Military
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Construction on Fort Meigs began in February 1813. Soldiers traveling to Fort Meigs passed through the Great Black Swamp, a nearly impenetrable morass 40 miles across and 120 miles wide south of the fort. Harsh winter weather and frontier conditions made building the fort a severe challenge. In February 1813, Capt. Eleazer D. Wood of the U.S. Corps of Engineers recalled that immense labor went into excavating ditches, making abatis, and clearing wood around the camp while the weather was extremely severe and the ground was so hard frozen that it was almost impossible to open it with a spade and pick-ax. With the ax, mattock, and spade making up the army's work, the soldiers set about burying themselves as fast as possible and heard nothing of the enemy.
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Perrysburg, Ohio · United States
