Fort Sullivan "Soldiers' Burial" - PLAQUE
Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Here within the confines of Fort Sullivan were buried, August 14, 1779, several soldiers killed the previous day in a skirmish at Chemung, as attested by Soloman Talada, soldier in the ranks, who returned to live in Athens the rest of his life. This statement was corroborated by finding skeletons previous to 1839.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
During the summer of 1779, General John Sullivan's army built Fort Sullivan here as a supply base for its campaign against the Iroquois. In mid-August, soldiers killed in a skirmish downriver at Chemung were carried back and buried within the fort's walls. The location was remembered by a veteran, Solomon Talada, who settled in Athens after the war, and confirmed generations later when skeletons were unearthed before 1839.
Why it matters
It marks a soldiers' grave from one of the Revolution's largest offensives and shows how local memory and physical evidence together kept a wartime burial ground from being forgotten.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museumnearby
- Sayre Historical Society2.1 mi away
- S.R.A.C. Susquehanna River Archaeological Center3.7 mi away · 343 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
- Ashland Historical Society14.4 mi away · 3064 Lower Maple Avenue, Wellsburg, NY
Food & drink
- Maple Lawn Dairy14.1 mi away · 3162 Lower Maple Avenue
Places to stay
- Comfort Inn2.4 mi away · 2160 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Candlewood Suites3.0 mi away · 2775 North Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Hampton Inn Sayre3.2 mi away · 3080 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Econo Lodge3.2 mi away · Spring Street, Sayre, PA
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Related people
- · Solomon Talada
Related events
- · Sullivan Expedition
- · Battle of Chemung
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.
Fort Sullivan
Athens, PA · est. 1947
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.
Colonel John Franklin (To be replaced)
Athens Township, PA · est. 1946
John Franklin was a leading figure in the Connecticut settlers' claim to lands in the Wyoming Valley, a bitter dispute with Pennsylvania over overlapping colonial grants. He served in the Sullivan Campaign of 1779, was imprisoned from 1787 to 1789 for backing a movement to carve a new state out of the contested territory, and later sat in the Pennsylvania legislature. He settled here in 1789 and died in 1831, with his homesite and grave just east of the road.
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.