Fort Bull was located at the

Oneida Carry The Oneida Carry was an important link in the main 18th century trade route between the Atlantic seaboard of North America and interior of the continent. From Schenectady, near Albany, New York on the Hudson River, cargo would be carried upstream ...

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...

(now New York, United States) during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

. On October 29, 1755 Governor

William Shirley William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of the British American colonies of Massachusetts Bay and the Bahamas. He is best known for his role in organi ...

ordered Captain Mark Petrie to take the men under his command and to build a fort on the upper landing of Wood Creek to protect the

. The fort was capable of holding a garrison of sixty to seventy men. The fort was attacked and destroyed by the French on March 27, 1756, in the

Battle of Fort Bull The Battle of Fort Bull was a French attack on the British-held Fort Bull on 27 March 1756, early in the French and Indian War. The fort was built to defend a portion of the waterway connecting Albany, New York to Lake Ontario via the Mohawk River ...

History

During the eighteenth century, the

was the English name for the portage path between the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

and Wood Creek. It was primarily used as a fur trade route between the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

and English Traders. Once the

broke out the English built two small stockade forts on the

to safeguard supply lines to Oswego. These small forts became Fort Bull and Fort Williams. Two years into the war in March 1756 a French-led attack accompanied by Canadians and Native Americans destroyed Fort Bull and its connecting supply routes. To rebuild their strength on the Carry the British replaced Fort Bull with Fort Wood Creek. In the following Summer of 1756, the

became a large military complex for British troops. Yet, in late August rumors began to spread of weaknesses in the British strongholds on the Carry. Fearing another French invasion the British Commander on the Carry, General Webb, panicked and ordered all Forts and other works on the Carry to be destroyed. The British then retreated to the German Flatts and gave up on the Carry.Park Ranger William Sawyer
"The Oneida Carry and Its Early Fortifications: 1755-1757"
''National Park Service'', February 26, 2015

References

{{coord, 43, 13, 27, N, 75, 30, 9, W, display=title

Bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

Buildings and structures in Oneida County, New York