French and Indian War Encampment at Old Fort Niagara
This article originally appeared in an Old Fort Niagara newsletter.
Old Fort Niagara will host its annual French and Indian War Encampment on July 2-3-4, 2022. The event is the historic site’s largest of the year welcoming over 400 reenactors and dozens of period merchants and artisans.
The event begins as recreated military units, period merchants and artisans erect a large tent city on the fort’s grounds. Through the course of the three-day event, participants will reenact four battles, fire cannons and muskets, engage in frontier diplomacy and present military pageantry with fifes, drums and banners.
Although largely forgotten, the French and Indian War was George Washington’s first military command and the first time large European armies fought on American soil. Native Americans fought on both sides and often influenced the outcome of military campaigns. When the war was over in 1763, half a continent changed hands and the stage was set for the American Revolution.
Fort Niagara began the war as a French outpost. Constructed in 1726, the fort remained in French hands until the fifth year of the French and Indian War. Because the fort guarded the strategic Great Lakes water route to the west, the British set their sights on capturing the fort in 1759. A British expedition, mustered near Schenectady, advanced across New York during June. By July 6, 2,500 British and New York soldiers and almost 1,000 Haudenosaunee allies landed where Four Mile Creek State Park stands today. Read more...