Fort Hunter was a military fort located in present-day

Fort Hunter, Pennsylvania Fort Hunter is an unincorporated community in Middle Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Six miles north of Harrisburg, on the south bank of ...

. It was initially a stockaded

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

fortified by Samuel Hunter in 1755 and later enlarged and maintained by the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

. Fort Hunter was part of a defensive line of forts built in Pennsylvania during 1755 and 1756, at the start of hostilities with the French and their allied Native Americans. It was briefly used during

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a confederation of Native Americans who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754– ...

, then abandoned in 1763.

History

Hunter's Mill

Fort Hunter was initially a stockaded

in the Great Valley, owned by Samuel Hunter who lived on Fishing Creek.Kaufmann, J. E.., Kaufmann, H. W.. ''Fortress America: The Forts That Defended America, 1600 to the Present.'' Hachette Books, 2007.
/ref> The mill was located about six miles north of Harris' Ferry, probably five hundred feet west of the mouth of Fishing Creek, near its confluence with the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

, in present-day Dauphin County. In response to the Penn's Creek Massacre in October 1755, the government of the

decided to fortify Hunter's Mill, and in January 1756, it was fortified with a simple

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

and garrisoned with volunteer militia recruited by Thomas McKee, an Indian trader who operated a trading post nearby. McKee was appointed captain of "McKee's Volunteers," but provisions, clothing and ammunition were in short supply, and the post was vulnerable to attack. On 10 January, Governor

Robert Hunter Morris Robert Hunter Morris ( – 27 January 1764), was a prominent governmental figure in Colonial Pennsylvania, serving as governor of Pennsylvania and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Early life and education Morris was born in ...

ordered 25 men to be sent from Carlisle to reinforce McKee's garrison, and "to deliver to Cap't McKee such Provincial arms, accouterments, blankets, tools and stores as he may at any time have received."Clarence M. Busch, ''Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania,'' Vol. 1, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896
/ref>

Construction

In March 1756,

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

commissioned Colonel William Clapham to construct forts in a defensive line in central Pennsylvania, to defend against French and Native American attacks on settlements that were becoming more frequent as part of the

. On 7 April 1756, Governor Morris ordered Clapham to march his regiment to Hunter's Mill to begin construction.Hunter, William Albert. ''Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier: 1753–1758,'' (Classic Reprint). Fb&c Limited, 2018.
/ref>James Herbstritt, Janet Johnson and Kurt Carr, "Digging Fort Hunter’s History," ''Pennsylvania Heritage," Fall 2011
/ref> On 11 May 1756, McKee handed over command of the fort to Colonel Clapham. Colonel Clapham chose to build Fort Hunter about 500 yards east of the mill, near the Susquehanna River, which the army was using to transport troops and supplies. Fort Hunter, like other forts near the river, was intended to monitor river traffic to prevent war parties from approaching the settlements. The fort probably consisted of a

block house A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

surrounded by a

and a defensive ditch. There are references in historic documents to a stockade, to "a magazine of provisions and other warlike stores," and to the construction (in January, 1757) of "a Room for the Officers & Barracks for the Soldiers...in Hunters Fort." It was described as having "a commanding view of the river." Fort Halifax was 160 feet wide with

bastions A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

, so Fort Hunter was likely similar in construction, but no drawings or plans exist. In July 1758 General John Forbes ordered the stockade repaired and the defensive ditch surrounding the fort to be enlarged.

Garrison and command

As of 10 January 1756, the garrison had only 25 men, but by 13 November, it consisted of two sergeants and 34 privates from the Augusta Regiment. In November 1756, Colonel Clapham ordered the interim commander of Fort Hunter, Ensign John Mears, to furnish fifteen men to escort the wagon master Robert Erwin to Fort Halifax. Mears informed Erwin that "Col. Clapham had no Command of him nor of his men: that he shou'd not pay any Regard to these Orders of Colonel Clapham's or the Governour's, for how cou'd the Governor give him the Command of that Fort and yet Command it himself." Clapham had Mears arrested and sent Ensign Jacob Kerns to replace him. In March 1757, Governor William Denny met with Lord Loudoun,

Conrad Weiser Conrad Weiser (November 2, 1696 – July 13, 1760), born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a Pennsylvania German pioneer who served as an interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native American nations. Primarily a farmer, ...

, and Colonel Clapham and determined that Fort Hunter should be demolished. Its garrison and supplies were to be divided between Fort Augusta and Fort Halifax. In July and August, settlers in the area protested that removing the fort would put their homes in danger, and after several months of consideration, the governor instead decided to demolish Fort Halifax and transfer its garrison to Fort Hunter. A company of 50 men was assigned to range the country between Fort Hunter and Manada Gap, to prevent Native American war parties from moving into the area. In February 1758, the garrison was strengthened to 80 men, and by July 1758 consisted of two companies with a total of 108 men and officers. Following the end of hostilities after the 1758

Treaty of Easton The Treaty of Easton was a colonial agreement in North America signed in October 1758 during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) between British colonials and the chiefs of 13 Native American nations, representing tribes of the Iroquois, ...

, the garrison was transferred and the fort was used only for storage until 1763.

Pontiac's War

Fort Hunter was put to temporary use during

in June 1763, when it served as a supply depot and a recruiting station. Joseph Shippen Jr., secretary to Governor James Hamilton, was posted there briefly to supervise the recruitment of 700 troops for the defense of the province, and the gathering and transfer of supplies to be sent upriver to

Fort Augusta Fort Augusta was a stronghold in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the upper Susquehanna Valley from the time of the French and Indian War to the close of the American Revolution. At the time, it was the largest British fort in Pennsylvan ...

. The fort was still occupied in October 1763, when the Reverend John Elder informed Governor Hamilton that the defensive ditch surrounding the fort had been filled in, and that he had "alwise kept a small party of the men stationed at Hunter's."

Abandonment, 1763

The fort was abandoned after the end of Pontiac's War and fell into ruins. The community of

was established nearby after 1787. The property was purchased in 1787 by Archibald McAllister, who built his home there. It still stands and is known as the

Archibald McAllister House Archibald McAllister House, now officially known as Fort Hunter Mansion, is a historic home located on the Susquehanna River approximately 6 miles north of downtown Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It consists of a 2-story, 2-room ston ...

. In 1796, François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld wrote in his journal that he had seen the ruins of Fort Hunter while travelling by boat up the

. In 1814 McAllister built a storehouse on the site of the fort.

Archaeology

Starting in 2006, archaeological excavations began, initially to try to locate the fort. A stone-lined well was discovered in 2008, and this may have been the fort's source of fresh water. In 2018 the dig uncovered a cannonball, musket balls, chunks of iron, crucible pieces, metals for blacksmithing and gun-smithing, spear points, grinding stones, Indian pottery and dishware, and the nearly complete

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

from a

Brown Bess "Brown Bess" is a nickname of uncertain origin for the British Army's Muzzleloader, muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. The musket design remained in use for over a hundred years with many incremental c ...

musket. A trash

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

yielded gunflints, broken glass, glazed ceramics, and white clay pipe fragments. A cluster of artifacts and building materials located in 2019 was identified as part of the fort, and by 2020 some 6,688 artifacts had been recovered, including a large fragment of a Delft bowl base, as well as a

tinderbox A tinderbox, or patch box, is a container made of wood or metal containing flint, firesteel, and tinder (typically charcloth, but possibly a small quantity of dry, finely divided fibrous matter such as hemp), used together to help kindle a fi ...

trade beads Trade beads are beads that were used as a medium of barter within and amongst communities. They are considered to be one of the earliest forms of trade between members of the human race. It has also been surmised that bead trading was one of t ...

, a thimble with pins, a pile of small

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...

lead shot, and a pair of

pewter Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. In the past, it was an alloy of tin and lead, but most modern pewter, in order to prevent lead poi ...

and green glass cuff buttons, still connected by a tiny brass loop after 250 years in the ground. Mapping the locations of these artifacts revealed the likely location of the fort, part of which lies under the

. Excavations have also uncovered numerous Native American artifacts, dating mainly to the Archaic and

Middle Woodland In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some arch ...

periods, between nine thousand and fifteen hundred years ago. These consisted of stone tools, spear points,

cord-marked pottery Cord-marked pottery or Cordmarked pottery is an early form of a simple earthenware pottery. It allowed food to be stored and cooked over fire. Cord-marked pottery varied slightly around the world, depending upon the clay and raw materials that wer ...

, and large cooking

hearths A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a low, partial ...

Memorialization

A historical marker was erected in 1947 by the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...

at the intersection of North Front Street and Fort Hunter Road. An informational history board can be seen at the Fort Hunter Historic District at Fort Hunter Park in Fort Hunter, Pennsylvania.Don Morfe, "Fort Hunter History," Historical Marker Database, July 22, 2015
/ref>

References

{{Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

Buildings and structures in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Pontiac's War Government buildings completed in 1756 History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania 1756 establishments in Pennsylvania Pre-statehood history of Pennsylvania Archaeological sites in Pennsylvania

External links

"Fort Hunter Archaeological Dig," Oct 2, 2014

"Fort Hunter Archaeological Excavation – 2016," Sep 23, 2016

"State Museum Perspectives: Archaeology at Fort Hunter," Mar 30, 2021

Fort Hunter Mansion website

Map of Fortifications on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1756