the oldest piece of masonry in the State of New York, having been
constructed by the French in 1726. The stone-work of the barracks,
a structure 134 by 24 feet with walls only eight feet in height,
goes back to 1757, and in this year was, also, built the magazine.
The bake-house, replacing a former one on the same site, was put up
by the British in 1762 and the two stone block-houses by them in
1771 and 1773.
In the two hundred and eighty-eight and a half acres of the
government reservation here one is in touch visibly with the Past.
And what deeds of the Past these old stone buildings might tell if
they were given power of speech!
The name Niagara is of Iroquois origin, as are so many names of
New York State, and is of ancient application to the river and the
falls which bear them. The falls of the Niagara are indicated on
Champlain’s map of 1632 and in 1648 are spoken of by the Jesuit
Rugueneau as “a cataract of frightful height.” It is certain that
the indefatigable emissaries of the order of which he was a member
had penetrated to the region of the great falls before this. In
1678 the falls were visited by the Friar Louis Hennepin, who drew
a curious picture of them, still preserved, and gave a more curious
and exaggerated description.
[Illustration:
Copyright, Detroit Publishing Company
FORT NIAGARA, ON NIAGARA RIVER, N. Y.]
In the year that the good Friar Hennepin was paying his respects
to Nature’s great wonder, Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle was
building his fort at Frontenac, now Kingston, Canada West, and in
1675 King Louis XIV, that brilliant and indefatigable monarch of
France, whose legislative labors in opposition to race suicide
in Canada justly earned him the title of the Father of Canada,
bestowed upon our cavalier a large grant of land near his fort.
La Salle, inspired by the brilliant discoveries of Marquette and
Joliet in the region farther west than that wherein he had his
bailiwick, determined to explore the lands south of Ontario and
to connect the territories which he hoped thus to acquire with
Quebec by means of a series of posts. Empowered by his royal master
with letters warrant to embark upon this form of enterprise, he
crossed over Ontario, picked out a settlement point at, or near,
the present Lewiston, New York, and commenced the building of a
small vessel on Cayuga Creek above the falls, the supplies for this
vessel being carried from his little settlement near Lewiston,
below the falls, and in the direction of his main base at Fort
Frontenac. At the same time he commenced the construction of a
small fort at the mouth of the Niagara River, which would guard the
approaches to his work farther in the interior and would also
serve as one of the chain of posts by which he hoped to secure to
France the territory which he meant to acquire.
This little fort on Niagara Point at the mouth of the Niagara River
was kept up by La Salle during the remainder of his career in the
New World, and was continued by the Marquis de Nonville, Governor
of New France, who, in 1687, raised it to the dignity of a “fort
with four bastions.” At this time it was in the command of Troyes
with 100 men. Soon after this the little place was besieged by
Senecas, and while the four bastions and the other defences beat
off the savage foe, the garrison perished almost to a man from
the ravages of disease. Shortly after the point was abandoned
and allowed to fall into decay. During the succeeding years of
misfortune to the French the fort was filled only with weeds and
vines and savage visitors,--early prototypes of present-day tourist
throngs,--and it was not until 1725 that the place was reoccupied
and rehabilitated.
From this time for many years Fort Niagara was a little city in
itself and for a long time the greatest point south of Montreal or
west of Albany. The fort, proper, covered about eight acres and
had its ravines, ditches and pickets, curtains, counterscarps and
covered way; stone-towers, laboratory and magazine; mess-house,
barracks, bakery and blacksmith shop. For worship there was a
chapel with a large dial over the door to mark the course of the
sun. “The dungeon of the mess-house, called the black hole, was a
strong, dark, and dismal place; and in one corner of the room was
fixed the apparatus for strangling such unhappy wretches as fell
under the displeasure of the despotic rulers of those days. The
walls of this dungeon, from top to bottom, had engraved upon them
French names and mementos in that language. That the prisoners
were no common persons was clear, as the letters and emblems were
chiselled out in good style.”
The immense strategic importance of the post was not lost on the
English. It guarded approach to the treasured winter regions of the
great lakes with their store of furs, and it furnished a fine base
for negotiations with the Indians of New York State and the keeping
of them in a state of disaffection with the English.
In 1755, during that series of preliminary conflicts which marked
the beginning of the great battle royal between France and England
for the possession of the New World, an expedition against Niagara
was fitted out by Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, and proceeded
under his command as far as Oswego. Thus far it went and no
farther, for sickness and desertion thinned the ranks of the men,
and unfavorable weather, as well as the presence of the French in
strength at Frontenac just across the lake, rendered unwise further
advance in the Governor of Massachusetts’ project. It was not for
four years, 1759, that the arm of the English was used in strength
against the busy, ancient fort.
In this year General Prideaux, a capable officer, with Sir William
Johnson, of New York, as his second in command, was despatched
with a force of English colonial troops and Indians against the
post. Fort Niagara was garrisoned by 600 French soldiers under
the command of Captain Pouchot, a chevalier of the order of St.
Louis. About a mile up the river was a little wooden stockade
commanded by the half-breed Joincaire-Chabert, who with his brother
Joincaire-Clauzonne and a clan of Indian relatives had long been
a thorn in the side of the English in influencing the powerful
Five Nations against them. But Sir William Johnson was beginning
to have that ascendency over this savage federation which was to
be so great an aid to the English from this time forward and had
with him now 900 warriors of this clan to lead against the French.
So Joincaire closed up his little stronghold and joined his forces
to those of Pouchot, the combined strength of the two by no means
being sufficient to beat off the English attack.
There was another resource upon which Pouchot confidently relied,
however, and this was prospect of help from the back countries
controlled by the French. By order of Vaudreuil, the Governor
of New France, the French population of the Illinois, Detroit
and other distant posts had come down the Lakes, a motley and
picturesque throng, to help maintain the ascendency of France in
the New World. They were now gathered at various posts of the
French back country, and no sooner did Pouchot learn that the
English were about to attack him than he sent messengers to summon
all of these forces to Niagara.
The siege began with the clumsy lack of forethought which seemed
to mark all military operations of those days, which depended
chiefly upon native courage and final enthusiasm of assault to
carry through than wise foreplanning. The English trenches were
so unskilfully laid out that they were raked by the fire of the
fort. However, the English at last got down to business and their
batteries commenced to play upon the French. A prematurely bursting
shell from one of the coehorns killed Prideaux at almost the first
discharges of the bombardment and the command fell upon Sir William
Johnson, who proceeded with an enheartening energy to carry on the
good work. At the end of three weeks the rampart of Fort Niagara
was breached, more than 100 of the soldiery therein had been killed
and the garrison was in extremity. Yet Pouchot fought on valiantly,
resting upon the arrival of reinforcements from the French and
savage forces which he had summoned. At length a distant firing
told him that these were near.
Pouchot went with an officer to the bastion next to the river
and listened anxiously to the firing which told him that his
reinforcements were in conflict with the English and trying to
cut a way through to the beleaguered stronghold. For a time he
heard the sound of battle and then all was still. At length a
friendly Indian who had passed unnoticed through the lines of the
English came to the French commander. “Your men are defeated,” he
said in substance. Pouchot would not believe him. Nevertheless it
was true and this fact was the death-blow to French hold of Fort
Niagara. In the articles of surrender shortly afterward drawn up,
it was specially stipulated that the French should be protected
from the Indians as they feared that the massacre of Fort William
Henry would be avenged upon them. Johnson was able to restrain his
lawless allies and, though the fort was given to pillage, no French
lives were taken after the surrender.
From this time until the close of the American War of Independence
the post remained in English hands. During the Pontiac War of 1763
the Indians made an unsuccessful attack upon it and its garrison
frequently took part in small skirmishes with lurking unfriendly
Senecas in the woods around the post. Heavily garrisoned by the
English during the Revolution, it served as a base for the war
parties which frequently devastated the State of New York. Both the
expedition led by Colonel Butler, which culminated in the massacre
at Wyoming, New York, in 1778, and that which laid waste Cherry
Valley in the same year, started from Fort Niagara.
That the American forces were not unaware of the evil dominance of
this post on the far western border of New York, we cannot doubt,
as one of the objects of the expedition led by General Sullivan
against the Indians in 1779 was the destruction, if possible, of
Niagara; but this campaign ended only with the destruction of
Indian villages. Subsequent to the declaration of peace between
England and America, the point was held by English troops until it
was taken over by an American garrison in 1796, probably having
the distinction of being the last post surrendered by the English
to the Americans in the United States. In 1799, in anticipation of
another Indian war, the post was heavily reinforced.
A description of Fort Niagara between 1805 and 1814 has been given
by a daughter of Dr. West, surgeon to the post during those years.
It was then surrounded on three sides with strong pickets of
plank, firmly planted in the ground and closely joined together;
a heavy gate in front of double plank, closely studded with
iron spikes. The fourth side was defended with embankments of
earth under which were formerly barracks, affording a safe
though somewhat gloomy retreat for the families of soldiers, but
which had been abandoned and the entrance closed long before my
remembrance, having been so infested with rattlesnakes that had
made their dens within that it was hardly safe to walk across the
parade.
The last chapter in the history of the fort was not a glorious
one, though thoroughly typical of the desultory character of the
conflict between Great Britain and the United States which is known
as the War of 1812. The official declaration of the imminence of
hostilities reached Fort Niagara, June 26, 1812, and preparations
were immediately undertaken to strengthen and defend the work.
The fort was then under the command of Captain Leonard, United
States Artillery, with 370 men. During the night of December 19,
1813, the English, 500 strong, under Colonel Murray, crossed the
river, captured the sentinels and took the work by surprise,
killing 65 of the American garrison and taking prisoner almost all
of the remainder, with a loss to themselves of five men killed
and wounded. A disgraceful side of the matter is that none of the
American officers were at their posts at this time, but were off
junketing somewhere in the country near by. Twenty-seven cannon
of large calibre, 3000 stand of small arms, and a large amount
of clothing, garrison equipage, and commissary stores fell into
the hands of the British, who, as well, destroyed the villages of
Lewiston and Buffalo, besides all of the dwellings on the lake as
far as Eighteen-Mile Creek.
The capture of Fort Niagara was shortly afterwards characterized
in the following terms by General Cass who was ordered to the
frontier: “The fall of Niagara was owing to the most criminal
negligence; the force in it was fully competent for its defence.”
The English held Niagara until the close of the war and surrendered
it to the United States in March, 1815. The career of the point
from that time to the present has been merely one of growing old
gracefully.
FORT ONTARIO
OSWEGO--NEW YORK
It was in 1722 that Oswego, New York, was made the site of an armed
camp and, at that, it was more through the stubborn determination
of Governor Burnet of the colony that the thing should be done than
through any willingness of the staid burghers of the State Assembly
to co-operate with their executive in schemes leading to future
good. As a matter of fact, Governor Burnet is said to have paid the
bill for establishing his little fort out of his own pocket, though
he may have made this sum up in some other direction--authorities
do not tell us this kind of thing! Yet this little post was to
become one of the most decisive factors in determining the result
of the conflict between France and England for the New World, the
flags of three Christian nations were to fly over it at different
periods, and warriors white, red, French, English and colonial were
to struggle for its possession. So much grows out of so little!
[Illustration: The SOUTH VIEW of OSWEGO on LAKE ONTARIO
General Shirley _in 1755 Strengthen’d & inlarged this_ Fort _and
erected two others; one Westward 170 Square with a Rampart of
Earth & Stone. Another on the Opposite side of the Bason, 470
Yards distant from the_ Old Fort. _This which is called the_ East
Fort, _is built of Logs and the Wall is surrounded by a Ditch. The
Projection of the Rocks, renders the Channel at the Entrance into
the_ Onondaga River _very Narrow, and our Vessels are generally
warp’d from the Lake into the Bason_.
Explanation.
1. _The River Onondaga_
2. _The Lake Ontario_
From William Smith’s view of the Province of New York, London
edition of 1757]
One of the earliest mentions of Oswego in the history of the
colonies is that in 1687 the Onondaga Indians presented a petition
to the mayor and common council of Albany, that busy little trading
post, requesting them to establish a trading post and fort at this
point. The mayor and common council evidently thought that this
was too wild an undertaking; for no defences existed there when, in
1696, the restless Frontenac landed at Oswego Point on a punitive
expedition against the Five Nations and built himself a little
stockade fort before pressing on to fruitless victory into the
interior of the country.
The strategic importance of the location to the English was not
lost on these astute empire builders, giving access as it does
with the Hudson Valley by way of the Oswego River, through Oneida
Lake, to the headwaters of the Mohawk River, or giving access to
the Susquehanna Valley by way of the Oswego River, Lake Onondaga
and the head of the Susquehanna. During the governorship of Lord
Bellemont, in the province of New York, the establishment of a post
at Oswego was contemplated, and material was even ordered from
England for the purpose, but it remained for Governor Bellemont’s
successor to carry out in effect what had been before done in
theory.
In 1727 Governor Burnet called the attention of the councillors of
the province to the fact that he had established a post at Oswego
(the name was borrowed from the Iroquois), and added that he had
sent a captain, two lieutenants and sixty soldiers to the point and
that he intended to keep a force there always.
This announcement came to the ear of the governor of New France and
so incensed him that he sent a letter to Governor Burnet asking
that official why, in opposition to the plain stipulations of the
Treaty of Ghent which forbade the erection of works of defence or
offence, he had constructed and manned this fort. Governor Burnet
replied by calling attention to the French building of “Oneagorah”
or Niagara, thus showing that the practice of justifying a soiled
pot by pointing to a black kettle is of ancient foundation. Anyhow,
Governor Burnet went cheerfully on with his fortifying of Oswego,
though Governor Beauharnais sent several expeditions to harass and
deter his workmen.
This first fortification at Oswego was of a very simple character.
Beauharnais complained that it was “a redoubt with galleries and
full of loop-holes and other works belonging to fortifications,”
but Burnet merely says that the “walls were four feet thick of
large good stone” and finds no other details to dilate upon.
In 1741 the colony authorized the expenditure of 600 pounds,
sterling, to “erect a sufficient stone wall at a proper distance
around the trading house at Oswego, either in a triangular or
quadrangular form, as the ground will best admit of, with a bastion
or block-house in each corner to flank the curtain.” Later on we
find that complaints were made to the General Assembly that the
contractors who had the job in hand were using clay instead of
stone and that they were skimping their work fearfully in order to
line their pockets generously. This is one of the very earliest
public scandals of New York State and one that seems to have eluded
the muck-raker so far.
The post was abandoned between the years 1744 and 1755 as, on the
outbreak of hostilities with Canada, its occupants feared that they
could not in their exposed and unsupported position withstand an
attack in force from Quebec.
As the years went on, however, the post of Oswego became
increasingly valuable to the English and they in turn became far
more able to hold their own. Situated as it was between Niagara
and the ocean,--between the back country of the French and their
metropolis of Quebec,--it fairly broke the back of the long
wriggling French line of settlements, which extended from the mouth
of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi.
In 1755 the English authorities agreed upon a plan of invasion
of Canada and resolved to make Oswego their base of operations.
Accordingly Colonel Shirley, of Massachusetts, with his own and Sir
William Pepperell’s regiments, with some New Jersey and New York
militia, in addition, made his way to Oswego, arriving there about
the end of June, 1755. They were prevented by sickness and ill luck
from proceeding against Niagara as had been their intention, and
the one great thing that they accomplished was the rehabilitation
of the old fort. They also commenced a fort on the west side of
the river, which they called Fort Ontario, and Fort Ontario has
survived to the present day. An extract from the “Gentleman’s
Magazine” of 1756, New York Colonial Documents, gives an idea of
this undertaking:
When it was determined that the army at Oswego should go into
winter quarters, they began a new fort upon the hill upon the
east side of the river, about 470 yards from the old one; it is
800 feet in circumference and will command the harbor; it is
built of logs from 20 to 30 inches thick; the wall is 14 feet
high and is encompassed by a ditch 14 feet broad and 10 feet
deep; it is to contain barracks for 300 men. On the other side of
the river west from the old fort another new fort is erecting;
this is 170 feet square. A hospital of frame-work, 150 feet by 30
feet, is already built and may serve as a barrack for 200 men,
and another barrack is preparing of 150 feet by 24.
The second new fort noted in this extract is Fort George, a rude
structure and one not fitted long to stand against the elements.
Another result of Shirley’s expedition was to cause the French,
who had been rather inactive, to bestir themselves. In the fall of
1755 they heavily reinforced their posts, sending to Fort Niagara
a lively young Captain named Pouchot. In 1756 this observant man
despatched a memorial to his superiors at Quebec, setting forth
that the English at Oswego were not on the alert, or in force, and
that the capture of the post was a feasibility. The authorities at
Quebec thought well of this idea, so well in fact that Montcalm,
himself, who was at Fort Frontenac,--newly arrived in New France to
take over the command of the military forces of the whole French
new world,--took charge of the expedition, which was organized on
Captain Pouchot’s suggestion.
Before proceeding in force against Oswego, Montcalm ordered De
Villiers to proceed with 700 men to the headwaters of the Oswego
River and to observe the enemy at Oswego. This force advanced
rapidly, surprised and took Fort Bull, on Wood Creek near the
head of Oneida Lake, and destroyed a large amount of provisions
destined for Oswego. On May 7, 1756, a party of Indians set out
from Fort Niagara, made a descent upon some ship carpenters near
Oswego, and returned to Niagara with twelve scalps. These repeated
successes, joined with Braddock’s defeat, produced a profound
effect upon the Indians and caused the Iroquois Federation to side
for the time with the French. Throughout the early summer of this
year Montcalm’s men continued to harass the garrison at Oswego,
capturing many stores of provisions designed for Fort Ontario.
Montcalm hurried his preparations, so that by August he was ready
to march against Oswego with 3000 men well equipped. He landed on
Four-inch Point, east of Oswego, on August 11, and marched to a
swamp a short distance in the rear of Fort Ontario, where he gave
charge of the engineering operations now developing upon his
expedition to Captain Pouchot.
Pouchot constructed a road through the swamp in one night and
opened up with a battery upon Fort Ontario at sixty paces distance.
The garrison fled in disorder across the river to the old fort.
Montcalm sent a strong force to cross the river above to cut off
retreat and opened fire the next morning with a battery on the
river bank. Colonel Mercer, the English commander, was killed and
his men soon surrendered. The spoils of the conqueror were 120
cannon, 9 vessels of war in process of construction, and a great
quantity of provisions and munitions of war.
There now occurred another one of those horrible massacres which
fouled the name of the French through their inability to control
their savage allies. The prisoners numbered 1700, many of them
civilian employees in the ship-yards, and Montcalm had pledged
their safety. Notwithstanding this, more than a hundred were killed
by the savages, either quickly or by the slow process of torture.
The French losses in the siege were 30 killed and wounded, and the
English killed in fighting numbered 150.
The artillery of the English forts at Oswego was removed to
Fort Niagara and the forts were dismantled. The forts remained
unoccupied until 1759, when the English advancing to the attack of
Fort Niagara left a force of 500 men here to protect their rear
and keep open their lines of communication. The French advanced
against this small command and would have taken it by surprise
had not a priest insisted upon speaking to the troops before they
went into battle. The English became apprised of the approach of
the French during this delay and sallied out to attack them, with
victory in the subsequent battle crowning their efforts.
In 1760 General Amherst strengthened the forts at Oswego and left a
large force here which became valuable in the war against Canada.
This was one of the few fortunate moves that this general made.
Fort Ontario was also an important base for the British during the
war of American Independence. In 1777 the English Colonel St. Leger
gathered 700 men here and was joined by Brant with 700 Indians. The
combined forces marched to besiege Fort Stanwix at the head of the
Mohawk River, but were defeated and pursued back to their base,
where they hurriedly embarked for Montreal.