Stop #7 | Address: Intersection of CR 51 and Harrison St., Old Fort (Approx. 7861 Main St., Old Fort)
General William Henry Harrison ordered the construction of Fort (or as he called it, Camp) Seneca as another supply depot along the Army Road (formerly the Scioto-Sandusky Trail) in July of 1813. It was located on a 40 ft bluff on the west side of the Sandusky River in present-day Old Fort, Ohio.
Twelve-foot oak pickets, 1 foot thick, enclosed a square of roughly 1 ½ acres. The southwest corner had a blockhouse 16 ft high and 25 ft square, while smaller blockhouses protected the remaining three corners. The pickets were extended at one point to enclose one of several freshwater springs near the fort, thereby ensuring a supply of water in case of a siege. During the late summer of 1813, it was garrisoned by roughly 800 troops preparing to move north to attack British and Native American forces at Fort Malden.
Harrison used Fort Seneca as his headquarters from July of 1813 until September when news of Perry’s victory on Lake Erie allowed him to begin moving men and supplies toward the Lake for the final push against Malden. The fort never came under attack from enemy forces, but troops at Fort Seneca could hear the sounds of battle during the failed British efforts to take Fort Stephenson (present-day Fremont) downstream. Shortly after the battle and again during Harrison’s 1840 campaign for the presidency, his political enemies chastised him for not coming to the aid of Fort Stephenson. Any such effort would have been foolhardy in view of the size of the British and Indian forces facing the Americans, and who had plans to ambush any forces sent to reinforce Fort Stephenson.
In July, a Shawnee named Little Blue Jacket conspired with the British at Malden to assassinate Harrison. Blue Jacket entered Fort Seneca with a group of Indians loyal to the Americans but made the mistake of reveling his plans to Beaver, a friend of Harrison. As Blue Jacket prepared to put his plan into action, Beaver killed him.
Following the war, Fort Seneca was abandoned. Like the other forts along the Army Road, it provided early settlers with temporary shelter until more permanent homes could be built. Rev. James Montgomery, the agent assigned to oversee the Seneca Reservation created in 1817, was one of them. He and his family of 12 lived in the fort’s large blockhouse for 7 years.
About “Tracking the Troops, Tippecanoe & Perry, Too!” This driving tour is a five-county collaborative project with Wyandot, Seneca, Sandusky, Wood and Ottawa counties that takes you on a self-guided driving tour following the military trail of General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812. Harrison would later become the ninth president of the United States and has the shortest presidency, dying from pneumonia one month after having taken the oath of office.
