which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this is american history tv on c-span3 where each weekend, we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our nation's past. standing on the ground of fort meigs were up next, we learn about its history and its role in the war of 1812.

>> today we are here in fort meigs historic site in ohio. fort meigs was constructed in the winter and early spring of 1813. acres.est encloses 10 even today, it is the largest wooden wall fort in america. the purpose of this fort and for its size specifically was that detroit has fallen to the british and the entire army of the northwest had been surrendered. everything north of the river just over here is under british control. a new man named will -- a new man named general william henry harrison was put in charge and his idea was to build a large fortification right at the rapids of the river, so the most shallow crossing point, and his plan was to get as many troops and supplies together as possible. he was going to get back up to detroit, retake that for the united states and then invade canada.

the war of 1812 tends to be quite a bit forgotten in our american history. at the timeng on was the united states was a young nation and we had just gotten over the revolution. we were our own country, and we were really just trying to make a go of it. at this point in time, great britain was fighting with the french empire, and the united states decided it was going to make money off of that war. they were trading to both the french and british. as you can imagine, neither side was to happy the united states was supplying goods and supplies, so the british actually were pulling up alongside merchant ships in the atlantic and stealing cargo and impressing sailors. free-trade and sailors rights is one of the reasons the united states decided to declare war. another reason is the land right out here. this territory part of ohio was the native american

tribes here. the promise was they would be no settlers, no military action in this area. of course that did not happen. settlers were coming in, building their farms. as you can imagine, a lot of the american indian tribes in this area were not very happy about it. shawnee war chief to decided to band together with a bunch of different tribes and ally himself with british to help fight that encroachment into their territory. construction of fort meigs began in february of 1813. it's winter in northwest ohio at that time, so it was a really hard thing to do, but during the construction, there were over 3500 men here who just worked night and day to build this fort, and they got it finished, as you see it today, by the end of april of that same year.

the cold here at the fort was bad, as you can imagine, winter. to be a never supposed long-term fortification. they really put up the things that were going to be used for defense. the wall, the gates, the traverses you see here. it was a really rough place to be out in this territory, and there's all kinds of threat. you have some of the hostile native american tribes, and on were 3500 menhere here. you've got disease, injuries on top of everything else they are being exposed to. this is actually a different design than most of the forts of this time period. you tend to see the forts of this time period being geometrical in shape, but if you look at an overview of the fort, theeally follows the lay of

land. it is on a 40-foot bluff that overlooks the river and harrison wanted to use that as a defense mechanism. it was going to be extremely difficult for the british, should they decide to storm the fort, to get up that hill, and he wanted to use that as a defense mechanism. with the fort construction ending around the end of april, it ended specifically because the british showed up. the americans knew the british were going to be on the move as winter faded into spring, so they were ready for it. the british arrived just across the river near the end of april and started besieging the fort the beginning of may 1813. the beginning of the war did not go well for the united states. mackinaw had fallen. fort dearborn had fallen, detroit had fallen. everything north of the river was british territory. the whole idea was basically just to keep the fort standing and not let it be occupied. the british attacked the fort for nine days at the beginning .f may the majority was artillery bombardment.

that's why you see these earthworks inside of the fort here. where the river british were bombing the fort from is actually nine feet higher, so they could look into fort meigs and see everything that was going on. general harrison overnight had the men construct these earthworks. they were originally 15 feet wide and about 15 feet high as well. this was to protect them from any of the cannon fire coming in. the cannonballs would bounce and skip and roll and then hit these earthworks. from there, american soldiers could pick them back up and fire them back across the river. there were about 1200 men here at the time. most of them were ill. general harrison really needed reinforcements. he had about 1200 men coming up from the kentucky militia and new they were on their way. the evening of may 4, he had gotten word that these kentucky troops were actually just two miles downriver. torison sent a runner out

the colonel in charge of the militia and told him he needed to take 800 men across the river. they were to spike the british canon, simply make them inoperable, and then they were supposed to come back to the fort. that was very important. come straight back to the fort. the colonel takes 800 kentucky militia across the river and manages to take some of the british cannons, but the british run back to fort miami, which is their headquarters during the battle of fallen timbers. just located a few miles down the river. the british ran back there for reinforcements. as the kentuckians are hanging around after they have taken their cannons, some of the american indians that were allied with the british started firing at them, and all 800 kentuckians took off into the woods after them. the native americans got the kentucky soldiers are scared and confused, which was the plan, and then attacked. unfortunately, it was a complete

and utter massacre. out of the 800 men that went over there, 650 were killed or captured. the entire plan was for the british to just take the fort over. that's what they wanted to do. they wanted to move farther south into ohio, but they were not able to take fort meigs over . in september 1813, the battle of lake erie takes place. this was a big moment because the lake had been controlled by the british up to that point, and that was under american control, so after the americans gained control of lake erie, the british moved out of the area and there really was not a threat here anymore. because there was not such a huge threat, they decided to downgrade fort meigs to a one square acre fort, so they used this quarter here and just abandoned it.

the city of harrisburg was founded a year later. we know a family by the name of hayes had a farm on this land. they knew what the earthworks were and what fort meigs was, so they only graze cattle in this area. we like to say they were the first to preserve fort meigs because without them, this would not be here. in the 1970's, the ohio history connection was able to reconstruct fort to look as it would have in the spring and summer of 1813. we really hope that when visitors come to fort meigs, they take a minute to pause and think about what happened here at the fort. we tend to forget about the war i think it is important for us to remember that, you know, men fought and died for this war, american, british, native american, canadian, so we really want to honor and remember all of those people.

we want people to come away with a sense of reverence, a sense of respect for what took place here. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to toledo, ohio, to learn about its rich history. to watch more video from toledo and other stops on our tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. tv, is american history exploring our nation's past c-span3.kend on next, our weekly series, "the civil war." analyzing your leases as grant's lesser-known petersburg offensive -- ulysses s grant's lesser-known petersburg offensive. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, it's lecturer in history. we visit the pace university classroom of professor taylor

who talks about american cartoons in world war ii and the ways in which they supported and even influenced war effort. at 10:00 p.m. on our weekly america," we wind the clock back and feature several films from the 1940 four presidential campaign between franklin d roosevelt and thomas dewey. that's what's coming up here on american history tv. > i'll be the petersburg campaign certainly has quite a bit to discuss. c-span sake of our audience, who we deeply appreciate i want to run through keynote hlights of our speaker. wilson green is the former xecutive director of pamphlet historical park and the national museum of the civil war soldier located near petersburg ulysses virginia. he previously severed as the first president of the for the preservation of civil war