Phillips' Rangers
Liberty Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Capt. William Phillips and 11 men of his militia company were captured near this point by Indians, July 16, 1780. Ten men were killed here and were buried later by a search party. Capt. Phillips and son Elijah, taken prisoner, were freed by British at end of Revolution.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In July 1780, as the Revolution's violence spilled across the Pennsylvania frontier, Captain William Phillips and eleven men of his militia company were captured near this spot by a Native war party. Ten were killed and later buried by a search party, while Phillips and his son Elijah were taken prisoner and not freed until the British released them at war's end.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of the brutal frontier warfare that ran alongside the Revolution's better-known battles, where settler militias and Native peoples fought a bitter, close-quarters struggle for the backcountry.
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Related people
- · Capt. William Phillips
- · Elijah Phillips
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Capt. Phillips' Rangers Memorial
Liberty Township, PA · est. 1964
This memorial marks the graves of ten frontier militiamen of Captain Phillips' company, killed on July 16, 1780, during the brutal backcountry fighting of the Revolutionary War. Along Pennsylvania's western frontier, British-allied Native war parties raided isolated settlements, and local rangers like Phillips' men bore the danger of defending them. Their deaths were one small, bloody episode in a war whose frontier front is often overshadowed by the great eastern battles.
Fort Standing Stone
Huntingdon, PA · est. 1955
Fort Standing Stone once guarded this bend of the Juniata River where Stone Creek joins it, throwing up a stockade against raids on the exposed frontier. In July 1778, at the height of the Revolutionary War, Continental troops and militia were ordered here as part of a broader plan to defend the backcountry from attacks. The old fort stood a short distance south of this marker; the settlement it protected grew into Huntingdon.
Frankstown
Frankstown Township, PA · est. 1947
Long before European towns rose here, this was the site of Assunepachla, a Delaware and Shawnee village standing before 1748. By 1734 the trader Frank Stevens had established a fur post at the spot, drawing on the Indian trade that laced the region. The Kittanning Path, a major Indian route across the Allegheny ridges, ran through here, making Frankstown a crossroads of trade and travel.
Fort Shirley
Shirleysburg, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1755–56 by the frontier trader and Indian agent George Croghan, Fort Shirley began as a stockade and grew into a key link in the chain of forts guarding Pennsylvania's frontier west of the Susquehanna River during the French and Indian War. In 1756 it served as the base for Colonel John Armstrong's expedition against the Delaware village of Kittanning. Its role reflected the desperate effort to defend backcountry settlers from raids during that conflict.