Fort Niagara: Awesome Place in an Awesome State.

BACKGROUND (like that red font? cool huh.) Do you remember in the Austin Powers movie "Goldmember" when Goldmember declared that painting people's wieners in gold paint was "kind of his thing?" Well the War of 1812 is kind of my thing. And what's really nice about my "thing" is that it's not some kind of strange perverse activity, unlike Goldmember's. Since this is my first blog entry, I figured I'd share a little bit about the first historic site I ever remember going to: Fort Niagara. My first trip to this bitchin' bastion was when I was about four years old. I still remember going there with my family on a cloudy, rainy spring day and just being enamored by the size of the place. Fifteen years later I went back at age nineteen, when my interest in the War of 1812 was just starting to come to fruition. The place was just as awe-inspiring then as it had been when I was a tantrum-throwing toddler.

SO, WHERE THE HELL IS THIS PLACE AND HOW DO I GET THERE?-------------------------------------------> Maybe some of you have been there, maybe some of you have heard it, and maybe some of you have no clue what it is, or where it is. If you live in the Rochester, New York area like I do, Fort Niagara is extremely easy to get to. So easy, that a trashy Jersey Shore kid can find it. And let's face it, they couldn't find their spray tan place if it was right in front of them. Just get on the Lake Ontario State Parkway, and head west. Take it to the end. Route eighteen picks up where the Parkway leaves off. Jump on route eighteen, and head west. Keep driving until you see the onramp for the Robert Moses State Parkway. Take the Rob Moses west, until you see the exit for Fort Niagara. It's that easy.

FORT NIAGARA'S BEGINNINGS
Fort Niagara is a kick-ass place. You don't have to be a history geek like me to appreciate it's awesomeness. Now even though it's located in the good ol' United States of America (or 'Meri-kah', as it's pronounced by rednecks, hillbillies and trailer trash), the first temporary fortifications built on the site were done so by the French in 1679. Yep, the French. Get over it. In 1726, the French built permanent buildings on the site, one of which is the awesome French Castle. These permanent buildings and ramparts became known as Fort Niagara. Fitting name, considering the fort sits at the mouth of the Niagara River. To the right is a picture of the French Castle I took when I was at the fort a few years ago.
But as history shows us, Forts are not immune to sieges, and the soldiers who man said forts are not immune to shot, shell, muskets and bayonets. In 1759, the British Army took the fort after a nineteen-day siege during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Sorry Jean-Luc. Your days in North America are numbered.

The outbreak of Pontiac's War in 1763 scared the shit out of the British colonies. British forts in the Midwest were being torched, and their garrisons slaughtered. Fort Niagara escaped this fate, and was used as a rallying point for British and colonial regiments. These units headed west from the fort, and took back Detroit and other posts that had fallen to the Native Americans. During the American Revolution, the fort became; what can best be described in layman's terms, a gigantic frat house for American loyalists wishing to escape from their patriot neighbors. If you lived west of Albany or north of western Pennsylvania and you liked King George, Fort Niagara would have been the place for you. Not only did loyalists congregate at the fort, but they also raised loyalist regiments there and raided the countryside with the help of the Iroquois. One of these regiments was the famous (or infamous) "Butler's Rangers". The painting to the right shows what these rangers looked like. Formed by John Butler, the rangers were feared by those wishing to live under the yoke of a new nation. The author of this blog is actually descended from some of the dudes that served with this unit, but that's another story.

THE JAY TREATY OR: HOW ENGLAND LEARNED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF AMERICA AND EMBRACE CANADA
So when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, England lost all it's forts along the American side of the Great Lakes to the newly formed country of the United States. You'd think that the British would have just packed up their stuff and left like an ex girlfriend who you came to a mutual understanding with after realizing you two could not be together. But Britain was not that type of girl, oh no. Britain was the type of ex girlfriend that just couldn't let go, and would steal your Sex Pistols hoodie, your autographed picture of Bobby Orr and most importantly... your Misfits LP's, in hopes that you would take her back!
So with Britain being in an extreme case of break-up denial, control of all the forts on the American side of the border remained under the jurisdiction of the British army. Perhaps the British were hoping we would take them back! But seriously, the real reason Britain did this was to protect Loyalist settlements that were being established on the Canadian side of the border. I guess they thought the United States was going to push into Canada and into the west to take control of new and exotic lands...OH WAIT. That was already happening. Again, that's another story.
Fort Niagara was one of these fortifications on the American side of the Niagara River that was still held by the British, that is until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1794. This treaty made Britain give up the American forts still manned by British soldiers. Now if only there could be a treaty signed to get your Misfits LP's back.
So in 1796, Fort Niagara was formally given up to the United States. It was time to par-tay! WOOO HOOOO!!
haha it'd be great if that were the result of an American occupation of the fort, but in all seriousness, it was a time to work hard. Towns like Lewiston, Black Rock and Buffalo were being built up along the Niagara River and people were flocking to them to start new lives.


MOVING ON.....

Anyways, Fort Niagara became the watchdog for all these new places like Buffalo. If the British ever came across the Niagara again in time of war, Fort Niagara's garrison would be the first to fight against the redcoats and would be responsible for the lives of American citizens on the eastern bank of the Niagara River. They even built Military Road (now NYS Route 265) which stretches from Lewiston to Buffalo to move troops up and down the frontier.
Sounds pretty awesome right? Sounds pretty safe, right? Wrong. Ever tried working one of those two-handled saws you see lumberjacks using in the old black and white movies? Try using one by yourself. It's a bitch, I know. You might even cut yourself. I know. Get a shot for tetanus. The United States Army, in a sense, was a big two-handled saw with only one operator. Fort Niagara could hold up to 1,000 men. But before 1812 only 100 men were behind it's walls doing ALL the work. There's that two-handled saw mentality.
With only a smattering of troops doing the job of a thousand, suddenly you don't feel so safe anymore, especially if the British come across the river en masse. And if you only have one-hundred men hanging out at this place...maintenance becomes a problem. Those nice stone buildings and earthen walls that serve as a defense? They'll start crumbling like blue cheese. And that's exactly what happened. The garrison at Fort Niagara should have been getting paid overtime. Not only were they protecting America from attack, but they were part-time construction workers.

1812: THE WAR THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS BECAUSE SPIELBERG HASN'T MADE A MOVIE ABOUT IT YET.

Remember that crazy psycho ex-girlfriend we were talking about earlier? You know, England? Well things never were the same between England and the United States after the Revolution, and in 1812 a war broke out! On June 18th, 1812, The United States declared war on Great Britain. The British navy had been impressing (stealing) American sailors from merchant ships in international waters and were putting them to work on board British warships. America was pissed about that, but one wrong move deserves another. There were members of the Twelfth U.S. Congress called War Hawks. These guys were like something out of Rush Limbaugh's wet dreams. These War Hawks, well, favored war with Great Britain, as the name suggests. But these War Hawks had a fever. And the only prescription for this fever was more land! Land that Indian tribes lived on. And said Indian tribes were trading with the British and Canadians in Canada for guns to protect themselves with!
<---Henry Clay...War Hawk, and creepy eye guy.



For the Brits, going to war with it's former colonies wasn't the best thing to have happen to them, but it wasn't the worst. For a decade or so before the War of 1812 broke out, the Brits had been fighting Napoleon and his smelly yet powerful armies throughout Europe. War was nothing new to the British. And it was also nothing new to British commanders in North America like Generals Isaac Brock and Robert Ross, both seasoned veterans of the war in Europe. In contrast, the Americans who would be fighting in this war were of a new generation. Many were too young when the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was happening to gain experience from it. And with the exception of a few sporadic battles against Indian tribes in the old northwest, the majority of American commanders had never faced an army like the British before on an open field.


But this didn't stop America from doing what it wanted to do. On July 12th, 1812, U.S. troops invaded Canada from across the Detroit River. But the British were not about to let the Americans just walk all over Canada. A few days later on July 16th, British, Canadian and Native American forces surprised the American garrison at Fort Mackinac in Northern Michigan Territory (now known as the state of Michigan, obviously), and took over the fort. The fun didn't last on the Detroit River either. After he found out Fort Mackinac had been taken, American General William Hull ordered American forces to withdraw to the American side of the river so they could defend against any attack made by the British or their Indian allies. But British General Isaac Brock didn't have to do much work at all to get Hull to surrender both the fort and the city of Detroit to him on August 16th.

The surrendering of forts didn't stop in Michigan Territory. An American garrison at Fort Dearborn (where Chicago is now) in Illinois Territory was ambushed by Potawatomi Indians, who killed or captured the Americans. October 13th 1812 saw the Americans invading Canada again at the Battle of Queenston Heights, the first major battle of the war. But, in keeping suit with all the bad shit going on, the American forces were beaten back across the river, leaving well over 900 of their troops to be captured by the British. 1812 was turning out to be not so great a year for the American army. They were doing almost as bad as the Buffalo Bills do every year. Seriously, I do feel sorry for the Bills, and the whole city of Buffalo for that matter. They don't seem to have good luck there in that city, as we'll soon discover later.

Winter of 1813 was no picnic either. the Second Battle of Frenchtown, Michigan ended in a massacre of American forces by Indians allied with the Brits. It was looking as though America really had no chance of winning land battles against the U.K. However, the U.S. Navy was kicking ass for the most part on the high seas though, but that's another entry.

AMERICA WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE YANKS

When the spring of 1813 came around, things definately changed for the United States, and they came on strong and knocked the British on their crumpet-eating asses...at least for a little while. April 27th, 1813 saw one of the first army/navy co operations in the history of the United States, as a U.S. Naval squadron under Commodore Isaac Chauncey and a 1700-man army led by Major General Henry Dearborn attacked the town and fort at York, Upper Canada on Lake Ontario. The Battle of York was a victory for the United States, although they paid heavily in lives for it, including Zebulon Pike, the guy who got a mountain named after him. If the painting above looks familiar, that's because York later became the city of Toronto. Wow look at that! You just learned something.

The U.S. was not done on it's whirlwind tour of victories after the Battle of York. I mean you don't stop kicking ass when you've just begun. On May 27th, 1813, U.S. troops splashed ashore on the south shore of Lake Ontario and Attacked Fort George. America won another awesome battle at this fort, which is across the river from Fort Niagara. By taking this fort, America established a foothold in the Niagara peninsula for men and materiel that would be coming into the territory.

Two days later, America held it's ground against the British at Sackets Harbor, New York, and forced an invasion force to run back to Kingston, Upper Canada with it's tail between it's legs! Even with the U.S. naval squadron at the west end of Lake Ontario, American soldiers, sailors, marines and militia were able to fend off the British raid that was hell-bent on destroying the only U.S. navy shipyard on the lake! There were other very notable victories too, Such as the siege of Fort Meigs, Ohio, the Battle of Lake Erie, The Battle of Craney Island, Virginia, and the Battle of the Thames, Upper Canada.....but to do a separate paragraph about each of them would cause me to write a lot more, something that I don't feel like doing when I have to do laundry and make lunch. So I promise you, there will be other entries about these victories. You honestly think I'd leave em' out?

AMERICA WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE BRITS.
There are three American defeats of 1813 I want to discuss, because they play right into the story of Fort Niagara's eventual capture. After the battles of Stoney Creek (June 5-6th) and Beaver Dams (June 24th) in Upper Canada, it became apparent to the American forces at Fort George that the British were starting to get REALLY pissed that Uncle Sam was messing around in Canada. And this wasn't like Hugh Grant getting slightly annoyed in one of those shit romantic comedies he so often stars in, this was like full on, Mel Gibson-style rage. The Americans staying at Fort George never made any serious attempt to battle the British after Stoney Creek and Beaver Dams. For the most part, the Americans stayed behind the fort's walls, and only ventured out for the occasional skirmish. After an American attempt to march on Montreal was thwarted at the Battle of Crysler's Farm (November 11th, 1813), The British were feeling pretty good while The United States was beginning to settle in to a pretty uneasy winter. After withdrawing from Fort George, General George McClure of the New York militia (and commander of all military forces at Fort George) left Fort George, and then burned the town of Newark (now known as Niagara-on-the-Lake), leaving 400 Canadians homeless. The Canadians, The British, and the Native Americans loyal to the British had had enough.

THE CAPTURE OF FORT NIAGARA: WHY DOING VOICE IMPERSONATIONS CAN GET YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT...EVEN A STRATEGIC PIECE OF LAND THAT CONTROLS ALL BOAT TRAFFIC ON A RIVER.


Ok. So the only illustrations I found depicting the fall of Fort Niagara on the night of December 19th, 1813 are in a book I have....so once I can get my scanner up and running I shall post the most awesome portrait depicting said night. But who needs pictures...right? Just imagine yourself inside Fort Niagara. The year is 1813. You're a solider in the United States Army. It's colder than a pimp's heart outside, and you woke up out of a sound sleep to go take a leak. As you're doing your business behind the wall of a building, you hear some commotion going on at the side gate. You start to think to yourself, "Christ! It's four in the morning! Who could that be?" As the screaming gets louder, you look up over your shoulder and see a swarm of British soldiers carrying torches and muskets. You start hearing gunshots coming from the buildings around you. Your fellow soldiers, your friends, are firing down at the invaders, who have stormed the fort using only their bayonets, are quick on their feet. Soon, you find yourself surrounded by a bunch of guys in red coats screaming "Don't move, Yank!" Congratulations! You're now a prisoner of war, buddy. According to correspondence obtained from British officers, the detachment of troops that crossed the Niagara River that cold night came upon a tavern in Youngstown where American army officers were playing a game of cards. After bayoneting some of them, they obtained the password to get into the fort, and when they got to the gate of the fort and were challenged by an American guard....they said they were "from Youngstown" in an American accent. There ya go. Because the guy disguised his voice, the sentry let him and all his English friends in. The British then took the fort, which they held till 1815, and they took the fort's massive flag, which was returned in the 1990's and is now on display in a special room in the fort. Here's a video I found on Youtube about the fall of Fort Niagara on the night of December 19th, 1813, for all you pussies who can't use your imaginations, the segment about the attack starts 1:26 into the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6cP-7NgM4
Remember how I said I was going to talk about Buffalo again? Well, on December 30th, 1813, the British put Buffalo to the torch. Why were they able to do this? Because they had knocked out Fort Niagara. Though the militia and regular army troops stationed in Buffalo did put up some resistance, it was because of our favorite fort being taken over that Buffalo got destroyed.

THE FORT TODAY

After the War of 1812, the fort served as an active military post until 1963*. Veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War were trained here, after the army built a "new" fort, which was nothing like the ramparts and redoubts of the old fort. The new fort consisted of modern buildings, some of which still stand today on the site. So why was this fort so important in shaping American history?? Because until 1825 when the Erie Canal was built, that fort controlled the ONLY waterway that would get you or your cargo to the other Great Lakes, and to the rest of the country. Fort Niagara controlled the Niagara River like a crazy obsessive chick controls her boyfriend. Transporting goods via water was believe it or not the quickest and often safest way to go. So you can thank Fort Niagara for guarding one of the most important waterways in North America. Because if some of the earliest settlers had to travel by land, who knows? Indians, Bears, or any number of things could have ended their trip real fast.

Old Fort Niagara still stands, having been occupied by three different nations, as a monument to early American history. If you want to learn more about Fort Niagara, go visit it! You'll be glad you did.**




*Though the U.S. Army withdrew from the post in 1963, there is still an active U.S. Coast Guard station right next to the old fort. This makes the location the oldest occupied military post still in existence in New York State.
** Information for this blog was obtained from Old Fort Niagara's website, oldfortniagara.org. Just in case someone out there thinks I made all this stuff up off the top of my head.