Worth Defending! / Mission: Parry Any Land-based Movements

During the War of 1812, Coteau-du-Lac became a strategic defensive site rather than simply a supply post because the nearby American border raised fears of a direct attack on Montreal that could separate military forces in Upper and Lower Canada. In 1813, defensive works were built on both sides of the canal to withstand a major attack: to the west, thick ramparts protected the barracks, powder magazine, and guard room from land-based assault with intersecting fields of fire; to the east, a three-cannon battery with 24-pounder guns on traversing platforms controlled navigation on the river across a nearly 200-degree angle; and in 1814 an octagonal blockhouse overlooking the fortifications was added to counter attacks from land or river. Prison Island in the rapids served as a detention site in the 1770s and 1780s and as a defensive post during the War of 1812, and the American prisoner Zadock Steele escaped from it in 1782 by digging a tunnel under his cell with a pocketknife. The site also held a substantial military presence during the war: in 1813-1814, at least 13 officers and more than 300 soldiers of the 103rd Regiment of Foot wintered there with 34 women and 26 children, alongside more than 50 Royal Artillery soldiers, 33 militiamen from the 5th Battalion, and 3 soldiers from the 10th Royal Veterans’ Battalion, and over the course of the war more than 10,000 people stayed at the fort. A bakehouse built by the British army supplied bread for the garrison and troops moving toward Upper Canada, a storehouse from the American War of Independence was later converted into a hospital, and another building from that earlier war served as both a hospital and the master carpenter’s quarters during the War of 1812.

Quebec · Canada