Searching for the Forgotten War - 1812 Canada

Copyright © 2011 by Patrick Richard Carstens and Timothy L. Sanford.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2011901395

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4535-8891-8

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4535-8890-1

ISBN: Ebook          978-1-4535-8892-5

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87931

Dedicated

to the

Only Nation that lost

in the War of 1812

The North American Indian

Sketch of Tecumseh

Pictorial Field Book of the War 1812

By

Benson Lossing

CONTENTS

The American Declaration of War

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1—The First Shots in Upper Canada

•    Chapter Introduction

•    St. Joseph Island, Ontario

-    Fort St. Joseph Marker

-    Fort St. Joseph Historic Site

-    Painting: American Progress (Manifest Destiny) by John Gast—1872

-    Fort St. Joseph Cemetery

-    Painting—The Sinclair Expedition—1814 original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Painting—Mackinac Island—1814 original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

•    Thessalon, Ontario

-    Capture of the Tigress and Scorpion Plaque

•    Sault Ste. Marie

-    First Canal Historic Marker

-    Restored Bateau, Locks

-    Northwest Company Post Historic Marker

•    Thunder Bay

-    William McGillivray Historic Marker

•    Killarney

-    The Founding of Killarney Historic Marker

Chapter 2—Invasion of Canada

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Windsor, (Sandwich) Ontario

-    Painting—The Capture of the Cuyahoga off Ft. Malden, July 1812, original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Painting of the Invasion of Sandwich original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Hull’s Landing Plaque

-    The American Proclamation to Canadians

-    Major General Isaac Brock’s Proclamation Rebuttal

-    The Detroit Campaign—War of 1812

-    Hull’s Headquarters Francois Baby House Plaque

-    Colonel James Baby House Marker

-    James Baby, Plaque

-    James Baby House today and a sketch of house in 1812

-    The Sandwich Windmill and Plaque

-    District Court House and Goal Plaque

-    The St. John’s Church Plaque

-    The Stone College Plaque

-    The William Drummer Powell Plaque

-    The Capture of Detroit Cairn

•    Anderson Township

-    Sketch—River Canard by Benson Lossing

-    Skirmishes at the Canard River

•    North of Amherstburg

-    The Wyandot Burial Ground Plaque,

•    Froomfield, south of Sarnia

-    International Boundary Marker #48

Chapter 3—Amherstburg and the War

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Amherstburg, Ontario

-    Fort Amherstburg (Fort Malden) Marker

-    History of Fort Malden

-    The Tecumseh Stone

-    Major John Richardson Plaque

-    Fort Malden

-    Kings Navy Yard and Provincial Marine History and Marker

-    Sketch—Amherst Navy Yard by Benson Lossing

-    History of Vessels built at the Amherst Navy Yard

-    Painting of the HMS Hunter off Fort Malden by Canadian Artist Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Painting of the HMS Charlotte original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Pro Patria Plaque, Amherstburg Navy Yard and the ships built there

-    History of the Kings Naval Yard

-    Painting—The Capture of the Cuyahoga off Ft. Malden, July 1812, original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Park House Museum

-    The Gordon House

-    Lieutenant Colonel William Caldwell Historic Plaque

-    Colonel Matthew Elliot, Historic Marker

-    Fort Covington Historic Plaque

-    Painting—British Fleet Leaving Amherstburg, original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    The Great Sauk Trail Marker

-    Painting—Amherstburg Navy Yard, September 1813 original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

Chapter 4—The Battle of the Thames

•    Chapter Introduction

-    Painting—Retreat along the Thames original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

•    Raleigh Township, Ontario

-    Skirmish at McCrae’s House Cairn

•    Chatham, Ontario

-    Skirmish at the Forks

-    Chatham Blockhouse Marker

-    War of 1812 Cannon

-    Chatham Kent Museum

•    Thamesville, Ontario

-    The Battle of the Thames Monument and Plaque

-    Tecumseh Marker

-    The Battle of the Thames River

-    Painting—The Great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh by Benson Lossing

-    Painting—Death of Tecumseh by Richard M. Johnston

-    Thames Grove Re enactment of the Battle of the Thames

-    The Fairfield Mission, near Thamesville

-    Fairfield on the Thames Plaque, near Thamesville

-    The History of Moraviantown

-    The Fairfield Mission Historic Plaque, near Thamesville

•    Longwood, Ontario

-    The Battle of Longwood Cairn

Chapter 5—Skirmishes—Southwestern, Ontario

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Ohswekan Six Nations Indian Reserve 40, Ontario

-    Ahyouwaeghs John Brant Historic Marker

-    Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant Plaque)

-    Six Nations Confederacy

-    Six Nations of the Grand River

-    The Iroquois Confederacy

-    The Six Nations Plaque

-    Grand River Community

•    Oakland, Ontario

-    The Site of the Battle of Malcolm’s Mills

-    Oakland Pioneer Cemetery, Ontario

-    The Battle of Malcolm’s Mills Marker

-    Malcolm’s Mills Cairn

•    Burford, Ontario

-    The Founding of Burford Plaque

•    Princeton, Ontario

-    Colonel Thomas Honor Plaque

•    Oxford Center, Ontario

-    The Old Stage Road Marker

•    Ingersoll, Ontario

-    The Founding of Ingersoll Marker

•    St. Thomas, Ontario

-    The Captain Daniel Rapelje Marker

•    Elora, Ontario

-    The Founder of Elora Plaque

Chapter 6—Skirmishes—North Shore of Lake Ontario

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Port Stanley, Ontario

-    Lieutenant Colonel John Bostwick Marker—Port Stanley Cairn

•    Port Burwell, Ontario

-    Lieutenant Colonel Mahlon Burwell Marker

•    Vienna, Ontario

-    The Edison Homestead Marker

•    Long Point, Ontario

-    The Long Point Settlement Marker

-    The Long Point Portage Marker

•    Port Rowan, Ontario

-    The John Backhouse Mill Marker

-    The Backhouse Grist Mill Marker

•    Turkey Point, Ontario

-    Fort Norfolk Marker

-    Turkey Point Cairn

•    Port Ryerse, Ontario

-    Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Ryerse Marker

-    Port Ryerse Marker

•    Port Dover, Ontario

-    The Founding of Port Dover

-    Campbell’s Raid Marker

-    War of 1812 Cairn

•    Nanticoke, Ontario

-    The Nanticoke Marker

•    Port Maitland, Ontario

-    The Grand River Naval Deport Marker

•    Simcoe, Ontario

-    The Founding of Simcoe

•    Indiana, Ontario

-    The Youngs, United Empire Loyalist Marker

Chapter 7—War Comes to the Hamilton Area

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Burlington, Ontario

-    Map Burlington Heights, Ontario

-    The Burlington Races 1813 Historical Plaque

-    Painting, The Burlington Races original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Hamilton Cemetery—Burlington Heights Fortifications

-    Dundurn Castle Historic Markers

-    Dundurn Castle Plaque

•    Hamilton, Ontario

-    The Sir Allen Napier MacNab Plaque

-    The Sir John Harvey Historic Plaque

•    Stoney Creek, Ontario

-    Battle of Stoney Creek

-    The Battle of Stoney Creek Marker

-    Battlefield Cemetery

-    Smith’s Knoll Battle Creek Monument

-    The Battle of Stoney Creek 1813 Historic Plaque

-    The Gage Homestead, Battlefield House Museum

-    History of the Battlefield Monument

-    The Battlefield Commemorative Tower

-    Stoney Creek Cemetery

•    The History of the Hamilton and Scourge

•    Confederation, Park, Ontario

-    War of 1812 Naval Memorial Garden

•    Ancaster, Ontario

-    High Treason Trials

-    The Bloody Assize—1814 Marker

-    The Bloody Assize Trial

-    The 1812 Barracks

-    The Old Stone Hotel

-    The Union Mill

-    The Ancaster Old Mill

•    Greenville, Ontario

-    Darnley Grist Mill Marker

-    Darnley Grist Mill

Chapter 8—Skirmishes—East of Niagara

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Grimsby, Ontario

-    Engagement at the Forty

-    The Battle of Forty Mile Creek

-    Colonel Robert Nelles Plaque

-    Nelles Manor—Grimsby, Ontario

-    Nelles-Fitch House

-    The Stone Shop

-    St. Andrew’s Cemetery

•    Balls Fall, Ontario

-    Balls Grist Mill

•    Jordan Station, Ontario

-    Runchey’s Tavern

•    DeCew Falls, Ontario

-    Morningstar Mills Museum

-    DeCew Historic Plaque

•    Cook’s Mills, Ontario

-    Battle of Cook’s Mill Cairn

•    Thorold, Ontario

-    Battlefield Park

-    Beaver Dam Cairn

-    Laura Secord Marker

•    St. Davids, Ontario

-    Burning of St. Davids Marker

•    St. Catherines, Ontario

-    Captain Bernard Frey Tombstone

-    Richard Pierpoint Marker

-    William Hamilton Merritt Statue and Plaque

-    Founding of St. Catherines, Ontario

Chapter 9—The Battle of Niagara-on-the-Lake

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

-    The Burning of Newark

-    Butlers Rangers

-    Butlers Burial Ground

-    Action at Butler’s Farm Plaque

-    St. Andrew’s Church Plaque

-    The Battle of Fort George Cairn

-    The Battle of Fort George

-    Fort Mississauga, National Historic Site

-    History of Fort Mississauga

-    Sketch of Fort Mississauga by Benson Lossing Circa 1860

-    Sketch of interior of Fort Mississauga by Benson Lossing

-    Fort Mississauga Plaque

-    Point Mississauga Lighthouse Plaque

-    The Niagara Library Plaque

-    The St. Marks Church Plaque and Graveyard

-    The Captain Copleston Radcliffe, R. N. Plaque

-    Butler’s Rangers Plaque

-    The John Graves Simcoe Statue

-    The Town of Niagara Plaque

-    The First Provincial Parliament 1792

-    The Court House Building

-    Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum

-    Fort George National Historic Site The Fort George Plaque inside the fort

-    Lincoln and Welland Regiment Museum and Butlers Barracks

-    Navy Island National Historic Site

-    John Grave Simcoe Plaque and Monument—Navy Island Historic Site

Chapter 10—Battles Niagara to Queenston

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Niagara Parkway

•    -The John McFarland House and Plaque

-    McFarland House

-    The Capture of Fort Niagara Plaque

-    The Field House and Plaque

-    The Browns Point Marker

-    Push on York Volunteers Marker

-    Vrooman’s Battery Marker

-    Sketch—View from Vrooman’s Battery by Benson Lossing

-    Soloman Vrooman Tombstone

•    Queens Park, Toronto Sketch of Laura Secord

•    Niagara Falls Museum

-    Map of Laura Secord’s Historic Walk

•    Queenston, Ontario

-    The Laura Secord House,

-    The Laura Ingersoll Secord Marker

-    The Alfred Plaque land Bronze Statuette

-    Brock’s Cenotaph

-    Sketch of Brock’s Monument by Benson Lossing

-    House Brock’s body was believed taken

-    Indians and the War of 1812

-    Indians at Queenston Heights Marker

-    Queenston Baptist Church

-    The Founding of Queenston

-    The Major John Richardson 1796–1852 Plaque

-    St. Saviour, Brock Memorial Church

Chapter 11—Battle of Queenston Heights

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Queenston Heights

-    Painting of the American Invasion of Queenston Heights original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Prelude to the Battle

-    Redan Battery

-    Painting—Death of General Brock by C. W. Jefferys, Governor of Ontario Art Collection

-    Painting—Push on York Volunteers by J. D. Kelly—Archives of Canada

-    Battle of Queenston Heights

-    Brocks Monument

-    Queenston Heights Park Plaque

-    Queenston Height Battlefield Tour

-    Station One—The Attack

-    Station Two—The Treacherous River Cliff

-    Station Three—The Capture of the Redan and the Death of Brock

-    Station Four—The Counter Offensive takes Shape

-    Station Five—The Decisive Battle

Chapter 12—Queenston Heights Battlefield Park

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Queenston Heights Battlefield Park

-    Sketch of Brocks Monument 1841 by Thomas Glegg, Archives of Ontario

-    Fund-raising poster to rebuild Brocks Monument

•    London England

-    Nelsons Column Trafalgar Square

•    Queenston Heights Battlefield Park

-    Brocks Monument

-    Brock Major General Sir Isaac, K. C. B.—Brock’s Cenotaph

-    Brock Monument

-    Dedication of Brock’s Monument Historic Plaque

-    MacDonnell Tomb Plaque (inside Cenotaph)

-    Brock’s tomb Plaque (inside Cenotaph)

-    Their Fame Liveth (inside Cenotaph)

•    Isle of Guernsey

-    Brock’s Memorial Plaque—St. Peters Port Church,

-    Exhibition Series Souvenir Sheet No. 3

•    Queenston Heights Battlefield Park

-    Major-General Roger Hale Sheaffe Plaque

-    Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe 1763–1851 Plaque

-    Battle of Queenston Heights

-    The Coloured Corps Marker

-    Laura Ingersoll Secord Monument

-    Fort Riall Site

-    Fort Drummond Site

-    Battle of Queenston Heights Ballad

-    Painting of Battle of Queenston Height by J. D. Kelly—Nation Archives of Canada

Chapter 13—Battle of Lundy’s Lane

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Niagara Falls, Ontario

-    Battle of Lundy’s Lane

-    Painting—Battle of Lundy’s Lane, United States Army Painting, NYS Military Museum

-    Post History of Lundy’s Lane after the War of 1812

-    Lundy’s Lane Memorial—25 July 1814 Plaque

•    Drummond Hill Cemetery

-    Drummond Hill Cemetery Monuments

-    Holding the High Ground Plaque

-    Laura Secord Monument

-    Unknown American Soldiers Grave Marker

-    Rebecca Biggar Gravestone

•    Niagara Fall

-    Lundy’s Lane Museum

-    Battle Ground Hotel Museum—Fralick’s Tavern

-    Drawing of one of the Observation Towers

-    The William Lundy House Plaque

-    Niagara Portage Road Marker

-    The Green Tiger of the Bloody Boys

-    The Stamford Presbyterian Cemetery Sign

-    Bridgewater Mills Marker

•    Goderich, Ontario

-    Dr. William Lundy

-    Tiger Dunlop Marker

-    Dunlop Tomb

Chapter 14—The Battle of Chippawa

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Chippawa, Ontario

-    John Burch Grist Mill Marker

-    Fort Schlosser Plaque

-    Sketch of Fort Schlosser by Benson Lossing

-    Fort Chippawa Plaque

-    Holly Trinity Anglican Church Memorial

-    British Forces who fought in the Battle of Chippawa

-    Captain John Rowe

-    Captain George Turney

-    Founding of Chippawa Plaque

-    Painting—Battle of Chippawa by Charles McBarron – U.S. Army Action Series

-    Battle of Chippawa Marker

-    Chippawa Battlefield Park

-    Chippawa Battlefield Cairn—Battlefield Park

•    Battlefield Park Walking Tour

-    Battle of Chippawa 5 July 1814

-    Background to the Battle June 1812 to July 1814

-    The American Camp 4 July 1814

-    Skirmish in the Morning 5 July 1814: 6 to 12:00 a.m.

-    The Fighting in the Woods (1) 5 July 1814: 2 to 3:00 p.m.

-    The Fighting in the Woods (2) 5 July 1814: 3 to 3:30 p.m.

-    The Red Coats Deploy 5 July 1814: 3:30 to 4:00 p.m.

-    Grey Jackets Advance 5 July 1814: 4:45 to 4:15 p.m.

-    The Red Coats Advance 5 July 1814: 4:15 to 4:45 pm

-    The Battle on the Plain (1) 5 July 1814: 4:45 to 5:30 p.m.

-    The Battle on the Plain (2) 5 July 1814: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

-    The Aftermath

•    Niagara Parkway

-    The Willoughby Museum

Chapter 15—Siege of Fort Erie

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Niagara Parkway

-    Skirmish at Frenchmen’s Creek Plaque

•    Fort Erie, Ontario

-    History of Fort Erie

-    Fort Erie at the start of the War of 1812

-    The Siege of Fort Erie

-    Pro Patria Monument

-    War of 1812 Memorial

-    The Capture of the Ohio and Somers Plaque (inside Fort Erie Main Gate)

-    Fort Erie Fortifications Plaque (inside Fort Erie Main Gate)

-    Description of Fort Erie

-    Cannon recovered from USS Detroit

-    Fort Erie Special Events

-    The Sinking of the HMS Detroit

-    Sake Hill Burial Site

•    Crystal Beach, Ontario

-    Capture of the Somers and Ohio Plaque

Chapter 16—The Battle of York

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Toronto, Ontario

-    History of York

-    Painting of Simcoe at Toronto 1793 original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Fort York

-    Painting of Muddy York 1812 original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    The Battle of York, April 26, 1813

-    Map of the invasion of Fort York by Benson Lossing

-    Sketch of Fort York by Benson Lossing

-    Sketch of the Don River Blockhouse by Benson Lossing

-    Capture of York, Memo by written by Captain Isaac Chauncey USN

-    Alexander Wood Statue

-    The Second Invasion of York

-    1812–14 War Historic Plaque

-    The Battle of York Commemorative Plaques (3)

-    The Battle of York 1813 Plaque

-    Walking Tour of Downtown Toronto

-    The Old Garrison Burying Ground, Victoria Park

-    The Royal Newfoundland Regiment Commemorative State

-    Garrison Creek Map

-    Colonel James Givins Plaque

-    The Second Invasion of York Plaque

-    Garrison Commons, Fort York

-    The Strachan Avenue Military Grounds

•    CNE Grounds, Toronto

-    Fort Rouille Monument

-    Fort Rouille Plaque and Map

-    Scadding Cabin

-    Pro Patria—Defense of York Plaque

-    War of 1812 Monument (east of Princes Gates)

•    Toronto Islands, Toronto

-    Gibraltar Point Marker

-    Gibraltar Point Lighthouse and Plaque

-    The Mystery of Gibraltar Point Lighthouse

•    Toronto, (York) Ontario

-    Portrait—Sir Gordon Drummond and Plaque, Legislative Building, Queens Park

-    Fort York Plaque, Legislative Building, Queens Park

-    Ontario’s First Parliament Buildings Plaque

-    The Village of York and the War of 1812

-    St. James Cathedral

-    The HMS St. Lawrence Medallion Monument

-    Major General the Hon. Aeneas Shaw Plaque

-    Samuel Peter Jarvis Mausoleum, St James Cemetery

•    Richmond Hill, Ontario

-    Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moodie Marker

•    Village of Brougham

-    Peter Matthews Plaque

•    Whitby, Ontario

-    Jabez Lynde House and Plaque

•    Oakville, Ontario

-    Colonel William Chisholm Plaque

-    Jean-Baptiste Rousseau Plaque

Chapter 17—Trail to Georgian Bay

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Map of The Supply Route to Georgian Bay by Patrick Carstens

•    Oak Ridges, Ontario

-    Yonge Street Cairn

•    Holland Landing, Ontario

-    Holland Landing Supply Depot

-    Anchor Park

•    Barrie, Ontario

-    Nile Mile Portage Plaque

•    West of Barrie, Ontario

-    Fort Willow Creek

-    Fort Willow Creek Plaque

-    History of Fort Willow Creek

•    Edenvale, Ontario

-    Glengarry Landing Cairn—

-    History of the Glengarry Light Infantry

•    Wasaga Beach, Ontario

-    Schooner Town Plaque

-    Nancy’s Island

-    Wall Painting—American Warships hunting the HMS Nancy by Isobel McCreight, 1978

-    Thessalon, Ontario

-    Capture of the Tigress and Scorpion

-    HMS Nancy Cairn—Nancy’s Island

-    War of 1812 Grave Marker—Nancy’s Island

-    Special Events—the Reenactment of the War of 1812

•    Penetanguishene, Ontario

-    Penetanguishene Plaque

-    Penetanguishene Naval Depot

-    Paintings (3) of the HMS Tecumseth original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    HMS Tecumseth—Penetanguishene Naval Depot

-    HMS Newash—Penetanguishene Naval Depot

-    HMS Bee—Penetanguishene Naval Depot

-    Painting—HMS Bee Penetanguishene Harbour original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Henry Wolsey Bayfield Plaque—Penetanguishene Naval Depot

-    Penetanguishene Military Establishment

•    Couchiching Park, Orillia, Ontario

-    Chief William Yellowhead Plaque

•    Near Barrie, Ontario

-    Black Settlement in Oro Township

-    The African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oro

Chapter 18—Skirmishes—North Shore of Lake Ontario

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Port Hope, Ontario

-    The Bluestone House and Plaque

•    Greater Napanee, Ontario

-    Trumpour Cemetery

-    The Loyalist Landing Place 1784 Plaque

-    Escape of the Royal George

-    Painting of the Flight of the Royal George original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Painting of the Royal George and the Battle off Kingston original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Hazelton Spencer 1757–1813 Plaque

•    Bath, Ontario

-    Re-enactment of the War of 1812

-    Bath Academy—Bath

-    The Hawley House and Plaque

•    City of Kingston, Ontario

-    Naval Engagement of 1812 Plaque

-    Murney Martello Towers

-    Kingston Fortifications Marker

-    Painting of Kingston Harbour in Winter original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    Painting of the HMS Lawrence original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

-    The Charles Bagot Plaque

•    Royal Military College, Kingston

-    Pro Patria 1812–1814 Marker

-    Point Frederick Building Plaque

-    Sir James Lucas Yeo Plaque

-    The Rush-Bagot Agreement Marker

-    Kingston Navy Yard Plaque

-    The Stone Frigate Plaque

-    Point Frederick Plaque

•    Fort Henry—Kingston

-    Fort Henry Plaque, Kingston

-    First Fort Henry Plaque

•    Carrying Place, Ontario

-    Site of the original Fort Kente

•    South Bay, Ontario

-    Relocation of Fort Kente

Chapter 19—Battle North Shore St. Lawrence River

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Gananoque, Ontario

-    Gananoque Plaque

-    Raid of Gananoque Plaque

-    Colonel Joel Stone Plaque

-    Pirate Johnston Plaque

•    Mallorytown Landing

-    National Historic Site—St. Lawrence Islands National Park

•    West of Brockville, Ontario

-    Chimney Island Marker, Highway 2

•    Brockville, Ontario

-    General Brock’s Bust and Monument

-    War on the Lower Great Lakes

-    Forsyth’s Raid 1813 Plaque

•    Prescott, Ontario

-    Fort Wellington—National Historic Site

-    Fort Wellington Plaque

-    Sketch Fort Wellington by Benson Lossing

-    Capture of Ogdensburg—1813 Plaque

-    Prescott Barracks and Hospital Building

-    The Battle of the Windmill—National Historic Site

-    Painting Battle of the Windmill original painting by Peter Rindlisbacher

•    Near Johnstown, Ontario

-    Naval Encounter

•    Near Ogdensburg Bridge

-    Fort de Levis Cairn

•    Crysler Farm Battlefield Park, East of Morrisburg, Ontario

-    Battle of Crysler’s Farm Monument

-    Site of Crysler’s Farm

-    Sketch of Crysler’s Farm—1860s by Benson Lossing

-    Battle of Crysler’s Farm

-    Battle of Crysler’s Farm Historical Plaque

-    Battle of Crysler’s Farm—Pro Patria

•    West of Cornwall, Ontario

-    Lost Villages of the St. Lawrence Marker

•    Crysler, Ontario

-    John Crysler Gave Site—Anglican Cemetery

•    St. Andrews, Ontario

-    St. Andrews Church Plaque

•    West of Cornwall

-    Skirmish at Hooples Creek

•    St. Lawrence River

-    Heriot Island

-    Vankoughnet Island

-    Macdonell Island

•    Cornwall, Ontario

-    Rev John Strachan Plaque

-    The Glengarry Fencibles Plaque

•    Lancaster, Ontario

-    Glengarry Light Infantry

•    Village of St. Raphael

-    Alexander Macdonnell Plaque

•    Williamstown, Ontario

-    Fraserfield Plaque

•    Between Ottawa and Montreal

-    The Seigneury of L’Orignal Plaque

•    Ottawa, Ontario

-    The Valiants Memorial

Chapter 20—Invasion of Quebec (Lower Canada)

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Ill Ste Hellene Quebec

-    War of 1812 Defenses

•    Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec

-    Coteau-du-Lac Blockhouse—National Historic Site

•    Valleyfield, Quebec

-    Statue of Charles-Michel d’Salaberry

•    Ormstown, Quebec

-    The Battle of Chateauguay—National Historic Site

•    Chambly, Quebec

-    De Salaberry Monument

-    De Salaberry Manor House

-    Fort Chambly—National Historic Site

-    1814 Barracks

•    South of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec

-    Fort Lennox (Ile-aux-noix)

•    Lacolle Mills, Quebec

-    Sketch of Lacolle Mills by Benson Lossing

-    The Battle of Lacolle Mills

-    Map—The Affair at Lacolle Mills by Benson Lossing

-    The Second Battle of Lacolle Mills

-    The Skirmish at Odelltown

Chapter 21—Maritime Canada and the War of 1812

•    Chapter Introduction

•    Nova Scotia, Halifax—War of 1812

-    Deadman’s Island Park

-    St Pauls Cemetery

-    Major General Robert Ross Grave Site

-    Sketch of the monument marking the spot Ross was killed by Benson Lossing

-    Death of General Robert Ross

-    Prince of Wales Martello Tower

-    York Redoubt

-    Shannon—Chesapeake Marker

-    HMS Shannon—USS Chesapeake Naval Battle

-    Sketch of the naval battle between the HMS Shannon and the USS Chesapeake by B. Lossing

-    Sketch of the HMS Shannon towing the USS Chesapeake in Halifax Harbor by B. Lossing

-    Long Gun HMS Shannon

-    Naval Hospital

•    Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

-    Blowing up the Teazer

•    Liverpool, NS

-    Liverpool Packet

-    Fort Liverpool

•    Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

-    Fort Anne National Historic Site

•    Windsor, NS

-    Fort Edward National Historic Site

•    Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

-    Fort Franklin

•    Guysborough, Nova Scotia

-    Guysborough Blockhouse

•    Chester, Nova Scotia

-    Chester Blockhouse

•    Luneburg, Nova Scotia

-    Luneburg Blockhouse

•    Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

-    Yarmouth Blockhouse,

•    Digby, Nova Scotia

-    Digby Blockhouse

•    Parrsboro, Nova Scotia

-    Parrsboro Blockhouse

•    New Brunswick—War of 1812

•    Introduction

•    Saint John, New Brunswick

-    Carlton Martello Tower

•    Fredericton, New Brunswick

-    104th New Brunswick Regiment

•    St. Andrews, New Bruncwick

-    Fort Tipperary

-    Joe’s Point Blockhouse

-    St. Andrews Blockhouse

-    Nineteenth Century 24 Pounder Cannons

•    Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick

-    British Outpost of the War of 1812

-    Wreck of HMS Plumper

•    Piskahegan, New Brunswick

-    Blockhouse

•    St. George, New Brunswick

-    Fort Vernon

•    Saint John, New Bruncswick

-    Fort Frederick

-    Lower Cove Batteries

-    Partridge Island

-    Fort Howe Blockhouse and Cairn

-    Drummond Blockhouse

-    Black Refugees from the War of 1812

•    Grand Falls, New Brunswick

-    Site of Fort Carlton

•    Village of Harvey, New Brunswick

-    Sir John Harvey Plaque

•    Newfoundland—War of 1812

-    Introduction

-    Sketch of a Yankee Privateer by Benson Lossing

-    Ferryland—Stakes Point Pass Battery

-    Fogo Island—Fogo Battery

-    Trinity Harbor—Fort Point

-    POW Camps in Newfoundland

Chapter 57—The Final Chapter

•    Chapter Introduction

Acknowledgments

Appendix A—Chronology of the History of the War of 1812

Appendix B—Biographies of some of the key players in the War of 1812

Appendix C—Treaties that had an impact on the War of 1812

Appendix D—Nineteenth-Century Military Terminology

Appendix E—Bibliography

The War of 1812 War Message of President James Madison June 1, 1812

After having explored numerous means of peaceful resolution, President Madison resorted to a recommendation of a declaration of war against Great Britain.

THE UNITED STATES DECELERATION OF WAR AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN WASHINGTON, June 1, 1812

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress certain documents, being a continuation of those heretofore laid before them on the subject of our affairs with Great Britain.

Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in which Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior magnitude, the conduct of her Government presents a series of acts hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation.

British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction is thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can operate but the law of nations and the laws of the country to which the vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if British subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of force for a resort to the responsible sovereign which fails within the definition of war. Should the seizure of British subjects in such cases be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured property to be adjudged without a regular investigation before a competent tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial where the sacred rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these rights are subjected to the will of every petty commander.

The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag, have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren.

Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so prompt to avenge if committed against herself, the United States have in vain exhausted remonstrances and expostulations, and that no proof might be wanting of their conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a continuance of the practice, the British Government was formally assured of the readiness of the United States to enter into arrangements such as could not be rejected if the recovery of British subjects were the real and the sole object. The communication passed without effect.

British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near her coasts and disturbing her commerce are well known. When called on, nevertheless, by the United States to punish the greater offenses committed by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed on their commanders additional marks of honor and confidence.

Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force and sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these predatory measures they have been considered as in force from the dates of their notification, a retrospective effect being thus added, as has been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course pursued, and to render the outrage the more signal these mock blockades have been reiterated and enforced in the face of official communications from the British Government declaring as the true definition of a legal blockade that particular ports must be actually invested and previous warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter.

Not content with these occasional expedients for laying waste our neutral trade, the cabinet of Britain resorted at length to the sweeping system of blockades, under the name of orders in council, which has been molded and managed as might best suit its political views, its commercial jealousies, or the avidity of British cruisers.

To our remonstrances against the complicated and transcendent injustice of this innovation the first reply was that the orders were reluctantly adopted by Great Britain as a necessary retaliation on decrees of her enemy proclaiming a general blockade of the British Isles at a time when the naval force of that enemy dared not issue from his own ports. She was reminded without effect that her own prior blockades, unsupported by an adequate naval force actually applied and continued, were a bar to this plea; that executed edicts against millions of our property could not be retaliation on edicts confessedly impossible to be executed; that retaliation, to be just, should fall on the party setting the guilty example, not on an innocent party which was not even chargeable with an acquiescence in it.

When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition of our trade with her enemy by the repeal of his prohibition of our trade with Great Britain, her cabinet, instead of a corresponding repeal or a practical discontinuance of its orders, formally avowed a determination to persist in them against the United States until the markets of her enemy should be laid open to British products, thus asserting an obligation on a neutral power to require one belligerent to encourage by its internal regulations the trade of another belligerent, contradicting her own practice toward all nations, in peace as well as in war, and betraying the insincerity of those professions which inculcated a belief that, having resorted to her orders with regret, she was anxious to find an occasion for putting an end to them.

Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral rights of the United States and for its own consistency; the British Government now demands as prerequisites to a repeal of its orders as they relate to the United States that a formality should be observed in the repeal of the French decrees nowise necessary to their termination nor exemplified by British usage, and that the French repeal, besides including that portion of the decrees which operates within a territorial jurisdiction, as well as that which operates on the high seas, against the commerce of the United States should not be a single and special repeal in relation to the United States, but should be extended to whatever other neutral nations unconnected with them may be affected by those decrees. And as an additional insult, they are called on for a formal disavowal of conditions and pretensions advanced by the French Government for which the United States are so far from having made themselves responsible that, in official; explanations which have been published to the world, and in a correspondence of the American minister at London with the British minister for foreign affairs such a responsibility was explicitly and emphatically disclaimed.

It has become, indeed, sufficiently certain that the commerce of the United States is to be sacrificed, not as interfering with the belligerent rights of Great Britain; not as supplying the wants of her enemies, which she herself supplies; but as interfering with the monopoly which she covets for her own commerce and navigation. She carries on a war against the lawful commerce of a friend that she may the better carry on a commerce with an enemy—a commerce polluted by the forgeries and perjuries which are for the most part the only passports by which it can succeed.

Anxious to make every experiment short of the last resort of injured nations, the United States have withheld from Great Britain, under successive modifications, the benefits of a free intercourse with their market, the loss of which could not but outweigh the profits accruing from her restrictions of our commerce with other nations. And to entitle these experiments to the more favorable consideration they were so framed as to enable her to place her adversary under the exclusive operation of them. To these appeals her Government has been equally inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices of every sort rather than yield to the claims of justice or renounce the errors of a false pride. Nay, so far were the attempts carried to overcome the attachment of the British cabinet to its unjust edicts that it received every encouragement within the competency of the executive branch of our Government to expect that a repeat of them would be followed by a war between the United States and France, unless the French edicts should also be repealed. Even this communication, although silencing forever the plea of a disposition in the United States to acquiesce in those edicts originally the sole plea for them, received no attention.

If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the British Government against a repeal of its orders, it might be found in the correspondence of the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London and the British secretary for foreign affairs in 1810, on the question whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as in force or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the French Government, which urged this blockade as the ground of its Berlin decree, was willing in the event of its removal to repeal that decree, which, being followed by alternate repeals of the other offensive edicts, might abolish the whole system on both sides. This inviting opportunity for accomplishing an object so important to the United States, and professed so often to be the desire of both the belligerents, was made known to the British Government. As that Government admits that an actual application of an adequate force is necessary to the existence of a legal blockade, and it was notorious that if such a force had ever been applied its long discontinuance had annulled the blockade in question, there could be no sufficient objection on the part of Great Britain to a formal revocation of it, and no imaginable objection to a declaration of the fact that the blockade did not exist. The declaration would have been consistent with her avowed principles of blockade, and would have enabled the United States to demand from France the pledged repeal of her decrees, either with success, in which case the way would have been opened for a general repeal of the belligerent edicts, or without success, in which case the United States would have been justified in turning their measures exclusively against France. The British Government would, however, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its nonexistence, nor permit its nonexistence to be inferred and affirmed by the American plenipotentiary. On the contrary; by representing the blockade to be comprehended in the orders in council, the United States were compelled so to regard it in their subsequent proceedings.

There was a period when a favorable change in the policy of the British cabinet was justly considered as established. The minister plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty here proposed an adjustment of the differences more immediately endangering the harmony of the two countries. The proposition was accepted with the promptitude and cordiality corresponding with the invariable professions of this Government. A foundation appeared to be laid for a sincere and lasting reconciliation. The prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole proceeding was disavowed by the British Government without any explanations which could at that time repress the belief that the disavowal proceeded from a spirit of hostility to the commercial rights and prosperity of the United States; and it has since come into proof that at the very moment when the public minister was holding the language of friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of the negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of his Government was employed in intrigues having for their object a subversion of our Government and a dismemberment of our happy union.

In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers—a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the activity and combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrison without connecting their hostility with that influence and without recollecting the authenticated examples of such interpositions heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that Government. Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which have been heaped on our country, and such the crisis which its unexampled forbearance and conciliatory efforts have not been able to avert. It might at least have been expected that an enlightened nation, if less urged by moral obligations or invited by friendly dispositions on the part of the United States, would have found in its true interest alone a sufficient motive to respect their rights and their tranquility on the high seas; that an enlarged policy would have favored that free and general circulation of commerce in which the British nation is at all times interested, and which in times of war is the best alleviation of its calamities to herself as well as to other belligerents; and more especially that the British cabinet would not, for the sake of a precarious and surreptitious intercourse with hostile markets, have persevered in a course of measures which necessarily put at hazard the invaluable market of a great and growing country, disposed to cultivate the mutual advantages of an active commerce.

Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation and conciliation have had no other effect than to encourage perseverance and to enlarge pretensions. We behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless violence, committed on the great common and highway of nations, even within sight of the country which owes them protection. We behold our vessels, freighted with the products of our soil and industry; or returning with the honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful destinations, confiscated by prize courts no longer the organs of public law but the instruments of arbitrary edicts, and their unfortunate crews dispersed and lost, or forced or inveigled in British ports into British fleets, whilst arguments are employed in support of these aggressions which have no foundation but in a principle equally supporting a claim to regulate our external commerce in all cases whatsoever.

We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war against, the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace toward Great Britain.

Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force in defense of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events, avoiding all connections which might entangle it in the contest or views of other powers, and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable reestablishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the Government. In recommending it to their early deliberations I am happy in the assurance that the decision will be worthy the enlightened and patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.

Having presented this view of the relations of the United States with Great Britain and of the solemn alternative growing out of them, I proceed to remark that the communications last made to Congress on the subject of our relations with France will have shown that since the revocation of her decrees, as they violated the neutral rights of the United States, her Government has authorized illegal captures by its privateers and public ships, and that other outrages have been practiced on our vessels and our citizens. It will have been seen also that no indemnity had been provided or satisfactorily pledged for the extensive spoliations committed under the violent and retrospective orders of the French Government against the property of our citizens seized within the jurisdiction of France. I abstain at this time from recommending to the consideration of Congress definitive measures with respect to that nation, in the expectation that the result of unclosed discussions between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris and the French Government will speedily enable Congress to decide with greater advantage on the course due to the rights, the interests, and the honor of our country.

JAMES MADISON.

FOREWORD

This book is designed for those interested in the War of 1812 and those who wish to learn more about the people, places, and the battles fought between North American neighbours in the early nineteenth century. The book focuses on the conflicts that took place on the ground and on the waters of the Great Lakes, east to Lake Champlain, and on the high seas. This war was not limited to geographic areas outlined, and significant battles took place in the Atlantic, off the American east coasts of Baltimore and New Orleans. Those wishing an in-depth history of the conflict should refer to the many good books available at your public library.

The War of 1812 was a battle for territory and recognition by an emerging nation that gained its independence through an armed conflict with Great Britain (1776-1783). It is sometimes referred to as America’s Second Revolution or the final chapter of the First Revolution of 1776. However, it has become North America’s forgotten war, usurped by other events over the intervening centuries.

The goal of this book is to provide the reader with information about the war, the location of battlefields, historic plaques and markers that can be visited to relive the history of Canada and the United States. Most of the sites, historic markers, cairns, cemeteries, churches, and forts made reference to have been visited and detailed direction is given to find the place and what can be seen in the area.

The length of any entry is not necessarily a measure of the magnitude of a conflict or the importance of a person. Some lesser battles, skirmishes, or minor personalities are given at length while, in some cases, important events lack content, and more detailed information was not available.

The appendices include explanations or definition of the military the terminology used during the nineteenth century, biographies, of most of the key military players, and the location of all the battles fought in North America, as well as Indian Wars and important naval battles on the Great Lakes and off the coast of the United States. Footnote: Additional information on individuals who participated in the War of 1812 is available in appendix B.

Time and effort has been spent in finding the exact location of each battle, historic plaque, and marker. The ravages of time have taken its toll. Engagements that took place near villages and towns have since changed their names or have been incorporated, or no longer exist. Physical features have suffered and are barely recognizable in the twenty-first century, compounding the problem. We have attempted to include present-day names, in brackets; and spelling in a few cases, have changed over the century.

The readers should be aware, military numbers concerning those killed and wounded in a battle should be regard as questionable, and are often rounded up. This includes the number of troops, guns, and even in a few cases the actual date of the skirmish or battle. In many cases several sets of statistics are available for the same battle. Casualty figures in particular require the reader to keep vigilant. The victors, minimise there’s, and exaggerate the losers.

We have attempted to provide accurate directions on how to find items of historical interest. However, we have found errors in other reference books consult, and cannot image that this one is without mistakes, but every attempt to minimise errors has been taken and doubled checked.

Time has taken its toll on the battlefields of the War of 1812. Developers and archaeologists will always be at odds. Those wishing to preserve the past, and those interested in, economic development at the expense of history.

INTRODUCTION WAR OF 1812

A battle may start with a single shot, but a war seldom does. War is something that simmers for years before boiling over into an armed conflict. War by definition is a state of life in which an armed and organized political, religious, or an ethnic entity directs great violence of some duration and importance against similar entities, particularly nation against nation. The object of war is to impose the will of one such entity upon another, and it is begun by a leader who believes his side would be victorious. No one starts a war, or rather, no one in his right mind ought to do so without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it. The United States was convinced that they would win the war known today as the War of 1812. They knew that naval battles would take place on the high seas, with little consequences in the final outcome. This war would be ground war in British North America, with the majority of the battles fought in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec), giving the Americans a distinct advantage. This war would be fought in their backyard, far from British forces fighting in Europe.

The character or nature of any given war is determined by the available technology, (engineers and scientists) and experiences of past wars, the political milieu, the human and material resources available. The national wills, the terrain over which it is fought, and the education and character of the troops, particularly the officers’ corps. But in simple language, war, in its simplest definition, can be broken down to one word—greed. Attempting to take something from someone else by armed aggression, and the other side resisting, all these factors came into play in this war. The United States believed that they met these criteria and were ready, or so they thought!

The geneses of the War of 1812, sometimes called the Patriot’s War, was the result of another war, the American Revolution (1776-1783), an armed conflict among the thirteen British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North American and their parent country, Great Britain. French intervention on the side of the colonies resulted in the colonies becoming a separate nation, the United States of America. The causes of that revolution are many. But the core of the dispute was British taxation on the colonies to pay a share of the empire’s defense cost, and the seeds of revolution was planted in 1765 with the introduction of the Stamp Act. The conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris signed on 3 September, 1783. Great Britain recognized the independence of the former colonies as the Untied States of America and acknowledged its boundaries as extending west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada (with fishing rights in Newfoundland), and south to the Floridas.

However, at the conclusion of the War of Independence, the United States were not all that united. Although no statistics supports the actual breakdown, at the beginning of the war, it is estimated that one-third of the population supported the revolution, one-third were neutral, and the remaining third were pro-British. Supporters of the revolution were patriots and the pro-British traitors. At war’s end, historians estimate that about 15-20 percent of the white population of the thirteen colonies were Loyalists, but the number was constantly declining as thousands of Loyalists fled the country every year, and few returned. From an American perspective in 1776, the Loyalists were traitors who turned against their fellow citizens and collaborated with the occupation of a foreign army. From the Loyalists’ perspective in 1776, the Loyalists were the honorable ones who stood by the Crown and the British Empire and had to flee persecution from disloyal American radicals. As Anglican clergyman Samuel Seabury wrote,

If I must be enslaved, let it by King at least, and not by a parcel of upstart lawless Committeemen. If I must be devoured, let me be devoured by the jaws of a lion, and not gnawed to death by rats and vermin.

A majority of the Loyalists remained in American during and after the war. But some began leaving early in the war. An estimated seventy thousand Loyalists, approximately sixty-two thousand whites and eight thousand blacks, about 3 percent of the total American population, left the thirteen colonies. About forty-six thousand immigrated to what is Canada today, following the end of the revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The United States underestimated that the descendants of these Loyalists in Upper Canada would continue to fight for their right to remain loyal to the king of England.

Within twenty years of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the emerging nation of the United States of America more than doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, a vast region in North America purchased from France in 1803. Some 2,100,000 sq. km. (more than 800,000 sq. mi.) in area, the territory comprised present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, nearly all of Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River but including New Orleans. Buoy, by her growing confidence, and still holding a grudge against Great Britain, the territories of Upper and Lower Canada plus the three remaining British colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) on the east coast of the Americas looked like easy pickings for the United States to substantially increase her territorial land acquisition.

Britain, in 1812, was fighting the French in Europe (Napoleonic Wars), and with her remaining North American territories’ defenses neglected since 1783, the road to victory against the remaining British colonies in North America looked favorable. This, along with a number of grievances, was the foundation for the war. The rationale for wars is never made clear to the populace. What they are told is a story that can be accepted by the masses (propaganda still very much in use today). The official reasons for the U.S. Congress Declaration of War were free trade and sailors’ rights, both violated by Britain’s impressment of American sailors. However, behind the stated discontent, this was President Madison’s war. He wanted war and used every tool available to him to convince Congress that war with Great Britain is the course of action to take. To help sway the United States Congress to support his Declaration of War, he presented what became known as the Henry Letters, a series of fraudulent letters created by John Henry (spy), which he sold to James Madison in February 1812 for the sum of $50,000. These letters falsely claimed that Britain was actively trying to convince several New England states to leave the United States to ally themselves with Britain. The information in these letters was untrue, but both Madison and the U.S. Congress believed what they said. These letters represent one of the major factors that led to the War of 1812.

However, the unofficial rationale for the war was to get rid of the British presence in North America and, by so doing, take the former British territories of Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) and the British colonies of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. The United States government was ill prepared to go to war. Its first and biggest error was underestimating the resistance of the British and its Canadian and Indian allies. The idea that Canadians would rally around the American flag when hoisted over British sovereign territory was another grievous error by James Madison, the president of the United States who proclaimed that invading Canada was nothing more than a march. Compounding the errors was underestimating the enemy within. The United States was at war with the American Indians whose lands were under constant pressure as they were driven west. When war was declared against Great Britain, many Indians seized the opportunity to attack American outposts. The American Indian had no love for the white man, but the British whites were deemed better than the American whites, and many cast their lots with the British.

Before war was officially declared by the United States, Major General Andrew Jackson, always a hawk, called for volunteers to help defend the United States in the upcoming war with Great Britain. The following is his Call to Arms.

VOLUNTEERS TO ARMS Major General Andrew Jackson March 1, 1812

"Citizens! Your government has at last yielded to the impulse of the nation. Your impatience is no longer restrained. The hour of national vengeance is now at hand. The eternal enemy of American prosperity is again to be taught to respect your rights, after having been compelled to feel, once more, the power of your arms. War is on the point of breaking out between the United States and the King of Great Britain! And the martial host of America is summoned to the Tented Fields!

A simple invitation is given to the young men of the country to arm for their own and their countries right. On this invitation 50,000 volunteers, full of martial and, indignant at their countries wrongs and burning with impatience to illustrate their names by some signal exploit, are expected to repair to the national standard

Could it be otherwise? Could the general government deem it necessary to force us to take the field? We, who for so many years have demanded a war with such clamourous importunity—who, in so many resolutions of town meetings and legislative assemblies, have offered our lives and fortunes for the defense of our country—who, so often and so publicly, have charged this very government with a pusillanimous deference to foreign nations, because she had resolved to exhaust the arts of negotiation before she made her last appeal to the power of arms. Under such circumstances it was impossible for the government to conceive that compulsion would be wanting to bring us into the field . . . But another and nobler feeling should impel us to action. Who are we? And for what, are we going to fight? Are we the titled Slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the great? Or sons of America, the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world, and the only people on earth, who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.

"We are going to fight for the reestablishment of our national character, misunderstood and vilified at home and abroad; for the protection of our maritime citizens, impressed on board British ships of war and compelled to fight the battles of our enemies against ourselves; to vindicate our right to a free trade, and open a market for the productions of our soil, now perishing on our hands because the mistress of the ocean has forbid us to carry them to any foreign nation, in fine, to seek some indemnity for past injuries, some security against future aggressions, by the conquest of all the British dominions upon the continent of North America.

Should the occupation of Canada be resolved upon by the general government, how pleasing the prospect that would open the young volunteer, while performing a military promenade into a distant country . . . To view the stupendous works of nature, exemplified in the falls of Niagara . . . to tread the consecrated spot on which Wolfe and Montgomery fell, would have themselves repay the young soldier for a march across the continent.

When President Madison’s bill was voted on, the congressional declaration of war was less than overwhelming. The measure passed the Senate by only 19 to 13 and the House by 70 to 49. The war was less than popular with Americans, some of whom were apathetic and some in open opposition. New Englanders continued to sell grain and supplies to the British and its colonies. In 1812, the American regular army consisted of only 414 officers, and 5,149 enlisted men scattered across twenty-three forts and post, most with fewer than 200 men each. Congress believed that state militias could be use to make up any deficiencies in manpower. However, before war was declared, the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island announced that they would refuse to call up their militias, and no real war plans existed.

The War Department was headed by an ineffective secretary, William Eustis. He was soon replaced by John Armstrong, who was forced to resign after the British expeditionary force led by Admiral Sir George Cockburn and General Robert Ross burned Washington, D.C. Major General Henry Dearborn, the senior American general who assumed command of the northwestern frontier, proved so inept that he was soon recalled. The initial conflicts of the war proved that the United States was not ready for war and suffered humiliating losses in 1812. However, after a number of setbacks and the reorganization of her armed forces on land and sea, the American fought the British forces to a draw with victories claimed by both sides.

However, events in Europe swung the pendulum to the advantage of Great Britain. With Napoleon defeated, the British now devoted all her forces to the North American conflict. It was now conceivable that an invasion of the United States was possible. For Britain, security for Canada, and the possibility of a more favorable bargaining position in any future peace settlement; however, geography and distance were on the side of the Americans. The British army could not simply transport troops to North America. And Britain had been at war with Napoleon for twenty years; fighting with the United States would soon become unpopular.

Except for the Battle of New Orleans, all the significant American victories were at sea. The center of the war on land was fought in the region of the Lower Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie). Although Britain with a population of 18 million and an army of nearly 100,000, was militarily superior to the United States, who struggling to raise an army of 45,000 from a population of 7.7 million. Great Britain was, at the time, still engaged in fighting Napoleon in Spain. Canada, with a population of only 500,000, had a small reservoir from which to draw a militia. Its defensive forces ultimately consisted of about 7,000 British regulars and 10,000 Canadian Militia under Major General Isaac Brook, the governor and military commander in Upper Canada. Also, there were 3,500 Indian auxiliaries. During the initial stage of the war, Britain was too hard-pressed in Europe to supply more men, ships, and war material to Canada, but the country possessed a fine general in Brock. It was during this period that the Americans made their biggest blunder. American strategy called for a two-pronged invasion of Canada. Many Americans hoped that Upper Canada (Ontario) could be added to the United States. Although the plan was sound, the forces available were inadequate and few, if any, able generals to conduct a ground war. The war stumbled on for the best part of thirty months with victories and losses on both sides with neither side gaining a territorial advantage.

The termination of the Napoleonic Wars solved American grievance against Great Britain, and trade embargoes were no longer needed. The United States could trade with both Britain and France with no interference. England had little need for more sailors, so the practice of boarding American ships and removing those suspected as British came to an end. The only acceptable option for both sides was to sue for peace, and negotiations took most of 1814. At first, the demands by both sides were harsh and farfetched, ranging from the demand to hand over Canada to the United States, to the demand to create an Amerindian Nation with permanent boundaries. But saner heads prevailed, and both sides agreed to moderate their demands. Finally, on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed. Not a single senator voted against peace. The treaty ended the war and obliged each side to return what it had conquered. Not only did the Treaty of Ghent conclude the War of 1812, but it marked the end of the last armed conflict between Britain and the United States. Never again did these two nations war with each other. The big losers in the war were the North American Indians, south and west of the Great Lakes. They were ignored, and not one of the parties to the peace treaty, and when the British withdrew from their land, most gave up the struggle for independence. The Indians could no longer resist the expanding American settlers, and they lost their only European ally.

Officially or unofficially, this war could be called a draw or a stand-off, no territory exchanged hands, and the resulting negotiated Rush-Bagot Treaty established boarders that exist today. But one of the goals of the United States was to rid the North American continent of the British—that was never accomplished.

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footnote: In September 1812, Tsar Alexander I of Russia had offered to mediate, and on March 11, 1813, his offer was accepted by the Americans. The British initially rejected mediation, but peace talks finally began in January 1814 and ended at the Charterhouse at Ghent, Belgium, where a peace treaty was signed on December 24, 1814.

CHAPTER 1

Military action came to Canada within weeks of the American Declaration of War on Great Britain. The troops at Fort St. Joseph (Northern Upper Canada) easily captured Fort Mackinaw, firing a single shot and without any loss of life. The stunning victory over the Americans rallied both Indians and settlers in Upper Canada to support the British defense of their remaining North American territories. It also sent word that the British would not surrender Canada without a fight under the threat of war.

•    St. Joseph Island, East of Sault Marie, Ontario

•    Trans-Canada Highway 17, Route 548 to

•    Fort St. Joseph