Okay, So Who Was This Butler Who Had the Barracks

The last several posts I have been writing about Butler's Barracks, located in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.  I mentioned that Butler's Barracks were named after a Loyalist officer by the name of John Butler (1728-1796).

Well, who was he?

Essentially, an enemy of the new country the Patriots were trying to establish.

He was an American-born military officer, merchant, landowner and colonial official in the British Indian Deparment.  During the American Revolution he was a prominent Loyalist who led the provincial regiment Butler's Rangers on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania.

Born in Connecticut, he moved to New York.  To say he was a thorn in the side of Americans would be an understatement.  In thanks for his services, Britain was given a land grant in the Niagara region.  This eventually became Butler's Barracks.

I'll write about him in my Cooter's History Thing blog later.

--Brock-Perry

Butler's Barracks-- Part 3: Polish Army Trained There in WW I

From October 1917 to  March 1919, the Polish Army trained at Niagara Camp in an area known as Camp Kosciuszko.  These men would go on to fight alongside the French Forces, in Haller's Army, also known as the Blue Army in World War I.

After the war, the barracks that were constructed at Camp Kosciuszko were used into the 1960s.

It is now  part of the Fort George National Historic Site.

The Lincoln and Welland Regimental Museum is located at  in Butler's Barracks.  Exhibits include displays and artifacts from the 18th century through to the present, including uniforms, weapons, medals, photographs, regimental  band instruments and other memorabilia.

--Brock-Perry

Butler's Barracks-- Part 2: One of Several Military Installations Along Niagara River

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

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 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

Fort Mississauga-- Part 2: Built from Ruins of Newark, Upper Canada

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

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

Fort George-- Part 13

Fort George's reconstruction was completed by 1939 with the installation of wooden gates.  Reconstruction and preservation were largely based on the fort's original 1799 designs and largely competed through make-work programs designed to find work for unemployed during the Great Depression.

Wood during the reconstruction was pressurized using creosote for longevity.

Fort George was included in the 1939 Royal Tour of Canada, though the calvacade only passed by it and did not go inside.  Then came the Second World War.  The fort was opened to the public on 1 July 940 although its official dedication was not until June 1950 when there was a fly-by by the Canadian and U.S. Air Force.

--Brock-Perry

Historic Fort George-- Part 12: Conversion Into Historic Site

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

Historic Fort George-- Part 11: 'A Desecration of Sacred Heroic Sites' and First World War Use

The golf course changed to an 18-hole course in 1895, further expanding into the ruins of the fort.  Then the golf club proposed clearing the remaining ruins of the fort.  This caused a major controversy.  members of the golf club were primarily Americans  summering in the area.

This brought about much criticism from locals and even newspapers in Toronto who called it  a "desecration of scared heroic sites."  Facing this outcry, the golf club abandoned its plans for the fort's ruins.  The club eventually dissolved after the First World War.

During the First World War, the Canadian government built a military hospital on the site of the fort's esplanade with a kitchen, mess and guardhouse collectively known as Camp Niagara.

--Brock-Perry

Historic Fort George-- Part 10: 1828 to 1882

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

Historic Fort George-- Part 9: After the War of 1812

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

Historic Fort George-- Part 8: British Recapture It and Then Capture American Fort Niagara

The Americans had intended to use Fort George as a bridgehead in Canadian territory to launch further attacks.  However, that did not come to pass.  Disease,  increased desertion rates,  risks of ambushes and a general British advance toward the fort following their victories at  Stoney Creek and Beaver Dams kept it from doing that.

American forces began a slow withdrawal from the fort until in December 1813, there were but 60 soldiers there.  Upon receiving intelligence that a force of 1,500 British and 500 First Nations Indians were advancing the Americans withdrew and razed the fort and nearby settlement.

The American garrison left the fort on December 11 after spiking the cannons and destroying the town.  However, the fort itself was left intact.

British forces arrived shortly after the Americans left.  Nine days later, they conucted an attack across the Niagara River that led to the capture of the American Fort Niagara and the razing of American communities in retaliation for what had happened to Niagara (the name of Niagara-on-the-Lake as it is called today).

--Brock-Perry

Historic Fort George-- Part 7: American Occupation

Although the British evacuated the fort on June 7,  Americans did not formally occupy it until June 9.  Once the Americans were in the fort they set about immediately working on new fieldworks, refortifying bastions and extending the northwest bastion.  The fort now served as the U.S. Army of the Center's headquarters.

Although American forces used some parts of the fort's old fieldwork, the fort was made substantially smaller, into a more defensible pentagonal-shaped fortification. In addition to this, they also repaired the palisades and added entrenchments near the northeast bastion and towards the river.

They did not, however, build any permanent structures within the fort, instead garrisoning small outlyng posts around the fort.

The American intention was to use the fort as a staging area for further attacks inthe Niagara peninsula.  

--Brock-Perry

This Month in War of 1812: Chesapeake Bay, Lewes, Mobile, West Florida and York

All events in April 1813.

APRIL 1813

**  Commerce raids  begin in the Chesapeake Bay.

APRIL 6, 1813

**  Lewes, Delaware bombarded by the British.

APRIL 13

**  Capture of Mobile, Alabama, by the British

APRIL 15

Americans occupy West Florida.

APRIL 27

**  Battle of York.

--Brock-Perry

Historic Fort George-- Part 6: The Battle of Fort George

The Battle of Fort George began on 26 May 1813, when Fort George was subjected to an artillery barrage and heated shots from Fort Niagara across the river. Joining also from the Americans were new batteries along the shore of the Niagara River.  The result was the destruction of log buildings inside the fort.

Two days later, an American landing force of 2,500 crossed the river in  four waves about 1.9 miles from Fort George under cover of cannonade fire.  By the time the third wave attacked, Fort George's commander, Brigadier General  John Vincent, realized that his force of 560 men could not hold the place and were in risk of being outflanked and trapped in the fort.

He ordered the fort evacuated after the ammunition was destroyed and cannons spiked.  First Nations warriors under John Norton covered the British retreat although the Americans made no real effort to pursue them.

The Americans approached the fort carefully wanting to avoid possible casualties from the explosion of the fort's magazine, like had happened at the conclusion of the Battle of York.  Even so, they arrived in time to prevent the destruction of a substantial part of the fort.  They were able to extinguish one of the fuses that was going to blowup the magazine.

--Brock-Perry