Detroit / Windsor and the War of 1812 Bicentenial Thread

[Lowell]

You think things are tough in Detroit now? 200 years ago war clouds were gathering over the Straits of Detroit as tensions were building between the young republic and its former colonial master. The end result would be positive in that we have enjoyed a 200 year reign of peace. But, in the following years war, death, enemy occupations, destruction, massacres, cholera epidemics would stalk Detroit and the Great Lakes region.

It is also an opportunity for us to discuss and discover the sites and history of those times of trouble. Where were they? What are they today? How did it shape our international metropolis? Here are some local timeline highlights to kick things off.

The first shots of this tragedy happened here.

June 18, 1812 -President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on Britain.
July 2, 1812 - British Capture of the Cuyahoga Packet on the Detroit River
July 4/5 1812 - Fort Detroit cannons began shelling Sandwich [[Windsor, Ontario)
July 12, 1812 - U.S. General William Hull invades Southern Ontario
July 16, 1812 - Skirmish at Canard River [Amherstburg], Upper Canada Two British soldiers are killed - the first casualties of the War of 1812.
July 17, 1812 - British & Native American forces capture Fort Mackinac in first battle on U.S. soil
July 5, 1812 - Bombardment of Sandwich
July 17, 1812 - British Capture Fort Mackinac
August 5, 1812 - Battle of Brownstown [Ecorse River]
August 15, 1812 - Fort Dearborn [Chicago] Massacre
August 16, 1812 - Detroit surrendered by William Hull to the British under Isaac Brock
Jan. 18 & 22/23, 1813 - Battle of Frenchtown & River Raisin Massacre - American relief column from KY attempts to re-take Detroit and is massacred near Monroe
April 27, 1813 Battle of York - Americans sack Toronto
April/May 9, 1813 Siege of Fort Meigs [Toledo] by Henry Proctor & Tecumseh
May 25 - 27, 1813 Capture of Fort George [Niagara]
June 6, 1813 Battle of Stoney Creek [Hamilton]
July 1813 Second unsuccessful British siege of Fort Meigs
August 2, 1813 Unsuccessful British attack on Fort Stephenson [[Fremont, Ohio))
September 10, 1813 Battle of Lake Erie [Put-in-Bay] opens way for recapture of Detroit
September 29, 1813 Americans, under Harrison, reclaim Detroit
October 5, 1813 Battle of the Thames [[Battle of Moraviantown) Death of Tecumseh [near Chatham]
December 10, 1813 Burning of Niagara,[[Ontario)
December 19, 1813 Capture of Fort Niagara, New York
December 19, 1813 Burning of Lewiston, New York,
December 31, 1813 Burning of Buffalo & Black Rock
March 4, 1814 Longwood Battle [between Sarnia-Chatham-London triangle]
July 3, 1814 Capture of Fort Erie [[Niagara area)
July 5, 1814 Battle of Chippewa [[Niagara area)
December 24, 1814 Treaty of Ghent signed

[SWMAP]

You know that Detroit has declined to participate in the War 1812 Commemorations due to having no money to join with the other cities that are hosting & planning hosting events. Think all Detroit would have had to do is committ police hours for events, etc. The Navy was going to do the hard work. Hard to believe there is not enough money for that. Windsor is participating.

Think truth is there is not enough interest here.

[Lowell]

You know that Detroit has declined to participate in the War 1812 Commemorations due to having no money to join with the other cities that are hosting & planning hosting events. Think all Detroit would have had to do is commit police hours for events, etc. The Navy was going to do the hard work. Hard to believe there is not enough money for that. Windsor is participating.

Think truth is there is not enough interest here.

Don't know if it was a factor but Detroit's ignominious history was not a lot to brag about.

Facing what he believed to be superior forces thanks to his enemy's cunning stratagems such as instructing the Native American warriors to make as much noise as possible around the fort, Hull surrendered Fort Detroit to Sir Isaac Brock on August 16, 1812. Accounts of the incident varied widely. A subordinate, Colonel Lewis Cass placed all blame for the surrender on Hull and subsequently succeeded Hull as Territorial Governor. Hull was court-martialed, and at a trial presided over by General Henry Dearborn, with evidence against him given by Robert Lucas, a subordinate and the future governor of Ohio and territorial governor of Iowa. Hull was sentenced to be shot, though upon recommendation of mercy by the court, Hull received a reprieve from President James Madison. [due to his Revolutionary War record]

[Jimaz]

From today's Free Press: 200-year-old cannon finally pulled out of Detroit River

He found markings on the cannon that indicate it is British and weighs nearly 1,300 pounds.

I'd say there's more than a chance that cannon was involved in some way.

[Lowell]

interesting Jimaz...

[Patrick]

The way I understand it is that the cannon has to undergo a treatment bath so to "clean" it but also to prepare the metal for a different non-aquatic environment. Amazing find really and you have to realize that the river was narrower at one time if I am not mistaken.

[Kathleen]

For those who are interested in the War of 1812, there are many events happening within the state, including the After Tippecanoe Symposium on the Significance of the War of 1812, November 8, 2011 at the Detoit Historical Museum.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...125---,00.html

[gazhekwe]

It bugs me that when there are Indian troops involved and they win, it is never a battle but always a massacre. There was significant Indian involvement thanks to the efforts of Tecumseh and others to present a united front and help defeat the Americans who were insisting on taking every bit of land they could get their mitts on, and forcing the Indians out. The British had agreed to stop new settlements west of the Appalachians to get the Indians' cooperation.

[renf]

Next year will be the two-century commemoration of the War of 1812. Detroit was at the center of the western theater in that two-year conflict. There are very many professional historians in the US and Canada who have written extensively about this war. There are even more history buffs who would enjoy a day's tour of key sites in Ontario and Michigan linked to that war. I wonder if the leaders of the Michigan and Detroit have drawn up extensive plans to capitalize upon the great economic opportunities the commemoration of the War of 1812 presents?

[401don]

I think they're going to be focused more on the War of 2012.

[DetroitPlanner]

I wonder if the leaders of the Michigan and Detroit have drawn up extensive plans to capitalize upon the great economic opportunities the commemoration of the War of 1812 presents?

I would think that both Amherstburg and Monroe could gain from capitalizing on it. Fort Malden played a much larger role than any Detroit military installations did. Virtually nothing survives from those days. Fort Wayne was not built yet, and the big fort was Shelby. At best I could see Fort Shelby Hotel getting to weasel in on some action. The biggest player would be Monroe as an actual battle was fought there and the National Park Service is working with the City to Develop a National Historic Battlefield/Park that ties in rather well with its historic downtown and Sterling State Park.

[Kathleen]

There have been several War of 1812 Bicentennial events held in 2011.

Check out this webpage for the Michigan War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission:for more coverage and upcoming events:
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7...125---,00.html

[Parkguy]

I read this prisoner's journal from the War of 1812. He was held at Fort Malden [[Amherstburg, Ont.) at first, then in Quebec. It is not too long, and it is a free download. You can read it online or on an eReader. It has Kindle and ePub versions [[for kobo or nook), html, and text versions on the site. It is pretty interesting!

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26518

By the way, eReaders are great for this kind of reading. This is a book that probably doesn't exist in very many libraries, and is long out of print. Gutenberg has tens of thousands of obscure texts like this one-- no charge.

[Detroitnerd]

Americans have generally been less informed about the war than their Canadian neighbors. I'm hardly surprised Detroit isn't keen on participating.

[Jimaz]

The Battle of New Orleans was a big victory for the U.S. in that war.

The funny/tragic thing about it was that, because of slow communications, no one knew that the war had already ended before they started the battle!

In fifth grade we took a field trip to the battlefield at the Chalmette Plantation. Cannons! Cool!

[Brock7]

There's an account of the war that was researched and written during and in the years following the civil war. It's referenced in the journal of a Detroiter held prisoner in 1812 that parkguy provided a link to in post 13. It includes hints of speculation that some southerners in official positions might have acted to undermine success of the war for fear of adding free territories to the union. The chapters that cover the war in the Detroit area are 13 through the beginning of 15.

It was a beautiful, clear, breezy morning, early in October, 1860, when the writer left Chicago, with his family, to visit the theatre of events described in the two preceding chapters. We took the Michigan Central train for Detroit...

The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812; Or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence
Harper & Brothers, 1869 - 1084 pages

Read it online in html format here:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.an.../Contents.html

Staring at Chapter 13 on googlebooks:
http://books.google.com/books?id=itN...bs_toc_r&cad=4

Download in various formats from a number of different libraries from links here:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...20of%201812%29

Detroit at that time stretched along the river at a convenient distance back, and the present Jefferson Avenue was the principal street. It contained one hundred and sixty houses, and about eight hundred souls. The inhabitants were chiefly of French descent. Only seven years before, every building but one in the village was destroyed by fire. On the hill, in the rear, about two hundred and fifty yards from the river, stood Fort Detroit, built by the English after the conquest of Canada a hundred years ago. It was quadrangular in form, with bastions and barracks, and covered about two acres of ground. The embankments were nearly twenty feet in height, with a deep dry ditch, and were surrounded by a double row of pickets. The outside row was in the centre of the ditch, and the other row projected from the bank, forming what is technically called a fraise. There was a work, called the Citadel Fort, that stood on the site of the present Arsenal, or Temperance Hotel, in Jefferson Avenue. The fort was garrisoned when Hull arrived by ninety-four men. Its position was one of considerable strength, but, unfortunately, it did not command the river, and could not damage the armed vessels which the British at that time employed in those waters. The town was surrounded by strong pickets, fourteen feet high, with loop-holes to shoot through. The pickets commenced at the river, on the line of the Brush farm, and followed it to about Congress Street; thence westerly, along or near Michigan Avenue, back of the old fort, to the east line of the Cass farm, and followed that line to the river. On Jefferson Avenue, at the Cass line, and on Atwater Street, on the Brush farm, massive gates were placed. These pickets, which had been erected as defenses against Indian incursions, were yet well preserved in 1812.

George Armstrong Custer, his father Emmanuel and eighteen veterans of the Battle of the River Raisin of the War of 1812 - Monroe June 15, 1871

[Zulu Warrior]

Always did dig the phrase "Skirmishes at the River Canard..."

I do belive it quite shameful that we Americans have almost no knowledge of Canada. Except for the Casino, Hockey, and Niagara Falls...its almost as if we share nothing.

[Kathleen]

A couple of upcoming talks about Detroit and Michigan and the War of 1812....

In Defense of General Hull: Hero or Villain of the War of 1812, Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 7pm. Anthony J. Yanik, author of the book The Fall and Recapture of Detroit in the War of 1812: In Defense of William Hull, presents his argument on Hull’s decision to surrender. This year is the 200th anniversary of the war that was critical to the future of the Detroit River region. Mr. Yanik’s book will be available for purchase at the program. Free and open to the public. The program takes place at the St. Clair Shores Library, located at 11 Mile Rd. and Jefferson.
http://www.scslibrary.org/events/2012/09-10.pdf

“The Forgotten War: The War of 1812,” Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 6:30pm. The Roseville Historical and Genealogical Society hosts educator and historian Dr. Jim McConnell for a presentation on the War of 1812. Dr. McConnell is a member of the Michigan Historical Commission and serves as secretary of the Michigan Commission on the commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. Free and open to the public. The program takes place at the Roseville Public Library located at 29777 Gratiot near Common Rd. in the Roseville Civic Center Complex behind the Police Station. http://www.rosevillelibrary.org/rhgs.htm