At 12:32 PM 6/13/00 -0400, you wrote:

>
>Just a few notes about Fort Van Dyke:
>
>It was contemplated in 1777, ordered in 1778, not started until 1779,
>completed February 1779.  It's location is shown on the 1813 Randall Map of
>Oneida Castle, Surveyor General's Collection Map #131 and when I
>investigated the site in 1990 I found it to be overly intact indicating it
>had been entirely rebuilt at some recent point.  How accurate the
>reconstruction is I do not know.  What I saw was approximately 60 feet
>square and is pin-wheel shaped like Fort Williams which had been built at
>the Oneida Carry in 1758.
>
Dan and list:
You nailed the last point for me: in 1780 the remaining Oneidas relocated
to Fort Stanwix to be closer to the protection of the main defensive point.
It seems from Barr's entry that by that point the post was no longer manned
(hence retrieving the swivel guns) due to the Oneidas' relocation. Which
brings up two related questions:

When Fort Stanwix was evacuated in 1781, where did the Oneidas go next?

What was the rationale for making Fort Herkimer the forward post, as
opposed to Fort Van Dyke? Size? condition? Strategic position? All of the
above?

thanks,
Greg


Greg Ketcham
webmaster,
"Drums Along The Mohawk: the American Revolution on the New York Frontier"
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4171