Andrew Hunter Holmes-- Part 3

After the Battle of Lake Erie (September 10, 1813) when Americans recovered Fort Detroit, Holmes' regiment was ordered to assist Major General William Henry Harrison's invasion of Canada.  Holmes was present at the Battle of the Thames (October 5, 1813) and was later assigned to the U.S. garrison at Amherstburg (Fort Malden).

From Amherstburg, Holmes commanded a raid against British outposts at Delaware (present-day Middlesex Centre, Ontario) and Port Talbot, Ontario.  On March 2, 1814, as Holmes neared Delaware, he received news that the British were aware of his presence and had dispatched a large force to intercept him.

Holmes withdrew to Twenty Mile Creek. 

On March 4, 1814, he fought at the Battle of Longwoods.

--Brock-Perry

William Caldwell-- Part 2: Northwest Indian War and War of 1812

During the Northwest Indian War, Caldwell led a company  of 80-150 Canadian militia alongside Northwestern Confederacy Natives against advancing American troops at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the final engagement of that war.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Caldwell was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and given command of a group of between 40 and 50 volunteers from the Canadian militia and they became known as Caldwell's Rangers(also sometimes referred to as the Western Rangers).

He fought at the Battle of   the Thames and the Battle of  Longwoods, among many actions.

He gained commissions for all his sons in the regular army.

--Brock-Perry

River Raisin Massacre-- Part 12: 'Remember the Raisin' and Aftermath

This deliberateness of behavior from the Indians did not diminish, and perhaps intensified, the horror many survivors later described.  Indeed, the most vivid recollections related to to the systematic nature of the killings and treatment of the remains.

The battle ended in what was described as a "national calamity" by Major General, and later president of the United States, William Henry Harrison.  

It also left an impact on the broader American consciousness.  The Americans who pushed north to liberate Detroit went to destroying the British-Canadian-Indian coalition in the west at the Battle of the Thames, near present-day Chatham, Ontario, on October 5, 1813.

Fueled by the battle cry, "Remember the Raisin!" their massive victory sealed the War of 1812 in the western theater for the United States, claimed the life of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh, and resulted in the end the American Indian Confederation.

In an even broader sense, the aftermath of these battles resulted in the implementation of the U.S. policy of Indian removal from the Northwest Territory at the conclusion of the War of 1812, leading to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a policy that continues to resonate today.

--Brock-Perry

This Month in the War of 1812: Battle of the Thames and Battle of Queenston Heights, Isaac Brock, Tecumseh

From the American Battlefield Trust  "War of 1812 Timeline."

OCTOBER 5, 1813

**  Battle of the Thames.    British defeat and death of Tecumseh.

OCTOBER 7, 1813

**  Andrew Jackson establishes camp at Fayetteville, Tennessee, to recruit American forces to combat  the Creeks in Alabama.

OCTOBER 9, 1811

**  Major General Isaac Brock is appointed administratior of Upper Canada.  (He is the Brock in my Brock-Perry sign off each post, and an amazing general.)

OCTOBER 13, 1812

**  British-Canadians win the  Battle of Queenston Heights, Upper Canada (Ontario).

OCTOBER 13, 1812

**  British General Isaac Brock killed at the Battle of Queenston Heights.

OCTOBER 26, 1813

**  Engagement at Chateauguay.

--Brock-Perry

Standing Tall on Lake Erie-- Part 5: 'We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours'

Despite losing his flagship, Oliver Hazard Perry was able to disable and scatter the British fleet.

When it came time for their surrender, he had the site moved back to his flagship, the USS Lawrence, so they could see the damage they had done to the ship.

He wrote a letter to General William Henry Harrison with the now famous statement:  "We have met the enemy and they are ours.  Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."

This enabled Harrison, then, to launch his invasion of the western part of Upper Canada, which ended in the British total defeat at the Battle of the Thames and the death of Indian chief Tecumseh.

Perry was hailed as the "Hero of Lake Erie."

Dedicated in 1931, Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial is a testimony of the American victory on Lake Erie and a nod to a long-standing peace among the U.S., Britain and Canada.  Initially, three American and three British military members were buried at the monument as a reminder of the losses suffered by both sides during the fierce 1813 battle.

The bodies were later exhumed and reburied at De Rivera Park.

There is no doubt that the towering structure embodies a history of great proportions.

--Brock-Perry

War of 1812 October Events: Thames, Tecumseh, Jackson, Brock, Queenston Heights, Chateauguay

1813

OCTOBER 5

**  Battle of the Thames.  Tecumseh killed.

1813

OCTOBER 7

**  Andrew Jackson established camp ay Fayetteville, Tennessee (Camp Blount) to recruit Americans to fight the Creek Indians in Alabama.

1811

OCTOBER 9

**  Major General Isaac Brock appointed Administrator of Upper Canada.  He is the Brock in my signoff, Brock-Perry.

1812

OCTOBER 13

**  British and Canadians win the Battle of Queenston Heights, Canada.  Isaac Brock killed.

1813

OCTOBER 26

**  Engagement at Chateauguay.

--Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 5: Aftermath of Tecumseh's War

The Battle of Moraviantown (Battle of the Thames) produced a considerable array of elected officials, among them three Kentucky governors, a vice president (Richard Johnson), and a president, an aging William Henry Harrison, who campaigned in 1840 under the slogan of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too").

And because Tecumseh had died in a British fight, near a river that borrowed its name from England, his doomed war was  easily swallowed up by the larger War of 1812 between the British and Americans.

And then, an unrelenting stream of Americans poured into the Old Northwest Territory and Indians began fighting an increasingly lost war to delay them.  Tecumseh's War presaged  the Black Hawk War of 1832 in Illinois and Wisconsin; the deadly removal of Potawatomi people from Indiana to the Great Plains in  1838; the Dakota Uprising of 1862, in Minnesota.

Trace such conflicts back to Pontiac's Rebellion and what emerges  is not a picture of  innocent pioneer settlement in the continental heartland but a full century of Midwestern dispossession and resistance.

--Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 3: The Battle of the Thames

Continued from October 30.

The British figured that each Indian warrior was worth three American soldiers and when they marched into battle in their traditional red coats, Tecumseh and his warriors would be protecting the flanks.

Tecumseh seemed to be everywhere during the first years of fighting: fighting, recruiting, saving prisoners from torture from his men,  cajoling the British to maintain supplies, food and men, and even rallying their troops in the field on occasion.

The British failed in almost every aspect of the war.  (Of course a big part of this was because Britain was much more heavily engaged with Napoleon and his French army in the war for control of Europe.)  The world's strongest maritime power lost  the fight for the Great Lakes, saw its supply lines to  the Northwest cut, and , in the fall of 1813, were chased by William Henry Harrison and a large American force into a panicked retreat across Upper Canada.

British commander, General Henry Procter, made a strategic blunder before taking an ill-prepared stand near Moraviantown on the Thames River, in early October.

Tecumseh and  some five hundred warriors supported the British line in what became known as the Battle of the Thames, but those lines collapsed almost immediately in the face of an American cavalry charge.  A small group of Americans led by Richard Mentor Johnson, a Kentucky militia colonel,  charged the Indian lines on horseback, hoping to draw their fire and thus reveal the Indian positions for the next wave of soldiers.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Malden-- Part 7: Fort is Abandoned By the British

Again, the official name of the fort is Fort Amherstburg, but most everyone refers to it as Fort Malden.

Throughout the War of 1812, the Detroit Frontier (where Fort Malden is located)  was considered as an afterthought to British strategy.  It was "a distant and expendable outer branch"  of Canada.  One that Britain would sacrifice in order to protect Montreal and Quebec in Lower Canada, and Niagara, York and Kingston in Upper Canada.

The losses of York and Niagara in the spring of 1813 placed the Upper Canada's western border in jeopardy.  Resources were directed at the Niagara region and with no chances of receiving significant reinforcements,  General Proctor was forced to abandon Fort Malden in September 1813.

With the British defeat at the Battle of Lake Erie the fort was burned and the fort's inhabitants were forced to flee with American forces hot on their heels.  After the American victory at the Battle of the Thames, general Proctor was able to continue his retreat to Niagara.

--Brock-Perry

Stephen Champlin-- Part 16: Cleanup Operations

"The 'Scorpion' later was involved in transporting General (later, U.S. President) Harrison's Army from Portage River to the Middle Sister, from which they were taken by the fleet (including the Scorpion) to Malden and accompanying them up the Thames River.

After this, theses are John Lisle's words.

"During the winter of 1813-1814, Stephen was put in charge of the captured ships 'Queen Charlotte' and 'Detroit' at Put-In-Bay, Ohio

"His next cruise was on Lake St. Clair and the river Thames.  He took the Scorpion 40 miles up the river to within 3 miles of where Colonel Johnson had defeated and slain Chief Tecumseh, and secured a vessel loaded with baggage of the British army and took it and the severely wounded Johnson back to Detroit.

--Brock-Perry

George Trotter-- Part 3: At the Battle of the Thames

At the Battle of the Thames, George Trotter was in the Kentucky militia which was in the overall command of  Governor Isaac Shelby.

Colonel Trotter commanded the First Brigade which included the First and Second Infantry Regiments.  The First was Trotter;s command.  The Second was commanded by Col. John Donaldson.

They were in the First Division of Kentucky Militia which was commanded by Brigadier General William Henry.  (Not sure if this might have been William Henry Harrison.I have not been able to find a Brigadier general William Henry.)

--Brock-Perry

George Trotter-- Part 2: The 42nd Kentucky's Drum

The 42nd Regiment was commanded by Col. George Trotter, who served in the  campaign as a Brigadier general  He was presented with a drum taken at the Battle of the Thames.  The drum was ornamented with the British coat of arms and the inscription "42nd Regiment."

It was presented the following year with the added inscription "Presented by General Harrison and  General Shelby to Colonel Trotter for the 42nd Regiment, Kentucky Militia, as testimony of it's patriotism and good conduct , for having furnished more volunteers than any other regiment."

I Wonder What Happened To It?  --Brock-Perry

George Trotter-- Part 1: With Campbell and At Battle of the Thames

Same source as previous two posts.

Margaret Trotter was the wife of General Leslie Combs.  Sge was the youngest daughter of George Trotter and she writes about her father.

George Trotter was born in Virginia in 1779 and died in Lexington, Kentucky, October  13, 1815.  He was the son of Lt. Col. James Trotter, a soldier in the American Revolution.

George Trotter entered the Army in 1812 during the War of 1812 as the captain of a volunteer company of  dragoons and was wounded in action with the Indians under Col. John B. Campbell on December 18 of that year.

He became a lieutenant colonel  of Kentucky  Volunteers in 1813 and led a brigade of the state with rank of brigadier general at the Battle of the Thames October 1813.

--Brock-Perry

Toasting the War of 1812 Veterans-- Part 1: To Washington, 1776 and Veterans

After all the speeches, most very flowery and after the huge banquet, the wine was passed around at the 1872 War of 1812 Reunion in Monroe, Michigan, and toasts were made.

Every toast also featured a response.

1.  "The Day We Celebrate"  --Response  by J.J. Adams of Lenawee,

2.   "Washington"  --  The  world honors the man who conquered his own  ambition to give freedom to the continent.  --Response by Judge Patchin of Detroit.

3.  The Statesmen and Heroes of 1776"  The founders of a system of government that makes ours a powerful continental Republic for the good of the world, if in our political advice we imitate their integrity.   --Response by B.G. Morton of Monroe.

4.  "The Veterans of 1812"  Their march to victory was not by Pullman palace cars, but through the dense forests, dragging their cannons with weary marches; yet they conquered at Tippecanoe, Fort Meigs, and the Thames, and said to the world at Lake Erie, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."    --Response by General Leslie Combs, of Kentucky.

And, They Aren't Through Yet With the Toasts.  --Brock-Perry

Why One Michigan City Flies Kentucky Flags-- Part 3:

"Remember the River Raisin" and "Remember the Raisin" became battle cries of American troops in subsequent battles.  The British held dominance along the Michigan Frontier until some months later the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames turned the tide in American favor.

The Kentucky state flag flies at several locations near the River Raisin National Battlefield which is operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

This is in honor of those Kentuckians who came to defend and those who died.

--Brock-Perry

USS Tigress-- Part 2: Battle of the Thames and Mackinac Island

After the Battle of Lake Erie, the Americans took advantage of their new superiority captured Fort Malden and Detroit.  The Tigress, Scorpion and Porcupine, under command of Lt. Jesse Elliott went up the Thames River to support U.S. troops under General William Henry Harrison and the victory at the Battle of the Thames in which Indian warrior chief Tecumseh was killed.

Then the Tigress was sent to Lake Huron where it blockaded the mouth of the Nottawasaga River, the sole supply source for the British garrison on Mackinac Island.  By early September, the situation for the British on the island was dire.  Something had to be done.

It was under the command of Stephen Champlin.

Brock-Perry

Battle of the Thames-- Part 8: Consequences for Henry Proctor

**  Henry Proctor was relegated to minor commands for the rest of the war.

**  His career was essentially over.

**  In May 1814, he was charged with negligence and improper conduct,

**  His court martial was delayed because of operational reasons.

**  It was finally held in December and the judge chastised him for his conduct of the retreat and he was suspended from rank and pay for six months.

**  He never held a senior command again.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of the Thames-- Part 6: Casualties

A total of 246 British soldiers escaped, led by Henry proctor.  They retreated all the way to Lake Ontario and left behind 606 killed and wounded.  An estimated 33 Aboriginals were killed.

American losses were 7 killed and 22 wounded.  Harrison reported that  most of the American casualties came from the Aboriginals.

Instead of pursuing Proctor, Harrison returned to Detroit.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of the Thames-- Part 5: Collapse of the British Forces

Harrison concentrated his main force in the center with the mounted Kentucky riflemen  under Johnson riding hard and charging the woods.  The British regulars broke quickly under fire and many surrendered, with the rest, including Proctor, running off.

The Kentuckians dismounted and engaged the Indians in the woods.

Tecumseh was killed as was warrior chief Stiahta (also known as Stayeghtha and Roundhead of the Wyandots).  Without those two capable leaders,dead, the Aboriginal will to resist collapsed and they joined the British in retreating.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of the Thames-- Part 4: Proctor Was Found Wanting of Leadership

Henry Proctor's retreat vegan 27 September 1813.

Major General William Henry Harrison, future U.S. president, led his American force cautiously following the retreating British and Indians and was soon joined by 500 mounted riflemen from Kentucky.  Proctor was "a slow and uninspired leader."

He did little to obstruct the American advance.  "Worse, Proctor's command of battle tactics were soon tested and found wanting."

"After a slow and disorderly withdrawal," Proctor turned and made a stand near Moraviantown with only a single 6-pdr. artillery piece with no ammunition.  The Aboriginals were in a swamp on the British right.  Tecumseh rode by the British soldiers, shaking the hand of each one to bolster their courage.

--Brock-Perry