FORT MOREAU

                                                                                                        General Jean Victor Moreau  

                                     FORT MOREAU -The embankment consisted the centre and key point of the American line of defense during the battle. 

                                    The 6th and 29th regiments of infantry under Col. Melancton Smith manned it.  It was named after a French General who

                                    was banished to America due to Napoleon's jealousy.  The skeletons of 25 soldiers believed to have died here during the

                                    battle were unearthed in 1892 when the ground was being leveled for the parade ground.  The bodies were reburied in

                                    the Post Cemetery with full military honors.

                                                            "What an Old Resident Remembers of the Old Military Reservation and Forts."

                                       "The Military Reservation, forts and the whole encampment was originally fortified by a high picket fence except on the

                                    east side which was bounded by the lake.  

                                    The walls of the forts were protected and strengthened by trunks of trees. There was a ditch that surrounded the fort that

                                    was about 30 feet from top of fort, and the sides and ends were protected by a slanting roof of round timbers, laid at an

                                    angle of about 45 degrees against the fort, the butt ends resting in the ditch.

                                       The bark was all peeled off from these timbers and they were very smooth, so it would have been difficult to climb up over

                                    them to storm the fort.  There were cannons on the fort loaded to the muzzle with grape shots and balls, and by his story,

                                    they would have killed every British soldier that tried it.

                                       Fort Moreau had a large powder magazine, regularly arched over underground.  Sergeant Parker used to tell how they

                                    spied the British General Prevost on the day of the battle, with his staff on Viele Allen's house, on the hill, near where

                                    Mr. Sowles' house stands and how the General was viewing the battle through his spy glass, and how they fired some

                                    cannon balls at him from the fort causing him to beat a hasty retreat."

                                    `  

                                            "The following recollections of the early history of Plattsburgh Military Reservation and principal fort have been

                                            furnished by Mr. Geo. W. Dodds, one of our oldest inhabitants.  September 23, 1893"

                                                            From - A War of 1812 Death Register "Whispers in the Dark" by Jack Bilow                                                                    

                                         2011