The Cleo Redd Fisher Museum welcomes back historian Patrick Drouhard for their next speaker series event, “Fort Fizzle: The Holmes County Rebellion.”
No history of the Mohican area is complete without mention of the rebellion, known locally as “Fort Fizzle.” Over 400 Union soldiers with two cannons were ordered to the small village of Napoleon, now called Glenmont, to put down what was believed to be a rebellion against the federal draft laws during the Civil War. The incident even commanded the attention of President Lincoln and members of his cabinet, with Loudonville also playing a key role in the affair.
From almost the time of its occurrence in June 1863, a raging debate arose as to just what happened up on French Ridge, just south of the village. Fortifications, charges with fixed bayonets, breastworks, underground tunnels, arms shipments, cannons, stored foodstuffs, secret societies, draft resistance, and rebellion were the subjects of the many written accounts circulated over the years. At the center focus was a stone building on the property of a French-speaking Swiss immigrant named Laurent Blanchat (Blanchard). It lay about seven-tenths of a mile east of the intersection of Holmes County Roads 25 and 6, just off CR 6. While the stone building was Blanchat’s home, it became known as Fort Fizzle, where a purported 600-900 men had gathered to stop US authorities from drafting men for the Union Army during the Civil War.
Historian Patrick Drouhard, the foremost expert on the matter, will explain the details of the event using National Archival records and exhaustive research to dispel the many inaccurate accounts that have appeared over the years. Drouhard was born and raised near Loudonville before beginning a career in public education as a history teacher at Gnadenhutten and later as principal and superintendent at Cardington-Lincoln. He is the author of "It Don't Look Right for the Times: The Factual History of the Holmes County Rebellion," which will be available for sale following the program.
This program is slated for Monday, Feb. 12 and will be held in the lecture hall of the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum at 203 E. Main Street in Loudonville, Ohio. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30, with the event beginning at 7 p.m. For more information onthe museum and activities, please call 419 994-4050 or visit www.crfmuseum.com.