First Lieutenant On The Constitution

The Charles Morris Papers are held at the University of Michigan's Clements Library:

"By the outbreak of the War of 1812, Morris was first lieutenant under Captain Isaac Hull on the Constitution. Morris famously aided in evading a British squadron by suggesting kedging and towing the Constitution; later he was badly wounded during the ship's battle with the HMS Guerriere, and received a promotion to captain for his efforts. After his recovery, he commanded the Adams in raiding expeditions against British merchant ships."

Gun From The Constitution On Display In Lexington, Missouri

For anyone with a penchant for early United States history, particularly that aspect which pertains to the Navy, the *autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris (1784-1856), a Connecticut native, cannot fail to be of engrossing interest. Only three of the prominent American naval commanders of the War of 1812 wrote memoirs: Morris, David Porter, and Thomas MacDonough. *Source

The "Prescription book of the U.S. Frigate Constitution ," within the Amos A. Evans collection, includes a description of Evans' treatment of Charles Morris' severe stomach wound. (Also at the Clements Library)

Meet Me In St. Louis

Portion Of Map With Mississippi River From Northern Illinois To Missouri

The aftermath of "The battle of Campbell's Island" in 1814:

Rector's boat with Campbell's men arrived at St. Louis first and when the news spread that Lieutenant Riggs and his men had been left on the Rock Island rapids, fighting the Indians, it was feared that all were captured by the Indians and when Riggs' boat later arrived at St. Louis on the twenty-sixth, there was great rejoicing and the occasion for a general jubilee. The entire company presented a distressing sight. Those not wounded were worn down to skeletons by labor and fatigue.

St. Louis Gardens

Keel Boats

Governor Clark, with several gentlemen who had accompanied him on the expedition, together with Captain John Sullivan and his company of militia whose term of office (sixty days) had expired, returned to St. Louis in one of the barges about the 13th of June, leaving Lieutenant Perkins in command, also leaving the two largest gunboats, one of which had been named "Governor Clark." Captain John Sullivan and Captain Yeizer were left in command of the boats.

Keel Boat Replica

These gun boats were nothing more than keel boats, strongly fortified, and supplied with six pounders and howitzers. The men being protected by a musket proof barricade.

Governor William Clark (From Portrait In St. Louis Museum)

Upon Governor Clark's return to St. Louis, he was tendered a public ovation, all of the citizen turning out and welcoming him as a hero, but subsequent information and events ruthlessly deprived him of his easily won military glory.

The last of June, Captain John Sullivan, with a company of militia and some volunteers whose term of service had expired, arrived in St. Louis with one gunboat. This left Lieutenant Perkins, with only sixty men, and the gunboat "Governor Clark," and her crew, commanded by Captain Yeizer. to guard the new fort.[Source]

Jackson Ordered To St. Louis

Andrew Jackson Statue In New Orleans

"Over in Missouri, however, Illinois Indians continued a constant warfare well into the year 1815, after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed and promulgated... .  They continued until the war department assigned Andrew Jackson to this department, with orders to report to St. Louis there to attach himself to the head of the troops he would find awaiting him and march against the Rock River Sacs... .  Duncan Graham, head of the British intriguers at that point, had formed a profound respect for Andrew Jackson, by reason of the New Orleans affair and other events, and without ceremony at once fled to Canada." [Source]

Campaigns Of The War Of 1812 (Southwest)

Source

War In The Missouri Territory

Battles that were part of the St. Louis theatre:


Battle of Cote Sans Dessein (1815) - Mo Terr.
Battle of the Sink Hole (1815) - Mo Terr.

General Bissell's Papers

Bissell's signature on a pre-war document dated 2 July 1806 from Fort Massac [...Army Inspector, St. Louis, Upper Louisiana]:

Source - Fold3

The Missouri History Museum houses the Daniel Bissell Papers.  The website included the following excerpt from General Bissell's biographical information:

"He was in command at Fort Massac [link added] on the Ohio River at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, and was sent to the Missouri Territory where he was appointed military commander of the territory, now in the state of Missouri and Illinois. By government order, he built Fort Bellefontaine and for several years (1809-1813) was its commandant." 

Bissell And The Louisiana Territory

Louisiana Territory

Upon the purchase of the province of Louisiana from France, President Jefferson appointed [Daniel] Bissell as military commander of that portion which today embraces the states of Missouri and Illinois. Promoted to colonel on August 15, 1812, and later to general on March 9, 1814, Bissell participated in the last engagement of the War of 1812, when he led the United States forces in the battle of Lyon’s Creek. After commanding posts at Mobile, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge in the South, Bissell retired from the Army in 1821. [Source]

Excerpt From Letter Sent By Bissell From Saint Louis, Missouri Territory (Fold3)

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

Old William Jack Haines

Source

Haines, William Jack, aged 110 years.  (Penna. Society)
Memorial Home, St. Louis, Mo.
Private
Served in Captain Gregory's Company, Tennessee Militia
Participated in Battle of New Orleans, Louisiana, January 8, 1815
[Born 25 December 1787]

Source

Census 1880

St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

Occupation: Engineer

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

Peter Sorenson Other M 39 Denmark

Henry Leyfried Other M 50 Germany

Peter Heffer Other M 26 Missouri

Ellen Haynes Other F 45 Tennessee

Frances Bennet Sister-in-law F 50 Virginia

Wm Haynes Other M 93 Tennessee

Ed R Darlow Other M 30 England

Died in Missouri on May, 1899, per FindAGrave?

Battle of Cote Sans Dessein

Source

"...at Cote Sans Dessein, Baptiste Louis Roi heroically resisted the attack of a large body of Indians on his cabin. Intrenched [sic] in his primitive 'castle,' he fired on..[them] with unerring aim as often as they approached, the women of his household keeping his rifles loaded and at his hand. He killed fourteen Indians before they withdrew, and it is not improbable that this was the bloodiest engagement of the war in this region. News of General Jackson's victory at New Orleans was received February 18, 1815, and the firing of a national salute and a general illumination of houses attested the joy of the people over the result of that memorable battle." [Source]*

Rangers from St. Louis came to their relief:

*"News of the conclusion of the treaty of peace with Great Britain was announced in St. Louis March 11, 1815."

Charles Gratiot Delivers

Source

Source

The beginning of Gratiot's War of 1812 experiences:

The day after his hearing of the Declaration of War against Great Britain, Captain Gratiot, being then at St. Louis visiting his parents during his leave of absence, immediately proceeded to Washington to ask for active service; and was at once appointed Chief Engineer of the North Western Army, with orders to stop en route at Pittsburg to aid in the preparation of ordnance and ordnance stores for General Harrison's forces then in the field. Not till November 1812, could Captain Gratiot and his escort of 300 men move, with the heavy train of twelve pieces of artillery and two hundred loaded vehicles, to Lower Sandusky through an almost trackless wilderness where a wheel had never rolled. After persistently overcoming winter's cold bad roads want of forage and numerous other difficulties, he delivered, January 5, 1813, his whole charge without even the loss of a bullet, to the Commander-in-Chief, who, soon after Winchester's defeat, directed Gratiot to join him without delay at Maumee Rapids. 

Details about the Gratiot family tree can be found here.

Abram R. Woolley

From A dictionary of all officers...:

First Commandant at the Allegheny Arsenal:

Source

1820 Court Martial:

Source

 

An account of a court martial of Lt. Col. A. R. Woolley at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.  He was dismissed for caning a soldier.

Lyon's Creek

Josiah Snelling, Jr. ....early developed a military taste and became a distinguished officer in the United States Army taking a prominent part in the battles of Tippecanoe, Brownstown, and Lyon's Creek.

This snippet from the Historical Society of Wisconsin [Draper] gave us the name of Captain Snelling's commanding officer:
"Captain [Snelling]...distinguished in the affair at Lyon's Creek under Gen Bissell... ." 

The Great River Road website [St. Louis area] featured an article on the General Daniel Bissell house that included the following:

"With the onset of the War of 1812...Bissell was...given command of the 5th Infantry and in 1814 he given a brevet promotion to brigadier-general and assigned a brigade in Izard's Right Division at Plattsburgh. He commanded this brigade throughout 1814 and won a tactical draw at the small action fought at Lyon's Creek or Cooks' Mills, Canada, on October 19, 1814."

Source

A Canadian perspective:

"That the enemy does not intend to leave the frontier is evident from the events of this day 18th when a large force was reported to be moving up Black Creek in the direction of Cook's Mills on Lyon's Creek. Sent the Glengarry Light Infantry and seven companies of the 82nd and on being informed that the enemy had passed Cook's Mills, sent the remaining three companies of the 82nd and the 100th regiment with orders to Myers to feel the enemy closely which he shall attack if not too strong."

Drummond to Prevost 20th October. Report of the retreat of the force from Cook's Mills without destroying the mills which might have been done on public grounds. The commanding officer (Bissell) has been very cautious about burning or plundering, probably admonished by the retaliation at Washington and on the coast.

David Thomson And Notes From The Show Me State

Search results for the term "1812" in the State Historical Society of Missouri and the Berry-Thomson-Walker Family papers here.

From the Berry-Thomson-Walker Collection: "Printed biography of David Thomson, Kentucky state senator, who was engaged for a time in transportation of goods on the Mississippi River and tributaries and was commissioned a general when he fought with Richard M. Johnson in the War of 1812. The work mentions slaves, milling, Richard M. Johnson, and family genealogy."


The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society included a biography of David Thomson here.

Some Events In The Life Of General Daniel Bissell

He was promoted to colonel in the Fifth Regiment and distinguished himself at Lyon's Creek (Cook's Mill).

After the war Daniel Bissell, then of Missouri, was nominated to be colonel of the second regiment of artillery:

Source

A court martial.

Post-War Problems In Major Chunn's Command

Major John T. Chunn was a Commandant at Fort Harrison.

There was no trouble with hostile Indians during the time of Major Chunn's command of the Fort. But in 1816 there was a scare. Reports came to the Fort of depredations by the Indians in Michigan and Northern Indiana, and the Fort was thronged with refugees. An autograph letter from Major Chunn to Mr. Gilbert, dated September 8, 1816, indicated possible danger, but no attack was made. During the succeeding years, 1817 and 1818, 1819 and 1820, even after the Fort had been abandoned by the garrison, there were these scares about the Indians. [Source]

A private under Major Chunn's command was Willis Copelan.  A page from Mr. Copelan's pension application file detailing his injury incurred with a keel boat on the Mississippi River bank:

Source:  Fold3

"While he was actually in the service aforesaid [a private in Brevt. Maj. John T. Chunn's company of the 3rd Regiment]...on the 15th of June being engaged in condeling a keel boat on the bank of the Mississippi near a place called St. Genevieve in the Territory of Missouri he received a fracture in his right thigh bone by falling from the top to the bottom of the Mississippi bank on a log.... ". 1 August 1817

William Bush In A Missouri Company

The Missouri Digital Heritage site contains some soldiers' records from 1812.

Line #9 (not shown above):
 BUSH, WILLIAM B.  War of 1812  Capt. Peter Craig's Company


"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. This company did very much service during these Indian troubles and fought the famous battle of the Sink Hole."  William B. Bush was named as a private. [Source]

See a bio of James L. Bush, son of William B. Bush.

Captain Gray And The River Raisin

Photo By Jim Taken During A Visit To The River Raisin Battlefield

From the Examiner, an article about Kentuckians who fought for Michigan at the Battle of the River Raisin.  An excerpt from the article:

Joye Evetts’ fourth Great-Grandfather was Captain Patrick Gray. He was born in 1764 in Augusta County, Va. and died February 27, 1813, in military service. He commanded one of the two full companies of soldiers raised in Jessamine County, Kentucky, to fight in the War of 1812. Gray’s company was part of Lewis’ Kentucky Volunteers who fought at the Battle of the River Raisin.

See a post about Oliver Anderson who was in Patrick Gray's Co.

Oliver Anderson

In the Oliver Anderson biography at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site in Missouri, it was noted that:

"Oliver Anderson was born Feb. 15, 1794, in Nicholasville, Ky....by the age of 16 or 17, had already established an extensive trade with New Orleans by means of flat boats, returning to Kentucky on foot."

Though a youth at the time, Oliver Anderson was a member of Capt. Patrick Gray's Company of Kentucky Volunteers in the War of 1812 and helped build Fort Defiance in Ohio. He was also wounded and made a prisoner at Frenchtown on the River Raisin, but made his escape from the British forces. [Source]

Around 1850, Oliver Anderson moved to Lexington, Missouri; his wife, Mary, had died in 1847.

In the fall of 1861, the war came into Anderson's home. The Union army, which had occupied the Masonic College in Lexington and surrounded it with defenses, now claimed Anderson's house for use as a field hospital.