War of 1812 in Illinois Territory-- Part 4: Enter Zachary, Exit Zachary, British Offensive

Other desultory expeditions marked the campaigns of 1813 and 1814.

The Indians, meanwhile, gaining courage, began near continuous marauding raids on American settlements.

Later, in 1814,  an expedition led by Major (later U.S. president)  Zachary Taylor ascended the Mississippi River as far as  Rock Island, where he found a large force of Indians supported by British regulars with artillery.  Finding himself unable to cope with so formidable a foe, Major Taylor retreated down the river.

On the site of the present-day town of Warsaw, Illinois, he threw up fortifications which eh named Fort Edwards.  However, he was subsequently compelled to retreat.

The same year, the British with their Indian allies, descended from Mackinac and capture Prairie du Chien and burned Forts Madison and Johnston, after which they retired to Cap Au Gris.

The Treaty of Ghent, signed December 24, 1814, closed the war although no formal treaties were made  with the tribes until the following year.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812 in Illinois Territory-- Part 3: Enter Thomas E. Craig

Meanwhile, Governor Edwards had reached the head of Peoria Lake (where Peoria is today) and now didn't meet up with Samuel Hopkins' Army, so returned to Fort Russell.

About that same time, Captain Thomas E. Craig led a party of two boats up the Illinois River to Peoria.  His boats, as he alleged, were fired upon  in the night by Indians who had been harbored and protected by the French citizens of Peoria.

He then burned the greater part of the French village and captured a number of its people.  He carried them downriver  and put them ashore in the early part of winter just below Alton.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812 in Illinois-- Part 2: A Two-Pincer Movement Against the Indians

An independent company of about  twenty-one spies, of which John Reynolds(afterwards governor) was a member was also formed and led by  Capt. Samuel  Judy.  The governor organized his little army into two regiments under Colonels Rector and Stephenson, Colonel Russell serving as second to the commander in chief, other members of his staff being  Secretary Nathaniel Pope and Robert K. McLaughlin.

In October 18, 1812, Governor Edwards and his men  set out for Peoria, where he expected his force to meet up with General Samuel Hopkins and his army, who had been sent from Kentucky with 2,000 men.  En route, two Kickapoo villages were burned and a number of Indians unnecessarily slain by Edwards' group.  Hopkins had orders to  disperse Indians in the Illinois and Wabash rivers and destroy their villages.

Hopkins determined, however, on reaching then headwaters of the  Vermilion River that he could proceed no further.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812 in Illinois-- Part 1

From Free Pages Roots Web."

Upon the declaration of war  in June 1812, the Potawatomies and most other Indian tribes in the Illinois Territory strongly sympathized with the British, whom they saw as valuable allies in keeping the intruding American settlers from taking their land.ar of 1812."

They had been  hostile and restless for some time previous and blockhouses and small family forts were the order of the day for American settlers who were mostly in the southern part of the future state. There were often Indian  attacks on them.

Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards, becoming apprehensive of an outbreak of Indian hostility as the situation between the United States and Britain worsened, constructed Fort Russel a few miles from the present-day city of Edwardsville (named for him).  Sadly, the exact location of this fort is not known today (probably north of the city).

Taking the field in person, he made Fort Russell his personal headquarters and collected a force of 250  mounted volunteers who were later reinforced by two companies of rangers, under  Col. William Russell, numbering about 100 men.

--Brock-Perry

Old Fort Niagara to Host Encampment-- Part 2:A Full Lineup of Activities

In addition to Richard V. Barbuto's talk on the turning point of the War of 1812 in September 1814,there will also be a variety of living history activities.  re-enactors will establish period camps and  demonstrate what life was like for common soldiers during the War of 1812.  In other words, no RVs or Glamping.

Throughout the day, troops will perform musket demonstrations, volley firing, artillery firing and other tactical exercises.  Other programs feature period cooking, laundry, blacksmithing, children's games and Native Americans in the War if 1812.

Scheduled programs are:

10:30 am, infantry drill and firing

On the hour and at 3:45 pm, musket firing demonstrations

11:30 am, uniforms of the War of 1812

12:30 pm, regency women's fashions

1:30 pm, "Hot Shot" artillery demonstration 

2:30 pm, firepower weapons program

3:30 pm, Tour:  Fort Niagara in the War of 1812

Activities run from 10 am to 4 pm.  This program is sponsored by the United States Daughters of 1812.

Old Fort Niagara is currently open daily from  10 am to 4 pm.  It is a Registered National Historic Landmark and a New York State Historic Site operated by the Old Fort Niagara  Association.

--Brock-Perry

Old Fort Niagara to Host a War of 1812 Encampment-- Part 1

From the August 24, 202, Niagara Frontier  Publications.

The encampment is scheduled for  Labor Day weekend September 4-5.  This year's event will focus on U.S. troops who garrisoned the fort from June  1812 through December 1813, when the British captured the fort.

Activities include a Saturday afternoon presentation by acclaimed  historian  Richard V. Barbuto who will speak about "Seven Days in September 1814:  Turning Point of the War of 1812."  Her is author of  numerous books about the War of 1812, including "New York's War of 1812," recently published by  the University of Oklahoma Press.

He is also emeritus professor of history and has served as  deputy director of the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  A 1971 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served for 23 years as armor officer with tours of duty in Germany, Korea and Canada.

--Brock-Perry

Jacob Jones, USN-- Part 3: A Victory Then a Loss

As the two vessels continued to close, the Wasp collided with the bowsprit of the HMS Frolic.  Jones immediately ordered his men to board the Frolic, where they overwhelmed the British crew and captured the ship.

It was all over in 45 minutes.  Out of110 sailors aboard the Frolic, 90 had been killed or seriously wounded.  The Americans suffered only five killed and five wounded.

The victory over the Frolic was complete, but just then the sails of another ship were seen, which turned out to be the HMS Poictiers, a 74-gun British ship-of-the-line, appeared on the horizon.

Under normal circumstances. Jones' ship could easily outsail the slower, more powerful Poictiers; but the rigging of the Wasp was in tatters.  After the Poictiers fired a warning shot at the smaller American vessel, Jones was forced to surrender.

Regardless of the loss of his ship, Congress presented Jones with a gold medal for his action.

The Delaware native served four more decades in the U.S. Navy.

Jones had weathered a turbulent childhood and failure in several occupations before ge found himself a home in the Navy.

--Brock-Perry

Jacob Jones, USN-- Part 2: A Short, Violent Fight Between the Wasp and the Frolic

The capture by Tripoli did not stop Jones' career in the Navy.  At the beginning of the War of 1812, he now found himself in the command of the sloop USS Wasp.  In the early months of the war, American ships aggressively  sought out British ships in the Atlantic sea lanes and along the Atlantic coast.

On this cruise, before he even found the British, the Wasp encountered a violent storm which destroyed part of the ship's rigging and killed two men.  The rigging had just barely been repaired when a small convoy of British ships was spotted being escorted by the British sloop HMS Frolic.

Both being sloops, the two ships were about evenly matched for a battle that would be short and bloody.  The Wasp and Frolic were about sixty yards apart when the first broadsides were exchanged.  According to future President Theodore Roosevelt in his book "The Naval War of 1812, "The (Frolic) fired very rapidly, delivering three broadsides to the Wasp's two, both crews cheering loudly as the ships wallowed through the water.

"There was a very heavy sea running, causing the vessels to pitch and roll heavily.  The Americans fired as the engaged side of their ship was going down aiming at their opponents hull, while the British delivered their broadsides while on the crest of the seas, the shot going high."

So, Who Won?  --Brock-Perry

Jacob Jones, USN-- Part 1: The Oldest Midshipman and Capture at Tripoli

From the August 14, 2021, Delmarva ""War of 1812 hero, Jacob Jones found a home in the United States Navy" by Michael Morgan.

Master Commandant (a rank in the early U.S. Navy, now called commander) Jacob Nicholas Jones had weathered the storm.  In October 1812, the U.S. and Britain were at war.  He had guided his 18 gun sloop USS Wasp past Cape Henlopen and out into the Atlantic in search of enemy warships.

The Delaware native and resident of Lewes was born near Smyrna, Delaware in 1768.  His mother had died when he was an infant; and his father married Penelope Holt, the granddaughter of Ryves Holt of Lewes.  When he father passed away, Penelope raised the boy in Lewes, where he lived at the Ryves-Holt House at Second and Mulberry streets.

After he completed his elementary education in Lewes, Jones studied medicine and hung out his shingle as a doctor; but had few patients.  He considered a legal career, worked as a store keeper and took up farming.  But nothing seemed to satisfy him.

In 1799, ate the age of 31, Jones joined the fledgling U.S. Navy as one of the service's oldest midshipmen.  (Midshipmen were usually in their early to mid teens).

In 1803, Jacob Jones was now a lieutenant and on board the frigate USS Philadelphia, when the ship ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli in what is now Libya.  The American crew was captured and imprisoned  for twenty months.

--Brock-Perry

Hargrave Family & War of 1812-- Part 3: Then Came Craig and a Little Girl Named Ninian

A second attack on Peoria occurred beginning on November 5 and ended on November 9 and was carried out by men under the command of Captain Thomas  Craig of the Illinois militia.  A large number of French citizens and Potawatomie were killed.

These attacks not only angered the people of Peoria, but angered the U.S.  Government as well because they had been carried out against Indians loyal to Black Partridge and Gomo, two leaders who had not gotten involved in Tecumseh's  War and were considered friendly to U.S. interests.

Ninian Edwards, having lost the confidence of the Madison  administration, then left the Illinois Territory and moved to Kentucky, but continued as governor of the Illinois Territory until 1818.

She mentions that one of the Hargrave families named a little girl Ninian.

--Brock-Perry

The Hargrave Family and War of 1812-- Part 2: Ninian Edwards Attacks

Following the massacre at Fort Dearborn (present-day Chicago), Illinois Territory Governor Ninian Edwards Became convinced that  the Potawatami and Kickapoo Indians were going to launch a major attack on settlements in southern Illinois.  In his capacity as commander-in-chief in the Territory, he took it upon himself to launch a campaign against them.

The force of 400 that he assembled included mounted militia volunteers commanded by  Charles Rector and Benjamin Stephenson.  On October 18, 1812,  Edwards and his force marched out of Fort Russell (near present-day Edwardsville).  Near present-day Springfield, he burned  two Kickapoo villages on  the Saline Fork of the Sangamon River.

From there, they turned west and marched to present-day Peoria where they attacked villages associated with the Kickapoo, the Miami and the Potawatomi.  According to Edwards' account to the U.S. Secretary of War, they burned the villages and large amounts of provisions.  They also captured 80 horses, killed more than  two dozen Indians and captured 4 prisoners.

That accomplished, they returned to Fort Russell in November 1, 1812.  There Edwards proclaimed that the Indian problems had been solved and he released the militia.

Two of the men with Benjamin Stephenson were Robert Hargrave (son of John Robert) and Joseph Palmer (son-on-law of John Robert.)

--Brock-Perry

The Hargrave Family and War of 1812-- Part 1: Willis Hargrave

From Jeanne Hargrave blog at Word Press.

Back on August 16, I wrote about the first four companies of Illinois Territory Rangers.  One of them was commanded by William McHenry, whose name is now on McHenry County, Illinois, as well as the City of McHenry in that county.  Before I started this blog, I believed my county's name came from the famous fort in Baltimore.  You learn something new all the time.

Another company was commanded by Willis Hargrave, one of Jeanne's ancestors.

On July 20, 1810, 40-year-old Willis Hargrave (son of William and Elizabeth Miles  Hargrave) was appointed  Captain of the 3rd Regiment of Illinois Militia.  The unit became known as Captain Hargrave's Company of Mounted Volunteers.

In mid-1810, the census found his wife, Jane Brown Hargrave, and their younger children alone in Randolph County, Illinois Territory.  With Willis in the field  were sons Seth (age 16) and Samuel (age 20).

In 1811, Willis Hargrave, age 41 by then,  enlisted with a new military group and was appointed Major of the 4th Regiment  of Illinois Militia on November  29, 1811.

--Brock-Perry

Francois Leclaire on the Actions of Thomas Craig and His Men

Francois Leclaire was of one of the French families in the former village at Peoria that Thomas Craig's men destroyed.  This is his account of what happened:

After the Indians were defeated by the forces of Governor Edwards at the head of Peoria Lake, they (the Indians) threatened to kill the French people and proceeded to  rob the houses and kill the oxen.

Then a party of men under Captain Thomas E. Craig arrived in two boats and took everything they could get their hands on.  Then they made the people prisoners.  While a prisoner he saw several structures burned by Craig's men.  he also saw articles belonging to the villagers on the boats.

In 1813, he went up to Sandy Creek on the Illinois River with Thomas Forsyth and others and heard from the Indians that they had burned the Kinzie and Forsyth house and bakehouse at Peoria.

These were the damages done by Craig and his men.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on the Illinois Rangers

From Clinton Illinois genealogy "Muster Rolls of Volunteers -- 1812"

Although Illinois Territory Governor Ninian Edwards had several times during the years 1811-1812 recommended to the U..S. Secretary of War the enlistment of  one or more companies of "Rangers" to protect the frontier, and Congress in 1811 passed an act  authorizing the organization of ten companies of rangers, which was afterwards  organized as the 17th United States Regiment, under Colonel William Russell of Kentucky, an Indian fighter of bravery and experience, it does not appear that more than one company was recruited in the Illinois Territory.

However, four companies were now allotted for the defense of Illinois, whose respective captains were  Samuel and William B. Whitesides, James R. Moore and Jacob Short.

Independent Cavalry Companies were also organized for the protection of  the remote settlements  in the lower Wabash country, of which Willis Hargrave, William McHenry, Nathaniel Journey.

William McHenry was the namesake of McHenry County (where I live) and the city of McHenry which is also in the county.  I was always under the opinion that the county and city were named after Fort McHenry in Baltimore, the subject of our "Star-Spangled Banner."

Captain Craig, at Shawneetown, and William Boon at Big Muddy, were respectively commanders ready to make the Indians pay for any attacks.

--Brock-Perry

Thomas E. Craig

From the "Alton" book by Cheryl Eichar Jett.

Several Native American attacks were recorded during the early settlement of Illinois years.

During the War of 1812. Captain Thomas E. Craig burned a Native American village in Northern Illinois (Peoria) capturing 77 French, French-Native American, Native American and American  individuals.

Historian James E. Davis said that Craig "shunted this assortment of humanity down  the Illinois River, abandoning them on a dreary November day south of modern Alton."

Illinois Territory Governor Ninian Edwards. embarrassed by the debacle, compensated those stranded in the Alton area.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 4: 'A Wanton Act of Cruelty'

When the French villagers returned, Craig had forty of them arrested, claiming that someone had fired on them.  The French denied this.  Craig had his prisoners taken downriver to Alton where they were held for four days before being released.

In the meantime, Craig and his men killed all the village's cattle and burned part of the town.

Historians tend to look at Craig's actions as being misguided.  To John Reynolds, the destruction of French Peoria was "useless" and "a wanton act of  cruelty."  Historian Frank  Stevens denounced Craig's conduct  as "asinine and criminal."

He must Have Had a Really Big Hatred of the French (and Probably Indians as Well).  --Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 3: Destruction of the French Village at Peoria

Continued from August 4, 2021. 

In his book "Illinois in the War of 1812" author Gillum Ferguson said he wanted to be fair to the plight of the Illinois Indians.  "I wanted to give the Indians their fair due without romanticizing them," said Ferguson, who recounted a "possible" massacre of  Indians in the central Illinois area where U.S. troops reportedly wiped out Indian women and children in an encounter that took place in what is now Logan County.

But accounts on what took place vary.

What is a matter of record is the destruction of the French village in Peoria  by Captain Thomas Craig of Shawneetown.  

After finding the village deserted when he arrived, Craig allowed his men to ransack the unguarded cottages and storehouses.

--Brock-Perry

August 8, War of 1812: Peace Talks Begin, Napoleon Exiled and the USS Tecumseh

1814:  During the War of 1812, peace talks between the United States and Britain began in Ghent, Belgium.  It was finally signed on December 24, 1814.

1815:  Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena Island to spend the remainder of his days in exile.  The United States was exceedingly fortunate to have him posing a greater threat to Britain than we were back in the War of 1812.

Tecumseh   I have been writing about the monitor USS Tecumseh in my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog.  It was sunk by a Confederate mine at the Battle of Mobile Bay and was named after famed Indian leader Tecumseh who played a big role in the War of 1812.

--Brock-Perry

This Month in the War of 1812: Surrender of Detroit and Burning of D.C.

From the American Battlefield Trust August 2021 calendar.

AUGUST 16

1812:  General Hull surrendered Detroit to the British

AUGUST 19

1812:  The USS Constitution defeats the HMS Guerriere

AUGUST 24

1814:  Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, a big American defeat

AUGUST 24

1814:  The Burning of Washington, D.C.

--Brock-Perry

This Month in the American Revolution: Battle of Hanging Rock and Battle of Long Island

The War of 1812 is sometimes referred to as the Second War for American Independence.

These events took place this month during the first war for American independence.  I am thinking of moving the American Revolution from the Cooter's History Thing blog to here.

From the American Battlefield Trust 2021 August calendar.

AUGUST 6

1780:  Battle of Hanging Rock, South Carolina.

AUGUST 16

1777:  Battle of Bennington, New York

AUBUST 16

1780:  Battle of Camden, South Carolina

AUGUST 27

1776:  Battle of Long Island

--Brock-Perry

The American Revolution's Battle of Hanging Rock

From the American Battlefield Trust August 2021 calendar.

A picture by Brian Keeley accompanies the calendar page.

HANGING ROCK, S.C.

172 acres saved.

The site of a surprise attack on a British outpost by Patriot militia on August 6, 1780, Hanging Rock will be a new battlefield park along the Liberty Trail.

This innovative driving route -- planned in cooperation with the South Carolina Battlefield Trust -- will more fully tell the story of America's fight for independence in the Southern Theater.

With the support of the American Battlefield Protection Program, the South Carolina Conservation Bank and Lancaster County, 172 acres have been preserved here.

I am so happy that the Civil War Battlefield trust has expanded its aims to protect the battlefields from the other two wars fought on American soil, The American Revolution and the War of 1812.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 2

Gillum Ferguson explained the Indian situation in Central Illinois back then, saying that Gomo, an Indian chief who had years earlier traveled to Philadelphia to meet George Washington, sought peace for his village near present-day  Chillicothe, Illinois.  Meanwhile, across Peoria Lake to the south was the village of Shequenebec whose chief was a mystic -- and increasingly hostile to the settlers.

About fifteen miles south of Peoria, on the  Mackinaw River was a  mixed village of Kickapoo, Potawatomi,  Ottawa and Chippewa, with about sixty warriors, "all desperate fellows and  great plunderers."

At this point in his research on Illinois in the War of 1812, he found that the last thing written about the future state was a long article in  1904.

For the record, Ferguson said that the United States declared war on Britain in June 1812.  A peace treaty was signed in December 1814, but the Battle of New Orleans (made famous by singer Johnny Horton) took place in January 1815.

While doing research for his book, Ferguson visited Peoria and other sites across the Midwest (Illinois Territory stretched into parts of Wisconsin and Michigan).    The staff at the Peoria Historical Society collection at Bradley University were very helpful to him.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig and What Happened to the French Village and Indians in What Is Today's PeoriaAbout That Captain

I couldn't help but believe that the Captain Thomas, who commanded a company of Illinois Territory Rangers might have been a bit too rough on the French settlers at what would one day be Peoria, Illinois.

Taking them prisoner and burning down their town as well as saying they were "damn lucky" not to have been scalped would not indicate a peace-maker in the situation.

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

From the February 26, 2012, Peoria(Illinois) Journal Star  "Central Illinois home to several encounters during the War of 1812" by  Steve Tarter.

From a talk given by Gillum Ferguson, author of "Illinois in the War of 1812" gave a free program at Bradley University's  Cullom Davis Library.

The War of 1812 pitted Illinois Territory militiamen against various Indian tribes in the frontier territory of the United States.  One of the key areas of struggle in the territory revolved around the French village at what is now the site of downtown Peoria.

It was called La Ville de Maillet, New Village.  The French here lived on friendly terms with the local Indians, even intermarrying with them.  Indian villages surrounded them.

But, unfortunately for the French, American frontiersmen viewed the town as "the seditious village, a nursery of hostile Indians and traitorous British Indian traders."

It wasn't that the Indians were staunch allies of the British back then, but more focused on fending off the constant incursions from the Americans onto their land.

--Brock-Perry

Captain Thomas E. Craig

He commanded the company that reportedly was fired on by the French inhabitants of the French Peoria village and who retaliated by taking many prisoner and burning the place.

From Clintonilgenweb   Muster Rolls of 1812 

CAPTAIN THOMAS E. CRAIG'S COMPANY

A muster roll of Volunteer  riflemen raised in Illinois Territory, under the command of  Capt. Thomas E. Craig in the service of the United States, by the order of His Excellency, NINIAN EDWARDS, Governor of  said Territory.  From  the 5th  September to 2nd December 1812.

Craig, Thomas E.   Captain

Forrester, John    Lieutenant

Wilson, Harrison    Ensign

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

SERGEANTS

Buckner, Phil

Hill , Charles

Skantlin,  Walker

Wilson, John G.

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

CORPORALS

Gordan, Joseph

Lepan, Joseph

Preston, Robert

Wheeler, Willis

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

MUSICIANS

Ormsby, John   Drummer

Reeves, Nat    Fifer

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

53 Privates

--Brock-Perry

What Became of the French Settlers at Peoria?

When the French village in Peoria, known as  La Ville de Maillet, or New Village was destroyed  by American soldiers, the resulting dispute would drag on for decades until the Civil War.  One case even went all the way to the U.S Supreme Court.

After they were deported downriver in 1812, a  number of displaced French settlers petitioned Congress for the return of their land at Peoria.

Detailed  surveys of the French claims were made to assist in their settlement, but the legal process moved very slowly, which in turn slowed the development of downtown Peoria.

As a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln worked on some of these cases in the 1850s.

Eventually the displaced settlers were paid thousands of dollars in reparations for the loss of their homes.  The last case was settled in 1867.

--Brock-Perry