From the winter 1812 “Camp Saranac” (Pike’s Cantonment) to the fortifications built for the defense and protection of the village of Plattsburgh and the important military stores in 1814 (Forts Brown, Moreau, and Scott, the wooden barracks and two additional forts – Forts Gaines and Tompkins – in 1815), the Plattsburgh Stone Barracks in 1838, the brick “brownstones” of the 1890s, to the establishment of the Army’s “Plattsburgh Barracks” in 1945 and the “new base” of the Air Force in the 1950s, the military presence in Plattsburgh have had a long and interesting past. [Read more…] about 1888: The First National Monument to Unknown Soldiers
Fort Tompkins
Francis Mallaby: Witness to Sackets Harbor History
The name Francis Mallaby may not be familiar in New York history but sailing master Mallaby served at the Sackets Harbor navy yard in a prosperous time of lake shipping and community growth. He helped make a difference by initiating purchase of land which is cherished today as the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.
This War of 1812 veteran received high compliments from Lake Ontario navy commander Isaac Chauncey and Captain Woolsey that helped influence Mallaby’s 1817 appointment as master of the first steamboat on Lake Ontario, based in Sackets Harbor in Jefferson County, NY. [Read more…] about Francis Mallaby: Witness to Sackets Harbor History