Fort Mississauga-- Part 3: Operations

With the American Navy now controlling Lake Ontario, the importance of this fort was crucial to British security in the area.

The British Army was stationed in the fort from 1813 to 1855, after which the Canadian militia provided garrison duty.    The militia used  it as a summer training ground beginning in the 1870s and this went on for both World Wars and the Korean War.

Today, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course surrounds the site, but public access is permitted via a walking path.  But, there are warnings for visitors to watch out for golfers who have the  right of way.

The blockhouse is the only original structure still standing.  All the other buildings (which were mostly log structures) have been destroyed or dismantled.  The interior of the blockhouse is closed, but there are wooden staircases providing access.

--Brock-Perry

Seven Things You Didn't Know About New York City's Central Park-- Part 3: The War of 1812 Blockhouse

4.  Another relic of the War of 1812, which never reached New York City or Manhattan, the Blockhouse is the second-oldest structure in the park, after Cleopatra's Needle (1450 BC).  The Blockhouse was built in 1814 to protect against a British attack (something that never came in the war or afterwards in case you count the Beatles).

At its strongest, it n consisted of a two-story bunker and could hold up to 2,000 militiamen.

When this northern part of area was added to the park's design in 1863, Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux decided  to leave the Blockhouse as a charming piece of history.

--Brock-Perry

Fort George, Canada-- Part 3: Built After Fort Niagara Turned Over to the Americans

This information from The Friends of Fort George  "The History of Fort George."

The British turned over Fort Niagara (on the American side of the Niagara River in 1796, in accordance to the Jay's Treaty of 1774, and the British immediately began construction of a fort on their side of the rive, Fort George, which was completed by 1802.  Its outer defenses included six large earthen bastions surrounded by a dry ditch.  Log blockhouses, a kitchens, a hospital, workshops, barracks, officers quarters and a stone powder magazine were constructed inside the walls.

The fort loomed over Navy Hall and commanded transportation along the Niagara River and served as the headquarters of the Centre Division of the British Army during the War of 1812.  Major General Sir Isaac Brock served at Fort George until his death at the Battle of Queenston Heights on October 12, 1812. The bodies of Brock and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel John Macdonell were interred in the northeast bastion after the battle until moved to the first Brock Monument in 1824.

--Brock-Perry  (The Brock is for Sir Isaac Brock.)

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

Benjamin Stephenson=-- Part 6: A Line of Blockhouses Across the Illinois Territory

From the Benjamin Stephenson House Site "The War of 1812 and Indian Threat."

In the early days of the Illinois Territory, Indians posed a definite threat to white settlement.  The fact that the British constantly meddled in Indian affairs trying to stir them up, made matters worse.

When Ninian Edwards, for whom Edwardsville is named, became territorial governor in 1809, he organized and strengthened the territory's militia.  Benjamin Stephenson was appointed brigade commander of the militia and later became adjutant.

One of the first things Stephenson did was to build a line of blockhouses across the state from east to west.  This line was anchored by Fort Russell, just north of Edwardsville.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Gray on the Niagara Escarpment-- Part 3: British Attack in 1813

In 1812, the U.S. Army erected another blockhouse on the site.  Army captain Nicholas Gray arrived and found the remains of the British blockhouse overlooking the Niagara Gorge above Lewiston.

In December 1813, the British attacked Lewiston.  A small detachment from Fort Gray, under Major Benajah Mallory, a Canadian volunteer, was able to hold the British at bay for a short time while they advanced toward Manchester, now Niagara Falls.  This enabled local residents time to flee.

The British marched from Lewiston to Fort Niagara, south of Niagara Falls and east along the Ridge Road, burning everything in its path.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Gray on the Niagara Escarpment-- Part 2: British Take Control After the French and Indian War

Hundreds of Seneca Indians carried 100-pound packs up the steep hill on all-fours.  At the top these were loaded on wagons for the next leg of the journey to Fort du Portage on the Niagara River above the falls. From there the cargo was transported to boats for the rest of the journey to the Great Lakes.

The French used the site until 1759 when it was burned and destroyed to keep it from the British in the French and Indian War.

Five years later, the British built eleven new blockhouses along the portage route between the top of the escarpment and Fort Schlosser (former Fort du Portage) after the Devil's Hole Massacre of September 1763.  One of these was the one that replaced the former French blockhouse at the site.

The Seneca Indians were replaced with a mechanized tramway system.

The British held this blockhouse until 1796 when they finally evacuated Fort Niagara.

--Brock-Perry

Archaeologists Look for Fort Russell in Illinois-- Part 2

In 1812 Indians killed a settler near what is now the Village of Pochahontas and another near present-day Alton.  This caused Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards to order the construction of several blockhouses (two-story windowless) where settlers could take refuge, at twenty mile intervals between the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers.

Troops were stationed at Fort Russell and cannons from Fort de Chartres, a former French outpost, were brought in for defense.

Kind of Sad When You Lose a Whole Fort.  --Brock-Perry