General Duncan MacArthur's Raid

Source

Also here: Kentucky In The War of 1812 (text)

War Of 1812 (Second Part Of The 1812 Timeline)

Note: Outline Per Wikipedia (with revisions):

1812	Jul 17	Capture of Fort Mackinac*
1812	Jul 19	Attack at Sackets Harbor**
1812	Aug 5	Battle of Brownstown
1812	Aug 8	British General Isaac Brock embarks at Port Dover for the relief of Amherstburg***
1812	Aug 8	Battle of Maguaga
1812	Aug 15	Fort Dearborn massacre
1812	Aug 16	Surrender of Detroit
1812	Aug 19	Capture of HMS Guerriere****

* "That it should fare hard with the garrison of Fort Mackinac was, under the circumstances, a foregone conclusion. They [the British] were...stationed at St. Joseph's Island. Capt. Roberts received intelligence of the declaration of war on July 15 and was directed to attack Fort Mackinac immediately.  Among the force of a thousand and odd must have been many who knew Mackinac well; indeed, as a former British post, fort and island must have been familiar in every detail to the officers in command, and on this knowledge, no doubt, was based the plan of attack." [Source]

** Gunboats were in process of construction at Sackets Harbor... . One of these, the Oneida, was attacked July 19, 1812, by five British vessels... . [Source]

 *** General Brock told us that it was his intention to go up at once to the western district along the shore of Lake Erie in boats to embark at what is now Port Dover. [Source]

Maguaga Battle-Ground

**** To compensate our readers in some degree for the disappointment and mortification they cannot but feel at the misfortune of our little army under gen. Hull, it is with feelings of pride and pleasure that we refer them to the gallant exploit of capt. Hull, his nephew, in the frigate Constitution in capturing and destroying the British frigate Guerriere. [Source]

Attack On Fort Michilimackinac

Distant View Of Mackinac Island

Source

"Capt. Charles Roberts to Colonel Baynes: Fort Michilimackinac, 17th July, 1812. Sir,—On the 15th instant I received letters by Express from Major General Brock, with orders to adopt the most prudent measures either of offence or defence which circumstances might point out, and haying received intelligence from the best information that large reinforcements were daily expected to be thrown into this garrison, and finding that the Indians who had been collected would soon have abandoned me if I had not made the attempt, with the thorough conviction that my situation at St. Joseph's was totally indefensible, I determined to lose no time in making the meditated attack on this Fort."

A Harrowing Experience For Rachel Knaggs

An excerpt from the History of the Knaggs family:

Source

FindAGrave memorial for Rachel Knaggs.

Roundhead, A Celebrated Chief

"Roundhead, a celebrated chief of the Wyandots, an Indian warror and strategist, captured Gen. Winchester at the battle of the Raisin. Proctor considered the death of Roundhead at the battle of the Thames a serious loss to the British cause. A proved warrior as this incident will show. At the capture of Detroit Gen. Brock took off his own rich crimson silk sash and fastened it around the waist of Tecumseh. Next day Tecumseh appearing without the much prized sash. Brock inquired the reason. Tecumseh answered: 'I do not want to wear such a mark of distinction when an older and abler warrior than myself is present.'  He had given the sash to Roundhead. [Source - Michigan Historical Collections, Volume 15]

British Guns Opened On Detroit

Source

The same day that Major Denny evacuated Sandwich the ground he left was occupied by a British detachment, and the erection of batteries was commenced under the direction of Capt. [M.C.] Dixon of the Royal Engineers. The work was prosecuted with such diligence that on the 15th, five guns were in position all of which commanded the fort at Detroit. At noon that day, Lieut. Col. Macdonell and Captain Glegg were sent by General Brock to Hull under a flag of truce to demand the immediate surrender of Detroit. Hull returned a bold answer stating that he was ready to meet any force the British might send against him, and refusing to comply with the demand. The same afternoon the British guns...opened on Detroit with shot and shell and were replied to...from the other side of the river which, however, failed to do the British batteries the slightest injury, although the cannonade continued for several hours. During the night Tecumseh with Colonel Elliot, Capt. McKee and 600 Indians landed on the American shore two miles below Spring Wells, and five from Detroit. There they remained in concealment until the following morning, when General Brock and his white troops crossed over at Spring Wells.

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."

Lewis G. De Russy (Officer And Graduate Of West Point)

There's a short biography of Lewis G. De Russy here that included the following:

" He was the oldest West Point graduate to serve as an officer in the Confederate Army, and he had three Confederate forts named after him. (He also had a brother and a nephew who were generals in the Union Army, and between the three of them there were five Fort DeRussys.)"

This blog post has a photo of De Russy here.

Mims Massacre

Page 446

"...Peter McQueen, who gathering a band of 300 warriors and collecting $400, set out for Pensacola early in July to get powder. The Spanish governor treated the Indians civilly and being in fear of violence gave them guns powder and ball."

"News of McQueen's expedition soon reached the American settlements above Mobile, where Colonel James Caller issued a proclamation calling for volunteers to attack McQueen. A large number of the Americans under the leadership of Caller, Samuel Dale, and...Dixon Bailey whose wife had been taken prisoner by McQueen, started on July 26 to intercept McQueen. On the next day they surprised the Indians at a place called Burnt Corn, about 80 miles north of Pensacola, and captured some of their stores though with a loss to themselves of 2 killed and 15 wounded. Thoroughly angered by the attack and determined to revenge himself, McQueen gathered about 800 Indians and on August 20 started in search of the men who had attacked him at Burnt Corn. McQueen's strongest ally was William Weatherford...who was bitterly hostile to Bailey and to Daniel Beasley...who had been engaged in the attack on McQueen. Both Beasley and Bailey were then at a stockade called Fort Mims, at the junction of the Alabama and the Tombigbee about 35 miles above Mobile."

"Governor Ferdinand L. Claiborne had sent Major Beasley with about 180 men to Fort Mims and subsequently urged Beasley to exercise the utmost vigilance and caution charging him to complete the blockhouses and to strengthen the blockades so as to be prepared against sudden attack. The refugees in the fort chose Dixon Bailey as commander, he being very popular for his share in the Burnt Corn expedition. Under some unaccountable delusion, neither Bailey nor Beasley acted as though there were any danger." [Source]

Bloody Drama Enacted In Baltimore

Source: Indiana University

Source: Sixty Years In A School-room

The Mutual Destruction Of Tecumseh And Colonel Whitley

Source

From Pioneer Collections...(recollections of Aura P. Stewart of St. Clair County, Michigan):

"...an account of a very singular and daring old man by the name of Whitney [sic; it's Whitley], a Kentuckian, and at the time about seventy years old.  "...Col. Whitney's [Whitley's] adventures and death at the Battle of the Thames.  It appeared that....[he] was an old resident of Kentucky, and had fought many a battle with the Indians on the bloody ground."


"...in their search they first came to Colonel [Whitley], and about four rods distant lay Tecumseh, both dead on the battlefield.  My father [Mr. Stewart] had seen Tecumseh often in Detroit and pointed him out to the officer who never saw him before.  The shout that Tecumseh was dead brought all of the parties together to see him...".

Tecumseh Statue

"Who killed Tecumseh is a question that cannot be answered, buy Judge Connor, my father, and many others believe that Colonel [Whitley] went into battle with a desire to meet Tecumseh, and it is possible that he killed him; General Harrison and his officers lamented the death of the old veteran...".

David Beard, Contracting Agent

Source

Governor and judges journal: proceedings of the Land board of Detroit:

"David Beard was a contracting agent for the army at Detroit as early as 1810. He also served in the war of 1812, Augustus Porter Esq., of New York State, being the contractor. In 1814 Beard had removed to New York to live and gave testimony in Hull's trial. During his residence in Detroit he purchased Peter Curry's farm, private claim 340."

Source

Bombardment Of Fort McHenry

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Burning Washington

Psychological Warfare?

Source - View of White House Circa 1799

At 6 o'clock, after a rest of two hours, the British resumed their march and about dark, encamped a short distance east of the Capitol. Up to this time the raid had been conducted as an eminently proper military movement, but suddenly the British began to execute literally the orders given by Cochrane. The two wings of the Capitol were the only parts finished, but these were set afire and in the conflagration the Library of Congress and many valuable public documents were destroyed. Ross and Cockburn with about 200 men marched quietly along Pennsylvania Avenue to the President's house and set it afire...". [Source]

Root Of All Present Distress

Creeks Had Been Armed By British At Pensacola

"I do not wish you to engage in any rash enterprise. You must act on the defensive." Compare such a diffident spirit with the martial one that called forth such fervid utterances as "Seize Pensacola and you disarm the Indians. It is the real heart of the Creek Confederacy;" "At all hazards, I wish you would enter the Creek Nation;"


"I would advise a stroke at the root of all present distress — Pensacola." Such confidence of speech not only reveals the military ardor of the Mississippi soldier, but conclusively proves that he had a clear understanding of the situation. [Source]

Weatherford's Surrender

Jim's Photo - Weatherford's Surrender

Woodward And Proctor

The War of 1812 Magazine article, Remember the Raisin! Anatomy of a Demon Myth, By Sandy Antal:

"Unlike Canadians who usually explain away a complicated series of events through the alleged incompetence of the British commander, Americans have persistently demonized Colonel (later Major-General) Henry Procter as a bloodthirsty commander who either directed or permitted the murder of defenceless American prisoners. It was these alleged atrocities that gave rise to the slogan, Remember the Raisin!"

"Judge Woodward of Detroit...approached Colonel Procter on the subject, expressing outrage over the murders and depredations."

On Humber Bay

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From The battle of York;...:

Away to the east, where the St. Lawrence runs beneath the ramparts of old Quebec, stands the honoured monument to the two heroes who died upon the fatal field — Wolfe and Montcalm, victor and vanquished, who in valour, in death, and in fame, were not divided.

Yet we, too, nearer home, have an eventful and strangely parallel scene of strife.

In the neighbourhood of our city of Toronto, the "Humber Bay" is our " Wolfe's Cove," the " Garrison Common" our "Plains of Abraham"; over them in one long day a fierce battle raged, on them a victor died in the hour of victory.

As we pass along the westward of where the Humber Bay begins its graceful curve there will be found no memorial raised to do honour to whom honour is due.

As we enter the city of Toronto, we shall find no statue erected to the fallen, no inscription set up to record the deeds of the eventful day, and at the Old Fort, the culminating point of the attack, not, as yet, any tribute paid to the memories of those gallant defenders who fought and died in the defence of York on the 27th April, 1813.

Weatherford And General Jackson

Source

Words Of William Weatherford To General Andrew Jackson

British Return Of Troops After The River Raisin

Return of the Whole of the Troops...Engaged [At] Frenchtown On The River Raisin

22nd January 1813

With the Number Of Killed & Wounded

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