History Around Us: Fort Loudoun revisited The Black Boys Rebellion

  The fort itself was built around December 22nd 1756 as a British supply outpost and was described by by Rev. Thomas Barton who was General Forbes chaplain. "...The fort is a poor piece of work,irregularly built & badley situated at the bottom of a hill subject to damps & noxious vapors..." (Fort Loudon on the Frontier by Gary Hawbaker) 

 November 16th 1765 a little know event occurred on the Pennsylvania frontier at a remote outpost just below Parnell’s knob along Conocochegue Creek. 

  The Western tribes (Shawnee and Delaware) would cross the mountains on a frequent basis conducting raids and killing the inhabitants of the fledgling settlements instilling fear and terror in the local population... and anger!!

  On March 21rst 1765 it was reported in the Pennsylvania Journal “...Sometime ago Capt.Calender employed several waggons to carry Indian goods to Mr. Pollan’s (Possibly Pawlings Tavern)in Conogochieg, to be carried thence by packhorses to Fort Pitt. Unhappily the head came out of one of the barrels which was full of scalping knives.....The news of this alarmed the upper end of the county, and the neighboring parts of Maryland and Virginia...”(The Black Boys Uprising of 1765 by Dan Guzy)

  In the spring of 1765 the king issued a proclamation prohibiting from anyone trading with the Indians. 

Around March 1765 eighty one pack horses arrived in present day Mercersburg and the report was not only trading supplies but scalping knive,ammunition and other implements that could’ve used against the settlers.

Some fifty armed citizens met them and implored them them not to continue but the traders made game of what they said and continued. 

   James Smith along with around ten of his Black Boys headed for Sideling Hill to intercept and stop the supplies, out of eighty one loads sixty three were destroyed, 

   After several members of the Black Boys were captured and some guns confiscated it culminated in a standoff where the armed settlers procured thier comrades back from the British but not the guns.

  Hence on November 16th 1765 James Smith and the Black Boys surrounded the fort and fired upon it as a show of force but were not trying to inflict any casualties amongst the British.

  The guns were returned and the fort abandoned to the settlers, the British left and went further west to Fort Pitt.James Smith and the Black Boys 

 

Stay Safe

Bob