Saturday, May 30, 2015

Zebulon Pike's Military Career




Source
 He became the lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Infantry Dec. 31st, 1809. From Apr. 3d, 1812, to July 3d of that year, he was on duty as deputy quartermaster-general. He became the colonel of the 15th Infantry July 6th, 1812, and was appointed to be brigadier-general Mar. 12th, 1813. But before this appointment was confirmed General Pike had been killed at the head of the troops he led to the assault on York, Upper Canada, April 27th, 1813, aged 34 years, 3 months, 22 days.


Thursday, May 28, 2015

Rising Up In Illinois


From: Rising Up from Indian Country:...:

John Leigh and John Kelso, an army private working the farm in his free time, fled ...and Private John Kelso came running away from the Winnebago attack.

According to Early Chicago:

Kelso, John  U.S. Army private at Fort Dearborn, enlisted in December 1805; accepted discharge on Dec. 17, 1810, when his term expired; stayed to be a tutor to the Kinzie children and then a field hand on Leigh’s farm; on April 6, 1812, marauding Winnebago attacked and he escaped with John Leigh, and alarmed the garrison at the fort; rejoined the army May 3 as a private and was killed in action at the massacre of Aug. 15.

An 1812 service record for a John Kelso:


Source



Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Mr. Barnes With A Musket



Gun And Its Parts

"Mr. Barnes, of the nail manufactory, with a musket, and fired on the barges while we had ammunition, and then retreated to the common, where I kept waving my hat to the militia, who had run away, to come to our assistance, but they proved cowardly and would not come back.  At the same time an English officer on horseback, followed by the marines, rode up and took me with two muskets in my hand. I was carried on board the Maidstone frigate, where I remained until released, three days since." [Source]




Sunday, May 24, 2015

Battle Of The Sink Hole



Photo From An Adjacent County Of The Sink Hole Site


From Wikipedia:

The Battle of the Sink Hole was fought on May 24, 1815, after the official end of the War of 1812, between Missouri Rangers and Sauk Indians led by Black Hawk. The Sauk were unaware, or did not care, that their British patrons had signed the Treaty of Ghent with the U.S.


The most famous of these expeditions was that made in 1814 by a company of mounted rangers raised by Peter Craig of Cape Girardeau county. Many of the members of the company had served under Captain Ramsay in 1813; they were now enlisted for a period of one year to serve on the frontiers of Missouri and Illinois, and they became a part of a regiment commanded by Colonel William Russell.

After the company was organized...it was sent to North Missouri and while there fought the battle of the Sink Hole (Lincoln County, near Cape au Gris). [Source]


Source


Thursday, May 21, 2015

Francais X. Goulet Served


From the Kent County, Ontario, Canada's Historical Society's Papers:





The family traditions generally fix the arrival of Francais Xavier Goulet there [Kent County, Ontario, Canada] and the beginning of his settlement duties on his allotment of lot 154 from Col. Talbot about a year or two earlier or about 1817 or 1818. As the surveyor of the district, Mahlon Burwell had only reached the last lot now in Tilbury on this road and encamped on this spot where the American Colonel Holmes bivouacked in the war of 1812 during the year 1817... .

Francais X. appears to have left his home at St. Jacques de l'Achigan, Montcalm Co. Que. early in the year 1812. His father writes him under date of May 21th. 1812 in a letter addresser "au detroit" beseeching him to return and that his mother was grieved and worried over his absence. President
Madison's proclamation of war soon followed his departure from his French Canadian home and we find the young man at le detroit enlisted with the British forces and serving at Fort Meigs, Riviere au Raisin and Fort Malden. For this service he received a medal from the British government.









Wednesday, May 20, 2015

John Brisby


War of 1812 Pension And Bounty Land Application  - Fold3

Form Of Declaration For Surviving Officer Or Soldier
State of Tennessee
County of Maury
1 November 1850
John Brisby
Aged 67
Private in the Company Commanded By Captain [John] Dalton
2nd Regiment of the Tennessee Militia
Commanded by Col. [John] Cocke and by General [William] Carroll
In The War With Great Britain
Drafted At Williamson County, Tennessee ca 13 November 1814
Honorably Discharged in Franklin, Tennessee ca 20 May 1815

This document stated that Brisby participated in the Battle of New Orleans

Bounty Land - Soldier#: 5113 - 80 - 50
Bounty Land - Widow#: 48501 - 80 - 55


John Brisby married Rosey (or Rosa) Clendenin in  June 1805 in Sumner County, Tennessee.  The widow died in Culleoka, Maury, Tennessee, on April 6, 1873.  According to the record, the soldier died on either January 8th or 24th in either 1851 or 1852.

Testimony from James Orr of Marshall County, Tennessee, who had known Rosey (Clendenin) Brisby since 1796 and John Brisby since 1816.


Census  1850
Maury county, part of, Maury, Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated): 1783
Birthplace: Virginia
Household Role Gender Age Birthplace
John Brisby M 67 Virginia
Rosa Brisby F 64 North Carolina
Fanny Brisby F 25 Tennessee



Sunday, May 17, 2015

William Trousdale's First Wars



The William Trousdale Papers held at the Tennessee State Library and Archives:

"This collection is centered around William Trousdale, resident of Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee; veteran of the Creek War, 1813; private during the War of 1812, 1814-1815...Governor of Tennessee and United States Ambassador."

1813 Volunteered as private in Captain William Edward’s Company of Mounted  Riflemen; participated in Battles of Tallahatchie and Talladega during the  Creek War

1814 Re-enlisted; served as private in War of 1812, after being defeated for first lieutenant and third lieutenant; participated in Battle of Pensacola

1815 Participated in Battle of New Orleans; returned to Tennessee in the Spring 

Compiled Service Records of War of 1812 included:


Source



Saturday, May 16, 2015

U.S. Marshall Duplessis



Chalmette Monument Commemorating The Battle Of New Orleans

From the U.S. Marshal's Service, History -   A Pirate, a Marshal, and the Battle of New Orleans:

"...Largely thanks to Jackson’s choice of position, good communication and resolve, the Americans won a decisive triumph."

"A sizeable portion of that good communication was carried forth by Marshal Peter Duplessis, and the United States will forever be the better for it."

Duplessis' pre-war activity mentioned:



Friday, May 15, 2015

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Warping Or Kedging


Source


Warping or kedging (was mentioned in Commodore Charles Morris's autobiography).

"...observing the benefit that the Constitution had derived from warping, Captain Byron did the same, bending all his hawsers to one another, and working two kedge anchors at the same time by paying the warp out through one hawse-hole as it was run in through the other opposite."

Source


Monday, May 11, 2015

Tybee



Lighthouse At Tybee Island


Source (Tybee Lighthouse East Of Fort Pulaski)

Per the NPS:

 During the War of 1812, the Tybee Island Lighthouse was used as a signal tower to warn Savannah of possible attack by the British (though no such attack took place...).





Sunday, May 10, 2015

Frontier Raids From Ogdensburg


Source

Source

The frontier raids, which had begun on the Upper St. Lawrence during the autumn of 1812, continued during the winter, facilitated by the frozen state of the river. The chief starting point for these expeditions on the American side was Ogdensburg in the state of New York.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Fort Meigs And Its Environs



Source

Fort Meigs
Explanations: — a, grand battery, commanded by Captain Daniel Cushing; b, mortar battery; e, i, o, minor batteries; g, battery commanded at the second siege by Colonel Gaines; c, magazines. The black squares on the lines of the fort represent the position of the block houses. The dotted lines show the traverses, or walls of earth thrown up. The longest, the grand traverse, had a base of twenty feet, was twelve in height, and about nine hundred in length. The traverses running lengthwise of the fort, were raised as a protection against the batteries on the opposite side of the river, and those running crosswise were to defend them from the British batteries on this side. The British batteries on the north side of the river were named as follows: a. Queen's; b. Sailors'; d, King's; and c. Mortar. The fort stood upon high ground, on the margin of the bank, elevated about sixty feet above the Maumee. The surface is nearly level, and is covered by a green sward. The outline of the fort is now well defined, and the grand traverse yet rises six or eight feet from the surrounding ground.

NOTE: — The Toledo Blade of June 3, 1908, has the Larwill profile of the fort which differs somewhat in the fact that more traverse, earthworks, are shown next to the present public road.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Admiral Cockburn On The Sassafras


Source

"It was on the 6th of May, a warm and beautiful morning, that Cockburn, with hundred men, in eighteen barges, went up the Sassafras."


Source

"So delighted was Cockburn with success in plundering and destroying unprotected towns that with characteristic swagger he declared he should not be satisfied until he had burned every building Baltimore."



Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Incautious Valour At Fort Meigs


Col. Wm. Dudley's Defeat Opposite Fort Meigs...:



"When Col. Dudley attacked the batteries of the enemy, opposite Fort Meigs, on the 5th of May, 1813, he advanced in three columns. The right, led by himself, carried them without the loss of a man."

"For near fifteen minutes, with the loss of several killed and wounded, they maintained an unequal conflict. In this time, Col. Dudley, having effected his object, and fearing their fate, had advanced to their relief with the right column. The enemy retreated. Our troops, impelled more by incautious valour and a desire for military distinguishment than prudence, pursued."






Monday, May 4, 2015

The Third Expedition



Cecil County, Maryland, Map Source



From The Sassafras River Water Trail [Cecil County, Maryland, area]:

"On May 6, 1813, British Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn led his naval forces up the Sassafras River to raid the twin ports of Georgetown and Fredericktown."


"The third expedition undertaken....".  H.M.S. Maidstone, off the Sassafras river, May 6th, 1813. (see below):

Source


Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Great Disturber


Source

Napoleon's land grab in Europe had consequences for North America.  Troops devoted to stopping him were not available for duty in America until the War of 1812 was well underway.

Per Maple Leaves:....

The great disturber of Europe, Napoleon the 1st, having been sent a prisoner...enabled Great Britain to send a portion of her veteran army, under the illustrious Wellington, to prosecute the war with America--the brunt of which had, for two years, been nobly sustained by the militia of Canada, assisted by the mere handful of regulars which had been left in the country.


Note: Napoleon specifically "disturbed" the Palm family as well:

We are distantly related to Johann Philip Palm who is famous in Europe as the person who was executed upon orders by Napoleon for "publishing and distributing libelous pamphlets about France and Napoleon."


Saturday, May 2, 2015

William Howard Served


Source


A list of Canadian War of 1812 Veterans from the Elgin County Branch Of The Ontario Genealogical Society, included:

HOWARD, William, Pte., served under Captain David Secord 1814, 1815


Was our William Howard a private who served under Captain Secord?  It's possible.




Friday, May 1, 2015

Meeting At Hutchinson's Tavern



Room In Ohio [Not Hutchinson's Tavern]

From Personal memories, social, political, and literary, with sketches of many noted people, 1803-1843:


In the spring of 1812, the army, which was to be commanded by General Hull, began to assemble at
Cincinnati. Governor Meigs called out the First Division of Ohio militia, to meet at Hutchinson's Tavern, on the Colerain road. This was near our house, and I [E.D. Mansfield] went with my father to the place of meeting. The division was drawn out in line, and presented as motley an appearance as has ever been seen. Some of the men had rifles, but the greater part only sticks and cornstalks. As to uniform, there were all kinds of apparel, from hunting-shirts to butternut jackets.

"In 1811, Ezekiel [Hutchinson] purchased 400 acres of land in the Mill Creek Township. On this property, he opened a tavern and hotel called the Golden Lamb. This establishment was a resting point for travelers between Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio."[Source]