Project:1812 – Fort Niagara

If you have had the chance to go down by the river banks and lake shore in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, there’s a good chance that you’ve looked across the water and seen a series of stone buildings on the opposite shore. That is the former Fort Niagara, some of the oldest stone buildings in the area. The promontory that stands at the entrance to the Niagara River on Lake Ontario has long been a strategic location. While originally part of the traditional lands of the Seneca Peoples, a member of the Haudenosaunee, it has been one of the longest-serving military posts in North America’s colonial history. Today, it is part of Youngstown, New York, and is home to Fort Niagara State Park, a former US Army base that still hosts a small US Coast Guard detachment.

Noted French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, first arrived in the area in 1678, travelling from Ville Marie (Montreal, Quebec), stopping at Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario) before proceeding further along Lake Ontario. He arrived at the Niagara River in December of that year. Recognising the value of the promontory and its proximity to existing Indigenous trade routes, Cavelier ordered a fur trade post to be constructed there. In early 1679, a small fort had been completed, a simple storehouse and wooden palisade wall, manned by a small garrison. Cavelier used it to launch an expedition further up the Niagara River, where he encountered Niagara Falls. Fort Conti served as a shifting point for ships arriving from Fort Frontenac, where larger lake boats could offload goods into smaller canoes and bateaux for movement along the river. The garrison would not last the year when it returned to Fort Frontenac, carrying a story that the fort had been raided by local Seneca and burned, but it’s more likely that the garrison did not wish to remain in the area during the hard winters. It would be a decade later that the governor of New France, Jacques-René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, ordered a new post established on the Niagara River. In the summer of 1687, Captain Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes and a garrison of 100 men were sent to the region to pacify the local Seneca peoples. Captain de Troyes constructed a larger post consisting of eight buildings and a stockade and named it Fort Denonville. In addition to acting as a post in the fur trade, it also served as a base for military operations. The attacks against the Seneca did not go unanswered, and they laid siege to Fort Denonville. The siege denied the garrison forage and fresh air; eighty-nine died of scurvy, disease and starvation. When a relief force arrived in 1688 and drove off the attackers, only twelve survivors were rescued. Father Pierre Millet, a Jesuit priest, erected a cross to mark the mass grave and celebrated a mass of thanksgiving for the survivors. In the fall, the fort was pulled down, and the garrison left, not wanting to endure another potential siege or winter in the area.

The French would not return to the area until 1720, when Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire arrived and spoke with the Seneca to obtain permission to establish a more permanent presence in the region. When permission was granted, de Joncaire constructed a stone structure on the right bank of the river, naming it Magasin Royal, or Maison de la Paix (Royal Store or House of Peace), to ensure the Seneca knew his mission was one of peace. French engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry constructed a two-storey stone building on the site in 1726 to serve that purpose. Additional defences were constructed around the stone building. The French, realising that their post was in a key strategic location at the start of the French and Indian War, began expanding the post in 1755. While the first years of the war saw quiet, in July 1759, a British and Indigenous Allied force under Major-General Sir William Johnson, Brigadier General John Prideaux, and Sayenqueraghta laid a nineteen-day siege of Fort Niagara. While the French attempted to relieve the garrison, the force was ambushed by the British at the Battle of La Belle-Famille, leaving the French no choice but to surrender; Captain Pierre Pouchot officially surrendered to the British on 26 July 1759. British troops immediately garrisoned the post and began constructing additional works to defend the site. Two stone bastions were constructed, along with new artillery batteries, in case the French decided to counterattack and retake the site. Such an attack never came. In September 1759, the Battle of the Plains of Abraham proved to be a pivotal victory in the British campaign. It led to the capture of Montreal a year later in 1760, effectively ending French control in the region. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded all of New France to the British, ending the war. The British Crown would officially purchase the land on which Fort Niagara stood under the terms of the Treaty 381 (The Niagara Purchase) in 1781. During the American Revolution, Fort Niagara remained a British stronghold and eventually became a refuge for Loyalists fleeing violence from the American Rebels. While the fort remained in British hands, a small settlement grew up along the riverside and became known as The Bottom, a rough place filled with crude taverns, stores, and bordellos. During his captivity at the fort in 1779, Lieutenant-Colonel William Stacy noted that this part was known for drinking, brawling, whoring and cheating. The British continued to maintain control of the Fort even after the Revolution ended and the new United States became an independent nation. It wasn’t until 1796 that the British were forced to turn over the garrison to the American government under the terms of the Jay Treaty.

The Jay Treaty brought an uneasy peace to the region. The British would construct their new post across the river in the town of Newark/Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario), naming it Fort George. And while both posts constructed artillery batteries at the forts and in the surrounding area and kept them aimed at each other, things began to settle into a truce. The officers would often cross the river and have dinner together. Many of the American officers and their families would attend services at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Newark. This truce would be broken in the summer of 1812 with the American declaration of war. There is an urban legend that General Isaac Brock was hosting the American officers at Fort George when word reached him that war had been declared. He announced this after dinner, and the Americans were allowed to return to their side of the river. The following morning, both sides opened fire with artillery. The first casualty from artillery fire from Fort Niagara came on 21 November 1812, when the guns of the fort sank HM Schooner Seneca (4). The fort also fired on Fort George and the surrounding shore batteries during the American invasion of the region in May 1813, resulting in the capture of the town and Fort George. American forces retreated to Fort Niagara and offered shelter to residents of the town of Niagara during their retreat from the Canadian side in December of that year. By this time, the post was under the command of Major George Armistead, who ordered a large garrison flag to be sewn for the post. The small garrison did not stand a chance when a vengeful British force captured it in a daring early morning raid as revenge for the destruction of Niagara in the wake of the American retreat. While the British were successful in capturing the post, they remained pinned down by heavy resistance from the local militia and were unable to make a successful breakout. After word reached the post that the Treaty of Ghent had ended the war, the post was turned over to the Americans in May 1815.

During the uneasy post-war era, both the British and Americans maintained garrisons across the river from each other. While the British never fully rebuilt Fort George, they did construct a smaller fort closer to Fort Niagara, named Fort Mississauga, which allowed British guns to counter the American batteries better. Tensions would slowly ease over the next couple of decades with the signing of the Rush-Bagot Agreement in 1818, which significantly reduced the strength of both the American and British naval presences on the Great Lakes. The peace seemed to hold until the American Civil War. A renewed Anglo-American conflict nearly boiled over in 1861 when news of the capture of the British ship RMS Trent was received. Two Confederate ambassadors, James Mason and John Slidell, who had taken passage aboard the Trent to travel to England, were arrested when the USS San Jacinto (6) intercepted and fired on the Trent. The Trent Affair saw the United States begin to reoccupy Fort Niagara and complete several upgrades, including a masonry wall and additional artillery batteries. Thankfully, the event was resolved through diplomatic means rather than armed conflict. However, both sides continued to watch each other with unease until the signing of the Treaty of Washington in 1871. The American Civil War also marked the end of colonial-era fortifications; modern heavy rifled artillery easily made holes in the masonry and stone forts of the past. Instead, the American Army began expanding a modern army camp in the area around the colonial “Old” fort. Modern infrastructure, including masonry barracks, houses, and armouries, was constructed. Modern ranges for rifled firearms were constructed along with railway access. During the buildup to the American entry into World War I, the site provided training to both enlisted and officers in 1917. In World War II, the fort was used as an induction centre for recruits and then later as a prisoner of war camp for German troops captured in North Africa. During the Cold War, Fort Niagara served as headquarters for anti-aircraft artillery and Nike missile systems until those operations were moved to Lockport Air Force Station. Army operations at Fort Niagara began to wind down in 1958, and in 1963, the US Army officially decommissioned the fort, leaving only the US Coast Guard post on the site.

Even during its time as a US Army base, work on restoring the historic fort was underway. Restoration began in the 1920s, with a formal operating license being granted in 1931 to the Old Fort Niagara Association to operate a non-profit museum at the colonial fort. Restoration work only increased during the Great Depression as a make-work project to provide local employment for those affected by the stock market crash. In 1934, the Old Fort officially opened to the public. Following the closure of the Army Base in 1963, the entire property was turned over to the State of New York. During the Parks authority’s remediation and cleanup of the site from 1965 6, most of the 100 buildings on the property were demolished. The old fort would be officially recognised as a historic site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 9 October 1960. The entire district would be recognised on 15 October 1966. Today, the area is known as the Fort Niagara State Park. In addition to the colonial fort, the 1872 lighthouse still stands, and there’s a historic cemetery with graves ranging from the War of 1812 to more modern markers. Several new fort buildings still stand and are in various states of repair, but are not accessible to the public; these include Building 88, the Officers Club, Commandant’s house, second-in-command’s house, a warehouse, and the theatre. Each year, the fort hosts several reenactments, including the 1759 Battle, the 1813 Capture, and other events from the timeline. In 2013, the fort also hosted a reenactment of the December capture by the British, following the original timeline, which saw the British reenactors march from the original landing site to the Fort in the early hours of the morning.

Written with files from:
Guidebook to the Historic Sites of the War of 1812, Second Edition by Gilbert Collins – 2006 The Dundurn Group Publishers
Lossing, Benson John. The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812. Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub., 2003. Print.
Web: oldfortniagara.org