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Constructing Fort George
Posted By Powell, Kathleen
As a result of Jay’s Treaty signed in 1794, British outposts on what is today the U.S. side of the Niagara River were evacuated and left to the Americans.
Jay’s Treaty effectively resolved issues left over from the American Revolution, establishing the boundary of Upper Canada as the centre point of the Niagara River. After the surrender of these posts, the British built a series of new forts along the river, including Fort St. Joseph, Fort Malden and Fort George.
The location of Fort George was chosen carefully, located on the west bank of the Niagara River just over a kilometre from Lake Ontario adjacent to the town of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake). This site was chosen to be away from the mouth of the Niagara River, protecting the fort from the heavy guns just across the river at Fort Niagara.
The first Fort George, completed in 1799, consisted of six small bastions faced with framed timber and plank and connected with a line of cedar picketing 12 feet tall. Circling the fort was a shallow, dry ditch.
The solid earth bastions were floored with planks to provide a durable place for the heavy cannon. All along, the parapets were pierced with gun embrasures. Originally, two roads led into the fort with both protected by a triangular outer defence called a redan.
Within the walls of the fort were five barracks, a small blockhouse, a stone powder magazine, officers’ quarters, a kitchen, hospital, guardhouse and storehouse.
Most of the original fort was destroyed by U.S. artillery fire at the Battle of Fort George in May 1813. The fort was retaken later that year.
The fort was occupied into the 1820s when the British abandoned it in favour of a more defensible position at Fort Mississauga, also in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Fort George was rebuilt as a historic site in the 1930s.
- For more information about the War of 1812, check out my blog at www.niagarafallsreview.ca
Kathleen Powell is manager, City of Niagara Falls Museums
Article ID# 1039118
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