Monday, January 21, 2013

General Winchester's Headquarters


Warnings and inactivity at General Winchester's headquarters in January of 1813:

Source
Source
On the afternoon of the 20th [of January], General Winchester came with Colonel Madison and three hundred whose forces were united with Lewis and Allen at the upper camp, while General Winchester took up his headquarters in the house of Colonel Navarre on the south side of the river, about three fourths of a mile from his army.

Again and again settlers brought word to Winchester and tried to impress on his mind the enemy would soon attack. Winchester dismissed them with a laugh, and made no preparations to meet them.

Late at night word was brought to Colonel Lewis that a large force of Canadians and Indians were at Stony Creek, only four miles away. Again Winchester was warned. Even this did not disturb his slumber.

Colonel Lewis...was startled...by a sharp crack of the sentinel's guns... .  This was the morning of January 22nd.  [Source]

General Winchester's rebuttal "concerning charges of neglect and military incompetency during the course of the Raisin campaign (directly mainly by Robert McAfee in his book published in 1816)" can be found here.


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