DOCUMENTING COMMEMORATIONS OF WASHINGTON'S SULLIVAN EXPEDITION OF 1779

As part of my research for Memory Wars, I researched the locations and histories of the historical markers established in Pennsylvania and New York that celebrate Washington's Indian Expedition of 1779. Led by Major General John Sullivan of New Hampshire, this scorched earth expedition is commonly known as the Sullivan Expedition or the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign. Four separate troop movements caused the complete destruction of nearly 40 Haudenosaunee and multinational Indigenous settlements across a vast expanse of what is now Pennsylvania and New York.  Starting mostly at its centennial, white non-Natives began to recognize this military expedition with a series of historical markers, monuments, and roadside signs.  They were developed separately at first, with no federal or state oversight, and thus much sleuthing was required to develop a comprehensive view.  Starting with newspaper and archival sources, I developed a database of marker texts, then worked on geolocating these, and connecting the sites to other online sources.  Work on this database involved assistance from Lafayette student Sofia LaMarco, who worked on this as Excel scholar.