Overview Of The Pre-War Years

From an exhibit at the Cumberland Island National Park Service Museum:

See an online War of 1812 Timeline.

Witherow Journal At Penn State

From the Penn State University Libraries' Digital Collection's Military Finding Aid:

1814 - 32 pages [Google Description]
A photocopied military duty journal kept by John Witherow during his tour in the War of 1812. The April 1814 entries note that volunteers joined the fleet headed for Put-in-Bay to bring down the British ships Queen Charlotte and Detroit. Other entries describe Witherow's activities in Buffalo and crossing into Canada. The journal is signed "John Withrow Junr." Included with the journal is a typescript transcription made by Joseph E. Walker.

Fort Norfolk

Fort Norfolk Image From YouTube

Fort Norfolk, From Humble Beginnings, a YouTube video.

Crippling The Enemy's Horses

From the Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2012 Archive, the story of a Canadian who wouldn't give aid and comfort to the enemy (in this case the Americans).

"Many people still mistakenly think that nothing much happened in Grimsby (which was then called The Forty) during the War of 1812."

"When the Americans passed through The Forty...they stopped...and forced [George] Pettit to shoe their horses. Pettit...was hostile toward the enemy troops, so he trimmed the American horses' hoofs badly so that they were lamed.  The angry Americans took Petitt prisoner.... ."

Note: My Howard ancestors were living in Grimsby before 1820; it is unknown whether any of them were living there during the War of 1812.

Captain Rhea's Letter

Source

Who was Captain Rhea?

In the midst of the agitation Captain Nathan Heald was transferred from the command at Fort Wayne to the post at Fort Dearborn [Chicago]. In his stead came Captain James Rhea, who arrived in the spring of 1810. The weakness of character of the new commandant under the trying conditions which were soon to surround the little garrison of the fort in the wilderness, might have proved of frightful consequence but for the bravery and intelligence of the subordinate military and civil authorities within the stockade.

Rhea was a native of New Jersey, and a lieutenant and adjutant of "Rhea's Levies" in 1791. He was ensign and second lieutenant of infantry in 1799, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1800.  He was commissioned a captain in 1807.

Rhea, after serving under Wayne, had been in command of a post established by Wayne below Swan creek, which empties into the Maumee, in Ohio.

From The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana:...,

General Harrison's Movements

Source

From The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana: A Review of Two ..., Volume 1, by Bert Joseph Griswold, Mrs. Samuel R. Taylor.

Fort Norfolk In Ontario

In 1812 Fort Norfolk was built at Charlotteville, of which nothing but the trenches remain.  This was a stake fort, the walls consisting of a double row of pointed stakes, the two rows being several feet apart, and the space between filled in with earth.  At the close of the war the fort was abandoned, and nothing more than the irregular trench marks its location.  From Ontario History

The District Capital for all of south-central Ontario, known as the London District, was placed near Vittoria in 1800 and then the no-longer existing town of Charlotteville nearby in Norfolk and finally returned to Vittoria in 1815. During the War of 1812, Fort Norfolk on the bluffs guarded the hinterland behind. [Source]