Fort Montgomery on Lake Champlain-- Part 2: Named for Richard Montgomery

When a new survey discovered that the 45th parallel was actually located 3/4th mile south, effectively placing the fort in Canada, all construction on the fort stopped.  Much of the material was scavenged by locals for use in their own homes and public buildings.

There is no evidence that the fort was named before this.  Most contemporary documents list the fortification as the "works," "fortification" or "battery" at Rouse's Point.  It is often mistakenly referred to as Fort Montgomery.  However, the site of the first fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Fort Montgomery in 1977.

It was eventually decided to build a second fort on the site after the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 ceded the strategically important Island Point, the site of the 1816 fort and the northernmost  point on Lake Champlain, to the United States.

Construction began on the new fortification  two years later and it was officially named Fort Montgomery  in honor of the American Revolution's Major General Richard Montgomery who was killed during the 1775 invasion of Canada at Quebec City.

Fort Montgomery was one of the very few "Permanent" ot "Third System" built along the Northern Frontier.  Most of them were built along the Atlantic Coast.

--Brock-Perry

Not to Be Confused with the First Fort Montgomery on the Hudson River

In the last several posts I have been writing about a U.S. fort on Lake Champlain near the Canadian border that was built after the War of 1812, for the purpose of stopping any further incursion into New York by British/Canadian forces.

The fort was first built on the wrong side of the border and was derisively called Fort Blunder for some reason.  Later, the U.S. negotiated  for the land and it was built and named for Richard Montgomery, an American Revolution general who was killed.  (I've also written about two American warships named after him, one in the Revoution and the other in the War of 1812.)

However, this fort is not to be confused with the first Fort Montgomery which was built on the Hudson River.  This fort was built in 1776 and a battle took place there in 1777.  

I'll write about this fort in my Cooter's History Thing blog at some point in the future.

--Brock-Perry

New York's Fort Blunder/Montgomery Has War of 1812 Connection-- Part 2: How It Became Known as Fort Blunder

In order to defend Lake Champlain and the border, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed and started construction of permanent fortifications near that border in 1816.  However, due to some poor surveying, this fort was built nearly  a mile on the northern side of the U.S.-Canadian border.

This was a huge "Oops."  Not surprisingly, this fortification became known as Fort Blunder.

The second fort, properly surveyed this time, was built between 1844 and 1871 at Rouse's Point in Clinton County, New York.  Unlike many contemporary forts of the time, it wasn't built of bricks, but stone instead.

The fort was named after General Richard Montgomery who was killed leading the American attack on Quebec in 1775 (during the first American invasion of Canada).  At its  height,the fort mounted over eighty guns on three levels (it was designed for 125) and was surrounded by a moat which could only be crossed by a drawbridge.

That Was A Big OOPS.  --Brock-Perry