Butler's Barracks-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Was the home of Loyalist military officer John Butler (1728-1795), in what was then Newark, Upper Canada which is present-day Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.  Butler is most famous for leading an irregular military unit known as Butler's Rangers on thye northern frontier during the American revolution.  He fought against the Americans.

The original barracks were constructed in 1778 on the banks of the Niagara River, but were torn down during the construction of Fort George.  

The building currently called Butler's Barracks was constructed in 1818 and the site at one time was quite extensive, being first used by the Indian Department and later by thye British military.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Mississauga-- Part 1: Defending the Mouth of the Niagara Fiver

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

Mary Madden Henry, Canadian Heroine-- Part 2

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

Mary Madden Henry, Canadian Heroine-- Part 1

From the March 1, 2023, Niagara Now  "History shines spotlight on brave women of War of 1812" by Somer Slobodian.

Mary Madden Henry handed the hard-pressed troops hot beverages and food as the fighting continued around her.  It was a sight that would remain etched in the minds of those soldiers from then on.

And, these soldiers were British and Canadian, not Americans as I at first thought.

It was May 1813 and the Americans had just attacked British troops at Fort George, now Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Amid the fighting,  Mary Henry, who was married to the lighthouse keeper Dominic Henry, surely knew the risk she was taking.  She still braved the prospect of injury or death to help the troops.

--Brock-Perry

Just in Time for Halloween, Haunted Buffalo-- Part 1: Old County Hall's Dismembered Apparitions

From the October 28, 2020, Buffalo (NY) Rising "Haunted History: Old County Hall is at the center of Buffalo's most dramatic moments" by Daniel Lendzian.

THE WAR OF 1812

The Old County Hall is the site where Colonel Cyrenius Chapin surrendered  the village of Buffalo to the British on December 10, 1813, to British Lieutenant General  Gordon Drummond after American Brigadier General George McClure abandoned the village saying, "They may all be destroyed, and I don't care how soon."  (Nice guy.)

Drummond rejected Chapin's authority to surrender and proceeded to burn the village in retaliation for the American burning  of the British settlement Newark (Niagara-On-the-Lake) and previously having burned the Canadian provincial capital of York (now Toronto).

Much business is still done at the building today, especially in the basement.  Accordingly, every so many years there will be many people down there waiting for appointments and they will all come running up the stairs saying they had seen something that scared them.

They described apparitions as human bodies missing limbs.  Was the County Hall a burying ground?

Like Boo!!  --Brock-Perry

Fort George (National Historic Site, Canada)-- Part 1

Fort George (National Historic Site)
Run by the Friends of Fort George.

(1796 - 1824)   By Niagara-by-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Built with six earthen bastions with a palisade and a ditch.  It was the replacement for Fort Niagara, which was awarded to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris and the 1796 Jay Treaty.

The Center Blockhouse was within the fort, and the North and South Blockhouses (1797) were used as barracks.  Another blockhouse was built in 1800 inside the southeast redan , adjacent to the powder magazine.

The fort was bombarded by Fort Niagara in New York, in a rare duel between opposing forts, and then captured by American forces in May 1813.

--Brock-Perry

York/Toronto Canada

From Wikipedia.

In 1793, Upper Canada's Governor John Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase Land.  He moved Upper Canada's capital from Newark (today's Niagara-on-the-Lake) to York, believing it to be less vulnerable to American attack.

York Garrison (Fort York) was constructed at the entrance to York's natural harbor.

In 1813, the Battle of York ended with the capture of the town by U.S. forces.  The surrender was negotiated by York's John Strachan.  Americans destroyed much of York during a five day occupation which resulted in British payback with the burning of Washington, D.C..

York was incorporated as the city of Toronto (the Indian name for it) on March 6, 1834.

--Brock-Perry