EUROPEAN FORTIFICATIONS BUILT IN NORTH AMERICA: 1800-1899

I have used a geographical definition and fudged this area to include the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. The names of many of these forts are a desperate confusion and I have included all those names for a structure that I have been able to collect.[1] I have further ignored minor site adjustments in various re-buildings of fortifications. A military fort was usually built for strategic reasons in some specified area and even if ownership and nationality changed the strategic purpose was often recognised and adopted.

Search techniques for this database might use the following keys: name, dates, nationality, or battles. No doubt there are errors here, however with such large numbers that is probably inevitable and are only of detail.

European Fortifications Built in America: 1800-1899

Names & Location

Construction & Events
Partridge Island Battery, New Brunswick British; 1800, Built barracks signal tower and gun platform; 1813, Added nine-gun battery blockhouse and magazine; 1866, Manned garrison by he New Brunswick Regiment of Artillery due to Irish-American threats; 1878, Added six guns; 1913-1919, Manned by standing garrison; 1919, Upgraded guns; 1939-1945, Added casemates and searchlights for garrison; 1947, Abandoned.
Fort Duvernette, Saint Vincent, West Indies British; 1800, Near Young Island stone fort is 195' ASL and was to defend Calliaqua Bay anchorage.
Concordia Post, Lousiana Spanish; 1801, Palisaded blockhouse and barracks.
Fort Vermilion, Alberta British; c1802.
Fort William, Ontario British; 1803, Built by the Montreal-based North West Company as its defended trading storage warehouse; 1821, defensive function abandoned.

The Castle (Fort Sitka, Post of Sitka), Sitka, Alaska

Commander: 1804, Alexander Baranof, 1818, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel

 Russian; 1804, Built wood fort as capital of Alaska after battle with Tlingit Indians; 1867, Alaska bought by USA; 1867-1906, Renamed Sitka and capital of Alaska.
Fort des Prairies, Alberta British; 1804, Built as a North West Company trading post on the North Saskatchewan River.
Fort Rouge (Fort Gibraltar), Manitoba French; 1804, Abandoned; 1804, North West Companny built post.
Fort Nelson, British Columbia British; 1805, Built as a North West Company trading post.
Robert Dickson's Post, Minnesota British; 1805-1806, Built as a fur-trading post on the Mississippi River.

Citadelle Laferrière, Haiti

Commander: Major Général Henri Christophe

French; 1806, Built to keep French troops out by German engineers as a massive stone fortress for the king of Haiti; 1810, The completed fortress was outfitted with 365 cannons of varying size, and enormous stockpiles of cannonballs still sit in pyramidal stacks at the fortress's base.

Fort St James, British Columbia

Commander: Simon Fraser

British; 1806, Built by explorer Simon Fraser as fur-trading post.

Kullyspell House, Idaho

Commander: David Thompson

 British; 1809-1811, Built as a North West Company trading post.
Fort Coteau Du Lac, Québec British; c1812, Built on the St Lawrence River to defend against further American invasions.
Fort Wellington, Ontario British; 1812, Built to defend the St Lawrence River against further American invasions; 1838, Garrisoned again against American invasion; 1923, Abandoned.
Fort George (Fort Holmes), Mackinac Island, Michigan British; 1812, Built log blockhouse and stockade 0.5 miles from British Fort Mackinac on higher ground; 1814, Failed American attack; 1815, Ceded to Americans who renamed as Fort Holmes..

Fort Rossiya (Fort Ross), California

Commander: Kuskov

 Russian; 1812, Built rectangle enclosed by a 14' stockade with two blockhouses at opposite corners and 59 buildings 100 miles north of San Francisco for fur trade.
Fort Coteau du Lac, Québec 1812-1815, British Prison camp for American POWs.
Drummond Blockhouse, New Brunswick British; c1813, Built to protect St John from the west; 1866, Garrison artillery manned in response to the Fenian threats.
St Andrews Blockhouse, New Brunswick British; c1813, Built to counter American invasion threats.
Fort Henry, Ontario British; c1813, Built to counter American invasion threats.
Carleton Martello Tower, New Brunswick British; c1813, Built to protect St John from American invasion threats.
Fort Mississauga, Ontario British; c1814, Built to protect Niagara-on-the-Lake from American invasion threats as a brick tower and a star–shaped earthworks; 1813- 1855, British garrison; 1870-1954, Canadian army training facility.
Fort Gadsden (Prospect Bluff Fort, Nichol's Fort, British Post, Negro Fort, African Fort, and Fort Apalachicola), Florida British; 1814, Built above the mouth of the Apalachicola River and equipped with cannon, guns, and ammunition as a base for British troops and for recruitment of ex-slaves and Seminole Indians into a new corps. 1815, Supported raids into Georgia. 1816, Captured by Americans; 1818, Re-built.
Fort at Honolulu (Fort Kekuanohu), Oahu, Hawaii Russian; 1815, Built a blockhouse; 1816, Russians forced out by Hawaiians and fort rebuilt of coral and adobe; 1817, Walls 12' with 40-60 guns; 1843, British for few months; 1857, Demoloished.

Fort Drummond, Michigan

Commander: Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond

 British; 1815, Built after loss of Michilimackinac when Britain attempted to retain control of strategic waterway.
Princeville Forts (Redoubt Alexander and Redoubt Barclay), Hawaii Russian; 1816, Built two small earthwork forts.
Fort Elizabeth (Fort at Waimea, Fort Hipo), Kaua'i, Hawaii Russian; 1816, Built three-acre 40-gun fort, magazine, armory, barracks, officers' quarters, and trading post; 1817, Russians forced out by Hawaiians and re-garrisoned; 1824, Battle of Wahiawa for Hawaiian unification.
Fort at Kailua, Hawaii Hawaiian; 1819, Rebuilt old temple with 18 guns.
Fort George, (Big River Post), Ontario British; 1820, Built to defend trade became a Hudson's Bay Company post.

Fort Floyd (Fort Union), Montana

Commander: Kenneth McKenzie, John J Astor

 British; 1828, Built by McKenzie a Canadian for Astor's American Fur Company (he also owned the Pacific Fur Company and had significant holdings in the North West Fur Company - which was sold to benefit the Hudson's Bay Company) it became the centre of western fur trading. c1830s, McKenzie went on to build many more fur-trading forts.
Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan British; c1829, Built.
Fort Chimo, (Fort Good Hope), Québec British; 1830, Built to defend trade became a Hudson's Bay Company post.
Carillon Barracks, Québec British; 1830-1837, Built to support the construction of the first Ottawa River canal system; 1837-1838, Occupied by British army troops.
Chaudière River Blockhouse, Québec French; c1832, Built.
Sandwich Islands Post, Hawaii British; 1834, HBC built fortified trading post.
Upper Fort Garry, Manitoba British; c1834, Built as stone trading post; 1870, Captured by Métis; 1870-1871, Garrisoned by Canadians during 1870 Red River Rebellion.
Lower Fort Garry, Manitoba British; c1834, Built as stone trading post; 1870-1871, Garrisoned by Canadians during 1870 Red River Rebellion.
Fort Garry, Manitoba British; c1835, Built by Hudson's Bay Company as a trading post. but used as army base in confrontations with the US, or Métis; c1900, Part of Winnipeg.
Fort Ingall, Québec British; 1839, Built to defend against further American invasions.
Fort San Francisco de Pupa, Florida Spanish; 1841, Attacked earth-embankment fort and destroyed by British.
Fort Trial, Labrador Newfoundland British; 1841, Built to defend trade became a Hudson's Bay Company post.
Fort Kamloops, British Columbia British; 1842, Built.
Fort Albert, Bermuda British; 1842, pentagonal moated stone redoubt with a small interior stone keep.
Fort Umpqua, Oregon British; c1846, Built as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post.
Fort William, Ontario British; 1848, Built to protect Hudson's Bay trade, used as post.
Fort Qu'/Appelle, Saskatchewan British; 1852, Built as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post.
Fort Victoria, Alberta British; 1864, Built as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post.
Fort Scaur, Bermuda British; 1866- 1872, Built to counter American threats and to protect the dockyards from a land attack with small 64 pound guns on disappearing carriages and an enormous dry moat.
Willem III Tower, Aruba Dutch; 1868, Added to Fort Zoutman.
Fort McMurray, Alberta British; 1870-1898, Built as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post.

Fort Hamilton, Bermuda

 British; c1872, Built of solid rock as a defence for the city with long range guns.
Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan Canadian; 1875, Built for the North West Mounted Police (NWMP).

ENDNOTES

1         There are many sources, including endless internet sites, however, I found some paricularly helpful. The website at http://www.geocities.com/naforts/ provides a large database of forts listed separately by state. Bruce Grant, American Forts, Yesterday and Today; and Pete and Phil Payette's NORTH AMERICAN FORTIFICATIONS at http://www.geocities.com/forts. The latter is an extended site covering the American states and Canadian provinces, plus some Mexican and Caribbean forts. Therre is a history of Illinois forts at http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/forts.html#PREHISTORIC, West Virginia forts at http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvwags/forts.txt. For specific French details see http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6750/links.htm and http://www.mlrmag.com/pubaddnl/TonyG/french.htm, a specialist list of Florida forts ia at http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/florida_forts.htm, New York forts are at http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/forts/fortsA_D/anneFort.htm, and Canadian forts see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hudson%27s_Bay_Company_forts. I also consulted authors like Frank McLynn,1759, the Year Britain Became Master of the World, and Fred Anderson, Crucible of War for more specific details. A full list of useful websites may be found in the bibliography under Internet Citations.

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