Museum Secrets: Fort George’s Powder Magazine

By Andrew Hind

Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake is a superb reconstruction of the War of 1812 era structure that defended the Niagara frontier. Impressive in size and strength, few people realize the historic significance of a rather modest building within the fort’s walls.

The officer’s mess or perhaps the barracks are the highlights of most visits to Fort George. Yet they are 20th century replicas. The powder magazine, often overlooked, is the only original building. More than that, it is the oldest surviving military structure in Ontario.

Until 1796, Britain occupied the east side of the Niagara River and, with it, Fort Niagara. When Britain ceded this side of the river in Jay’s Treaty, they began to build a new fortification at the mouth of the Niagara River and opposite Fort Niagara. Built on a rising bluff, Fort George was intended to protect the river’s mouth, the village of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake), and the maritime installations at Navy Hall, a key supply depot for British forts on the Upper Great Lakes.

Construction began in 1796 and went on for several years. When it was complete in 1799, Fort George was an expansive fortification. It consisted of an irregular rectangle earthwork with six earth-and-wood bastions where artillery pieces were emplaced, with a ditch outside and a stockade enclosing the work. As the main base of British forces in North America, the fort’s large interior was intended to accommodate significant numbers of troops, stores, and artillery. There was a large and comfortable officer’s mess, three barracks that could also function as defensive blockhouses, a guardhouse, hospital, storehouses, and a stone powder magazine built in a lower dug-out area. The powder magazine was the most protected structure within the fort, and for good reason. At any time, there were as many as 800 barrels of gunpowder stored within the building. Should a fire break out – by accident or enemy bombardment – the resultant explosion would level every building within Fort George and kill or maim the entire garrison. As a precaution, the magazine was constructed of stone rather than wood as with the other buildings and was situated in a lower dug-out area with high earthen banks. Further, there were strict regulations in place to ensure there were no accidental explosions. Only spark proof materials were used during construction, including floorboards that were secured with wooden pegs rather than of iron nails. Soldiers working within or around the building had to wear special smocks and shoes with no metal fastenings.

Long predicted, war finally came to Fort George with the outbreak of the War of 1812. News of the declaration of war arrived on June 18 during a dinner hosted by the British officers of Fort George for their American counterparts at Fort Niagara. Dinner was finished cordially, both sides wished each other best wishes in the coming conflict, and the officers parted ways as friends. By the next morning, they were enemies and would remain so for nearly three years.

For several months the fighting seemed far removed from Fort George, save for occasional harassment by American gunners on the opposite side of the river. That all changed on October 13 during the Battle of Queenston Heights, when a large American force crossed the Niagara River to invade Canada.

As the invasion downstream was unfolding, American gunners began bombarding Fort George from Fort Niagara across the river. The Americans scored a lucky direct hit on the powder magazine with an incendiary shell. The burning red cannonball penetrated the magazine’s roof and started a fire. The vast store of gunpowder was in danger of catastrophic explosion.

“I met a crowd of militia with consternation in their countenances, exclaiming the magazine was on fire,” recalled Major Thomas Evans, left in charge of Fort George that day. “Knowing it to contain 800 barrels of powder with vent side walls, not an instant to be lost. Captain Vigoreux of the Engineers therefore, at my suggestion, was promptly on its roof, which movement was with alacrity followed by the requisite number of volunteers.”

Under the inspired leadership of Captain Vigoreux, the militiamen and Royal Artillery gunners tore off the roof to gain access to the burning timbers beneath and managed to put out the flames before they could reach the gunpowder. The actions of Captain Vigoreux and his men was one of the most heroic, if little remembered, acts in the War of 1812.

Unfortunately, there was no saving Fort George in May 1813 when a massive bombardment destroyed all the buildings within the fortifications. The only structure left standing was the powder magazine.

Fort George was abandoned after the war and the powder magazine largely forgotten, at least until the 1930s when the entire fort was rebuilt to look as it did in the 1812 period. Thanks to reconstruction and the present-day interpretive programs and historic signage, the significance of the stone powder magazine as the oldest military structure in Ontario is no longer obscured.