Fort Frontenac
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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 palisade 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 lucrative 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. A description of the fort written in the 17th century mentions that:
"Three quarters of it are of masonry or hardstone, the wall is three feet thick and twelve high. There is one place where it is only four feet, not being completed. The remainder is closed in with stakes. There is inside a house of squared logs, a hundred feet long. There is also a blacksmith's shop a guardhouse, a house for the officers, a well, and a cow-house. The ditches are fifteen feet wide. There is a good amount of land cleared and sown around about, in which a hundred paces away or almost there is a barn for storing the harvest. There are quite near the fort several French houses, an Iroquois village, a convent and a Recollet church."
Fur trade rivalries resulted in the Iroquois Wars. The French and Iroquois were never on very friendly terms. A peace treaty was signed in 1667, but the war was renewed in the 1680s. The renewal of war affected Fort Frontenac. The Iroquois, 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 and 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, it was given the name Tête-de-Pont Barracks. From 1889 to 1939, the fort was headquarters for the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. In 1939, 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.
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