Fort Jefferson was a

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere ...

erected by soldiers of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

in October 1791 during the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1786–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwestern ...

. Built to support a military campaign, it saw several years of active fighting. Today, the fort site is a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

Establishment

Located in present-day

Darke County Darke County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,881. Its county seat is Greenville. The county was created in 1809 and later organized in 1817. It is named for William Darke, an officer in t ...

in far western

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, the fort was built under the direction of General

Arthur St. Clair Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During ...

in October 1791 as an advance post for his campaign from Fort Washington against local Native Americans.Wilson, Frazer. ''History of Darke County Ohio: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time''. Vol. 1. Milford: Hobart, 1914. A square of approximately on each side, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a

supply depot Supply depots are a type of military installation used by militaries to store battlefield supplies temporarily on or near the front lines until they can be distributed to military units. Supply depots are responsible for nearly all other types o ...

; accordingly, it was originally named "Fort Deposit."Fort Jefferson

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2010. Accessed 2010-04-10. Before St. Clair's army departed the fort, a

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

was conducted for an unknown crime; the three soldiers who were convicted and

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

became the first whites to be executed in present-day Darke County. One month later, after St. Clair's army was badly defeated in battle near modern-day Fort Recovery to the north, the scattered remnants of his force reconstituted at Fort Jefferson. Because it was not intended to house many soldiers, and because few supplies were actually stored at the fort, St. Clair found the fort insufficiently large for his men; consequently, he took most of his surviving soldiers and returned to Fort Washington, leaving only a small garrison to guard his many wounded. It is believed that the garrison was under the command of Captain Joseph Shaylor.

Siege of Fort Jefferson

The defeat of the American army in late 1791 left Fort Jefferson deep in enemy territory. Determined to drive the American soldiers back to the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

, a Native American force (possibly under the command of

Simon Girty Simon Girty (November 14, 1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American-born frontiersman, soldier and interpreter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who served as a liaison between the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. H ...

) raided the fort in the early Summer 1792. This raid began on 25 June 1792, with an attack of one hundred warriors against a party gathering hay for the fort's supplies, and left sixteen soldiers dead or missing. It is possible that another raid was conducted a short while later with the intention of capturing or killing Captain Shaylor. Local histories suggest the attackers exploited Shaylor's love of hunting by imitating

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally d ...

calls to lure Shaylor and his son into the woods. Captain Shaylor escaped the ensuing pursuit, but his son was killed. The fort came under siege intermittently for three years, as continued Native American attacks were made to neutralize the outpost.

Wayne's campaign

As the United States Army prepared to return to the offensive in the western Ohio country, Fort Jefferson became more than an isolated location outside of the control of the hostile Miamis: projections were created of using the fort as a base for the protection of local settlers and for raids on nearby Native Americans. When

Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...

and his Legion of the United States, fresh from

Legionville Legionville (or Legion Ville) was the first formal basic training facility for the military of the United States. The camp, which was established in winter 1792 under the command of Major General Anthony Wayne, was near present-day Baden, Penn ...

, began their expedition to avenge St. Clair in the fall of 1793, they erected a new supply fort at the site of Greenville, north of Fort Jefferson. Nevertheless, they relied heavily on the supplies of Fort Jefferson in their campaign during the following year.

After the war

After the end of the war, white settlers began to take up residence in the vicinity of the abandoned fort. A

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

was built by one nearby resident in 1810; by 1820, more settlers had built houses, a mill, and a school near the fort site. The settlement developed into

Fort Jefferson, Ohio Fort Jefferson is an unincorporated community in Darke County, in the U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental ju ...

. In the fall of 1907, the Greenville Historical Society dedicated a memorial on the site of the fort. Fort Jefferson was further recognized in 1970 when it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The area designated as historic encompasses approximately .

References

External links

Fort Jefferson
- official site at