Fort Laurens

On February 23, 1779, the British, under the command of Col. Henry Bird and agent Simon Girty, and allied Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo, Muncey, and Delaware warriors attacked a detail outside of Fort Laurens and began laying siege. During the month long siege, the fort’s garrison ran low on supplies and suffered from starvation.  However, Col. John Gibson deceived the British by sending out barrels of food from the fort.  Thinking the garrison was well supplied, the British ended their siege of Fort Laurens on March 24, 1779.

Fort Laurens was the only American military fort constructed in the now State of Ohio during the American Revolution. Originally it served as a testament of American reoccupation by force of an area initially established by the Bouquet expedition. The events at Fort Laurens serve as a microcosm of warfare and American-British-Native American relationships that were occurring west of the Allegheny Mountains during the Revolutionary War.