Fort Swatara
Fort Swatara was a stockaded blockhouse built during the French and Indian War in what is now Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Initially a farmstead surrounded by a stockade, provincial troops occupied it in January 1756. The fort safeguarded local farms, but a number of settlers were killed by small Native American war parties. The fort was abandoned in May 1758.
History
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, marauding Indians allied with the French attacked European settlers along the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania near the Swatara Gap area. Peter Hedrick and other Swatara Gap area settlers fortified Hedrick's farmstead by building a log-walled stockade around it. On January 25, 1756, Captain Christian Busse received orders from Robert Hunter Morris, deputy governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, to occupy the existing fortification at Hedrick's farmstead and reinforce it if necessary. He also gave orders for the construction of Fort Manada, and for regular patrols to monitor the land between these forts and the nearby Fort Lebanon. Morris wrote:Location
The fort was built near Swatara Gap, at a point where the Swatara Creek passes south between the ridges of Sharp Mountain and Second Mountain. Swatara Gap is sometimes referred to by another Native American name, Tolehaio or Tolihaio. Local settlers occasionally referred to the gap as "the Hole." "Swatara" comes from a Susquehannock word, Swahadowry or Schaha-dawa, which means "where we feed on eels". Ancient Native Americans built dozens of eel-weirs, V-shaped rock barriers at shallow points in the river, designed to funnel eels into a trap, on the Susquehanna River and its tributaries.Construction
Busse's troops, under the command of Captain Frederick Smith, erected a military-style log blockhouse and gunpowder magazine shed for ammunition storage and surrounded the structures with a sturdy log stockade. The fort was sometimes referred to as "Smith's Fort."On May 28, 1756, Major William Parsons visited the fort and wrote a detailed description of it to Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Weiser:
Weiser visited the fort in September and agreed with this assessment, writing:
Recommendations were made to rebuild the fort or to remove the buildings which made it vulnerable, but for unknown reasons they were never implemented.
Garrison and command
Governor Morris initially sent fifty men to build the fort, but 21 of these were then sent to Fort Manada, eight were sent to protect settlers working in nearby farm fields, eight to patrol western areas near the fort, and sixteen were sent to guard settlers that were living in close proximity to the fort. In September 1756, Conrad Weiser observed a garrison of 30 men plus officers, and a report in November lists 32 men. In February 1758, Adjutant Jacob Kern found a garrison of 33 men plus officers, although during the same month Commissary General James Young counted 46 men and Lieutenant Colonel James Burd noted 38 men. Numbers of troops tended to vary as many soldiers signed up for short-term enlistments of a few months rather than the standard 3-year term. Troops were frequently sent as escorts for supplies, prisoners or dignitaries, and war and illness were constant sources of attrition.The fort had five commanding officers during the two and a half years of its existence. Captain Frederick Smith, who supervised the fort's construction, proved to be abusive and negligent in communicating with his superiors. In July 1756, there were complaints about Smith's conduct, although Colonel Weiser wrote to the governor that "when the People about Swataro and the Hole heard of Capt Smiths being accused for neglect of Duty, they wrote a Letter to me in his Favour." In July 1757, Weiser himself expressed annoyance that soldiers at Swatara, whose term of enlistment had expired, were not being re-enlisted. He wrote to Deputy Governor Denny: "I wish your Honour had Sent his discharge, he wont inlist the men anew, and by all what I Can learn abuses the officers under him, and has never Sent me a Journal nor Muster Roll. The lieut and Insign Complains bitterly against ." In August, Smith was dismissed and replaced by Lieutenant Phillip Martzloff. In October, Martzloff was temporarily transferred to Fort Hunter, whose commanding officer was ill, and Fort Swatara fell under the command of Captain Lieutenant Samuel Weiser, son of Colonel Conrad Weiser, until December, when Martzloff returned. Colonel Weiser then learned that soldiers whose enlistment was ending would not re-enlist under Martzloff, and he was quickly replaced by Captain Lieutenant Samuel Allen.
Skirmishes near Fort Swatara
Early in the French and Indian War, several skirmishes occurred near Fort Swatara between Native Americans and Pennsylvania militiamen.In July 1756, two settlers were killed by Native Americans near Fort Swatara, and in August, one settler and two Pennsylvania militia troops were killed near the fort. Three children were kidnapped within two miles of the fort. Native Americans also killed several settlers that were relocating from the Fort Swatara area. In August 1757, five local settlers were killed by Native Americans, and a Pennsylvania militia soldier was wounded. A mother and child were also kidnapped. In April 1758, Native Americans staged another attack near Fort Swatara, in which four more settlers were killed and a woman was kidnapped.