Fort Granville: Lost on the Juniata
Pennsylvania
About six hundred fifty yards south of here, on a high bank above the Juniata River, stood Fort Granville, a frontier stockade built in seventeen fifty-five and seventeen fifty-six to protect settlers during the French and Indian War.
The fort was twice attacked. The second assault, on August second, seventeen fifty-six, ended in catastrophe. Lieutenant Edward Armstrong commanded a small garrison when a large combined force of French soldiers and Native fighters struck. Armstrong was killed in the battle. The rest of the garrison was either killed or marched off into captivity, a fate many frontier defenders dreaded more than death.
Fort Granville's destruction left the Juniata Valley exposed and sent shock waves through Pennsylvania's frontier communities. It was one of dozens of frontier posts that flared briefly to life during the mid-seventeen hundreds and then vanished, leaving nothing but a marker and a name on the landscape.
