| Kittanning Expedition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theFrench and Indian War | |||||||
 Medal issued to commemorate Kittanning's destruction | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Pennsylvania | Lenape | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| John Armstrong Sr. | Captain Jacobs † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300 provincials | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 17 killed 13 wounded 19 missing[2] | 9 killed[2] | ||||||
TheKittanning Expedition, also known as theArmstrong Expedition or theBattle of Kittanning, was a raid during theFrench and Indian War that led to the destruction of theAmerican Indian village ofKittanning, which had served as a staging point for attacks byLenape warriors against colonists in the BritishProvince of Pennsylvania. Commanded by Lieutenant ColonelJohn Armstrong Sr., this raid deep into hostile territory was the only major expedition carried out by Pennsylvanianprovincial troops during a brutal backcountry war. Early on September 8, 1756, they launched a surprise attack on the Indian village.
Although it eventually became a worldwide conflict known as theSeven Years' War, theFrench and Indian War began on the Pennsylvania frontier as a struggle for control of theOhio Country.[3] With thesurrender ofGeorge Washington atFort Necessity in 1754 andBraddock's defeat in 1755, the settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier were without professional military protection, and scrambled to organize a defense.[4]
The French-allied Indians who had defeated GeneralEdward Braddock at theMonongahela were primarily from theGreat Lakes region to the north. The local Indians, mostlyLenape andShawnee who had migrated to the area after white colonists had settled their lands to the east, had waited to see who would win the contest—they could not risk siding with the loser. WithFort Duquesne now secured, the victorious French encouraged the Lenape and Shawnee to "take up the hatchet" against those who had taken their land.[5]
Beginning about October 1755, Lenape and Shawnee war parties, often with French cooperation, began raiding settlements in Pennsylvania.[6] Although European-Americans also waged war with cruelty, they found Indian warfare particularly brutal and frightening. Notable among the Indian raiders were the Lenape chiefsShingas andCaptain Jacobs, both of whom lived atKittanning which also served as a staging area for raids and a temporary holding center for captives. Following the massacres of mostly unarmed settlers atDraper's Meadow,Penn's Creek,Great Cove, andGnadenhütten in 1755, the colonial governments of Pennsylvania andVirginia offered rewards for their scalps.[7]
Captain Jacobs was on an expedition led byFrançois Coulon de Villiers[8] that descended onFort Granville (near present-dayLewistown) on the morning of August 2, 1756. The attackers were held off, but the garrison commander was killed, and his second in command surrendered the garrison, including the women and children, the next morning.[9] Armstrong, the commander's brother, immediately organized an expedition against Kittanning in response.[9]
Armstrong led 300 Pennsylvaniaprovincial soldiers fromFort Shirley on August 31. By September 7, the column had reached the vicinity of Kittanning. Signs of a small Indian camp prompted Colonel Armstrong to detach a dozen men under Lieutenant James Hogg to monitor it while the column moved on toward the village.[10] The next morning Armstrong launched a surprise attack on the village. Many of the Kittanning residents fled, but Captain Jacobs put up a defense, holing up with his wife and family inside their home. When he refused to surrender,Lieutenant Robert Callender set his house and others on fire, touching off gunpowder that had been stored inside. Some buildings exploded, and pieces of Indian bodies flew high into the air and landed in a nearby cornfield.[11] Captain Jacobs was killed and scalped after jumping from his home in an attempt to escape the flames.
The battle ended when the entire village was engulfed in flames.[12] Prisoners informed Armstrong that a party of 24 men had left the day before in advance of another planned raid. This news caused Armstrong some concern over the fate of Lieutenant Hogg, so he precipitately ordered a withdrawal. They were met after several miles by a mortally wounded Hogg, who reported that his force had been attacked by a larger Indian force. Some of his men had immediately fled, and most of the rest had been killed.[12] Armstrong and his remaining force marched toFort Lyttleton to rest.[13] By September 13, they had returned toFort Loudoun.[14] According to Armstrong's report, he took 11 scalps and freed 11 prisoners, mostly women and children. He estimated that his men killed between 30 and 40 Indians.[12] Many of the white captives (includingMarie Le Roy and Barbara Leininger andHugh Gibson) who were not rescued were ferried across theAllegheny River in canoes, then taken by foot over trails into Ohio, where they were assimilated into the tribes. Many were not rescued untilHenry Bouquet brought them back from Ohio to Pennsylvania in 1764.
After the destruction of the town, many of its inhabitants returned and erected theirwigwams on the ashes of their former homes.[15] The town was reoccupied briefly and two of the British prisoners who had attempted to escape with Armstrong's men were tortured to death.[16] The Indians then harvested their corn and moved toFort Duquesne, where they requested permission from the French to resettle further to the west, away from the British colonists.[7] According to Marie Le Roy and Barbara Leininger, many of Kittanning's inhabitants moved toSaucunk,Kuskusky orMuskingum.[17]
Historian Fred Anderson notes that equivalent raids by Indians on Pennsylvania villages were usually labeled "massacres", and that the Indians considered the expedition to be one.[18] The destruction of Kittanning was hailed as a victory in Pennsylvania, and Armstrong was known afterwards as the "Hero of Kittanning".[19] He and his men collected the "scalp bounty" that had been placed on Captain Jacobs.[20] However, the victory had limitations: the attackers suffered more casualties than they inflicted, and most of the villagers escaped, taking with them almost all of the prisoners that had been held in the village.[21] The expedition also probably aggravated the frontier war; subsequent Indian raids that autumn were fiercer than ever.[20] The Kittanning Expedition revealed to the village's inhabitants their vulnerability, and many moved to more secure areas. A peace faction led by Shingas's brother Tamaqua soon came to the forefront.[22] Tamaqua eventually made peace with Pennsylvania in theTreaty of Easton, which enabled a British force under GeneralJohn Forbes to successfullymount an expedition in 1758 that drove the French from Fort Duquesne.
