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Photo Diary: Fort Niagara, NY [1]
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Date: 2022-07-28
During the War of 1812, in an act of revenge, British forces captured the American Fort Niagara and burned the town of Buffalo NY.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. I am currently in New York.
On December 13, 1813, General Sir Gordon Drummond was appointed as Governor of Upper Canada, placing him in control of all the British forces in the province. And one of his first acts was to order a retaliation for an American raid into Canada.
In May 1813, the Americans had briefly captured Ft George, on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, before being driven out by a siege. As they left, they burned the undefended Canadian town of Newark, sparing not a building and leaving all the inhabitants homeless in the winter snow. Along with the earlier burning of the city of York, it was an event that rankled the British.
With the Americans now bottled up in Fort Niagara, however, Drummond sought revenge, and found that he had a perfect target. There were only around 500 US troops inside Fort Niagara: one company of infantry from the 24th US Regiment, a company of cannoneers from the 1st Artillery Regiment, and some sick and wounded from various other regiments who were at the Fort to recover. The commander was Captain Nathaniel Leonard, a well-known drunkard who had allowed discipline to become lax and the Fort itself to fall into disrepair. Orders had already been issued to remove Leonard from command, but there was no other senior officer in the area to take over from him.
At Drummond’s orders, a force of 600 British troops from General John Vincent’s army at Burlington Heights was sent to the Niagara River for a surprise attack under cover of darkness. Commanded by Colonel John Murray, they paddled across the river on the night of December 18, silently dispatched the unprepared American guard pickets, and made their way to the Fort’s gate. Presenting the password for the night, the British bluffed their way through, opened the portals, and rushed inside.
Using bayonets to maintain silence, they systematically dashed into each barracks and killed or captured everyone inside the Fort, most of whom were asleep. The only real American resistance came from a blockhouse at the south end of the Fort, where a handful of troops refused to surrender. When the British broke their way in, all of the recalcitrant soldiers were bayoneted.
In all, about 80 US troops were killed, 15 more wounded, and 350 captured. Colonel Leonard was not inside the Fort: he was asleep at his own house, about two miles away, and was captured by a detachment sent for the purpose. By daylight, the British held Fort Niagara and its occupants, along with its 27 cannons, 3000 muskets, and several tons of gunpowder, flour and other supplies.
And then the troops took their revenge for the burning of Newark. Several hundred additional men commanded by General Phineas Riall crossed the Niagara into New York, accompanied by some 400 Native Americans—the remnants of Tecumseh’s forces. Over the next several days, they looted and razed every village along the American side of the river, including Lewiston, Youngstown, and Manchester (modern-day Niagara Falls). On December 30, they moved further to Black Rock on Lake Ontario, quickly overpowered the small garrison there and sacked that village, then went on to Buffalo NY, where they leveled the entire town and burned it to ashes. (The only building left standing was the stone jail.) The Canadian Governor-General George Prevost later declared, “A full measure of retaliation has taken place, such as, it is hoped, will teach the enemy to respect in future the laws of war.” Instead, the attack would spark a series of small tit-for-tat raids in a guerrilla war that stretched on for months and lay waste to both sides of the border.
The British would occupy Fort Niagara for the rest of the War, giving them full control of the Niagara River. After the armistice, the fort was turned back over to the United States, which expanded it during the Civil War, and used it as a barracks and training center during the two World Wars. The Army turned Fort Niagara over to the State of New York as a park in 1960.
Today, Old Fort Niagara is run jointly by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Old Fort Niagara Association, a nonprofit preservation group. There is a museum display and tours.
Some photos from a visit.
NOTE: As some of you already know, all of my diaries here are draft chapters for a number of books I am working on. So I welcome any corrections you may have, whether it's typos or places that are unclear or factual errors. I think of y'all as my pre-publication editors and proofreaders. ;)
Visitors Center
The museum
The fort’s flag, captured by the British and kept in Scotland until it was given to the museum in 1994
Guided tour
Looking towards the fort
The fort’s outer walls
Gatehouse. The original was made from wood—this stone version was built in the 1930s for the tourists
Some of the fort’s outer defensive ditches
Cannons overlooking Canada. (I think that building on the other side is a British fort’s blockhouse.)
British Fort George on the other side of the river
The French Castle, a trading post built on the spot in 1726. It was incorporated into the Fort.
Looking across the Parade Ground to the South Blockhouse
Barracks and storage buildings
Furnace for making “hot shot”—redhot cannonballs
Bread oven
The troops were not issued any fresh vegetables with their rations, so they grew their own
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