Col. Matthew Smith
Delaware Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Captain of Lancaster Co. militia with Col. Benedict Arnold on 1775 midwinter march to Quebec. In 1779, served as Vice-President of Pennsylvania Council. Died in 1794; buried here in an unmarked grave.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Matthew Smith captained a company of Lancaster County militia in one of the Revolution's most grueling feats: Benedict Arnold's midwinter march through the Maine wilderness to attack Quebec in 1775. Surviving that ordeal, he went on to serve in 1779 as Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Council, part of the state's Revolutionary government. He died in 1794 and was buried here in a grave that long went unmarked.
Why it matters
Smith's story links a frontier militia company to the daring Quebec expedition and to the founding government of Revolutionary Pennsylvania.
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Related people
- · Matthew Smith
- · Benedict Arnold
Related events
- · Arnold's march to Quebec, 1775
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians - Fort Freeland - PLAQUE
Delaware Township, PA · est. 1929
Jacob Freeland raised a mill on this ground in 1773 and, as war reached the frontier, stockaded it in 1778 for defense. On July 28, 1779, British-allied Tories and Seneca warriors attacked and destroyed the fort, and the inscription records that 108 settlers were killed or taken prisoner. The assault came at the height of the brutal frontier fighting that Sullivan's expedition was meant to answer.
Fort Freeland
Delaware Township, PA · est. 1947
As the Revolution reached the Pennsylvania frontier, settlers fortified Jacob Freeland's house in 1778, ringing it with a stockade against raids. On July 29, 1779, a force of British and allied Indians overwhelmed the small post, and its garrison of 21 were killed or captured—one of the sharp, deadly clashes that made the upper Susquehanna a war zone.
Widow Catherine Smith
White Deer Township, PA · est. 1967
In 1774 Catherine Smith, a widow, established a stone house and a complex of saw and grist mills along this stretch of the West Branch frontier. When the Revolution came, she built a boring mill in 1776 that finished gun barrels for the Continental Army, turning a backwoods industrial site into a small arsenal for the war effort. Running such works alone in a contested wilderness was a formidable undertaking for anyone, and remarkable for a woman of her day.
Fort Bosley
Derry Township, PA · est. 1947
In 1777, as the Revolution raged and the Pennsylvania frontier grew dangerous, settlers along the forks of Chillisquaque Creek fortified Bosley's mill, stockading and garrisoning it against raids. Such improvised frontier forts were the everyday reality of the backcountry war, where mills, farms, and blockhouses doubled as refuges. The site reflects a conflict fought not only on famous battlefields but in the woods and clearings of the northern branch of the Susquehanna.