- Fort at Number 4
The Fort at Number 4 was the northernmost English settlement along the
Connecticut River inNew Hampshire until after theFrench and Indian War . Now known as Charlestown, it was more than 30 miles (50 km) from the nearest other English settlement atFort Dummer . Construction began in1740 by brothers Stephen, Samuel and David Farnsworth. By1743 , there were 10 families settled in a square of interconnected houses, enclosed in astockade with a guard tower.King George's War
In
1744 , duringKing George's War , many of the area's outlying farms and buildings were burned by the French and their Indian allies. Some settlers, along with some Indian warriors, were killed in ambushes and small skirmishes. Other settlers were taken prisoner, to be ransomed back inCanada . The settler families would abandon thefort in the fall of1746 , and it was then occupied by Capt. Phineas Stevens and 30militia troops in the spring of1747 . OnApril 7 , 11 days after Capt. Stevens and his men arrived, the fort was besieged by a large force combining French militia andAbenaki warriors (said be 700 strong, although probably much less), under the command of Ensign Boucher de Niverville of the French Marines. The siege lasted 3 days, until the French and Indians decided to head back toCanada rather than risk a direct attack on the fort, thus preventing further raids on settlements to the south and east.French and Indian War
During the last of the
French and Indian Wars , many soldiers were stationed in the Fort at Number 4 to protect the frontier. They included ColonelNathan Whiting 's Regiment ofConnecticut , and Colonel John Goffe’sNew Hampshire Provincial Regiment . Returning from a raid on St. Francis,Quebec , Robert Rogers in1759 sought help here for his hungry Rangers atFort Wentworth far up the Connecticut River. Also at that time, GeneralJeffrey Amherst ordered a road to be built between the fort and another fort newly-captured at Crown Point, located on the shores ofLake Champlain inNew York . Consequently, Capt.John Stark and a company of Rangers, together with Col. Goffe's Regiment, built the Crown Point Military Road. It was 77 1/2 miles (125 km) long, with manyblockhouses along its route to protect supplies and travelers through the wilderness that would later becomeVermont . With the defeat of the French in1761 , and the Treaty of Paris in1763 , the need for the fort ended.American Revolution
Although the fort no longer existed, General John Stark gathered the
New Hampshire Militia Regiments at its site while traveling to theBattle of Bennington in1777 .Today
The Fort at Number 4 has been recreated to its appearance during King George's War, and a group of historians and enthusiasts portray the settlers and town militia. Also, every summer the fort hosts both French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War reenactments.
External links
* [http://www.fortat4.com/ Fort at Number 4]
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