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| Location | Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 41°00′43″N75°06′19″W / 41.01197°N 75.1054°W |
| Built/founded | c. 1756 |
Fort Depuy, is located in Shawnee on Delaware, a village in Smithfield Township. It was one of many forts in Colonial Pennsylvania built in 1755 and 1756 during the French and Indian War.
In response to an increasing number of attacks in Pennsylvania by French troops in the western part of the state and by Indian hostilities close to Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Legislature placed Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton in charge to erect a chain of forts along the Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania). [1]
Franklin, via a letter dated January 12, 1756 to Captain James Van Etten, ordered him to "proceed immediately to raise a Company of Foot, consisting of 30 able Men, including two Serjeants, with which you are to protect the Inhabitants of Upper Smithfield assisting them while they thresh out and secure their Corn, and scouting from time to time as you judge necessary on the Outside of the Settlements." [2]
The Fort was established on the farm of Nicholas Depuy, the first white settler of the area who arrived in 1727 and purchased 3,000 acres. In 1755 Franklin insisted that the Depuy home, because of its strategic location along the Delaware River, be commandeered to serve as a fort. [3]
Fort Depuy was constructed in the shape of a square with guns at each corner. The fort also served as a commissary base for the other forts in the area.
After 1763 the Fort was returned to the family and returned to its function as a farm.
The Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort is located on the site of Depuy's farm. [4]
The building now called Fort DePuy was built in 1785, after the French & Indian War. The site of the original stockade is slightly southwest, and no signs remain. [5]
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.
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.
The Battle of Great Cacapon — also known as Mercer's Massacre — was fought on April 18, 1756 between members of Colonel George Washington's Virginia Regiment and French-allied Shawnee and Delaware Indians. Captain Mercer and a company of his men were pursuing some Indians when they were ambushed by a larger number of Indian raiders. Mercer and at least 16 of his men were killed.
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.
Mary Draper Ingles, also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken by Shawnee after the Draper's Meadow Massacre during the French and Indian War. They were taken to Lower Shawneetown at the Ohio and Scioto rivers. Ingles escaped with another woman after two and a half months and trekked 500 to 600 miles, crossing numerous rivers, creeks, and the Appalachian Mountains to return home.
The Conrad Weiser Homestead was the home of Johann Conrad Weiser, who enlisted the Iroquois on the British side in the French and Indian War. The home is located near Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania in the United States. A designated National Historic Landmark, it is currently administered as a historic house museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The historic site was established in 1923 to preserve an example of a colonial homestead and to honor Weiser, an important figure in the settlement of the colonial frontier.
The Draper's Meadow Massacre was an attack in July 1755, when the Draper's Meadow settlement in southwest Virginia, at the site of present day Blacksburg, was raided by a group of Shawnee warriors, who killed at least four people including an infant, and captured five more. The Indians brought their hostages to Lower Shawneetown, a Shawnee village in Kentucky. One of the captives, Mary Draper Ingles, later escaped and returned home on foot through the wilderness. Although many of the circumstances of the massacre are uncertain, including the date of the attack, the event remains a dramatic story in the history of Virginia.
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.
Fort Hyndshaw was a fort in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, built in 1755 and 1756 during the French and Indian War.
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.
Shawnee on Delaware is an unincorporated community on the Delaware River, part of Smithfield Township in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated just south of the foothills of the Pocono Mountains, 2.6 miles (4.2 km) southwest of the Shawnee Mountain Ski Area and approximately 75 miles (121 km) west of New York City.
William Clapham was an American military officer who participated in the construction of several forts in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. He was considered a competent commander in engagements with French troops and Native American warriors, but towards the end of his military career he was unpopular with troops under his command. Following his retirement from the army, he and his family were killed by Lenape warriors on his farm in 1763.
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.
Fort Allen was a military structure built in Franklin Township, in Carbon County, Pennsylvania in 1756. It was first of several frontier defenses erected by Benjamin Franklin for the Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. The garrison was rarely more than fifty men, and the fort never saw combat, however it became a center of contact and trade with Native Americans and served as a stopping point for Indians traveling to and from Bethlehem, Easton and Philadelphia. It was abandoned in 1761 near the end of the French and Indian War, and briefly reoccupied during Pontiac's War and again during the American Revolutionary War.
Fort Robinson was a stockaded blockhouse fort built in 1755 in the colonial Province of Pennsylvania for the security of settlers moving into the area following the Albany Congress. The fort was constructed in "Shearman's Valley," now known as Shermans Dale, Pennsylvania, near present-day Northeast Madison Township, Pennsylvania.
The Gnadenhütten massacre was an attack during the French and Indian War in which Native allies of the French killed 11 Moravian missionaries at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylvania on 24 November 1755. They destroyed the mission village and took one woman prisoner, and only four of the sixteen residents escaped. Following the attack, Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Provincial Council to construct forts in the area, and in other parts of the Province of Pennsylvania, to defend against Native American attacks, which were becoming increasingly frequent due to the French and Indian War.
Fort Hunter was a military fort located in present-day Fort Hunter, Pennsylvania. It was initially a stockaded gristmill fortified by Samuel Hunter in 1755 and later enlarged and maintained by the Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. Fort Hunter 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. It was briefly used during Pontiac's War, then abandoned in 1763.
Fort Lebanon was a Pennsylvania stockade fort built in December 1755 and designed to provide protection for settlers' families during the French and Indian War. However, Native American war parties often attacked nearby farms and killed settlers, disappearing before the fort's troops could respond. The garrison was sometimes fewer than 25 men as troops were transferred for temporary duty elsewhere, meaning that the fort had little manpower for patrols or to pursue attackers. The fort was renamed Fort William in mid-1757. In May 1758, the garrison was transferred and the fort was never re-occupied.
