Fort Frontenac

Plan of Fort Frontenac, 1685

Fort Frontenac was a French trading post and military fort built in 1673 in what is now Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It was strategically positioned at the mouth of the Cataraqui River where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario in a location traditionally known as Cataraqui. The original fort, a wood pallisade structure, was called Fort Cataraqui but was later named for Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France (Count Frontenac), who was responsible for building the fort.

The intent of Fort Frontenac was to control the luctrative fur trade in the Great Lakes Basin to the west and the Canadian Shield to the north. It was a bulwark against the English who were competing with the French for control of the fur trade. A secondary function of the fort was the provision of supplies and reinforcements to other French installations on the Great Lakes and in the Ohio Valley to the south.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the original administrator and commander of the fort, built many additional buildings and even brought in domestic animals with the hope of inducing settlers to come to the Cataraqui outpost. He replaced the wooden fort with a more secure stone fort in 1675. The new fort was built with massive walls supported by bastions in which guns were placed. Inside were barracks built of squared timber, officers' quarters, a powder magazine, a forge, a well, a grist mill and a bakery.

Iroquois Indians, who were angry after having been attacked by French troops, besieged the French settlement at Cataraqui in a reprisal raid in 1688. The settlement was devastated and many defenders died, mostly from scurvy. The French abandoned and destroyed the fort in 1689 claiming that its remoteness prevented proper defense. Count Frontenac eventually rebuilt the fort, which again became a thriving trading post. The English resented the renewed friendly trade between the French and Indians and build Fort Oswego across the lake from Fort Frontenac to compete for this trade.

During the Seven Years' War, Fort Frontenac was a highly strategic point on Lake Ontario. The fort commanded transportation and communications along the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes water route and was a threat to Fort Oswego. Indeed, General Montcalm used the Fort as a staging point to attack Fort Oswego in 1756. The British wanted it put out of action. Taking the well-known fort would also be a morale-boosting coup for the British, who were demoralized after having lost a battle at Fort Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon) in July 1758. And so, in August 1758, the British under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet left Fort Oswego with a force of a little over 3000 men and attacked Fort Frontenac. Bradstreet destroyed the fort and quickly departed to avoid any more conflict with the French. This battle is often referred to as the Battle of Fort Frontenac. At this stage in the war, Fort Frontenac was not that significant to the French since the fort was left abandoned for the next twenty-five years.

Loyalists who had fled the United States after the American War of Independence formed a community in the vicinity of the fort and along the waterfront. To protect the growing population of Cataraqui (eventually to be called Kingston), Fort Frontenac was rebuilt in 1783 to accommodate a military garrison. A few years later the fort was given the name Tête-de-Pont Barracks - a name that was in use until 1939 when it again became known as Fort Frontenac. Fort Frontenac remains in military hands and now houses the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College.

The fort has undergone extensive archaeological investigation and partially reconstructed remains of the northwest bastion and other walls can be seen.

External links

• The Canadian Archaeological Research Foundation - Fort Frontenac History and Archaeology