Global InformationBig Runaway information
| The Big Runaway | |||||||
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| Part of the American Revolutionary War | |||||||
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 United States | ||||||
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| Samuel Hunter | |||||||
The Big Runaway was a mass evacuation in June and July 1778 of white settlers from the frontier regions of North Central Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War. It was precipitated by a series of raids against local settlements on the northern and western branches of the Susquehanna River by Loyalist troops and British-allied Indians, which prompted Patriot militia commanderes to order the evacuation. Most of the settlers relocated to Fort Augusta near modern-day Sunbury, Pennsylvania at the confluence of the northern and western branches of the Susquehanna River, while their abandoned houses and farms were all burnt as part of a scorched earth policy.
Some settlers returned soon after, but the Loyalist and Indians renewed their raids in the following year, leading to a second evacuation known as The Little Runaway. These attacks on the Pennsylvania frontier led to retaliatory raids by the Continental Army against the Native Americans, including Sullivan's Expedition, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages and killed thousands of non-combatants.