Fort Venango, a small

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

built in 1760 near the present-day site of

Franklin, Pennsylvania Franklin is a city and the county seat of Venango County, Pennsylvania. The population was 6,097 in the 2020 census. Franklin is part of the Oil City, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Franklin is known for its three-day autumn festival in Oc ...

, replaced

Fort Machault Fort Machault (, ) was a fort built by the French in 1754 near the confluence of French Creek with the Allegheny River, in northwest Pennsylvania. (Present-day Franklin developed here later.) The fort helped the French control these waterway ...

, a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

fort built at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. The French burned their fort in 1759 after abandoning it. They retreated to the north after learning of the French surrender to the British of

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's e ...

, near the end of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...

. About June 16, 1763, during

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–17 ...

, this British fort was captured by Seneca and

Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, and ...

warriors. They killed the 12 to 16 soldiers of the fort garrison outright, except for the commander, Lieutenant Francis Gordon. The warriors forced him to write a letter detailing why the Indians had risen against the British. He recorded two complaints: that the British had not supplied the tribes with sufficient gunpowder for the past two years and that the English, contrary to their treaty promises, were keeping forts, and building new forts, in what the Crown had proclaimed to be reserved as exclusively Indian territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. The warriors subjected Gordon to ritual slow torture and burned him to death at the stake. They burnt Fort Venango to the ground.''Pontiac and the Indian Uprising''; Peckham, Howard H.; University of Chicago Press; 1947; Pgs. 167-8 The British had named the fort after the nearby

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

village, Venango. It was occupied by a portion of the people who spoke the

Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...

dialect of the Delaware (or Lenape) language.

References

Charles M. Stotz Charles Morse Stotz was an architect, architectural historian, and preservationist. He is known for his extensive study of the architectural history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. He was one of the architects to practice in the field of ...

, ''Outposts of the War for Empire: The French and English in Western Pennsylvania: Their Armies, Their Forts, Their People, 1749-1764'' (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985).

External links

Historical marker in Pennsylvania
{{Venango Government buildings completed in 1760 Infrastructure completed in 1760 Venango Buildings and structures in Venango County, Pennsylvania Battles in Pennsylvania Pontiac's War Venango Venango