The Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians - Fort Freeland - PLAQUE
Delaware Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Mill built in 1773 and Stockaded in 1778 by Jacob Freeland. Attacked, captured and destroyed by British Tories and Seneca Indians. 108 Settlers killed or taken Prisoner. July 28, 1779.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Jacob Freeland raised a mill on this ground in 1773 and, as war reached the frontier, stockaded it in 1778 for defense. On July 28, 1779, British-allied Tories and Seneca warriors attacked and destroyed the fort, and the inscription records that 108 settlers were killed or taken prisoner. The assault came at the height of the brutal frontier fighting that Sullivan's expedition was meant to answer.
Why it matters
Fort Freeland's fall captures the savage, close-to-home warfare of the Revolution's frontier, where mills and homesteads became battlegrounds between settlers and Britain's Native allies.
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Related people
- · Jacob Freeland
Related events
- · Attack on Fort Freeland, July 28, 1779
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Freeland
Delaware Township, PA · est. 1947
As the Revolution reached the Pennsylvania frontier, settlers fortified Jacob Freeland's house in 1778, ringing it with a stockade against raids. On July 29, 1779, a force of British and allied Indians overwhelmed the small post, and its garrison of 21 were killed or captured—one of the sharp, deadly clashes that made the upper Susquehanna a war zone.
Fort Bosley
Derry Township, PA · est. 1947
In 1777, as the Revolution raged and the Pennsylvania frontier grew dangerous, settlers along the forks of Chillisquaque Creek fortified Bosley's mill, stockading and garrisoning it against raids. Such improvised frontier forts were the everyday reality of the backcountry war, where mills, farms, and blockhouses doubled as refuges. The site reflects a conflict fought not only on famous battlefields but in the woods and clearings of the northern branch of the Susquehanna.
Muncy Mills
Muncy Creek Township, PA · est. 1947
Around 1772 John Alward raised this valley's first gristmill, a cornerstone of any frontier settlement where neighbors brought grain to be ground into flour and meal. Burned by Native raiders in 1779 amid the Revolution's border warfare, it was rebuilt again and again—new mills rising in 1783 and 1800—and the last of them ground on until 1872, a full century of milling on one spot.
Capt. John Brady
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John Brady earned his reputation across the colonial wars and the Revolution as a hard frontier soldier, commanding a fortified post on the West Branch of the Susquehanna at present-day Muncy. On April 11, 1779, he was ambushed and killed by Native warriors near here, one of countless settlers and soldiers who fell in the running border warfare that consumed the region.