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In
1774 Point au Fer became a military post, and by order of Gen.
Sullivan a strong garrison-house was thereupon erected. It was
constructed of stones surrounded by a stockade and manned. Ethan
Allen appeared before it with several armed vessels, and from that
time the point became an important post. For twenty-two years the
building was known in military journals as the "White House."
It was the site of
stirring adventure, of imprisonment of captives, rendezvous of
passing armies, and the resort of the most celebrated men of the
Revolution. The place was visited by Gen. Burgoyne, Armstrong,
Sullivan, Schuyler, Benedict Arnold, Col. Ethan Allen, Col.
Ebenezer Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Governor Clinton,
Benjamin Franklin, Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, and others less noted whose names are
lost in the mists of years.
The war ended in
1783, but it was not until 1796 that Great Britain relinquished its
claim to these waters. The English commodore Steel [Capt. John
Steel, aka Steele], with his armed brig "Maria," guarded the
outlet to Lake Champlain and covered its shores. Every American
vessel lowered its "peak" and paid obeisance to the royal ensign.
Steel made a garden on the shore, and for more than ninety years
[this was written in1880] it has been known as "Steel's [or
Steele's] Garden." Every month Steel sent a corporal's guard to
Judge Moore and warned him off the soil, notifying him that his
claim under the State would not be recognized, but no attention was
paid to those repeated warnings.
Lord Dorchester
ordered the people for ten miles this side of the line to be
enrolled with the militia of Canada. But the treaty of peace came,
and Steel and De Rochameau evacuated the "White House," and left the
soil of the States no more to return. Capt. Steel subsequently
became a commodore on the great lakes, and died at the age of
eighty-nine years.
Eighty-two years have
now elapsed [till 1880] since the British left Point au Fer. Early
in the present century [the nineteenth century] the old
garrison-house went to ruin. It was located on the north end of the
point. |
Sources/Notes:
Duane Hamilton Hurd.
History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York. 1880.
Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co.
Reprinted by the Clinton County American Revolution Bicentennial Commission,
Plattsburgh, New York, 1978.
For much more detailed information
(and a truly fascinating account) see:
Taylor, Daniel T. 1892. The Shores of Champlain. 1979. Champlain,
NY: Moorsfield Press. Originally appeared in the Champlain Counselor
[1892]. Reprinted c. 1937 in the North Countryman.
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