Haunted Buffalo-- Part 2: Burned in the War of 1812

Even though the attempt was made to surrender the village of Buffalo, the British soldiers were to have their revenge for the Newark and York burnings.  They set the town ablaze and the flames made quick work of nearly all the 150 structures that made up Buffalo back then.

They also burned the neighboring community of Black Rock.

The British returned to Canada with 130 prisoners  They lost 31 men and the Americans  50 in the Battle of Buffalo.

When the fires ceased, all  that remained was the "stone jail, Reese's blacksmith shop and the house of Margaret St. John.  Within a week of the attack, the residents of Buffalo began to rebuild.

--Brock-Perry

Just in Time for Halloween, Haunted Buffalo-- Part 1: Old County Hall's Dismembered Apparitions

From the October 28, 2020, Buffalo (NY) Rising "Haunted History: Old County Hall is at the center of Buffalo's most dramatic moments" by Daniel Lendzian.

THE WAR OF 1812

The Old County Hall is the site where Colonel Cyrenius Chapin surrendered  the village of Buffalo to the British on December 10, 1813, to British Lieutenant General  Gordon Drummond after American Brigadier General George McClure abandoned the village saying, "They may all be destroyed, and I don't care how soon."  (Nice guy.)

Drummond rejected Chapin's authority to surrender and proceeded to burn the village in retaliation for the American burning  of the British settlement Newark (Niagara-On-the-Lake) and previously having burned the Canadian provincial capital of York (now Toronto).

Much business is still done at the building today, especially in the basement.  Accordingly, every so many years there will be many people down there waiting for appointments and they will all come running up the stairs saying they had seen something that scared them.

They described apparitions as human bodies missing limbs.  Was the County Hall a burying ground?

Like Boo!!  --Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 2: An Indian Confederation

Tecumseh's 1811 diplomatic mission among the various Indian tribes rallied the Upper Creeks, but  most of the southern tribes rejected it. As a result, most of his efforts  remained centered in the Old Northwest, where he drew together the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Saulk, Meskwaki, Ottawa and Ojibwe.

To Tecumseh, the Americans were set on domination of the continent and the Indians were in the wat and must be removed.

William Henry Harrison's victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe might have ended the Indian conflict, but it didn't.  He was sure of it, but was very wrong about it.  Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet, regrouped their people around a powerful ally, Britain, America's opponent in the approaching  maritime war.

Again, Tecumseh's aspirations were frustrated by circumstance.  Still hoping for an Indian confederacy, Tecumseh found his hand forced by the War of 1812.

For the next three years, the incomplete Indian alliance challenged American armies across the Native homelands.  They pummeled the Americans at the River Raisin, took Fort Dearborn (Chicago), chased settlers out of the borderlands, and orchestrated a three-pronged  offensive against the remaining American forts.

--Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 1: The Three Wars in 1812

From the October 26, 2020, New Yorker by Philip Deloria.

This is a book review, I believe of Peter Cozzen's joint effort called "Tecumseh and the Prophet:  The Shawnee Brothers Who defied a Nation."

The article had a lot about Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet's efforts to unite a strong Indian confederacy to stem U.S. encroachment onto Indian lands and the War of 1812.  It is one of those new histories that paints only negative views of the United States.

I will just be concentrating on Tecumseh in the War of 1812.

Most histories portray the role Indians played in the War of 1812 as being incidental to their British allies, marauding along the backcountry fringes of the Atlantic  conflict.  In actuality, the United States was waging three intertwined wars at once.  The war concerned with trade restrictions and impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy; the Creek War, which began as a Native conflict to halt settlement in the South; and Tecumseh's War, which started in 1811, but didn't conclude until 1815.

This last war was fought across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, lower Canada, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.  Tecumseh's War was not only a struggle for territory, but also Indian future in relation to the United States.

--Brock-Perry

Newly Acquired Documents Shed History of USS Constitution-- Part 2

The USS Constitution is the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat.  It was undefeated in battle and, in the War of 1812,  earned its nickname, Old Ironsides,  when British cannonballs bounced off its wooden hull.

The acquired papers cover several topics, including the construction of the nation's first six frigates, which included the Constitution.  Also, the strategic plans of the  undeclared Quasi-War against France from 1798 to 1800.

The collection belonged to James Sever, the first commander of the USS Congress, another frigate constructed at the same time.  These papers had been in his family ever since.  James Sever was the naval officer officiating at the launch of the Constitution as I have written about before.

Sever supervised the construction of the Congress  and was deployed withy the ship to the Caribbean Sea to protect U.S. merchant ships from French privateers.  The Constitution served alongside the Congress.

The collection also includes  correspondence from the Constitutions commander, Captain Silas Talbot, Henry Knox, Secretary of War under Washington, who oversaw appropriations for the construction of the Constitution and her sister ships; and Toussaint Louverture, the formerly enslaved leader of the Haitian Revolution, who corresponded with U.S. naval commanders about support for his government.

The documents will be  archived at the museum and shared publicly  via email newsletters and social media posts at first.  They also will be digitalized  and made available at the museum's website.

The More We Know.  --Brock-Perry

Newly Acquired Documents Relating to the Early Years of the USS Constitution to Be Unveiled-- Part 1

 From the October 21, 2020, Boston 25 News  "Papers shed light on early years of 'Old Ironsides,' Navy" by Marl Pratt, AP.

The collection was revealed on a Facebook Live celebration of the ship's 223rd birthday.

One of the documents shows the private signals used between the U.S. Navy and that of the United Kingdom.

The USS Constitution Museum has acquired 150 documents, including correspondence between George Washington's Secretary of War and the leader of the Haitian Revolution, that shed light on the ship's early history.  Most people know a lot about the ship in the War of 1812, but not much else.  The Haitian revolution was the United States' first international conflict.

The collection had been in private hands for more than 225 years, but was obtained at auction.  It is the largest collection the museum has gotten in more than a decade.

The cost of the documents was not disclosed, but they were paid for by a group of museum supporters called the Commodores.

Thanks Commodores.  --Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 10: Action After the Battle of New Orleans

Not knowing that the Treaty of Ghent  had been signed in December, Admiral Cochrane moved his forces back to Mobile and Prospect Bluff.  Just after his marines captured Fort Bowyer in a second attack at Mobile Bay, Cochrane got word of the Treaty of Ghent and began to withdraw from Mobile.

However, he left Nicholls and Woodbine  in command of the black Colonial Marines and Choctow Indians at the fort at Prospect Bluff.

The War of 1812 on the Gulf of Mexico began and ended at Apalachicola River.

But the departure of the Royal Navy did not end  the conflict with the blacks and Seminoles.  Attempts to recover Forbes & Company's losses during the three successive wars occupied Forbes and the Innerarity brothers for the rest of their lives, and led to the second largest Spanish  land grant in Florida's history.

Called the Innerarity's Claim of Searcy's  1829 map of Florida, the grant extended from Apalachicola to the Choctawhatchee River.  The story of how that land claim was settled  and the gradual decline of the John Forbes and Company's trading firm in the Territory of Florida is another story in itself.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 9: It's a Race to New Orleans Where Jackson Wins That Big Victory

After their defeat at Fort Bowyer, the British retreated to Pensacola, and Jackson determined to push them out of that place, even though it was technically neutral.  His forces reached Pensacola on November 6, 1814.  After the Spanish rejected his flag of truce,  he defeated the small garrison the next day in a brief skirmish.  One thing about Jackson, he never let a little thing like neutrality stop him.

In the meantime, the British pulled out of the city, destroying Forts Michael and Barrancas on the way.

Jackson  went back to Mobile, where he confirmed that the British force was heading for New Orleans.  Now that he was sure that Mobile was not the target, he  rode with his officers to New Orleans in ten days, with his army following later.  Partly because of the warnings of James Inneraritys, he arrived in New Orleans shortly before the British fleet.

He took command of the local militia, prepared the defenses and led his troops to that outstanding victory  at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.  (See the header at the top of the blog.)

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 8: Warning Jackson

WARNING JACKSON ABOUT NEW ORLEANS

Unknown to the British, an American merchant in Havana, Vincent Gray, had learned the invaders planned to  capture cotton bales stored at New Orleans and sell the stolen goods in Liverpool.  Under international law at the time, officers could profit from prize money received for items seized  in war.  It is estimated that 4 million pounds worth cotton, sugar, hemp, tobacco and ships could be seized  at New Orleans, far more than was available in Mobile.

Gray overheard conversations with Nicholls, commander of the Royal Marines, and learned the first British attacks would be on Pensacola and Mobile.  Alarmed at the rumors he was hearing, Gray wrote three letters of warning, that he sent to Secretary of War James Monroe, Gov. William Claibborne of Louisiana and the Forbes partner in Mobile, James Innerarity.

Although his loyalties were torn, James Innerarity  knew the British might loot his stores as war prizes, and decided that the American defenders needed to be warned of these planned attacks.  James requested an interview with Andrew Jackson, and showed him Gray's letter.  By this stroke of fortune, Jackson learned of the British attack on New Orleans four months before the invasion began which gave him time to prepare.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 7: The British Attack on Fort Bowyer Fails

In September 1814, John Innerarity learned that the British were planning an attack on Fort Bowyer and the capture of Mobile.  The brash Col. Nicolls had informed Governor Manrique in Pensacola of his plans, and Manrique confided this news to his confessor, Father James Coleman, who quickly relayed the information to Innerarity.

Innerarity became alarmed that an attack on Mobile's defenses at Fort Bowyer would include the plundering of the Forbes company store at nearby Bon Secour.  He sent a rider named William McVoy to warn Major William Lawrence of the American defenders.

Nichols learned that his plans had been betrayed, but went ahead an attacked Fort Bowyer anyway.

Although outnumbered 4-to-1, the American defenders  were able to damage the British flagship HMS Hermes, which became stranded and burned in the shallow water over the bar to Mobile Bay.

As the British landing party retreated, they sacked the Forbes company store on Bon Secour, enlisted ten company slaves into the army and stole tobacco, cattle, horses and equipment valued at $5,890.  

Two years later, Nicholls stated that his defeat at Mobile was due entirely to John Innerarity.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay, Florida-- Part 6: The War Comes to the Gulf Coast

In July 1814, a second British fleet anchored at Havana, Cuba,  and the Royal Marine commander, Lt. Col. Edward Nicholls, attempted to persuade the Spanish governor general, Ruiz Apodaca, , to allow British troops to defend Florida against the Americans.  Spain was neutral in the conflict, and although Apodaca  did not protest British troops on the Apalachicola River, he demanded the British stay out of Pensacola.

Nicholls departed for Apalachicola in August , only to find Woodbine had left Prospect Bluff for Pensacola in an effort to get fresh provisions for his Indian and black recruits.  Nicholls followed immediately to Pensacola., and was given permission to occupy Fort St. Michael (former Fort George and Fort San Miguel depending on who had control of it).

However, he alienated Spanish citizens by taking military control of the town and recruiting slaves into the marines.

News of the British advances along the Apalachicola River reached Andrew Jackson, and he moved his headquarters to Mobile on August 21, 1814.  That city was defended by the newly-built Fort Bowyer located on a sand spit east of the entrance to Mobile Bay (present side of Fort Morgan).

--Old Secesh

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 5: The Creek War and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Angered that they were turned down by Spanish governor Gonzalez Manrique. they turned to John Innerarity at the Forbes store  in Pensacola.  Innerarity feared that an Indian war was about to begin and showed them only empty barrels and turned down their request for guns and gunpowder

However, Governor Manrique decided to help the Creeks and  provided Chief Peter McQueen with 1,000 pounds of gunpowder.  An attack on Fort Mimms caused the United States to declare war on the Creeks.

Alarmed that the Creeks would become a dangerous threat if the British armed them, Andrew Jackson's Tennessee volunteers marched to the Alabama River from Nashville and defeated the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, and forced the Indians to ceded half of their territory to the Americans.

With some justification,  hostile factions among the Creeks and Seminoles blamed Forbes & Company for their lack of firearms and gunpowder that led to their defeat and loss of land.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 4: It Was a British, American and Spanish Thing

According to their British charter, the Forbes Company could operate under the flag of any country.  James and and John Innerarity had already obtained Spanish citizenship by residence without giving up their British, and thereby  were able to trade freely in Florida,

After the United States annexed Mobile in 1813, the Inneraritys applied for U.S. citizenship.  U.S. General James Wilkinson quartermaster purchased tools, bricks, lumber, food and office supplies from the company.  Through these favorable associations, the senior Forbes partners were becoming even closer to  Americans and more suspicious of British intentions.

The War of 1812 was already being fought between Nova Scotia and Washington, and now Forbes ships plying between Nassau and London were in jeopardy.

In July 1813, several delegations of Creek Indians, who were hostile to American encroachment, had arrived in Spanish Pensacola seeking gunpowder and firearms.  Led by Chiefs Peter McQueen and High Head Jim, about 300 men requested arms from the governor, Gonzalez Manrique, who refused their request.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 3: Why Was Forbes Mad?

At Prospect Bluff, George Woodbine conscripted John Forbes' agents, William Hanby and Edmund Doyle, along with 25 black slaves, to help build and manage their fort.  With Doyle and Hanby preoccupied, the British and their allies looted the Forbes store.

The former slaves were recruited into the Colonial Marines, and 300 of Forbes' cattle were confiscated to feed Creek and Seminole Indians., who were starving because Andrew Jackson's  forces had burned their villages and crops during the Creek War of 1813.

Woodbine's actions at Prospect Bluff convinced Forbes' partners, James and John Innerarity, the firm would fare better with the Americans than the British.  For the rest of the war, they aided Americans by sharing crucial information they gleaned from their vast trading network that extended from Amelia Island to Pensacola and New Orleans.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay, Florida-- Part 2: Part of a Three-Pronged Attack By the British

Continued from  September 16, 2020.

The British advance on Apalachicola Bay, Florida, was the first part of a three-pronged British attack on the Gulf of Mexico coast planned by Admiral Alexander Cochrane.  He would next hit Mobile and then new Orleans (which resulted in the famed Battle of New Orleans).  From new Orleans, his command could then control  navigation on the all-important Mississippi River.

He sent Navy Captain Hugh Pigot and  Marine Captain George Woodbine to the Apalachicola River to train Creek Indians and black Colonial Marines, expecting that these allies would then prevent American reinforcements coming from Georgia on the Old Federal Road and block them from helping protect Mobile and New Orleans.

Without permission from the neutral Spanish government, who owned the area, the British began constructing a fort  25 miles up the Apalachicola River less than a mile from the store at Prospect  Bluff that was run by the merchants and Indian traders of John Forbes & Company.

Although Forbes and his partners James and John Innerarity were British subjects, conflict was inevitable because British officers could augment their  pay by looting Forbes' business and selling the plunder as prizes of war.  (Kind of a land-based privateering scheme.)

--Brock-Perry

Beverly Powder House-- Part 4: Only Military Use Came in War of 1812

The Beverly (Massachusetts) Powder House was built in 1809 and was the town's third munitions supply house.  Its first was built near the town center in 1765.

In addition to its construction of this building, the town also authorized construction  of a structure to hose two cannons and associated equipment; it has not survived and its location is not known.

The Powder House's only significant military use came during the War of 1812, when local militia mustered there after a British attack on nearby Gloucester.

It was taken out of service in 1840, as the state transitioned to more centralized armories for militia munitions.

--Brock-Perry

Beverly Powder House (Massachusetts)-- Part 3

From Wikipedia.

A historic military storage magazine on Powder House Lane in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Built in 1809, this small brick building housed the town's military supplies during the War of 1812.  Listed on the NRHP in 2019.

It stands amidst residences built in the late  19th and early 20th centuries.

It is an eight-sided brick structure with a shingled roof built on a wood frame mounted over a brick dome.  The walls have no windows, but is designed  to allow for the passage of air  through the structure, with circuitous passages  through the brickwork.

The building is 17.5 feet  in diameter near its base and rises 12.5 feet from its stone foundation to its eaves.  Its wooden door is attached to  a frame by iron strap hinges.  The interior is finished with wooden siding, with shelving  fastened to framing  embedded in the brick walls by wood pegs.

--Brock-Perry

Beverly Powder House Restoration Complete-- Part 2: Safer Than Keeping Gunpowder in Your House with Walls Four Feet Thick

The Powder House was built in 1809 on land sold to the town by Nathan Dane for $30.  Dane was a Harvard Law School graduate and Beverly lawyer.  He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and helped draft the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  He was also very involved with the Hartford Convention during the War of 1812.

The Beverly Powder House was built on the then-undeveloped Powder House Hill following an 1805 ordinance that barred residents from keeping more than 25 pounds of gunpowder in their homes or businesses in recognition that the previous powder house was too close to residences and the town center.

Through the mid-nineteenth century, powder houses were built to hold large amounts of gunpowder because it was much safer than having residents store  the gunpowder in their homes.

The Beverly Powder House  is located on Prospect Hill (originally Powder House Hill) and is the second oldest municipal building  in Beverly after City Hall.  The structure is the only octagonal powder house extant in New England, with brick walls that measure four feet thick.

However, it saw its only wartime use during the War of 1812.

--Brock-Perry

Beverly Powder House Restoration Complete-- Part 1

From October 3, 2020, Wicked Beverly (Massachusetts).

The City of Beverly recently completed the exterior and interior restoration of this piece of the city's history.  It is one of Beverly's  most unique historical structures but over the many years it has stood, it was  sinking into deeper disrepair.

The project spanned over four years from 2017 to 2020.  Lance Daly was instrumental in getting this done.  A total of $244,500 was raised in grants and donations thanks to efforts by the city and the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Preservation Projects Fund, Beverly Crossing and  the Essex National Heritage Foundation.

The powder House is the second-oldest city-owned property.  The restoration itself took five months and included repointing masonry and brick replacement, replacing the existing the existing asphalt shingle roof with a historically wood shingle roof, replacing the wooden floor, adding historically accurate  siding to two interior walls and outside landscaping as well as improvements for public use.

--Brock-Perry

Will Voters Remove Andrew Jackson Statues in Missouri?

 From the October 2, 2020, Examiner (Jackson County, Missouri) by Mike Genet.

Voters will decide on November 3 what to do with a pair of Andrew Jackson statues located at Jackson County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City and the Truman Courthouse in Independence.  The county is also named for Andrew Jackson.

If voters vote to take them down, the statues will be moved to other buildings in the county, possibly with historical context because of Jackson's complicated legacy.  He was a military hero of the War of 1812 and prevented the Southern states from seceding during his presidency.

But he was also a slave owner and responsible for the Indian Removal Act that forced Indians off of their land in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

The downtown statue was damaged in the post George Floyd riots.

This is what should be done for all statue removals.  Let the people vote on what is t be done.

--Brock-Perry

Privateer General Armstrong (II)

GENERAL ARMSTRONG

Captains:  John Barnard, Guy R. Champlin, Samuel C. Reid

Commissioned 29 August 1814

Scuttled 17 September 1814  (A really short career.)

Out of New York, N.Y.

Owner:  Frederick B. Jenkins (Jenkins & Havens)

Schooner, 270 tons

Crew:  150, 115, 100

Guns:  19, 15, 7

Prizes:  23  (2)

--Brock-Perry