Introduction

Introduction. Fort Laurens. , Fort Laurens was constructed in 1778 as part of an ill-fated campaign led by American Gen. Lachlan Mcintosh to neutralize the Indian threat and establish a western supply post for an attack on British Detroit. Twelve hundred men left Fort McIntosh (present Beaver, Pennsylvania) and reached the Tuscarawas River on November 18, 1778. Here, in 1764 in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, Col. Henry Bouquet had built a blockhouse. McIntosh gave the order to build here, although the neutral Delaware Indians warned him this location was too far north to protect their villages.

When the fort, named for Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, was nearly finished, McIntosh and the majority of the troops returned east. Under Col. John Gibson, 176 men and five women remained to face the winter. Due to the distance from supply lines, food and provisions were scarce. The troops resorted to eating herbs and even boiling ox-hides and moccasins for soup. After being besieged by British-led Indians for a month, they were finally relieved by reinforcements in March 1779. Gibson and his men departed, but the new troops fared no better. The fort was abandoned in August 1779. . This historical marker was erected by Ohio Historical Society. It is in Bolivar in Tuscarawas County Ohio