Sullivan's March
Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Heller's Tavern near Wind Gap was the site for Sullivan's army at the end of the first day's march from Easton, June 18, 1779. The army was astir at 4 the next morning, crossing the mountains at Wind Gap.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On June 18, 1779, the first day's march of General Sullivan's expedition ended at Heller's Tavern near Wind Gap, where his weary army camped for the night. Stirring at four the next morning, the troops pressed on to cross the Blue Mountains through the natural pass at Wind Gap. Their route traced old paths through the ridges as they moved north toward the Iroquois heartland.
Why it matters
This waypoint marks the opening steps of a major Revolutionary War campaign, a reminder that the war for independence was fought not only in cities but across the mountains and frontier trails of the interior.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the summer of 1779, the American Revolution had dragged on for four hard years, and the fighting was no longer confined to the seaboard towns most people picture. Out along the Pennsylvania frontier, the war had become a brutal, grinding conflict of raids and reprisals, and the rugged ridge country north of Easton was very much a theater of it.
The landscape here shaped everything. The Blue Mountains run in long, stubborn walls across eastern Pennsylvania, broken only in a few places. Wind Gap is one of those natural breaks — a notch that travelers, traders, and armies had used for generations because the mountain simply would not let them pass anywhere else.
In June of that year, a Continental army gathering at Easton was preparing to march north into country few of its soldiers had ever seen. The comfortable, settled world of taverns and farm lanes was about to give way to forest trails, and this spot marked the hinge between the two.
People & events
The marker fixes a single, almost cinematic moment: General John Sullivan's army ending its first day's march out of Easton on June 18, 1779, and camping near Heller's Tavern at Wind Gap. A tavern was the natural choice — it meant a clearing, water, and a known landmark on an otherwise wild road.
The detail that the army was "astir at 4" the next morning tells you a great deal about the discipline and urgency of the moment. These were not men on a leisurely patrol. Before dawn they were up and moving, climbing to cross the mountains through the gap while the day was still young.
Sullivan commanded a large expedition ordered north that summer against the Iroquois towns allied with the British. Wind Gap was one of the earliest waypoints on that long campaign — the place where a road-bound army stepped off into the mountains and pointed itself toward the interior.
Its place in the American story
It is easy to remember the Revolution as a story of cities and famous battlefields. But the new nation's fate was also decided on frontier trails like this one, where armies moved for weeks through forest and mountain far from any headline.
The expedition that passed through Wind Gap was part of a deliberate strategy to carry the war into the backcountry. Its consequences for the Iroquois and for the frontier were profound and lasting, a reminder that the birth of the United States was bound up with the displacement of Native nations who had lived on this land long before.
Standing where the first day's march ended, you are looking at the quiet machinery of a war effort — the logistics, the early starts, the mountain crossings — that rarely make the storybooks but decided as much as any single battle.
If you visit
Come for the gap itself. The thing that made this a strategic point in 1779 is still right in front of you: a genuine notch in a long mountain ridge, the kind of place where you can feel why everyone funneled through here.
Let yourself imagine the scene at four in the morning — a whole army stirring in the dark, cook fires, the creak of wagons, and then the climb toward the pass as the sky lightened. The marker stands for a campground that is long gone, so read the inscription and then look up at the ridgeline the soldiers had to cross.
If you're building a road trip, this pairs naturally with the other points along the route north. Follow the gap, and you're tracing, in your own comfortable way, the first steps of a march that disappeared into the mountains more than two centuries ago.
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 people
- · John Sullivan
Related events
- · Sullivan Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Heller's Tavern (PLAQUE)
Wind Gap, PA · est. 1929
On June 18, 1779, Sullivan's troops set out on the first day of their long march toward Iroquois country, covering twelve miles before halting at Heller's Tavern. Wayside taverns like this were the natural waypoints of the era, offering the only fixed shelter along frontier roads. The plaque marks where the campaign's opening day came to a close.
Sullivan's March
Hamilton Township, PA · est. 1947
Brinker's Mill served as the storehouse and forward supply post for the Sullivan Expedition, the 1779 Continental Army campaign that marched out of Easton on June 18 to strike the Iroquois nations allied with Britain. Ordered by George Washington in response to frontier raids, the expedition aimed to break Iroquois power in the region. This mill helped provision an army bound for one of the Revolution's harshest campaigns.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Sullivan Road (PLAQUE)
Forks Township, PA · est. 1929
This plaque marks the road over which Sullivan's army began its advance on June 18, 1779. Cutting and following such roads was itself a feat, as thousands of men, horses, and wagons of supplies moved through country with few improved routes. The path set the direction of a campaign that would carry deep into the lands of the Six Nations.
Sullivan Campaign
Forks Township, PA · est. 1947
In the summer of 1779, Easton became the staging ground for one of the Revolution's largest offensives against the Native and Loyalist alliance harrying the New York and Pennsylvania frontier. Under General John Sullivan, the army spent more than a month gathering men and supplies before beginning its march on June 18, 1779. The campaign that followed would drive deep into Iroquois country to the north.