Show offous famous fo forts in II 11 U S history by ELMO SCOTT WATSON Q 1934 western newspaper union when dutch and swedes swede fought on U S soil when gustavus adolphus the groat great king of sweden saw the success ot of other european nations in planting colonies in the new world he resolved to establish a colony of swedes in america accordingly hei he formed a colonizing company for that purpose but hla his death prevented the plan from being carried out queen christina and adolphus famous minister however renewed the project and in 1638 they sent out ont a colony of plain strong industrious people who settled in what Is now the state of delaware and called it new sweden there they built a fort which stood near the present city of wilmington and they named it port fort christina in honor of their queen the joaw colony was soon in trouble this ground was claimed by the who had settled now new amsterdam a quarter of bf a century before and after several years of bitter dispute between the dutch and the swedes peter stuyvesant the choleric old governor of new amsterdam resolved to put an cud to the trouble by expelling the swedes from tile country in 1654 stuyvesant salted sailed from now new amsterdam with it a fleet to capture fort christina washington irving irvcng in hla his inimitable knickerbockers history of new york tells how governor stuyvesant Stuyvesan i called upon gov jan Ill singh to surrender how tho the proposal was scornfully rejected and how bow the doughty dutch warriors following their ancient rule of always fighting upon a full stomach ate a mighty almighty dinner in preparing for the fray thew then according to this historian 1 brimful of wrath and cabbage they moved forward to the attack just before reaching the rort fort thoy paused lighted their pipes gave a furious puff and charged gallantly under the cover of the smoke after on an homeric struggle in which governor stuyvesant van squished governor risings in single combat the fort was carried without the loss of a single man although we cannot accept irvings story unreservedly the assault on fort christina must have been something of an opera gouffe affair unique in the annuls annals of warfare but the triumph of the dutch was short lived for ini in 1604 the english took possession of all the dutch colonies in america land and the british flag supplanted the dutch ii banner over dver fort christina today no trace of the fort remains but nearby stands the little gray stone church built in the successor of the chapel in the afie rort fort where the swedish colonists worshiped as a reminder of the fort where once dutchman and swede fought in america |