French Fort History - Fort Kaskaskia (1733-1766)
First erected as a rough wooden stockade by the French in 1733 and known as the "Fort of the Kaskasquias." A more substantial fortification was built in 1759 by the French during the French & Indian War, including a heavy stockade with four blockhouses at the corners. This incarnation of the fort was named Fort Kaskaskia, and it remained until it was destroyed in 1766 by the citizens of Kaskaskia to prevent British occupation.
In 1772, the British were forced to leave their headquarters at Fort de Chartres because it was eroding into the Mississippi River, and they chose to fortify the old Jesuit 1703 stone-built French Seminary at Kaskaskia. Named "Fort Gage" in honor of General Thomas Gage. The British occupied the area until they were ordered to withdraw to Fort Detroit in 1776.
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The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe Indian Tribe (Algonquian language family) word "Messipi" or "misi-ziibi," which means "Great River" or "Gathering of Waters." French explorers, hearing the Ojibwe word for the river, recorded it in their own language with a similar pronunciation. The Potawatomi (Algonquian language family) pronounced "Mississippi" as the French said it, "Sinnissippi," which was given the meaning "Rocky Waters."
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| View of the Mississippi from the Fort. |
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| In the flood of April 1881, the Mississippi divided its channel and broke into the lower Kaskaskia River below this bluff, forming Kaskaskia Island. The historic town of Kaskaskia lay directly in its path and was eventually destroyed. Thus, the role played by Kaskaskia in the great drama of history is closed in tragedy. |
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The town of Kaskaskia still exists as an archaeological site beneath the river floodplain. The Mississippi River broke into the channel of the Kaskaskia River in 1881, following which the river current began destroying the buildings adjacent o the river along the east side of the town. But it did not destroy the buildings farther inland, which were gradually abandoned and buried beneath flood deposited soils. In 2024 a student of mine did a GIS study of the town in which she overlaid historic maps over the modern landscape. This allowed her to identify the home of a French "mixed blood" fur trader and interpreter whose name was contained on an 1830s mao of the town. She went to this location, which is just a farm field today with nothing on the surface, and excavated two test squares. She found nothing until she reached 60 cm beneath the ground surface when she began finding 1830s ceramics, meaning that she had successfully located the home site of the 1830s fur trader. So most of Kaskaskia is still there today, it is just buried.
ReplyDeleteWhere was Fort Gage? The Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition is looking for a site to place an information sign identifying the British Fort Gage in Randolph County, Illinois.
ReplyDeleteThere has been much confusion about the actual site of the British Fort Gage in Kaskaskia. Many locals and some 20th Century historians wrote that the British took over the French fortress on Garrison Hill overlooking the Mississippi River near today’s Ellis Grove. This is the site of the Fort Kaskaskia State Park on the hill east of the old village of Kaskaskia, Illinois’ first State Capital. The location of the fort was more confused by many early histories of St. Clair and Randolph counties that said it was on the hill east of the old village.
In 1795, Judge H.W. Beckwith , President of the Illinois Historical Society, surveyed Fort Kaskaskia and erroneously labeled his sketch of the earthworks located on the hill at today’s Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site as “Fort Gage”. Why is not know, as he certainly had seen the 1734 sketch of the French Fort Kaskaskia on the hilltop done by Marc De Villiers.
For more confusion, the Iron Mountain Railroad ran a line from Dupo to Chester in 1901, and they named the station below Garrison Hill and the State Park “Fort Gage”. Soon after the Fort Gage Post Office opened several houses were built there. The attached newspaper clipping about Fort Gage Station says the British Fort was likely inundated by the Mississippi and was washed away when the rived changed course and washed away most of the old French Village of Kaskaskia.
After their victory over France in the French and Indian War, Great Britain began its occupation of the Illinois Country in 1764, taking possession of Fort de Chartres on Oct. 10, 1765, and renaming it Fort Cavendish. Because of constant flooding of the Mississippi River, the British were forced to consider leaving their headquarters at Fort de Chartres because the fort was eroding into the river. This convinced the British to abandon Fort de Chartres and build a new outpost at the Village of Kaskaskia. Rather than build they chose to fortify the old Jesuit Seminary at Kaskaskia, calling it “Fort Gage” in honor of General Thomas Gage.
The majority of the French people and the missionary priests moved west to Missouri when the Protestant British won the war. In 1733 the French had built a fort on Garrison Hill, east of the Kaskaskia Village. It first erected as a rough wooden stockade by the French people and known as Fort of the Kaskasquias. A more substantial fortification was built by the French during French & Indian War that included a heavy stockade with four blockhouses at the corners. This incarnation of the fort was named Fort Kaskaskia and it remained until destroyed in 1766 by the French citizens of Kaskaskia in order to keep it from the new British owners of the territory. Today the beautiful site overlooking the Mississippi is a State Historical Site.
The British occupied the area until they were ordered to Fort Detroit in 1776. Fort Gage in the French Village of Kaskaskia remained without a garrison until it was taken by an American General, Rogers Clark, on July 4, 1778. The American forces remained in Kaskaskia throughout the Revolutionary War. Nothing of Fort Gage remains, but the fortress at the Jesuit Mission in Kaskaskia lays inundated by the Mississippi.
Photos from the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) Fort Kaskaskia...by J.F. Snyder,
Vol. 6, No. 1 (Apr., 1913), pp. 58-71 (18 pages) Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Sources : Patton, Dennis, The Kaskaskia- Cahokia Trail, 2018.
Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. at 7/08/2018 12:12:00 AM
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