French Block House, 1757, or American Block House, ca., 1794? During the French and Spanish Conspiracies, Victor Collot made his famous spy travel throughout the western states, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers documenting all points, past and present, having strategic military interest (Collot, 1796). Interestingly, Collot recorded a “Block House” location as half-way between the mouth of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers on the Kentucky side of the Ohio (Collot 1796: Figure ??). Most importantly, Collot (1796:275) describe this site as follows: On the left [south] side [of the Ohio River], between [the] Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, we observed a small wooden fort, the object of which was the protection of the navigation of those two rivers, and also of the Ohio, during the war with the Indians; but the fort is placed at too great a distance to answer this triple view, and [it] is really useful only for the [protecting] the Ohio [River]…”(emphasis added by Carstens). The question that remains to be answered is, is Collot’s fort that was “used during the war with the Indians” a direct reference to the French occupation of the lower Ohio Valley during the “French and Indian War”, or, was it a reference to the American re-occupation of the lower Ohio during American revamping of old Fort Massac? I would argue that Collot’s “block house/fort” was a mid-18th century military stronghold designed and built during the French and Indian war. Granted, American wars with Indians continued well into the late 18th century north of the Ohio River, however, to a French men, describing the “late wars with the Indians” would indicate to me, that Collot was referencing the French and Indian Wars of the 1750-60s and NOT the American Indians wars of the 1790s. Only additional archaeological study of this archaeological site will determine whether this site is French or American in origin based on the type of artifacts recovered at the site.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 18:12:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015