Major General John Armstrong
MAJ. GEN. JOHN ARMSTRONG, the hero of Kittanning, was one of Washington’s
bravest and most successful generals. He was born in 1725 in the North of
Ireland, and some time between 1745 and 1748 became a settler in the
Kittanning valley, west of the Susquehanna river, in a region which was then
the frontier of Pennsylvania. He was well educated and found plenty to do at
his profession of surveying in the new country. In 1750 he and a Mr. Lyon laid
out Carlisle, and four years later he was sent by Governor Morris as a
commissioner to Connecticut in regard to a land trouble between the Indians
and the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming valley, in Pennsylvania. In 1755
Mr. Armstrong surveyed and opened a road from Carlisle to the “Three
Forks” of the Youghiogheny river, over which supplies were to be carried
to Braddock’s army. After Braddock’s defeat he enlisted in a frontier company,
and in January, 1756, was elected captain; on May 11th of the same year he was
commissioned lieutenant colonel. In the summer of 1756 he commanded the
expedition against the Indian village of Kittanning which has made his name
famous in American history for all time to come. In 1757 he served on the
frontier, was commissioned colonel May 27, 1758, and commanded the advanced
division of the Pennsylvania troops in Forbes’s expedition against Fort
Duquesne. He was a tower of strength on the frontier during Pontiac’s war, and
on Sept. 30, 1763, led a very successful expedition against the Indian towns
on the West branch of the Susquehanna. He was the first brigadier general
commissioned (March 1, 1776) by the Continental Congress. He served at Fort
Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, and on April 5, 1777, was commissioned major
general of the Supreme Council of the State. He commanded the Pennsylvania
militia at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. He was sent to Congress
in 1778 and again in 1787. His public career closed with his last term in
Congress, and he spent the remainder of his life at Carlisle.General Armstrong was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was largely
instrumental in establishing the first church which was organized at Carlisle,
in 1757. On March 9, 1795, he ended his active and useful career, and he was
buried in the old cemetery at Carlisle. Maj. Gen. John Armstrong, Jr., was
born Nov. 25, 1758, at Carlisle, Pa., and died April 1, 1843, at Red Hook,
N.Y. He served in the Revolutionary war, was the author, among other important
works, of the celebrated “Newburg Addresses,” and was secretary of
war in 1814, from which position he was obliged to resign because he did not
prevent the capture of the city of Washington, in August, 1814. His brother,
Col. Henry B. Armstrong, fought gallantly in the war of 1812.Source: Pages 549-550, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 2001 by Nancy Cain Knepper for the Armstrong County
Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
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