Valley Girl Views: Fort Augusta, As Described In 1871 in the Williamsport Bulletin

In 1871, The Sunbury Gazette printed an article from a Williamsport paper, describing Fort Augusta.

[From the 'Williamsport Bulletin.]

Fort Augusta.

INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF A ONCE FAMOUS FORTIFICATION.

In this paper I give your readers a description of "Fort Augusta"—that famous old fort that one stood at the intersection of the North and West branches of our Susquehanna river, about a mile above the present town of Sunbury.

1756. Fort Augusta was built by Colonel William Clapham and 400 men under his command, by order of Robert H Morris, then Governor of Pennsylvania, and was designed to protect this their frontier region of Pennsylvania against the encroachments of the French in Canada, and also afford a regular trading place for the convenience of all our friendly Delaware, Shawanese and other Indians upon the North and West branches of the Susquehanna river.

Fort Augusta stood about 40 yards or 120 fee from the bank of the river, and the river bank of its North and West sides was about 24 feet from the r surface of the water. The fort, a heavy log structure, was a regular square in form, and about 11 feet long on each of its four sides. And cad of its four corners had a very large triangular projection, called a bastion. These bastions extended outward from each corner a distance of between sixty and seventy feet, and in form strongly resembled an Indian's flint stone arrow-head—many of which can be picked up yet at different places in our State. That part of the for fronting the river, being its north side, was a strong palisade, made of upright logs sunk four feet in the earth. The tops of these palisades or logs were holed and spiked into strong ribbonds, which lay transversely over them. The other three sides of the fort were made of large squared logs, mostly white-oak, laid horizontally upon each other, and neatly dovetailed and trunnelled down. The bottom logs were 3 feet thick, and the rest ranged from at least 21 feet to 18 inches in diameter, as the logs lessened in thickness or size as they approached the top of the walls.

Illustration of Fort Augusta

Its interior or inside arrangements were as follows : Its north part contained the Colonel's quarters, 30 by is feet in size, and the officer's quarters 40 by 20 feet in size, while its three other sides contained 5 soldier's barracks, 30 by '25 feet in size and l stories big , each with another spare room or building of the e site, probably the one used for keeping the fort's Indian store, all of which inside buildings were log structures. And then inside of all this again there was still a large open space of ground of about 70 feet square or more, each way, in the center of the fort, with a good well of water in the north-western bastion, so that the soldiers and cooks had no need of going out of the fort for water for cooking or washing purposes. And there was a wide open passage way all around the inside of the fort, between its walls and the inside buildings just described, for various purposes of convenience. The powder magazine and cellar for the storing away of powder and pro-visions wore also inside of the fort.

All the ground between the north side of the fort and the river, together with a large space of ground on the east as well as the south-west side of the fort, was enclosed within a strong stockade fence. And on the line of this stockade fence there stood four strong block or log houses, two on the east and two on the west side of the fort, 18 by 20 feet in size each, built at convenient distances from the fort and under the command of its guns. These outside block houses were used as comfortable lodging places for our friendly Indiana visiting the fort, as it was considered unwise and unsafe to let any considerable number of Indians, however friendly, enter the tort itself, except on public occasions and in a formal manner, lest some great mischief might befall the fort or garrison. This provision for the accommodation of the Indians was not only complimentary to them, but at the same time gave them proper ideas of our vigilance to prevent them from taking our garrison by surprise at any time.

This model of the fort was first built in the 1930s, as part of a WPA initiative. A new version of the model can still be seen at this site today.

I cannot find the exact size and height of fort Augusta mentioned anywhere in print, but judging from its interior, buildings and arrangement as figured on page - 320 of the 12th volume of our "Pennsylvania Archives," I am confident that it must have been about 125 feet long on each of its four sides, and from 20 to 25 feet high. The trees of the forest around the fort were cleared away to a distance of 300 yards or more, and the grounds on the river bank of both branches were cut down and formed into a regular and easy slope all the way down to the water's edge, a slope in military language called a glacis. And all of the slopes and other cleared grounds were afterwards sown with blue grass seed and soon covered with a beautiful grass sward. A four-pounder cannon was mounted in the centre of each of its four bastions, and the two northern cannon, from the fort's well arranged position, could very easily and nicely command the waters of our North and West branches of the Susquehanna river with their balls; while our land-side commanded the same in that direction. Other cannon were also planted at other points of the fort. And the fort was graced with a flag-staff and flag, that rose 70 feet above the highest points of its walls—so that fort Augusta, when finished, must have made quite a formidable appearance. It may be proper to say that the fort stood a little North of the brick mansion now owned and occupied by the Miss Bunters, who are descendants of Captain Samuel Hunter, the last commander of the fort.'' *

The entrance to the powder magazine, as shown in a 1904 postcard. The magazine is now fenced off to keep out trespassers, but it is still visible on the grounds.

1772. The first courts in old Northumberland county were held in the officers quarters, at fort Augusta, under the presidency of the Hon. William Plunkett and his Associates, Turbutt Francis, &c., and criminals were imprisoned in the fort's "dungeon."

1773. April 26. William Maclay, the first Prothonotary of said courts, in a letter of this date, complains of the want of "a regular jail" for criminals, and says:

"Capt. Hunter had address enough to render I abortive every attempt that was made last summer for keeping a regular jail, even after I had been at considerable expense in fitting up this (powder) magazine, under which there is a small but complete dungeon. ** We know nothing of the footing on which Capt. Hunter has possession of these buildings, (the fort,) and only beg that the county may be accommodated with the old magazine, with the addition proposed to be made to it."—Fourth Pennsylvania Archives, 462.

And I am equally at a loss to know on what "footing," or authority, Capt. Hunter had the command of Fort Augusta, as I cannot find any public record giving him such authority. And hence it seems that his authority was a mere private authority derived from a letter written to him by the Governor of Pennsylvania in May, 1770, when Col. Francis, its commander, left Northumberland county to enter upon his duties as Prothonotary of Cumberland county.

Fort Pitt, built by Gen. Stanwix, in 1759, near the ruins of Fort Duquesne, the French fort, where the city of Pittsburg now stands, is said to have cost £60,000 sterling, and it was the only fort in Pennsylvania, I think, that was larger than Fort Augusta. It seems to have been called Augusta, after the Latin word Augusta, signifying great, majestic, imperial ; as I can find no other origin of its name. What the building of Fort Augusta cost I am not able to say, but it must have been a large sum of money. And now the question arises, what became of Fort Augusta after our Revolutionary war, for no part of its structure is now visible above the surface of the ground—all is gone ? Was it sold out by our government at public vendee to the highest bidder ? Or, was it burned down ? or torn down and used for building log barns and houses or chopped up and used for firewood? Who can tell ?

If the reader desires to have a still clearer idea of the ground plan, shape and interior parts and outside block houses and stockade fences of Fort Augusta, once the headquarters of our frontier settlers in this part of Pennsylvania, let him look at its draft as figured out in our Archives, vol. 12, page 320. That draft describes the Island in the North Branch at the town of Northumberland as "about two miles in length" from which it is clear that quite a large portion of the eastern end of this island has been washed away since 1756 when the draft of said fort was made.

END OF BULLETIN ARTICLE.

The Sunbury Gazette Editor added this footnote to the Williamsport Bulletin Article:

*The writer is evidently mistaken in saying that the fort stood a little north of the present brick house. The magazine, the remains of which are still yet visible, several hundred feet south of house, the the magazine was certainly within the enclosure of the fort. The house has not been in the possession of the Miss Hunters for some years. It is now owned by Col. Cake, having previously been owned by Benj. Hendricks of this place, who bought the property from the Hunters - ED. GAZ.

NOTES:
Another historian states that Fort Augusta was named for Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the mother of King George III

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