Fort Izard was built by the United States during the War of 1812 to defend Plattsburgh against a British land and sea attack from the north and to engage enemy forces moving south toward Saratoga. It was occupied for a few weeks but was never used in battle. During the spring and summer of 1814, an army of 5000 soldiers gathered in Plattsburgh under General George Izard, who constructed a series of defensive fortifications: Forts Brown, Moreau, and Scott in Plattsburgh, and what is now known as Fort Izard on the Cumberland Head peninsula. In August 1814, Izard was ordered by the War Department in Washington to march 4000 troops from Plattsburgh to Sackett’s Harbor on Lake Ontario, where the main British attack from the north was then expected. The small force left in the region was placed under General Alexander Macomb, who chose to concentrate his vastly outnumbered troops closer to Plattsburgh and abandoned Fort Izard. Because Fort Izard was unoccupied, the Battle of Plattsburgh was ultimately decided by the United States naval victory in Cumberland Bay by Commodore Macdonough rather than by land armies, though if American troops under Izard had remained at Plattsburgh, the fortification bearing his name might have played a central role in the battle and in the outcome of the War of 1812.

Photo: Internet Archive

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Grand Isle, Vermont · USA