During the next few years British political emissaries and traders made ever-increasing trouble for the French; these machinations foreshadowed the destruction of French power in the Ohio Valley. The small French garrison, and French half-breed families living in the present Spy Run Avenue neighborhood, led a precarious existence. The local Indians, aided and abetted by the English, and well-fortified with whiskey (hitherto denied them by the French) now liberally dispensed by the British, increasingly harassed their former French allies.
In 1756, the Seven Years’ War, known in American history as the French and Indian War, broke out between France and England. One of the prizes at stake in the contest was the domination of the North American continent. After the fall of Quebec, concomitant with the defeat of General Montcalm by General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, French authority in North America passed to the English. Shortly thereafter, the garrison at Detroit surrendered to the English. In December, 1760, Lieutenant Butler, commanding a detachment of twenty English soldiers, received the surrender of Fort Miami. Thereafter, the Union Jack flew over the Maumee portage.
During the period beginning in 1760 and ending with the termination of the Revolutionary War, British policy seems to have emphasized commerce and conciliation with the local Indians. British military forces were never strong in the area, and now that the French were vanquished, the stockade no longer possessed military value. Fort Miami fell into decay.
A brief era of good feeling between the Indians and the British followed. Soon, however, there were stirrings among the red men. The great Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, a man of superior intelligence and great skill in statecraft, began inciting the Indians to expel the British from the entire western country. For a long time the conspiracy and war preparations continued in secret; not until 1763 were they revealed. Soon the Indians attacked and laid siege to all the British forts on the entire frontier; they captured Forts Sandusky, St. Joseph, Michilmackinac, Ouiatanon and Miami.
At least one romantic but tragic incident occurred in connection with the attack on Post Miami. Ensign Holmes, English Commandant at the isolated British fort on the St. Joseph River, was a young and very lonely man. Rumor has it that he shared few common interests with the men of his garrison. He sought feminine companionship and found favor in the eyes of an Indian maiden who reciprocated his affections.
Let Parkman tell the story:
“On the 27th day of May, a young Indian girl, who lived with the commandant, came to tell him that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the fort, and urged him to come to her relief. Having confidence in the girl, Holmes forgot his caution and followed her out of the fort. Pitched on the edge of a meadow (in present-day Lakeside), hidden from view by an intervening spur of woodland, stood a great number of Indian wigwams. When Holmes came in sight of them his treacherous conductress pointed out that in which the sick woman lay. He walked on without suspicion, but, as he drew near, two guns flashed from behind the hut and stretched him lifeless on the grass. The shots were heard at the fort and the sergeant rashly went out to learn the cause. He was immediately taken prisoner, amid exulting yells and whoopings. The soldiers in the fort climbed upon the palisades to look out, when Godefroy, a Canadian, and two other white men, made their appearance and summoned them to surrender, promising that if they did so their lives would be spared.”
BURNING OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI (SITE OF FORT WAYNE) 1747.
During the period of the Chief Nicolas conspiracy, in 1747, while the commandant, Ensign Douville, was absent at Detroit, the savages attacked the post situated on the St. Mary’s river in the present city of Fort Wayne and partially destroyed it with fire. The post was rebuilt, and later, in 1750 a new fort was established on the left bank of the St. Joseph river. The drawing is after an old woodcut.