Fort Frederick

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, a blockhouse was quickly constructed on Point Frederick to complement an earlier one on Point Henry, and both protected the Kingston dockyard, the pivotal point of the Provincial Marine on Lake Ontario. Defences were strengthened throughout the war with significant log-and-earth fortifications added on both sides. Guns in the original Point Frederick earthwork installation were used on 10 November, 1812, against American Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s naval squadron during his failed attempt to destroy the dockyard and the largest British vessel there, the Royal George. In the decades after the war, Fort Frederick’s stone Martello Tower with its surrounding walls and earthworks was constructed on the original Point Frederick site as part of six similar installations built to strengthen Kingston’s defences, the dockyard, the Rideau Canal, and the entrance to the St. Lawrence River from possible United States aggression in crises such as the Canadian rebellions of 1837 and the later Oregon Boundary dispute. Fort Frederick was abandoned only in 1870. The name of both the point and fort remains debated as honoring either Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III, or Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Canada in 1764. Today the Fort Frederick Martello Tower houses the Royal Military College of Canada museum.

Ontario · Canada