Fort Denonville

Fort Denonville, built in 1687 at the current site of Fort Niagara, and replaced Fort Conti on the mouth of the Niagara River and the shore of Lake Ontario. In the summer of 1687 the Governor of New France, Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville, was on a military expedition to pacify the Iroquois. Nearing the end of the campaign season the governor, wishing to keep French presence in the area, moved his army to the site and constructed a post and christened it in his name. The fort, which was comprised of eight wooden buildings and a stockade, was garrisoned by one hundred men and commanded by Captain Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes. The governor and the rest of the force returned to Montreal for the winter. The hundred men left at the fort were decimated by disease and the elements. On Good Friday of 1688 a relief force returned and found twelve suvivors; the chaplain of the relief force, Jesuit Father Pierre Millet, erected a cross and gave a mass of thanksgiving for their survival. The fort was regarrisoned, but in September of 1688 the French would pull down the stockade and would not winter there again until 1726 when "The House of Peace" (today known as the French Castle) and Fort Niagara were built on the same site.