The Morning Of July 19

"The battle of Campbell's Island", July 19, 1814

On the morning of July 19, before breakfast, the boats all set sail and started up the river, with a fine breeze. During the night a party of Indians arrived at the Sac village from Prairie du Chien, coming down Rock river bringing the Sacs six kegs of powder and telling them that the fort at Prairie du Chien had been captured by the British. These messengers told the Sacs that the British wished them to again join them in the war against the Americans, which the Indians agreed to do.

Everything Was Quiet

Mississippi River Near Campbell's Island In Illinois

On the thirteenth of the month, about eighty miles below the mouth of Rock river, they met a party of Indians from Prairie du Chien, with a packet directed to Governor Clark. These Indians informed Campbell that everything was quiet, and that the garrison at the Prairie had been completed. The same day Lieutenant Rector, of the Rangers found a canoe which had a considerable quantity of Indian property in it, and which had just been abandoned. Source: "The battle of Campbell's Island"

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

Fencibles At Prairie du Chien Surrender

Source

"Early in June an American force took possession of the Indian post at Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, almost 500 miles from Mackinac, and Col. M'Douall, who was now in command at the latter place, resolved to dislodge them. Accordingly, Colonel M'Kay, of the Michigan Fencibles, was sent to Prairie du Chien with a detachment consisting of his own corps and of Canadian Volunteers, 150 men in all, with a 3 pounder. He also was accompanied by about 500 Indians."

"The detachment reached its destination on the 17th July and found that the Americans had erected a small fort... ."

""...M'Kay advanced his men against the fort, upon which a white flag was immediately displayed and the place surrendered with its garrison of 65 men and its cannon and stores. Not one man of M'Kay's white troops was even wounded in this brilliant affair...". [Source]

The Rolls Were Lost

Source [Battle Of Plattsburgh, 1814]

From A List Of Pensioners Of The War Of 1812:

Everest, Harry

Aged 60, Milton private in Capt. William Picket's Company, Vermont Volunteer Militia. ...defense of Plattsburgh...

The discharge of his company was verbal and the rolls were lost. 

The blog post, Vermonter Huldah Bates, Levi's Widow, Granted Land, was derived from the same publication.

Mayhew Mott And Family

Source

"Mrs. Mott, mother of Wesley Mott, died at Winchester, Winnebago County, May 14th..." .

Mr. Mayhew Mott was a soldier and Mrs. Mott enjoyed a pension.

Census 1860

Winchester, Winnebago, Wisconsin

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

Mayhew Mott M 65 New York

Mary Mott F 66 New York

Wesley Mott M 25 New York

Herman Like M 18 Germany

Source

An Excerpt From Anderson's Journal

According to the Canadian Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson:

Source

Thursday, August 11th.-- Gave out some few articles of goods to the Michigan Volunteers...Gave out twelve carrots of tobacco to be distributed among the troops in general....as a preventive to sickness.

The want of provisions obliges me to give every assistance to the farmers to get in their grain as fast as possible. I, therefore, allow all the Volunteers that are not on duty, to go and work for them in the day time. Employed the Sergt. of artillery men with some of the Michigans, in making leaden three pound balls.

Anderson's memorial at FindAGrave.

Charles Langlade In The British Service

Seventy-two years' recollections of Wisconsin, by Grignon, Augustin, b. 1780

"[The author] Augustin Grignon was the last in a long line of French fur-traders that stretched back to Charles de Langlade, the first European to live in Wisconsin."

"He [Charles Langlade's son, Charles] was in the British Indian service at the capture of Mackinaw, in 1812, and acted as interpreter for the Ottawas."

And the British loss of the Revolutionary War did not disrupt the life of balance and harmony in the Old Up Country [Wisconsin] until the War of 1812. [Source]

After Running The Gauntlet

Reconstruction of the fort on Mackinac Island

Heroes and Heroines of the Fort Dearborn Massacre: A Romantic and Tragic ... By Noah Simmons, included the following, about Mrs. Susan Simmons:

Sometime in the fall of I812 the warriors of Green Bay with their prisoners left Green Bay and marched to the ruins of Fort Dearborn, thence around the end of lake Michigan and up to Mackinac, which was still in the hands of the British and Indians. It was winter when they reached Mackinac, and negotiations for the ransom of the prisoners were opened. Mrs Simmons and her babe had suffered terribly while on the journey to Mackinac. Winter had come on and found her thinly clad while she was often compelled to seek food from under the snow. Still amid all her privations and hardships the heroic woman thought only of the safety and comfort of her child. While in Green Bay the Indians had, by various devices, attempted to take her babe from her, under the pretext of friendship.

Martial Law In Wisconsin

Source

Fort McKay

Source

This article [Wikipedia] is about the fort in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (links added):

Fort Shelby was a United States military installation in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, built in 1814. The fort was captured by the British during the Siege of Prairie du Chien in July 1814. The British renamed the fort Fort McKay after Major William McKay, the commander of the forces that won the battle. Fort McKay remained under British control until 1815, when the British destroyed it before leaving the area. Fort Crawford was built on the same site in 1816.

Source

A Fissure In The Sauk Nation

Chief Keokuk

The Sauks and the Black Hawk War...:

...when an Indian Nation contains more than about 2,000 people its increase of population decreases its cohesive power.  But in the division of the Sauks, which occurred with the late war between Great Britain and the United States, this custom or weakness was not a factor. That division grew out and was a part of the war of 1812- 14.

 For more than forty years Mucketee-Meshe-Kiah-Kiah, (literally meaning in our language Black Sparrow Hawk but always called Black Hawk), prior to that war had been the universally acknowledged first or head War Chief of the Sauk Nation.

Living at Saukenuk, near Rock Island, and "out of a job," as he [Black Hawk] had no immediate fight on his hands, but eager to have, on learning that war had been declared, hastened to offer his services with two hundred picked braves, to our Government to fight against the British.   On being refused, he at once tendered his services to the British, and was accepted, and went to Green Bay, where he was assigned to duty with the rank of Colonel.

During his [Black Hawk's] absence a rumor reached Saukenuk that a large force of United States troops had left Peoria, Illinois, for an attack upon Saukenuk, which created great alarm among the Sauks, who, as a mass, sympathized with the people of the United States in this war.  [Keokuk]...organized a small army sent out spies and went in person at the head of a little band of trailers towards Peoria and satisfied himself that the whole story was a canard.

When Black Hawk and his 200 braves returned from the war, he found Keokuk fully installed in his place as the War Chief of the Nation, and a division of the tribe ensued.  ...[one group was] known as the British or Black Hawk's band; the latter as the Peace or Keokuk's band.

Turned Her Face To Heaven

The first part of the story of Mrs. Susan Simmons' and her daughter who were in captivity after the Fort Dearborn Massacre.

Source [Where Mrs. Simmons Was Captured]

Site of the Fort Dearborn Massacre

Heroes and Heroines of the Fort Dearborn Massacre: A Romantic and Tragic ... By Noah Simmons, included the following, about Mrs. Susan Simmons:

It was an awful moment for the poor woman but as she had often done before in the last twelve days when overcome with grief and almost famished with hunger, she turned her face to heaven and reposed her trust in her creator, her only source of hope and consolation...she ran rapidly down the line reaching the goal bleeding and bruised, but with [her infant] unharmed.

Boats Made Bullet Proof?

From Wisconsin History (Wisconsin Historical Society)

At this time at Prairie du Chien the events of the war of 1812 in that quarter were fresh in the minds of everyone.   I learned that in the spring or summer of 1814 the U.S. government sent boats made bullet proof under a Captain [Frederick] Yeiser, who was in command of the boats, and a company of U.S. troops under Lieut. [Joseph] Perkins to take and retain possession of Prairie du Chien.


Michael Chapu...private in Captain Frederick Yeiser's company of volunteers..wounded 21 July 1814 on board the gunboat Governor Clark in an engagement with the Indians at...Rock River.....

Source

Lydia And Her Son Hiram

The Escape Of Lydia Hayward as portrayed in the Old Hay Bay Church website [see the map, too]:

[...story of an American family caught in Upper Canada by the outbreak of the war, and their escape. It is taken from a small book...entitled: Narrative of Mrs. Lydia [Barker] Hayward, including the Life, Call to the Ministry and Extensive Travels of Her Husband, the late Elder Joshua Hayward. Union Mills, N.Y., 1846. We pick up her story shortly after President Madison declared war on Britain, 18 June 1812.]

The biography of Hiram Hayward, Lydia's son, was found in the Portrait and Biographical Album of Sanilac County, Michigan:

Hiram Hayward, practicing physician resident on section 14 Worth Township, is the son of Joshua and Lydia (Barker) Hayward. The former was a native of Massachusetts, the latter of the State of New York. After their marriage they settled in Saratoga, N.Y., and in 1808 they removed to Canada, where they lived four years. Joshua Hayward was pressed into the British service during the contest of Great Britain with the United States, but he deserted at the end of a month and returned to his native State. He at once enlisted in the army of the United States and remained in the Federal service until the close of the war. He afterwards became a preacher and pursued that vocation 20 years.  He died May 17, 1840, near Richfield Springs, N.Y., aged 58 years.  His widow died Dec. 5, 1881, in Ontario, at the advanced age of 93 years.

Dr. Hayward is the eldest son of his parents, and was born in Jefferson Co., N.Y.,  Dec. 25, 1815. At the early age of nine years he became master of own maintenance which he secured entirely without assistance. He obtained a good education in common schools and by study at home under directions of his mother. He began to read medicine when he was 17 years old under the care of his uncle, Isaac Hayward, continuing with him three years when he lost his instructor by death.

He continued his professional career in the State New York until 1849 when he removed to Canada. He there combined the practice of medicine with ministry until 1866. In the summer of that year he went to Wisconsin with the purpose of making a permanent settlement, but found the selected locality distasteful and in September following he came to Michigan.

In 1867 he organized the Worth Christian Church and was its Pastor.

Hiram died on September 1, 1903, in Sanilac County, Michigan.

Was Faribault A Trader And A Spy?

Source

Excerpt from the Memoir of Jean Baptiste Faribault (also here)

When the war of 1812 was declared, the British Government made great efforts to enlist the Indians of the Northwest against the Americans. Knowing the great influence wielded by the traders among...[them], commissions in the British army were tendered to each of them, and they were accepted by all but Messrs. Faribault and Provencalle, who declined to take any part against the American Government. The subject of this memoir was consequently arrested by a Col. McCall [possibly McKay], of the British militia service, and held as a prisoner on a gunboat, commanded by a Capt. Henderson, on board of which were two hundred men, en route to Prairie du Chien to dislodge the Americans. He was ordered to take his turn at the oar, but absolutely refused, saying he was a gentleman, and not accustomed to that kind of labor.


This article at the Mississippi Brigade wondered if Faribault was a spy:

"But Faribault and U.S. interpreter Joseph La Rocque seemed to have been appearing British but were actually risking their lives to gather information at Prairie to aid Boilvin."
"Faribault appears to have been exposed as an American sympathizer in July of 1813, when his property is burned and possessions plundered by the Winnebago."

Faribault had declined the honor of serving for the British.

Major Larrabee

General Harrison At Tippecanoe 

"Major Charles Larrabee commanded a company under General Harrison at Tippecanoe, receiving his commander's special notice for his good service in that notable engagement with the Indians...

Bullets Embedded At Brownstown 

...and at the battle of Brownstown, in August, 1812, he lost an arm while managing the artillery." [Source]

Description of a letter written by Major Larrabee's wife in the inventory at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Capt. Anderson's Journal And His Orders For The Rock River Expedition

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online's entry for Thomas Gummersall Anderson "Indian agent; b. at Sorel, Province of Quebec, 12 Nov. 1779, sixth son of Captain Samuel Anderson, loyalist, and Deliverance Butts; d. at Port Hope, Ont., 10 Feb. 1875."

Source

[Excerpt from above letter]
Fort McKay, Aug. 26, 1814

 To Lieut. [Duncan] Graham--

Sir--The expedition for the Rock River under your command, being now in readiness,... . On your arrival there you will assemble the Indians and explain to them that the intention of the expedition is to support them in defending their lands and women and children according to promises made to them by their father Robert Dickson and Lieut Col. McKay.... .

That they must not amuse themselves during the action in taking scalps. They must destroy the enemy as much as possible except prisoners.

Thos G Anderson, Capt Comd'g

Note:  Lieutenant Graham's forces met the American forces under Zachary Taylor at Credit Island.  The War of 1812 Archaeology blog described it as "The Forgotten Battle."

Moses Hardwick's Life After The War

From The Historical Society Of Wisconsin, a Sketch Of Moses Hardwick:

A detachment of troops commanded by Col. John Miller, 3d U.S. Infantry...arrived at Green Bay on the 16th day of July, 1816, and among them was the subject of this brief sketch. Moses Hardwick was born at Richmond, Ky, Oct 2, 1791. He early enlisted in the service of his country, participating in the war of 1812, having been stationed awhile at Sackett's Harbor NY, and received a pension during the latter portion of his life.

After his discharge from the army in 1817 still in the prime and vigor of early manhood he determined to remain at Green Bay as a permanent settler... .

Moses Hardwick...commenced carrying the mail in 1817, and for seven winters tramped the weary way between Green Bay and Detroit.

When Moses Hardwick made his claim for land it was in Brown County, MICHIGAN Territory.

Moses Hardwick (and some neighbors) on the 1830 Census taken in Brown County, Michigan Territory:

Moses Hardwick 20001 11001

John P. Arndt 0.1.1.1.12.3.1 0.1.0.2.0.0.1

Luther Leonard 0000101 

Frederick Blue 00000001 00001

William Farnsworth 2000241 100021

Joseph Ducharm 001120001 0000010001

Henry S. Baird 010101 20021

Jean B. St. Vincent 020001 10001

 Obituary Of Moses Hardwick, transcribed from the Green Bay Advocate, Thursday, Aug. 21, 1879.

Francois Dominique DuCharme

From Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online:

DUCHARME, DOMINIQUE (baptized François), fur trader, militia officer, office holder, and justice of the peace....participated in the War of 1812.

"On 21 July 1812, after war broke out with the United States, Ducharme was commissioned a lieutenant in the Pointe-Claire Battalion of Militia."

More about Ducharme's War of 1812 actions and the Battle of Beaver Dams.