- Fort Defiance (Ohio)
Fort Defiance was ordered built by General "Mad"
Anthony Wayne in August 1794 at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers. It was the last of a line of defences constructed by American forces in the campaign leading to theNorthwest Indian War 'sBattle of Fallen Timbers onAugust 20 ,1794 .Work began on
August 9 ,1794 and was completed byAugust 17 . The name reportedly was derived from a declaration Wayne made upon surveying the land aroung the fort: "I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it." The post was considered one of the strongest fortifications built in that period.Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne used Fort Defiance as his base of operations and ordered the destruction of all Native American villages and their crops within a 50-mile radius of the fort. Under terms of the
Treaty of Greenville , signed onAugust 3 ,1795 , the native nations ceded six square miles around the fort and allowed the Americans to maintain a trading post there, even though it was within the area of land defined by the "Greenville Treaty Line", beyond which Americans had agreed not to settle.Until the
War of 1812 , Fort Defiance was one of the westernmost outposts in Ohio. In the 1810s,William Henry Harrison used it as one base for his attacks against Native Americans during what is sometimes calledTecumseh's War . The fort played a role in theWar of 1812 as well.The city of
Defiance, Ohio , was founded at the fort's location. In 1904, the site of the fort was chosen as the site for the Defiance Public Library.Fort Defiance served as a reference point for defining the boundary line of land cession in the
Treaty of Detroit in 1807. This north-south line would be used again as theMichigan Meridian in the survey of lands inMichigan .External links
* [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/ohc/h/pla/fdef.shtml Ohio History Central]
* [http://www.defiancetourism.com/fortdefiance.htm History of Fort Defiance]
* [http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/catalogues/fort330.html Fort Defiance in the War of 1812]
* [http://www.findlay.edu/academics/cola/hist/classprojects/hist390/grindley.html An Ohio History Travelogue]
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