News/Events

 December 31, 2010
By Joel Danoy
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER– Positioned at the crossroads of the Western colonial frontier, Fort Loudoun was constructed as a symbol of Virginia’s strength and power during the French and Indian War. The stronghold, which never came under attack, was named for John Campbell (1705-1782), the fourth Earl of Loudoun – a man who blessed the idea of the fort through correspondence, but never laid eyes on the structure. Built from 1756 to 1758, the fort became an obsession for its creator – 26-year-old George Washington – who used it as his regimental headquarters during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

A historical marker at what is now 419 N. Loudoun St. marks the spot where ground was broken for the fort’s construction on May 18, 1756. According to Norman L. Baker, a local historian and author of “Fort Loudoun: Washington’s Fort in Virginia,” the future president saw the fort’s construction as a way to regain his integrity after an embarrassing defeat as commander at Fort Necessity in 1754 and as an officer under Gen. Edward Braddock’s expeditionary force in a failed attempt to capture theFrench Fort Duquesne (in what is now Pittsburgh) in 1755.

Those defeats, Baker said, left an already vulnerable Shenandoah Valley frontier wide open to Indian raiding parties – led by French commanders – who attacked through the Ohio Valley and into the Virginia frontier.

The British military command devised a plan to create a “chain of forts” along the Virginia frontier.

”[French soldiers and Native Americans] were attacking these settlers – taking them into captivity, you know, woman and children, and killing the men,” Baker said. “[The British] realized that the only thing that could help them were these forts that they can put soldiers in.”

Washington, chosen by the British military command to execute the plan for the fort, recognized the military advantages of locating Fort Loudoun outside the small frontier crossroads town of Winchester.

Founded in 1752, Winchester was the first and only English-speaking settlement west of the Blue Ridge Mountains at the time of the fort’s construction. Winchester was located roughly halfway between Virginia’s northern frontier (now Williamsport, Md.) and the colony’s southern frontier (near what is now the North Carolina border).

”Washington constantly felt like he had to concentrate his command here in Winchester because it was the closest to the French,” Baker said. “It was right at a crossroads on a beautiful hill that was well-chosen.”

Washington wanted to build Fort Loudoun in Winchester as a command center, Baker said, where he could have supplies, ammunition, and soldiers who could be sent out to other frontier forts. “There was a necessity to protect the settlers because people were leaving in droves, going over the Blue Ridge Mountains trying to get over the eastern side [because of repeated Indian attacks],” said the 84-year-old author from Delaplane.

Approved by the Virginia General Assembly and the House of Burgesses at a cost of 1,000 British pounds, the fort was situated on a five-acre tract about 200 yards north of town.Washington laid out a 204-square-foot fortification with bastions at each corner. Inside, he designed barracks for 450 men, a powder magazine, an officer’s guard house, a grand house and kitchen, and a drinking well drilled 103 feet through limestone.

He utilized an effective defense by using an interior and exterior wall made of vertical timbers with dirt and stone filling the void between the walls – creating a base 18-feet thick. ”This was the best effort Virginia could put forward during the French and Indian War,” Baker said. “There were small forts all along the frontier but nothing as formidable as Fort Loudoun.”

Although it’s been documented that Indian raids hit Clear Brook – 12 miles north of Winchester – Fort Loudoun and Winchester were never directly attacked. Baker said the importance of the fort didn’t come with its military symbolism – its true impact must be measured in the safety and protection its mere presence provided the residents in and around Winchester. ”Winchester was nothing but four cross streets before they started building this fort,” he said. “[It] grew into the city that it was because it brought in these troops from all over Virginia and elsewhere and it brought a new economy that built the city up.”Winchester never went down from that point. It always just kept going up.”

In 1763, the French ceded North America to the British with the signing of the Treaty of Paris – effectively ending the nine-year conflict and the last opportunity that the fort might see combat action.
– Contact Joel Danoy at jdanoy@winchesterstar.com

Tour Covers 14 Forts

By Stephanie Mangino

The Winchester Star: Monday, May 18, 2009

By Ryan O’Connor, TV3 Winchester\

If you drove down North Loudoun Street, Saturday, you may have noticed an unusual flag flying.

Many in your community gathered to commemorate the French-Indian war at the site of the former Fort Loudoun. The military base built and overseen by then-Colonel George Washington.

The commemoration was capped off by the raising of the flag of England, lead by a representative of the British Embassy.

“This year’s Fort Loudoun Day is very special because we decided this year to raise a British flag over the fort,” Patrick Farris, the President of the French-Indian War Foundation, said. “The same type of British flag that was flown over the fort during the French-Indian War of the 1750s.”

The history of Fort Loudoun is preserved by the French-Indian War Foundation of Winchester.

Fort Loudoun Day is held every May in line with the opening of tourist season and the start of the original construction of the fort in the 1750s.