The Boasters Hurried To Leave Detroit

South Of Detroit And North Of Lake Erie

From Pioneer Collections...(recollections of Aura P. Stewart of St. Clair County, Michigan):

"On entering Smith's Hotel, he saw a number of British officers seated around a table drinking whiskey and discussing the probabilities of success to the British arms.  One of their number, a civil officer, after filling his glass and elevating it high, said, 'God will bless the British arms, and I drink to the success of our brave seamen now engaged.'  At that speech o the British official, father said he became excited, and knowing that he could gain no satisfaction by replying left the house in disgust; but soon after Mr. Truax returned from Malden and brought the glad news of Perry's victory [on Lake Erie]; it was then amazing to see the boasters hurry to get over the Detroit river."

In Search Of The Enemy

[Partial] Scene Of The Naval Operations - Great Lakes

Map and information taken from A history of the United States Navy, from 1775 to 1893; ...:


After equipping their vessels the Americans cruised several days between Erie and the Canadian shore in search of the enemy, but Commander Barclay had put into Malden to await the completion of the 19-gun ship Detroit. On the 9th of August Master-Commandant Jesse D. Elliott arrived at Erie with one hundred men and was assigned to the Niagara, and three days later the American squadron put to sea in a double line of battle.

The Third Great Blunder

[General] Hull directed Captain Van Horn to cross to Detroit with two hundred men and go to Brush's relief.  This was the third great blunder of the campaign; the loss of the Cuyahoga being the first and the failure to capture Malden the second.

 If Brush's two hundred men were in peril would not Van Horn's two hundred men be in equal peril in going to their relief? [Source - links added]

Fourth Infantry With Hull

Source

1812. 

During the months of May and June the Fourth Infantry, forming part of the army under General Hull, was on the march from Ohio to Detroit. 

July 12, the Fourth Infantry, with the army, crossed the Detroit river into Canada, and encamped at Sandwich, on the east bank of the Detroit river, two miles below Detroit, with the professed object of marching upon the British post at Maiden, about thirteen miles from Sandwich. [Source]

Francais X. Goulet Served

From the Kent County, Ontario, Canada's Historical Society's Papers:

The family traditions generally fix the arrival of Francais Xavier Goulet there [Kent County, Ontario, Canada] and the beginning of his settlement duties on his allotment of lot 154 from Col. Talbot about a year or two earlier or about 1817 or 1818. As the surveyor of the district, Mahlon Burwell had only reached the last lot now in Tilbury on this road and encamped on this spot where the American Colonel Holmes bivouacked in the war of 1812 during the year 1817... .

Francais X. appears to have left his home at St. Jacques de l'Achigan, Montcalm Co. Que. early in the year 1812. His father writes him under date of May 21th. 1812 in a letter addresser "au detroit" beseeching him to return and that his mother was grieved and worried over his absence. President
Madison's proclamation of war soon followed his departure from his French Canadian home and we find the young man at le detroit enlisted with the British forces and serving at Fort Meigs, Riviere au Raisin and Fort Malden. For this service he received a medal from the British government.

Early Amherstburg And Fort Malden

Source

"A paper on the history of Fort Malden would hardly be complete without a short account of the place where it was originally built. Amherstburg has been called a town for more than a hundred years and is therefore nearly as old as the original fort. It is today, and has been for many years, a unique town in some respects, the situation is beautiful overlooking the entrance to the Detroit River...".

"The name of the town is decidedly English, whilst in another respect it is characteristic of a town in the Province of Quebec, It has a considerable French population...".

"After the evacuation of Detroit in 1796, many of the British civil and military removed to Amherstburg."

"On the 24th of August 1908, Earl Grey, Governor General of Canada, visited Amherstburg and was shown the remains of the Fort Malden."

"...a number of United Empire Loyalists ex-members of Butler's regiment of Rangers formed a settlement in the vicinity of the present town of Amherstburg. Among the settlers were the Caldwells... .  Captain Caldwell had command of the company of Butler's Rangers in the war of 1812." [Source]

Early Amherstburg

Source

"...to search the title to Lot No. 11, First Street, or Lot No. 3 on Dalhousie Street, in the Town of Amherstburg.  This lot fronts on what is still known as Dalhousie Street, the main street in the town, and on the southeast corner of said street and Gore Street, and about ____ yards from the remains of the old fort.  I found that this lot, or rather a portion of it, was conveyed by deed dated July 22nd, 1799, by Richard Pattinson and Co., of Sandwich, merchants, and is described as 'the undivided half....being in the Town near the Garrison of Amherstburg, and containing 30 feet in front by 120 feet in depth, with the dwelling-house and stable erected thereon.'  In the deed which follows this, dated 23rd September, 1808, from Robert Innes to William Duff... ." [Source]

"...three different forts had been constructed, or partly constructed, at Amherstburg at different times, and that the first was officially known as Fort Amherstburg, the second was known both as Fort Amherstburg and as Fort Malden, and that the third, constructed subsequent to 1837, bore the name Fort Malden." [Source]

Journal's August Entries

Earlier View Of Quebec

Excerpts from a Journal of an American Prisoner at Fort Malden and Quebec in the War of 1812:

[August]

16th.—Sunday. Pleasant weather but unpleasant news we herd about noon that Hull had given up Detroit and the whole Territory Mitchigan. The Indians began to return about sunset well mounted and some with horses and chais. Who can express the feelings of a person who knows that Hull had men enough to have this place three times and[19] gave up his post. Shame to him, shame to his country, shame to the world. When Hull first came to Detroit the 4th U. S. Regt. would have taken Malden and he with his great generalship has lost about 200 men and his Territory[29].

Can he be forgiven when he had command of an army of about 2500 men besides the Regulars and Militia of his Territory and given up to about 400 regular troops and Militia and about 700 Indians.

17th.—Monday. Clouday. The news of yesterday was confirmed. The Indians were riding our horses and hollowing and shouting the whole day.

18th.—The Provo Marshal[30] came on board and wanted a list of the Regular Troops, and told us that the Regular Troops[31] were prisoners of war and the militia had liberty to go home. We were taken from the Schooner Thames and put into a little Schooner but every attention paid us that was possible. In the evening we were ordered on[20] board the Elinor. Their was a detachment of prisoners joined us.

19th.—Wensday. Pleasant. I got provisions and medicines on board. The other vessels came from Detroit. Nothing extraordinary through the day.

20th.—Thursday. Rainy. Unpleasant on board. The militia left the river.

21st.—Friday. We drifted out of the river into the Lake. Capt. Brown and Ensign Phillips came on board.

22nd.—Saterday. Clouday but no rain. We sailed to the Three Sisters and lay to for the Sharlott[32], and about 12 o'clock we came to ancor.

Rendezvous At Georgetown

William B. Northcutt Journal

"Both [William Northcutt and probably Robert Harrison, his teacher] volunteered in the army and the school broke up, he volunteered in Maurice Langhorn's company of Rifle Men for six months and I volunteered in Capt. Garrard's troop of twelve months Light Dragoons, and was attached to Jas V. Ball's Squadron of United States Light Dragoons, on the 20th of August 1812 we rendezvoused at Georgetown Scot County Ky and took up our line of March for Malden Upper Canada.  There were three Ridgements [regiments] of.....".

Some Northcutt Family information was contained in William's Journal (ancestors here).

Fort Malden And Amherstburg

Source

Fort Malden and Amherstburg in 1812

From The Original Painting By Catherine Reynolds

Mahlon Burwell, His Capture And His Map

The colonization survey of the Talbot Road was made by Mahlon Burwell, a resident of Dunwich, who lived...near the home of Col. Thos. Talbot. Burwell surveyed from the Niagara to the Detroit. 

He made a map and plan of Malden in time to give Gen. Proctor when on his way to Ft. Malden during that war. Letters to surveyors, Generals and other officials show he was at Niagara 1812-1813. In 1814 a small body of American soldiers ravaged the Pt. Talbot settlement, and Mahlon Burwell was carried off a prisoner.  [Source]

See more about Mahlon Burwell's capture at the Elgin Historical Society's website.  

General Harrison's Army Crosses Lake Erie

He had plans to cross on September 23, 1813 (see letter excerpted below).

Source

From Indiana History's images:

A letter from General Harrison to Secretary of War Armstrong dated September 22, 1813, from Bass Island [in Lake Erie] indicated that:

"The greater part of the troops are here with me and the whole will I believe be up by twelve oclock.  I shall proceed as far as the middle sister up the course of tonight & tomorrow& in the following night get or near the enemies coast as to land two or three miles below Malden by eight o'clock in the morning... ."

See a map of General Harrison's troop movements.

Daniel Dobbins, Great Lakes Mariner

Per Wikipedia:  Daniel Dobbins (1776 - 1856) was "a sailing master in the United States Navy and captain in the United States Revenue Cutter Service. He fought in the War of 1812 and was in charge of the building of the ships* at Erie, Pennsylvania...".   *Building The Fleet In The Wilderness

Jim's Photo Of Mackinac Island In The Distance

Captain Dobbins was at Mackinac Island on board his vessel, the Salina, July 16, 1812, when he learned that war had been declared.  He was made a prisoner of war the same day by the British forces there. With sixty other Americans Captain Dobbins was asked to take the oath of allegiance to the British government and swear not to take up arms against Britain. This Dobbins refused to do. Among the British officials there was a petty officer by the name of Wilmoth, who knew Dobbins, with the result that he was allowed to depart with his vessel as a cartel, to take his fellow prisoners to Malden. [Source]

Source

The Buffalo [New York] History Museum has the Daniel Dobbins Collected papers.

See the US Brig Niagara sailing past Dobbins Landing in Erie, PA, on YouTube and an historical profile of Captain Daniel Dobbins here on YouTube.

A biography of Captain Dobbins can be found here, in the Encyclopedia of the War of 1812.

Major Amos Spafford

Major Amos Spafford

The Spafford Family (Amos Spafford and Olive Barlow) of Perrysburg, Ohio.  

A story about the escavations at the Amos Spafford farm here (full article here):
"The farm was destroyed, along with other family farms, when the British and Indians from Fort Malden, Canada, lead by Captain Peter Latouche Chambers and Shawnee chief Tecumseh, invaded the settlement in August 1812 after the fall of Detroit." 

A 23 January 1812 letter from Major Amos Spafford to Governor Return Jonathan Meigs (transcript here).

Impetus For War

Source

The great mass of the American people hungered for more territory, and they longed to humiliate England by driving her from the Valley of the St. Lawrence, and raising the stars and stripes over every stronghold from Fort Malden to Quebec. [Source]

Also see Aiming For The Conquest of Canada blog post.

Both Sides Of The Detroit River

Map of Detroit River circa 1812, showing both the Canadian and American sides from the Robert Lucas journal.

Source

Which Country Owned Bois Blanc?

"After the War of 1812 the question was again raised...".

From The Northwest under three flags, 1635-1796:

Entering the Detroit River on the 11th of July, 1796, they discovered first a few widely scattered houses set along the low lying shores, but as they progressed they found clustered about the new British post some twenty houses in all stages of completion. The region [in Canada] was known as the district of Malden, but as yet the name of Amherstburg had not been given to the town, and for months it was known simply as the new British post and town near the island of Bois Blanc, an island by the way that was claimed to be within the United States, greatly to the disturbance of Governor Simcoe (3).

(3) The ownership of the island was not settled until after the treaty of Ghent in 1817.  After the War of 1812 the question was again raised.--War Department MSS.:  Protest of Colonel Anthony Butler, July 1, 1815; and Andrew J. Dallas to Colonel Butler, May 31, 1815.

Which country owned Bois Blanc after 1817?  Canada.

Battle Of Maguaga

From The War of 1812 Website:

On the afternoon of August 9th the Americans arrived at the Indian [Wyandot] village of Maguaga [now Trenton, Michigan]. The column was surprised and ambushed by Tecumseh who had about 70 warriors with him, 60 Canadian Militia and a detachment of 75 British regulars from the 41st Regiment. This force was under the command of Major Adam Muir. In the confusion of the battle the British mistakenly fired at the Indians on their right flank. Facing heavy American fire power the British were forced to withdraw making their way quickly to the boats they retreated back to Fort Malden.
The battle as described at Wikipedia.

From The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812; Or, Illustrations:

The battle from the Canadian point of view.

From War And Game

War And Game's post, Go March To Canada.

Fort Malden

From Ontario History, Fort Malden, called Fort Amherstburg on this early map.

The fort was on the Canadian side of the Detroit River across from Bois Blanc Island (also known as Boblo).
(The island was used by Tecumseh in the War of 1812).