Forts in the West

[orca]

Forgive me if this is addressed in a patch - I haven't installed the patch yet.

I think that the set up of forts and settlements in the West is set up for 1755 or 1758 rather than 1775. I see a lot of forts and towns that did not exist at the time of the Revolution.

In particular:

-Fort Toronto/Rouille (Anglo keyboard no egout ). The French fort was torn down when the French abandoned Lake Ontario in 1759. It was not rebuilt, and Toronto wasn't settled until 1787 or so by loyalists. I grew up a history buff there, so this is the one that caught my attention.

-Kingston/Fort Frontenac. The British took Fort Frontenac in 1759 and destroyed it. The area was abandoned, and there was no European settlement until 1784 when the loyalists arrived.

-Fort Venango was destroyed by the Indians during Pontiac's revolt. It was never rebuilt, and as far as I know there was no (European) settlement north of Pittsburgh at the time of the revolution.

-Fort Miamis. I'm not sure what this represents, but I'm pretty sure there was no fort in this region during the revolution (which is a reason why the Americans never made a real attempt on Detroit - no staging areas). The forts that I know of in the region are
Fort Miami (at the mouth of the Maumee river)- built by the British in the run up to the Fallen Timbers war. The battle was fought right nearby. Anyway it was built after the peace of Paris and was handed over to the USA under Jay's treaty in 1795
Fort Meigs - built by the USA in 1813
Fort Sandusky - built by the British in 1761, destroyed by the Indians in 1763.
Fort Miami - modern Fort Wayne IN, destroyed by the Indians in 1763

The lesson the British learned from Pontiac's war was the small forts with small garrisons were very vulnerable. They changed their policy to holding a small number of strategic forts with more force. Most of the forts that the French had built to contain the British settlers were abandoned.

[moustic]

1749 : Fort Rouillé ou Toronto sur le site d'un ancien fort (1720)
Poste de traite fortifé érigé sur les rives du lac Ontario, à l'embouchure de la rivière Taronto (Humber River). Antoine-Louis Rouillé, comte de Jouy , était ministre de la Marine et des Colonies (1749-1754). [color="Red"]Brûlé par sa garnison en 1759[/color]. Toronto serait d'origine mohawk (tkaronto) et désignerait les enceintes de pieux reliées à la pêche.
Emplacement actuel : Toronto, York County, Ontario
1722 : Fort Miami ou des Miamis ou Saint-Philippe (deuxième site)
Érigé par Jacques-Charles Renaud, sieur Du Buisson, sur la rive de la rivière St. Mary, à la confluence avec les rivière des Miamis (Maumee River) et Saint-Joseph (St. Joseph River), à la tête du portage avec la rivière Ouabache (Wabash River), sous Philippe de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil, gouverneur de la Nouvelle-France. Nommé en l'honneur de Philippe II, duc d'Orléans, régent de France.
Emplacement actuel : Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana
1753 : Fort Machault ou Venago
Établi à la confluence des rivières au Boeuf (French Creek) et Allegheny, par Paul Marin de la Malgue, sous Ange Duquesne-Menneville, marquis de Duquesne, gouverneur de la Nouvelle-France. Jean-Baptiste de Machault, comte d'Arnouville, était ministre de la Marine et des Colonies de 1754 à 1757.
Aussi nommé Venango du nom de la bourgade indienne installée à cet endroit.
Emplacement actuel : Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvanie

[orca]

So Ft Miami is modern Fort Wayne. It was destroyed during Pontiac's war, and wasn't rebuilt until General Wayne built it after the battle of the Fallen Timbers in 1794.

Sorry about the misspelling of Ft Venago. Also destroyed in 1763.

All of these should be there in 1755, but had been abandoned by 1775.

[orca]

On the subject of places that shouldn't exist (and I'm convinced that none of Fort Miamis, Fort Venago, Fort Toronto or Kingston-on-the-lake should exist in the American Revolution scenarios), I think that a different choice of strategic towns for the Seven Years War ought to be considered. In particular, Norwich VT was chartered in 1761 and the first Europeans to stay the winter there did so in 1765. See here. So it's rather odd that the British can go into winter quarters there in 1756. In 1755-1760 the upper Connecticut valley was AFAIK pretty much unsettled. Brattleborough might be a better choice to represent control of Northern New England, as it did exist in 1755. IF Barrtleborough is not suitable (being too close to Albany and all) Charlestown, NH was the northernmost town in the Connecticut valley and had seen fighting during King George's War (1747). Keene NH is across the river from Brattleborough, was also burned during King George's War, and might also make sense. Other choices to represent control of northern or western might be Concord NH, which was then known as Rumford, or Deerfield MA, which was the site of an important battle in Queen Anne's War. Both of those were well behind the frontier, so I believe that Brattleborough is the best choice.