exploring your nations -- explore our nations asked. today were brought to you by these elevation companies -- television companies who provide television as a public service. >> the c-span city tour travels the country exploring the american story. in 2011, we have been to more than 200 committees across the nation. like many americans, our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. a look at one of our tour visits. >> today we are here at fort -- at fort makes. fort makes was constructed in the winter and early spring of 1813.

the fort itself encloses 10 acres. the purpose of this fort was that detroit had fallen to the british and the entire army of the northwest had been surrendered. everything north of the mommy river -- mommy river -- everything north of the river -- his idea was to build a large fortification at the rapids of the river so that the -- at the rapids of the river. he was going to go back up to detroit and invaded canada. the war of 1812 tends to be quite a bit forgotten in our american history. what was going on at the time was that the united states is a young nation. we had just gotten over the revolution and we were really

only trying to make a go of it. at this time, great britain was fighting with napoleon and the french empire and the united states said they were going to make money off that war. they were trading to both of french and the british. the british were pulling up along merchant ships and stealing cargo. free trade and a sailor's one of the reasons america decided to declare war. this territory part of ohio was given to the north american tribes that lived here, and the promise was that there would be no settlers. there would be no military action. of course that did not happen. settlers were coming in building their farms. there were forts all the way through this area. as you can imagine, a lot of the

american indian tribes in this area were not very happy about it. the great shawnee world dashboard chief tecumseh decided to band together -- the great shawnee chief tecumseh decided to band together. construction of fort makes began in 8 -- construction of the fort began in 1814. it was a really hard thing to do with a fork especially of this size. during construction there were over 3500 men who worked night and day to build this fort. the cold at the fort was bad. they were all sleeping in tents. this was never supposed to be a long-term fortification. they just put up things that

were used for defense. it was a really rough place to be in this territory. there's all kind of threats. you've got some of the hostile nordic -- native american tribes. you've got disease injuries on top of everything else. this fort in particular is a different design than most of the forts of this time. -- if you look at an overview, it follows the lay of the land. the fort is on a 40 foot bluff and harrison really wanted to use that as a defense mechanism. he really wanted to use that as a defense method -- defense mechanism.

it ended specifically because the british showed up. the americans knew the british were going to be on the move and they were ready for it. the british arrived just across the river near the end of april and started seeding. the beginning of the war not go well -- started seiging. everything north of the river was british territory. the whole idea was to keep this fort standing and not let it be occupied. the british attacked for nine days. the majority of it was artillery bombardment. a bunch of cannonballs coming in. across the river is nine feet higher so they can look into the fort and see everything that was going on.

general harrison could -- they were originally 15 feet wide. this was to protect them from any cannon fire. the cannonballs would bounce and skip and roll and hit these. the american soldiers could pick them back up and fire them back across the river. there were about 1200 men at the time and most of them were ill. general harrison needed reinforcements. they had about 1200 men coming up from the kentucky militia. on the evening of may 4, he had gotten word that they were two miles downriver. harrison sent a runner out to colonel dudley who was in charge of the kentucky militia and told him he needed to take 800 men across the river. they were to spike british cannons and come back to the fort. in the morning of may 5, colonel

dudley takes a hundred men across the river. he manages to take some of the british cannons, but the british ran back to fort miami which was their headquarters located just a mile 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 started firing at them and the kentuckians all 800 of them took off into the woods after them. the native americans got the kentucky soldiers scared and confused and attacked. unfortunately, it was a complete and utter massacre. of the 800 men that went over there, six under 50 of them were killed or captured. -- 650 of them were killed or captured.

they were not able to take fort meigs over. the battle of lake takes place. this was a big moment because the lake had been controlled by the british up until then. after the americans gained control of lake erie, the british moved out of this area and there was not a threat anymore. because there was not such a huge threat, they decided to downgrade fort meigs 281 square acre fort. -- fort meigs to a one square acre fort. we know that a family by the name of hayes had a farm on this land. they knew what these earthworks were and what fort meigs was.

we like to say they were the first to preserve the forts because without them, this would not be here. was able to reconstruct the fort. we hope when visitors come, they take a minute to pause and think about what happened here. we tend to forget about the war of 1812. i think it's very important for us to remember that men fought and died for this work, both american, british, native american, canadian. we 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. >> you can watch this and other

programs on the history of committed his across the country at c-span.org. >> if you like american history tv, keep up with us during the week on facebook, twitter and youtube. learn about what happened this day in history and see preview clips of upcoming programs. follow us at c-span history. here 2018 was the centennial year of us participation in world war one and american history tv mark the anniversary with a variety of programs. on american artifacts we visited the us army heritage and education centers annual living history event in carlisle, pennsylvania to talk to re-enactors who portray french and german world war i soldiers