Indian Hill Battlefield - PLAQUE
Tuscarora Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On September 29th, 1778 on the hill one mile south east of this marker in the most desperate engagement between Indians and white men in Bradford County, Colonel Thomas Hartley defeated the Indians. He left Fort Muncy September 21st. On the 27th burned Tioga Queen Esther's Town and reached Wyalusing at eleven o'clock on the night of September 28th. This campaign ended Indian incursions in Bradford County and prepared the way for the Sullivan Expedition. Hardby on the east of this marker, led the old Warrior Path and the Sullivan Trail.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
During the Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania's northern frontier was ravaged by raids from British-allied Native war parties. In September 1778 Colonel Thomas Hartley led an expedition up the Susquehanna, burning Tioga and Queen Esther's Town before fighting a sharp engagement near this spot on September 29. His campaign broke the momentum of raids in the region and cleared the way for the massive Sullivan Expedition the following year.
Why it matters
Hartley's march was a prelude to Washington's 1779 campaign against the Iroquois — a grim chapter showing that the Revolution was fought not only against Britain but across a bitterly contested Native frontier.
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Related people
- · Thomas Hartley
Related events
- · Hartley Expedition
- · Sullivan Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Indian Hill
Tuscarora Township, PA · est. 1947
The hill southeast of this marker saw sharp frontier fighting on September 29, 1778, when Colonel Thomas Hartley's soldiers from Fort Muncy clashed with Native warriors here. Two days earlier Hartley's raid had burned Queen Esther's town near present-day Athens, part of the brutal back-and-forth of Revolutionary warfare along the Susquehanna. These running fights pitted Pennsylvania militia against the Iroquois and their British allies in a contest for the northern borderlands.
Sullivan's March
Wyalusing Township, PA · est. 1947
In the summer of 1779, at the height of the Revolution, General John Sullivan led a Continental army up the Susquehanna Valley, camping near here on August 5-7 as it pushed north. The expedition, ordered by George Washington, aimed to break the power of the Iroquois nations allied with the British and to end the devastating raids along the frontier. Over the campaign Sullivan's troops burned dozens of Haudenosaunee towns and their harvests.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Wyalusing (PLAQUE)
Wyalusing Township, PA · est. 1929
Wyalusing had been the site of Friedenshütten, a Moravian mission town where Christian Delaware Indians lived before being pushed westward in the early 1770s. A few years later, in August 1779, General Sullivan's army made its fifth encampment here on the march from Wyoming toward Teaoga. The marker stands near the monument to that vanished Moravian Indian community.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Vanderlip's Farm (PLAQUE)
Meshoppen Township, PA · est. 1929
As General Sullivan's army pushed north against the Iroquois in August 1779, it made its fourth encampment on the fertile bottomland here, remembered locally as Black Walnut Flats. The soldiers rested on the nights of August 4 and 5 before continuing the march from Wyoming toward Teaoga. The campaign systematically destroyed the towns and food stores of the Six Nations across this valley.