Fort Frederick and Fort Mathew

Perched upon Richmond Hill overlooking St. George's harbour, there are two old forts, Fort Frederick and Fort Matthew, built about 250 metres apart. The image above is Fort Frederick. Richmond Hill was an important and strategic defense site and both the French and English deployed over 1000 soldiers there during their respective times of occupancy.

Fort Frederick

Fort Frederick is a bastion type fort built to withstand time and is mostly intact from those early colonial times. It was built at an elevation of about 730 feet above sea level and has a commanding view. It was the principle battery of the defensive network on Richmond Hill which included several fortifications. It has the heaviest fire-power having been mounted with four cannons capable of firing 32 pound cannon balls on the top level (the place of arms), along with many smaller cannons on the lower levels. Exploring Fort Frederick is interesting as it offers spectacular vistas of the island. It is a small fort, but there are tunnels and caverns to see, powder magazines, and a cistern.

Fort Mathew:

Fort Mathew is the largest fort built on the island while applying what was considered a new phase of military architecture. It was built over a period of years from 1784 to 1790 and had a dry protective moat, draw bridge, underground tunnels to move soldiers from one fortification to another, ammunition chambers and powder magazines, guard towers, and living quarters.

Years later in 1880, work was completed to convert the military barracks for use as a mental institution for all of the Caribbean Windward Island nations. Since then it was updated and refurbished many times and was still in use in the 20th century until it was bombed by USA. The bombings were done by USA during the 1983 invasion to end occupancy by communist forces – the people's revolutionary army – wherein the Soviet Union and Cuba supplied most of the weapons. Unfortunately it now lays in ruins with the jungle taking it's toll on the remains.

A bit of interesting history:

Before the arrival of Europeans, Grenada was inhabited by Arawaks and, subsequently, Island Caribs. Grenada was first "invaded" by the French who eventually obliterated the indigenous peoples who had lived here for centuries.

In the mid 1600's a French expedition founded a permanent settlement on Grenada but went to war with the local islanders which lasted until 1654. Trouble began when the French made a deal with the original inhabitants that turned sour. Grenada was ruled at that time by a Carib Chief, and the Frenchmen "bought" the island from him for a few knives and hatchets. For good measure, they also gave them a bucket or two of glass beads and, generously, threw in two bottles of brandy for the Chief himself. It was not long before the Chief realized that he had been short changed and / or misunderstood the arrangement. Seeking to recover the island, he instituted guerilla tactics against the French settlers, and any Frenchman found hunting in the hills was killed.

Outright war was then inevitable on the island. Poisoned arrows and clubs had no chance against French firearms and the outcome was predictable. The small remnant of the attackers was compelled to flee into the woods with the Frenchmen in hot pursuit aiming at total extermination. They chased the fleeing Caribs all the way to the northern tip of the island until they cornered them on a towering headland overlooking the sea. Only some 40 now remained but, for them, surrender was out of the question. Death was preferable to their fate at the hands of the French. So, as the Frenchmen closed in on them the Caribs flung themselves over the cliff and died in the swirling waters below. The site was later named Caribs' Leap and thus the town that grew there was named Sauteurs (pronounced Sau-tez), which is French for "jumpers".

Infuriated by the massacre by the French, Caribs from St Vincent and other islands made surprise raids on outlying areas of the island. They killed every white person they found and did as much damage as they could.

Then in a series of skirmishes, the Caribs were so severely mauled they were forced to abandon the raids to flee permanently to neighbouring islands, and, at last, there was peace in Grenada.

The French established a capital known as Fort Royal (later St. George). To shelter from hurricanes the French navy would often take refuge in the capital's natural harbour, as no nearby French islands had a natural harbour to compare with that of Fort Royal. Then the British captured Grenada during the Seven Years' War in 1762.

Grenada was at war and occupied several times by the French and English, and this a good example of how power shifted many times in this region in the 18th century. But Grenada would eventually become English. The first fortifications on Richmond Hill were not French, but British. The early fortifications were raised in 1778 as part of an island-wide effort to put Grenada in a defensive posture in case France's navy fleet threatened Britain's West Indian colonies. On May 15, 1778 a written request was made by Grenada's resident British engineer asking that certain measures "...be immediately executed for the better fortification” of British forts in Grenada including Fort George and the fortifications along the top of Richmond Hill.

The British and the French were engaged in the American Revolution in support of the struggle which would eventually win the Americans their independence. With England still engaged on the eastern seaboard of America, the French sent ships to arrive at Grenada in 1779. The fleet included 24 ships (a dozen frigates plus auxiliaries), with over 1,300 troops, and they arrived off the coast on July 2, 1779. The defending British forces consisted of 130 officers, two dozen Artillery recruits, 300 or 400 Grenada Militia and some 200 rag-tag volunteers, including sailors drafted from ships in the harbour.

Early on the morning of the 4th of July 1779, the French made a fake attack with 200 men on the western side of Richmond Hill, where the English expected them. At the same time, three columns of 260, 300 and 180 French troops, assaulted the northeastern side of the hill, trampled the palisade and easily overcame three consecutive trench lines of defense. The British forces found themselves hopelessly outnumbered and rushed down the side of the hill facing the sea, and ran for cover in Fort George below. The French concentrated their soldiers to occupy the fortifications on the hill overlooking Fort George, and on the morning of July 5, 1779, turned the recently abandoned and fully functioning British guns onto the fort below, with unsurprising results.

Grenada, and it's fortifications now under French control, and not wanting to be caught out in the same way, the French added new fortifications at the Fort Frederick site with its cannons facing inland, rather than out to sea, earning it the nickname "Backwards facing fort."

A few years later, the eighth article of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1783, ended the conflict of the American Revolution. As part of the signing, returned the island of Grenada and it's fortifications to the British. French troops were withdrawn or discharged in place. They were replaced by British troops, who of necessity, had left the newly minted United States. One of these British units arriving in Grenada was the Carolina Corps, created in 1779 from American and Caribbean-born free Black men who had remained loyal to the English Crown. 300 men (plus wives and children) landed in Grenada in 1783. They were still there in 1793 (official report) and their descendants remain. When the English returned they found that the new construction done by the French would have fallen apart had their own cannons been fired. A report by an English army engineer indicated that the structure should not be depended upon to withstand battle. It was shortly thereafter that Fort Mathew was started.

But the main reason to visit the fortified Richmond Hill site is for its magnificent views of the island. The early settlers certainly found a perfect place from which to keep an eye on developments in all directions. It overlooks the city of St. George's harbour, Fort George, the surrounding hills of the capital city, the mountains of central Grenada, and as far as the southwest point of the island, including the airport.

It is amazing to stand on top of the “place of arms” at Fort Frederick and look in all directions.