In Memory of General John Armstrong
Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In memory of General John Armstrong, a Scottish Covenanter and a soldier of the American Revolution...
The Story
John Armstrong was one of colonial Pennsylvania's most prominent frontier soldiers — a Scots-Irish Presbyterian of the Covenanter tradition who made his name defending the province's exposed western settlements in the mid-1700s. He is best remembered for leading the 1756 expedition against the Delaware (Lenape) town of Kittanning during the French and Indian War, and he went on to serve as a general in the Continental Army during the Revolution. The surrounding county and this town, its seat, both carry his name.
Why it matters
Armstrong's life links the bloody frontier wars that shaped early Pennsylvania to the Revolution that founded the nation, embodying how veterans of colonial conflict became leaders in the fight for American independence.
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Related people
- · General John Armstrong
Related events
- · American Revolution
- · Kittanning Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Kittanning
Applewold, PA
For a generation before the French and Indian War, Kittanning was the largest Delaware (Lenape) town beyond the Allegheny front, a thriving community on the Allegheny River whose name carried the sense of the "great river" that fed the Ohio country. From the 1730s it grew into a hub of Native life and, by the 1750s, a staging ground for raids on frontier settlements. In September 1756 a Pennsylvania force under Lt. Col. John Armstrong marched west and burned the town, one of the war's few colonial strikes deep into Indian country.
Kittanning
Kittanning, PA
For roughly a generation, this bluff above the Allegheny River held Kittanning, the largest Delaware (Lenape) town west of the Appalachian ridges — a thriving community whose name honored the "great river" it overlooked. During the French and Indian War it became a staging ground for raids on Pennsylvania's frontier settlements, and in September 1756 a colonial force under Colonel John Armstrong marched over the mountains and burned it. The destruction of the village broke a key node in the borderland war and became one of Pennsylvania's most celebrated frontier exploits.
Fort Armstrong
Manorville, PA
In the summer of 1779, as the American Revolution raged along the western frontier, Continental soldiers threw up this small outpost on the bank of the Allegheny River. It was a staging point for Col. Daniel Brodhead's expedition northward against the Seneca — one arm of the wider campaign that year to break the power of the Iroquois nations allied with the British. The fort's usefulness was brief: raised in June and given up by autumn, once the campaign had passed through. It honored Maj. Gen. John Armstrong, a veteran Pennsylvania frontier officer.
Blanket Hill
Kittanning Township, PA
During the French and Indian War, Pennsylvania's frontier was raided repeatedly by warriors based at Kittanning, a Delaware (Lenape) town on the Allegheny River. In September 1756, Lt. Col. John Armstrong led a force of provincial soldiers on a bold overland strike against the town, and this rise marked one of their stopping points on the march. The expedition destroyed Kittanning, and tradition holds the hill took its name from the blankets the men discarded here as they moved fast toward their objective.