History has a funny way of scrubbing out the dirt. When you look at old maps of Winnipeg, Manitoba, you might see a little dot labeled "Fort Rouge" near the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. It looks peaceful on paper. It wasn't. The Assault on Fort Rouge—and the constant, grinding tension surrounding it—was a brutal introduction to the French colonial expansion in the Canadian West.
Honestly, most people drive over the bridge in downtown Winnipeg every day without realizing they are crossing over a site of intense geopolitical maneuvering. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, wasn't just some explorer out for a stroll. He was an ambitious, deeply indebted businessman trying to find a route to the "Western Sea." But in 1738, the land wasn't empty. It was a complex web of Cree, Assiniboine, and Dakota territories. The "assault" wasn't always a singular cinematic battle with cannons and walls crumbling; it was a series of tactical pressures, raids, and the eventual abandonment of a post that couldn't hold its ground against the sheer reality of the frontier.
Why Fort Rouge was a Disaster from Day One
La Vérendrye arrived at "The Forks" in late September 1738. He was tired. His men were exhausted. He sent his associate, M. de Louvière, to build a small post on the south side of the Assiniboine. This was Fort Rouge.
It was tiny. It was basically a few log huts and a palisade.
The problem? The location was terrible for defense. It sat on low ground. When the spring melt hit, it was a swamp. But the bigger issue was the neighbors. The Assiniboine people, who the fort was named after (Rouge referring to the reddish tint of the river or perhaps the paint used by the locals), weren't exactly thrilled to have a permanent French tax office on their hunting grounds. You've got to understand that the French were trying to divert the fur trade away from the English at Hudson Bay. They were essentially middle-men trying to hijack a multi-generational supply chain.
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Violence followed.
The 1730s: A Decade of Blood
To understand the Assault on Fort Rouge, you have to look at the massive failure of Fort St. Charles just a few years earlier. In 1736, the Dakota (Sioux) massacred twenty-one Frenchmen, including La Vérendrye’s own son, Jean Baptiste. This wasn't a random act. It was a message. The French had armed the Cree and Assiniboine—enemies of the Dakota. By the time Fort Rouge was being built in 1738, the French were already walking into a hornet's nest.
The "assaults" were often guerilla-style. Small groups of warriors would harass the woodcutters. They’d steal horses. They’d make it impossible to hunt for food.
La Vérendrye’s diaries—real ones, preserved in the Journals and Letters of La Vérendrye and His Sons—reveal a man who was constantly looking over his shoulder. He writes about the "fickle nature" of the local tribes, but he's really describing a group of people who realized the French were bringing nothing but trouble and disease. Smallpox followed the fur traders like a shadow. By the time the fort was "assaulted" and eventually abandoned around 1741, it was less a glorious military defeat and more of a slow, suffocating collapse.
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What Most People Get Wrong About the Fort
People think of "Forts" as these massive stone structures like you see in Europe. Fort Rouge was nothing like that. It was wood. It was rot. It was smoke.
- The Myth of the Siege: There wasn't a three-month siege with catapults. The "assault" was the environment and the constant threat of Dakota war parties.
- The Abandonment: The French didn't leave because they were bored. They left because they were starving and outnumbered.
- The Location Mystery: For years, historians argued over where the fort actually sat. Archaeology near the modern-day Bonnycastle Park has turned up some clues, but the shifting riverbanks of the Red River have likely swallowed the original site whole.
The French didn't just lose a fort; they lost their grip on the region for a generation. Every time a raiding party spooked the garrison, it cost the French investors money. And La Vérendrye was all about the money. He was essentially a private contractor for the French Crown, and his "Assault on Fort Rouge" was a line item in a failing ledger.
The Geopolitical Chess Match
The Cree and Assiniboine were smart. They played the French against the English. They would accept gifts from La Vérendrye at Fort Rouge and then trek north to York Factory to get better prices from the Hudson's Bay Company.
The Dakota saw this and realized the French were the source of their enemies' new iron weapons. So, they targeted the French. The pressure on Fort Rouge became unbearable. Imagine being one of the ten or twelve men stationed there. You're cold. You're eating rancid pemmican. Every time you go out to pee, you might get an arrow in the ribs.
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That’s the reality of the Assault on Fort Rouge. It was a psychological war of attrition. By 1749, the fort was described as being in ruins. It was a ghost of an imperial dream that didn't account for the people already living there.
Seeing the History Today
If you're heading to Winnipeg, you can't actually walk into Fort Rouge. It's gone. But you can stand at The Forks National Historic Site.
Stand where the two rivers meet. Look south toward the neighborhood now called "Fort Rouge." That’s where the struggle happened. The modern community took the name, but the blood and the wood-smoke are long gone. You can visit the Manitoba Museum to see the actual trade goods—beads, knives, kettles—that were the cause of all this friction.
Actionable Steps for History Enthusiasts
If you want to dive deeper into the gritty details of this conflict without the "textbook" fluff:
- Read the Primary Sources: Skip the blogs and go to the Journals of La Vérendrye. It’s dry in places, but the parts where he describes the fear in his camp are gripping.
- Visit the St. Boniface Museum: It’s just across the river from the fort site. They have the best collection of artifacts related to the French presence in the West.
- Check the Archaeological Reports: Look up the 1980s excavations at The Forks. They found hearths and trade items that pre-date the later, more famous Fort Garry.
- Analyze the Map: Use a topographical map of Winnipeg from the 1800s (available online via the University of Manitoba archives). Compare it to modern satellite imagery to see how the rivers have moved. It explains why the fort was so vulnerable to both water and war.
The story of the Assault on Fort Rouge is really a story about the limits of empire. It’s a reminder that a few logs and a flag don’t make you the owner of a land that has been defended for thousands of years.