The Key to a Continent: Fort Niagara Over 300 Years

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Old Fort Niagara's 300th Birthday!

Recommended Reading:

Memoir Upon the Late War in North America by Pierre Pouchot 

The Siege of Fort Niagara 1759 by Brian Leigh Dunnigan

Episode Summary

For three centuries, a lone fortress has stood guard at the mouth of the Niagara River, witnessing the rise and fall of empires. In this special 300th-anniversary episode, the tables are turned as producer Lee Gugino steps into the expert seat to guide hosts Dr. Alex Burns and Dr. Andrew Bamford through the "Key to a Continent." From its 1726 origins as a "trading house" to its role as a massive logistical hub during the American Revolution and a frontline combat zone in the War of 1812, Old Fort Niagara is one of America's most unique surviving windows into the 18th century

We explore the strategic "bottleneck" of the Niagara Portage, the architectural defiance of the Maison du Machicolas (the French Castle), and the engineering skills of Pierre Pouchot. Discover how a site designed to overawe native nations evolved into a professional Vauban-style fortress that helped determined the fate of North America

What Are You Missing?

While the edited version provides a comprehensive 300-year overview, the Full Uncut Edition (available to our War Room members) contains over 40 minutes of additional deep-dive content, including:

• Sir William Johnson & the "Erasure" of History: A heated discussion on the controversial Indian Agent’s role in the 1759 siege and the "HBO-style" drama of the British command collapse
• The Drummer on the Cliff: The harrowing story of a 1763 ambush where a British soldier survived a 200-foot plunge into the Niagara Gorge by his drum sling
• The Fortified Causeway: Detailed tactical analysis of the British "DMZ" along Portage Road, featuring redoubts placed every 800 meters to protect supply lines
• Dining with the Enemy: The full, gracious story of General Isaac Brock finishing his dinner with American officers after receiving word that the War of 1812 had been declared
• The Nike Missile Era: Extended history of the fort’s transition from an 18th-century stone castle to a Cold War command center for surface-to-air missiles

Episode Timestamps

• [00:00] – Introduction: Why Niagara is the "real" colonial fort.
• [12:15] – The Portage: Controlling 1,400 miles of interior waterways
• [25:30] – The French Castle: Building a four-foot-thick "storehouse" in 1726
• [42:00] – Pierre Pouchot: Converting a frontier post into a world-class fortress
• [1:05:00] – 1759 Siege: The 19-day struggle and the Battle of La Belle Famille
• [1:20:00] – Revolutionary Hub: Handling 2,000 refugees and projecting western power
• [1:35:00] – 1812 Ingenuity: Why the Americans stripped the castle roof to mount cannons

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Transcript

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
The Key to a Continent: Fort Niagara Over 300 Years

Lee Gugino: For 300 years, a fortress has stood guard at the mouth of the Niagara River in western New York. From French traders to British redcoats and American soldiers, Old Fort Niagara has seen empires rise and fall in the struggle for the control of North America. Boasting six original 18th-century structures, it's a unique surviving window into our historical past. Welcome to Prime and Load. My name is Lee Gugino, and today I'm joined by Doctors Alex Burns and Andrew Bamford. Today, the tables are turned a little bit. I grew up in the shadow of Fort Niagara. I spent my summers playing there as a kid, and I used to work there in college. So, I'm going to give you all an insider's look into one of America's most unique historic sites as it celebrates its 300th birthday. Thank you for joining us for a special episode on Old Fort Niagara.

Dr. Alex Burns: I'm Alex Burns, here with Andrew Bamford and Lee Gugino, and today we have an episode on America's real colonial fort, Old Fort Niagara. Old Fort Niagara is turning 300 years old this year, and a long-time friend of the fort is going to tell us a little bit about it. Lee, what is Fort Niagara?

Lee Gugino: Yeah, so first off, it is interesting to be on the other end of things on this one. Usually, I'm asking the questions. So yeah, Fort Niagara. Fort Niagara is a historic site in western New York, probably about as far away from New York City as you can get while still staying in New York, right on the Niagara River. It's pretty unique—I'm biased. I grew up in the area, and it's a long-time favorite place. Spent a whole lot of childhood summers running around there. But I do think it is a very unique place. It's got six surviving 18th-century structures all in one site. Being a podcast about the 18th century, I feel like we can't really let this one kind of waltz by us without at least giving some sort of nod to it.

Dr. Alex Burns: So Lee, obviously this key to a continent is a site of perpetual interest, but why are we talking about it right now here in 2026?

Lee Gugino: Sure. The reason we're talking about Fort Niagara today is because it is turning 300 years old, and with the exception of some places in Florida, and places in Massachusetts like Plymouth, there's not a whole lot of places in the US that are that old. Having the concentration of historic buildings in one spot is very unique, but the main structure at Fort Niagara—what we call today the French Castle—is turning 300 years old this year. It's not what they called it in the period, but that building is turning 300. There's a lot of 250th stuff going on right now, which is wonderful and we love that history as well, but we would hate for this anniversary to kind of go under the radar with all the other 250th stuff, which again is great. But this is another aspect that is really, really, really interesting.

Dr. Alex Burns: Just before I turn it over to Andrew, can I ask a follow-up question? So, what time in the year in 1726 are they putting stuff down? Is this the summer? Is it the spring? When actually is this anniversary?

Lee Gugino: So, the negotiations with the native peoples in this area begin in the early, early spring, around March, but it isn't until July that they actually start building the structure of the castle. It is happening in the summertime, and we can talk about it a little bit more, but it is pretty surprising, at least to me, how quickly they do actually get it done. So, they begin construction in the summer of 1726, and they're garrisoning the post by that winter. A cold Niagara winter is a powerful motivator.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: So, they then are the French, if it's the French Castle, so why are they so interested in this part of the world? What's so important? I mean, you've mentioned that there are native peoples already in the area. How does that dynamic play out, and why is there a need for a fort?

Lee Gugino: Yeah, so that's a great question. To explain why a fort at Niagara is important, you kind of have to back up a little bit. One of the things we have to acknowledge, that I think we might kind of forget sometimes, is that in the 17th and 18th centuries, North America is an enormously vast continent. One of the only really efficient ways to do any sort of meaningful travel or logistical operations is by water. One of the really important waterways is on the Great Lakes, from the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence out to the ocean. If you can control that waterway, you can control a lot of the movement into the interior of North America. From the ocean to the furthest westward portion of the Great Lakes, it's roughly 1,300 to 1,400 miles. That's a big expanse. And so, to be able to control that, you need to control the highway into the interior of North America.

About 500 miles in, if you're going from east to west, you get this bottleneck between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie: the Niagara River. In the middle of the Niagara River, there's a fairly substantial obstacle. It's called Niagara Falls. For those who haven't been able to visit the falls, it's about a 150-foot-high cliff with something like 40 million gallons of water going over the edge every minute. It's enormous. It's interesting—my wife and I were in Scotland, she was doing a research trip, and we were in an art gallery and they had a painting of Niagara Falls. We said, 'Oh, that looks familiar.' The people in front of us were just kind of looking at it saying, 'Nah, it can't really be that big.' I promise you, it is that big.

Now, obviously, you're not paddling or sailing up the falls. So, what native peoples do, and have been doing for generations, is what's known as portaging. That's when you land your canoe or your vessel, you take everything out of it, put it on your back, and walk around the obstacle. This does happen at several points, especially along the St. Lawrence as you're coming into the Great Lakes. This is a significant one because of the size of the obstacle that you're circumnavigating. That bottleneck, that portage around the falls, is incredibly strategic for anybody who wants to control westward travel into the Great Lakes and open up the interior of the continent. If you're a determined traveler, you can go from the ocean to the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, you could even get into the Ohio, into the Mississippi, and really the continent comes open to you. I don't want to make it seem like this is an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination, but it is possible, and it's a heck of a lot better than trying to do it on foot. Anyone who can control that, again, opens up westward travel for trade, for military operations. So, that's why this area is so, so important at this time period specifically.

Dr. Alex Burns: And so, Lee, waterborne transport is a lot easier than trying to put stuff in carts or on the backs of mules or something like this. Can you just, maybe it is incredibly obvious to listeners, but why do Europeans want to get into the heart of the continent? What is the big business, especially in the Great Lakes region, that is driving a lot of this French desire to control these waterways in the 1670s through the 1720s?

Lee Gugino: Sure. So, we did talk about how North America is an incredibly vast place, right? But it is not an empty place. There are peoples that live there, and if you can get in contact with those peoples, you can do something that people have been doing since the dawn of time: we can make money. We can trade with these people. We can open up diplomatic relationships. They can be allies in war, economic partners. So, really, what French, English, Spanish, Dutch—what all these European countries want to do is open up the continent to trade. That means getting one of the big-ticket items: beaver furs. Those furs can be harvested out of the interior of the continent by native peoples, traded with European traders or agents. They can sell products made in Europe to these native peoples. They can bring those furs back to Europe and sell them in the open market. So, there's a huge trade and money-making opportunity if you can open these markets. All of those three-cornered hats are not going to make themselves! You've got to get the beaver pelts and make them into the cornered hats. Okay. Yeah.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: Yeah, sure. I mean, this is the ignorant Brit question. So, the native peoples presumably are on side for the most part because they're making money selling furs to the French. If the British want to come eluting and trading, before they get to Fort Niagara, they've got to get past Louisbourg, they've got to get past Quebec, they've got to get past Montreal. There are quite a few choke points before you even get to Niagara. So, who is the threat, if you like? Are there people coming overland from what's now the US, from the American colonies, the British American colonies? Is that who it's essentially built to guard against?

Lee Gugino: So initially, when the French first kind of get their toehold at Niagara, the big threat is the local native peoples. Throughout the 17th century, the French and the local natives have not been getting along well. There's been a lot of conflicts between the French, their native allies, and their allies' enemies. So, that's the first major one. That evolves a little bit as the thirteen English colonies do expand. Really, the English aren't necessarily trying to go from the ocean through Louisbourg and go up past all that because of the difficulty that you alluded to in doing something like that.

In New York, the colony of New York, really the threat is coming from the British coming from Albany, and then across what is today New York State, getting their toehold into Lake Ontario, and then from Lake Ontario branching out into the Great Lakes—so kind of a back road to the Great Lakes. It's more difficult of a path, but if the English can get their toehold there, they can do more later. So, this is a big motivator for the French to really solidify their control of Niagara. But it isn't until the 1720s, after those native relations have gotten a bit better and the encroachment of the English is growing, that they really think, 'Hey, we're going to give this another shot.' That's when they do build the French Castle in the early part of the 18th century. So, the encroachment of the English is the next big threat after native peoples.

Dr. Alex Burns: So, you've mentioned, Lee, relations with the native peoples have been variously very bad, very good, somewhere in between. Who are the key native players in this part of the world?

Lee Gugino: Sure. I think this is another one where I've got to kind of take a bit of a big picture first and talk about how native diplomacy is a very complex issue at this time period for many reasons. But I think one of the biggest ones is that there are so many different people and nations, not just in this area, but all over North America. I think that's, again, one of the things that makes this very complex, is just because we like to think of Native Americans as kind of a nice, neat group of people like maybe the French or the English. But native peoples, when we talk about 'Europeans met with the native peoples and did this,' it's kind of a loaded term. And I'm not trying to be an expert on that—it's an incredibly complex topic.

So, what I'm going to say is I'm going to focus for this story specifically on the ones that are probably the most influential in Niagara's history for the very long history the fort has. There are more people that are involved, there are more people that are influential, but the ones that exert the most control over this area are the Haudenosaunee people. They are a confederacy of five, later six nations. We have the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Onondaga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Oneida. And so, what becomes difficult is when we talk about the Haudenosaunee, they do operate as a cohesive confederacy, but at the same time, one nation may not feel the same way as another nation, and some groups in that same nation might have different goals and objectives based on what European powers live next to them and what resources they have available to them. So again, this is kind of what makes things kind of tricky when we come and talk about native diplomacy.

And so, the people that actually live in the area where Niagara is located are the Seneca. They're the Keepers of the Western Door. They're the furthest west nation, and they're influential because they're the ones that essentially control the portage, allowing or not allowing peoples to navigate through it. Later on, they will do a lot of—the Seneca will actually, for a fee, help you portage around the falls, which is a big economic boon for that nation. They never actually have a settlement at the mouth of the Niagara River where Fort Niagara ends up being built. It is an important fishing and hunting ground, but there is no village there at the mouth of the river. It's a very beautiful area. It's where I would want to put a village, but historically there's no permanent settlement on that site.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: Which sort of begs the question of what it is they build. You called it the French Castle a couple of times, which as you say is a modern name rather than a contemporary one. I'm assuming we're not talking about a castle in the way I might imagine a European castle. What is it that they build in the first instance 300 years ago?

Lee Gugino: Originally, the French look to get permission from the Haudenosaunee to build a structure on the Niagara River in general. The original thought is not to put it where they end up putting it, but they do go and try and seek some approval from the Haudenosaunee. The governor, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry's supervisor, Governor Longueuil—he's the governor of Montreal—goes to Onondaga. Even though where he wants to build the fort is in the land of the Seneca, he goes to Onondaga where the central council fire is, and at a council that is sparsely attended, he makes a pitch to say, 'Hey, we need to replace this old dilapidated wooden storehouse with a new stone trading house.' Initially, the Onondaga give their blessing. Accounts say there are only two representatives from the Seneca there, and they don't want it to happen. The Seneca specifically have had tensions with the French in the past. They're not really keen to let the French build a stone structure in their lands, but Longueuil's got a little bit more pull with the Onondaga, so he's able to actually gain permission and get this project kind of rolling.

They've got the permission, and like I said at the beginning, very quickly they send a party of about 100 soldiers and workmen. Initially, they want to replace the trading house that is at the foot of the escarpment on the Niagara River where the modern village of Lewiston is. They think they can pull a boat up, keep it under the cover of the guns of the fort, and everything will be happy. The chief engineer of New France, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, kind of at the last second calls an audible. He says, 'If we put the fort at the base of the escarpment, which is about six-ish miles up river from the mouth of the lake, all the English need to do is sail up and kind of blockade the mouth of the river, and now there's no point in us having built a fort there.' He makes the decision to move the location to the mouth of the Niagara River where it empties into Lake Ontario. Right at that peninsula, there are 30-foot bluffs that give you a good elevation above the water level, so you get a great view of kind of what's coming up the lake and what's going down the lake. The fort ends up being a little bit removed from the actual start of the portage, but tactically you could make the argument it is a better place.

What the French actually end up building is, again, what they refer to as a stone house that's only meant for trade goods on paper, but they build one heck of a storehouse. It ends up being what I understand to be a fairly typical French barracks building. It's got four-foot-thick stone walls, two stone levels, and then a wooden deck with a wooden roof on top. On that top deck, it has machiculated dormers which stick out over the face of the building so you can shoot down or drop heavy items on anybody trying to attack your structure. In the period, that's what it's called: the *Maison à machicoulis*, or the machicoulated house. This building houses everything that a garrison needs. It has barracks rooms, it has a well, it has a powder magazine, it has a bake oven in it, it's got housing for officers, and it's got a storeroom for trade goods. Really, if this building needed to seal itself up, it could do that and hold out for a pretty good length of time, and that's exactly the point. Trade is still important here, but really it is a structure designed to withstand any native attack at all, ever. This thing is a tough nut to crack for any force that does not have European-style artillery, which native peoples do not have.

During the building, I think it's also important to note, a Seneca delegation does come to Niagara and encounters de Léry and says, 'Hey guys, we did not okay this'—paraphrasing, of course. Even the Onondaga say also, 'Maybe we were too hasty. We kind of gave permission, but that wasn't ours to give.' The Seneca offer de Léry a belt of wampum in protest, and de Léry does something kind of unique: he takes it, folds it up, and puts it back in the delegate's or the sachem's bag. De Léry is saying, 'I'm not taking this. I'm not accepting it, and I think you're just here because the English are saying this to you. We're going to go with the last thing you said.' Essentially, he ignores the Seneca and just continues on with the work. To say that they—I guess they did on black and white get permission to build this stone house, but at the beginning, I said it was very dubious permission. So, I think it's pretty safe to say that this was done not with great cooperation or a lot of friendly feelings. With that being said, trade is still done at Niagara. There's still some benefit being gleaned by the Seneca from the French being there, and the French are able to maintain good relations with the Seneca despite this.

Dr. Alex Burns: And so just to return to Andrew's initial question about the house, I mean, I do kind of associate the building of structures if it's called the *Maison à machicoulis*, right? That's how castles are built. That's the part of the castle that allows you to drop rocks on people. So, maybe even in the term for it, it's designed to be a defensive house. It's designed to be a house that is not only there for trade but is also protecting the French from the native people who are probably irate that they are building this defensive house on their land.

Lee Gugino: Yes, certainly. There's no doubt that this is from its outset meant to be a military fortress that also does trade. If you just look at the thing that it's supposedly replacing, it was a wooden warehouse. This is several orders of magnitude beyond that. I think it also shows clearly that de Léry kind of knows or maybe expects that there might be some fallout from this diplomatic angling, let's call it. If I knew that I was doing something kind of seedy, maybe I would make my stone walls a little thicker.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: Just to be clear in the mental picture of what we're looking at here, there's no way out to stockade or ramparts or anything like that. It's purely a whacking great stone building, and if somebody comes and attacks it, you close the door and bar the windows and throw things from the roof. That's the concept at this stage?

Lee Gugino: At the very, very earliest stages, yes. There is a map that shows two layers of stockade walls outside the fort. At this very early stage, it is the castle, the *Maison à machicoulis*. I would say it's safe to say there was a wooden palisade around it, at least one, possibly two. The idea is that that palisade is probably going to be breached pretty quickly, and then we can just seal ourselves up. There is no substantial attack in that very, very early stage of the fort's history, though. De Léry didn't have to suffer the fallout from his diplomacy, again, in that early stage.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: You very nicely set up what was going to be my next question because you've mentioned the garrison. You say 40 men and a priest. Talk about the priest and the religious element as well. Who are the 40 men who have been presumably given the short straw and told to get themselves some way into the wilderness and garrison this place?

Lee Gugino: Yeah, Fort Niagara is built and garrisoned by French Marines. These guys are part of the *Compagnies Franches de la Marine*. They are Marines, not necessarily in the sense that we think of Marines today, like ship-to-shore. Obviously, France does have those troops. These ones specifically are recruited for service in the colony of Canada. They're recruited in France, they're brought over across the ocean, they land in Quebec, and they get almost like a middle-school dodgeball draft pick by the different independent commanders of these independent companies, or a representative of those commanders. Whatever that commander is at the time, he says, 'All right, hey, you three guys got picked. You got to get on another boat.' These guys, like I said, they're recruited specifically for Canada. If they're lucky enough to get chosen to come to Niagara, they're going to get on another boat, make their way up the St. Lawrence through Lake Ontario to Niagara.

At this early stage, the initial working party is about 100 men, soldiers and workmen. The garrison after that is about 40 to 60 of these French Marines, along with some civilians. In the very early stages, we do know there's a Jesuit priest to see to the spiritual welfare of the troops. He has his own chapel inside the fort. There's also a trade agent who's there to regulate and administer the trade on behalf of the King. Throughout Niagara's history, the trade at Niagara is kind of on-again, off-again. At this point, the King, through his agents, regulates the trade out of Niagara. He has an agent there who administers that. We do know at certain points there are women there, though not really at this early stage that we know much of. It isn't until a little later on that we know the commandant's daughters are there, and he has a servant there. Again, very early stage: 40 to 60 soldiers, trade agent, priest.

Dr. Alex Burns: How does all that evolve? You mentioned there's no immediate attack, so I'm assuming it grows as a trading post. Are there changes to the garrison? Are there changes to the fort as we move on through the 18th century?

Lee Gugino: Yeah. As time moves on, Niagara's role is a story of changing roles and evolving responsibilities. At this early stage, when it's first built, it's meant to really solidify French control of the area. It does that very well. It firmly plants France in control of this area. New Yorkers are furious about it, but there's not a whole lot they can do. As time moves on and we get into the 1740s, France is looking to do exactly what its intent of getting its foothold at Niagara was: to push westward. Niagara becomes a very integral part of that supply chain and that logistics train out into the west. I'm sure many of our listeners know about the struggle for the Ohio Country.

In the '40s, it's almost a Cold War. If we can get men and material and supplies out there, now we can establish dominance further west and do that leapfrogging. The men that go and establish Fort Duquesne, they are at Niagara. They're not stationed there; they're transitory troops. What that means is Niagara has to grow. They build barracks, they build a bakehouse (which is still there today), and they build storehouses as well. The idea is just like modern conflicts today: we've got a camp where everybody comes in, but it doesn't mean you're stationed there. You're there for a little bit, you rest, refit, resupply, and then you go to where you're actually needed. Fort Niagara occupies that role in a pretty major way.

It's far outside of the center of gravity of New France up on the St. Lawrence—Quebec, Montreal, Trois-Rivières. It's out at the far reaches, but it is an established post where you can rest, refit, and resupply. Fort Niagara does grow, but that doesn't mean that it's getting necessarily the attention it needs. Like many military posts during times of peace, it falls into some decay. The palisades around the fort start to rot. They do have barracks buildings, but they're not great either; they're not being well-maintained. The garrison is kind of lackadaisical. There are reports about how the garrison is afraid to fire its cannon because they feel like the palisade walls will come crumbling down around them. That's not a great tactical situation to be in. Fort Niagara is mounting the responsibility of that logistics train but is not necessarily getting the support to do it safely and efficiently, which I guess is the best way to put it.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: My impression is New France is, to some extent, a colony on a shoestring. As far as France is concerned, there are more important things in Versailles. If you're the forgotten stepchild of a colony that is itself a forgotten stepchild, then you're probably not going to do brilliantly. Those ambitions that you talked about, obviously, they do eventually lead to a major war—to the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War, which in its North American guise, we haven't really talked about a great deal on the podcast so far. I'm assuming by its location, Fort Niagara is going to play a key role in this conflict. Do you want to take us through what happens when war does come knocking?

Lee Gugino: Yeah. Again, like I alluded to, Niagara is an ebb and flow throughout its history. Peacetime, we forget about it; wartime, everything spikes. That's exactly what happens. When hostilities do break out, the governor of New France is very aware that Niagara is vulnerable from the very early stages of the war. Solidifying Niagara becomes very important because the fort was built with the intent of stopping native peoples. An enemy with artillery was not anticipated at the early stages of Niagara. Now, this is what, 30 years removed from its initial construction. The threat of an artillery-armed enemy is present, so we've got to take that into account.

What happens is the governor of New France sends probably the most influential person on Niagara in its entire history: he sends Captain Pierre Pouchot to Niagara in 1755. Pouchot's fingerprints are still all over Niagara even today. He's a really interesting character. When he comes to Niagara, he's about 40 years old. He is a captain in the Béarn Regiment. So, Pouchot is on the regular French army side of this equation. He has experience. He's been in combat, he's been at war several times in Europe, and he's been through several sieges. So, he's not a nobody who doesn't know anything. He is sent to Niagara specifically because he has knowledge of engineering. He's not an engineer, but he comes to Niagara because he's got this ability. He's done work strengthening the defenses around Quebec, and that's kind of how he catches the governor, Governor Vaudreuil's eye. So, Vaudreuil sends him to Niagara knowing Niagara needs some work.

What Pouchot does there is take this kind of rickety frontier fort and turn it into a Vauban-style fortress out in the middle of nowhere. Now, he's got a lot of help. Three-quarters of the fort are water, so you really only have a little sliver of land to do earthworks. He's got a bit of an easier job of it, but he makes glacis, lunettes, and a big hornwork. He also expands the number of troops that can actually be quartered at Niagara. He builds a powder magazine, more storehouses, and more barracks buildings. They've re-armed Niagara. Niagara is only outclassed in armament by Montreal and Quebec, the two other major metro areas in New France. He really makes Niagara, in the span of about a year and a half, an incredibly powerful fortress right under the nose of the English. The English are still under the idea that this piddly little thing, if you come over and push against the wall, it's all going to come crumbling down. By 1756, Pouchot is able to send a report saying, 'This is a report and a map showing all of the works.' And Vaudreuil and later Montcalm both comment that Pouchot has really made a pretty great, strong fortress here that is really up to snuff. So, that role as a link in the supply chain is now met by the tactical capabilities of Niagara, post-Pouchot arriving.

Dr. Alex Burns: Lee, if I could jump in real fast on that point. I've spent some time, when I was over in England and subsequently, looking at His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland's papers. In the years between 1750 and 1755, he's kind of obsessed with Niagara as one of the principal places that the British Army would have to go take in North America. One of the reports that he gets from a spy in North America reads, talking about Pouchot's improvements: 'The Fort Niagara before the year 1749 was only built of logs palisaded, but since that time has been made a strong and irregular fortification of stone.' And so, the British are aware. They're kind of looking at this key to a continent with a great deal of skepticism as Pouchot is making all of these improvements. In some ways, obviously, we tell the story of the French and Indian War beginning as a squaring off over Pittsburgh, but if you look at what Cumberland is paying attention to in 1750, '51, and '52, he's very focused on Niagara. He does view this, I think, as a key to the continent. So, could you walk us through a little bit about what actually happens in the fighting of the Seven Years' War? Pouchot has made a very strong fortress. What are the British going to do about it?

Lee Gugino: To your point, Alex, the threat of Niagara is very clear. Even Braddock, in his orders, detaches Governor William Shirley to go get Niagara because this place is central to French war efforts. If we can kind of cut off Niagara, everything along the vine will wither. This is next to Braddock's personal mission to go out to Fort Duquesne; Niagara is the next one on the list. So, in 1755, Governor William Shirley is tasked with going on an expedition to conquer Niagara at this kind of early stage before Niagara is really ready. By the time he's making his way out there, the improvements are happening. It would be fun to think, what if Shirley had actually gotten to Niagara at that critical stage, what would have happened?

Ultimately, that expedition gets to Oswego, which is further east where the Oswego River empties into the lake. That's where the English do set up a trading post, and that's where Shirley is able to get to, but that's as far as he goes. In '56, that fort is taken by Montcalm, with Pouchot acting as the engineer on that expedition as well. That kind of is the first action against Niagara, and the last one until much later. It isn't until 1759 that the British attempt to go back to Niagara. I don't want to say most people know who's listening, but if you're listening to this podcast, you probably know the basic big blue arrows of the French and Indian War. By 1759, things have shifted quite a bit. Early on, the French are doing pretty well. At this point, not so much. 1758 is kind of a turning point in the war, and the British are really looking to finish New France off.

They come up with this three-pronged strategy, with Wolfe going to Quebec and Amherst coming up the Lake Champlain Corridor. Part of that is another expedition westward towards Niagara, with John Prideaux put in charge of this westward expedition. Once Niagara is reduced, he is to go up the lake and assist that same summer in the assault on Montreal. That's a lot of ground to cover even if you assume everything goes perfectly! Anyway, Prideaux is tasked to depart from Albany, cross New York, reestablish Oswego (which a few years earlier had been burned), then go to Niagara, take Niagara—easy peasy, obviously—and move on with the campaign.

The British get to Niagara in the summer of 1759 and they conduct a 19-day siege of the fort. They do win, but it is a very close-run match. At several points, the English or the British Army—their garbage engineers are exactly as advertised and are awful. If you've ever seen images or engravings of siege works, how they zigzag towards the fortress, the English do not do that very well. At certain points, they're digging straight at the fort so the French can just lob cannonballs right down like a bowling alley. One day, the three ranking officers of the British Army, including Prideaux himself, are all taken out. Prideaux is killed by a cohorn mortar shell burst, and another is wounded, raking through their entire command structure in one day. Then, there is a short power struggle to see who's going to command. Ultimately, it is William Johnson, that Indian agent who convinced the Haudenosaunee.

Dr. Alex Burns: Boo, boo, William Johnson! This is every mess and erasure. Are you not even going to talk about him?

Lee Gugino: No. Okay. For the next piece of this, there is a relief column that does attempt to come to Niagara. As soon as they hear Niagara is besieged, they hightail it up to Niagara because they know if Niagara falls, like we've said earlier, everything else on the vine will wither. There's a culminating battle about a mile outside the fort, at La Belle-Famille, where Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Massey—who also reportedly is a massive jerk, but we can go down that road another time—leads the counterattack or ambush on this French relief column. That's a 30-minute, bloody, bloody battle outside the fort, and it really seals the fate of Niagara.

Niagara does a very good job of withstanding this British siege, but once the relief column is defeated—and like any fortress, the goal is to hold out until relief comes—you don't really have much to go on after that. After 19 days, the French do surrender. A lot of the garrison are taken to the New York and Connecticut areas as prisoners. From there, Fort Niagara shifts to British control. It pains me to gloss over it—maybe someday we'll have to do an episode just on the 1759 siege because, like I said before, it's got the ebbs and flows of the best HBO miniseries ever.

Dr. Alex Burns: Wasn't there like a movie where Pierce Brosnan played Sir William Johnson at the siege?

Lee Gugino: Yeah. In that movie, there's a shot of the French Castle, and then when you walk in, it's the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles! The name of the movie is *Pathfinder*, I think. We'll have to put that on our Patreon store or something. But it's an incredibly interesting siege. In 1759, the fort changes ownership for the first time. This was French and is now in British control.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: How does Fort Niagara's role in British imperial policy change when we're moving into the period of the American Revolution? What role does Niagara play in that conflict?

Lee Gugino: When the American Revolution starts, obviously the British are there prior to the start. Niagara now is growing again because we're not in peacetime anymore. We've come into a new conflict. So, more buildings get built, buildings get refurbished, and earthworks get revitalized. But the role of Niagara is not that it isn't prepared for combat—it is. It's just combat never comes to Niagara during the course of the American Revolution. But what Niagara does kind of shoulder is the responsibility of western power projection. What Niagara is, is the command post of what are referred to as the Upper Posts.

The Upper Posts include all of the major installations along the Great Lakes. The furthest east, you have Oswegatchie, which is kind of up where Lake Ontario feeds into the St. Lawrence. Then you have Niagara, then Detroit, and Michilimackinac all the way at the tip of Michigan. So, this is like a 500-mile spread. Niagara is the command post for all of those positions. All of those positions report back to Niagara. The commander at Niagara is the lieutenant colonel of the regiment that is the main garrison for those posts. On top of that, any trade happening with native peoples is headquartered out of Niagara, diplomacy efforts are headed out of Niagara, and the governor of Canada has a direct line of communication with the commander at Niagara. The commandant there is also in charge of all naval operations being done on Lake Ontario. So, the commandant of Niagara has a lot on his plate because of the importance of that position.

The other big thing Niagara does during the war is in 1779. During that year, the main effort of the Continental Army is headed by Generals Clinton and Sullivan, with orders from Washington to go through New York and essentially push the Haudenosaunee out of the war by making it too materially costly to continue their support for the English. This means burning villages, burning crops, and dispersing, essentially killing and terrorizing, as many of the Haudenosaunee people as possible to, again, the point where they just throw in the towel and they don't want to participate. Now, there are a bunch of reasons for this. The Haudenosaunee have been a staunch ally of the British during this time, and they've been a huge thorn to the Americans by conducting raids into the breadbasket of the colonies and harassing supply chains. I'm not trying to allude that that makes this campaign or expedition justifiable by any means, but it's the situation that Washington is dealing with. He dispatches these commanders to essentially slash and burn through the country of the Iroquois.

The fallout from that is there are thousands and thousands of displaced peoples—native and white loyalist settlers, people who have alleged sympathies for the King. Where are these displaced peoples going to go? They're going to go to Niagara, and thousands of them do. The garrison at Niagara in the winters of 1779 to '80 is faced with a refugee village outside the walls of the fort of upwards of 2,000 people. The fort is already overpopulated, and they're only at about 800 at that time. They're faced with 2,000 civilians sitting outside of their walls. What the British do the following spring is take all of these refugees who have nothing and are itching for revenge, organize them, and turn them into loyalist units like Butler's Rangers, Brant's Volunteers, and other provincial units, and they send them back to raid their former homes. That's a massive logistical outfitting that Niagara does during this war. So, there's no combat at the fort like there was in the French era, but Fort Niagara becomes a major resupply, logistical, and command hub for power projection into the west and into the frontiers of the thirteen colonies.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: When the war ends, Niagara is part of the territory that's supposed to be given over to the United States. Does that actually happen? What does that look like?

Lee Gugino: It takes some time and negotiation to actually make the Niagara River the border between what is then Upper Canada and the State of New York. That doesn't happen until 1796, when an American garrison actually occupies Niagara. In the intervening time between the war ending and the Americans taking over, essentially the British just stop because they can see the writing on the wall like, 'This is going to happen. Why would we improve this fort? Why would we build new buildings? Why would we maintain it other than just being able to live here?'

When the Americans take over, again, we're in that ebb and flow. Fort Niagara is in kind of disrepair and not really well looked after. The British have their eyes across the river; Upper Canada is still British territory. What the British do is they kind of leave Niagara to do what it's going to do. They cross the river, build Fort George, and that's where the British will try to exert power over the region from three-quarters of a mile across the river. It's a very nice place—you can see it. If you're in Fort Niagara, you can look across the river and you can see they've got a big British flag on a flagpole. It's not hiding; it's right out there three-quarters of a mile away. So, the British basically take their position and plop it on the other side of the river to kind of keep an eye on this new American garrison that's staying there.

Dr. Alex Burns: Between these two forts, is there like—is one larger? Is one on higher ground? What is the kind of relationship in a tactical and operational setting between these two locations?

Lee Gugino: Yeah. So, the British certainly have the advantage because they're building the fort in response to a position that's already there. Pouchot's earthworks and the defense of the fort face landward, towards the land approaches of the fort. Prior to this late 18th century and early 19th century, there was no substantial waterborne threat because you have to build a navy on the lakes for there to be a threat, and that is an enormous undertaking. So, the threat is coming from the land; that's where all of Niagara's defenses are facing. But if you can cross the river, find a little bit higher elevation, and build a fort that can essentially look up the skirt of Niagara, you've got them dead to rights, and that's exactly what the British do. Fort George is slightly elevated from Niagara and faces its backside, putting that new American garrison in a tight spot. They do build their walls a little higher on the river side of the fort, but they don't have land to build earthworks. It's literally just a facade stone wall that makes it a little higher, acting essentially as a screen so you can't see inside the fort. As far as advantage and disadvantage, all the cards at this point are in Fort George's hand, really. It does not take a lot to just toss artillery rounds into the parade ground. You've got good fields of fire and can reach out and touch any corner of Niagara at this point.

Dr. Alex Burns: And so when conflict resumes in 1812, what does that look like? I know that's maybe a little bit beyond the scope of this podcast, but briefly run down for us what happens in the War of 1812.

Lee Gugino: Yeah. So, when war comes again in 1812, it's a war that people are not prepared for in North America, especially so on the Niagara frontier. People have family on both sides, they do business on both sides, and nobody in Niagara wants a war with their neighbors. I think this is exemplified in no better story—it's a true story—that when word finally gets to Fort George that the US and Britain are at war, General Brock is sitting down to dinner with the command of Fort Niagara. The American officers are sitting at the table with Brock when he gets word that war's been declared. And as the story goes, graciously, Brock says, 'Let's not let this ruin a good dinner.' Very, very British.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: Sorry, Andrew! On behalf of my country, I accept. What can I say? We are gentlemen under extreme circumstances. It's appreciated.

Lee Gugino: But they do allow the officers to go back to Niagara, and we'll start the war tomorrow. So, war does happen, and this border becomes instantly a massive hot zone. Very early in the war, there is the Battle of Queenston Heights where the American army at Niagara, stretched along the river kind of like the British did in the 1760s, attempts an invasion of Canada. That invasion fails. The gracious General Brock is killed in that engagement, to the dismay of many. They've got a lot of monuments over there to him—just don't read his papers too closely because he talks about how much he doesn't want to be in Canada, just throwing it out there.

Dr. Alex Burns: And he was a junior officer in the King's Regiment back in the '80s, right? So he's been in this frontier zone forever.

Lee Gugino: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know about how long—like, I don't know if he was at Niagara prior to this—but he was in the King's Regiment, that's the regiment that was in those Upper Posts during the American Revolution. But this attempted invasion fails. After that, in November of 1812, there's an artillery duel between Fort George and Fort Niagara, which I can only assume is an artilleryman's fantasy: dueling with big cannons at point-blank range, three-quarters of a mile. You don't even have to leave the fort! It's all the cool of artillery without any of the working parties. How could you hate it? But this is a 12-hour bombardment between Fort George and Fort Niagara, and they are hurling cannonballs at each other back and forth. There are references to people living in Buffalo, which is about a 45-minute drive south in a modern car, hearing the bombardment for 12 hours. This is a very heavy, heavy bombardment.

Niagara gets its nose bloodied pretty substantially because of all of the tactical disadvantages that we talked about earlier. But this spurs some good old American ingenuity. What the American garrison does is they strip the roofs off of all of the buildings, including the French Castle (the one built in the 1720s). They take the roofs off, bring a bunch of dirt onto the top of these buildings, and then they haul guns up to the top and build batteries on the two redoubts and the French Castle. So now, the American gunners have the advantage over the British gunners. The next time they face off—well, there's a reason Fort George is a reproduction and Niagara is not—the gunners at Niagara, along with an American fleet in Lake Ontario and batteries along the river, all support a second invasion of Canada. This one temporarily sticks, Fort George is burned, and the Americans are able to get a foothold in Canada for a while, until they are pushed back.

In December of 1813, when that invasion eventually creeps its way back, the antsy American militia in charge of Fort George burn the town of Newark and then hightail it back across the river. The British, obviously, are not too stoked about that. So, on the 18th of December, they cross the river and attack Fort Niagara with bayonets, and in about 30 minutes, they take the garrison off-guard and capture Fort Niagara. Another column heads south and burns the village of Lewiston, and another column burns the city of Buffalo, leaving the Niagara frontier in ashes. That pretty much ends the contest on the Niagara frontier. After the war, everything is repatriated back to the Americans, Fort Niagara becomes an American garrison again, and we talked about the changing roles of Niagara. Niagara is not decommissioned. The garrison takes over, it stays an active army post, and there are some additions to Niagara after the War of 1812. But as anybody who's studied the American Civil War knows, emplaced fortifications aren't really viable anymore, as Fort Sumter is a perfect example of. So, the role of Niagara changes again. The Canada-US border becomes one of the longest peaceful borders in history, so the idea of Niagara being a border fortress at the edge of conflict goes away. It changes its role.

Dr. Andrew Bamford: And so can you just briefly walk us through what more modern history at Niagara looks like? I mean, it's still a military base all the way through the mid-20th century. If it's not shooting cannons at Canada anymore, knock on wood, what are we doing instead?

Lee Gugino: Yeah. So, like I said, Niagara changes roles, right? Its role as a combat outpost kind of goes away because of the nature of relations between Canada and the US. So, Niagara takes on this role as a training base. Just like Parris Island is not a place holding maneuver units but is a training installation, Niagara takes on some of those same responsibilities. During the Spanish-American War, troops are stationed there and they train for Cuba. One of America's all-black regiments is also stationed at Niagara for a good chunk of time—you can find Niagara Falls Gazette articles talking about how great it is to have them in the city, which is kind of cool and unique for the time period. There are soldiers, ROTC students, who actually dig trenches in the same place that John Prideaux dug his trenches to train for World War I—archaeologically kind of a nightmare, but it's kind of poetic, right? So, future American officers train for France.

During World War II, Fort Niagara is a massive in-processing base. When my grandma's three brothers were drafted, they all went through Fort Niagara to be processed into the Army. Fort Niagara also is the command center for POW camps that span all over New York. Members of Rommel's Afrika Korps are at Fort Niagara, and some members of the Italian army are also there as POWs. After the war, during the Cold War, Fort Niagara is a command center for Nike missile batteries. The idea being these are surface-to-air missiles that are going to shoot down the Ruskies as they fly over North America. So, Fort Niagara is not decommissioned as an active military site until 1963. I think that's one of the other things that makes Niagara unique: from 1726 all the way until 1963, there is an active military presence there, either maneuver combat units or training, processing, and supply network support units. That's the breadth of history. If there's something you're interested in history, Niagara probably has its fingers in it at some point—it's almost like a six-degrees of Kevin Bacon situation.

In the 1920s, there is a unique relationship between the local community and the active-duty army garrison at Niagara. At that point, that old part of the fort is starting to fall into disarray, and there's a concerted effort between the army garrison and the local community to restore that area as a tourist site. The local community creates the Old Fort Niagara Association, and again, in cooperation with the active-duty army commander, they raise funds, restore the buildings, and operate the site as a tourist destination, as a historic site. They do that to this day. The Old Fort Niagara Association still operates the private non-profit inside the state park, but it's a really unique civilian and military cooperation to preserve a place that might have very easily fallen into the lake.

Dr. Alex Burns: And so today, Fort Niagara is a center of tourism. Can you tell us about some of the highlight moments in the year? If you're thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I've listened to this podcast for two hours and I must go to Niagara,' when would I want to go in order to have the most incredible experience?

Lee Gugino: Sure, that's a great question. Without trying to make this an ad read—which is not necessarily the intent, but, you know, why not? So, a year in Niagara: it's open all year. There are reduced days during the wintertime because it's freaking cold there, but there's stuff happening all year long. The flagship events in the summertime are: there's a 'Soldiers Through the Ages' event, which happens Memorial Day weekend. That's an awesome event where the fort highlights all the time periods, and people come dressed and presenting history of darn near anything and everything. That's one of my personal favorites.

The fort also does a reenactment of that 1759 siege we talked about. It's over three days, on the 4th of July weekend, and if I'm not mistaken, it is the biggest event for that French and Indian War time period in the US. Then, they rotate between a Revolutionary War event and a regular living history weekend. This year, with the 250th, the emphasis is on the Revolutionary War weekend, where they really highlight that Rev War history. There will be redcoats, there will be continentals, but there will also be Indian Department and native diplomacy presentations. That is a big part of the history that Niagara does a very good job of owning: the role of native peoples specifically in the history of Fort Niagara. And then they've got a War of 1812 weekend, which is always a fun one. That's the summertime.

But there are special events in the wintertime as well. One of my favorites is 'Castle by Candlelight' at night. They turn off all the lights and just light candles everywhere. Visitors can walk around the French Castle in candlelight, and they'll see people cooking, they'll see the Jesuit priest in the chapel, and they'll see French soldiers. That's a fun one because it's a different perspective of the fort than you get in the summertime. But yeah, that really did sound like an ad read! But hey, why not? Nothing wrong with that. Go check out Fort Niagara if you want to have your biggest historical experience.

That's it for this episode of Prime and Load. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Don't forget to sign up for our free newsletter with the link in the description. It's the best way to stay up to date with the show, see what's coming up next, and ask us questions. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This episode was hosted by Drs. Alexander Burns and Andrew Bamford. It was produced by Lee Gugino, with music by Breanna Tam, Artie Sun, and Adrian Berenguer. Prime and Load is a Historic Studios podcast. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time! Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.