Relics recalling a remarkable moment in Canadian history are being unearthed by a team of archeologists in, of all places, southern Georgia, where the discovery of a long-lost fort from the War of 1812 is shedding new light on a battle fought three weeks after the signing of a peace treaty that was supposed to end the conflict.

The bungled British assault on New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815 is widely — and inaccurately — remembered as the final clash of that war, and no less a chronicler of Canadian history than Pierre Berton has noted that “having won the last battle, the Americans were convinced that they won the War of 1812.”

But it wasn’t the last battle and — shall we indulge in a little Canada Day bluster? — they didn’t win the war.

Five days after the disastrous Battle of New Orleans, a British-Canadian force led by Capt. Robert Barrie overwhelmed an American fort at Point Peter on the southeast tip of Georgia, occupied the town of St. Marys and prepared for an inland invasion of the United States — until word finally came that the war was already over.

Now, nearly two centuries after Barrie‘s little-known victory, the remains of the fort he seized at Point Peter are being excavated — all thanks to a construction crew that broke ground for a housing project and struck archeological paydirt.

Historians had lost all sense of the fort’s precise location. And nearly all records of its design, arsenal and troop complements were destroyed during the burning of Washington in another of the war’s famous events, making the rediscovery of the physical fort a stunning prize for scholars.

“This is national history, this is world history,” said a giddy Scott Butler, project manager with the Atlanta-based heritage preservation company that’s carrying out the Point Peter dig. “What happened at New Orleans really overshadowed what happened here. For the Americans, New Orleans was a great victory and they didn’t want to dwell on what happened here.”

The heroic Barrie — whose name was given to the Ontario city — was born in British-controlled Florida in 1775 and died in Britain in 1841, but spent most of his adult life in Canada. As a young sailor he helped chart the British Columbia coastline, and as commander of HMS Dragon during the War of 1812 he notched brilliant victories all along the Atlantic coast, destroying or capturing scores of American ships.

He went on to become the senior naval officer in Canada from 1819 to 1834, playing a key role in Great Lakes navigation, canal-building projects and the defence of Canada against a possible postwar renewal of U.S. aggression.

But, back in January, 1815, it was Barrie who was on the attack and the Americans who were on the defensive.

Even though the Treaty of Ghent ending the war had been signed in Belgium on Dec. 24, 1814, it took weeks for the news to reach North America. Barrie was at the head of a three-ship convoy that captured Cumberland Island and then, on Jan. 13, the fort at Point Peter.

The victors went on to occupy the town of St. Marys — “an undefended prize,” notes Butler. His team has found hundreds of pieces of ornate china — apparently looted from the townsfolk and smashed by Barrie‘s men.

Other recovered artifacts include musket balls, military buttons and most of an 1803 rifle. The foundation walls of the fort — stripped of its cannons, burned to the ground and eventually buried by time — are being revealed after almost 200 years.

“It’s a great story,” says Butler, “a fort lost to history” — and now found.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005