Fort Lebanon
West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of a line of defenses erected about 1755 to ward off Indian raids after Braddock's defeat. Called Fort William in 1758. The site is marked on the side road just below here.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
After General Edward Braddock's disastrous 1755 defeat near Fort Duquesne left the Pennsylvania frontier exposed, colonists hurriedly threw up a chain of stockaded forts to shield settlers from raids during the French and Indian War. Fort Lebanon was one such outpost, later renamed Fort William in 1758 as the frontier defenses were reorganized. Its site, marked just off the road below, recalls a time when this quiet countryside was a tense military frontier.
Why it matters
These backcountry forts show how ordinary settlers organized to defend a vulnerable frontier during the war that decided the fate of North America.
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Related events
- · Braddock's defeat
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Franklin
West Penn Township, PA · est. 1955
In the mid-1750s the Pennsylvania frontier erupted into violence as the French and Indian War spread down the Blue Mountain, and colonists petitioned for a chain of provincial forts to shield their scattered farms. This small stockade, thrown up in 1756 and named for Benjamin Franklin—then charged with organizing the colony's frontier defenses—was one such outpost. It saw little action and was given up the following year, a reminder of how quickly and cheaply many of these hastily built strongholds rose and fell.
Fort Everett
Lynn Township, PA · est. 1951
Around 1756, at the height of the French and Indian War, a log blockhouse rose just north of here as one link in a chain of frontier defenses guarding the settled valleys south of Blue Mountain. Its garrison watched the country between the Schuylkill and Lehigh Rivers, offering refuge to farm families when raiding parties struck the exposed Pennsylvania backcountry. Such small forts were the difference between staying and fleeing for the region's colonists.
Fort Swatara
Union Township, PA · est. 1999
As the French and Indian War set the Pennsylvania frontier ablaze in the mid-1750s, settlers threw up fortified blockhouses to shelter their scattered farms. Fort Swatara, first built by Peter Hedrick in 1755 and strengthened by Capt. Frederick Smith in 1756, guarded the strategic Swatara Gap against raids and gave frontier families a place of refuge in a dangerous season.
Swatara Gap
Union Township, PA · est. 1947
Swatara Gap is a natural break in the Blue Mountain, and in the 1750s it became a dangerous doorway. During the French and Indian War, war parties allied with the French slipped through the gap to strike the scattered farms of the Pennsylvania frontier, and colonial authorities answered by raising Fort Swatara nearby to guard the pass. The steep, wooded notch that had long served as a travel route became a frontline in a brutal borderland conflict.