The tiny wooden fort constructed by La Salle almost certainly stood at the top of the lake bank on the later site of the \"French Castle\" of 1726 (superimposed on this plan in solid line). Fort Conti was situated so as to be convenient to both the lake and the landing place on the Niagara River. High banks and a natural gully to the east made the point easily defensible.
Fort Conti was constructed entirely of wood and was little more than a fortified storehouse. It was described by La Salle\'s chaplain, Father Louis Hennepin, as \"a house defended by palisades.\" The explorer himself noted that Fort Conti was composed of two forty foot-square redoubts of horizontal timbers joined by a \"palisade\" (stockade) and that it was musket-proof. Most sources indicate that the fort enclosed a single \"house\", probably built of logs. Fort Conti burned accidentally sometime during 1679. It was not rebuilt. No confirmed archaeological evidence of La Salle\'s post has yet been uncovered.
A plan of Fort Conti remains to be discovered, so the accompanying sketch is totally conjectural in regard to the configuration of the walls, the relationship of the fort to the point, the arrangement of the redoubts as bastions at opposite corners of the stockade, and the orientation and size of the house. It is possible that a less regular outline was created by La Salle\'s party, although he and many of his men possessed substantial military experience. The gate is shown on the river side at the head of a natural ramp leading to the landing place on the low land between the fort and the Niagara River.
Hennepin described the site of Fort Conti as \"naturally defensive.\" The features which made it so were probably the gully, located just east of the site, and a distinct natural terrace on the lake bank upon which the 1726 \"Castle\" was later constructed. That location would have been the most logical choice for La Salle who relied on nature to enhance the defensibility ofhis tiny fort. When a conjectural plan of Fort Conti, sized to resemble other French stockades of the time, was plotted on the edge of the lake-side embankment, it fit squarely between these naturally protective landscape features. The hypothetical gate fell at the top of the natural ramp leading from the riverside landing place to the top of the bank.
'; content[0].legend = 'Unlike Fort Conti, the post erected by Governor Denonville in 1687 was intended primarily for military purposes. Had it been possible to supply and maintain this fort in the face of Iroquois hostility, it might have been possible for the French to firmly establish a presence at Niagara.
Historical accounts, supported by the computer map study, indicate that Fort Denonville probably stood atop the lake bank terrace between the gully and the river. It was probably placed on the ruins of La Salle\'s fort and the later site of the Castle. Although Denonville ordered a plan drawn in 1687, it has not been located. This sketch is therefore conjectural as to the layout of Fort Denonville and the arrangement and dimensions of the structures within its walls. Contemporary accounts are quite specific as to the number, relative size and purposes of the buildings. The gate is shown on the river side in conformance with the conjectural plan of Fort Conti, actual renderings of the 1726 Fort Niagara and topographical features.
Fort Denonville was a square wooden stockade constructed of sixteen-foot pickets. It probably had a bastion at each corner, and at least three of these had been begun by the time Denonville\'s army departed in August 1687. By the time the fort was abandoned in September 1688, a simple ditch had been excavated around the walls, and a well and at least eight log and plank buildings stood within the stockade. The latter included a bakery, storehouses and quarters for one hundred officers and men. In the spring of 1688 Father Pierre Millet erected an eighteen foot-tall oak cross in the center of the parade to mark Good Friday and offer thanks for the survival of twelve members of the original garrison. Their eighty-eight less fortunate comrades. had been interred somewhere in or near the fort, perhaps at a site east of the gully where early European-style burials were discovered in 1929 near the modern \"Flag Circle\".
When Fort Denonville was abandoned in September 1688, the stockade walls were pulled down. The buildings were then left to the elements. By 1708 visible remnants had disappeared, and a visiting French officer referred only to \"the site of the former fort.\" Much of the land upon which Fort Denonville is thought to have stood has been eroded by Lake Ontario.
'; content[1].legend = 'Construction of the \"machicolated house\" (the \"Castle\") in 1726 finally gave the French a firm military foothold on the Niagara River. Although the Iroquois had given permission to erect a stone trading house, the new building was, in fact, a substantial citadel for its military garrison. It was designed by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery to have the appearance of a house, but it incorporated many defensive features as well, notably overhanging or \"machicolated\" dormers which provided positions from which defensive fire could sweep the ground around it. The stone walls were impervious to musketry, and the \"house\" contained all the facilities needed by a garrison of about sixty officers and men - storerooms, quarters, a bakery, a chapel, a magazine, and a well.
Construction of the \"machicolated house\" was begun in June 1726 and completed during 1727. This structure would be the sole building of Fort Niagara for almost twenty years. A wooden stockade with four bastions was erected around it during the summer of 1727 to provide an outer line of defense. Fort Niagara remained essentially in this configuration until sometime after 1740.
This sketch is based on Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery\'s own plan entitled \"Entree de La Riviere de Niagara. dans le fond du Lac Ontario au est marque la maison a machicoulis et Le fort propose\" dated June 21, 1726. The \"machicolated house\" was placed on the location of the two earlier forts, de Lery noting that he had selected the \"same spot\" occupied by Denonville\'s post. It is even possible, although as yet unsupported by any evidence, that the Fort Denonville well was reopened to serve the new stone house. The main gate of the stockade was placed on the river side to provide easy access to the landing place. The high, terraced lake bank and the natural gully east of the walls again served to strengthen the position. A cemetery was located outside the walls, perhaps on the east bank of the gully near the modern site of Old Fort Niagara\'s three flagpoles which was the site of a number of early burials uncovered in 1929.
Fort Niagara bore a striking resemblance to de Lery\'s later Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point, New York, constructed a decade later. Both incorporated a substantial roofed citadel within a small fort. Fort St. Frederic\'s proximity to British territory dictated outer defenses of stone and earth rather than a stockade, but in most other respects the two posts were quite similar.
'; content[2].legend = 'The first substantial changes to Fort Niagara occurred during the 1740s. Renewed colonial conflict between 1744 and 1748, usually known as King George\'s War, again focused attention on the military importance of Niagara. There was still no real concern that cannon would be brought against the post, so the wooden pickets were simply replaced or strengthened in 1740, 1744 and 1745. It is also possible that the stockade was enlarged during that time, and the first description of buildings other than the machicolated house dates to 1743. By 1755 six buildings described as \"old\" (31a, 403, 405, 407, 408a, and 410a) stood within the stockade near de Lery\'s stone house.
The 1740s also marked the first mention of a new and insidious enemy. Lake Ontario was eroding the point at an alarming rate. When de Lery returned in 1744 to inspect his creation, he found that erosion had \"tumbled nearly half\' of the land between the machicolated house and the lake since 1726. The lost ground was probably at the tip of the point and along the lower part of the lakeside embankment and beach. De Lery built the first of many seawalls, but the lake\'s advance, accelerated by cyclically fluctuating water levels, would not be checked until 1816.
Despite the repairs and additions of the 1740s, Fort Niagara was in wretched condition when war with Britain recommenced in 1754. In 1755 the fortifications were described as \"crumbling in every direction\" and the ten-foot high stockade was so shaky that it had to be propped up. William Shirley\'s abortive expedition against Niagara finally prompted French reaction. In September 1755 regular troops were sent to Niagara to construct new defensive works. These were designed and built under the supervision of Captain Pierre Pouchot.
Pouchot arrived at Fort Niagara in October. His first priority was to construct winter quarters for an enlarged garrison. The troops utilized the old stockaded fort, adding new houses (404, 406,411, and 412) built \"in the Canadian manner\" inside and outside the old walls. Once this had been completed, the new earthen fortifications were laid out east of the old fort.
The initial stage of Pouchot\\\'s work was documented in the \"Plan Du Fort de Niagara, construit et defendu par M. De Pouchot\", included in his Memoires sur la derniere guerre... of 1781. Our plan is based on this work. Pouchot showed the existing fort with his new buildings, two of which were sheltered from attack only by their position between the old stockade and the river bank. The gate appears, by this time, to have been moved to the southeast side of the fort. The location of the massive new earthworks is shown east of the gully.
'; content[3].legend = 'The threat of attack by British forces in 1755 stimulated thegreatest single change in the appearance of Fort Niagara. Between 1755and 1757 the fort lost its simple frontier defenses and was transformedinto a classic example of eighteenth century European fortification inthe wilds of North America. The area of Fort Niagara was increasedeight-fold, and the general outline and location of the new land-frontdefenses remains basically unaltered today.
Captain PierrePouchot had been ordered to render Fort Niagara tenable againstartillery, and he effectively employed the natural advantages of thesite. Rather than waste effort on the lake and river sides of thepoint, Pouchot erected the primary fortifications facing the east orland side since a British attack was certain to come from thatdirection. Pouchot laid out a simple trace, known as a \"hornwork\",which included only a \"curtain\" or wall with a \"half-bastion\" at eachend. Pouchot\'s defenses were constructed of earth faced with sod. A dryditch and outworks completed the fortifications. A new entrance,christened the \"Gate of the Five Nations\", allowed access to theexpanded fort. The rotten old stockade was torn down sometime after thenew walls had been completed.
Pouchot noted that, in 1755-56, hisworkmen \"labored through winter on the new fort.\" They concentrated onthe hornwork and less substantial earthworks to cover the river andlake sides. Pouchot\'s own Regiment de Bearn arrived in June 1756to provide additional labor. By the end of July FortNiagara had reached the point where the Governor of New France couldpraise the \"regularity, solidarity, and utility\" of its defenses.
Our sketch is based on Pouchot\'s \"Plan de Niagara et des Fortifications faites en 1755 et 1756\", drawn about October 18, 1756 to document the first year\'s progress.It shows that the fortifications had been primary focus of his effort.It also indicates that the temporary barracks of 1755 had either beentorn down or moved to other locations within the enlarged fort.Material from these buildings was perhaps used to construct a moresubstantial barracks (417a), a new temporary barracks (418) and ahospital (416). The latter was placed between the stockade and thegully in a position sheltered by the new earthworks. Three buildings inthe southeast corner (34a, 418 and 420) were the only additions beyondthe area of the old stockade, still shown enclosing the Castle.Although not indicated on our map, structure 410a might have by thistime been doubled in size.
'; content[4].legend = 'Pouchot\'s defenses were perfected during 1756-57. By that time theold stockade around the Castle had been torn down, leaving a neatsquare of buildings to mark its former location. By September 1757,Pouchot could report that \"Fort Niagara and its buildings werefinished,and its covered ways stockaded.\" The fortifications requiredonly one refinement - replacement of the sod wall-facing with stone.This was approved early in 1757. The stone, however, would have to comefrom Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario), and it was impossible to begintransporting it before 1758. The British capture of Fort Frontenac anddestruction of the French Lake Ontario sailing vessels in August1758 nipped the project in the bud.
Pouchot\'s 1756-57 work included the erection of numerous new buildings within the enlarged fort. Most were of log, but one wasan exceptionally large masonry powder magazine (35) that survivestoday. The new wooden buildings included additional barracks(427a and 428a) , storehouses (34a, 422 and 426), a forge (430) astable (425), and a hospital (429a). A church (431) was alsoconstructed, possibly of stone.
Although the expansion of Fort Niagara greatly increased thefortified area, not all of this space could be utilized. The gully,long a convenient natural defense, prevented use of much of theinterior east of the old stockade. Efforts to adequately drain andfill the gully had begun even before 1755. Thisprocess would continue for many years, and no substantialbuildings were erected at the lake end of the gully until justbefore the War of 1812. The graveyard east of the gully (in thevicinity of the new church) was another inconvenience in the expandedfort. By 1759, a new post burial ground, today popularly known asthe \"1812 Cemetary\", had been established about one hundred yardssoutheast of the new walls.
When the British besieged Fort Niagara in 1759 the new earthen walls,still faced with sod and defended by Pouchot, served well. The French held for nineteen days before being forced to capitulate.The duration of their resistance was considered quite respectable for an\"open entrenchment\"-one which lacked bombproof shelters for itsgarrison. The accompanying plan is based on the last from the Frenchregime and shows the fort much as it appeared when the British arrived.It too was drafted by Pouchot. Entitled \"Niagara Cette Place a ete Commencee le 14 Janvier 1756 et Finie le 12 Octobre 1757 avec 80 Travailleurs partours\", it was probably drawn about December 1757.
'; content[5].legend = 'The British capture of Fort Niagara initially had little impact onits appearance. Aside from repairing the ravages of the nineteen-daysiege, the British would not significantly alter the post until1761-62. Despite the surrender of New France in September 1760, warbetween Britain and France still raged around the globe. Much effortwas thus expended to keep Fort Niagara\\\'s elaborate earthen defenses inrepair. Lieutenant Colonel William Farquhar, first commandment of thenew regime, was also the first of may British officers to comment onthe difficulty of maintaining the sodded earthworks. He recommendedthat they be \"revetted with stone, and Brick, as our Enemys for certainintended.\" The great expense of such an improvement prevented thisbeing accomplished. Additional troops-three hundred provincial soldiersfrom New Jersey - were sent to assist in repairing the defenses duringthe summer of 762. Their labor ensured that the earthworks would remainstrong - at least temporarily.
The violent attacks of Lake Ontario were also countered. Followingmassive erosion during 1759-60, garrison engineer Lieutenant GeorgeDemler began to experiment with techniques for alleviating the problem.In 1761 he designed a rubble filled, timber crib breakwall which, bythe end of 1762, extended along the lake side of the fort and aroundthe point to the landing place on the river. This structure wouldeffectively hold back the waves until 1779.
Thisplan is based on George Demler\'s \"Plan of Niagara with its outWorks and Buildings\", a small inset to his \"Plan of a Survey from LakeOntario to Lake Erie\" prepared about December 1762. It shows additionalopen space in the interior of Fort Niagara. Several of the woodenbuildings which had faced the \"Castle\" across the parade of the oldstockade fort had been demolished or moved before the1759 siege. OnJune 25, 1762, a fire swept the old French bakehouse (31a) and alsodestroyed \"three or four Hutts\" (probably 405, 407 and 410a). Theprovincial labor available in 1762 allowed several other useful projectsto be accomplished, including the addition of some permanent masonrystructures - a new bakehouse (31b) and provisions storehouse (34b) -both of which still exist in altered form. Demler also depicted hisseawall. Not visible is a massive subterranean masonary storm sewerdesigned to drain the remnants of the old gully and allow continuedfilling and levelling of the new parade. This drain is still in use.Although not shown on Demler\'s plan, the soldiers\' privies wereprobably still located on the lake side near the outlet of the drain.
'; content[6].legend = 'The Fort mapped by Lieutenant Demler in 1762 faced an entirely newthreat during the Indian Uprising of 1763-64. Earthworks designed toresist cannon were unnecessary when the enemy possessed no artillery,and the rambling defenses proved more a hazard than an asset in a waragainst Native Americans. It was fortunate that Niagara was notattacked, for it was reported in 1764 that friendly Indians had beenable to \"get into it in many places.\" The treaty between France andBritain guaranteed that new considerations would govern the nature ofNiagara\'s defenses. From 1763 until the American Revolution, Indianswere the most likely adversaries.
The defenses of Fort Niagara were about to be drastically changed tomeet this new concern. As early as 1763, the weak earthworks along thelake and river sides had been replaced by a stockade. Plans to entirelyre-picket the lake and river sides and the nearly ruined earthworkswere projected in 1767. Work began during the summer of 1768.
Other forces intervened, however. The end of both the war againstthe French and the Indian uprising meant reductions in the number oftroops available for Niagara and other posts. Further cost-cutting bythe British military in the spring of 1768 caused the work at FortNiagara to be suspended and then altered to allow the post to bedefended against Indians by a garrison as small as forty men. EngineerCaptain Thomas Sowers accomplished this work by the end of 1768.
This draft is based on Sowers\' \"Plan of the Fortifications ofNiagara\" drawn at the conclusion of the 1768 work. The results werestriking and put the form of Fort Niagara\'s defenses back to much asthey had been under the French. A stockade was erected around the\"Castle\" to provide a citadel and to enclose all the buildingsneeded for a small garrison. Two small guardhouses (436 and 437) wereplaced just inside the gate of the new stockade. Several buildings(425, 426 and 410c - the latter constructed since 1762) were removed toaccommodate the stockade, and the rest of the large fort was picketed.Other buildings between the earthworks and the new stockade were leftstanding and were to be abandoned in the event that wholesale troopreductions actually occured. In the end, Fort Niagara\'s garrison wasnot reduced to forty men, but its tenability against European-stylearmies was returned to the level of 1755.
'; content[7].legend = 'Captain Sowers\' improvements put a very different face on FortNiagara. Any further attempt to maintain the land-side earthworks ceasedwith his alteration of the defenses. The interior stockade, supplemented bypicketing along the lake, river and land perimeters, was adequateagainst Indian attack. Should the size of the garrison be drasticallyreduced, everything beyond the inner stockade could be abandoned and replaced by facilities in the \"little fort\".
These flimsy fortifications were soon improved. Plans had been made, asearly as 1766, to strengthen the remnants of the land defenses. Theintent was to place a small masonry blockhouse on the salient of eachbastion from which the defenders\' musket and canon fire could \"plungeinto the advanc\'d ditches.\" Construction was delayed until 1770 whenmasons were hired in New York City and sent to Niagara to erect a stone\"redoubt\" in each of Fort Niagara\'s land-side bastions.
It took two seasons to complete the new structures (32 and 33), andthe final products were substantially enlarged versions of the originaldesign. The redoubts were intended to serve as gun platforms,guardhouses and advanced posts for the inner fort. General Thomas Gageconfidently predicted that \"no Body of Indians would ever venturebetween the fire of two Redoubts\" to attack the inner stockade.Ironically, the redoubts were never utilized in the manner for whichthey were designed, but they would compliment the old earthworks shouldthey be reonstructed. The South Redoubt was placed to reinforce the\"Gate of the Five Nations\", and, until the first decade of thenineteenth century, anyone entering Fort Niagara would pass throughthat massive building before reaching the parade ground.
With Fort Niagara secured against the possibility of attack from the outside, it was time to combat the never-ending \"Decay of theBuildings.\" In May 1772 Lieutenant Francis Pfister was awarded acontract to repair the post buildings \"in a durable and Solid manner.\"Work on the \"Castle\" included a two-story officers\' privy, exteriorstair and platform (445a) which would remain a part of the buildinguntil the middle of the nineteenth century. It was not until October1773, however, tht Fort Niagara\'s commandant could certify that thecontractor had fulfilled his agreement. A few weeks earlier, onSeptember 28, Pfister completed the detailed \\\"Plan of Niagara with anExplanation of its Present State\" upon which this plan is based.
'; content[8].legend = 'The redoubts and Leutenant Pfister\'s repairs had no more than beencompleted when the potential threat against Fort Niagara shifted onceagain. The once-formidable earthworks were little more than gentle,grassy mounds when American colonists took up arms against England in1775. Suddenly, Indians were no longer the primary concern, and therewas agains the possibility that European-style troops might bringartillery to bear on Fort Niagara.
It was easier to define the new threat than to take measures tocombat it. As late as November 1777, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Boltonreported that Fort Niagara was \"far from being in a good State ofDefence.\" The garrison did what it could for the next two years, but itwas not until 1779 that a direct military threat brought substantialreinforcements and stimulated vigorous work on fortifications. Bymid-September Bolton could report that land defenses had been rebuilt.His enlarged garrison then required additional barracks. The first suchstructures (447a and 449a), along with a bomb-proof (448) toshelter soldiers during a siege, were begun in 1779-80.
Construction of additional buildings within Fort Niagara wouldcontinue for the duration of the American Revolution. By the end of1780, however, the post had been transferred into a strong, regularfortification which could repel any attack by forces of the ContinentalCongress.
This rendering of Fort Niagara is based, unfortunately, on anundated plan that might be the one hastily prepared by Royal ArtilleryLieutenant Charles Terrot in November 1780. It shows the defenses ingood order and depicts the first of many new buildings constructedbetween 1779 and 1784. It also lacks the inner fort although itsperimeter may still be ascertained. Made obsolete by the outbreak ofthe war, the stockade was badly damaged by a March 1779 storm thatcarried away part of its lake side. The eleven-year old pickets wereprobably thoroughly rotten by 1779, and the storm damage was the lastblow to its integrity. The inner stockade was believed to have beendismantled during 1779-80.
This plan is one of several which show a chronic washout of the lakebank by the North Redoubt. The defensive problem created by this smallgully was addressed by extending the pickets of the lake-front wallalong the sides of the gully and connecting them to the redoubt.
'; content[9].legend = 'Intensive renovation and construction continued at Fort Niagarauntil the end of the American Revolution. New barracks (453, 454,459a, and 460a), storehouses (458b and 423) and bomb-proofs (443b and451) were constructed, and the British garrison improved existingbuildings and fortifications. Activity halted with the end of the war,however. In July 1784 Lieutenant Colonel Arent Schuyler DePeysterrecieved orders that \"No works whatever shall be undertaken on thisside of the water.\" Fort Niagara had been ceded to the United States bythe peace treaty, and there was little point in the British furtherimproving the post for them.
Although the British occupied FortNiagara until 1796, little was done to improve the buildings or walls.The place was kept in a state of security but was usually described asbeing in poor condition. Elizabeth Simcoe found the fort\\\'s quarters\"very indifferent\" in 1792. The only significant repairs were made in1794-95. Blockhouses were constructed in the outer ditch, batterieswere constructed and the earthworks were faced with plank to slowchronic erosion. This was so poorly done, however, that American MajorJohn J.U. Rivardi complained, in 1799, that he believed Britishengineers built \"their works in Such a Manner & of Such materialsthat they are Sure to be in constant employmennt as the repairs areconstantly wanting.\" These were the last additions British troops wouldmake to Fort Niagara.
When the British peacefully relinquishedthe post to the United States on August 10, 1796, it contained thegreatest number of structures in its history. A few even survived fromthe French regime. The clutter of wooden structures concerned Americancommandants who feared that if enemy troops should ever get into thefort, the old buildings and narrow streets would provide both cover andincindiery materials.
This sketch is a simplified composite ofU.S. Major John Jacob Ulrich Rivardi\'s two plans of June 10,1798. Itdoes not show the wooden stockades, depicted in his plans, that hadbeen erected around each of the redoubts sometime after 1780 to improvetheir value as strong points. Nor does it include the gardens and manyother small details from Rivardi\'s painstaking drawings. Note also thatthe arrangment of the interior continued to be influenced by theremnants of the old gully. Filling would continue into the early yearsof the American occupation.
'; content[10].legend = 'The occupation of Fort Niagara by United States troops immediately placed the post in a situation unforeseen by Captain Pouchot and other early engineers. After evacuating Fort Niagara, the British merely relocated to higher ground only twelve hundred yards across the Niagara River. There, between 1796 and 1799, they constructed Fort George. The main danger to Fort Niagara was no longer from the land side, and the river defenses, always the weakest point, now faced the potential enemy. Fort Niagara had become a border fortification which, quite literally, faced the wrong way.
Complicating this awkward situation was the inability of the United States Army to provide more than eighty to one hundred men to garrison Fort Niagara. Such a tiny force could barely maintain the rambling walls and aging wooden buildings, much less reorient the fortifications. The decade before the War of 1812 accordingly saw drastic changes within Fort Niagara. Although the walls were preserved, many of the old buildings disappeared either by accident or design. By the turn of the century, the oldest of the wooden buildings had reached the end of their usefulness. Concern about the clutter of tinder-dry wooden structures within the fort also encouraged the removal of many.
From 1796 until the beginning of the War of 1812, therefore, U.S. forces concentrated on maintaining the fortifications and seawalls. A \"Quasi-War\" with France in 1798-1800 and continued improvements to Fort George encouraged such work, especially in 1800-02. Only the best of the buildings, particularly the six masonry structures, were maintained. The garrison\'s labor was never enough. British traveller William Benteck found it necessary to be tactful when he spoke with Major Rivardi, Fort Niagara\\\'s commandant, in the spring of 1800. \"The appearance of the Fort was so wretched and he seemed to feel his situation so much,\" Benteck wrote, \"that I did not like to hurt him by asking any questions respecting his place of abode which must be wretched.\"
By about 1805, when this unattributed and undated \"Plan of Niagara\" is believed to have been drawn, there were nine fewer buildings inside the walls than there had been at the close of the eighteenth century. Among the most significant losses was the garrison chapel, constructed by the French in 1757.
'; content[11].legend = 'The first decade of the nineteenth century has proven to be the mostfrustrating of periods for documenting change at Fort Niagara. Thewritten record says little about either repairs or improvement to thefortifications and buildings. No dated plan of Fort Niagara is knownbetween 1798 and 1810. Thus, the exact years they represent must bededuced from details in the plans, and these are not always consistent.
One thing is clear. The interior of Fort Niagara continued to \"openup\" throughout the decade before the War of 1812. By 1810 the clusterof old barracks near the French Castle had disappeared. So too had theFrench chapel of 1757 and many of the barracks and bombproofs erectedby the British during the American Revolution. Perhaps the latter hadbeen constructed poorly and in haste. Many years later the daughter ofAmerican Surgeon Joseph West recalled that, before 1812, these had been\"abandoned and the entrances closed ... having been so infested withrattlesnakes ... that it was hardly safe to walk across the parade.\"
Plans to repair the remaining wooden barracks in 1806 were deferredbecause of a shortage of garrison artificers, and outside observerssuch as George Heriot continued to note of Fort Niagara that the\"Americans seem to take no measures either for its repair orenlargement.\" Four years later DeWitt Clinton lamented that it was \"ina ruinous condition\" and that the \"only pleasant thing to the feelingsof an American are the new barracks which are building.\"
Clinton\'s comment indicates that some action had finally been takento make the soldiers more comfortable. Two new barracks seem to havebeen completed by the end of 1810 (460b and 464a). Another major changehad also occurred by that time. Sometime before 1810 the \"Gate of theFive Nations\", primary entrance to Fort Niagara since 1756, had beenclosed up. The main gate would thereafter be situated on the riverside.
The 1810 plan is also the first to show the bakehouse (31c) in itsmodern configuration. There are still many questions about thedevelopment of this small building which seems to incorporatearchitectural elements from the French, British and United Statesoccupations. Although traditionally assigned a construction date of1762, plans of the late eighteenth century show the bakehouse longerthan it is today. Some of the additional length might represent lessdurable additions that were finally removed between c.1807 and 1810.There is no indication in the documentary evidence that the masonrystructure visible today was constructed later than 1762.
By the eve of the War of 1812 Fort Niagara enclosed the feweststructures in more than fifty years. This plan is based on a map byBritish Assistant Quartermaster General Alexander Grey, dated November20, 1810.
'; content[12].legend = 'The War of 1812 was a turning point in the development of FortNiagara. Long-standing concern about the weakness of the position andits vulnerability to artillery fire from the Canadian shore provedentirely justified. Although the years following 1815 would see severalplans to adjust the fortifications to deal with this situation, nonewere effective, and the War of 1812 spelled the end of Fort Niagara asa defensible fortification. The conflict also finished off most of thewooden eighteenth century buildings. Only one survived the war.
It is unfortunate that the only good plans of Fort Niagara from thisperiod come from the later stages of the conflict after substantialchange had already occurred. It must be assumed that the Fort Niagaraof 1812 resembled the post depicted in 1810. Many details remainunresolved, however, and it is not known whether the two long barracks(427b and 428b) and the ordnance storehouse (422) disappeared before orafter the outbreak of hostilities. This plan is based on GeorgeWilliams\' \"Sketch of Fort Niagara in its present state - July 6, 1814\"and shows the place seven months after its December 19, 1813 capture bythe British.
Fort Niagara, described in the first week of the War of 1812 as \"ina miserable and decayed situation, and can make but a feeble defence,\"required much work. The summer of 1812 was spent bolstering the riverwalls with new batteries to oppose guns on the opposite shore. Theroofs of the Castle and the two redoubts were removed in the fall of1812 to convert the buildings to elevated gun platforms which couldcounter the natural advantage of elevation enjoyed by Fort George.Although Fort Niagara proved exposed to enemy fire, its stone buildingswere relatively impervious to round shot and most of the woodenstructures were preserved from fire by the energetic efforts of thegarrison.
The British capture of Fort Niagara put a new perspective on thedefense of the place. Williams\' 1814 plan reflects this. The landfortifications once again faced the chief threat, and new\"splinter-proof barracks\" (465) were dug into the earth of the rear ofthe land-side curtain to provide shelter in the event of an Americansiege. The British also seem to have constructed a small officers\'quarters (463a) adjacent to the \"Castle\". Most of the other buildingspredated the war. It is unclear, however, whether the Americans or theBritish rebuilt the addition to the old commandant\'s quarters (441c).
'; content[13].legend = 'The War of 1812 was very hard on Fort Niagara. The post was on thefront lines throughout the conflict, alternately facing British gunsacross the river or a possible American assault from the land. By 1815the remaining buildings were badly neglected, and the troops had beenable to accomplish little more than patching of the slippery clay wallsof the land-side fortifications. Lake Ontario continued itsencroachment from the north, but the many other demands of the war hadprecluded construction of a seawall. By 1815 the surf was breaking onlya few feet behind the Castle. American Captain William Gates, who tookcommand in the summer of 1815, reported his post in a \"desolate state.\"
In spite of its disrepair, Fort Niagara was considered too importantto be surrendered to either neglect or the elements. In September 1815Major General Jacob Brown ordered temporary repairs to commence, andhis decision was endorsed by General Joseph G. Swift, the army\'s chiefengineer, who considered Niagara \"the only permanent fortification ofimportance\" on the northern frontier. Swift sent Lieutenant John L.Smith to examine the place and make recommendations for securing itagainst both the British and Lake Ontario.
Lieutenant Smith submitted his report on January 16, 1816 andappended a \"Plan of Fort Niagara with proposed alterations\" whichserved as the basis for this sketch. With the exception of structure466, Smith\'s proposed alterations have been deleted, so what appearshere is a record of Fort Niagara as it was soon after its reoccupationby United States troops on May 22, 1815. The proximity of the lake tothe Castle is apparent. So is the weakness of the river defenses whichprobably had been partially dismantled by the British after theircapture of the post.
Little repair of the buildings had been accomplished by the timeSmith prepared his plan. The \"Red Barracks\" (46Oc) and the smallquarters east of the \"Castle\" (463 a and b) had been enlarged, probablyduring the last nine months of British occupation. Several smalladditions had been made to the bakehouse (31c) which served as shopsfor the garrison sutler. Despite these minor additions, however, FortNiagara had assumed its modern form of a large, empty \"parade\" withbuildings clustered around the perimeter.
Smith\'s proposed alterations were approved. They included a stoneseawall along the entire lake front and strong new walls and bastionsfacing the Canadian shore. Work on the seawall began during the winterof 1816, but no fortifications were built aside from the foundation foran \"elliptical bastion\" (466) that was to have been incorporated intothe seawall. In May 1818 President James Monroe ordered work on the newfortifications to cease, virtually before it had begun. About 80% ofthe seawall had been completed.
'; content[14].legend = 'Cessation of work on Fort Niagara\'s new fortifications consigned theplace to serve as little more than an open complex of barracks for thenext twenty years. The river side was virtually indefensible, and theinterior of the post was exposed to fire from Fort Mississauga whichthe British had begun in 1814 on the western shore of the river\'smouth. Aside from the seawall, the only vestige of Lieutenant Smith\'sambitious plan was a two-story \"Engineer Barracks\" (468) which had beenconstructed to house his workmen. Its seemingly peculiar placement inthe parade ground was due to its location within Smith\'s unfinishedplan which called for a total reorientation of the river sidefortifications.
The neglect of the 1820s and 1830s ended abruptly in the aftermathof the Canadian Rebellion of 1837. Tension between the United Statesand Great Britain and resulting military activity on the Canadian sideof the Niagara River drew attention to the defenseless state of FortNiagara. Lake Ontario, probably in a high water cycle, was also onceagain on the attack, and the incomplete seawall was deteriorating. Ageneral military inspection of the defenses of the northern frontier in1838 resulted in appropriations for new fortifications at Niagara. Thework subsequently undertaken between 1839 and 1843 would have thegreatest impact on the fort\'s appearance since the expansion of the1750s.
Captain William D. Fraser was assigned to transform Fort Niagara.This sketch, which combines both existing elements and some completedas late as 1842, is based on his \"Plan of Fort Niagara Showing theContemplated Repairs\" of February 1840.
The 1839-43 alterations were designed to protect Fort Niagaraagainst assaults from two directions. A massive stone wall was erectedalong the river side to shield the interior of the post from Britishguns. It included three batteries from which heavy guns could strikeback at the Canadian shore. The 1816-18 seawall was completed andtopped by a stockade and blockhouse (469) to cover the beach. The oldearthworks also received attention. They were partially reconstructedand newly faced with wooden planks to impede erosion. A shot furnace(not shown) was built in 1843 to service the river side batteries, andalterations were made to several of the old stone buildings. By 1843Fort Niagara was again considered to be defensible although its utilityagainst the powerful artillery then available must seriously bequestioned. At least the place once again had an appearance ofstrength.
'; content[15].legend = 'The crisis of 1837 had long passed by the time Captain Frasercompleted his improvements to Fort Niagara in 1843. The NiagaraFrontier had returned to a state of peace that would not be disruptedfor nearly two decades. Everything projected by Fraser had beencompleted, however, except for mounting artillery. This would be doneif war threatened.
Overlooked, however, were the miserable accommodations for thegarrison. The barracks shown by Fraser in 1840 dated to the era of theWar of 1812 and had not been well-constructed to begin with. An 1848report that the \"Quarters and Barracks ... are not fit to be used byman\" described the problem. Numerous complaints resulted inconstruction of a new soldiers\' barracks and a hospital along the lakeside of the fort during 1849-50. Unfortunately, the fine new buildingswere never occupied. On the morning of May 19, 1850 they were entirelydestroyed by a fire which also consumed an earlier barracks (464b) andthe seawall blockhouse (469). The housing problem was intensified, butthe situation had not been rectified by the time the fort\'s garrisonwas withdrawn in 1854.
When troops returned in 1861 it was to another period of tensionwith Britain, this time over the Civil War. The crisis found FortNiagara\'s defenses again obsolescent, the 1839-43 fortificationsalready bypassed by technological progress. Fort Niagara was againordered improved, and work on the first phase of the project. thecrumbling old land-side earthworks, began during the summer of 1863.The problems of this front were to be remedied once and for all bystrong concrete revetments, faced with brick and equipped withcasemated artillery positions. Most of this work had been completed by1869. Despite the modem materials, however, the original trace of thesefortifications, laid out by Captain Pouchot in 1755, remainedessentially unchanged. Further work was projected, including newmasonry walls on the river side. Experience from the Civil War haddemonstrated the vulnerability of masonry forts to rifled artillery,however, and the plans for Fort Niagara were altered several timesbefore finally being abandoned.
Despite all the effort expended on fortifications, a guardhouse(471a) and bakery (470) were the only new buildings projected withinthe walls. Both were constructed during 1869. This sketch is based onJames S. Lawrence\'s \"Plan of Fort Niagara, 1869\" which shows therenovated land defenses, the bakery and the guardhouse in its proposedlocation. When the guardhouse was constructed, it was actually placedimmediately adjacent to Fraser\'s obsolete shot furnace (37).
'; content[16].legend = 'Like earlier projects, the 1863 defenses were completed long after the crisis had passed. Fort Niagara was again left with fortifications made obsolete by events. By 1870 the place was a hodgepodge of elements dating from 1755 to the 1860s. The recent experience of the Civil War had shown the terrible effectiveness of rifled artillery against masonry forts. This, combined with the proximity of the Canadian shore, finally forced the army to admit that Fort Niagara could no longer be considered a defensible position. One last plan, prepared in 1871, projected an earthen gun pit along the riverfront. When this was rejected, the evolution of Fort Niagara\'s walls ended.
The years after 1843 witnessed the elimination of a trend begun in 1796. By 1873 the interior of Fort Niagara had assumed the appearance it has today. The remaining wooden barracks had been removed, and only the 1869 guardhouse and bakery complemented the stone buildings. An expanse of open ground dominated the interior.
The absence of new structures was the result of a decade of argument. Recommendations for new quarters outside the fortifications had first been voiced in the 1840s but were initially resisted because they would obstruct fire from the fort. Thus the new barracks and hospital that burned in 1850 had been constructed inside the walls. Subsequent plans called for replacements in the same area, but these were not built. When new fortification work commenced in 1863, doubts about the best course had crept into the discussion. As a temporary expedient, the Chief Engineer ordered, \"No new permanent buildings will be now erected on the parade.\"
Renewed argument followed the return of troops in 1865. The inadequacy of the remaining quarters required immediate action. Although the guardhouse and bakehouse were erected inside the fort in 1869, a hospital and company barracks were built outside in 1865 and 1868 respectively. When officers\' quarters were begun in 1870, these were also placed outside the walls. The final decision had been made. Further new construction would occur in the military reserve. An unfortified \"New\" Fort Niagara would be the focus of future garrisons.
This plan is based on a standard U.S. Army map of the \"Military Postand Reservation, Fort Niagara, N.Y.\" prepared by PaulBausch on April 1, 1892.
'; content[17].legend = 'As \"New\" Fort Niagara grew, the \"Old\" Fort became increasingly demilitarized. A certain martial appearance was maintained by placing Civil War-period artillery on the parade ground and the walls, but these were used only for practice or as signal guns. Soldiers continued to walk their posts on the old ramparts, but in 1892 a new guardhouse was constructed in the \"New\" Fort and the 1869 guardhouse within the walls (471b) was converted to quarters. The decision to concentrate military activities outside the \"Old\" Fort was final. Sometime around 1903 the remaining antique artillery was removed. Fort Niagara had become a historical curiosity.
Despite these changes, the buildings were maintained, although for uses generally different from their original purpose. The historic old Castle (30) and the guardhouse of 1869 (471b) became quarters for married soldiers or civilian employees. The 1869 bakery (470) served as a carpenters\' shop until it was removed about 1903. The obsolete shot furnace (37) had been bricked up since the Civil War. The 1762 storehouse (34b) regained its original function, but the massive redoubts (32 and 33) served as repositories for Quartermaster, Engineers, Ordnance, and Signal Corps supplies. Only the magazine (35) had an unbroken history of use. As late as 1929 it still sheltered ammunition for the post.
By the turn of the century, Old Fort Niagara had become far more significant for its historical value than for its utility to the United States Army. The six stone buildings had been considered important historic relics since the decade following the War of 1812. By 1872, post quartermaster and hospital reports regularly detailed the histories of those structures. This reputation even saved some from demolition. In 1879, for example, a board of officers convened to examine the condition of the 1762 bakehouse. Although it was in poor repair, the officers recommended that it be renovated for use as a storehouse. Their decision was heavily influenced by a desire to preserve a relic of colonial days.
This plan is based on the work of First Lieutenant Elvin Henry Wagner of the 29th Infantry who was then Post Quartermaster. Wagner drafted his comprehensive survey of \"Fort Niagara New York\" in February 1910. One of the details is a circular roadway touching both the Sally Port and the Postern Gate. Within a few years this would be thronged with the automobiles of Sunday visitors coming to explore the historic buildings.
'; content[18].legend = 'By World War I, nearly everyone, from the U.S. Army to the local community, recognized the historical importance of the surviving walls and buildings of Old Fort Niagara. Although these structures were in the hands of the War Department, they lacked relevance to the modern operations of the military post and accordingly had a low priority for maintenance and improvements, It was not long after 1910 that serious deterioration became evident throughout the historic area.
The newest assault on the stability of Old Fort Niagara\'s historic structures came, as always, from a combination of neglect and the forces of nature. By about 1914 the seawall was being dangerouslyundermined by Lake Ontario, and its subsidence began to collapse the northeast corner of the French Castle. Many of the wooden elements of the building, including its nineteenth century porch, were rotting away. Around 1915 this, the most historic of Fort Niagara\'s buildings, was abandoned as quarters, and vandals soon damaged the structure. In other parts of the fort the roof of the old Provisions Storehouse was allowed to fall into disrepair, and the structure was unuseable by 1920. The 1762 Bakehouse was boarded up. The redoubts were barely maintained as storage areas, and tall grass grew around the grounds and on the walls.
As the Old Fort visibly deteriorated, concern increased within the local community. By 1922 a number of groups were encouraging the Army to devote scarce funds for the repair and even the restoration of the Old Fort. Their first victory resulted in repairs to the seawall in 1924. This was followed, in 1926, by the beginning of restoration of the French Castle. By 1927 Federal funds were being supplemented by money raised by the Old Fort Niagara Association. Restoration of the buildings, grounds and fortifications was completed by 1934. Old Fort Niagara has been a historic site museum ever since.
The work of the 1920s and 1930s resulted in more than just therestoration of existing structures. This plan, based on S. Erb\\\'s detailed October 22, 1935 survey of the water supply system, showscobblestone paths, a rest room addition to the Castle, thereconstructed Gate of the Five Nations, the impressive Rush-BagotMemorial of 1934, and even the underground sprinkler system. Aside from some relatively minor changes, the appearance of Old Fort Niagararemains generally the same today.
'; content[19].legend = '