Historical Development of the Fort
Fort Niagara, 1780
- 30 Officers' Quarters (French Castle), 1726
- 31c? Bakehouse, 1762 possibly altered 1773-80
- 32 South Redoubt, 1770
- 33 North Redoubt, 1770-71
- 34b Provisions Storehouse, 1762
- 35 Powder Magazine, 1757
- 408b Barracks, pre-1755 or 1757-59
- 417b Barracks, 1755-56 or 1756-57
- 422 Ordnance Storehouse, 1757
- 427a Hospital, 1757
- 428a Barracks, 1757
- 429a Commandant's Quarters, 1757
- 431 Chapel, 1757
- 436 Soldiers' Guardhouse, 1768
- 437 Officers' Guardhouse, 1768
- 441a Commandant's Quarters, 1768
- 442a Artillery Officers' Guardhouse,1768
- 443a Stable, 1768-71
- 447a Barracks, 1773-80
- 448 Bombproof, 1780
- 449 Barracks, 1780
The redoubts and Leutenant Pfister's repairs had no more than been completed when the potential threat against Fort Niagara shifted once again. The once-formidable earthworks were little more than gentle, grassy mounds when American colonists took up arms against England in 1775. Suddenly, Indians were no longer the primary concern, and there was agains the possibility that European-style troops might bring artillery to bear on Fort Niagara.
It was easier to define the new threat than to take measures to combat it. As late as November 1777, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton reported that Fort Niagara was "far from being in a good State of Defence." The garrison did what it could for the next two years, but it was not until 1779 that a direct military threat brought substantial reinforcements and stimulated vigorous work on fortifications. By mid-September Bolton could report that land defenses had been rebuilt. His enlarged garrison then required additional barracks. The first such structures (447a and 449a), along with a bomb-proof (448) to shelter soldiers during a siege, were begun in 1779-80.
Construction of additional buildings within Fort Niagara would continue for the duration of the American Revolution. By the end of 1780, however, the post had been transferred into a strong, regular fortification which could repel any attack by forces of the Continental Congress.
This rendering of Fort Niagara is based, unfortunately, on an undated plan that might be the one hastily prepared by Royal Artillery Lieutenant Charles Terrot in November 1780. It shows the defenses in good order and depicts the first of many new buildings constructed between 1779 and 1784. It also lacks the inner fort although its perimeter may still be ascertained. Made obsolete by the outbreak of the war, the stockade was badly damaged by a March 1779 storm that carried away part of its lake side. The eleven-year old pickets were probably thoroughly rotten by 1779, and the storm damage was the last blow to its integrity. The inner stockade was believed to have been dismantled during 1779-80.
This plan is one of several which show a chronic washout of the lake bank by the North Redoubt. The defensive problem created by this small gully was addressed by extending the pickets of the lake-front wall along the sides of the gully and connecting them to the redoubt.