RARE – French & Indian War Soldier’s Pocket knife, dug at Fort de Chartres, IL

This is another rare piece out of the collection, it is a French & Indian War soldier’s pocketknife. This is the typical pocket knife that most soldiers carried during the 18^th century. This excavated example is frozen in the open position and measures 9” x 1” and has a bone handle. It was 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. The knife is rusted, and the bone handle has some splits with small pieces missing, but it is just fine and displayable in the glass top display case it comes in. A Letter of Authenticity will be included.