Lacolle Mills Blockhouse ( French: ''Blockhaus de la Rivière-Lacolle'') is 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 ...

and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

located alongside the

Lacolle River The Lacolle River flows in the municipality of Lacolle, Quebec, in Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Montérégie, on the south shore of St. Lawrence River in Quebec in Canada. The economy of the watershed is primarily agricultural ( ...

near the village of

Lacolle, Quebec Lacolle () is a municipality in southern Quebec, Canada, located in the administrative area of the Montérégie, on the Canada–United States border. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 2,680. The Lacolle River runs eastward throug ...

History

Built around 1781, the blockhouse was part of the

British colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...

defensive network. While protecting both the

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

constructed of stone and the

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

built along the Lacolle River, the blockhouse was used as a

military outpost A military outpost is detachment of troops stationed at a distance from the main force or formation, usually at a station in a remote or sparsely populated location, positioned to stand guard against unauthorized intrusions and surprise attacks ...

by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

on assignment in the region of

Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality ''(Upper Richelieu)'' is a regional county municipality in the Montérégie region in southwestern Quebec, Canada. Its seat is in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It is named for the Richelieu River which ...

and on

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...

.Municipality of Saint Paul de L'ile Aux Noix
/ref> In 1923, the Lacolle Mills Blockhouse was included in the

Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814) The Battle of Lacolle Mills was fought on 30 March 1814 during the War of 1812. The small garrison of a British outpost position, aided by reinforcements, fought off a large American attack. Background After the St. Lawrence campaign had ended l ...

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...

. In 1960, the blockhouse was designated a

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

building and is entered in the

Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory The Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory ( French: ''Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec'') is an online cultural heritage knowledge dissemination tool for the province of Quebec. The directory is maintained by the province's Ministry of ...

Structure

The Lacolle Mills Blockhouse is a

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

square two-storey structure. The second-level floor is

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

ed with a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

roof.Canada's Historic Places
/ref> The blockhouse is built on land that overlooks the Lacolle River. The blockhouse's architecture was typical of a small defensive military structure in the area not requiring significant experience to construct. The blockhouse walls are constructed of squared half timber stacked horizontally. The walls have

loopholes A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system. Originally, the word meant an arrowslit, a narrow verti ...

, providing the occupant with protection, while firing on the enemy. In the centre of the blockhouse was a stone

hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...

, which provided heating. The British military constructed over 25 forts of this type in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

between 1760 and 1840.

War of 1812

During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, the blockhouse was the location for the

Battle of Lacolle Mills (1812) The Battle of Lacolle River was fought on November 20, 1812, during the War of 1812. In this relatively light skirmish, a very small garrison of Canadian militia, with the assistance of Kahnawake Mohawk warriors, defended the Lacolle Mills Blo ...

and the

. The Battle of Lacolle Mills (1812) was a short engagement in which a small garrison of

Canadien French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

Militia, with the assistance of

Kahnawake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, C ...

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

warriors, defended the Lacolle Mills Blockhouse from an American invasion force led by Major General

Henry Dearborn Henry Dearborn (February 23, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was an American military officer and politician. In the Revolutionary War, he served under Benedict Arnold in his expedition to Quebec, of which his journal provides an important record ...

. In the Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814) a garrison of 80 men of the

13th Regiment of Foot In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave ...

and a

Congreve rocket The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1808. The design was based upon the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, an ...

detachment of the

Royal Marine Artillery The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...

, later reinforced by a company of the

Canadian Voltigeurs The Canadian Voltigeurs were a light infantry unit, raised in Lower Canada (the present-day Province of Quebec) in 1812, that fought in the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. History Formation As war with the United States threate ...

and the

Grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...

company of the

Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry The Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry, commonly known as the Canadian Regiment or the Canadian Fencibles, saw service in Upper and Lower Canada during the early 19th century, notably during the Anglo-American War of 1812. History The regime ...

successfully defended the blockhouse and stone

from an attacking American force of 4,000 men led by Major General

James Wilkinson James Wilkinson (March 24, 1757 – December 28, 1825) was an American soldier, politician, and double agent who was associated with several scandals and controversies. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, b ...

.John R. Elting, ''Amateurs to Arms'', p.176NICOLAS, Paul Harris: Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces, Volume 2, p253

References

External links

Official homepage

Gallery

File:Lacolle Mills Blockhouse3.jpg File:Lacolle Mills Blockhouse5.jpg File:Blockhaus de la Rivière-Lacolle, Bataille du moulin de Lacolle (1814).jpg {{navboxes, list= {{Fortifications {{Portal bar, History, Canada, War {{War of 1812 {{Battles of the War of 1812 {{NHSC } Buildings and structures in Montérégie Fortifications in Canada Heritage buildings of Quebec History of Montérégie Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality Military and war museums in Canada Military installations established in 1781 Museums in Montérégie National Historic Sites in Quebec Blockhouses