American Revolution

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.

South Union Township, PA · est. 1946

Around 1764, on the old Catawba trail through the Pennsylvania backcountry, Thomas Gaddis raised a fortified house where settlers could take refuge during frontier raids. Such private strongholds were lifelines in a region where colonial and Native conflicts made isolated homesteads perilous. Gaddis himself later served as a colonel in the Pennsylvania Continental Line during the Revolution.

Ballard County, KY

In 1780, frontier commander George Rogers Clark built Fort Jefferson here as part of an ambitious plan conceived by Virginia's Governor Patrick Henry and carried on by his successor, Thomas Jefferson, to secure the young nation's western claims. The next year the Chickasaw, angered by settlement on their land, besieged the fort for five days until Clark arrived with reinforcements; the post was abandoned soon after. The strategic spot was resettled following the Jackson Purchase and later served as an important Union position in the Civil War.

South Centre Township, PA · est. 1948

During the Revolution the Susquehanna frontier was a war zone, and settlers here fortified a house on the riverbank as a refuge between 1778 and 1780 until raiders destroyed it. The violence along this valley was part of the wider frontier warfare that pitted settlers against British-allied Native nations far from the war's famous battlefields. In a later, more peaceful chapter, the ground passed to James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration and a framer of the Constitution.

Bloomsburg, PA · est. 1948

After frontier raids destroyed nearby Fort Jenkins in 1780, the noted borderland fighter Moses Van Campen stockaded the McClure house early in 1781 to shelter settlers along the north bank of the Susquehanna. The improvised fort stood in what is now Bloomsburg, part of a chain of refuges thrown up as the Revolution's frontier war ground on. Such places were less military garrisons than desperate havens for families caught between armies and raiding parties.

Beaver, PA · est. 1946

Built in 1778 during the Revolution, Fort McIntosh was the first military post the young United States raised north of the Ohio River, a foothold in contested Indian country. In 1785 it hosted the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, one of the early agreements by which the new republic pressed Native nations to cede lands in the Northwest Territory, and it also served as a base for surveying that opening frontier. The garrison was abandoned around 1790-91 as the line of settlement moved on.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1990

Laid out in 1771 by the British engineer John Montresor, Fort Mifflin guarded the Delaware River approach to Philadelphia. In the autumn of 1777 its small American garrison endured one of the fiercest bombardments of the Revolution, holding out against overwhelming British firepower until forced to abandon the ruins on November 15—buying precious time for Washington's army. Rebuilt around 1800 to a design associated with L'Enfant and enlarged in the nineteenth century, it served as a U.S. military post into the 1950s.

Muncy Township, PA · est. 2017

During the American Revolution, the West Branch Susquehanna Valley was a violent frontier, and Fort Muncy stood as the principal defensive post north of Sunbury. Built to shield settlers from raids, it was overrun by British forces and their Native allies in 1778, rebuilt and destroyed again in 1779, and raised a third time because its position was too important to abandon. From here scouting parties ranged out to guard a settler frontier caught in the wider war for independence.

Stroudsburg, PA · est. 1967

Named for Governor John Penn and built to replace the abandoned Fort Hamilton, Fort Penn stood nearby as a provincial stronghold on the Pocono frontier. Garrisoned in 1763 amid renewed frontier warfare, it later became a haven for terrified settlers fleeing the raids that followed the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778. In two different conflicts it served the same essential purpose: shelter on a dangerous frontier.

Lock Haven, PA · est. 1947

On the exposed western edge of colonial settlement, William Reed's stockaded house stood as the farthest line of defense for families along the Susquehanna's West Branch. In an era of frontier raids, such fortified homesteads gave scattered pioneers a place to shelter when danger threatened. A monument near the bridge now marks where this pioneer outpost once guarded the valley.

Antis Township, PA · est. 1947

During the American Revolution, frontier Pennsylvania needed lead for musket balls, and the Sinking Valley mines offered a rare domestic source. In 1778 Daniel Roberdeau built a fort here to guard those mines and the miners who supplied the Continental army. The stockade, sometimes called Fort Roberdeau or the "Lead Mine Fort," stood a few miles from this marker.

Saint Louis, MO

In 1780, during the American Revolution, Spain held St. Louis as part of its Louisiana territory. When a British-led force of allied Native warriors struck on May 28, the small Spanish garrison under Captain Fernando de Leyba beat back the assault from fortifications like Fort San Carlos, in what became known as the Battle of St. Louis.

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.

Athens, PA · est. 1947

On August 18, 1779, General John Sullivan raised a fort on the high ground between the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers, commanding both waterways at once. With a supporting camp on the flats below, the post became the launching point for Sullivan's expedition into central New York — a scorched-earth campaign that broke the military power of the Tory and Iroquois alliance allied with Britain. The fort's brief life belied its role in one of the Revolution's most consequential frontier operations.

Athens, PA · est. 1929

During the summer of 1779, General John Sullivan's army built Fort Sullivan here as a supply base for its campaign against the Iroquois. In mid-August, soldiers killed in a skirmish downriver at Chemung were carried back and buried within the fort's walls. The location was remembered by a veteran, Solomon Talada, who settled in Athens after the war, and confirmed generations later when skeletons were unearthed before 1839.

Scott Township, PA · est. 1948

In 1778 the frontier scout Moses Van Campen raised a stockade fort along Fishing Creek to shield local families from the raids that swept this valley during the Revolution. Attacked at least once, it served as one of the refuges that let settlement cling to the Susquehanna country through years of border warfare. Van Campen became a legendary figure in the region, remembered for his exploits as a scout and Indian fighter.

New Castle, NH

In December 1774, months before Lexington and Concord, New Hampshire patriots learned the Crown had banned gunpowder imports and moved to seize the royal magazine at New Castle. Over two days, local militia led by John Langdon and John Sullivan overwhelmed the small garrison at Fort William and Mary and carried off gunpowder, muskets, and cannon. The captured powder is traditionally said to have supplied later fighting.

Wilkes-Barre, PA · est. 1947

Pennsylvania built Fort Wyoming in 1771 to press its claim in the Wyoming Valley, only to have it seized by the Connecticut settlers it was meant to check. Rebuilt in 1778, it served the following year as a mustering point for General John Sullivan's expedition against the Iroquois during the Revolution. The garrison held until 1784, when Continental and Pennsylvania troops withdrew and the works were destroyed.

Louisville, KY

When George Rogers Clark and the settlers who had wintered on Corn Island came ashore in 1778, they raised Fort-on-Shore—the first building on the mainland at the site of present-day Louisville. Built on Clark's orders during the American Revolution, the stockade sheltered troops for four years before it was replaced in 1782 by the larger Fort Nelson. The island that gave the settlers their first foothold once lay in the Ohio River just off this spot.

Forty Fort, PA · est. 1947

Forty Fort took its name from the forty Connecticut pioneers who came to the Wyoming Valley in 1769 and began the stockade the next year. It is remembered above all for the aftermath of July 3, 1778, when its surrender to a British, Loyalist, and Native force under Major John Butler was followed by the Wyoming Massacre, one of the war's bloodiest frontier episodes. The killing of settlers and prisoners shocked the young nation and hardened resolve against the Iroquois allies of the Crown.

Mifflinburg, PA · est. 1947

A mill has stood near this spot since 1771, when Fought's Mill first turned grain for the settlers of Buffalo Valley. During the Revolution, the sturdy mill doubled as a place of refuge when frontier raids threatened the scattered farms of the region. It was also here, on November 3, 1776, that Buffalo Valley held its first election under Pennsylvania's new revolutionary state constitution.

Cambridge, MA

On April 19, 1775, the war for American independence began at dawn on Lexington Green and spread down the road through Concord. The bloodiest hours came not in the morning volleys but during the British column's long, harried retreat toward Boston, when militia and townsmen fired from behind walls and houses along the route. Cambridge lay squarely on that path, and here four of its citizens fell to the retreating regulars. The city raised this monument in 1880 to mark the ground and keep their names — Isaac Gardiner, William Marcy, John Hicks, and Moses Richardson — from fading.

Rowan County, NC

Colonel Francis Locke commanded the Patriot militia that routed a large Loyalist force at the Battle of Ramsour's Mill on June 20, 1780. Fought largely by neighbors on both sides, the battle broke Tory strength in the western Piedmont at a critical moment of the Revolution's Southern campaign. Locke's home stood nearby in Rowan County.

New York, NY

On December 4, 1783, days after the last British troops left New York, George Washington gathered his officers in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern to bid them an emotional farewell, the Revolutionary War won and his command soon to be surrendered. The tavern was kept by Samuel Fraunces, a man of West Indian origin who had long served the patriot cause. The scene — a victorious general voluntarily taking leave of his army — became one of the enduring images of the new nation.

Trappe, PA · est. 2008

Frederick Muhlenberg came of age as the American republic was being invented on paper. A Lutheran minister turned statesman, he sat in the Continental Congress, led Pennsylvania's assembly, and presided over the state convention that ratified the new federal Constitution in 1787. When the first Congress convened in 1789 he was chosen Speaker of the House, and his was the first signature on the Bill of Rights. He kept his home here in Trappe through those founding years.

Town of Guilderland, NY

Frederick Crounse was a local farmer who served as an officer in the 3rd Albany County Militia during the American Revolution, when the settlers of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys were pulled into one of the war's decisive campaigns. In the autumn of 1777, American forces converged on Saratoga to halt General Burgoyne's advance from Canada, and civilians and militiamen like Crounse kept the army fed and supplied through the long fight. This marker stands on his farm in Guilderland, where he was laid to rest, tying an ordinary working landscape to a battle that changed the course of the Revolution.

Lynn Township, PA · est. 1928

In September 1777, with British troops advancing on Philadelphia, patriots feared the great State House bell would be melted for cannon. Local farmer Frederick Leaser hitched his farm team and hauled the bell north to Allentown, where it was hidden beneath the floor of Zion Reformed Church until the danger passed. More than half a century later his grandson used the same wagon to carry a liberty pole to this spot, its Jacksonian legend against nullification tying one generation's revolution to the next's fight over the Union.

North Beaver Township, PA · est. 1948

By April 1773 the Christian Delaware of Friedensstadt, guided by the missionary John Heckewelder, abandoned their Beaver River town and resettled on the Muskingum River in what is now Ohio. There tragedy overtook them: on March 8, 1782, Pennsylvania militiamen murdered scores of these peaceful, unarmed converts at Gnadenhütten in one of the darkest atrocities of the Revolutionary frontier. The marker traces the thread from this quiet Pennsylvania mission to that infamous massacre.

Greene Township, PA · est. 1947

During the Revolutionary War, the far western reaches of Pennsylvania remained a dangerous frontier where settlers built fortified refuges against raids. Garard's Fort served as one such haven, garrisoned in 1777 by a small detachment of Virginia militia during the border disputes and warfare that gripped the Ohio Country. The marker also records the tragedy of May 12, 1782, when Native warriors attacked the family of Baptist minister John Corbly on their way to worship, killing his wife and three of his children.

Greene Township, PA · est. 1958

During the Revolutionary War this was a fortified frontier refuge, garrisoned in 1777 by a small detachment of Virginia militia at a time when the region was claimed as part of Monongalia County, Virginia. Life here meant constant danger on a contested border. On May 12, 1782, in an Indian attack near here, the wife and three children of Baptist minister Rev. John Corbly were killed on their way to church, and two more of his children were wounded but survived.

Lancaster, KY

Garrard County, the 25th formed in Kentucky, was created in 1797 and named for James Garrard, then the state's governor. A Virginia native and Revolutionary War militia officer, Garrard came to Kentucky in 1783 and helped shape its path to statehood at the Danville conventions before serving as governor from 1796 to 1804.

Norristown, PA · est. 1949

Andrew Porter, born near this spot in 1743, served as an officer during the Revolutionary War and then turned his talents to mapping the young state, surveying Pennsylvania's western and northern boundaries between 1784 and 1787. He capped his career as the commonwealth's Surveyor-General from 1809 until his death in Harrisburg in 1813. His home, "Selma," is marked a block away.

Exeter, NH

This spot in Exeter marks the home of Enoch Poor, a New Hampshire merchant and shipbuilder who rose to become a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. From this seacoast town he helped rally New Hampshire's men to the Patriot cause, leading troops through the hard campaigns of the war before his death in 1780. Exeter itself served as New Hampshire's revolutionary-era capital, making it a fitting home for one of the state's most trusted field commanders.

York, PA · est. 1949

In 1778, while the Continental Congress sat in nearby York, General Horatio Gates—hero of the American victory at Saratoga and then President of the Board of War—kept his residence here. It was a fraught moment: the so-called "Conway Cabal," a murky swirl of criticism aimed at General Washington's leadership, was said to have unraveled in these rooms, thwarted in part by the young Marquis de Lafayette's steadfast loyalty to the commander-in-chief.

New York, NY

In the autumn of 1776, the British had just captured New York City and turned nearby Staten Island into a major staging ground, its shores watched across the narrow tidal waters of the Arthur Kill from New Jersey. Hugh Mercer—a Scottish-born physician who became one of Washington's most trusted generals—commanded American forces in the region and pressed the kind of swift, small-scale raids that kept a larger enemy off balance. This spot marks one such strike: patriots crossing from Perth Amboy fell upon the enemy by surprise, carrying off prisoners along with captured weapons and ammunition. Mercer would be mortally wounded only months later at the Battle of Princeton, sealing his place among the Revolution's early martyrs.

Carlisle, PA · est. 1949

General John Armstrong lived on this site and earned lasting fame as the "Hero of Kittanning" for his 1756 raid on a Delaware stronghold during the French and Indian War. He went on to serve as a Revolutionary officer, a member of the Continental Congress, and a county judge, dying in Carlisle in 1795 and resting in the Old Graveyard two blocks south. His long career spanned the frontier wars and the founding of the nation.

York, PA · est. 1949

This colonial-era building served as the headquarters of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne from February to May of 1781, as his troops waited in York for orders. Those orders would soon send him south to join Lafayette in the Virginia campaign that culminated in the decisive siege of Yorktown. Wayne, a fiery Pennsylvania soldier, was among the most aggressive field commanders of the Continental Army.

Carlisle, PA · est. 1949

General William Irvine came to Carlisle as an early physician before public life and war swept him up: he served in Pennsylvania's Provincial Convention, took up arms as a Revolutionary officer, and commanded the strategic western post at Fort Pitt. The house he occupied stood on this site before 1800. His path from frontier doctor to frontier general captures the versatility demanded of Revolutionary-era leaders.

Ridgefield, CT

In the spring of 1777, British troops raided the Continental supply depot at Danbury, and Connecticut's militia rose to meet them. Among those who answered the call was General David Wooster, a veteran Connecticut soldier who had served since the French and Indian War. On April 27, while harrying the retreating British column near Ridgefield, the 66-year-old general was struck by a musket ball and fell here, mortally wounded; he died days later, one of the highest-ranking American officers lost in the war's northern theater.

Hillsborough, NC

Francis Nash of Hillsborough rose to become a patriot general in the American Revolution, leading North Carolina Continentals in the fight for independence. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Germantown in 1777 and died of his wounds days later. His home stood just west of here, grounding a Revolutionary hero in the streets of this small town.

New York, NY

In the spring of 1790, barely a year into his presidency and with the new federal government still finding its footing in nearby New York City, George Washington set out on a tour of Long Island, riding its country roads to see the land and meet the citizens of the young republic. This tablet marks one stretch of that journey through what is now Queens. It was placed in 1934 by the Matinecock Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, part of a nationwide effort in that era to fix the memory of the founding generation onto the everyday landscape.

Mercer, PA · est. 1917

Hugh Mercer, a Scottish-born physician turned soldier, first crossed the mountains as an officer in General Forbes's 1758 expedition against Fort Duquesne and later commanded at Fort Pitt. When the Revolution came he took up arms again, rising to brigadier general in the Continental Army. He fell mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton in 1777, becoming one of the cause's celebrated martyrs.

West Chester, PA · est. 1951

In 1825 the aging Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, toured the United States as "the Nation's Guest," greeted everywhere by adoring crowds. On July 26 he stopped at the Brandywine battlefield, where he had been wounded fighting for American independence in 1777, before coming on to West Chester. There, near this spot, he reviewed troops parading in his honor amid the outpouring of gratitude that marked his farewell tour.

Butler, PA · est. 1917

Born in Ireland, Richard Butler was one of five soldier brothers renowned for their service in the Revolutionary cause. He rose from captain of a Pennsylvania battalion in 1776 to colonel of the 9th Pennsylvania, then to major general of United States Levies by 1791. His military life spanned the war for independence and the young nation's early campaigns on the western frontier.

Lancaster, PA · est. 1950

George Ross settled at Lancaster around 1751 and became a soldier, jurist, and ardent patriot in the cause of American independence. As a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The site of his country house, nine blocks north on Ross Street, is now marked by a monument; Ross died in 1779, in the midst of the Revolution he helped launch.

Easton, PA · est. 1953

This handsome stone house was built in 1757 by William Parsons, the Surveyor-General who laid out Easton, and first served as his own home. It later belonged to George Taylor, an ironmaster and member of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Taylor's forges helped supply the Revolution with the iron of war, and his signature bound him to the boldest gamble of the founding generation.

Catasauqua, PA · est. 1947

George Taylor, an Irish-born ironmaster who rose from indentured labor to prosperity, made his home in this handsome 1768 house along the Lehigh. Elected to Pennsylvania's provincial Assembly in 1764, he stood against royal government and was sent to the Continental Congress in July 1776, where he added his name to the Declaration of Independence. His restored home is today a National Historic Landmark.

New York, NY

On April 30, 1789, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in lower Manhattan and took the oath as the first President of the United States. New York City served as the nation's first capital, and this moment set the young republic's experiment in self-government into motion. The stone marked here commemorates the physical spot where that history began.

Seattle, WA

In 1932, the two-hundredth anniversary of George Washington's birth, patriotic and civic groups across the country planted trees, raised markers, and held ceremonies in his honor. Here the Mary Morris Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution planted a tree and set this plaque to mark the bicentennial. Such living memorials linked a twentieth-century community to the founding generation.

Exeter, NH

In the autumn of 1789, the newly inaugurated President George Washington set out on a grand tour of the northern states, in part to take the measure of the young republic he now led and to let its citizens take the measure of him. His route carried him through New Hampshire, and Exeter — a town that had served as the state's Revolutionary-era capital — turned out to receive him. This plaque marks a house where Washington was received and entertained during that celebrated journey, when a stop by the first president was the event of a lifetime for a New England town.

Gettysburg, PA · est. 1954

Before Gettysburg was a name known to the nation, it was a crossroads where the Shippensburg-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh roads met, anchored by the tavern of Samuel Gettys. Taverns at such junctions were the gathering places of colonial life, and in 1775 men mustered here for Continental service as the Revolution began. The Gettys family's crossroads would later lend its name to the town and, eventually, to one of the most famous battles in American history.

Morris Plains, NJ

Glenbrook began as a modest colonial dwelling, raised around 1752 in the New Jersey hills near Morris Plains. During the Revolution, mounted 'light horse' troops were quartered here, tying the house to the war that swept through the region. Enlarged in 1868 by Jonathan Roberts — who went on to found a local library association in 1881 — it grew from a working farmstead into a fixture of community life.

York, PA · est. 1949

The old Globe Inn that once stood here was York's finest lodging, welcoming statesmen, officers, and travelers passing through the town. Its most celebrated guest arrived in 1825, when the aging Marquis de Lafayette, touring the nation he had helped free, was honored with a grand reception. His gracious toast—"To the Town of York"—was long remembered as a highlight of that triumphal visit.

New York, NY

On October 18, 1776, Colonel John Glover led a small force of Patriots in a fighting delay against advancing British and Hessian troops under General William Howe in what became the Battle of Pell's Point. By slowing the enemy's flanking advance, Glover's men bought George Washington's army the time it needed to withdraw north toward White Plains and Westchester. This boulder marks the ground near where that stand was made.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 2026

Gouverneur Morris served as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and it was his pen that gave the finished document much of its final polish. He is remembered as the "Penman of the Constitution" for drafting the Preamble and its ringing opening words, "We the People." During that momentous summer he lodged at Mary Dalley's boarding house nearby.

Frankfort, KY

George Madison came to Kentucky as a young Virginian who had already soldiered in the Revolutionary War, and he spent roughly two decades as auditor of the state's public accounts after his appointment by Governor Isaac Shelby. Distinguished service in the War of 1812 lifted him to popularity, and in 1816 Kentuckians elected him governor. He died only weeks after taking office—the first Kentucky governor to die in office—and Lieutenant Governor Gabriel Slaughter completed the term. Madison rests in the state section of the Frankfort Cemetery.

Harford County, MD

This roadside marker along the old Post Road honors William Paca, born nearby in 1740, who rose to sign the Declaration of Independence and later served three terms as governor of Maryland. The Post Road itself, noted here as established in 1666, was one of the colonial arteries binding the Atlantic settlements together long before the Revolution. Paca went on to help shape Maryland's early state government and its constitution.

Hillsborough, NC

In the turbulent final years of the Revolution, North Carolina's Governor Thomas Burke was seized in Hillsborough by the Loyalist raider David Fanning and his Tories on September 12, 1781. Carried off as a prisoner to Charleston, Burke's capture showed how fiercely the backcountry civil war between Whigs and Tories still raged even as the wider Revolution neared its end.

Boston, MA

This tablet at the Granary Burying Ground, founded in 1660, names some of the notable Americans buried within. They include three signers of the Declaration of Independence — John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine — alongside colonial and early-republic governors, jurists such as Samuel Sewall, and prominent ministers. It is one of the most visited stops on Boston's Freedom Trail.

Somerville, MA

On the first day of 1776, on the heights the Continental Army had seized during the siege of Boston, the newly organized army raised a flag of thirteen stripes representing the thirteen united colonies. The gesture came from the ring of fortified hills where Washington's troops held the British bottled up inside the town. It was one of the earliest displays of a common banner for the colonies acting as one.