Fort Stanwix National Monument - The Story Of Bastion 2: Journey With Your Journal (U.S. National Park Service)

a pink star-shaped fort drawing with an arrow painted north

Long before Columbus discovered America, the Haudenosaunee People lived in what we call New York State. They lived in long houses covered with tree bark. They hunted and fished and grew crops of corn, beans, and squash.

a woman works with a tool to grind food, she wears a shawl. behind her smoke rises from a rounded rough bark building

Fort Necessity National Battlefield, NPS.gov

You can learn more about the Haudenosaunee and their culture by visiting the following website:
www.oneidaindiannation.com/culture/

men use oxen to haul large boats and canoes over portage areas

Oxen were used to move boats across the portage area known as the Great Carry.

The Haudenosaunee made birch-bark canoes to travel the many rivers and streams across New York. Traveling on the waters of New York, the Haudenosaunee could travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. Where the rivers did not meet, they carried their belongings and their boats. These portages served as trading centers. One large portage was here at what we call Rome, New York. The Haudenosaunee called this place The Great Carry.

In the 1600's, the Dutch and later the English began trading with the Haudenosaunee People. They became friends and joined forces against their common enemy, the French. To protect the Great Carry, the Haudenosaunee let the English build five small forts. During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the French attacked one of these forts, Fort Bull, in March 1756. Two years later in 1758, the Haudenosaunee let the British build an even bigger fort.

The British had to promise the Haudenosaunee that they would destroy the fort when the war was over. The huge fort was built out of wood and dirt. It was large enough to hold 450 soldiers. It was large enough to protect the Mohawk Valley from French attack. It was named Fort Stanwix for Brigadier General John Stanwix, the British general in charge of the Great Carry.

two rivers come together around the black outline of a star shaped fort

Fort Stanwix was built to guard the Great Carry for the British.

When the French and Indian War was over, peace returned to New York. But the British broke their promise to the Haudenosaunee. The fort was left standing.

At about the same time that Fort Stanwix was built, John Barr was born in the small town of Amenia, north of New York City. Life in America was very different then. There were no computers or telephones or e-mail. At night, you used candles for light. Houses did not have indoor water or bathrooms.

When John was a young boy, travel was very hard. There were no roads between small towns. To get from one town to another, you walked through the wild woods. When you came to a river, you could cross it, if you had a boat.

As a boy, John would learn his father's trade. He had to learn to read and write. He needed to learn math to run the family business. Writing was very hard. John practiced for writing for years, with a quill pen made from a goose feather as a pen.

As John grew up, so did America. In 1776, America declared herself Independent from the English government. The American Revolution made each person choose sides. Which side would John take? Would he stay loyal to the British King George III? Would he rebel and help form a new country, the United States of America? John rebelled.

a man with nicely cropped white hair is wearing a a fine jacket with a tall white collar

General Philip Schuyler was in charge of the American army in the northern states.

Before the British could return to Fort Stanwix, the Americans moved in and started repairing the fort. The Americans changed the old British fort's name from Fort Stanwix to Fort Schuyler, naming it after American General Phillip Schuyler.

This fort was known as Fort Schuyler only during the American Revolution. The soldiers of Fort Schuyler saved New York State and the whole Country from invasion by the British.

Finish this Web Page and find out how the men of Fort Schuyler saved America!