HMS Albion-- Part 1: Launching and Service in the Napoleonic Wars

From Wikipedia.

A 74-gun 3rd rate  ship of the line in the Royal Navy.   Launched at Perry's Blackwall Yard on the Thames River on 17 June 1802 and broken up at the Chatham.

The ship was 175 feet long and had a 47.6 foot beam.

In 1803, it joined the English fleet of Admiral Cornwallis (brother of Charles Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in case you're wondering) which was blockading the French port of Brest.  There she took part in the capture of (and prize money of) five enemy ships.

From there, the Albion was detached to the Indian Ocean for several years.

On December 21, 1803, she and another ship captured a French privateer.

Much of the rest of the Albion's service during the Napoleonic Wars consisted of convoy duty.

--Brock-Perry

St. Mary's County Museum Division Exhibits Detailed Model of British Ship of the Line HMS Albion

From the November 24, 2020, Southern Maryland Chronicle .

The St, Mary's County Museum Division in Leonardtown, Maryland, has partnered with a local  model ship builder to have a special exhibit of a model of the British ship HMS Albion, the flagship of a fleet of British ships that raided Leonardtown and St. Mary's County during the War of 1812 Chesapeake Campaign of 1814 which led to the burning of Washington, D.C., and the Battle of Baltimore.

The model enthusiast is retired Marine Colonel Robert Ballard who has loaned the stunning and intricate model to  display at the Old Jail Museum.

Several display panels give the history of the ship, her raids along the Chesapeake Bay and Admiral Cockburn (I've been writing about him recently because of his proclamation to Blacks to emigrate from the United States.

Mr. Ballard said this model took a year to make and he wanted people to see it.

--Brock-Perry

Historic Black Canadian Settlement Honored-- Part 3: The Land Was Pretty Bad

And, the little amount of land that Blacks did get was not very good for growing anything.

Sail Ralph Thomas, historian and descendant of the original Willow Grove settlers, said:  "When they (Blacks) got here it (the land) was not as good as they had been told."

"You know, the places weren't ready for them.  The grounds that were given to them were grounds that we know, even today,  to do anything as far as growing anything...."

Willow Grove is one of two historically black villages which will be featured on Canadian stamps in February.  The other is Amber Valley in Alberta.

Thomas said these stamps are a good way to start remembering and recognizing more black history in New Brunswick and Canadian history.

Now, this is something that the Black Lives Matter folks need to concentrate more on.

You Can Never Get Too Much History in My Book.  --Brock-Perry

Historic Black Settlement at Willow Grove to Be Honored-- Part 2: Blacks Were Not Welcomed and Those Who Came Got Smaller Plots of Poorer Land

But, the British government ran into problems when they tried to arrange land for the new immigrants in the province of Nova Scotia.   They wanted to send upwards of 3,000 of the new subjects to this province, but the legislature of it  said there were already too many Blacks there already.

So, they turned to New Brunswick, where the reception wasn't much better.

On April 13, 1815, Major General  Stracey Smyth, the Administrator of New Brunswick, asked the Executive Council to consider whether the province should receive 400-500 black refugees.  Although the council voted 3-2 to accept them,  the government was reluctant to take any responsibility for their welfare.

Of the thousands who departed the United States , 371 settled in Willow Grove.  Here they unfortunately found that the good land for farming they were promised was not exactly what they got.  The plots they received were smaller than the ones whites received

The policy of New Brunswick at the time was to give white settlers 100 acres while the Blacks received just 50 acres according to historian W.A. Spray.

And, to make matters worse, the plots Blacks received was not very food farming land.

--Brock-Perry

Cochrane's Proclamation-- Part 2: What He Hoped to Accomplish

At no point in the proclamation did Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane mention the words slaves or slavery, but this was clearly his intention.  Runaway slaves had already been coming out to British ships to gain freedom.

This was a two-fold attempt at weakening the Americans.

First, these slaves could be enlisted to serve on British warships who were always in need of more crew members as well as the Colonial Marines.

Plus, the loss of slaves hurt the American economy.

With British ships in the Chesapeake Bay area, it was hoped that slaves would get out to the ships in vast numbers from the numerous plantations.

Essentially, this document could be read to be as an instrument of freedom.

The Free Black settlement at Willow Grove in New Brunswick Province in Canada was a result of the proclamation.

I'd definitely call this an early Emancipation Proclamation.

--Brock-Perry

Admiral Cochrane's Proclamation to Blacks in the United States: A Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation?

From American Battlefield Trust.

A British Appeal to American Slaves:  Bermuda, April 2, 1814

Proclamation of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander F.I. Cochrane, R.N.

"Whereas, it has been represented to me, that many Persons now resident in the United States, have expressed a desire to  withdraw therefrom,  with a view of entering  His Majesty's Service, or of being received as Free Settlers into some of His Majesty's Colonies.

"This is therefore to Give Notice,

"That all those who may be disposed to emigrate from the United States will, with their Families, be received on board His Majesty's Ships or Vessels of War, or at the Military Posts that may be established, upon or near the Coast of the United States. when they will have their choice of either entering into His Majesty's  Sea or Land Forces, or being sent as Free settlers to  the British Possessions in North America or the West Indies, where they will be met with due encouragement.

Given  under my Hand at Bermuda, this 2nd day of April, 1814, ALEXANDER COCHRANE.

By Command  of the Vice Admiral, William Balhetchet (Secretary)   GOD SAVE THE KING.

A Way Out of Slavery.  --Brock-Perry

Historic Black Settlement of Willow Grove to Be Honored on Canadian Stamp-- Part 1

From the November 22, 2020, CBC by Jordan Gill.

A community outside of  Saint John will receive a stamp during next year's Black History Month according to Canada Post.

For Ralph Thomas, a descendant  of the residents of Willow Grove and a proponent of black history, the honor is a long time in coming.  "We have gone through the years without being recognized with some of our great folks that came to these parts and  went through a very tough time to get started in life."

The community was founded in 1815 as a result  of an 1812 British call to anyone living in the United States would be welcomed in the British Empire.  This was primarily aimed at Blacks, both enslaved and free.  Thousands of the Blacks took them up on it along the coast and especially from the Mid-Atlantic states and ended up living in  New Brunswick looking for a better life.

--Brock-Perry

St. Mary's College, Md., Unveils Memorial to Enslaved People

From the November 20, 2020, The Hill "See the first memorial  to the enslaved peoples of southern Maryland in St. Mary's" by Anagha Srikanth.

In 2016,  the remains of slave quarters on campus were discovered during an archaeological dig ahead of the construction of a new stadium.  This proved that St. Mary's had an association with  slavery.  Indeed, all colleges built before 1865, especially in the South, had an association with slavery.

On November 21, the college unveiled  a new memorial at a virtual commemoration to the slaves of southern Maryland.  It takes the shape of a cabin.

The site, which appears to have been abandoned sometime around the 1820s also correlates with an interesting chapter of the area's history.  During the War of 1812, British Admiral George Cockburn sailed along the eats coast of the United States near the British-held Chesapeake Bay.

He encouraged  enslaved people to defect in return for their freedom.  About 19 slaves from the St. Mary's area reportedly defected, raising the possibility that the found slave quarters might even have been theirs.

Never Enough History Markers.  --Brock-Perry

Corporal Leonard Aumack, War of 1812 Veteran

The other known War of 1812 veteran who is buried at the Aumack Cemetery in Hazlet, New Hersey is Leonard Aumack.

From Find a Grave.

BORN:  15 January 1785

DIED:  10 May 1849 (aged 64)

BURIED:  Aumack Family Burying Ground, Hazlet, Manmouth County, New Jersey.

Son  of William Henry and Christiana (Hoff)  Aumack

Served as corporal in Captain Thomas White's Company of Infantry, Lt. Col. James Abraham's Regiment of New Jersey Detailed Militia, War of 1812.  Also served Captain Daniel D. Hendrickson and Col.  Balzer's Company of  Riflemen, 3rd New Jersey Detailed Militia, War of 1812.

There was also Corp. Edward J. Aumack from Monmouth Co., New Jersey who was killed in the Korean War.  More than likely a relative.

--Brock-Perry

The Aumack Family in the War of 1812: Garret, Jacob and William Henry Aumack

The last two posts were about a cemetery in New Jersey that had the graves of two Aumacks who had served in the War of 1812.

From Geni

GARRET AUMACK

Born January 10, 1773

Died 1845 (age 71-72)

Son of Jacob Aumack and   Geertje Aumack.  Husband of Mary Aumack.

Brother of  Helena (born 1761, died at age 2 or 3), William Henry Ariantje, Helena, Mathiasm Conover, Antje, Jacob Aumack.

*********************************

JACOB AUMACK

Born 1769 in Middleton, New Jersey

Died 1849 at age 79 or 80.

*********************************

WILLIAM HENRY AUMACK  (shown in a uniform, possibly American Revolution)

Born August 21, 1762

Died  April 28, 1849 (age 86)

Internment:    Hazlet, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Probably also buried at the cemetery.

--Brock-Perry

Two War of 1812 Veterans Buried at Aumack Cemetery in New Jersey-- Part 2

In 1811, William Henry Aumack, who served as a private in the Monmouth County Militia during the American Revolution, purchased 42 acres of farmland for $100 (good deal) in present day Hazlet (Middleton back then)  He picked a hillock on the farm for a family cemetery after the death of his wife, Christiana in 1841.  Thus began the Aumack Family Cemetery.

In 1991, it was concluded that  20 people had been interred at the site, including two from the War of 1812: Private Garret Aumack and Corporal  Leonard Aumack.  Leonard's grave is the only one still visible in the cemetery.

It is great that the cemetery will be cleaned up and preserved better than in the past.

Thanks to the Boy Scouts and James Borg, Eagle Scout candidate.

--Brock-Perry

Two War of 1812 Veterans, an American Revolution and a Civil War Veteran in a Forgotten Cemetery, No Longer That Way

From the November 16, 2020, Asbury Park Press "Desecrated cemetery, lost grave of  18-year-old war heron getting restored in Hazlet" by Jerry Carino.

Hazlet, New Hersey.

Thomas Bailey Aumak was 17 years old when he enlisted to fight for the Union in the Civil War.  The Bayshore native  was mustered into the 87th New York Infantry in November 1861.

Less than a year later, he was dead.

The young hero's grave lies somewhere between two homes on  a residential street in Hazlet.  He is one of at least four  soldiers buried in this hidden cemetery.  There are also am American Revolution militiaman and two War of 1812 veterans.

After decades of desecration and neglect, one neighbor even built a shed on the site; another  removed a gravestone and used it as a porch step.

But, not anymore.  Thomas Aumack would have appreciated it

Because a 17-year-old Eagle Scout candidate was the catalyst.    His name is James Borg.

--Brock-Perry

Zebulon Pike Arrived at Pike's Peak 214 Years Ago Yesterday

On November 14, I wrote about Zebulon Pike, the American discoverer of what is today called Pikes Peak.  In yesterday's Chicago tribune, I saw that date happened 214 years ago, November 15, 1806.

Pikes Perak is 14,100 feet tall and the highest peak of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains., 12 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It was discovered during Zebulon Pike's  Second Expedition.   In early November 1806, Pike and his team spotted and tried to climb to the summit of the peak later named after him.  They failed after a two-day attempt.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Wool in the Chesapeake Bay-- Part 2: Birds vs. History?

Tourists arrive at Fort Wool on the  Miss Hampton II. a tour boat sailing out of Hampton.  Those traveling the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel can see Fort Wool, lying to the east, on man-made South Island.

Construction started on the fort in 1819, and during the next 125 years, Fort Wool evolved as military technology advanced, resulting in a  rare fort that contains military architecture that spans the entire era of United States seacoast defense.

Notable are the remaining granite casemates dating to 1826, though most of the fort's defenses date from the early 20th century, including the World War II Battery 229 which included two 6-inch shielded guns and its iconic  steel tower.

While fully  recognizing the need for nesting sites for migratory seabirds and completing the tunnel-bridge expansions, these solutions need not and should not come at the expense of the permanent loss of a historic treasure.

The site, in the middle of Hampton Roads, near the  1862 USS Monitor-CSS Virginia battle, offers dramatic views of the Chesapeake Bay and Fort Monroe.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Wool in the Chesapeake Bay Seems to Be Going to the Birds-- Part 1

From the November 13, 2020, Bay Journal "Fort Wool, nesting  seabirds both need  saving" by Terry McGovern.

Recently, efforts have been made to turn Fort Wool into a habitat for nesting seabirds.   But, Fort Wool is also a historic site and saw use during the Civil War and other wars, including World War II.  

It was built on an island of granite blocks after the War of 1812, partially in response to the British attack on Washington, D.C.  It and the completion of nearby Fort Monroe allowed American cannons to control access to Hampton Roads.

It also served a s a summer residence for two U.S. presidents:  Andrew Jackson and John Tyler and it was an initial sanctuary  for enslaved blacks escaping to freedom under the protection of the Union Army.  Guns from Fort Wool fired on the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862.

Union president Abraham Lincoln observed the first Union attempt to take Norfolk, Virginia, from the fort's ramparts in May 1862.

Until recently, the fort was visited by thousands of people a year and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

--Brock-Perry

Zebulon Montgomery Pike Honored in Florida

From the Haines City (Fla.) Daily Ridge "More than 200-year-old  Army veteran honored at Haines City Veteran's Day Ceremony" by James Coulter.

Most people today would not recognize his name, but if you ever visit Colorado, there is a rather prominent elevation that bears his name, Pike's Peak. 

By direction of President Thomas Jefferson, James Pike led two westward expeditions to explore the newly acquired  lands of the Louisiana Purchase.   During one of those, he crossed the Rocky Mountains and explored  the territory now known as Colorado.  This feat earned him the honor of having his name given to Pike's Peak.

During his service, he was captured by  Spanish colonial authorities near  Santa Fe, taken to  what is now Mexico and interrogated and later released near Louisiana.  He wrote of his exploits in a book published in 1810.

He served in the U.S. Army for 14 years, eventually becoming a brigadier general.  During the War of 1812, he was killed while leading an attack on the Canadian city of York (Toronto today).

Cynthia  Morrison, one of his descendants, was at the ceremony.

--Brock-Perry

About That U.S. Navy White Oak Forest in Indiana-- Part 2: Welcome to Constitution Grove

The USS Constitution , called "Old Ironsides" is a museum ship docked in Boston, but she has an active duty crew and commander.  She has even sailed under her own power as recently as twenty years ago.

So, one of the Navy's unusual jobs is there at a civilian forester maintained.  They call the group of trees Constitution Grove in Indiana.

From the USS Constitution Museum "The Wooden Walls" of USS Constitution.

The USS Constitution received, according to Secretary  of War Knox, "the best white oak."  However, with each restoration of the ship, white oak of the size needed became increasingly difficult to obtain.  Nearly two generations and three restorations ago, white oak trees at the Naval Facilities Engineering  Command in Crane, Indiana,  were designated for the USS Constitution.

At the time, as the 1973 work began on the ship, the U.S. Navy noted:  "Seasoned white oak, ... needed in the ... overhaul of ... Constitution, was difficult to ... procure."  Over 150 white oak trees spread over the  64,000 acre base were designated for the ship.

In April 2012,  70 of these trees were examined and 35 selected that will be used to replace  the 30-40-foot long rotted hull planks on the ship.

--Brock-Perry

Reading the Names of the Fallen at the River Raisin National Battlefield Today to Honor the Veterans

From the November 8, 2020, Ionia (Michigan) Sentinel Standard "Reading of names of the fallen to highlight Veterans Day  ceremony at battlefield" by Dean Cousino.

The reading of about 450 names of men from Monroe County will highlight a special Veterans Day Ceremony at  the River Raisin National Battlefield (Monroe County, Michigan) that is decorated with more than 500 American flags until November 15.  This is part of a "Field of Honor" program.

The battlefield park preserves and commemorates the  January 1813 battles between Americans and the British, Canadians and their Indian allies.  The battles and the "Remember  the Raisin!" battle cry,  and helped inspire a major American victory at the River Thames and were a major turning point in the War of 1812.

The 450 men and women whose names will be read, were from the Civil War.

The "Field of Honor" has more than 500 U.S. 3-by-5- foot flags on ten foot poles and will be lighted at night.

--Brock-Perry

About That U.S. Navy White Oak Forest in Indiana

From the November 8, 2020, Gadsden Times "David Murdock Column:   On unusual American military units."

He found out about an unusual naval facility located in the middle of Indiana, not exactly where you'd expect to find a naval unit based.  It is the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and is located neat Bloomington, Indiana.  

According to the Navy, it is the third largest naval  installation in the world.

But what really caught Mr. Murdock's eyes a forest of white oak trees. was the fact that it maintains a forest of white oak trees. And the reason it exists and is so large is a warship named the USS Constitution.  This old ship, the longest commissioned warship in the world,  requires white oak trees for  repair and rehabilitation.

The Constitution is a wooden sailing frigate that was launched in 1797.  It is the oldest warship still afloat (Britain's HMS Victory has been afloat slightly longer, but is in permanent drydock).

--Brock-Perry

Jackson County, Mo., Votes to Keep Jackson Statues

From the November 6, 2020, Kansas City Examiner "Jackson statues to get explanatory signs" by Mike Genet.

A majority of the Jackson County voters voted this week to keep the two Andrew Jackson statues in front of its two courthouses.  The statues are in Kansas City and Independence.

But, the statues will be getting explanatory plaques.

You have to be careful about those contextual plaques as often they are giving more in the line of certain opinions existing today.

But, at least the people have spoken.

You Know, Those Culture-Erase Folk.  --Brock-Perry

War of 1812 Medallions Placed in Texas

From the November 5, 2020, Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald  "War of 1812 medallions placed in Waco cemetery." 

A War of 1812 "Real Daughter" medallion was placed on the grave of Emma Buck Harrison and War of 1812 veteran medallion placed on the grave of William Calmes Buck.

The Jordan Bass  Chapter of the United States Daughters of 1812 recently placed  medallions of the First Street Cemetery at these graves.  Emma was his daughter.

Buck was born August 23, 1790, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and served in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant  in the 2nd Regiment Virginia Militia.  Before entering the service, he became an ordained Baptist  minister.  After the war, he preached in  Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

He first married Maria Lewright  in Jefferson City, Virginia who died in childbirth with her fourth child.  Later, Buck married  Isabella Miriam Field of Woodford County, Kentucky, with whom he had 11 children.  Isabella died in Nashville, Tennessee in 1852 at the age of 42.

After the Civil War, he moved to Texas where he lived the rest of his life.

--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 4: The Impact of the Death of Tecumseh and Aftermath

Somewhere in the smoke and fury, Tecumseh went down.  Col. Richard Mentor Johnson, severely wounded himself, recounted pulling out his pistols and shooting an Indian -- maybe Tecumseh?  In later years, Johnson built his political career on the claim that he had slain the mighty Tecumseh himself.

Tecumseh's death put in motion a series of events and consequences.    Furious about the British failure, many of Tecumseh's allies quickly signed an armistice with Harrison, who then sought  o enlist them to fight the British.

Even as many American settlers  spoke explicitly   about the "extermination" of  Indian people, their leaders  negotiated a series of treaties with confederacy tribes.  The British confirmed their faithlessness in the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, which  ended the war, but sold out their Indian allies.

Without Tecumseh, his brother, Tenskwatawa, the Prophet, floundered, and he eventually helped the Americans to persuade the Shawnees to leave their lands and relocate in Kansas.  There, in 1828, he set up a sad little Prophetstown of four remote cabins, where he faded away to a lonely death less than a decade later.

--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