When General Van Rensselaer Returned

Stephen Van Rensselaer

From old newspapers, and other sources, we gather the fragmentary items that follow, relating to the soldiers of 1812.  When General Stephen Van Rensselaer returned, October 31, 1812, to Albany, after the battle of Queenstown, a large concourse of private citizens and dignitaries turned out to escort him to the city. Major John Lovett was his Secretary, and Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, one of the bravest men that Albany ever produced, was his Aid. He was long disabled by four bullet wounds received in this battle. One of the balls he carried in his flesh until his death.  [Source]

Transporting Military Stores

Source

Camp [Fort] Russell was mentioned:

Fort Russell (1804 - 1814?), Edwardsville [Illinois] This five-gun stockaded blockhouse was the headquarters and main supply depot for the territorial militia. U.S. Army Regulars were briefly here in 1812. Also referred to as Camp Russell. The guns were supposedly taken from old Fort de Chartres. Located one and one-half miles northwest of town. [Source]

Plan Of Movements At Chateaugay

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First Four Items In Outline About The War Of 1812

Illustrated topics for American history:

October 1812 Massacre

Source

The October, 1812, Pond settlement massacre, near New Haven in what is now Indian Creek Township [White County, Illinois], "spread terror over that section for a long time."

Indians of the Pi-an-ka-shaw tribe who were then living far up the Wabash "had been skulking about the settlement" so the chase, which included John Pond, Pearce, a brother of Hosea Pearce, and Trousdale, "promised to be a long one." [Source]

Note: More of the story is posted in my Detour Through History blog.

Became So Bold And Bloody

Peoria, Illinois, Waterfront

The prospect for 1813 was gloomy enough.  The general government made no provisions for the militia and on June 8, Governor Edwards discharged them from service.  The moment that was done hostile Indians began collecting about Peoria lake, from which point marauding parties again began to harass the settlements.  They concentrated in such great numbers and became so bold and bloody, that it at once became evident that the country must be protected and the enemy scattered, else the former exertions of defense would quickly be obliterated and many of the fortifications reduced. [Source]

Don't Go To Bed Hungry

Did They Also Have Tea To Drink?  A Block Of Tea At An Historic Fort

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

"Gen. Trotter, on hearing Gen. Meigs' order, rode up in front of his men and said: 'Boys don't go to bed hungry; if you can find anything good to eat, take it, and I will pay for it.'  It was vegetables the men wanted, and they took them whatever found.  The next morning Gen. Harrison sent for the men whose gardens had been invaded; the damages were estimated and paid to the satisfaction of all.  The British troops, in their hurry, left at Dolsen's Station, several hundred loaves of bread, which Mrs. Dolsen was selling to our men at twenty-five cents a loaf, which my father put a stop to by informing the men that it was left by the British troops, and did not belong to Mrs. Dolsen."