{"id":55,"date":"2010-07-16T19:11:29","date_gmt":"2010-07-16T19:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/infj.net\/smith\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2010-08-19T05:16:22","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T05:16:22","slug":"col-john-armstrong","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/?page_id=55","title":{"rendered":"Col. John Armstrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Col<\/a>

Col John Armstrong - Source: http:\/\/freepages.genealogy.rootsweb. ancestry.com\/~scanderson\/ john_armstrong.HTM<\/p><\/div>\n

One connection that Colonel John\u00a0Armstrong<\/strong> had to the Black Boys Rebellion that is often forgotten is that he built Fort Loudoun in 1756.\u00a0 It is quite likely Armstong built the fort on the Patton Farm located outside of the town of Fort Loudoun, Pennsylvania because it provided a defensive advantage and was in close proximity to a road for supply and reinforcement.<\/p>\n

Armstrong was born in Brookborough Parish County Fernanagh, Ireland in 1717.\u00a0 At the age of 26 he came to America and settled in Cumberland County Pennsylvania.\u00a0 He began work as a surveyor.<\/p>\n

At the formation of Pennsylvania\u2019s militia units for the French and Indian War in 1755 Armstrong was elected one of two officers and\u00a0commanded 1400 men.<\/p>\n

He rose to the rank of captain in 1756 and was promoted to Lt. Col. in May of 1757.\u00a0 He is best remembered for leading 300 men against Kittanning which was then a Delaware tribe stronghold on the Allegheny river.<\/p>\n

In 1758 Armstrong fought with Col. Henry Bouquet in the Forbes expedition that captured Fort Duquesne, the French stronghold in present day Pittsburg.\u00a0 When the French and Indian War ended he returned to Carlisle and went back to surveying.\u00a0 In both the Paxton Boys uprising and Smith\u2019s Rebellion, Armstrong walked a political tightrope.\u00a0 He was well connected with members of the provincial government and the Penns.\u00a0 It is widely believed that he was more than sympathetic to the Paxton Boys in 1763 and quite possibly the Black Boys in 1765\u00a0despite some public denunciation of the Black Boys before the Penns.<\/p>\n

Armstrong was among 250 Paxton men who marched in Philadelphia in January 1764 to protest the government protection of Indians.\u00a0 Because of his surveying in and around the Fort Loudoun area it is quite likely that Armstrong knew many of the Black Boys as well.\u00a0 Armstrong, like Smith, was a Cumberland County magistrate during the time of Smith\u2019s Rebellion.\u00a0 Armstrong took William Smith’s deposition in Governor John Penn’s investigation of the Sideling Hill affair on April 3, 1765.<\/p>\n

Armstrong died in 1795.\u00a0 At his death he was one of the first trustees of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peaceable Kingdom Lost, The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn\u2019s Holy Experiment. \u00a0<\/em>Kenny, Kevin. Oxford University Press. \u00a0NY, NY. 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter V:\u00a0 Race:\u00a0 The Permanent Pennsylvania Frontier, 1763 – 1768 in Creating Pennsylvania: \u00a0The Politics of the Frontier and the State 1682 – 1800.\u00a0 <\/em>Spero, Patrick.\u00a0 Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Paxton Boys. <\/em>\u00a0from Wikipedia. \u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paxton_Boys<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Historical Sketch of Armstrong County Part VI<\/em>. http:\/\/www.pa-roots.com\/armstrong\/smithproject\/history\/chap1f.html<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Paxton Boys and the Pamphlet Frenzy: \u00a0Politics, Religion and Social Structure in 18th<\/sup> Century Pennsylvania. \u00a0<\/em>Mancini, Alexandra http:\/\/www.publications.villanova.edu\/Concept\/2007\/07_papers_ html\/Mancini-PaxtonBoy<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 One connection that Colonel John\u00a0Armstrong had to the Black Boys Rebellion that is often forgotten is that he built Fort Loudoun in 1756.\u00a0 It is quite likely Armstong built the fort on the Patton Farm located outside of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":35,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-55","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":979,"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55\/revisions\/979"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithrebellion1765.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}