we really hope that when visitors come to fort meigs, they take a minute to pause and think about whatappened here at the fort. we tend to forget about the war of 1812, but 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. >> you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org. this is american history tv. only on c-span3. >> on american history tv, you can watch lectures and college classrooms, tours of historic sites, archival films, and our series on the presidency and civil war. all of our programs weekend on 3 explore our nation's past american history tv on c-span 3 created by america's cable television companies and today we're brought to you by these television companies who provide american history tv to viewers as a public service. here 2018 was the centennial year of us participati

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, build a fort, especially the size, 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. this was never supposed to be a 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 top of that, there were 3500 men here. you've got disease, injuries, on top of everything else they are being exposed to the elements. 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

-- 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 a

. >> today we are here in fort meigs historic site in ohio. on the banks of the river.igs was constructed in the winter and early spring of 1813. the fort encloses 10 acres. even today, it is the largest wooden wall fort in america. the purpose of this fort and for its size specifically was that