During the American Revolution, Ogdensburg was on the British side against the American colonies. The British captured Fort La Présentation in 1760 on their way to Montreal, where they defeated the French and established control of North America. As they gained a stronghold along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, Abbe Picquet removed valuables from La Présentation to Ile-aux-Galops in 1759, while the French built Fort Levis on Ile Royal, now Chimney Island, about one-half mile east of the Ogdensburg International Bridge. On June 13th, 1760, Captain Pierre Pouchot ordered planks and iron removed from Fort La Présentation for use at Fort Levis and ordered the mission dismantled and ruined so it would not shelter the enemy. Sir Jeffrey Amherst's troops took possession of the ruined fort on August 17th, 1760, and after a five day battle Captain Pouchot surrendered on August 26th, 1760. Fort Levis was renamed Fort William Augustus, and the English repaired Fort La Présentation and renamed it Fort Oswegatchie; both forts served as supply depots for the western posts. By 1776, Fort William Augustus on Chimney Island was nearly abandoned, and only its chimneys remained visible. During the Revolutionary War, the St. Lawrence River was an important British supply line, and although the garrison at Fort Oswegatchie rarely exceeded 50 men, the fort served as a headquarters for raiding and scouting parties and for securing prisoners taken from along the Mohawk River. In March 1776, Capt. Forster and a detachment of the 8th Regiment from Oswegatchie, together with other British, Canadians, and Indians, marched to the Cedars, where American Major Butterfield surrendered after a severe battle later termed a massacre by the U.S. Congress; Forster then retreated to Fort Oswegatchie in the face of Benedict Arnold's larger force. On April 27th, 1779, Lt. McClennan and Lt. Hardenbergh of the First New York Regiment led a scouting party of 32 from Fort Schuyler to Fort Oswegatchie, killed two British soldiers, and captured four prisoners, and the report was sent to Gen. George Washington because the fort's location was important to his plans. On May 6th, 1779, a detachment of the 84th Royal Highland Emigrants under Capt. Daniel Robertson was sent to Fort Oswegatchie. On June 10th, 1779, a detachment from Fort Stanwix attacked Fort Oswegatchie and took one prisoner; a retaliatory attack on Fort Stanwix took 29 prisoners and three scalps. In September 1780, a detachment from Fort Oswegatchie burned dwellings and harvest-filled barns and killed cattle in the Fort Dayton area. In June 1781, an expedition to the Canada Creek area took seven prisoners, killed two rebels, burned houses and barns, and destroyed 100 cows and a number of horses. In June 1782, Capt. Robertson, commandant since 1779, led a destructive attack on Ellice's mill at Little Falls that destroyed wheat, flour, Indian corn belonging to Congress and local inhabitants, and quantities of salt pork and beef. After hostilities ceased, Fort Oswegatchie was one of five frontier forts retained by the British until Jay's Treaty, signed November 19th, 1794, required evacuation by June 1st, 1796. The first settlers under the American flag arrived on August 11, 1796 under Nathan Ford, land agent for Samuel Ogden, for whom Ogdensburg was named.