Fort Defiance was built by

General "Mad" Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...

in the second week of August 1794 at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers. It was the one of a line of defenses constructed by American forces in the campaign leading to the Northwest Indian War's

Battle of Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Native American tribes affiliated with the Northwestern Confederacy and their British allies, against the nascent United State ...

on August 20, 1794. Work began on August 9, 1794 and was completed by August 17. The name was derived from a declaration by Charles Scott, who was leading a band of Kentucky militiamen in support of Wayne, that: "I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it."Nelson, p. 246 The post was considered one of the strongest fortifications built in that period. Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne ordered the destruction of all Native American villages and their crops within a radius of the fort. Under terms of the

Treaty of Greenville The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peoples ...

, signed on August 3, 1795, the native nations ceded six square miles around the fort and allowed the Americans to maintain a trading post there, even though it was within the area of land defined by the "Greenville Treaty Line", beyond which Americans had agreed not to settle. The fort was abandoned in 1796. Fort Winchester was constructed on a nearby site in 1812 by Gen. William Henry Harrison. The city of

Defiance, Ohio Defiance is a city in and the county seat of Defiance County, Ohio, United States, about southwest of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo and northeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in Ohio's northwestern corner. The population was 16,494 at the 2010 United State ...

, was founded at the fort's location in 1822. In 1904, the site of the fort was chosen for the Defiance Public Library. Fort Defiance served as a reference point for defining the boundary line of land cession in the

Treaty of Detroit The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Mich ...

in 1807. This north–south line would be used again as the Michigan Meridian in the survey of lands in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Today, a park occupies the site of the fort, which was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1980.

References

* *Catalano, Joshua (2019). "Blue Jacket, Anthony Wayne, and the Psychological and Symbolic War for Ohio, 1790-1795". ''Ohio History''. 126 (1): 5-34.

External links

Ohio History CentralPhotos and visiting information
* {{National Register of Historic Places Defiance Northwest Indian War Defiance 1794 establishments in the Northwest Territory Protected areas of Defiance County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Defiance County, Ohio Pre-statehood history of Ohio Parks in Ohio Defiance Defiance, Ohio