Fort Niagara
Fort Niagara is a fortress dating back to the 17th century at the confluence of the Niagara River in Lake Ontario in the area of the city of Youngstown in the US state of New York . Because of its strategic importance, it played a key role in several wars.
Under French rule
As the first fortification at Fort Niagara, the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, had Fort Conti built in the spring of 1679 , as it was suitable as a stopover for ships bringing supplies across the lake to Fort Frontenac , an important one La Salles base. It was named after Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti . However, the fort was destroyed by fire that same year. A second fort was built in the summer of 1687 by Jacques-Rene de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville , the governor of New France ( Canada ). Denonville led a campaign against the Seneca belonging to the tribal group of the Iroquois ; the fort was supposed to serve their submission. However, the 100-man garrison was so decimated by cold, hunger and disease that the detachment in the spring of 1688 only found 12 survivors. As a result, the fort was abandoned and destroyed because of its isolated location.
During the colonial wars with Great Britain in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the French began building a series of fortifications designed to keep the British out of the Great Lakes area . In this context they built in 1726 with the permission of the Iroquois near a branch established by the merchant Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire in 1720 at Fort Denonville, a stone house with a palisade fortification (today French Castle ). It served as a branch for the lucrative fur trade and the location of a small French garrison. During the War of the Austrian Succession , the French reinforced the fortifications, but there was no fighting.
During the peace that followed, Fort Niagara was the starting point for various undertakings with which the French tried to secure their rule in the Ohio River valley and built a chain of forts from Lake Erie to Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh ). After the outbreak of the French and Indian War ( Seven Years War ) in 1754, the fort was one of the most important French bases on the Great Lakes. Therefore there was an advance by British militia troops under General William Shirley as early as 1755 , which, however, due to numerous delays, only reached Fort Oswego and had to be canceled. The French then began extensive reinforcements of the fort, which was surrounded with bastions, enlarged and provided with capacity for more troops. In the following years Fort Niagara was the base for numerous attacks by the French allied Indians on the British colonies. The Iroquois neutrality was necessary for the security of the French. However, after the British Indian superintendent Sir William Johnson managed to win them over to his side at the end of 1758, the British did not hesitate long to attack Fort Niagara.
The French expected an attack and prepared for it by sending reinforcements and reinforcing the fortifications. In the summer of 1759, a British army under Brigadier John Prideaux advanced from Albany towards the Great Lakes. Part of this army of 2,000 soldiers and 1,500 Iroquois under the command of Johnson, who took over command after the death of Prideaux, began the siege of the fort, which was defended by 600 French on July 6th. 1,500 French and Indians tried on July 24, to break through the siege ring, but suffered a loss-making defeat in the battle of La Belle Famille and had to withdraw. Thereupon the commandant, Captain Pierre Pouchot , had nothing other than the surrender, which took place on July 25, 1759.
Under British rule
The British garrison at Fort Niagara was initially in a delicate position. The supply of this isolated outpost was so difficult that in the winter of 1759-1760 an epidemic of scurvy broke out, of which 150 soldiers were killed by the spring of 1760. With the collapse of the French resistance later this year, Fort Niagara changed its role to that of a supply depot and transport hub for the settlements and forts in the Upper Lakes area. At the same time, negotiations took place here with the aim of improving the relationship with the Indian tribes of the Great Lakes, which had previously been allied with the French. These efforts were unsuccessful, and the growing resentment of many tribes about their treatment by the British led to the Pontiac Uprising in the spring of 1763 , during which they overran eight British forts, besieged the great fortresses of Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit, and brought British rule over the Ohio Valley Brought down. Fort Niagara itself was not attacked and played an important role as a starting point for supplies to Detroit. Not far away, the British suffered the worst defeat of this conflict when a wagon train with supplies for Detroit near Devil's Hole at Niagara Falls was ambushed by Seneca , which also destroyed a troop sent to help from Fort Schlosser, with a total of about 80 soldiers fell. In the summer of 1764, the British gathered an expedition under Colonel John Bradstreet in Fort Niagara, with which Detroit should be appalled and the uprising at the Great Lakes ended. Simultaneously, Sir William Johnson was negotiating with the tribes of the Upper Lakes at the fort, which resulted in many of them renewing their friendship with the British. Bradstreet's troops were able to advance into Detroit without much resistance, and the Indians gave up their fight without any major clashes.
Fort Niagara limited itself to keeping the fortifications intact enough for the next ten years to be able to withstand Indian attacks (without artillery). Because of this, parts of the fort fell apart. Renewed military importance began in 1775 with the open outbreak of the American War of Independence . Like its French predecessors, the garrison secured the route to the Great Lakes, protected trade as far as the war did not stop it, and served to support military operations in the west. Fort Niagara from the allied with the British Iroquois and loyalist led (ie the British Crown loyal colonists..) Volunteer corps - particularly the 1777/78 established Butler's Rangers - a series of devastating attacks on settlements in the states of New York and Pennsylvania from. Fort Niagara was isolated for a time by the American advance into Canada ( Battle of Québec ) in 1775, but was not directly threatened. In 1777 parts of the garrison were involved in an advance into the valley of the Mohawk River to support General John Burgoyne's unfortunate Saratoga campaign . American troops under General John Sullivan advanced into the region in 1779 to punish the Iroquois for their attacks, but did not attack the fort. The British had to supply the Iroquois from Fort Niagara in the winter of that year, as their villages and crops had been largely destroyed by Sullivan's campaign. Until the end of the war, Fort Niagara remained a base for raids into American territory, a transit station for the "loyalists" expelled from the USA and also for prisoners of war on their way to Canada. Hundreds of American civilians abducted by the Iroquois were also ransomed by the British here. The fort also played an important role for intelligence purposes; from here, American troop movements were spied on and messages passed on to Canada.
After the British defeat in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the war was decided, but hostilities at the border continued until the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1783. According to the demarcation set out in this treaty, Fort Niagara was on American territory and had to be evacuated by the British. Due to disputes over the clauses of the treaty, the evacuation of the fort and other British bases such as Detroit was significantly delayed . It was not until the Jay Treaty of 1794/1795 that an agreement was reached, according to which Fort Niagara and other British bases were to be handed over to the USA on June 1, 1796. That is why American troops moved into Fort Niagara in the summer of 1796.
Under American rule
In the years that followed, numerous American settlers poured into the area around Fort Niagara, which was previously only inhabited by Indians. Several cities emerged. Militarily, the US Army garrison found itself in a delicate position, as the British built Fort George on the other side of Niagara , which was made of wooden palisades, but was higher and therefore artillery dominated the position of Fort Niagara, its fortifications also on were aimed at an attack from the land side and therefore offered little protection. The nearest US troops, however, were in Fort Oswego , 150 miles away.
When the British-American War broke out, Fort Niagara was understaffed and in disrepair, and thus hardly prepared for war. In view of his precarious situation, the commander Nathaniel Leonard concluded a truce with the British, which allowed them to withdraw troops and with them to conquer Detroit . After the armistice expired, the Americans used Fort Niagara as a base for an invasion of Canada, but suffered a heavy defeat after crossing the Niagara in the Battle of Queenston Heights on October 13, 1812. In the course of these skirmishes, there was an artillery duel between Fort Niagara and Fort George, in which the former came under fire so heavy that the US soldiers had to evacuate the fort. Another battle of this type occurred on November 21st.
After intensive preparations, the USA launched another attack in the spring of 1813. After a heavy bombardment of Fort George, which began on May 25, an army under Major General Henry Dearborn crossed Niagara on May 27 and drove the British from the ruins of Fort George. However, the invaders were defeated during their advance in the battles at Stoney Creek (June 6) and Beaver Dams (June 24) and were forced to retreat onto the Niagara. In December, US troops also evacuated Fort George and burned not only it, but also the city of Newark, prompting the British to take appropriate acts of revenge. Since Fort Niagara was also weakened by the withdrawal of numerous soldiers, the British carried out a surprise attack on the night of December 18-19, which was facilitated by lax American security measures. The British managed to occupy the gate during the Changing of the Guard and force the garrison to surrender after a tough battle that killed 65 of the 433 Americans. The commander Leonhard, who had stayed with his family in nearby Lewiston , was captured by the British gate guard the next morning when he was about to return to his duties. His capture saved him from court martial. In retaliation for the American riots in Newark, the British systematically destroyed the areas around Fort Niagara. There was no American attempt at reconquest; the fortress remained in British hands until the end of the war. On May 22, 1815, American troops took over the fort again, the British withdrew to Fort George and the newly created Fort Mississauga . The rapid end of tensions with Great Britain prevented large-scale expansion plans for Fort Niagara from being implemented.
After the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, the Niagara lost its importance as a transport and trade route, which also resulted in a significant loss of importance for Fort Niagara, which was therefore given up a year later. In 1826 the abandoned facility played a major role in a scandal about the former Freemason William Morgan , who aroused his anger by revealing the secrets of his order and was therefore kidnapped by Freemasons and temporarily imprisoned in the powder magazine at Fort Niagara. From here he finally disappeared without a trace. The whereabouts of Morgan is still unknown. The case played an important role in fueling aversions to the Freemasons in New York and the United States. In 1828 the US Army occupied the fort again, the fortifications of which were considerably strengthened after the unrest in Canada in 1837 and increasing tensions in the years that followed. After these tensions had subsided, the fort was temporarily unoccupied until the outbreak of civil war . Due to fears that Great Britain would intervene on the side of the Confederate in the civil war, began extensive, again unfinished fortification work; From 1865 the fort was again the location of a garrison, which among other things had to stop the activities of Irish irregulars ( Fenian Brotherhood ) against Canada from American soil , which had led to considerable tensions between the USA and Great Britain. Fort Niagara subsequently remained a location for the US Army and was expanded considerably. During the colonial war in the Philippines (1899) it was used as a training camp for troops before combat. It had the same function during the First World War . In the meantime, the historical part of the fort fell into disrepair until the Old Fort Niagara Association , an association of citizens interested in preserving the historical structure, took over the restoration of the buildings and the establishment of a museum in 1927 . During the Second World War , the new part of the fort served again as a training center, partly also as a prisoner-of-war camp for members of the German Africa Corps . The plans for the final abandonment of Fort Niagara, which existed in 1945, were delayed by the Korean War and only implemented in 1963.
The entire facility has now been taken over by the Old Fort Niagara Association , which has since looked after it in collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . In October 1960, the fort was recognized as a National Historic Landmark under the name Old Fort Niagara . In October 1966, it was listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places . Most of the buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries were torn down in 1965 and 1966 to convert the site into a recreational park. A US Coast Guard station is the last remaining military facility on the Fort Niagara site.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ John Stetson Barry: The History of Massachusetts (= Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War . Volume 2 ). Applewood Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4290-1736-7 , pp. 234 (English, 532 pages, limited preview in Google Book Search - first edition: Boston 1857).
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.
- ↑ Old Fort Niagara - Colonial Niagara Historic District. in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.
Coordinates: 43 ° 15 ′ 46 " N , 79 ° 3 ′ 47" W.