Old Fort Niagara has over 300 years of history making it one of the oldest landmarks in the great lakes region all the way to some of the first settlers and explorers. It is also one of the most haunted forts and has a lot of different history and legends told over the centuries. The fort sits at the mouth of the Niagara river and banks of lake Ontario on a peninsula making it almost impermeable by man.. The fort was occupied by 3 nations in history the French, Great Britain and the United States. Across the lake Fort George is visible and on a clear day you can even see Toronto. Below some of the photos is a deeper history on the fort all the way to the details on the wars fought here and there time periods.

It all started in 1679 when the French established a post where the fort stands. Then in 1726 the French Castle was built this is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in the WNY region and trust me it is a castle and still stands today. Then during the French & Indian War the fort was captured by the British until 1796 when it was wielded to America. Then in the war of 1812 the British recaptured the fort and maintained it till the United States fought fiercely only to regain control in 1815. After that the fort served as a peaceful border post eventually a training station for civil war soldiers all the way up to the army in 1963 for both world wars.

 After 1963 the fort remained abandoned for a few years till it was designated as a national landmark and the military buildings on site were torn down accept for the Coast Guard Station. In 1781 the Fort Niagara light was established. It sat atop the French castle so that vessels would not go to far westward and over pass the fort at night. They did not use the light always though it was used only when a vessel was expected. Then later in 1823 it was moved to atop of the mess house with just a pedestal and giant lamp. In 1872 an octagonal 50 foot tower was erected just outside of the fort. Attached to it was the oil house built in 1900 in addition to another 11 feet added making the light now visible for almost 25 miles. Service of the lighthouse was halted in 1993 and now it is used as a museum and gift shop for the tourist of Fort Niagara.

Now I want to cover some point of interest things that are visible when you walk the grounds of the fort. Greater Details I have listed below as if you visit there you get a brochure telling you a little bit about each area. If you were to walk around the fort what you would see are many cannons, a cemetery within the fort, and even a 50 foot long tunnel. One of the only ways in the fort is to pass threw giant wood doors on a wooden trestle. The French Castle is the most visible thing as it is one of the largest buildings within the fort. The walkways are all cobble stone. You will also see the old well that has a ghost story of its own its 25 feet in depth. There is the 3 flags which each one stands for the 3 nations who had control of it. The Millet Cross also stands out which is a giant cross within the fort its symbolism is talked about farther below. There is also a bake house and a log cabin. So the fort is quite large so it made our investigation here very foreboding. Although I did not cover every part of the fort due to its size and the circumstances I found this place to be very haunted by many different ghost.

Now lets talk about ghost a little bit. What inspired me to investigate the fort was when I was about 6 years old I use to take photos and during the day I photographed a head of a man on the forts grounds. I had my father send in the photo and in the early 80s a group did investigate this fort. I remember listening to it live on the radio as you could hear footsteps and other things like a door latch. At that time I was so fascinated with the thought of ghost and although the investigation did not go how I planned it :( I did get a few ghost within the fort.

The fort now has ghost tours however it is not the same as going off on your own and focusing more then with a large group of people. In a way I would probably steal the group myself as right away I could feel where the ghost were here. I do not think the ghost here want to be a tourist attraction after all they had such violent deaths most of the time from wounds, freezing, illnesses, great battles and even starvation. The employees who work here will see strange reflections, papers moved about, lights dancing around, marching, battle sounds, snoring, alarms going off on there own,  moving chairs, falling kitchenware in the mess hall, To give you how eerie this fort is park police will not go inside the fort alone. In the 1980s even when they investigated this place channel 2 staff, psychics, paranormal investigators visited here roughly 9 people in total. But I made history folks I conquered this fort alone and because this investigation meant the world to me it meant something as a child and it meant something to visit here whether it was alone or with my team I had a more successful investigation of this place then almost anybody. I found the ghost here to be very forward they are not afraid to show themselves or make themselves known. Based on my investigation of the place a black phantom, a soldier, feelings of being watched, a candle flickering in the window were just some of the things I encountered here.

Now you wonder who or what haunts it. Well the most famous ghost is the one of a headless man. The story goes such as this back in the 1700s 2 men were dueling over a native American maid. The man that the maid wanted to win the duel had tripped and lost the duel. The other soldier threw his head in lake Ontario and the remainder of this body parts in the well. There has been a mention of this duel in history but some say the headless ghost is folklore. Although I have to admit near that well and tunnel near by I felt alot of supernatural energy. There are other famous ghost and they have been written about for the last 2 centuries such as the lighthouse keeper, the hobgoblin which is seen in the cemetery, William Morgan's ghost, the French Count, and even a famous Onondaga chief Aaron who died of illness and the cold.

Some say that Fort Niagara has a lot more history then what is written about. They say that where the fort stands that there were native American forts back in 160 A.D. another wards this could be ancient grounds. Perhaps it is because of its location after all it sits up on a hill and is surrounded by the lake, river and the other half land making it a perfect area to control the great lakes. Many of the bodies have been removed on the forts property centuries ago when a soldier perished in battle the bodies were stacked up and burned rather cremated outdoors. Perhaps this is what makes the ghost so restless here is the fact that they have no set burial area so they wander aimlessly trying to find some resolution. 

Today the fort is a big tourist attraction its not free to enter inside but they do reenactments, encampments to stay over night, demonstrations, picnicking, and even costumed actors. It is wonderful to just spend the day here walking around. I have included below a little more detailed history on the fort, some key points within the fort so you can experience a little bit of what I did on my journey into the unknown. This has got to be one of the most haunted places I ever visited.

© By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight

Sources: Mason Winfield, The Old Fort Niagara Association, Bhaski's Memories

Details of Old Fort Niagara 

The buildings of Old Fort Niagara represent many different periods of history. Most are original and were erected between 1726 and 1872. Large plaques representing the arms of France, Great Britain and the United States indicate the nation responsible for the construction of each. Fort Niagara contained nearly 100 other buildings during its long history. They disappeared, but archaeologists are now uncovering their foundations.

Point 1 -- Provisions Storehouse (1762). Constructed by the British, the building originally stood two stories high. It could hold 7,000 barrels of food for the garrison. In later years the Storehouse was also used as a barracks and stable.

Point 2 -- Powder Magazine (1757). The French erected this building which survived the siege of 1759. Its massive arched ceiling topped by a thick layer of earth protected the gun-powder from mortar shells. The garrison's ammunition supply was stored here as late as 1929. In 1826, William Morgan, considered by Freemasons to be a renegade to their order was kept prisoner in the Magazine. His mysterious disappearance has never been solved and sparked much anti-Masonic feeling in the United States at the time. Exhibits on the history and archaeology of Old Fort Niagara are located at Point 2. 

Point 3 -- Dauphin Battery and Gate of the Five Nations (1756). From 1756 until about 1805 the main entrance to Fort Niagara was located on the river side of the South Bastion. The French named the gate in honor of the original five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The drawbridge was protected by five cannons located in the Dauphin Battery. The gun positions facing the Canadian shore were installed in the 1840s. The Dauphin Battery and the stone gatehouse were reconstructed in 1931. 

From Point 3 you can see the hills of the of the Niagara Escarpment eight miles (13km) upriver. On clear days the mist from Niagara Falls is sometimes visible fourteen miles (22km) to the south. 

Point 4 -- The South Redoubt (1770). The British constructed this building before the American Revolution to protect the main gate and provide a platform for cannon. The ground floor was a fortified gateway with a guard room for twenty soldiers located above. On December 19,1813, attacking British troops had to break down the door of the South Redoubt to subdue its American defenders. 

Point 5 -- 18-Pounder Battery (1840-72). During the War of 1812 Fort Niagara exchanged furious artillery barrages with British-held Fort George visible across the river. Heavy guns were placed here and along the river wall during the 1840s to bear on Canada but were never fired in anger. Within sight on the American side are the surviving structures of "New" Fort Niagara established after the Civil War. This area became Fort Niagara State park in 1965. The stone lighthouse was built in 1871 and used until 1993. Currently used as a gift shop. 

Point 6 -- Scarp Walls and Casemate Gallery (1872). The earthwork walls of Fort Niagara were reinforced with concrete and brick between 1863 -1872 due to tensions with British Canada over the American Civil War. Tempers had cooled by 1872, and guns were never mounted here. Steps descend to the South Casemate Gallery designed to contain four 24-pounder cannon whose fire would interlock with that of the North Gallery visible across the ditch. Firing slits for riflemen and three powder magazine are located at the end of the gallery. 

Point 7 -- The Land Defenses (1755-1872). Although rebuilt in concrete and brick in the 1860s, these walls follow the lines laid out by the French in 1755. The center of the wall is pierced by the Sally Port, constructed in the 1860s. 

The only way to reach the Sally Port from Point 7 is to descend the stairs at the North Bastion near Point 9.

The Outer Works include the large triangular "ravelin," smaller earthworks and a ditch. The ditch was kept dry and with the other outworks protected the main walls from cannon fire and assault. The Outer Works are restored to their appearance during the siege of 1759, during which the British established gun batteries within 100 yards (91m) of the Fort. The site of the nearest battery was among the buildings visible by the lake shore. Intense cannon fire from that point nearly demolished the Fort's North Bastion. 

Point 8 - The Three Historic Flags. Visible inside the Fort from Point 7 are the three historic flags commemorating the nations that have held Old Fort Niagara. The white French flag was flown here from 1736 to 1759. It was the official banner of the Marine Department, responsible for protecting France's colonies. The British Union flag waved here from 1759 to 1796. It was replaced by the modern version in 1801. The 15-star, 15-stripe United States flag was flown at Fort Niagara from 1796 to 1818. Fort Niagara's original 15-star, 15-stripe flag captured by the British in 1813, was returned to the museum in 1994. 

Point 9 The North Redoubt (1771). The two redoubts were literally forts within a fort. The main difference between them is that the North Redoubt originally had a powder magazine on its ground floor. Both buildings incorporate two styles popular in 18th century Britain  -- classical Roman arches and doorways in the stone walls topped by Chinese-style roofs. 

Point 10 -- The Millet Cross (1926). Dedicated to the ill-fated French soldiers of Fort Denonville, the bronze cross was erected by the Knights of Columbus in 1926. During the terrible winter of 1687-1688, disease and starvation reduced the Fort's garrison of one hundred men to only twelve survivors. The present monument commemorates a wooden cross under which Father Pierre Millet, a French Jesuit priest, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving for the soldiers' survival. 

Point 11 -- The Rush-Bagot Memorial (1934). An early armaments agreement was signed by the United States and Great Britain in 1817. Named for its chief negotiators, Richard Rush and Sir Charles Bagot, the treaty limited naval forces on the Great Lakes. The true monument to such efforts is today's unfortified 4,000-mile (6,400km) United States-Canadian border. In clear weather the skyline of Toronto, Ontario can he seen across the 27 miles (43km) of Lake Ontario. 

Point 12 -- The "French Castle" (1726). The oldest building in North America's Great Lakes area. Rest rooms are located at point 12. 

The oldest building of the Fort, and indeed, in the eastern interior of North America, the "Castle" was originally the sole structure of Fort Niagara. To calm the suspicions of the hostile Iroquois, the French designed it to resemble a large trading house. The building was, in actuality, a strong citadel capable of resisting Indian attack. The Castle has been restored to its 1727 appearance at which time most garrison facilities were located within its walls. Following expansion of the Fort in 1755-57, the Castle was used as officers' quarters. Army families resided here as late as World War I. 

The building was designed by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery, chief engineer of New France. His layout of the ground included storerooms, a powder magazine, bakery, guardhouse and well. Living quarters and a chapel were on the second floor. Overhanging or "machicolated" dormers on the attic level provided defensive positions for muskets and light cannon and gave the structure its original French name -- the "machicolated house." The term "Castle" is not believed to have been in general use until U.S. officers lived here in the 1830s.

One of the most important parts of the ground floor was the Trade Room (A&B). During the French regime, Fort Niagara was a trading post as well as a military fortification. Indians came here in great numbers to exchange furs for manufactured goods.

The vestibule (C) contains a 25 foot-deep well. It provided water for the Castle's occupants from 1726 until about 1815 and was then sealed only to be discovered and reopened in 1926. A popular local legend first recorded in 1839, tells of the headless ghost of a murdered French officer said to haunt the well. When the moon is full the story goes, he arises to search for his missing head. 

The chapel (J) on the second floor was the earliest permanent church in western New York. Across the vestibule is a barrack's room (D) originally home to about 30 French soldiers. More comfortable officers' apartments (K-O) line the lake side of this floor. The narrow room (K) at the west end of the corridor was used briefly in 1768 as 3 cell for Robert Rogers, the famous ranger of the French & Indian War and hero of the historical novel Northwest Passage. Accused of treason by the British authorities, Rogers was kept chained and guarded here while being taken to Montreal for trial. 

The wooden roof of the Castle was removed during the War of 1812. Earthen ramparts were constructed atop the building with cannon placed on the attic floor to bombard Fort George. Here, in the midst of a furious cannonade on November 21, 1812, a soldier's wife, Betsy Doyle (usually remembered today as "Fanny" Doyle) helped load a cannon and gained fame as a heroine of the War of 1812. 

The Castle was repaired and restored between 1926 and 1933. The layout and details of the building today generally conform to its 1727 arrangement. Mid-18th century furnishings were reproduced in an effort to make the Castle appear substantially as it did during the French occupation. 

Point 13 -- The Bakehouse (1762). The British constructed this building to replace a French bakery destroyed by fire in 1761. The foundation of the double ovens was salvaged from the earlier structure. Bread for the garrison was baked here until 1870. 

Point 14 -- The LaSalle Monument (1934). The earliest post on this site was established in 1679 by the famous French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier de LaSalle. He christened it Fort Conti and used it as a base while building his sailing vessel "Griffon" above Niagara Falls. 

Point 15 -- The River Defenses (1839-43). British construction of Fort Mississauga on the Canadian shore in 1814 exposed the interior of Fort Niagara to bombardment. The problem was remedied between 1839 and 1841 by erection of the massive River Wall. This was of uniform height for its entire length until 1889 when the northern end was torn down. The difference in the stonework resulted from a change in stone suppliers between 1839 and 1840. Guns on the Hot Shot Battery face Fort Mississauga, visible across the river in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Adjacent to the battery is the Hot Shot Furnace, completed in 1843. Here cannon balls could be heated nearly white-hot. When fired into a wooden ship or building, hot shot would quickly set it afire. The arched Postern Gate was the main entrance to Fort Niagara after 1839. 

Point 16 -- The Log Cabin (1932). Erected in 1932, this structure was intended to represent a log cabin originally built here by the French in 1757. The building contains the Old Fort Niagara Museum Shop. Books, film, museum reproductions and snacks may be purchased here. All proceeds are used for the preservation and operation of Old Fort Niagara.

Three Hundred Years of History

Few American historic sites have had such intensive military occupation as the point of land at the mouth of the Niagara River. Here, where the discharge of four Great Lakes flows into Lake Ontario, a flat, slightly elevated peninsula commands the juncture of the waters. For more than three centuries garrisons were maintained and defenses constructed on this spot.

The military post at the mouth of the Niagara River has undergone numerous transformations during its three hundred year history. The site proved to be highly adaptable, and it remained occupied while hundreds of other military posts quickly outlived their usefulness and were abandoned. The nations which held this site had specific reasons for expending lives and treasure to maintain a fort at Niagara. Their reasons and the fortifications they constructed differed with technology and the strategic needs of the time. The original, tiny stockade soon gave way to sophisticated eighteenth century fortifications. When those walls in turn became obsolete, during the nineteenth century, they were replaced by an undefended complex of barracks. Today, a United States Coast Guard Station is the last vestige of active military occupation of the site.

The buildings and walls preserved within Old Fort Niagara and Fort Niagara State Park represent many different phases in the development and use of this historic site. Archaeological remains beneath the soil mark the presence of other long vanished features as well as the thousands of soldiers, traders and Native Americans who witnessed the colorful history of the post.

Three nations held Fort Niagara during its long history. Their presence is symbolized by the historical flags which daily fly above the fort’s parade ground. The banners of France, Great Britain and the United States recall the turbulence of the struggle for North America.

Gateway to the West - The French (1678-1759)

Throughout much of its history, the importance of Fort Niagara derived from an accident of geography. The connecting basins of the Great Lakes flow south and east into Lake Erie on their way to the sea. At the eastern end of Lake Erie, however, the waters collected from much of the interior of the continent are constricted into the Niagara River. Seventeen miles from Lake Erie the river drops down a series of rapids and takes a fearful plunge over Niagara Falls. Once free of the Cataracts and the Niagara Gorge, the waters enter Lake Ontario, last of the Great Lakes, and eventually flow down the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Three hundred years ago this extensive water system, stretching from the Atlantic to central Canada and the American Midwest, provided a natural transportation route through the rugged wilderness. By utilizing the lakes and their numerous tributaries, the Native peoples and European explorers could cross much of the continent. Portages connected the Great Lakes with water systems leading to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Plains. These "carrying places" around obstacles to water transport - rapids, heights of land and, of course, Niagara Falls - were control points for waterborne commerce. The early importance of Fort Niagara derived almost entirely from the portage around Niagara Falls. Once this portage lost its usefulness, the strategic value of Fort Niagara virtually disappeared.

When European people began settling on the coast of North America in the early seventeenth century, the French accidentally occupied the most convenient route to the interior. From their posts at Quebec and Montreal they rapidly moved up the St. Lawrence River to explore the continent and trade for furs with the Native peoples. Although this route should have led them directly to Niagara and the great Falls, their path was blocked by the hostility of the Native people of the region, the Five Nations of the Iroquois.

The Iroquois consisted of five distinct nations linked by language and culture. By the fifteenth century, however, they had allied in a powerful confederation. This kept internal peace and allowed mutual defense against outsiders. The country of the Five Nations stretched across New York from the Mohawk River to the Niagara River. Ranged from east to west were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. These people became known as the Six Nations during the eighteenth century when the original five accepted the refugee Tuscarora from North Carolina.

Westernmost of the Iroquois was the Seneca. Though after the mid-seventeenth century the Niagara was part of their territory, the Seneca did not heavily populate the area. Their main villages were in the Genesee Valley, about eighty miles to the east. Archaeological evidence suggests, however, that the site of Fort Niagara was used seasonally as a fishing and hunting camp.

The Iroquois, perhaps the most politically powerful group of Native people in the history of North America, had early confrontations with the French. Their hostility would last until the French had been driven from North America. Since much of the land around Lake Ontario was Iroquois country, French exploration and influence was at first diverted up the Ottawa River to the northern Great Lakes. Iroquois animosity toward the French was not, however, continuous. Relations between the two peoples fluctuated. These cycles had much influence on French use of the Niagara.

Fort Conti

The first documented visit by Frenchmen to the site of Fort Niagara occurred in 1669 during a period of peaceful relations with the Iroquois. A party of priests and explorers, which included Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, passed the elevated point and noted the great river. Nine years later, La Salle returned to explore the Niagara and construct a sailing vessel above the Falls.

In order to support the shipbuilding efforts, La Salle required a post at the mouth of the river. Here, vessels crossing Lake Ontario with supplies from Fort Frontenac (modern Kingston, Ontario) could make a landfall. Early in 1679 a party of men constructed a storehouse and a stockade on the later site of Fort Niagara. The post was named Fort Conti after Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, a patron of La Salle’s lieutenant, Henri de Tonty. Once La Salle had weighed anchor on Lake Erie in the summer of 1679, however, the men left to guard Fort Conti became careless. A fire consumed the buildings before the end of the year.

Fort Denonville

The second French post to occupy the site of Fort Niagara was established under less peaceful circumstances. Good relations between the French and the Iroquois ended a few years after the destruction of Fort Conti. By 1687 the Governor of new France, Jacques-Rene de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, was prepared to strike a blow against the old enemies of New France. Denonville gathered troops and Indian allies in Canada and marched against the Iroquois of Western New York.

Governor Denonville spent the summer of 1687 engaged in an impressive, if futile, campaign against Seneca villages in the Genesee Valley near the site of modern Rochester, New York. Houses and crops were destroyed , but few warriors were captured or killed. To complete his attempt to pacify the Iroquois, Denonville moved his army to the mouth of the Niagara River. There he established a fort. Within a few weeks a stockade enclosing eight buildings had been erected and christened Fort Denonville. Then, leaving one hundred men under Captain Pierre de Troyes to hold the post for the winter, the Governor and his army returned to Montreal.

Fort Denonville, the first truly military outpost on the Niagara River, was sturdily constructed. Its palisades, however, provided little protection against the most sinister enemies: isolation, cold, starvation and disease. Cut off from supplies and reinforcements and surrounded by hostile Senecas, the garrison sickened and died. By April only twelve soldiers remained alive.

Those few men were saved by a relief force which arrived in the Niagara River on Good Friday, 1688. The horrified reinforcements did what they could for the emaciated survivors. Their chaplain, Jesuit Father Pierre Millet, erected a tall wooden cross in the center of Denonville’s fort and offered a mass of thanksgiving for their survival.

Fort Denonville was regarrisoned, but the lesson had been learned. The post was too far from the center of New France to be maintained in the face of Iroquois hostility. In September the troops pulled down the stockade and left the buildings to the elements. It would be thirty-eight years before French soldiers again occupied the site.

The French Return

Aside from the embarrassment of retreat from the Iroquois country, the fiasco at Fort Denonville stirred ominous rumblings from a new rival to French control of the Niagara River. The Iroquois had originally looked to the Dutch colony of Nieuw Amsterdam for European goods and guns to fight their enemies. Once the English took the Dutch colony, in 1664, they inherited the alliance with the Five Nations. When Denonville’s army marched into Iroquois country, the Governor of New York (as Nieuw Amsterdam had been renamed) protested loudly. The event marked the beginning of a long rivalry for the lands surrounding the Great Lakes. As relations between France and England worsened in Europe, both nations increased their efforts to gain the upper hand in the forests of America. The French thus found control of the Niagara Portage all the more desirable.

The turn of the eighteenth century was marked by open colonial warfare between France and England. King William’s War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) also involved the Iroquois and other Indian nations. These conflicts weakened the Iroquois and pushed them toward a more neutral attitude. At the same time France moved to consolidate her position on the Great Lakes. A post constructed at Detroit in 1701 blocked the British from the three northwestern lakes. In 1715 a new fort at Michilimackinac assured their influence in the north. Niagara and its portage was the linchpin, however. Control of it would assure the exclusion of the English from the Great Lakes and the safe movement of goods and furs to and from New France.

French efforts to improve relations with the Iroquois increased during this time. Agents and traders slowly gained influence over the western Iroquois nations, particularly the Seneca. Chief among these men was Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire. In 1720 he gained permission from the Iroquois to establish a trading house on the Niagara Portage. Chabert selected a site at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment. He dubbed his post the "Magazine Royale" and displayed the colors of the French King, a move which, predictably, brought howls of protest from the English. Undeterred, Chabert traded with the Indians and increased his influence among them.

The House of Peace

Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire had achieved much for New France. His efforts had finally placed a fort on the Niagara River. It was not, however, a strong post. By itself the Magazin Royale posed little threat to English ambitions. Within a few years, therefore, Chabert was again requesting permission of the Iroquois to construct a trading house on the Niagara River. To allay their suspicions he justified the request by promising to construct a place for trade. Termed a "House of Peace", it was not to be a formal military post but, rather, a place where the Iroquois could barter for furs and meet with the representatives of the French King. Permission was granted by the Iroquois in 1725.

Early in June, 1726, a French flotilla arrived at the mouth of the Niagara River. Although their original plan had been to construct a stronger post on the site of Magazin Royale, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery, the engineer sent to perform the work, soon made a major change. He felt that the point of land at the mouth of the river, site of the vanished buildings of Denonville’s fort, provided the best position to control the route to the west. Chaussegros accordingly laid out his post where it could overlook river and lake and face a possible English attack from the East.

The French were faced with a particular problem. While it was necessary to construct fortifications strong enough to resist an attack by the Iroquois or the British, the post could not have the appearance of a true fortification. Chaussegros de Lery’s solution was to erect a large stone house surrounded by a simple wooden stockade. Such a building would not be threatening, and yet its walls would be proof against the small arms available to the Iroquois. This was the origin of the "French Castle", oldest of the buildings of Fort Niagara. Chaussegros, however, took pains to avoid calling the building a "castle". He referred to it instead as a "maison a machicoulis" or machicolated house". The title derived from the overhanging dormers of the second floor which allowed defenders to fire down upon an enemy. In dealings with the Iroquois, however, it was always referred to as the "House of Peace".

Construction of the new fort was nearly complete by the end of 1726. Final touches were added the following year. Regardless of its name, "House of Peace" or "machicolated house", the French finally had a fort at Niagara. Its presence effectively sealed the gateway to the West. The British had access to Lake Ontario from the Oswego River, 150 miles east of the Niagara, but the new French post blocked their route to the other Great Lakes. Establishment of Fort Oswego by the British in 1727 was poor compensation for losing the road to the West.

The House of Peace served the French well as a place to trade with the Indians. A small garrison was also maintained to watch over the portage and protect French interests among the Iroquois. Rivalry with the British continued, but it was not until the 1740's that it again erupted into open conflict. The years of King George’s War (1744-1748) saw a growing emphasis on the military value of Fort Niagara. As guardian of the portage the post needed its garrison of approximately one company of soldiers. The neutrality of the Iroquois prevented a British attack, though it likewise kept the French from using their position at Niagara for attacks on the frontiers of New York. Fort Niagara was expanded during the war, and Chaussegros’ old stockade was replaced with new pickets. The larger area within the walls was soon filled with new buildings to supplement the quarters and storerooms available in the French Castle.

Conflict in the West

The peace which followed King George’s War provided little more than a respite for the climatic struggle to come. The French realized this and used their post at Niagara to prepare for the next conflict. Having secured access to the Great Lakes, they prepared to consolidate their claims to the interior of the continent.

King George’s War had barley ended when the first of several expeditions gathered at Niagara to establish French domination of the Ohio Valley. In 1749 Celeron de Blainville set out from the post, crossed the portages from Lake Erie to the Ohio and busied himself with formally claiming possession of that vast area. Further expeditions in the early 1750's used Fort Niagara as the key organization and supply base for the establishment of a chain of forts between Lake Erie and the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. Conflict with the British over a fort on the latter site (today’s Pittsburgh) provided the spark which ignited the last of the major American colonial wars.

With the outbreak of hostilities Fort Niagara’s value redoubled, yet the post remained little more than a rickety frontier stockade. While it might have been formidable to an enemy lacking artillery, the new conflict was certain to bring cannon within range of the walls. Unlike earlier colonial wars, both France and Britain soon committed large numbers of trained regular soldiers to the campaigns in North America. The French and Indian War, as the conflict is popularly known today, would result in the complete transformation of Fort Niagara.

The fighting began with a crushing defeat of British General Edward Braddock in the upper Ohio Valley. However, Fort Niagara, vital link of the victorious French troops with Montreal, was threatened by a second British army. General William Shirley gathered his forces at Oswego, Fort Niagara’s old rival, during the summer of 1755. Weakly defended, the post would have fallen quickly had Shirley attacked. He delayed too long, however. Autumn and the threat of cold weather put an end to the campaign season before Shirley could strike.

The lesson was not lost on the French. Niagara was too important to be left in its dilapidated state. In the fall of 1755 a large body of regular troops, recently arrived from France, was sent across Lake Ontario. With them went Captain Pierre Pouchot carrying orders to transform the post and make it defensible against artillery. Pouchot was admirably successful. By the spring of 1756 he had greatly enlarged the fort and constructed new earthwork defenses. The useless old stockade was torn down. The Castle, however, survived as the largest building in the fort. By the end of another year the expanded interior had been filled with new buildings of wood and stone. Barracks, storehouses, a powder magazine, and even a church had been completed.

Pouchot’s efforts were aided by the French offensive actions which moved the fighting well away from Niagara. Oswego was captured in 1756, thus removing the nearest potential base for a British attack. The next two years would find the Fort Niagara garrison busily supporting Native allies in their raids against the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The Siege of Fort Niagara

Throughout this great conflict the Iroquois (now composed of Six Nations) had remained largely neutral. Their support was courted by both antagonists, but as British strength grew the Iroquois began to turn against the French. The old animosity, lingering bitterness over the presence of a French fort on their territory at Niagara and the persuasiveness of British Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson finally ended Iroquois neutrality. Their declaration of support late in 1758 made a British attack on Fort Niagara possible.

The French fully expected such a move. Pressured on all fronts by the more numerous British forces, they did their best to prepare a defense. Captain Pouchot was again assigned to command Fort Niagara. He arrived in April, 1759, with a few reinforcements and orders to hold his post as long as possible. Early in the summer a British army under Brigadier John Prideaux began moving west from Albany. Part of the force was left at Oswego to rebuild that fort. The remainder, some 2,000 soldiers and 1,500 Iroquois warriors led by Johnson himself, set out for the western end of Lake Ontario. On July 6 they landed four miles east of Fort Niagara and laid siege to the post.

The ensuing nineteen days witnessed one of the classic sieges in the history of North America. For more than two weeks the six hundred man French garrison resisted as the British dug trenches towards the walls, constructed batteries for heavy guns and slowly pounded Fort Niagara to pieces. By July 24 the attackers’ trenches were only eighty yards from the walls, and the garrison was on the verge of collapse.

Captain Pouchot held on in part because he knew help was approaching. Before Fort Niagara was surrounded he had sent messages to the garrisons of Detroit and the Ohio Valley ordering them to come to his relief. Come they did, 1,500 Frenchmen and Indians. On July 23 they started down the Niagara River from Lake Erie hoping to fight their way through the British to the beleaguered garrison.

The British, however, were expecting them. Sir William Johnson, commanding the attackers since the death of General Prideaux on July 20, sent a detachment to block the road leading to the fort. His troops took post a mile up river at a place known as "La Belle Famille". The next morning the French attacked, charging forward against British regulars. The redcoats stood their ground, firing repeated disciplined volleys into the French ranks. Within twenty minutes the battle was over, and the survivors of the shattered relief force were in flight towards Lake Erie. The action was decisive. When Captain Pouchot learned of the rout he asked for surrender terms. On July 25, 1759, Fort Niagara became British.

Guardhouse of the Great Lakes - The British (1759 - 1796)

The hoisting of the Union Jack signaled the beginning of Fort Niagara's period of greatest use and importance. For the next thirty-seven years the post would usually have a substantial garrison, and the commander of Fort Niagara would exercise wide authority over the Great Lakes country.

Although the capture of Niagara did not immediately establish British control of the region, the French lifeline to the West had been severed. The western frontier was therefore relatively quiet for the final year of war. During its first months under British colors Fort Niagara was badly isolated, however. Its only link with the Atlantic colonies was a tenuous route across Lake Ontario and down the Mohawk Valley to Albany and New York. So difficult was it to supply the post after the siege that inadequate supplies caused a scurvy epidemic among the soldiers of Fort Niagara during the winter of 1759-1760. By spring 150 men had perished.

The campaign of 1760 ended French resistance in Canada. By autumn Fort Niagara had become the staging point for parties of British troops moving west to take possession of the posts on the Great Lakes. Thus began British Fort Niagara's role as a supply depot and chief avenue of communication with the Upper Lakes. The movement of supplies would occupy the garrison for many years. Without this vital post, British domination of the Great Lakes would have been impossible.

Fort Niagara also continued to be an important location for meeting with the Native peoples. This was crucial in the years immediately following the conquest of Canada. The tribes of the Lakes had been allies of the French. Undefeated in battle, they were puzzled by the surrender of their lands to the British. In 1761 Sir William Johnson convened a council at Fort Niagara in an attempt to cement relations with the tribes. His efforts might have had more lasting results had other British officials and many fur traders not treated the Indians with contempt.

THE UPRISING OF 1763-1764

Dissatisfaction with the British grew in the early years of the 1760's. By the spring of 1763 Indian resentment had erupted into a full scale revolt. In less than two months the tribes of the Great Lakes attacked and captured eight small posts scattered from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin. Only Detroit and Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) withstood the onslaught. The revolt, today often called the Pontiac Uprising after the Ottawa chief who led the attack on Detroit, put tremendous strain on British forces in America and reemphasized the value of the fort and portage at Niagara.

When news of the outbreak of hostilities and the plight of Detroit reached Fort Niagara, all energies were turned to supplying and reinforcing the beleaguered post. Detroit was well fortified, and its garrison had little to fear from a direct assault. Starvation might force surrender, however. The movement of supplies and reinforcements over the Niagara Portage therefore became a paramount concern.

Efforts to support Detroit continued, with considerable success, throughout the summer of 1763. Although it proved impossible to suppress the uprising the garrison held the fort. The Indians were well aware of the important role of the Niagara Portage and soon resolved to attack it. Though Fort Niagara was too strong to be seriously threatened, the Portage Road itself was long an weakly defended. On September 14, 1763, a large party of Senecas ambushed a train of wagons near a natural feature of the Niagara Gorge known as Devil's Hole. An attempt to save the wagons resulted in the ambush of the relief force and the most costly defeat of the war for the British. Worst of all, valuable draft animals and vehicles were destroyed by the Senecas. Although these losses were replaced within a few weeks, the ambush at Devil's Hole seriously interrupted efforts to supply Detroit. Winter found the two sides at an impasse. The Indians were still unable to capture Detroit, but the British had been equally unsuccessful in quelling the rebellion.

During the winter the British laid plans for ending the war. A pair of expeditions would penetrate the Indian country in 1764 and force the tribes to sue for peace. The northern prong, under the command of Colonel John Bradstreet, was to gather at Niagara to relieve Detroit and end the war on the Great Lakes. While the military force prepared for the campaign, Sir William Johnson invited the Indians of the Upper Lakes to Niagara for a grand council in the early summer of 1764. The most hostile groups did not respond to Johnson's invitation. Those who had not participated in the rebellion or who had become disillusioned by the war appeared in great numbers, however. During July the grounds outside Fort Niagara presented a colorful scene, as warriors of many different nations reaffirmed their friendship for the British. Those who did not attend were considered hostile and subject to attack by the army.

Bradstreet's troops spent much of the summer carrying supplies across the Niagara Portage and preparing for their journey to Detroit. They also expended much effort fortifying the portage to prevent a recurrence of the Devil's Hole disaster. Finally, before embarking for Detroit, the army constructed a new post on the shore of Lake Erie. This stockade at the head of the Niagara River, was christened Fort Erie.

Bradstreet's expedition encountered no outright resistance on its way to Detroit. Though the operation was something of an anticlimax, it reestablished control of the Upper Great Lakes. The British had been badly shaken by the uprising, however, and their relations with the Indians would thereafter be guarded.

Efforts to maintain the defenses of Fort Niagara over the next ten years were clearly aimed at the Indians as the potential enemy. This is hardly surprising. With the French expelled from America there was no European adversary to threaten the post, the Great Lakes or Canada. The decade following the Indian uprising thus saw a steady decline in the condition of the fortifications. The lack of a serious threat to the post, combined with efforts the British to reduce military expenditures in America, resulted in small garrisons. There was likewise unwillingness to lavish funds on the fortifications. The once impressive earthworks of Fort Niagara were allowed to crumble. The only part of the defenses carefully maintained was the wooden picketing which protected the post from a surprise attack by the Indians. When major new work was finally authorized in 1768 and again in 1770, it too was aimed at Native Americans. Erection of a stockade around the French Castle in the former year provided a citadel in case of attack. The two stone redoubts begun in the latter were intended as advance posts to protect the new stockade. By 1775 however the once formidable earthen walls and ditches had almost ceased to exist. Though the buildings were in reasonable repair and the post was well garrisoned, it was far from prepared for the turmoil to come.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

A new rebellion, this time by the colonists of the Atlantic seaboard, erupted in the spring of 1775. The eight year war which followed would cause many changes at Niagara. By the end of the conflict the simple frontier military post would be no more, and the post commanders would have many new concerns and responsibilities.

It is ironic that the War for American Independence placed the British garrison of Niagara in a position nearly identical to that of the French two decades before. The British found themselves concerned about defending Canada and controlling access to the Great Lakes. Fort Niagara and the portage would therefore serve much the same purpose for the British during the American Revolution as it had for their enemies during the French and Indian War. The post's garrison guarded the route to the Lakes, protected trade (which continued despite the war) and supported military operations in the West. Fort Niagara was also the main point of contact between the British and the Iroquois.

Unlike the French, however, the British enjoyed the almost unreserved support of the Six Nations of the Iroquois as well as that of many colonists who were opposed to the rebellion. Both groups of people would become refugees, and both would actively engage in military operations on behalf of King George III. Niagara became a safe haven for these "Loyalists" and a base for their retaliatory operations. Fort Niagara is, in fact, most often remembered in American history as the base of raiders who terrorized the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. The Canadian perspective is much different. In their view, the post was a bastion of loyalty and the avenue to a new life in Canada.

The war took awhile to reach Niagara. During the summer and fall of 1775 "Rebel" forces struck north along Lake Champlain and overran much of Canada. Their operations took place far from Fort Niagara, but the American successes isolated the post from England and much needed supplies. It was not until nearly a year later that the invaders were driven south by British reinforcements and the supply route up the St. Lawrence River reopened.

By 1777 Niagara was actively involved in the war as a base for offensive Fort Niagara operations. That year's unsuccessful British expedition against the Mohawk Valley included soldiers from Niagara. Although their effort to support General John Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign foundered on stubborn America resistance at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York), it signaled the beginning of Fort Niagara's role as nemesis of the frontier settlements.

The winter of 1777-1778 saw growing activity at Fort Niagara as John Butler, a prominent Mohawk Valley Loyalist, began recruiting and organizing a military unit of his fellow refugees. "Butler's Rangers" would eventually grow to a full regiment and serve throughout the war at Niagara and on the Great Lakes-New York frontier. Their devastating raids in company with warriors of the Six Nations created panic on the frontier and earned them fearful reputation in the folklore of the American Revolution. The actions Butler's men were, however, only representative of a wilderness war which grew increasingly bitter as it progressed. The Rangers, in fact, were raiding their former neighbors and political adversaries. Atrocities would be committed by both sides during the long conflict to come.

Butler first led his Rangers and Six Nations allies into action during 1777. His raid against the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania (July) and his son Walter's attack on the New York settlement of Cherry Valley (November) were unqualified victories for the raiders from Niagara. Their successes and the cruel fate of many of the settlers triggered an American reaction which would greatly escalate the conflict on the frontier.

The Continental Congress was well aware of the danger of these backwoods attacks. The farms of New York and Pennsylvania, deep in America territory, were important sources of supply for the Continental Army. Raids from Niagara were in a position to harass the population from the rear, and the disruption of the farms could have serious effects on the already strained American military situation. The forts which guarded the farthest settlement had proved ineffective in stopping the raids. Indians and Rangers were able to strike the frontiers almost at will, and some groups even marched eastward from Niagara as far as New Jersey. An offensive stroke was considered necessary to punish the Six Nations for their allegiance to the King and counter the raids from Niagara.

During the summer of 1779 a large part of the Continental Army was detached for service in the West. General John Sullivan gathered the main body in Pennsylvania. General James Clinton assembled a second force in the Mohawk Valley of New York. Employing the river systems, the two detachments of experienced troops joined and marched into the Iroquois country Sullivan's troops soon found themselves among the Six Nations villages of Western New York. The Indians and their British allies were unable to effectively counter the overwhelming American numbers. The Continental were, in fact, able to march to within eighty miles of Fort Niagara.

In consternation the British frantically attempted to reinforce the post, repair its defenses and provide it with supplies to withstand a siege. Sullivan was well aware of his limitations, however. Far from his base, lacking supplies and heavy artillery and with winter approaching, he was in no position to seriously threaten Fort Niagara. Satisfied with the destruction of many Iroquois villages and a large part of their corn crop, he retired to Pennsylvania. This was the closest approach of American troops to Niagara during the war.

Though Sullivan's men had encountered few warriors, they had dealt the Iroquois a severe blow. With their food supplies destroyed the Six Nations had little choice but to gather at Niagara and rely on British support. Unfortunately, the post was in no position to feed so many extra mouths. By the time the extent of the destruction became known, it was too late in the season to transport extra supplies to Niagara. Though some of the Iroquois were dispersed to the few undamaged villages, the winter of 1779-1780 was an extremely harsh and hungry one for most of the Native refugees huddled in camps near Fort Niagara.

Sullivan's expedition was destructive, but it did not knock the Six Nations out of the war. Spring found raiding parties again striking at the frontiers and supporting British expeditions sent from the posts on Lake Ontario. Niagara would continue its role as a raiding base for the remainder of the war.

The years following 1779 also saw Fort Niagara become increasingly important to the widening conflict in the West. Detroit and Michilimackinac were strongholds of British authority on the Great Lakes. They were seriously threatened by the growing American presence in Kentucky and the Ohio Valley and even by the Spanish on the Mississippi. Detroit was particularly valuable, and raids from that post harried Kentucky frontiersmen throughout the war. Not surprisingly, Detroit was a major target of American forces. The commander of Fort Niagara, who also controlled all British forces on the Upper Great Lakes, thus had to be concerned about the security of that settlement. The relatively large garrison of Fort Niagara served a pivotal role, prepared to oppose attacks from the East or to reinforce Detroit. Fort Niagara was also an important intelligence gathering center. Small parties of Rangers were constantly in the field, spying on enemy forces. It was not uncommon for the Governor of Canada to receive news of major military events on the Atlantic seaboard from Niagara well ahead of reports sent by sea.

Throughout this time Fort Niagara was the destination of many Loyalists fleeing the western parts of the former colonies. Many made their way through the wilderness at great peril. Once safely at Niagara the women and children were sent to Canada while the men reinforced the ranks of Butler's Rangers. Fort Niagara was also the unwilling destination of hundreds of captives taken on the frontiers by Iroquois raiders. Contrary to popular belief, the British went to considerable effort and expense to ransom these people. Like the noncombatant Loyalists, the prisoners were sent to Montreal.

THE HOLD OVER PERIOD

The War for Independence began sputtering to a halt after the 1781 defeat of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Hostilities on the frontier continued another year, however. British forces occupied Oswego and rebuilt its ruined fort in 1782 to provide a buffer against American incursions into the lands of the Six Nations. This action also protected Niagara. By 1783, however, peace negotiations had advanced to the point where the British ceased attack against the frontier and urged their Indian allies to do likewise. Late in the year news arrived of the cessation of hostilities and the ratification of a peace treaty.

The terms of the Treaty of Paris were shocking to the British and Loyalist officers who had defended Fort Niagara throughout the war. The boundary between the new United States and British Canada was drawn through the Great Lakes, following much the same route as the modern border. For Niagara and many of the other posts of the Lakes fell on the American side the line. Worst of all, the lands of the Six Nations were placed well within the boundaries of their former enemies.

The officers at Niagara were so disturbed that, at first, they attempted to keep this news from the Iroquois for fear of retaliation against British and Loyalist forces. In less than a year, however, it became clear that the British would retain the Great Lakes posts, at least for awhile. Disputes over the treaty provided an excuse to delay the transfer of the forts. American soldier merchants and settlers thus remained barred from the lakes by British garrisons. The tribes retained their loyalties to the British, and preparation for transferring the forts at Carleton Island, Oswego, Niagara, Detroit and Michilimackinac were halted.

With Niagara still safely under their control, the British turned the attention to resettling the refugee Loyalists. The vast area of modern Ontario provided land for many new villages and farms. By 1784 discharged Loyalist soldiers and their families were receiving grants around Lake Ontario. Many of the men of Butler's Rangers took up property on the west side of the Niagara River. Though the early years were difficult, the new settlements prospered within a decade. The development of the west bank contrasted sharply with the east side of the river which remained wilderness. Despite the temporary delay, the British knew that Fort Niagara and the adjacent territory would eventually be ceded to the United States.

Resolution of the dispute over the Great Lakes posts took eleven years. By 1794, however, the British were fully involved in a new European war, and an enlarged United States Army was moving against the Indians of the Ohio country. A new conflict in North America would have been disastrous for Britain. The time was ripe for negotiation, and the Jay Treaty was signed that year. It guaranteed that the posts would be turned over to the United States. The transfer was accomplished in the summer of 1796. United States troops marched through the gates of Fort Niagara in August and raised the Stars and Stripes above the ramparts.

A Defended Border - The Americans (1796 - 1872)

The situation of Fort Niagara changed drastically the moment United States soldiers took possession of the post. Originally intended to dominate the mouth of the river and control the portage, Fort Niagara had suddenly become a border fortification. Potentially hostile territory was now located only six hundred yards away. The former British garrison had withdrawn just across the river, and the nearest American post was at Oswego, 150 miles to the east. The new garrison of Fort Niagara must have felt terribly isolated. Even worse, their fortifications, which had been designed to guard against a land attack, now literally faced the wrong way.

Despite this new situation, the first in which two powers faced each other across the Niagara River, some of the functions of Fort Niagara remained unchanged. The portage around Niagara Falls was as important to the Americans as it had been for the French and the British. Though Fort Niagara was no longer the only post along the river, it was still well placed to protect the beginning of the carrying place. The old portage route on the east bank was taken over by the Americans. In 1790, anticipating the arrival of United States soldiers, the British had established a new road on the west side of the river. Throughout the early years of the nineteenth century the two portages operated opposite each other.

The lonely garrison of Fort Niagara was isolated for only a short time. In the first years of the nineteenth century the lands on the New York side of the Niagara River were surveyed. They rapidly filled with settlers. By the end of the first decade of the century thriving villages had been established along the frontier at Youngstown, Lewiston, Manchester, Schlosser (the last two now part of the city of Niagara Falls), Black Rock, and Buffalo, Protection of this civilian population presented an additional responsibility for the garrison of Fort Niagara. The soldiers assisted with development as well. In 1803-1804 work parties from Fort Niagara constructed a military road from the top of the Niagara Escarpment at Lewiston to Black Rock (now a part of Buffalo). This road, which greatly aided settlement of the area and bypassed much of the old portage route, still exists as New York Route 265.

While the Americans consolidated their hold on the New York side of the Niagara, the British constructed a new fort across the river. Fort George was completed by 1799 on high ground just south of the modern village of Niagara on-the-Lake. Though not as stoutly constructed as Fort Niagara, it stood on higher ground where its guns could dominate the American position. Despite such military preparations, however, relations between the two garrisons were surprisingly cordial. The bitterness of the American Revolution was softening somewhat, and the professional officers of the two posts were eager to socialize. Officers from the American garrison attended church on the British side of the river. British doctors even occasionally cared for the soldiers of Fort Niagara during the absence of the American surgeon.

Unfortunately, relations became strained once more as the first decade of the nineteenth century progressed. Tensions resulted from British disregard for American neutrality and maritime rights as well as Yankee designs on Canada. Outright conflict was, perhaps, inevitable. In June, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain.

THE WAR OF 1812

Fort Niagara was woefully unprepared for war. The fortifications had again deteriorated during the decade after 1800 as the garrison became increasingly smaller. Many of the old buildings, some of them relics of the French occupation, disappeared during those years. The land side walls remained in place, but the garrison could provide few workmen to keep them in good condition. At the outbreak of hostilities the Americans could muster only 150 men at Fort Niagara.

If United States forces along the Niagara Frontier were unprepared for war, so too were their British adversaries. The demands of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe meant that Canada could be only weakly guarded. There were, in 1812, only two thousand British regular soldiers in all of Upper Canada (today's Ontario). Although supplemented by the Canadian militia, the number of troops was far fewer than that which could be assembled by the United States.

This disparity of forces proved to be of less importance than it at first appeared. The bulk of the United States Army was composed of newly organized units filled with untrained recruits. Many senior American leaders were equally inexperienced or had last seen action thirty years earlier during the American Revolution. The vast numbers of militia, so impressive on paper, proved virtually worthless in the field. American troops, initially confident that they need only march into the major Canadian cities, found a more difficult conflict than they had anticipated. Some of the bloodiest fighting would occur along the Niagara River.

Fort Niagara's tiny garrison prepared for a British assault as soon as they learned of the declaration of war. Short of artillery, supplies and soldiers, Captain Nathaniel Leonard did what he could to improve his defenses. A British attack failed to materialize, however, because they too feared attack and concentrated on organizing a defense. Much of the summer was spent in preparation as units of New York Militia were called into service and marched to the Niagara Frontier. In order to avoid friction between officers of the militia and the regular army, the militia established their camp at Lewiston, six miles up the river. Fort Niagara was left in the hands of its regular garrison, soon augmented by new arrivals.

Aside from all this frantic preparation, the summer and early fall of 1812 proved to be a quiet time on the Niagara Frontier. The local commanders soon arranged a truce in order to strengthen their respective positions. Though this gained time to gather forces, the more numerous American troops thereby lost the initiative. Worse, the truce allowed the British to transfer soldiers to the West and achieve an important victory at Detroit in August.
By the time the truce expired in October the British forces had returned to their Niagara positions. Though still outnumbered, they were prepared for a defensive action. They did not have long to wait. On October 13, 1812, United States troops began crossing the river from Lewiston and landing at the Canadian village of Queenston. Originally planned to include United States regulars and New York Militia, the operation was soon jeopardized when the militia refused to leave the bounds of the United States! Many of the regulars had already crossed the treacherous river and established a beachhead on the opposite shore. Unsupported, they achieved initial success and struck the British a heavy blow by killing their capable commander, General Isaac Brock. The isolated Americans were unable to withstand a British counterattack, however, and the troops on the Canadian bank of the river were forced to surrender.

Fort Niagara played its own part in this hard fought battle. The garrison was ordered to create a diversion by commencing a bombardment of Fort George. The fire was returned, and a brisk exchange ensued. The vulnerability of Fort Niagara became painfully apparent during this action. Although the American gunners caused damage to the enemy post, the heavy return fire eventually drove them from their positions and caused Fort Niagara to be abandoned. With its batteries silenced and the garrison huddled outside the walls, the post was exposed to a British assault. Realizing this, the American officers gathered a group of volunteers and reoccupied the fort. The British, their resources stretched to the limit by the fighting raging at Queenston, made no attempt to cross the river and take Fort Niagara.

Although quiet returned to the Frontier following the Battle of Queenston Heights, Fort Niagara was the scene of much work as United States Engineers attempted to improve the old fortifications. The exposed river side of the fort was strengthened with temporary walls. The greatest problem, however, was caused by the fact that Fort George stood on higher ground than the American post. In an attempt to counter this advantage, the roofs were removed from the two Redoubts and the "French Castle". Cannon were then mounted on the upper floors. This improved the gunners' effectiveness in returning the fire of the British batteries.

The alterations to Fort Niagara came just in time. On November 21 the guns of Fort George opened fire once again. On this occasion the Americans gave better than they got, though it was still clear that the old fort was badly exposed to the Canadian shore. The action of November 21 gave Fort Niagara a heroine as well. At the height of the battle, a cannon mounted on the roof of the French Castle lost one of its crewmen. Into the gap stepped a soldier's wife, Betsy Doyle, who served the gun with great courage and skill.

Active military operations at Niagara ceased with the onset of winter. Both sides spent the season preparing for the spring campaign. For the garrison of Fort Niagara this meant additional drill and training and much labor on fortifications. The defenses were further improved. Five batteries for heavy guns were also constructed along the riverbank, upstream from Fort Niagara, where they could fire on Fort George.
The spring of 1813 proved to be a momentous time along the Niagara Frontier. After disappointing performance on most fronts during 1812 United States forces, by now better equipped and trained, successfully took the offensive. It was a difficult year for the British in Upper Canada and would prove to be the high water mark for the Americans.

The campaign on Lake Ontario began in April when United States naval vessels sailed from Sackets Harbor on the eastern end of the lake. On board the men-of-war was an army commanded by General Henry Dearborn. This powerful force made short work of York, capital of Upper Canada (today Toronto) on April 27. The squadron then crossed the lake to the mouth of the Niagara River. There, combining with the troops already assigned to the Niagara Frontier, Dearborn's army prepared for an attack on Fort George.

On May 25-26, 1813, the guns of Fort Niagara and its detached batteries joined by the fleet, commenced an all-out bombardment of Fort George. Th Britisb gunners resisted valiantly, but their batteries were silenced and th wooden buildings of Fort George were burned to the ground. On the morning of May 27 the fleet anchored off the mouth of the river. Following another cannonade, waves of troop-filled boats headed for the beach. Once ashore the American soldiers encountered fierce resistance from disciplined British regulars. By the end of the day, however, the smoldering remains of Fort George had fallen, and the British were retreating westward along Lake Ontario. For the first time the mouth of the Niagara River was entirely in American hands. Unfortunately for the United States troops, this auspicious beginning did not indicate what was to come. Once in control of Fort George the American leadership began to waver. The British army was not pursued and was thus able to escape and regroup. By the time American troops left Fort George to attack the British, their forces were too few and too late. The invaders were attacked and defeated at Stoney Creek on June 6 and Beaver Dams on June 24. The momentum of the American army was irretrievably lost, and the troops were soon bottled up in the forts at the mouth of the river, subject to disease and boredom and growing increasingly dispirited.

As autumn neared, American strength at Fort George was further reduced by troop transfers as the offensive effort of the United States Army shifted to the eastern end of Lake Ontario. By autumn the defense of the Niagara area was largely in the hands of the New York Militia. In December their commander, General George McClure, decided that Fort George was untenable. He ordered a withdrawal to the New York side of the river. Fort George was then ordered destroyed to prevent its use by the British. McClure greatly exceeded his instructions, however, and gave an unfortunate second order - the adjacent town of Newark (or Niagara-on-the-Lake) was also to be burned. Private property was destroyed and civilians were left without shelter. This unwarranted and destructive action would lead to British retaliation and result, by war's end, in the nearly complete devastation of both sides of the Niagara River.

THE CAPTURE OF FORT NIAGARA

The British did not delay in exploiting the withdrawal of United States forces. Most of the New York Militia, their terms of service expired, had returned to their homes. The few regular troops still on the Niagara Frontier were concentrated at Fort Niagara and Buffalo. Within a matter of days the British had planned an assault on Fort Niagara.

On the night of December 18-19, 1813, red-coated soldiers marched up the river from the newly reoccupied ruins of Fort George and crossed to the New York shore. Landing at a place called Five Mile Meadows, they advanced silently down the River Road in the wintery dark. In the village of Youngstown the British encountered a detachment of American soldiers serving as pickets for the garrison. These men had retreated into the houses of the village to escape the cold. British soldiers burst into the houses and ended resistance before a shot could be fired. With this obstacle removed, the 562 man assault force continued a mile further to Fort Niagara.

The United States garrison had been expecting an attack ever since the abandonment of Fort George. On this night, however, their guard was lax. Most of the garrison was asleep, and the commander, Captain Nathaniel Leonard, was visiting his family in Lewiston! The British advance party appeared suddenlv at the fort gate, just as it had been opened to allow a sentry detail to pass. A British sergeant, unrecognized in the darkness, approached the gate closely enough to wedge it open with his body. Within moments the attackers were streaming through the gate. The sleeping members of the garrison had little opportunity to resist. Only a few men in the "Red Barracks" and the guard detail in the South Redoubt were able to organize. Their resistance was fierce. Though the Red Barracks was soon cleared at the point of the bayonet, the South Redoubt was a tougher objective. A party of British soldiers finally broke down the door and fought up two flights of stairs to subdue the sixty-five stubborn defenders. Fort Niagara's garrison of 433 soldiers had lost 65 killed and 15 wounded. The unfortunate Captain Leonard arrived at the gate the next morning to find British sentries in control. Only captivity in Canada prevented his trial for treason by the United States Army.

The loss of Fort Niagara was only the first in a series of disasters for the Niagara Frontier. On December 19 the British marched from their newly won post and, partlv in retaliation for the destruction of Newark, burned the village of Youngstown. Continuing up the River Road they drove off an American detachment at Lewiston and destroyed that town as well. By the end of the year the same fate had befallen Manchester, Schlosser, Black Rock and Buffalo. The New Year found the American side of the Niagara a scorched ruin.

Aside from these destructive forays the British made no further effort to occupy the countryside around Fort Niagara. By holding the post itself they dominated the mouth of the river and provided a safe haven for warships and supply vessels. The Union Jack flying over the post was also a powerful political symbol. It meant that a small part of United States territory was in British hands and provided a potential bargaining chip at the peace table.
The British made a number of improvements and repairs to Fort Niagara during the seventeen months they held the post. It was inevitable that the fort would be returned to the Americans, however. The Treaty of Ghent officially ended the war late in 1814. Its terms called for a return to the "status quo ante bellum", and, by the spring of 1815, the two sides were preparing to exchange captured territory and withdraw to their pre-war positions.

THE AMERICANS RETURN

United States troops peacefully reoccupied Fort Niagara on May 22, 1815. The British retired once again to their old position at Fort George, now in ruins, and a new post, Fort Mississauga, begun at the mouth of the river in 1814. Though tensions remained, life rapidly returned to normal along the Niagara Frontier. The burned villages and farms were repaired and commerce resumed along the portage.

Fort Niagara had deteriorated badly during the war. Battle damage and a lack of maintenance had resulted in the destruction of many of the old buildings. The few new structures completed by the wartime garrisons provided adequate quarters for a detachment. However, Fort Niagara had begun to assume its modern appearance with a large open parade ground and the buildings clustered around the walls.

The primary lesson learned about Fort Niagara during the War of 1812 was that it was terribly vulnerable to cannon fire from the Canadian shore. In 1816 the first of several nineteenth century designs was drawn up in an attempt to counter this disadvantage. The plans called for substantial new walls on the river side. The vast expense and improving relations with Great Britain combined to halt the project virtually as soon as it had begun. Unrepaired, the fortifications continued to deteriorate. By the 1820's, in fact, there was not even a wall along the river side of the fort, and the interior of the post was completely exposed to fire from Fort Mississauga. Peace was Fort Niagara's chief defense.

The 1820's was in fact a very peaceful time along the Niagara. The garrison of Fort Niagara was small, though it still served to guard the portage route around Niagara Falls. A similar garrison faced the American troops from the opposite shore. It was during this quiet time that Fort Niagara figured prominently in an important event of medical history. In May, 1825, Army Surgeon William Beaumont arrived from Fort Mackinac, Michigan Territory, to assume command of the post hospital. He was accompanied by a young French Canadian voyageur named Alexis St. Martin. Three years earlier St. Martin had been terribly wounded in his side by a shotgun blast. The man had remained Beaumont's patient since the accident, and the doctor had noticed a curious development. Though St. Martin had recovered, the wound to his stomach had not closed. Beaumont was thus provided with a unique opportunity to observe the human digestive system at work. His first series of pioneering experiments commenced at Fort Niagara late in the summer of 1825. More sophisticated tests were conducted at other posts during the 1830's. These would result in publication of the first detailed observations on the functioning of the human stomach and earn Beaumont a place in medical history.

Another event in 1825 had more direct consequences for Fort Niagara. After years of construction, the Erie Canal was completed. This artificial waterway cut across New York and connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. Buffalo was the western terminus, and completion of the canal started the town on its development as the commercial capital of Western New York. The results were not so fortunate for the merchants of Youngstown and Lewiston and the operators of the Niagara Portage. In one stroke the Erie Canal ended nearly two hundred years of commercial through traffic along the Niagara River. It also did away with the United States Army's chief reasons for maintaining a post at the river's mouth. Within one year the army had decided to abandon Fort Niagara. The troops were withdrawn and the buildings and fortifications placed in the hands of a caretaker.

THE MORGAN INCIDENT

Soon after the departure of the Fort Niagara garrison, the vacant post figured in one of the most bizarre and mysterious events of New York history. Accounts disagree on details and results, and the true story might never known since the incident was so politically volatile. In 1826 William Morgan, resident of Batavia, New York became disillusioned with Freemasonry. Morgan published a booklet exposing the secrets of the order and thus incurred the wrath of the Masons of Western New York.

On September 12, 1826, Morgan was kidnapped and carried to the Niagara Frontier. After much discussion on how best to silence him, someone suggest that Morgan be detained at Fort Niagara. The post's caretaker and its only other resident, a ferryman, were both active Masons. Morgan was locked in the empty Powder Magazine of the fort.

What happened next is still mystery. The kidnappers soon disagreed about the severity of the measures required to silence and punish Morgan. One faction called for his death while another felt that matters had already go too far. Whatever the result of their debate, Morgan disappeared from the Powder Magazine and was never heard from again. Anti-Masons charged that he had been murdered. Masons countered that Morgan had been bribed to leave the country. The ensuing investigations did little to solve the mystery. The only clear result was an aggravation of the already strong anti-Mason sentiment in New York and the United States.

THE REBELLION OF 1837

Despite the diminished strategic value of Fort Niagara, troops regarrison the post in 1828. They did little more than routine duty until 1837 whe rebellion broke out in Canada. The Canadian rebels sought arms, assistance and sanctuary in the United States. The Niagara Frontier saw much activity during this time including several incidents which aggravated tensions alo the border. The British response was to strengthen garrisons and defend along the Niagara. The walls of Fort Niagara were virtually in ruins, and the activity on the Canadian shore finally prompted action at the old post.

Between 1839 and 1843 laborers under the direction of an officer of the Corps of Engineers made extensive alterations and additions to buildings a fortifications at Fort Niagara. A heavy stone wall was erected along the river side to shield the interior of the fort from guns in Fort Mississauga. A seawall was built and successfully arrested years of erosion by Lake Ontario. Emplacements for heavy guns, a shot furnace, new timber revetments for the land side earthworks, and improvements to the stone buildings completed the project. Though its garrison remained small, Fort Niagara was once again a respectable fortification.

The end of the Canadian Rebellion eased border tensions, and Fort Niagara's new defenses were not tested. The United States government, in fact, had doubts about the worth of retaining a garrison at the fort. Other priorities, particularly the expanding commitment to the West, often called troops away from Fort Niagara. The post was once more abandoned from 1846 to 1848 while the army was fully involved in the Mexican War. Though soldiers returned in 1848 they were withdrawn again in 1854.

THE CIVIL WAR

Fort Niagara was reoccupied in 1861 shortly after the outbreak of the War Between the States. Ironically, the post was not at first considered important to the war effort. The enemy was far to the south, and a Confederate attack on Western New York was unlikely. The regular soldiers who regarrisoned Fort Niagara were assigned there only because they could not be used elsewhere. The 7th United States Infantry Regiment had been forced to surrender to the Confederates at Mesilla, New Mexico on July 25, 1861. Following common practice, the prisoners were paroled on their promise not to fight again until formally exchanged. After their return to the North, the companies of the 7th Infantry were stationed at border posts, far from the front. One detachment occupied Fort Niagara. Exchange for these men finally came in 1863. The troops then joined the war, and Fort Niagara was once again without a garrison.

By the time the 7th Infantry departed Fort Niagara, new interest had been focused on the ancient post. Fear that Great Britain might intervene on the side of the Confederacy once again raised tensions on the border. By 1863 plans were afoot to reconstruct fortifications along the Canadian border. Grand designs were drawn for Fort Niagara, and work commenced during the summer of 1863. New revetments to support the earthen walls of the land front were the first part of the project. Later work was to include new walls and gun positions on the river and lake sides. Though renovations continued from 1863 to 1872, the Civil War had demonstrated the vulnerability of masonry forts to artillery of the time. Gradually, the ambitious plans were altered. By the time work ceased in 1872 only the land front had been completed. Even then the new gun positions were not armed, and the walls were obsolescent by the time of their completion.

The fact that work was carried even to this point was probably due to another period of border tension. The threat of British involvement in the Civil War soon disappeared as Confederate fortunes declined. With the end of hostilities, however, large numbers of discharged veteran Union soldiers of Irish birth became involved in the Fenian movement. Their goal was independence for Ireland. One scheme to achieve this called for the invasion and conquest of British Canada as a blow against the British Empire and a bargaining chip to gain Ireland's freedom.
Fenian forces gathered at Buffalo in the spring of 1866. In June an armed force crossed the Upper Niagara River, occupied the village of Fort Erie and defeated Canadian Militia at the Battle of Ridgeway, Ontario. The Fenians, faced with gathering British and Canadian resistance, soon withdrew to Buffalo. United States authorities blocked further raids along the Niagara. Fenian activities continued into the early 1870's, however, and friction between the neighboring nations remained high.

New Fort Niagara - The Americans (1872 - 1963)

Fort Niagara was reoccupied by United States soldiers in the fall of 1865. Though the garrison was not directly involved in the Fenian incident, they were useful in guarding the nervous border. The arriving garrison found the fort's accommodations to be primitive and in poor repair. This, combined with the fact that the fortifications themselves were now of questionable value, would cause a significant change in the appearance and use of Fort Niagara.

Almost as soon as the army returned to Fort Niagara they began to construct new garrison buildings outside the walls. The first of these structures was a hospital. This was followed by company barracks in 1868 and officers' quarters and other structures in 1870. While some construction also occurred within the old walls, future activity would, for the most part, focus on the military reserve east of the fort. This was the beginning of "New" Fort Niagara. By the mid 1880's most garrison activity was concentrated in that part of the post. The old buildings were employed chiefly for storage or excess accommodations.

The growth of New Fort Niagara followed a number of phases. The first construction of 1865-1870 was followed by major expansions in 1885, 1892, 1908, and 1912. The 1885 work included installation of a one thousand yard rifle range. This would be an important feature of the post until it was finally abandoned by the army. As New Fort Niagara expanded, the function of the post changed again. With the old fortifications of no further use, the garrison of the 1870's and 1880's was primarily a caretaker detachment, though the post was also used to detain military convicts. Following installation of the rifle range, however, Fort Niagara came into increasing use as a training base.

THE MODERN WARS

With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 the regular garrison was called to active service in Cuba. Within a year, however, the post would be functioning as a training base for volunteers recruited for service in the Philippine Islands. These new possessions of the United States had been taken from Spain in 1898. Between 1899 and 1901, however, a major military effort was required to quell a rebellion of Filipinos seeking independence. The 42nd Regiment of United States Volunteers trained for this service at Fort Niagara in the fall of 1899.

Fort Niagara also served as a training base during the First World War. Many wooden "temporary" buildings were constructed to house large numbers of officers who attended training camps at the post. The post-war years saw a return to peaceful garrison life for a battalion of regular infantry. The unit most often associated with Fort Niagara during this time was the 28th Infantry. Fort Niagara perhaps typified the lean but quiet days of the "Old Army". New equipment was scarce and the number of troops was relatively small, but the post was a showplace of military neatness.

During these years the historic buildings of Old Fort Niagara continued to decay. Most were used for storage, though civilian employees of the Army lived in the French Castle until about 1915. By the early 1920's, however, the Old Fort was in danger of being lost. The buildings were falling apart, and Lake Ontario had undermined the stone seawall. Concern grew among local citizens who were well aware of the fort's importance to the history of the Niagara Frontier. In 1927 these people formed the Old Fort Niagara Association with the goal of restoring the fort as a museum. The Association obtained the cooperation and financial assistance of the Army and solicited private donations. Restoration of the French Castle began in 1927 and was completed two years later. Between 1929 and 1932 the other structures were repaired and restored to their eighteenth century appearances. Additional work was completed by 1934. The Old Fort has been operated as a historic site museum since that time.

New Fort Niagara continued as an active post throughout this time. The garrison maintained close ties with the local populace. Colonel Charles Morrow, commander from 1930 to 1935, channeled much of the troops' energy into the restoration of the Old Fort. Dress parades, band concerts and other public events were also a regular part of garrison routine. The chief duties were still military, however, and training was a major part of daily activities.

The end of this quiet but colorful period came in 1940 when the 28th Infantry was transferred to South Carolina. Fort Niagara, by now too small to be useful as a training ground for modern war, was converted into an induction center. Thousands of Western New Yorkers had their first taste of army life in the brick barracks of Fort Niagara. In 1944 part of the military post was fenced and set aside for use as a prisoner of war camp. German soldiers captured in North Africa, many of them members of General Erwin Rommel's famous Afrika Korps, were held at the post. They spent the next two years working under guard on local farms. The camp was closed in 1946.

The conclusion of the Second World War should also have spelled the end of the active post at Fort Niagara. All military units were withdrawn in 1945, and the buildings were used briefly as emergency housing for returning veterans. The intention was to convert the area to a New York State Park, however, to complement the museum in the Old Fort. This was delayed by the Korean War when the Army reactivated the post. It was used for a variety of purposes over the next decade. Newly developed air defense missiles were then being installed to protect the hydroelectric plants and industries of the Niagara Frontier. Fort Niagara provided barracks and headquarters facilities. The end finally came in 1963. At that time the United States Army formally ceded the property to the State of New York and the last regular soldiers marched off the post. The long military history of Fort Niagara had finally ended.

Today, surviving walls and buildings of Old Fort Niagara are maintained by the Old Fort Niagara Association, Inc., a not-for-profit educational organization under license from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The Old Fort is a Registered National Historic Landmark. Most of the nineteenth and twentieth century buildings of New Fort Niagara were removed in 1965-1966 to clear the area for a recreational park. A few survivors may still be seen. Today the area is known as Fort Niagara State Park. A United States Coast Guard Station is the only remaining military facility of a site whose history has spanned three hundred years.