On Common Ground. Richard D. Merritt
meeting at the Council House in which the Natives remained aloof to any military alliance but complained of ongoing difficulty with local white settlers “stealing their hogs,” working their horses, and settling on their lands, all without redress.[28]
During the War of 1812 the Grand River Six Nations and their allies did eventually side with the British and played an important role in many of the battles.[29] Early in the morning of October 13, 1812, Six Nations warriors were encamped at the Indian Council House; their leader, Chief John Norton, saw General Brock gallop off towards Queenston. Soon the warriors were ordered to follow along the River Road and played a decisive role in the Battle of Queenston Heights. On November 5, 1812, a solemn memorial service was held in the Council House. In the presence of military and British Indian Department officials, Brock was eulogized by Chief Little Cayuga, who presented eight white strings of wampum. A large white belt of wampum was also presented to cover Brock’s grave.[30]
Portrait of Major John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen), artist Solomon Williams, oil, 1804. Adopted as a nephew by Joseph Brant, upon the latter’s death Norton eventually became a chief of war and diplomacy among the Mohawks. During the War of 1812 he questioned the authority of the British Indian Department and lead His Majesty’s Indian Allies in all the battles on the Niagara Peninsula save one. © Canadian War Museum #1995009-001.
Spirits were running high again on the Commons several weeks later. Having successfully repulsed another American invading force near Fort Erie, the Natives and some troops returned in triumph to Fort George. As one town person reported they “encamped on the skirts of the woods back of the town [and kept] us alive with their war dances and [made] the dark cedar woods echo with savage yells.”[31]
Early in the morning of May 27 the following year, fifty Natives under Chief John Norton, accompanied by several officers of the Indian Department, were lying in wait along the fog-enshrouded shore of Lake Ontario near One Mile Pond. Suddenly a fierce bombardment from American ships offshore cut into the defenders, killing Indian Department clerk and storekeeper Lieutenant William Johnson Chew and several Natives. Despite the valiant but unsuccessful attempt to defend the town of Niagara and Fort George against the invading Americans, the British forces retreated towards Burlington; the Natives successfully covered their retreat. During the American occupation of the fort and town of Niagara during the summer and fall of 1813, the British Indian Department encouraged up to eight hundred Natives to lurk in the woods nearby and harass the Americans, including their Native allies, whenever they attempted to venture forth outside Fort George.[32] During the occupation, the Americans were especially vengeful towards those families known to be directly connected with the Indian Department.[33]
By the time the war officially ended on Christmas Eve 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, perhaps as many as half of all the Grand River Six Nations’ warriors had been killed or wounded.[34]
Plan, Section and Elevation of the New Hospital at Fort George, technical drawings, 1823. The central portion of the new hospital was originally the post-war (1816) Indian Council House. Library and Archives Canada H3/450/Niagara/1823, NMC#5223.
In the summer of 1815, an important council of international repercussions was held at Niagara, probably near the site of the old Council House that had been burned during the war. Bitter enemies during the war, the Iroquois of the Grand River and those of New York State met to negotiate peace between them and between the king and the New York Natives. White wampum belts were exchanged to finalize the end of hostilities and the removal of ill will from their hearts.[35]
By August 1815 a contract had been approved to build a new Council House, measuring fifty-five feet by thirty-six feet, along with a “dwelling house” and a store house.[36] However, with the threat of war over, His Majesty’s Indian Allies were now less important to the British government, and the British Indian Department’s influence at Niagara subsequently dwindled. By 1819 the Six Nations of the Grand River were directed to travel to York or Burlington for their annual bounty. The Indian Council House at Niagara was now empty. The resourceful regimental surgeon at Butler’s Barracks, Reid, requested that the empty Council House be used as a temporary hospital.[37] Extensive renovations were carried out, with the building of new foundations and the joining of the three buildings together[38] (see chapter 11). The last physical vestige of the British Indian Department at Niagara was now extinguished.
Nevertheless, there were still occasional Indian Council meetings at Niagara. William Claus, suffering from horribly disfiguring and painful cancer of the lip, presided over his last council meeting at Niagara in August 1826.[39] As late as 1833 the Natives were still coming to Niagara, as an account has survived in which John Claus claimed expenses for “entertaining Indians at Fort George.”[40] However, by the 1830s the role of the Indian Department was revised by the colonial government to promote the “civilizing” of the Natives and to establish a system of land reserves.
A hand-written inscription was found on the “south wall of the [powder] magazine on the Garrrison Commons of old Fort George”:
A PATRIOT, AUGUST 18, 1890
INDIAN CHIEF, A DESCENDANT OF THE ALLIES OF GREAT BRITAIN[41]
Chapter 8
Fort George on the Commons
Bitish government officials knew they would eventually have to give up Fort Niagara to the Americans, as stipulated in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Within one year, Governor Haldimand had directed his surveyors to reserve the open ground to the west and south of Navy Hall for a military “post.”[1] By 1791 the land had been staked out for a future fortification,[2] but it was another five years before the imminent British evacuation of Fort Niagara forced the start of construction of the new post. This portion of the Military Reserve/common lands was now officially off limits to the townsfolk.
The detailed story of the evolution, demise, and eventual resurrection of Fort George is better told elsewhere[3] ; however, with the encircling grassy open plain of the Commons providing a clear, unobstructed view of an approaching enemy both by land and water, the Commons was always strategically an important component of the fort. Hence, an abbreviated history of the fort and its garrison is warranted.
The British Royal Engineers chose the site above Navy Hall because it was fourteen feet higher in elevation than Fort Niagara, an important consideration when one attempts to lob artillery shells onto an enemy’s fortifications. However, this slight advantage was easily overcome by the Americans who established a battery on the river bank directly opposite, which happened to be slightly higher than the west bank. (As a counterpoise, the British later constructed the crescent-shaped Half-Moon Battery on the riverbank, south-east of the fortifications.[4] ) More importantly, being situated 1,100 yards upriver, the new fort could not control the mouth of the river. This strategic disadvantage was quickly recognized by the military officers during the War of 1812, and only ameliorated by the construction of Fort Mississauga, which was not completed until the 1820s.
Bird’s-eye view of Fort George from the east, 1805, artist Tiffany Merritt, graphite on paper, 2011. This is a conjectural drawing showing the six earthen bastions connected by palisades enclosing soldiers’ barracks and a large officers’ quarters. The stone powder magazine is within the fort. Terrain of the fort’s interior is still somewhat uneven.
Drawing based on conjectural drawings in an unpublished report. Gouhar Shemdin, David Bouse, “A Report on Fort George” (Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1975). With permission of Parks Canada.
With the improved prospect for peace between Upper Canada and the United States in 1796, all regular British troops were withdrawn from the colony, leaving only the Queen’s Rangers, who were mainly assigned elsewhere, and the Royal Canadian Volunteers — all recruits from the province. The second battalion of this