On March 27, 1756, the quiet snow-covered peace on the Oneida Carrying Place in what is now Rome, New York, was shattered with an attack on Fort Bull. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) had begun to invade the Mohawk Valley.
On the westerly side of the carry (now Rome) the small fort, garrisoned by 35 men of the British 51st Regiment of Foot, one of the two American Regiments raised in 1755, was over run and destroyed by a 346 man French-Canadian-Indian Force from Fort La Presentation (at modern day Ogdensburg, NY). The fort was destroyed in a violent explosion.
These events should have been a minor footnote in history. However, the French struck the fort at a key moment – the ordinance supplies for the British Army and Naval Forces at Oswego were in transit at this post.
The loss of these critical supplies changed the British war plan from offense to defense, and the raid lead directly to the loss of the Forts at Oswego in August of 1756 to forces under the Marquis de Montcalm.
That loss of Oswego and the evacuation of the Oneida Carry by then Colonel Daniel Webb (ca. 1700-1773) and the British Army, caused the Six Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy’s support for the British Cause to falter.
It took almost two years of intense diplomacy by Sir William Johnson to repair the British status with the Iroquois, which in turn lengthened the French and Indian War by two years.
The longer and more costly French and Indian War in turn lead to both the American Revolution and the French Revolution due in part to the crushing war debts of these wars.
For over 200 years the location of this lost fort has been debated. Using original maps, aerial photographs, Geographic Information Systems and careful reading of French and British Military Reports, Joseph Robertaccio will reveal how he rediscovered the location of Fort Bull, and what the remains of the fort looks like today at a presentation at the Fort Plain Museum & Historical Park, 389 Canal Street in Fort Plain, NY.
“A Massacre at Fort Bull Revisited,” will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2026 at 1 pm.
Illustrations, from above: A Fort Bull historical marker in Oneida County (provided); and a map showing Fort Bull’s relationship to other French and British posts in the early 1750s.
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