Fort Frontenac

Fort Frontenac (1673-Present) - A French Colonial fort established as Fort Cataraqui in 1673 by Louis de Baude, Conte de Frontenac, in present day Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Renamed Fort Frontenac. The British captured and destroyed the fort in 1758 but rebuilt it in 1783. The current post dates from 1819. Active military installation. Also known as Tete de Pont Barracks.

Old Fort Fontenac Bastion Point	Old Fort Fontenac Bastion Walls
Fort Frontenac Old Wall with Current Compound in the Background

Fort Frontenac History

Old Fort Frontenac Plan

Established as a French palisaded log and earthworks fort in 1673. The first fort commander was Robert Cavalier, Sieur de LaSalle who used the fort as base of operations for his exploration of the region. In 1675 Lasalle replaced the wood and earth structure of the original fort with stone walls and bastions.

Hostile Iroquois Indians laid siege to the fort and by 1688 most of the garrison was dead from scurvy and the post was abandoned by 1689. The French reoccupied the fort in 1695 and established a trade on Lake Ontario using boats built at Cataraqui.

As a counter to the expanding French influence on the lake the British built Fort Oswego and Fort George (6) at present day Oswego, New York. They too began building ships to expand British influence on the lake.

French & Indian War (1754-1763)

As the French & Indian War began the British warships were driven off the lake by a surprise French attack on 27 Jun 1756. French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm operating from Fort Frontenac attacked British Fort Oswego, Fort George (6) and the new Fort Ontario in mid August 1756, capturing and destroying all three. Two years later a British force under Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet captured Fort Frontenac and burned the French ships in the Harbor. Bradstreet withdrew without doing serious damage to the fort. The French were finally defeated in 1760 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded almost all French claims east of the Mississippi to the British.

With the end of the French & Indian War the need for Fort Frontenac lessened and it lay abandoned until the end of the American Revolutionary War. It was then populated with British troops removed from posts on American soil who built barracks on the fort ruins. These barracks were named Tete de Pont Barracks about 1789.

Current Status

Fort Frontenac Marker

Now the home of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Access inside the compound is restricted. Portions of the original French fort have been exposed in the triangle in front of the compound and historical markers are located outside the compound walls.

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Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Maps & Images Lat: 44.233333 Long: -76.478611 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: .....'

Sources:

Links:

• North American Forts - Fort Fontenac
• Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation - Fort Frontenac
• Wikipedia - Fort Frontenac

Visited: 29 Jul 2012

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