Concerns About The Calamities Of War

From Incidents in the life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana: with historical facts, his financial transactions with the government and his course on important political questions, from 1800 to 1855.

Also see Jacob Barker, Financier In The War blog post.

David Beard, Contracting Agent

Source

Governor and judges journal: proceedings of the Land board of Detroit:

"David Beard was a contracting agent for the army at Detroit as early as 1810. He also served in the war of 1812, Augustus Porter Esq., of New York State, being the contractor. In 1814 Beard had removed to New York to live and gave testimony in Hull's trial. During his residence in Detroit he purchased Peter Curry's farm, private claim 340."

Source

Job Wood

From the REPORTS OF COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ...:

April 7, 1832

Petition of Job Wood

That the said Wood enlisted into the United States army on the 8th of February, 1813, to serve during the war; That from the records of the War Department it appears the said Wood, on the 30th of April 1814, belonged to Lieutenant [George] Helmbold's roll of invalids at Greenbush, and on the 30th of June, 18l4, he is returned as belonging to Capt. Fuller's detachment of invalids at Pittsfield.... .

Heard In A Niagara Tavern

An excerpt from A Study Of Disaffection In Upper Canada 1812-15, by Colonel Cruikshank, online, from the Brock Univesity library collection, below (slow loading PDF file):

"...while he was in a tavern at Niagara in 1807, he [Christian Schultz] heard a man say in the presence of ten or twelve others who gave no sign of disapproval that 'if Congress [of the United States] will only send us a flag and a proclamation declaring that whoever is found in arms against the United States shall forfeit his lands, we will fight ourselves free without any expense to them."'

General Ebenezer Huntington

Source

"After the war, in 1792, he was appointed Major-General of the State militia, which office he held for thirty years. In 1799, when a war with France was anticipated, he received from President Adams the appointment of Brigadier-General in the U. S. army. He served also in the war of 1812. In 1810, and in 1817, he was elected a member of Congress. He died in 1834. Mrs. Sigourney describes him as having 'a fine figure,with military carriage, and a countenance, which was considered a model of manly beauty.' She speaks of the 'elegant manners,' and 'decision of character,' which 'were conspicuous in him, and unimpaired by age.'"  [Source]



Letters Received By The Office Of The Adjutant General, 1805-1821, including a letter written by Ebenezer Huntington:

Source

General Huntington played a more prominent role in the Revolutionary War, although the bio above stated that he also served in the War of 1812.

Per Wikipedia:

Ebenezer was born on December 26, 1754 in Norwich, Connecticut to Jabez and Elizabeth (Backus) Huntington. The Backus family was a prominent family from the area who's heirs would found Backus Hospital. His brothers Jedediah, Andrew, and Joshua also served during the revolution.[1]

Note:  He was a Backus descendant, as am I.

James Eutrican At The Soldier's Home

Index To The Miscellaneous Documents Of The House Of Representatives [1883]....:

Source

Source

James Eutrican is listed on this site (about the Dayton, Ohio, Soldier's Home).  He died in 1881 according to FindAGrave.

Post War - Manifest Destiny

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A question was posed at Answers.com: "How was the War of 1812 a precursor to Manifest Destiny?"

After the war of 1812 the growth of nationalism was rapid and was reflected both in the legislative program of the federal government and in the Supreme Court decisions of John Marshall.

Source

Educated At The Military Academy

A list of officers in the army of the United States who hold brevet commissions for gallant conduct in battle, and for other causes, from American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and ..., Part 5, Volume 2, by United States. Congress:

Damages At Fort Bowyer

Fort Bowyer Morphed To Fort Morgan

Congressional serial set, Issue 210:

"...the commanding officer had said store-house demolished, in order that it might not afford to the invaders a shelter."

"Your petitioner, Benjamin S. Smoot, of Mobile, Alabama, represents that he was sutler to the second regiment of the United States' infantry, from 1809 to 1815; that he, with his partner in business, Dennison Darling, erected, about the year 1813, at fort Bowyer, a store-house... ."

Baldwin County, Alabama's Guide to the Records of Miscellaneous Court Records Collection included the following:

"Benjamin Stoddart Smoot’s name appears in several of the early documents. The young Smoot arrived in the area in the early 1800s and was appointed the Baldwin County sheriff. He married a daughter of Samuel Mims who was killed in the 1813 Fort Mims massacre and during the subsequent Creek Indian War he served on Andrew Jackson’s staff."

Claims From Washington Burning

Digested Summary and Alphabetical List of Private Claims which ..., Volume 2

List of Private Claims Presented to the House Of Representatives....

Categories (most):

Name of claimant, Nature or Object of the Claim, How Brought to Representatives, No. or Date of the Report, How Disposed

The first example:

Hodge, George - Indemnity For Loss By The Burning Of Washington

Colonel Joseph Cilley

Memoirs and services of three generations...Cilley:

Joseph Cilley, at his election to the Senate, was an old man. Not only broken and shattered by the contests of three-score years and ten, but by the strife of his country s battlefields, in which he had borne gallant part. He was with Scott and Miller in all the bloody conflicts of the Canadian border in the war of 1812; and from those fields he had come with but one eye left, and his body weighted with the leaden bullets of his country's enemy.

There's more biographical information about Joseph Cilley here.

From Fold3:

Shrieks At Hampton

"THE WAR OF 1812: Writings from America's Second War of Independence" 

From Campaigns of the war of 1812-15:

"A Select Committee of Congress...say in their report: 'The shrieks of the innocent victims of infernal lust at Hampton [Virginia] were heard by the American prisoners, but were too weak to reach the ears or disturb the repose of British officers, whose duty as men required them to protect every female whom the fortune of war had thrown into their power."'

The Court Martial Of Major Chunn

Extract from the explanation of Major John Thomas Chunn's Court Martial:

Source

Fort Harrison Circled

Major Chunn, who was the commandant at Fort Harrison, died September 9, 1847, in Vigo County, Indiana.

Nancy Agnew And Others

From the United States. Congres. House. Committee on Claims. Published in Washington, D.C., D. Green, 1833.

...for the destruction of the property of George Agnew, the husband of one of the petitioners, and the father of the other petitioners; taken by the British and Indians in the year 1812, at the river Raisin.

The War Was Over; The Hornet And The Penguin Hadn't Heard The News

One of the holdings of the University of Michigan's Clements Library:


Title: HM Sloop Penguin collection
"Abstract: The HM Sloop Penguin collection contains watercolor illustrations, photographs, a crew member's letter, and a journal...".

"The USS Hornet captured the 20-gun cruiser on March 23, 1815, near the island Tristan da Cunha, over a month after Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war. The Penguin and the Hornet were, however, stationed in one of the most remote areas of the Atlantic Ocean and had not yet heard the news."


From Description of American Medals:

Source

Heirs Of Jean Baptiste Couture

Congressional Serial Set and the heirs of Jean Baptiste Couture:

"That this is one of the River Raisin claims. The proofs as to the occupation of the buildings for which the petitioner claims compensation, by order of an officer of the United States, and of their destruction by enemy at the time, and in consequence of such occupation, are the same in the case of Hubert La Croix...".

"The petitioner claims compensation for the loss of a dwelling house, store or lumber house, stable and a bake or washing house, and also for destruction of some personal property."

An Unintended Sacrifice

1812 Working Replica Boat - YouTube

From Historic Pittsburgh:

"Mr. [Brintnall] Robbins was not only unfortunate in his ship building venture, but he also never recovered payment for the boats which he built to carry General Scott's troops across the Niagara into Canada, during the War of 1812.  He died at Greensburg, Pa., in 1837." [Source]

Colonel King's Court Martial

William King was also a Military Governor of West Florida.....

Fort King Was Named For Colonel William King

A list of officers in the army of the United States who hold brevet commissions for gallant conduct in battle, and for other causes, from American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and ..., Part 5, Volume 2, by United States. Congress:

In the matter of "the court-martial, in the trial of Colonel William King, of the fourth infantry...".

Major General Andrew Jackson was involved, too, sending an order from Headquarters Division of the South, Nashville, on September 2, 1819.  The court-martial was ordered to convene at Fort Charlotte, Mobile, Alabama Territory.  On October 5, 1819, it was learned that yellow fever "was then raging" according to an October 25th report, in Mobile.  The court-martial participants then removed to cantonment Montpelier (in Alabama) where they arrived on November 18th.

Captain Francis L. Dade was a supernumerary member of the court-martial board.....he had an unfortunate history with Florida, too.

A summary of William King's court-martial can be found here.

Source

General Alexander Macomb, Samuel Champlain's Surety

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AT THE SECOND SESSION ...

...Major General Macomb became one of the sureties of Samuel Champlain, lieutenant of artillery, in a bond to the United States as a paymaster of the army;...a suit has been instituted against the memorialist and is now pending against him in the name of the United Stales for the recovery of the sum of $10,000. 

A character reference:

Source

Embarked In Smuggling

The war of 1812 was not wholly popular with the inhabitants of the coast towns of Maine. The embargo Act of April 4, and the declaration of war against Great Britain by Congress June 18, 1812, brought matters to a head. The maritime interest could only see ruin and disaster ahead.

Many of our people went into privateering, others embarked in smuggling, or the importation of contraband goods. I am inclined to think that many United State soldiers would fight a British soldier, who would be very tender towards British goods. The State was full of British goods from St. Croix to Kittery. All kinds of schemes were invented to get them into Maine. It has been stated that both governments winked at the violation of the laws relating to goods contraband of war. [Source]


From the Press-Herald:

"A letter in Canada's national archives shows that Porter [who was engaged in "questionable" trade] openly tried to negotiate an illegal trade agreement with military officials in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He offered $50,000 as security if they would allow one of his privateers to bring flour, beef and pork to Canada and fake the "capture" of British goods to be brought to the United States."

'"I don't believe they ever answered him," Smith said.'

Privateers in a book review at this blog.