French and Indians Attack and Burn Fort Granville, August 1,1756

Fort Granville was about one mile west of the present town of Lewistown, immediately on the north bank of the Juniata River and westward of the mouth of the Kishcoquillas Creek about one mile. There was a spring in the enclosure of the fort which was destroyed when the canal was dug at that place. No other evidences of this fort are seen today.

This was one of a chain of forts erected on the west side of the Susquehanna. Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, was fifteen miles southwest, and Fort Patterson, at Mexico, was fifteen miles northeast.

The site commanded a narrow pass where the Juniata falls through the mountains; where a few men could hold it against a stronger enemy, as the rocks were high on each bank and extended six miles, so that the enemy could be easily detected advancing from either direction.

When the stockade was completed it was garrisoned by a company of enlisted men, under regularly commissioned officers. George Croghan, the Indian trader, was directed to build the fort as is shown by a letter written by Captain Elisha Salter, dated Carlisle, April 4, 1756.

The attack was made upon Fort Granville during the harvest of 1756. The garrison at that time was commanded by Lieutenant Edward Armstrong, brother of General John Armstrong, who destroyed Kittanning. The Indians had been lurking about the stockade some time and knowing that the garrison was not strong, sixty of them appeared before the fort, July 22, and challenged the garrison to fight, which was declined by the commander on account of the weakness of his force. The Indians fired at one of the soldiers who was outside the stockade, but he succeeded in getting safely inside.

The Indians divided their force into smaller parties, one attacked the Baskins plantation, near the Juniata, where they murdered Baskins, burned his house, and carried off his wife and children; another party made Hugh Cornell and his family prisoners.

On the morning of July 30, Captain Edward Ward marched from Fort Granville, with a detachment destined for Tuscarora Valley, where they were needed to protect the settlers while harvesting their grain. The few remaining in defense of the post were commanded by Lieutenant Armstrong.

Soon after the departure of Captain Ward’s detail, the fort was suddenly surrounded by a hostile force of fifty French and a hundred Indians, who immediately began a fierce attack, which they continued in their skulking Indian manner through the afternoon and night, but without inflicting much damage. About midnight the enemy got below the 526bank of the river, and by a deep ravine reached to within twelve or fifteen yards of the fort, and from that secure position were able to set fire to the logs of the fort, burning out a large hole, through which the Indians fired on the defenders as they fought the flames. Lieutenant Armstrong and one private soldier were killed and three wounded.

The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, and demanded the surrender of the fort and garrison, promising to spare their lives if the demands was accepted. Upon promise of quarter, a man named John Turner, previously a resident of Buffalo Valley, opened the gates and the besiegers at once entered and took possession. There was no commissioned officer to assume command and Turner acted on his own initiative, as was afterwards explained by a prisoner who survived.

The French and Indians captured twenty-two men, three women and a number of children. The fort was then burned by Chief Jacobs, on the order of the French officer in command. The prisoners were lined up and driven by the Indians, each soldier carrying a heavy portion of the plunder secured in the fort, and in the several raids made on the settlers’ homes.

The march to Kittanning was most terrible, the prisoners were horribly whipped and punished when fatigue caused any to lag behind. When the party arrived at Kittanning, all the prisoners were cruelly treated, and Turner, the man who opened the gates of the fort to the savages, suffered the torture of being burned to death at the stake. He endured the most horrible torment for more than three hours, during which time red hot gun barrels were forced through parts of his body, his scalp was torn from his head and burning splinters of pine were stuck in his flesh until at last an Indian boy, who was held up for the purpose, sunk a tomahawk into his brain and released him from his misery.

General Armstrong in a letter sent to Governor Morris, dated at Carlisle, August 20, 1756, said: “Captains Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered on the march to Fort Shirley to examine everything at Fort Granville and send me a list of what remained among the ruins, assure me that they found some parts of eight of the enemy burnt in two different places, and part of their shirts through which there were bullet holes. To secrete these from the prisoners was doubtless the reason why the French officer marched our people some distance from the fort before he gave orders to burn the barracks, &c.

“Walker says that some of the Germans flagged very much on the second day, and that the lieutenant (Armstrong) behaved with the greatest bravery to the last, despising all the terrors and threats of the enemy whereby they often urged him to surrender. Though he had been near two days without water, but little ammunition, the fort on fire, and the enemy situated within twelve or fourteen yards of the fort under the natural bank, he was as far from yielding as when first attacked.

527“A Frenchman, in our service, fearful of being burned up, asked leave of the lieutenant to treat with his countrymen in the French language. The Lieutenant answered, 'The first word of French you speak in this engagement, I'll blow your brains out,' telling his men to hold out bravely, for the flame was falling and would soon have it extinguished, but he soon after received the fatal ball.”

The destruction of Fort Granville spread terror among the settlers west of the Susquehanna and they abandoned their settlements and fled in great haste to Fort Augusta and Carlisle. This attack on Fort Granville resulted in the successful expedition of Col. John Armstrong against the Indians at Kittanning, where the English not only gained a signal victory, but the savages were taught a lesson which they ever remembered.