Nathan Chappell, Aged Soldier

Collections - State Historical Society Of Wisconsin, 1880, 1881, 1882

Nathan Chappel's memorial at FindAGrave (details are a bit off; the date of death listed is January 12, 1880, and age listed as 92).

Nathan Chappel

Event Type Death

Event Date 1880

Event Place Springfield, Walworth, Wisconsin

Gender Male

Age 96

Birth Year (Estimated) 1784

Captain Blake Killed Megish

Source

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


"At the breaking out of the war there resided a family of Indians on the Big Bear Creek, on the Canada side, who were known as the Sha-na-wa family; in this family there were five brothers, all warriors.  One of them...Me-gish, who followed the British army, and was at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, where he was killed.  I [Aura P. Stewart] got the particulars of his death from his mother and sister, who have often repeated the story of Me-gish's death in my hearing while a boy.  They say that he got between two armies as they were approaching, and a little before the battle commenced he was fired on and killed by the Americans.  This circumstance would not be worth relating were it not for the statement of Capt. Chesley Blake, one of the old pioneer captains of our lakes."

"In 1840 Capt. Blake came to Harsen's Island...and during his stay lodged with my brother, Capt. John H. Stewart.  My father called to see the captain one evening to have a chat, and the conversation turned on the late war with England, and the part each had taken.  Blake here stated that he was at the Battle of Lundy's Lane; that as the two armies were approaching, and a little while before the action, an Indian attempted to pass between the armies, running for dear life."

Blake was the American who killed Me-gish.

Onslaught Of British Regulars At Chippawa

Source

William Sanford Eveleth

A dictionary of all officers: who have been commissioned, or have been ...:

Source

A random entry:


Wm. Sanford Eveleth (D.C.) Cadet July '13; bvt Sec Lt. Engrs 4 Mar '15; Am Prof. Engrg. M.A. fm Jan. '15 to Sept. '16; drowned 4 Oct '18 in Lake Michigan. 

More about the circumstances of Lieutenant Eveleth's death in an Inland Seas article.

"As the double-masted craft Hercules was leaving port for the evening voyage to Detroit, Eveleth [who had been inspecting military sites near Chicago] hitched a ride on the sailboat as its only passenger besides a crew of five.  "...the Hercules was the “first decked vessel to operate on a regular basis on the lake” west of the Mackinac Straits. Within a day of the time the boat departed Chicago, it also became the “first documented vessel to be destroyed on” Lake Michigan."

Lieutenant Eveleth was a cadet at West Point during the War of 1812.  His grave is noted here in a John Farmer map.


See a portion of Eveleth's map here at the University of Michigan Clements Library Chronicles, Fort Mackinac Captured By The British.

Madness To Continue At Credit Island

"To chastise the perfidious Sacs, became at once the duty of Governors Edwards and Clark, and Major Zachary Taylor was selected for the purpose; to ascend the river and punish them.  He left Fort Independence...August 2, 1814...".

"In that battle* Major Taylor had 11 men badly wounded, three mortally, and with the outnumbering horde of..[Indians] and English against his 334 men and officers, he conceived it would have been madness to continue the unequal contest, with no prospect of success.  At the council which followed he put the question to his officers direct and to a man, his position was sustained.  Accordingly the expedition, a pronounced failure... ." [Source]

Library Of Congress Map Excerpt
Credit Island - South Of Rock Island & Ft. Armstrong

*Credit Island (present-day map)

Prisoners' Fate

From Transactions of the Illinois State.....

"The following which treats of the fate of more of the prisoners may be of interest:"

"....James VanHorn, Joseph Knowles, Paul Grommow, Elias Mills, Joseph Bowen, Nathan Edson, Dyson Dyer, James Corbin and Phelim Corbin, of the First regiment of U.S. Infantry, who survived the massacre at Fort Dearborn...".

Sought Safety In 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):


"The inhabitants residing on the border of the river and Lake St. Clair, and in fact all persons having their residence north of Detroit, were compelled at the breaking out of the war, to seek safety in Detroit.  The Indians, in passing down the St. Clair river, would go on shore and shoot down the cattle, sheep, and hogs of the inhabitants, and take anything they took a fancy to, and for this reason all the inhabitants of northern Michigan were compelled to seek protection in Detroit, and there remained until relieved by General Harrison."

Citizen Prisoners

"The British, while holding Detroit, to prevent Gen. Harrison from gaining information of their strength and operations, kept a strict guard over their citizen prisoners...". [From Pioneer Collections]

Signalled With His Gold-Headed Cane

From the Journal of Major Isaac Roach, 1812-1824, published in The Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography, Volume 17:

He [Colonel Moses Porter] gave the signal with his gold-headed cane. Bang! went the shot; and in less than ten minutes by my watch, the blockhouse was on fire. 

See another post from his journal here.  A second post, too.

Incautiously Advancing

War Of 1812 Soldiers By A Fire (Not In Canada)

Journal and Transactions...: 


"The surprise was tolerably complete but our troops [British/Canadian] incautiously advancing and charging across the line of the camp fires and a few muskets being fired notwithstanding my exertions to prevent it our line was distinctly seen by the enemy whose troops in some degree recovered from the panic and formed upon the surrounding heights on the Gage farm below or north of the Gage house poured a destructive fire of musketry upon us which was answered on our part by repeated charges whenever a body of the enemy could be discovered or reached."

Also see the Smith's Knoll On Their Left Hand blog post.

General Nathaniel Taylor

Source

General Taylor was born on 24 February 1771, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, though the family moved to the Watauga settlement in Tennessee.

"Long prominent in military affairs, as Brigadier General, he was ordered into service August 4, 1814."

Source - Fold3

William Howard Served

Source

A list of Canadian War of 1812 Veterans from the Elgin County Branch Of The Ontario Genealogical Society, included:

HOWARD, William, Pte., served under Captain David Secord 1814, 1815

Was our William Howard a private who served under Captain Secord?  It's possible.

British Officers On The Penobscot

British Military Uniforms [YouTube]

The Maine Historical Magazine, Volume 3

The War Not Unattended With Benefits

From The Parthenon, Volume 1...:

But the war of 1812 was not unattended with benefits.

England was made to understand the nature of our government--the unadorned structure of its massive Democracy; she was taught to fear its power--to respect its rights. She sent her armies and navies amongst us with arrogant pretensions to superiority, and supercillious contempt of all that was American.

She received them again, defeated and disgraced. She saw no standing army, and thought us weak. She came among us and found us strong. She knew not that our standing army was the sturdy patriotism of millions of freemen. She despised our militia.

The British soldier quailed before the 'murderous precision' of the western rifleman. 

Losses Claimed after Niagara Burned

A partial list shown:

Isaiah B. Sexton

From The Constitution and Register of Membership of the General Society of the War of 1812:

*Sexton, Isaiah B. (Penna. Society) Sparta, Kent Co., Mich.

Waterboy.

Served 6 months

Company Commander, Captain Moses Waters

New York State Militia

*Died ___, 1897, aged 92 years, 8 months
[He died November 19, 1897]

From the Journal of the American Medical Association (1897):

From the History of Kent County:

Source

Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925

Name: Isaiah B. Sexton

Age (Expanded): 83 years

Birth Year: 1806

Birthplace: Lewis Co., N. Y.

Spouse's Name: Anna R. Hodge Salmon

Spouse's Age (Expanded): 63 years

Spouse's Birth Year: 1826

Spouse's Birthplace: Yates Co., N. Y.

Event Date: 29 Mar 1889

Event Place: Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan

Father's Name: Charles Sexton

Mother's Name: Abigail Butler

Spouse's Father's Name: Jacob Hodge

Spouse's Mother's Name: Abigail Rowley

His death record indicated that Mr. Sexton was a divorced physician.  His parents were Charles and Abigail (Butler) Sexton.

Robert Yost's Book

Source

An excerpt:

Buildings Destroyed

Source - Map Of The Niagara Area

Excerpted from NIAGARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY NO. 27:

Buildings burned and destroyed in St. Davids by General Brown's Army, 19th July, 1814:

David Secord, 3 houses, barns, mill, 2,240 £.

Widow Secord, house, 500 £.

Richard Woodruff, house, shop, 300 £.

Widow Bunting, barn, 75 £.

Widow Clement, house, barn, 600 £.

David Secord, house, etc. 375 £.

Widow Lowell, 200 £.

Samuel Boyd, house, 250 £.

Timothy Street, houses, shop, 430 £.

Estate of T. Bunting, 200 £.

Jacob Lutz, house, 125 £.

John Collard, house, 436 £.

Total: 5,731 £.

Where Colonel Holmes Bivouaced

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

A name [Goulet] that first established itself along the Kent Lake Erie shore... .  The family traditions generally fix the arrival of Francais Xavier Goulet there and the beginning of his settlement duties on his allotment of lot 154 from Col. Talbot 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 bivouaced in the war of 1812... .

From Burwell's Journal:

"I passed the place in Front of Lot No. 177 (Tilbury East) where Major Holmes of the United States Army had encamped a Day or two, when on their intended expedition against Port Talbot in time of the late War. I find here...when they have remained all night in our Woods, they have felled large Trees flat to the Ground all round their Encampment, to serve as a Breast Work in the event of an attack. Two Field Pieces and ammunition Waggons were left here by Major [Andrew Hunter] Holmes, which were destroyed by the Loyal Essex Rangers. The Carriages were burnt, and the Guns and ammunition were carried back and deposited in a Black Ash Swamp where they remained until the Treaty of Peace." 

Encounter At Turkey Point

Source

True to his loyalist instincts, Mr. Ephraim Tisdale, jun., fought in the war of 1812, and in this connection the following incident is told:  In 1814 a body of American militia, 150 strong, the scum of the troops, came across Lake Erie for the purpose of plundering and burning. They had marched from Dover to the mills of Titus Finch, at the place since known as Cross and Fisher's Landing, and burned them. Thence they were proceeding to Turkey Point to destroy the district court-house, which was then standing on the bank near where the road now leads down the hill which overlooks Turkey Point. When near Normandale (four miles from Turkey Point) they were attacked by a body of twenty-eight irregular volunteers, armed with fowling pieces and rifles, and driven back to their boats.

The volunteers, one of whom was the elder Mr. Tisdale, ran through the woods to the bank of the lake to cut off their retreat. They were too late to prevent the enemy from embarking, but killed an officer and fourteen of the men. The enemy immediately set sail for Turkey Point; but when a short distance from shore discovered the redcoats of a party of troops, which had just arrived to reinforce the volunteers, and not caring to risk an encounter, forthwith put the helm hard around and made away for the end of Long Point, and thence across to the place from whence they came.

Source