Governor Hull, A New England Man

General Hull in an article regarding New England Men In Michigan History as noted in Michigan History, Volume 5:

Vice President Elbridge Gerry

Source

Lydia Bacon's Travel

Biography of Mrs. Lydia B. Bacon:

"...an account of her travels, and of the scenes through which she passed during the well-remembered war of 1812. This account, as she states, was made up from letters written at the time to her friends, and extracts from her journal, and commences with the date of her embarkation with the troops for Philadelphia en route for Pittsburgh, whither her husband, as Commissary, had preceded his regiment to prepare for its arrival."

Carried Cotton From South Carolina

Source

Lieutenant Otis Fisher

Source

"Lieutenant Otis Fisher...served in the war of 1812 and lost an arm in the battle of Bridgewater. Later he was stationed at Detroit as quartermaster of the Fifth Infantry. He was about to retire when engaging in a duel..(killed at Sandwich May 3, 1820). He owned a farm on the River Rouge.

Source

Letter from Otis Fisher, Quartermaster, Nov. 21, 1818 [Fold3]:

History Of The Fourth Regiment

Harrison At Tippecanoe

A history of the organization and movements of the 4th regiment of Infantry, U.S.A., 1796-1870.

"...the Regiment is reported to have been raised in and about the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and is supposed to have been employed during the years 1808-'09-'10 in protecting the frontiersmen in the territories north of the Ohio river and south of the Great Lakes, as the first official notice taken of the Regiment is during the campaign of General Harrison against the Indians in the northwest.

Unpopular In New England

Source (New England Landmark In Boston)

"Because the War of 1812 was unpopular in New England, the writers of that section wrote that which was not true, and that which has given our people, especially since the Civil War, a wrong notion of our soldiers in the War of 1812." [Source]

A Militia's Dilemma

All too frequently this [militia versus U.S. Army] proved disastrous to our armies, and inflicted defeat on our brave troops and frustrated carefully prepared plans. In speaking of this, [Canadian writer] Auchinleck says :

"We contend that the conduct of the greater part of the American militia on this occasion*, may be fairly adduced as an additional proof that the war was far from being as popular as one party in Congress would fain have represented it. It is notorious that many of the Pennsylvania militia refused to cross into Canada, while others returned, after having crossed the line, on constitutional pretexts. The truth is, and American writers may blink it or explain it as they please, that the refusal to cross the border, on the plea of its being unconstitutional, was one of the factious dogmas of the war, preached by the disaffected of Massachusetts, who imagined, doubtless, that the doctrine might be very convenient in the event of war in that region. The Kentuckians marched anywhere, they had no scruples. Why? Because the war was popular with them and they laughed at the idea that it was unconstitutional to cross a river or an ideal frontier, in the service of their country."

*The battle of Queenstown Heights, in which Brock was killed, and which should have been a most decisive victory for our forces. [Source]

Andrew Backus

Andrew Backus

Andrew Backus married Bathsheba King

Source

There's more information about Andrew and Bathsheba in their son Orrin's biography.

Captain Broke's Challenge

 From The Fight For A Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812:

"Old Ironsides" [Constitution]

"Given time to shake them together in hard service at sea, he [Captain James Lawrence] would have made a smart crew of them no doubt, as Isaac Hull had done in five weeks with the men of the Constitution, but destiny ordered otherwise."

"In the spring of 1813 the harbor of Boston was blockaded by the thirty-eight-gun British frigate Shannon, Captain Philip Vere Broke, who had been in this ship for seven years."

"Lawrence's men were unknown to each other and to their officers, and they had never been to sea together. The last draft came aboard, in fact, just as the anchor was weighed and the Chesapeake stood out to meet her doom. Even most of her officers were new to the ship. They had no chance whatever to train or handle the rabble between decks. Now Captain Broke had been anxious to fight this American frigate as matching the Shannon in size and power. He had already addressed to Captain Lawrence a challenge whose wording was a model of courtesy but which was provocative to the last degree. A sailor of Lawrence's heroic temper was unlikely to avoid such a combat, stimulated as he was by the unbroken success of his own navy in duels between frigates."

Ships In Ports

Source Page 466

"...[Captain David] Porter was forced (September 7) to come to port for water and stores...".

"These vessels were divided into three squadrons."

Skirting The Blockade Of 1812

Source

The Life and Adventures of Capt. Robert W. Andrews... South ...:

Captain Andrews has always lived a hardy life, and during the blockade of 1812 drove a four mule team from Statesburg, S. C., to Boston, with Southern products, and back to Charleston with cotton and woolen cards and other things that could not be gotten round by water. In 1812 he was employed in a woolen mill for a time, operated by Mr. Seth Davis, of Newton, Mass., who applied to the hardy young Carolinian the sobriquet of 'Buckskin.' When Mr. Davis saw the announcement of the pedestrian's arrival in the Boston papers, he wrote to him inquiring if he was the 'Buckskin' of 1812; and if so, inviting him to visit him. Capt. Andrews did so, and found his old friend hale and hearty at the venerable age of 101.

POW Camp In Pittsfield

Source

"...Pittsfield soon had a reason to be reconciled to it [the war of 1812]...in the establishment there, of a cantonment of United States troops, followed in 1813, by a depot for prisoners of war...".

Support Divided By Religious Denominations

From 1763-1814,  By Elisha Benjamin Andrews:

General Sheaffe And His Family

British Generals in the War of 1812: High Command in the Canadas, indicated that the belief that General Sheaffe might have been pro-American was "because of his family connections as well as from his conduct."

General Sheaffe's family:

Source

"Lady Seaffe was Margrate, daughter of John Coffin and a cousin of Lt.-Gen. John and of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin."

From Wikipedia:

General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, 1st Baronet (15 July 1763 – 17 July 1851) was a Loyalist General in the British Army during the War of 1812. he was created a Baronet in 1813 and afterwards served as Commander and Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

Rattler and Bream Off Pemaquid Point

Source

A story from the History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905:

Early in the spring of 1813 two British cruisers, the Rattler with sixteen guns and the Bream with eight, hovered along the coast from the mouth of the Kennebec to St. George, paying special attention to Bristol and Boothbay.  On March 31st, just off Pemaquid Point, they captured five schooners on their way to Boston loaded with lumber. Prize crews were put aboard, but on April 2d, while becalmed just outside Boothbay Harbor, three boats with twenty men put off and recaptured one of the schooners. The record of the act exists, but who the actors were is now unknown.


Also see the Engagement Near Boothbay, Maine blog post.

The Treaty And John Quincy Adams

Source

A little sarcasm?:

"WHO has not heard of the triumphant result of the negotiations at Ghent? Who does not know that the glory of the triumph is claimed by John Quincy Adams? He is the intellectual giant who prostrated with ease the sophistry and the arguments the arts schemes and stratagems of a superannuated Admiral and two mere diplomatic machines."

John Quincy Adams diary* entry, October 30, 1814, mentioned the subject of fisheries:
Oct. 30.—...Mr. Gallatin proposes to renew the two articles of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the stipulation for our right to fish, and dry and cure fish, within the waters of the British jurisdiction, and the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi. To this last article, however, Mr. Clay makes strong objections. He is willing to leave the matter of the fisheries as a nest-egg for another war, but to make the peace without saying anything about it; which, after the notice the British have given us, will be in fact an abandonment of our right. Mr. Clay considers this fishery as an object of trifling amount; and that a renewal of the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi would be giving them a privilege far more important than that we should secure in return.  [Source]

*Available online at the Massachusetts Historical Society website

British Lieutenant Charles Hare

From Testimonials and memorials of the services of Lieut. Charles Hare, of the ...:

This is to Certify that Lieutenant Charles Hare, served under my orders in the command of H.M. Schooner Bream, when I was senior Officer commanding the Squadron in the Bay of Fundy, in Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen and Eighteen Hundred and Fourteen, stationed for protecting the frontier of New Brunswick, in the war with the United States of America. That the activity and enterprize displayed by Lieutenant Hare, in destroying the American coasting trade, and capturing their small Privateers between Boston and Saint John, was the admiration of Admiral Griffith, of Sir Philip Broke, of myself, and of every officer who knew him.
H. Le Fleming Senhouse, Commodore Bay Of Fundy

Mr. And Mrs. Bacon

Source

Historic Vincennes

A synopsis of Mrs. Lydia Bacon's story was found at the Central Michigan Library's Clarke Library's website (see excerpt below with added link):

Lydia Bacon (1786-1853) accompanied her husband, Josiah, a quartermaster, to his military assignment. She waited at Vincennes...for him to return from the Tippecanoe campaign along the Wabash, then left on horseback to go with her husband's regiment to Detroit. 

From The Detroit News:  

"Mrs. Bacon carried in a bag on the pommel of her saddle a Bible, a copy of Homer's "Iliad," and a "huge Spunge cake." She wrote letters to her 15-year-old sister Abby, her mother and friends in Boston, which later she collected as a memoir of her experiences during the War of 1812."

Petition For Punishment

From the History of the Town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass:

[Source]

July 8, 1814 

We the subscribers inhabitants of the town of Cheshire, supposing that you have the power to control or remove the British prisoners now located in Cheshire, think proper to state that they have conducted themselves in such a manner as to render their longer stay in this place highly improper.

Richmond Brown was one of the subscribers.