Old French War - Pontiac's Conspiracy - Revolutionary War / Fren
East Face:Old French War - Pontiac's Conspiracy - Revolutionary War
Northern terminus of the old Indian waterway and land trail the Sandusky-Scioto Route from Lake Erie to the Ohio River used from the earliest records by the Indian and French hunters explorers missionaries and war parties in passing from the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes to the Ohio and the Mississippi and later known as the Harrison Trail of the War of 1812. On landing near this spot their light watercraft were portaged "57 arpents" from Lake Erie across to "Lac Sandoski" up the Sandusky River across the Sandusky-Scioto Portage and down the Scioto to the Ohio and Mississippi. The Sandusky-Scioto Trail along the banks of these rivers was the common battle ground of the French from Detroit and the British from Fort Pitt during the Old French War prior to the surrender of French sovereignty in America to Great Britain in 1760.
Colonel John Bradstreet's expedition for the recovery of the nine British posts captured in Pontiac's Conspiracy sailed their larger watercraft, 60 long boats with 1400 men, into Sandusky Bay and up to "the lower falls of the Sandusky" (Fremont), where they encamped Sept. 20, 1764, the western most point reached. Returning, encamped near where the old fort stood "on the carrying place between Lakes Sandusky and Erie," where Major Israel Putnam began "clearing the ground to construct a fort," but "October 18 whole decamped and embarked for Niagara."
During the Revolutionary War, Major De Peyster, the British Commandant, sent Butler's Rangers with cannon from Detroit, up to the lower falls of the Sandusky, where they supported the Indians in the repulse of Crawford's Expedition in 1782, which culminated in the burning of Colonel Crawford at the stake. Later "the British established a post at Lower Sandusky"(Fremont)
South Face:French Expedition, 1754
Across the de Lery Portage
from Quebec to Detroit and Michilimaquinak as noted in the Journal of the Chevalier Chaussegros de Lery, who, on August 4, 1754, landed near this spot “and discovered the ruins of the old fort.”
Fort Sandoski, 1745-1748, 1750-1751
Monsieur Pean, Captain, Regimental Adjutant of Quebec, Commanding • 1
Monsieur St. Martin, Acting Major
Monsieur Lery
Monsieur St. Ours • Lieutenants • 3
Monsieur Riganville
Monsieur Desmeloises
Monsieur Porneouf
Monsieur Cournover • Ensigns • 4
Father Bonnecamp, • Jesuit • 1
Monsieur Forget Duverger • Jesuit of the Missions etrangeres • 1
Monsieur Mauvilles
Monsieur Vigee
Monsieur Garon • Surgeons • 3
Monsieur Laforge, store keeper • 1
Monsieur Constant, an old interpreter • 1
27 canoes, each carrying 10 men • 270
285
Marker is on Fulton Street 0 miles south of Rohde Drive, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
