Reinforced By Fusileers

On the 4th of June our little [British] army was reinforced by the arrival of the 21st Fusiliers, a fine battalion, mustering nine hundred bayonets, under the command of Colonel Paterson. [Source]

Reconnoitering Under McArthur

On the 14th [of July] a company of militia and a rifle corps, under colonel M'cArthur, were detached to reconnoitre the country. They penetrated to M'Gregor's mills, upon the river La Tranche, or Thames, a short distance from the field of battle where the British army was captured fifteen months afterwards by general Harrison. On the 17th, they returned to camp, having collected a great quantity of provisions, and a number of blankets, besides a considerable quantity of ammunition and other military stores.

1812 Map Including The Thames River In Canada (LOC)

That part of Upper Canada traversed by the detachment is described by one of the volunteers that composed it as extremely fertile and beautiful. The fields of wheat and Indian corn were remarkably fine; but as every male capable of bearing arms had been drafted for the defence of the province, vast quantities of the wheat remained ungathered. [Source]

Visiting Family While Fort Was Captured

Source (December, 1813, Entries)

"Capt. Leonard, the commanding officer of the fort, was [visiting] with his family. He came very early to the garrison in the morning, but was much surprised to be challenged by a British sentinel, who made prisoner of him." 

Bayonets Are Trumps

Source

Wikipedia account of the December 19, 1813, capture.

Gilmer Letter Regarding The British In Hampton

Source - Library Of Virginia Online

Excerpts from the Educator Resource for Francis Walker Gilmer Letter (same link as above):

"Letter, Francis Walker Gilmer, Montevideo, Buckingham County, to William Wirt, Richmond, 8 July 1813. Personal Papers Collection, Accession 18763. Library of Virginia."

"Gilmer’s outrage at the conduct of the British forces at Hampton under British Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn is one of the most controversial episodes of the war. After defeating elements of Virginia militia, British forces entered the city on June 25, 1813. During the withdrawal the next day, troops destroyed and looted property, murdered citizens, and raped several women. Cockburn and other officers blamed Canadian Chasseurs (French deserters recruited by the English) for the mayhem. Whatever the truth, the incident provoked deep outrage throughout America. “Remember Hampton” became a rallying cry for American troops, including those under Jackson at New Orleans."

Fort Niagara, 1813

Source

"The burning of Newark was a wicked and cruel act and drove the British to take a swift and barbarous vengeance. During the night of December eighteenth [1813], five hundred and fifty regulars crossed the river, crept up unseen to Fort Niagara, surprised the sentinels, rushed through the main gate, and captured the fort and three hundred and fifty prisoners. No surprise was ever more complete." [Source]

Forts And Soldiers

Source

Stephen Foster's Father

Biography, songs and musical compositions of Stephen C. Foster, Authors: Foster, Stephen Collins, 1826-1864, Foster, Morrison, 1823-1904:

From Historic Pittsburgh

"My father [William Barclay Foster] was a man of great public spirit and unbounded patriotism.  During the War of 1812 he was appointed Quartermaster and Commissary of the U.S. Army."

University of Pittsburgh Archives and Manuscript Collections:

Subseries 10. William B. Foster Papers, 1814-1955
Scope and Content Notes:
This subseries includes the business papers of Stephen Foster's father, William B. Foster, Sr. It consists of correspondence, papers related to court cases, the War of 1812, the establishment of Lawrenceville, and materials general by Morrison Foster related to his attempts to settle his father's estate.

Section: 1. War of 1812 Correspondence and Transactions
Scope and Content Notes:
This section contains the correspondence of William B. Foster during his years as a commissary agent for the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. Most of these papers deal with supply and military sustenance issues; occasionally a letter emerges that tells of William’s amicable relationship with several of these military officers.

Disgraceful Conduct

Source

"...the disgraceful conduct of many of the frontier inhabitants who continued regularly to supply the enemy with everything of which they stood in want. In spite of every exertion to prevent it, a constant intercourse was kept up across the Canada line and the British were not only furnished with immense quantities of provisions without which they could not have subsisted their armies, but were also regularly informed of every thing which transpired on the American side." [Source]

British Military Uniforms

Source

Louisiana Landing

Source

Madness To Continue At Credit Island

"To chastise the perfidious Sacs, became at once the duty of Governors Edwards and Clark, and Major Zachary Taylor was selected for the purpose; to ascend the river and punish them.  He left Fort Independence...August 2, 1814...".

"In that battle* Major Taylor had 11 men badly wounded, three mortally, and with the outnumbering horde of..[Indians] and English against his 334 men and officers, he conceived it would have been madness to continue the unequal contest, with no prospect of success.  At the council which followed he put the question to his officers direct and to a man, his position was sustained.  Accordingly the expedition, a pronounced failure... ." [Source]

Library Of Congress Map Excerpt
Credit Island - South Of Rock Island & Ft. Armstrong

*Credit Island (present-day map)

Immediate Surrender

Rock Formation On Mackinac Island

Source

17th July, 1812.

Capitulation agreed upon between Captain Charles Roberts, commanding His Britannic Majesty's forces on the one part, and Lieutenant Hanks, commanding the forces of the United States of America, on the other.

Fort Mackinac

Disapproval Of The Common People

Furthermore, it is a safe conjecture that the common people of Great Britain did not approve of the use of Indians in the British armies, and there is no small evidence to support this. The use of the Indians was denounced as well as defended in both parliament and the reviews. But the very character of the common people of Great Britain is conclusive that they abhorred the use...".

From "The battle of Plattsburg; a study in and of the war of 1812. To remind our troops of the actions of their brave countrymen.--General Macomb, in his report of the battle of Plattsburg"

Withstood The British

"A hundred years are many years too many for a nation such as this to harbor hate against an ancient foe. The British soldiers in the War of 1812 were as brave as Europe has ever produced. All the greater, therefore, the glory of, for example, our "rabble" of convalescents and militia successfully withstanding three times their number of the very flower of Wellington's army victorious in the Peninsula — the best soldiers, by long odds, that the Iron Duke ever commanded!" [Source]

Incautiously Advancing

War Of 1812 Soldiers By A Fire (Not In Canada)

Journal and Transactions...: 


"The surprise was tolerably complete but our troops [British/Canadian] incautiously advancing and charging across the line of the camp fires and a few muskets being fired notwithstanding my exertions to prevent it our line was distinctly seen by the enemy whose troops in some degree recovered from the panic and formed upon the surrounding heights on the Gage farm below or north of the Gage house poured a destructive fire of musketry upon us which was answered on our part by repeated charges whenever a body of the enemy could be discovered or reached."

Also see the Smith's Knoll On Their Left Hand blog post.

Apparent Even To The Enemy

Unknown Source

The New Nation Grows... included a section entitled, "A Cowardly Commander Surrenders Detroit."

"The day after the Fort Dearborn massacre General William Hull surrendered Detroit to General Brock, the British commander. Hull's incompetence and cowardice were apparent even to the enemy."

"...[an] account was written by Thomas Vercheres de Boucherville, a French Canadian serving in the British army."

British Battery At The Battle Of Niagara

Source

British Army Landing In New Orleans

Source

A Substitute In The Army

Source

Rev. Thomas Henry, Christian Minister, York Pioneer, and Soldier of 1812, was written and published by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. P.A. Henry.

"Thomas Henry, his grandfather, professed the Quaker religion. He lived to have only two children, one daughter named Mary, and one son, John, who was the father of Thomas Henry."

"...in 1811 he set sail for America with his family...;their destination was...Little York, capital of Upper Canada."

"...the last [year] of the war, he hired as a substitute in the army, and did military duty until peace was restored. He was employed with others to guard a batch of American prisoners from Toronto to Kingston, and another to Fort George at Niagara."

"While in the Garrison in Toronto he received, as other soldiers did, besides the regular rations, an extra bottle of spirits on Saturday night for Sunday use. While others made merry over their bottle on Sunday, he sent his to a small grocery to be sold, and carefully laid by the proceeds."