French & Indian War buttons from Fort de Chartres, Illinois

Being offered is a group of three French & Indian War buttons. They are the typical brass flat buttons which were worn by British, French, and Americans during the War, about 1” diameter. They were excavated many years ago at the site of Fort de Chartres in Illinois.  

Located four miles west of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, the site marks the location of the last of four successive French forts named “de Chartres.”  Built in 1753 by the French during their eighteenth-century colonization of the Illinois Country, the massive stone fort was preceded by three wooden forts, with the first fort erected in 1720. Fort de Chartres served as the French seat of government and its chief military installation in Upper Louisiana from 1753 until 1765 when it was occupied by the British. 

In 1763, France ceded much of its territory in North America, including what is now Illinois, to Great Britain. British troops occupied the fort from 1765 until 1772, when encroachment by the Mississippi River caused a collapse of the south wall. Subsequently, the remaining walls and buildings fell into ruin. Fort de Chartres states that it is the heart of French Colonial Illinois.

Relics from the Fort de Chartres area are rare and seldom become available to the general public. They are in nice condition and come in the glass top display case pictured.