Portrait Of General Lewis Cass

A portrait of Lewis Cass from a book by Major John Richardson, Richardson's War of 1812:

Working With Re-Enactors On PBS

From PBS and Working with re-enactors on the War of 1812 program that airs October 9th at 9 p.m. EST:

"For most scenes, we opted for concentrating more on faces: James Madison at his desks, composing his war letter to Congress; the general William Hull cowering in the corner during the attack on Fort Detroit.  Two characters in particular emerged as the faces of this war – the British foot soldier, Shadrach Byfield, and the Kentucky rifleman, William Atherton."

Major Adam Muir - British Commander Of Detroit

From Pioneer Collections, Volume 4, by the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan (recollections of Aura P. Stewart of St. Clair County, Michigan):

Detroit after its surrender was put in command of Major Muir of the British army.  He was a perfect gentleman and treated the citizens with kindness and respect.

From A History of the Services of the 41st (the Welch) Regiment, (now 1st ...):

A biographical piece of Adam Muir here.  Muir was on the Prize List Awarded for the Capture of Detroit.

Shadrach Byfield

 Shadrach Byfield, a soldier in the War of 1812, was born in England in 1789 and was living in the town of his birth in 1841 with his wife Sarah.  Sarah was a widow by 1851. Shadrach, who was a member of the 41st Regiment of Foot, was wounded at the Battle of the River Raisin.

Byfield wrote a Narrative about his experiences in the War of 1812 (also here):

Moses Felt

From the Felt Genealogy, Moses Felt (1793 - 1873):

He served as a minute man in the War of 1812, and was present at the Battle of Plattsburgh, and drew a pension from the government the last years of his life.

The Fighting Race

Excerpts from The Glories of Ireland:

 In America, the War of 1812 once more gave opportunity to the Fighting Race.  [My Irish genes love that description]

The commanding figure of the war, which opened so inauspiciously for the United States, was General Andrew Jackson, the hero of the battle of New Orleans, and afterwards twice elected President of the United States. "Old Hickory", as he came to be lovingly called, was proud of his Irish father, and sympathized with the national longings of the Irish people.

After Commodore Perry, the victor in the battle of Lake Erie, and himself the son of an Irish mother, the northern naval glory of the War of 1812 falls to Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough, of Irish descent, whose victory on Lake Champlain over the British squadron was almost as important as Perry's. Admiral Charles L. Stewart {"Old Ironsides"), who commanded the frigate Constitution when she captured the Cyane and the Levant, fighting them by moonlight, was a great and renowned figure. His parents came from Ireland, and Charles Stewart Parnell's mother was the great sea-fighter's daughter.

Captain Andrew Wesbrook

From St. Clair County, Michigan....

Before the war with England he was a wealthy farmer and business man residing near the Moravian town on the River Thames in his immediate neighborhood there lived one Major Tawsby* who was an aspirant for government favors.  At the breaking out of the war the British government took immediate steps to organize the militia of Canada and at such organization Tawsby received a major's commission and Wesbrook was offered a captain's commission under Tawsby which he indignantly refused.  Wesbrook was born in the state of New York and his sympathies were with the American cause and he on the appointment of his enemy Tawsby determined to leave Canada and join the Americans he had counted the consequences of this act; and knowing that the confiscation of his valuable property would follow, he collected his goods together and all that he could not remove he burned with his house and barn.  On Wesbrook's arrival in Detroit he stated his case to Governor Hull and received a captain's commission and was found to be a very useful man in the commissary department in collecting supplies for the troops. *Probably Sikes Tousley

From the Dictionary of Canadian Biography online:

WESTBROOK, ANDREW, businessman and office holder; b. 1771 in Massachusetts, son of Anthony Westbrook and Sarah Decker; m. four times, to Sally Hull, Nancy Thorn, Margaret Ann Crawford, and a woman whose name has not been determined; he had at least 14 children; d. 1835 in St Clair County, Mich.

  Captain Wesbrook was the subject of a book by Major John Richardson.