Shabbona (1775–1859)

Shabbona wikipedia entry.

This man was an Ottawa tribe member who became a chief within the Potawatomi tribe in Illinois during the 19th century.

It's rare to see a photo of someone who fought alongside Tecumseh at the Thames and took part in the Red Bird Rising (1815) and the Black Hawk War (1832).

Shawnee 1796

Drawn by Joseph Wabin in the Illinois country. Blue shirt and breechclout, red face paint, white blanket with blue stripe, red leggings, red garters with blue zigzag, blue bead necklace.

Battle of Fort Harrison 1812

Today is the anniversary of the start this fight - fought between mostly Potawatomis and Americans in Indiana. The plot of this battle is like some western movie with a reduced, beleagured garrison being finally relieved by the timely arrival of reinforcements. Read about it here.

Encampment images

It's not very often you find a sutler's website that is actually educational but this site Najecki Reproductions is a mine of information about the American Revolution with features on British lace and much more. This page is very good with a whole array of images of encampments mostly from the AWI era.

Czech French and Indian War Reenactors

Here's something pretty exciting to watch - it makes me want to get on a plane and go join in...looks excellent. Interesting that their Compagnies franches use a dark blue - which is what I would go for nowadays...great piece of music in the background. Here is the maker's website - presumably it's the same reenactment group as this website - please correct me if I am wrong.

Compagnies franches de la Marine

Drawing by me. Back in the old days I used to do a lot of drawings of the F&I period - on the whole people were polite about them but I didn't care, I liked doing them. Nowadays I don't draw much but occasionally while digging around the boxes of photocopies and photographs that I have (remember the days before the internet and people used to send pages through the post?) I find one that I think is not that bad and this is one that I thought I'd share with you.

Fort St. Frédéric

Wiki here

A fort that was definitely not of the log and earth type was this one built at Crown Point/Point de Chevelure on Lake Champlain. Nowadays it is rather unimpressive (to a European like me) stone ruins but at the time of its height it must have been the most imposing structure in the region resembling a medieval castle as it overlooked its domain. Its cannons, that were on every level of the redoute, were capable of stopping all north-south traffic on the lake. The Anglo-Americans certainly wanted it gone and spent most of the Seven Years War mounting expeditions against it. Finally the small French garrison abandoned it, destroying it and surrounding buildings in the face of a forthcoming Anglo onslaught coincidentally 150 years to the day that de Champlain fought the Iroquois at Crown Point in 1609.

In its heyday it was the centre of a flourishing Canadian community as settlement was encouraged and in wartime it was the starting point of many expeditions and warparties against the British.

Built by Chaussegros de Lery (pictured)

G Furness' timeline history of French occupation

Commanders of the Fort