MILITARY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Site of Colonel John Bradstreet's Disaster
Rocky River, Ohio
· October 19, 1764
Military
13
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 did not prevent Indians led by Pontiac from destroying forts along Lake Erie, including Sandusky and Presque Isle. The English sent Colonel John Bradstreet to Detroit to awe Pontiac, and he led the largest force ever to appear on the south shore of Lake Erie: fifty bateaux commanded by Bradstreet, three hundred fifty British Regulars, one thousand Provincials under Israel Putnam, and eight hundred Indians in canoes. On their return from Detroit, the party camped at McMahon's Run on the night of October 19th, when a ferocious storm struck and twenty-five bateaux were lost along with most of the ammunition and supplies. Putnam and most of the Provincials then went on foot to Fort Niagara and arrived in December. Historians have recorded that cannon balls, bayonets, swords, muskets, and part of a bateau have been recovered near the site.
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