Pittston Fort
Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Erection begun 1772, by Connecticut proprietors. Forced to surrender to the British, July 4, 1778, and partially destroyed. Restored 1780, and used until after the end of the Revolutionary War.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Begun in 1772 by Connecticut proprietors settling the contested Wyoming Valley, Pittston Fort sheltered families on the west bank of the Susquehanna. Caught up in the British and Loyalist descent on the valley, it was forced to surrender on July 4, 1778, and partly destroyed—only to be rebuilt in 1780 and manned through the rest of the Revolutionary War.
Why it matters
Its surrender and revival trace the resilience of frontier settlers who held the Susquehanna line through the war's hardest years.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Pittston Fort rose on the west bank of the Susquehanna in the early 1770s, in the middle of one of colonial America's stranger quarrels. The families who began building here in 1772 were Connecticut proprietors — settlers moving into the Wyoming Valley under Connecticut's expansive charter claims — even though Pennsylvania insisted the very same land was its own.
That overlap made the valley tense long before the Revolution. Building a fort was a natural response to a place where competing claims, isolation, and a wide frontier all met. Like others of its kind, it was less a military garrison than a community strong point: sturdy walls where the scattered families of the neighborhood could gather when they felt exposed.
When the Revolutionary War arrived, the stakes changed. The Susquehanna made the valley reachable from the north, and its prosperous farms made it worth striking. A stockade that had been raised amid a land dispute now stood on a genuine wartime frontier.
People & events
The fort's hardest day came on July 4, 1778, when a British and Loyalist advance through the valley forced it to surrender. Part of the works was destroyed — the fate of more than one strong point in the valley that dreadful summer, as the settlement's defenses were overwhelmed and its people scattered.
But Pittston Fort's story does not end in ashes, and that is what sets it apart. Rather than being abandoned to the ruin of 1778, it was restored in 1780 and put back into service. In a valley that had been gutted by war, someone judged this position worth rebuilding and manning again.
And man it they did — the marker tells us it stayed in use until after the Revolution was over. That single detail carries a lot of weight: it means families and defenders came back to a place that had already fallen once, and held it through the uncertain years until the fighting finally ended.
Its place in the American story
Pittston Fort connects to the national story through the 1778 campaign that made the Wyoming Valley infamous, when a wave of raids and battles broke a thriving frontier settlement and sent shock through the young United States. Its surrender was one thread in that larger, well-remembered disaster.
What gives this particular site its own note in the story is the return. The Revolution on the frontier was not only about the dramatic defeats; it was also about stubborn re-settlement — people coming back to burned and broken ground and refusing to leave it to the enemy. A fort surrendered in 1778 and rebuilt by 1780 is a small monument to that endurance.
It also quietly reminds us how long the war lasted for the people who lived it. The famous dates belong to declarations and treaties, but out here the danger stretched on year after year, which is why a valley fort still needed to be garrisoned until the conflict was truly over.
If you visit
Visit Pittston Fort with its whole arc in mind — not just a fall, but a comeback. The physical fort is gone, so the marker is your guide; let it walk you from 1772 through the surrender of 1778 to the rebuilding of 1780 and the long watch that followed.
Orient yourself toward the river. The Susquehanna is why settlers chose this west-bank spot, why an enemy could reach it, and why it was worth reclaiming afterward. Standing here, you can imagine the same ground holding a stockade twice over — first lost, then raised again by people determined to stay.
For a road trip, Pittston makes a natural stop on a loop through the Wyoming Valley's Revolutionary sites, where neighboring towns carry markers to the same 1778 campaign. Read them together and Pittston's line about being "restored" and "used until after the end of the Revolutionary War" lands harder — it becomes the valley's quiet answer to the summer that nearly emptied it.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · Battle of Wyoming
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jenkins' Fort
West Pittston, PA · est. 1947
Raised in 1776 by Connecticut settlers who claimed the Wyoming Valley under Yankee title, John Jenkins' stockaded home was one of the small frontier forts guarding families along the Susquehanna. On July 1, 1778, as a British and Loyalist force under Major John Butler swept down the valley, the fort surrendered and was put to the torch—days before the bloody Battle of Wyoming that scattered the settlement.
The Bloody Rock
Wyoming, PA · est. 1962
On the night of July 3, 1778, the day after the Battle of Wyoming, this rock became the scene of one of the Revolution's grim atrocities. Fourteen or more captured American soldiers were killed here, according to tradition by a woman remembered as "Queen Esther," though her identity has never been certain. The battle and its aftermath spread terror through the Susquehanna frontier and hardened the war on the Pennsylvania borderlands.
Battle of Wyoming
Wyoming, PA · est. 1952
On July 3, 1778, the Revolution reached the Susquehanna frontier in one of its bloodiest backcountry episodes. A small force of about 300 patriots under Colonel Zebulon Butler marched out to meet a much larger column of British, Loyalists, and allied Iroquois led by Major John Butler. The patriots were routed, many captives were killed, and terrified survivors fled to the refuge of Forty Fort.
Denison House
Forty Fort, PA · est. 1972
Built in 1790 in the Wyoming Valley, this house was home to Colonel Nathan Denison, who had served as a Revolutionary War officer during a turbulent era of frontier warfare and land disputes in northeastern Pennsylvania. After independence, Denison became a Luzerne County judge, helping build the civic institutions of the young republic. The home stands as a tangible link between a soldier's wartime service and his later role in ordering a new nation's local government.