What went down in history as the Battle of the Thousand Islands ended when the French and Canadian defenders struck their colors in August 1760; only when their artillery was destroyed by a prolonged bombardment. The few survivors of the 350-man garrison commanded by Captain Pierre Pouchot surrendered with honors to General Jeffrey Amherst’s Anglo-American army of 12,000.
On a nondescript stretch of waterfront in Ogdensburg, New York rest the foundations of Fort La Présentation under two metres and two centuries of historic strata. That may soon change, if the Fort La Présentation Association has its way.
“As small frontier forts go there were the usual stone bastions and log stockade, but we are determined to see the fort rebuilt because it is a major factor in our heritage,” said Barbara O’Keefe, President of the Fort La Présentation Association. “Although forts such as Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara are more imposing; this is our history we want to bring to life.”
O’Keefe an energetic, retired educator is also a member of the New York State French and Indian War 250th Anniversary Commemoration Commission. Despite her hectic schedule, she always has time to share her enthusiasm for the fort’s reconstruction near the original site on Lighthouse Point where the Oswegatchie River enters the St. Lawrence River.
Fort La Présentation embodied a French toehold on the northern edge of the British Province of New York built to woo Christianized Iroquois to the French cause in the impending, final struggle for control of North America. In May 1749, when the Sulpician Abbé François Picquet journeyed from Montreal to found his mission, England and France had for 140 years periodically locked horns over continental dominance. The virulently anti-Protestant Piquet prayed to see his flock deliver destruction to the Anglo-American colonists. He nurtured a sizeable community to that end.
At its height in the mid 1750s, the parish of La Présentation congregated as many as 3,000 souls when Montreal’s urban population stood at 4,000. The people of La Présentation, centered on the fort, were dispersed along the New York shore, on adjacent islands and across the river in what is now Ontario. In this diffused community, lived warriors prepared, with some persuasion, to carry the fight to the British colonies when the French and Indian War erupted in 1754. To have them join the campaigns in the Mohawk Valley and the Lake Champlain Basin, French and Franco-Canadian military leaders were obliged to treat with their allies.
First came Canadian-born Lt. Gaspard Joseph Chaussegros de Lery to lead a mixed force on snowshoes to burn Fort Bull (near present-day Rome, NY) in March 1756. That August, Louis-Joseph Montcalm prevailed upon the warriors to help in the reduction of Fort Oswego on the southeast shore of Lake Ontario.
Some of their number supported Montcalm at the capture of Fort William Henry on Lake George in August 1757, and others trekked with another Canadian, Capt. François Marie Picoté, to victory at German Flats on the Mohawk River in November. A few warriors watched Montcalm’s victory at Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga) in July 1758; they did not join the battle.
History was not kind to La Présentation. The British forces tightened their noose around New France. Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario) capitulated to Col. John Bradstreet’s Anglo-American army in August 1758, and the head of the St. Lawrence was sealed. A month earlier the Fortress of Louisbourg, the guardian of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had fallen to Crown forces. In 1759 Abbé Picquet returned to Montreal, and La Présentation was abandoned.
“History books would have you think once the British controlled the St. Lawrence the last battle for control of North American blazed on the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of Quebec City in September 1759,” commented O’Keefe. “Well, that’s not quite right.
“Pieces of La Présentation found their way to Isle Royale three miles down river and into the construction of Fort Lévis. This was the site of the last battle.”
What went down in history as the Battle of the Thousand Islands ended when the French and Canadian defenders struck their colors in August 1760; only when their artillery was destroyed by a prolonged bombardment. The few survivors of the 350-man garrison commanded by Captain Pierre Pouchot surrendered with honors to General Jeffrey Amherst’s Anglo-American army of 12,000.
La Présentation, quickly refurbished by the British, became Fort Oswegatchie and housed a small bellicose garrison during the American Revolution. When finally relinquished to the Americans in 1796, the new name was Fort Presentation whose parlous walls were abandoned during the War of 1812.
The residents of Ogdensburg soon stripped the ruin of wood, stone and metal to build their community. In succession, a boat works, a railway yard, a tank farm and other enterprises came and went from Lighthouse Point. Their accumulating industrial detritus buried the fort’s stone floors.
“Fortunately, there remains one very significant material artefact,” O’Keefe said. “Abbé Picquet’s hand-engraved cornerstone, preserved in Ogdensburg City Hall, bears a Latin inscription which translated reads In the name of God this stone was laid by François Picquet 1749.
“The rough limestone block has inspired generations to dream of rebuilding Fort La Présentation,” she continued. “People may think we are wishful thinkers too, but in less than 10 years the Fort La Présentation Association has grown into a determined organization with the confidence to move ahead.”
After eight years of occasionally testy exchanges with Exxon-Mobil and the State of New York, the never-say-quit association succeeded in having subsurface petroleum contamination removed from the fort site. Following that success, the association plans a multi-million dollars fund-raising campaign to rebuild the fort.
Ogdensburg’s days as an industrial city have rusted away, but this dedicated group is intent on starting La Présentation’s reconstruction in 2010 as a step in the process of economic redevelopment. They know they have a challenge in this time of recession, but they are committed to preserving and vivifying history.
“We have laid the groundwork. Each July for nearly 10 years, the Association has sponsored Founder’s Day Weekend on our 22 acres, owned free and clear, on Lighthouse Point,” said O’Keefe. “Military, civilian and Native re-enactors from New York, New England, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Quebec and beyond camp here to bring our colonial and aboriginal past to life. For them, this is hallowed ground.”
Come July 2010, when Founder’s Day Weekend hosts New York State’s 250th anniversary commemoration marking the end of the French and Indian War, O’Keefe and the fort association plan a ceremonial groundbreaking for the resurrected Fort La Présentation.
By Michel Whittaker, Fort La Présentation Association
Michael Whittaker is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fort La Présentation Association, in Ogdensburg, N.Y. He has been a military re-enactor for more than 25 years, as a member of Forsyth's Rifles, the United Train of Artillery of Rhode Island and similar organizations. Whittaker also provides heritage interpretation to schools, historic sites and community events. He has many years experience in media and public relations with the Government of Canada. He is a branding analyst in the International Markets Bureau of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Editor's Note: For more detailed information on Founder’s Day Weekend see video coverage of the 2008 Founder's Day Weekend by the Canadian Army News. The schedule for Founder’s Day Weekend July 18-19, 2009 is posted at http://www.fortlapresentation.net/2009poster.pdf.