2012 marks the 200th anniversary of America's "Forgotten War," the War of 1812 that took place over three years, 1812 to 1815.
Butler's Barracks are just one one of four military installations along the Niagara River by Niagara-by-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
The others:
Fort George
Fort Mississauga
Navy Hall
I have written about the two forts this past month.
The British passed control of the Butler's Barracks over to the Canadian Army in 1871.
--Brock-Perry
The site of was used by three different First Nations (Indians) before the fort was built. In 1804, a lighthouse was built there and the site became known as Mississauga Point. The lighthouse was dismantled in 1814 to make way for the fort. It incorporated stone from the lighthouse in its construction.
Mississauga Point Lighthouse was designated a National Historic Site in 1937 and today commemorated by a plaque within the walls of the fort.
After the British captured American Fort Niagara across the river on 19 December 1813, Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men was attached to the Royal Engineers to help repair the fortifications at the mouth of the Niagara River.
Toward the spring of 1814, the company was ordered to construct a new fort there which became Fort Mississauga. Many of the materials used were acquired from the nearby City of Newark, Upper Canada, which had been razed by the Americans when they retreated from the Canadian side and gave up Fort George.
--Brock-Perry
From Wikipedia.
Fort Mississauga National Historic Site is a fort located on the shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River by the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
It consists of a box-like brick tower surrounded by a star-shaped earthworks.
It was built from 1814-1816 during the War of 1812 to replace the nearby Fort George (which was considered to be too far from Lake Ontario). It was built on a foundation of brick and stone salvaged from rubble left over after retreating U.S. forces burned the nearby town of Newark (today's Niagara-on-the-Lake) in December 1813.
It would help in the defense of Upper Canada as a part of the regional network that also included Fort George, Navy Hall and Butler's Barracks.
However, Fort Mississauga was not completed until after the end of the war.
--Brock-Perry
On 21 May 1921 the site was named as a National Historic Site of Canada and a stone cairn placed on the site. During the mid-1930s, the Department of National Defence accepted an offer from the Niagara Parks Commission to reconstruct and restore Fort George, Fort Mississauga and Navy Hall in return for a 99-year lease on all three properties for C$1 a year; although the Department reserved the right to reclaim the properties with a six-month's notice.
The commission began to restore Navy Hall in August 1937 which was followed by work on the fort's gunpowder magazine. The fort's officers' quarters were moved to another part of the fort. The buildings erected during the First World War were relocated outside the fort.
During this period, bulldozers were used to push the fort's earthen ramparts back into place. The surrounding area was also cleared of undergrowth. In 1939, the reconstruction of Fort George's former buildings and a visitor centre outside the fort took place. White pine from northern Ontario was brought in for construction.
--Brock-Perry
In 1828, the headquarters of the British Army Centre Division was officially transferred to to York, Ontasrio. At that time, Fort George was reportedly just a few "wooden decaying barracks." In 1839, Navy Hall was converted into barracks for the fort's garrison and the former barracks became stables.
During the 1860s, the British government took control of the military complex in the area which included Fort George, Fort Mississauga, Butler's Barracks and the training common. The ruins of the fort were intermittenly leased to a private citizen who acted as the custodian-tenant of te property.
During that period, structures in the fort were converted to other uses: Officers quarters were incorporated into a farmhouse, the stone gunpowder magazine used for storing hay and the property itself used for grazing cattle.
By the 1880s, the bastions and gunpowder magazine were in bad condition.
In 1882, the Wright family was granted a lease by the Department of Militia Defence, which led to the opening of a golf club in the area with the golf course occupying portions of the ruin.
--Brock-Perry
Fort Niagara remained under British control for the rest of the war and their focus shifted to more strategically located Fort Niagara across the river instead of Fort George.
In July 1814, American forces under Winfoeld Scott attempted to capture Fort Niagara, but called off the attack when he realized that the naval support he had been promised would not come.
In 1817, American President James Monroe visited the Canadian side of the river on a goodwill trip and was entertained at Fort George by British officers. However, Fort George's inability to guard the entrance to the Niagara River caused a new installation named Fort Mississauga to be built near the mouth of the river in the 1820s.
During this same period, the constuction of Butler's Barracks was undertaken southwest of Fort George and out of range of American batteries.
The equipment within the fort was auctioned off in 1821 and the palisades relocated to other sites in the next year. By 1825, the body of Isaac Brock was exhumed from the northeast bastion and placed at Brock's Monument in Queenston.
--Brock-Perry
The lighthouse her husband operated was located where the remnants of Fort Mississauga are today, along the shore of Lake Ontario, surrounded by what is today the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club.
Mary calmly walked through thye men with refreshments and helped the wounded several times as the battle raged around her. She returned to her house near the lighthouse for more supplies. Miraculously, she was not wounded or killed.
When the American soldiers ntorched the town, she housed as many of the townspeople as she could at her place.
--Brock-Perry
One British officer later noted that: "Mississagua... is a pretty little Fort, and would prevent vessels coming up the river.."
These duties prevented the Coloured Corps from participating in the Niagara Campaign that summer.
Their services would have been of great assistance during the British Siege of Fort Erie in which the British desperately lacked the services of trained engineers.
Fort Mississagua: The tower and earthworks are all that remain of the barracks, guardroom and cells of Fort Mississagua. Built between 1813 and 1816 to replace Fort George as the counterpoise to the American Fort Niagara directly across the Niagara River from it, it was garrisoned until 1826.
Repaired and rearmed following the Rebellion of 1837, it continued to be maintained until 1854 in response to border disputes with the United States.
It was manned during the tense years of the American Civil War and the Fenian Scare of 1866, but by 1870 it was no longer considered of military value.
--Brock-Perry
After the British captured Fort Niagara on 19 December 1813, the Coloured Corps was attached to the Royal Engineers to help repair fortifications at the mouth of the Niagara River.
Whether racism influenced the authority's choice for this duty is not known, as one engineer later reported: "When I visited the Niagara Frontier... I found that a corps of Free Men of Colour had been raised... but had been turned over to that of the Engineers, any necessity for this I could never learn, but it seemed to be the fashion in Canada to heap all kinds of duties upon the latter."
Toward the spring of 1814, the company was ordered to construct a new fort on the Canadian shore named Fort Mississauga. With the American Navy in control of Lake Ontario, this work was essential to the security of British forces on the Niagara Peninsula.
--Brock-Perry
