Description: Caption reads: "A bronze placque set on standards beside the Memorial Building on High Street, Hamilton, Ohio. Photo by Federal Writers' Photographer, May 5, 1937." Inscription on plaque reads: "Fort Hamilton. Built by General St. Clair in 1791, on his campaign against the Indians. It was enlarged in 1792 and used by General Wayne in 1793, on his march to Fallen Timbers." Arthur St. Clair, a general in the United States Army, ordered the construction of Fort Hamilton in September 1791. The fort was the first of many built north from Cincinnati in Native American territory. Fort Hamilton served as a supply depot for American expeditions against natives living along the Great Miami River, the Auglaize River, and the Maumee River during the early 1790s. Fort Hamilton consisted of a four-sided, square stockade. Each wall was approximately fifty yards in length. There were four diamond-shaped projections called bastions sticking out from the stockade's walls. Upon the fort's completion in early October, 1791, St. Clair left a small group of soldiers and two cannons to garrison it. He proceeded northward forty-five miles, where he constructed Fort Jefferson. In early November, St. Clair's men marched northward. On November 4, 1791, Native Americans won a major victory against the American army in a battle that came to be known as St. Clair's Defeat. Fort Hamilton continued to serve as an important garrison as white Americans and Native Americans struggled for control of western Ohio. Modern-day Hamilton, Ohio, is located on the site of Fort Hamilton. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F10_042_1
Subjects: United States. Army. Fort Hamilton; St. Clair, Arthur, 1734-1818
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)