Fort Sullivan
Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Here, between the Chemung and Susquehanna commanding both rivers, Gen. John Sullivan built a fort Aug. 18, 1779. With a camp on the flats, it was base for the central N.Y. campaign and defeat of the Tory-Indian alliance.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On August 18, 1779, General John Sullivan raised a fort on the high ground between the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers, commanding both waterways at once. With a supporting camp on the flats below, the post became the launching point for Sullivan's expedition into central New York — a scorched-earth campaign that broke the military power of the Tory and Iroquois alliance allied with Britain. The fort's brief life belied its role in one of the Revolution's most consequential frontier operations.
Why it matters
Fort Sullivan anchored a campaign that shattered the Iroquois Confederacy's ability to resist, permanently altering the balance of power on the northern frontier and opening the region to postwar American settlement.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museum0.2 mi away
- Sayre Historical Society2.2 mi away
- S.R.A.C. Susquehanna River Archaeological Center3.8 mi away · 343 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
- Ashland Historical Society14.5 mi away · 3064 Lower Maple Avenue, Wellsburg, NY
Food & drink
- Maple Lawn Dairy14.1 mi away · 3162 Lower Maple Avenue
Places to stay
- Comfort Inn2.5 mi away · 2160 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Candlewood Suites3.1 mi away · 2775 North Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Hampton Inn Sayre3.3 mi away · 3080 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Econo Lodge3.4 mi away · Spring Street, Sayre, PA
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Related people
- · John Sullivan
Related events
- · Sullivan Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Teaoga (PLAQUE)
Athens, PA · est. 1929
Teaoga was a key Iroquois village at the forks of the rivers, and in August 1779 it became the staging ground for General John Sullivan's army during its campaign against the Six Nations. From roughly August 11 to 26 the Continental force encamped near here before pressing deeper into Iroquois country. This marker fixes the village's site relative to that fateful summer of the Sullivan Expedition.
Athens
Athens, PA · est. 1947
Where the Chemung meets the Susquehanna, this river junction has funneled travelers for as long as people have moved through the region — long enough that Native peoples knew it as Teaoga, and later generations as Tioga Point. Connecticut settlers laid out a village here in 1786, but a decade earlier the same ground had served as a staging area for General Sullivan's 1779 Revolutionary campaign against the Iroquois towns of central New York. Its position made it, for centuries, the natural gateway between the New York interior and Pennsylvania.
Teaoga & Queen Esther's Town - PLAQUE
Athens Township, PA · est. 1928
Where the Chemung meets the Susquehanna stood Teaoga, a Iroquois watch post guarding the southern approach to the confederacy's territory, and nearby the Delaware settlement remembered as Queen Esther's Town. The broad river flats were rich grazing land, but in September 1778 — amid the frontier warfare of the Revolution — Colonel Thomas Hartley's expedition swept up the valley and burned both towns. These raids were part of the escalating cycle of retaliation between Continental forces and Britain's Iroquois allies on the Pennsylvania frontier.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Sheshecunnunck (PLAQUE)
Sheshequin Township, PA · est. 1929
In August 1779 General John Sullivan marched his Continental army up the Susquehanna Valley on a campaign to break the power of the Iroquois Confederacy, which had raided frontier settlements as Britain's allies. On the night of August 10 the army made its seventh and final encampment before reaching Teaoga on these river lowlands at Sheshecunnunck. The march was one leg of a systematic expedition that would destroy dozens of Iroquois towns and cornfields.