 1763.
Pisquetomen was a Lenape chief who acted as interpreter and negotiator for the Lenape in dealings with the Provincial government of Pennsylvania during the mid-eighteenth century. After being rejected in his bid to succeed his uncle Sassoonan as Lenape chief, Pisquetomen joined Shingas and Captain Jacobs in a series of deadly attacks on Pennsylvania settlements at the beginning of the French and Indian War. He eventually participated in peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Easton in 1758, and is believed to have died in 1762.
Tamaqua or Tamaque, also known as The Beaver and King Beaver, was a leading man of the Unalachtigo (Turkey) phratry of the Lenape people. Although the Haudenosaunee in 1752 had appointed Shingas chief of the Lenape at the Treaty of Logstown, after the French and Indian War Tamaqua rose in prominence through his active role as peace negotiator, and was acknowledged by many Lenape as their "king" or chief spokesman. He was among the first to hand over English captives at the end of the French and Indian War and was active in peace negotiations at the conclusion of Pontiac's War. By 1758, he was recognized as one of three principal leaders of the Lenape, being the primary spokesman for the western Lenape in the Ohio Country. He founded the town of Tuscarawas, Ohio, in 1756 and died there in 1769 or 1771.
Nenatcheehunt, also spelled Nenacheehunt, or Nenatchehan, and sometimes referred to as Menatochyand, was a Lenape chief known for participating in peace negotiations at the end of the French and Indian War. He is referred to as "Delaware George" by both George Croghan and James Kenny. Confusingly, Christian Frederick Post refers to both Nenatcheehunt and Keekyuscung as "Delaware George." It is not always clear which man is being identified, as they often attended the same meetings and events.
Keekyuscung aka Kickyuscung, Kaquehuston, Kikyuskung, Ketiuscund, Kekeuscund, or Ketiushund, was a Delaware (Lenape) chief. In the 1750s he took part in peace negotiations to end Lenape participation in the French and Indian War. In 1754 he briefly engaged in some spying and smuggled some letters into and out of Fort Duquesne for George Washington. He was sympathetic to the British for many years, but in 1763 he and his son Wolf sided with the French after a failed assassination attempt by Colonel Henry Bouquet. He is known for being one of the Native American leaders that attacked Colonel Bouquet's forces at the Battle of Bushy Run, where Keekyuscung was killed.
Hugh Gibson was an American pioneer and a Pennsylvania frontiersman. In 1756, when he was 14 years old, his farm was attacked by Lenape Indians and he was taken prisoner. He was adopted as a brother by Pisquetomen, a Lenape chief, and lived for three years with the Lenape, moving to several different communities. In 1759 he escaped, together with three other captives.
Fort Lyttleton, also known as Fort Littleton, was a militia stockade located in the colonial Province of Pennsylvania. Its site was about a mile from Fort Littleton, Pennsylvania, near Dublin Township, in what is now Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Active from 1755 until 1763, the stockade was initially garrisoned by 75 Pennsylvania troops but at times had as many as 225. It was in use until 1759, then abandoned and reoccupied briefly in 1763 during Pontiac's War.
The Great Cove massacre was an attack by Shawnee and Lenape warriors led by Shingas, on the community of Great Cove, Pennsylvania on 1 November 1755, in which about 50 settlers were killed or captured. Following the attack, settlers returned to the community to rebuild, and the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania began constructing a chain of forts and blockhouses to protect settlers and fend off further raids. These forts provided an important defense during the French and Indian War.