Wingate's Ohio Militia Roster

Alexander A. Meek To General Gano

Alexander A. Meek To General John S. Gano 

Headquarters Upper Sandusky Jany 18th, 1813.

My worthy old friend

Genl. Harrison ordered us on here from Franklinton some time since of which I advised you. We left there on New Years day... .  Genl. Harrison & his suit left here this morning for Lower Sandusky. We march this day for the rapids of the Maumee ... .

There is now here about 2500 Men which I expect will follow us in a few days. This place & Delaware has been very sickly — three buried here yesterday.

I cannot help expressing my great pleasure at the beauties of this country, the plains of Sandusky are the most beautiful my eyes ever beheld, they are in every respect elegant.

Hull Was Assured By The Government

Ohio Swamp (Similar To Terrain General Hull's Army Encountered)

Source

Source

Another Eyewitness Account

"As the enemy were throwing large numbers of cannon-balls into the fort from their batteries, Harrison offered a gill of whiskey for every one delivered to the magazine-keeper, Thomas L. Hawkins.  Over one thousand gills were thus earned by the soldiers."

"An eyewitness (Reverend A. M. Lorraine) relates that one of the militia took his station on the embankment, watched every shot, and forewarned the garrison thus: 'Shot,' or 'bomb,' as the case might be: sometimes 'Block-house No.1, ' or 'Look out, main battery,' 'Now for the meat-house,' 'Good-by, if you will pass.'  At last a shot hit him and killed him instantly." [Source]

Urbana To Detroit

From Urbana to the rapids of the Miami of the Lakes, the country belongs to the Indians, and is entirely destitute of roads.

Wood Splinter From Hull's Corduroy Or Log Road Built In 1812
To Transport General Hull's army to Detroit

From the rapids to Detroit, along Lake Erie and Detroit river, are various settlements, principally of French Canadians.

An 1812 Headquarters At Urbana, Ohio

Forts or block-houses have been erected and garrisoned in most of these ceded tracts since the declaration of war, but at the time that the country was traversed by general Hull s detachment, no civilized being was to be seen between Urbana and the rapids, a distance of at least 120 miles. [Source]

A Harrowing Experience For Rachel Knaggs

An excerpt from the History of the Knaggs family:

Source

FindAGrave memorial for Rachel Knaggs.

War-Swept Valley Of The Maumee

Fort Meigs, Perrysburg, Ohio

Prospect Of Winter Clothing

A journal ... (Elias Darnell's Journal):

"[Oct.] 27th. In consequence of Gen. Winchester's receiving information, he issued an order respecting clothing, which will show a flattering prospect of being supplied, an extract of which is as follows:—'General Orders.—Fort Winchester, Oct. 27,1812. With great pleasure the General announces to the army the prospect of an early supply of winter clothing, amongst which are the following articles exported from Philadelphia on the 9th of September last, viz. 10,000 pairs of shoes, 5,000 blankets, 5,000 round jackets, 5,000 pairs of pantaloons, woollen cloth, to be made and forwarded to the westward immediately; besides the winter clothing for Col. Wells's regiment some days before; 1,000 watch-coats, ordered from Philadelphia the 7th of October, 1812. September 24th, 5,000 blankets and 1,000 yards of flannel. 25th, 10,000 pairs of shoes. 29th, 10,000 pairs of woollen hose, 10,000 do. socks. Yet a few days and the General consoles himself with the idea of seeing those whom he has the honor to command clad in warm woollen, capable of resisting the northern blasts of Canada.'

J. Winchester,

"Brigadier-Gen. Commanding Left Wing N. W. Army."

Fort Winchester

Information from Darnell's Journal:

[Oct.]19th. The fort was finished and christened "Fort Winchester" It is composed of four block-houses, a hospital and storehonse, and picketed between each block-house, containing about a quarter of an acre.

Fort Winchester is situated near the point between the Maumee and Auglaze rivers, and is a handsome place; it is predicted by some to become in a few years a populous city. The greater part of the land in the adjacent country is rich, and when improved will be equal, if not superior, to any in the western country. The Auglaze River empties into Great Miami, which runs a north course to Fort Winchester, and is navigable a considerable distance. [Source]

"We visited the site of Fort Winchester a little above Defiance on the bank of the Au Glaize and found the remains of many of the pickets protruding from the ground. Across a ravine just above the fort was the garrison burying ground."  "...obtained a comprehensive view of the two streams at their confluence the site of the fort and the village of Defiance." [Source - Also Source of Illustration Below]

"During the War of 1812 Gen Winchester built a picketed fort here on the hank of the Auglaize a short distance south of the other fort [Defiance] and called it Fort Winchester where he was encamped till he left for Michigan." [Source]

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]

Try To Become A Seargeant Or Corporal

From The Sherrard Family Of Steubenville:

"After Captain Peck got home, my brother John wrote to us from camp at Fort Stephenson, suggesting that if any of us were drafted we had better try to secure a position as sergeant, or even as corporal, rather than come out as a private soldier, and under this persuasion I rode over to see Captain Peck, and inquired of him if there were any openings in his company for. sergeants." 

View Of The Fort's Remains

From The Sherrard Family Of Steubenville:


The next day [in 1824] I and Colonel Chambers went down to the town of Lower Sandusky, which was my first view of it, and it was a poor-looking town. It had two middling stores in it at the time, — one kept by a man named Umstead, and the other by a man named Sears. These stores carried on a constant trade with the Seneca Indians both on Sunday and every day in the week. As we went around the town, I was shown the place where Fort Stephenson once stood, at which place and around it my brother John and his comrades had spent three months in the campaign from the middle of February to the middle of May, 1813. But I could now see little signs of a fort, for the pickets had been cut down, and nothing remained but the stumps of them to show where the fort had been.

Fort Brown

Source: LOC

Fort Brown Historical Marker

"Fort Brown was situated on the banks of these rivers 

at the point to the right of the Bridge."

Source

Colorful Map Of Ohio Military Activity

Map near Fort Meigs

Headquartered At Put-in-Bay

Perry established his headquarters at Put-in-Bay, an indentation on the northern coast of South Bass Island, which lies some twenty miles north west of the present city of Sandusky, Ohio. Here he was in excellent position to watch the movements of the British fleet, which had retired to its headquarters at Amherstburg, some thirty miles northwestward of Put-in-Bay. He was also convenient to Harrison, who was at Seneca-town, thirty-five miles to the southward. [Source]

Lay In The Black Swamp

General Area Of The Black Swamp In Ohio (Source - LOC)

This rain in January, 1813, was very general, especially in the valley of the Mississippi, for our troops in the northwest under General Harrison at this time, lay in the Black Swamp, some twenty miles beyond Lower Sandusky, where, from the nature of the ground, it was with difficulty that the troops could find dry ground to stand on, much less to sleep on at night. The hardships endured by these men during that winter campaign were such as not only to try men's souls, but to try their mortal bodies also, for many of these brave men died on their way home, and many of them died a lingering death after they reached home, while many of them are still living, and have obtained a bounty land warrant, calling for eighty acres of land, which was obtained under a law passed September 28, 1850, and well they all deserved it, and much more had they got it. [Source]

Attempt On Blackhoof's Life

"During the War of 1813 Blackhoof, the celebrated Shawnee chieftain who was then living at Wapakoneta, paid a visit to the fort [McArthur] which was then under command of General Tupper. It was in January, 1813, and the chief was talking with some of the officers while seated by the fire one cold night, when suddenly someone pressed a gun close to the rough wall of the cabin and fired through a hole between the logs striking Blackhoof in the cheek. In the excitement that followed the would-be assassin escaped and was never captured, though strenuous efforts were made to find him. It was at first thought that Blackhoof was dead, as he fell from his seat, but he finally recovered from the severe wound. If prompt action had not been taken to denounce the deed and try to find the cowardly person who did the act, no doubt a general war between the Indians and soldiers would have been precipitated." [Source]

Grave Site Of Blackhoof Near Wapakoneta, Ohio

A Verse Commemorating Perry

Source

Nathaniel Champe And His Snare Drum

Source

Archive Grid listed the Nathaniel Champe papers, 1792-1870, as part of the Detroit Public Library's collection.

Biographical sketch of Champe, a soldier of the northwestern frontier during war of 1812, including information concerning revolutionary career of his father, John Champe... .

[Nathaniel Champe was]...born in Romney, Virginia in 1792; came to Detroit in June 1812, and served in the war of 1812. Was present at the surrender of Detroit by Hull served under McArthur and Harrison, and was honorably discharged in Chillicohe, Ohio, in the summer of 1815. On August 6, 1814, he married Almenia Thomas, who died in 1867. They lived in Detroit until 1853, when they removed to Onondaga, Michigan, where he died, February 13, 1870. They had 6 children.

Nathaniel Champe's mother's memorial at FindAGrave. Was Phebe Susan Barnard Champe related to Light Horse Harry Lee (a sister) as was stated in the article about instruments in American History? A perfunctory search did not reveal a familial relationship.

Brush Expedition

Source

"Thus armed and equipped, this patriotic company took up its lines of march on the morning of July 21, 1812, under the command of Captain Henry Brush, a distinguished lawyer from Chillicothe...".