Illinois Military Records Wiki

The Illinois Wiki is a helpful tool for research.  See the Wiki article, Illinois in the War of 1812, for information concerning military records, histories, links, etc., including the fact that "during the War of 1812, the Illinois Territory furnished 1,303 infantry men, 1,005 cavalry men, and 49 men in miscellaneous troops for a total of 2,357."

For more about the Illinois Territory in the War of 1812, here's a post about pre-war conditions.  The Battle of Fort Dearborn (present day Chicago) was a famous incident in Illinois on August 15th.  And of course, check out the Wiki.

General George McClure's Burn

General George McClure (1777 - 1851)

Military records concerning U.S. General George McClure were found in the British Military and Naval records (index) (also here through here) in the Library and Archives Canada.

McClure, George, Brig'r Genl. U.S.A.

G.O. To retain command of troops in Forts Niagara & George; returns of prisoners, provisions &c.; restrictions on persons coming within lines of the Army; & c.

Adjt. Genl's Office, Hd. Qrs. Newark, 2-11-1813.

THE WAR OF 1812: Writings from America's Second War of Independence (see review here) had a chapter entitled Cyrenius Chapin to the Buffalo Gazette , subtitled "The Case Against George McClure: Niagara Frontier, December 1813."

In December, General McClure abandoned Fort George in the face of advancing British troops, after ordering the fort and the neighboring Canadian town of Newark to be burned.  The British captured Fort Niagara and retaliated by burning towns in New York.  

A quote from The War Of 1812....book:  "A spirited resistance, led in part by Lieutenant Colonel Cyrenius Chapin, defended Buffalo, but dissolved when the colonel was captured.  Six months later, upon his release from a Montreal jail, Chapin published the following indictment of McClure's command in the June 13 edition of the Buffalo Gazette."

19th Light Dragoons

Source

The war in which the regiment was about to engage was one in which cavalry could play only a subordinate part. The country in which they were to operate was a vast expanse of forest and swamp, with a few sparsely inhabited clearings. The chief mode of communication was by boat. The war was one to be fought out by small bodies of men, far from their supports wielding the axe and the oar as much as the rifle; forage was hard to get, and there was little place for mounted men. Under these conditions, the 19th Light Dragoons were only engaged in small detachments, never more than a squadron, seldom more than a troop. Their duties were of a most harassing kind, on outpost and reconnaissance duty.  [Source]

War And New York's Harbor

Source

"At that time [when the War of 1812 was declared] there were in the port of New York the most effective part of the United States Navy...".  "The anchors were heaved, and the stars and stripes vigorously flying at the masthead of each, led by Commodore Rodgers' vessel, the President, they sailed down the bay in search of the enemy."

"The first steam ferryboat between Jersey City and New York commenced to run in July, 1812. It was announced that on July 24th a corps of flying artillery crossed in the boat from Powles' Hook (Jersey City) at four trips. The first brought four pieces of artillery, six-pounders and limbers, four ammunition wagons, twenty-seven horses and forty soldiers, besides other passengers."

From New York city and vicinity during the war of 1812-15, being a military, civic and financial local history of that period (1889)

Jacob Barker, Financier In The War

Jacob Barker (1778-1871), a wealthy man with power and influence, was fast friends with John Armstrong (among other famous persons) who was a Secretary of War during the War of 1812.  This information was confirmed per his biography, the 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.  One chapter was even entitled Defence of General John Armstrong.

Source

Jacob Barker's background:

"Doctor Benjamin Franklin and Jacob Barker both descended from John Folger and Meribah Gibbs; Peter, their only child,...married Mary Morrell...".  Their daughter, Abiah, was Franklin's mother and John Folger (Abiah's brother) was the ancestor of Jacob Barker.  Nantucket and early speculation in trade were part of Mr. Barker's early years.  On August 27, 1801, he married Elizabeth Hazard."

Financing the War of 1812:

"At the commencement of hostilities in June, 1812, I [Barker] had an immense amount of property at sea and could not form a correct opinion how my affairs would wind up. Although I sustained extensive losses, I still obtained a large amount safe back, which placed my affairs in a favorable train, so that in the March following, when Mr. Gallatin advertised for the sixteen million loan, I was enabled to lend him twenty-five thousand dollars and prevailed on many of my friends also to furnish him with considerable sums."

Apparently loaning money to the Government was not without political intrigue and personal ruin, as described in the book.

Source

Laura Secord's Family

Family members of heroine Laura Secord.

From The Ingersolls of Hampshire : a genealogical history of the family from their settlement in America, in the line of John Ingersoll of Westfield, Mass.:

Thomas [Ingersoll's, Laura Secord's father]...eldest son, Major Charles Ingersoll, was an officer in the British army during the War of 1812... . 

From History of Great Barrington: (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts:

Major [Thomas] Ingersoll was afterwards (after his first marriage) twice married; ...and second to Mrs. Sarah Backus, a daughter of Lieutenant Gamaliel Whiting, and sister of the late General John Whiting.

By his third marriage (to Sarah Whiting Backus), Major [Thomas] Ingersoll had eight children... . Colonel Charles Ingersoll...was an officer in the British Canadian army throughout the war of 1812 and afterwards held various public offices.  He was a member of the Canadian Parliament...and died of the cholera in August 1832.

From Family record of the name of Dingwall Fordyce in Aberdeenshire...:
Her (Laura Secord's) brother, Charles Ingersoll, lay badly wounded at the same time, at her sister-in-law's at the mill at St. David's, but recovered to fight again. He became one of the most prominent citizens of Woodstock.

Charles F. Ingersoll married Anna Maria Merritt.

Laura Secord's father, Thomas, married a Backus widow; Backus is an ancestral name.

Post-War Problems In Major Chunn's Command

Major John T. Chunn was a Commandant at Fort Harrison.

There was no trouble with hostile Indians during the time of Major Chunn's command of the Fort. But in 1816 there was a scare. Reports came to the Fort of depredations by the Indians in Michigan and Northern Indiana, and the Fort was thronged with refugees. An autograph letter from Major Chunn to Mr. Gilbert, dated September 8, 1816, indicated possible danger, but no attack was made. During the succeeding years, 1817 and 1818, 1819 and 1820, even after the Fort had been abandoned by the garrison, there were these scares about the Indians. [Source]

A private under Major Chunn's command was Willis Copelan.  A page from Mr. Copelan's pension application file detailing his injury incurred with a keel boat on the Mississippi River bank:

Source:  Fold3

"While he was actually in the service aforesaid [a private in Brevt. Maj. John T. Chunn's company of the 3rd Regiment]...on the 15th of June being engaged in condeling a keel boat on the bank of the Mississippi near a place called St. Genevieve in the Territory of Missouri he received a fracture in his right thigh bone by falling from the top to the bottom of the Mississippi bank on a log.... ". 1 August 1817