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Fort Stanwix National Monument

Rome, US

Fort Stanwix National Monument

Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort in present-day Rome, New York. Its construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carry during the French and In

dian War. Fort Stanwix National Monument, a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service, now occupies the site. Fort Stanwix is historically significant because of its successful defense by American troops during an August 1777 siege. The fort had been built by the British in 1758 at a strategic site along the water route from Lake Ontario to the Hudson River. After American forces captured and rebuilt the fort during the American Revolutionary War, they were besieged by a British army that invaded from Canada via Lake Ontario, hoping to reach the Hudson River. The British force abandoned the siege, a consequence that helped lead to the defeat of a larger British army during the Saratoga campaign. It was also the site of the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix between Britain and several Native American tribes, as well as of the 1784 treaty of the same name between the tribes and the...

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