Oneida Carry - Early Development and The French and Indian War

Early Development and The French and Indian War

Interest in improving transportation across the Oneida Carry began as early as 1702 when native Americans petitioned Governor Cornbury to have improvements made to allow easier passage of boats. As at this time the Oneida Carry was nothing more than a path between the two bodies of water. Although important to trade it wasn't until the beginning of the French and Indian War that the Oneida Carry was finally improved with fortifications, supplies, and dams.

Following the failure of British campaign plans in 1755, a chain of forts along the Mohawk River and up to Lake Ontario were garrisoned during the winter of 1755–1756 to protect the route from a French Invasion and provide a staging area for the invasion of New France. The largest garrison was left at Fort Oswego, at the end of the chain, which depended on the others for its supplies. The two forts occupying either end of the Oneida Carry were a key element of this supply chain. Fort Williams, on the Mohawk, was the larger of the two, while Fort Bull, on Wood Creek, was little more than a palisade surrounding storehouses. In March 1756 this palisade, holding a large amount of supplies for Fort Oswego, would be the scene of the first battle, known to history, to take place on the Oneida Carry. The Battle of Fort Bull lasted only one day, but saw the entire fortification, and the supplies within, destroyed when its Powder Magazine exploded.

Starting in May 1756 the British refortified the Oneida Carry by adding Fort Craven, Fort Newport, and Fort Wood Creek. However, these forts would only remain until August 1756, when they were destroyed by the British themselves in anticipation of a massive attack by the French Army and Marines after the capture of Fort Oswego. Direct control of the Oneida Carry by the British would not be re-established until two years later with the construction of Fort Stanwix in August 1758.