This Month in the American Revolution: A Treaty, Saratoga, Nathan Hale and Yorktown

From the American Battlefield Trust 2021 Calendar, September.  Since this was the First War for American Independence and the War of 1812 is sometimes called the Second War for American Independence.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1783-- The Treaty of Paris was signed, bringing the American revolution to an end.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1777--  After a series of defeats,  Continental soldiers fighting under  American General Horatio Gates defeated the British at Saratoga, New York.

SEPTEMBER 22, 1776--  American patriot Nathan Hale was hanged for spying on the British.  As he was led to the gallows, he uttered the famous words:  "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

SEPTEMBER 28, 1781--  The Siege of Yorktown, Virginia begins.

--Brock-Perry

Fort George (National Historic Site, Canada)-- Part 1

Fort George (National Historic Site)
Run by the Friends of Fort George.

(1796 - 1824)   By Niagara-by-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Built with six earthen bastions with a palisade and a ditch.  It was the replacement for Fort Niagara, which was awarded to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris and the 1796 Jay Treaty.

The Center Blockhouse was within the fort, and the North and South Blockhouses (1797) were used as barracks.  Another blockhouse was built in 1800 inside the southeast redan , adjacent to the powder magazine.

The fort was bombarded by Fort Niagara in New York, in a rare duel between opposing forts, and then captured by American forces in May 1813.

--Brock-Perry

Burlington Heights Markers-- Part 3: United Empire Loyalists

UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS  (about 240 meters away).

"IN LASTING MEMORY OF THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS

"Who preferred to remain loyal British subjects and came to Canada in large numbers immediately following the American Revolution of 1776 and the signing of the Treaty of Peace in 1783.

"On this site in 1785 was erected one of  the first log houses in this district by loyalist pioneer Col. Richard Beasley who on June  11th and 12th 1796 here entertained Lieut. Colonel John Graves Simcoe the first Lieut. Governor of Upper Canada and Mrs. Simcoe.

"Unveiled July 1st, 1927 the Diamond Jubilee of the Confederation of the provinces of Canada on July 1st, 1867."

SIR JOHN HARVEY  (ABOUT .2 KILOMETER FROM MARKER)

SIR JOHN HARVEY  1778-1852

"From these heights , Lieutenant-Colonel John Harvey set out with 700 men on the night of June 5, 1813, to launch an attack  on an invading United States force of some 3,000 men camped at Stoney Creek.  His rout of the troops commanded by  Brigadier-General  John Chandler under cover of darkness in the early hours of June 6, is generally credited with saving Upper Canada from being overrun by the enemy.

"Harvey was knighted in 1834, served as Lieutenant-Governor of  New Brunswick 1834-1841, Governor of Newfoundland , 1841-1846, and Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, 1846-1851."

--Brock-Perry

George Ronan-- Part 4: Setting the Stage for the Fort Dearborn Massacre

One of the most threatened American forts on the Frontier  was a small stockaded fort associated with a fur-trading post near the southern tip of Lake Michigan.  Although the Chicago River and the area is flowed through was officially a part of the United States, the Fort Dearborn soldiers and fur traders were tremendously outnumbered by adjacent bands of Indians.

The predominant Indian group in the area was the Potawatomi nation, who remained allied with the British though their land had been ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolution at the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

On the Great Lakes, the years before the War of 1812 saw increasingly embittered competition between British-Canadian fur traders and American merchants and fur traders, many of whom were in alliance with the interests of the powerful John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company.

--Brock-Perry

A Frontier in Flames, War Along the U.S.-Canadian Border-- Part 1: An Outgrowth of the American Revolution

From the September/October American Spirit magazine, Daughters of the American Revolution "A Frontier in Flames" by Bill Hudgins.

One of the major issues of the War of 1812 for the United States  was Great Britain's continued presence and interference along the United States'northwestern border and the Canadian province  of Upper Canada, which stretched  along the great Lakes.

At the end of the American Revolution, there were seven major British outposts in the United States new Northwest Territory. (present-day Indiana, Illinois,Michigan and Wisconsin).  They were involved in the lucrative fur trade and had contact with American Indians.

The 1783 Treaty of Paris required the British to give up these outposts, but it took them a decade to do it.  Even worse, they encouraged the Indians to resist westward expansion of the Americans.

--Brock-Perry