Fort Swatara | |
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Also known as Smith’s Fort. | |
Along Fort Swatara Drive about 1.5 miles north of Lickdale, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Near Lickdale, Pennsylvania (Formerly known as Union Forge) in United States | |
Coordinates | 40°34′0″N76°41′1″W / 40.56667°N 76.68361°W |
Site information | |
Condition | destroyed |
Site history | |
Built | 1755 (Rebuilt by the Colonial Pennsylvania militia forces in 1756) |
Built by | Colonial Pennsylvania militia forces |
In use | 1755-1758 |
Materials | Logs and roughly sawed wood boards. |
Fate | Abandoned in 1758 – materials likely pillaged by local European settlers. |
Events | Fort Swatara prevented marauding Indian raids from progressing to the more populated areas in what is now Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. |
Garrison information | |
Past commanders | Captain Christian Busse Captain Frederick Smith (Schmitt) Lieutenant Phillip Martzloff Captain Lieutenant Samuel Weiser Captain Lieutenant Samuel Allen |
Garrison | Pennsylvania militia, 30-50 men plus officers |
Designated | 1999 |
Fort Swatara (various spellings, sometimes referred to as Smith's Fort) was a stockaded blockhouse built during the French and Indian War in what is now Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Initially a farmstead surrounded by a stockade, provincial troops occupied it in January 1756. The fort safeguarded local farms, but a number of settlers were killed by small Native American war parties. The fort was abandoned in May 1758. [1] : 340
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, marauding Indians allied with the French attacked European settlers along the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania near the Swatara Gap area. Peter Hedrick and other Swatara Gap area settlers fortified Hedrick's farmstead by building a log-walled stockade around it. [2] [3] [4] On January 25 1756, Captain Christian Busse received orders from Robert Hunter Morris, deputy governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, to occupy the existing fortification at Hedrick's farmstead and reinforce it if necessary. He also gave orders for the construction of Fort Manada, and for regular patrols to monitor the land between these forts and the nearby Fort Lebanon. Morris wrote:
The fort was built near Swatara Gap, at a point where the Swatara Creek passes south between the ridges of Sharp Mountain and Second Mountain (present-day Swatara State Park). Swatara Gap is sometimes referred to by another Native American name, Tolehaio or Tolihaio. [6] Local settlers occasionally referred to the gap as "the Hole." [5] "Swatara" comes from a Susquehannock word, Swahadowry or Schaha-dawa, which means "where we feed on eels". Ancient Native Americans built dozens of eel-weirs, V-shaped rock barriers at shallow points in the river, designed to funnel eels into a trap, on the Susquehanna River and its tributaries. [7] [8] : 184
Busse's troops, under the command of Captain Frederick Smith (Friedrich Schmitt), erected a military-style log blockhouse and gunpowder magazine shed for ammunition storage and surrounded the structures with a sturdy log stockade. The fort was sometimes referred to as "Smith's Fort." [9] [10]
On May 28 1756, Major William Parsons visited the fort and wrote a detailed description of it to Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Weiser:
Weiser visited the fort in September and agreed with this assessment, writing:
Recommendations were made to rebuild the fort or to remove the buildings which made it vulnerable, but for unknown reasons they were never implemented. [1] : 335
Governor Morris initially sent fifty men to build the fort, but 21 of these were then sent to Fort Manada, eight were sent to protect settlers working in nearby farm fields, eight to patrol western areas near the fort, and sixteen were sent to guard settlers that were living in close proximity to the fort. [4] In September 1756, Conrad Weiser observed a garrison of 30 men plus officers, and a report in November lists 32 men. [1] : 332–34 In February 1758, Adjutant Jacob Kern found a garrison of 33 men plus officers, although during the same month Commissary General James Young counted 46 men and Lieutenant Colonel James Burd noted 38 men. [1] : 339 Numbers of troops tended to vary as many soldiers signed up for short-term enlistments of a few months rather than the standard 3-year term. Troops were frequently sent as escorts for supplies, prisoners or dignitaries, and war and illness were constant sources of attrition. [11]
The fort had five commanding officers during the two and a half years of its existence. Captain Frederick Smith (Friedrich Schmitt), who supervised the fort's construction, proved to be abusive and negligent in communicating with his superiors. In July 1756, there were complaints about Smith's conduct, although Colonel Weiser wrote to the governor that "when the People about Swataro and the Hole heard of Capt Smiths being accused for neglect of Duty, they wrote a Letter to me in his Favour." In July 1757, Weiser himself expressed annoyance that soldiers at Swatara, whose term of enlistment had expired, were not being re-enlisted. He wrote to Deputy Governor Denny: "I wish your Honour had Sent his [Smith's] discharge, he wont inlist the men anew, and by all what I Can learn abuses the officers under him, and has never Sent me a Journal nor Muster Roll. The lieut and Insign Complains bitterly against [him]." In August, Smith was dismissed and replaced by Lieutenant Phillip Martzloff. In October, Martzloff was temporarily transferred to Fort Hunter, whose commanding officer was ill, and Fort Swatara fell under the command of Captain Lieutenant Samuel Weiser, son of Colonel Conrad Weiser, until December, when Martzloff returned. Colonel Weiser then learned that soldiers whose enlistment was ending would not re-enlist under Martzloff, and he was quickly replaced by Captain Lieutenant Samuel Allen. [1] : 333–39
Early in the French and Indian War, several skirmishes occurred near Fort Swatara between Native Americans and Pennsylvania militiamen.
In July 1756, two settlers were killed by Native Americans near Fort Swatara, [4] [1] : 333 and in August, one settler and two Pennsylvania militia troops were killed near the fort. Three children were kidnapped within two miles of the fort. Native Americans also killed several settlers that were relocating from the Fort Swatara area. [1] : 333 In August 1757, five local settlers (including two brothers) were killed by Native Americans, and a Pennsylvania militia soldier was wounded. A mother and child were also kidnapped. [1] : 337 In April 1758, Native Americans staged another attack near Fort Swatara, in which four more settlers were killed and a woman was kidnapped. [12] [9] [1] : 339–40
By mid-1758, British forces started gaining control of the French and Indian War and Indian attacks in the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania were subsiding. On May 11, Deputy Governor William Denny ordered the troops stationed at Fort Swatara to join British military units as they were advancing on French outposts. [1] : 331 Fort Swatara was officially abandoned and it was never used again for military purposes. [13]
Today, no remnants of Fort Swatara exist, but its site is marked with two boulders [14] and a Pennsylvania Historical Marker. [15] [16] : 694
In July 1932, the Lebanon County Historical Society dedicated two boulders with copper plates to designate the location of Fort Swatara. The smaller boulder is located in a field near where the fort actually stood. The larger boulder was placed along the roadside near the site of the fort. The inscription on the larger boulder's plate reads:
On July 14, 1999, a roadside Pennsylvania historical marker for Fort Swatara was dedicated and placed about one mile north of Lickdale along Pennsylvania Route 72, by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. It reads:
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