The Siege of Fort Niagara

Nearly two decades before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a significant battle between two major European Powers occurred in Western New York. Part of the French and Indian War (a.k.a. Seven Days War), or what Winston Churchill termed the First World War, the Siege of Fort Niagara represented a turning point in the fight for control of the Great Lakes, and perhaps of the war itself. How did it all come to this? Click the link below for this week’s episode of The State of Greater Western New York Report to discover how the outcome of this siege had echoes into the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Robert Emerson, Executive Director of Old Fort Niagara. begins by telling us the early history of this French Fort. He then goes into an in-depth discussion of the relationship between France and Great Britain on a global scale and how that translated onto the North American map. To end this first segment, he relays the strategy and tactics of each side leading up to the Siege of Fort Niagara.

The show’s second half, Emerson provides a detailed play-by-play of the Siege. He explains why the French reinforcements never made it and what ultimately happened to the North American efforts of France.

Our guest happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a live audience member so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.

Theme music by “mansardian” courtesy of FreeSound.org under Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/