The War of 1812

by Donald R Hickey

  136. Lovett to Joseph Alexander, July 17, 1813, ibid., 303.

  137. AC, 13–1, 106, 108, 110.

  138. Charles Cutts to William Plumer, June 8, 1813, in Plumer Papers (LC), reel 3.

  139. Jonathan Roberts to Matthew Roberts, May 25, 1813, in Roberts Papers (HSP).

  140. JM to Albert Gallatin, August 2, 1813, and to Henry Dearborn, August 8, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15; Charles J. Ingersoll to [Alexander Dallas], July 6, 1813, in Ingersoll Papers (HSP); Washington National Intelligencer, July 1, 1813; Lexington Reporter, August 21, 1813; Daniel Webster to Charles March, June 26, 1813, in Claude H. Van Tyne, ed., The Letters of Daniel Webster (New York, 1902), 45; Brant, James Madison, 6:187–88, 192–93.

  141. Jonathan Roberts to Matthew Roberts, June 21, 1813, in Roberts Papers (HSP).

  142. Jeremiah Mason to Jesse Appleton, July 20, 1813, in George S. Hillard, Memoir, Autobiography and Correspondence of Jeremiah Mason, ed. G. J. Clark (Boston, 1917), 61; Calhoun to James Macbride, June 23, 1813, in Meriwether et al., Papers of John C. Calhoun, 1:177. See also Andrei Dashkov to Nikolai P. Rumiantsev, August 7, 1813, in Bashkina et al., United States and Russia, 995.

  143. JM to Congress, May 25, 1813, in AC, 13–1, 14–17. Quotation from p. 17.

  144. JM to Senate, July 6, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15; Senate Journal, 2:347–51, 381–84.

  145. Jeremiah Mason to Mary Means Mason, July 11, 1813, in Hillard, Jeremiah Mason, 60–61.

  146. Jesse Bledsoe to Isaac Shelby, July 21, 1813, in Gallatin Papers (SR), reel 26; Christopher Gore to [Timothy Pickering], June 15, 1813, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  147. Senate Journal, 2:346, 389–90.

  148. Philadelphia Aurora, January 30, 1812. See also ibid., February 11, 1812.

  149. Charles Cutts to Plumer, June 8, 1813, in Plumer Papers (LC), reel 3. See also Joseph Alston to William Lowndes, June 23, 1813, in Lowndes Papers (UNC), reel 1.

  150. Thomas Hart Benton to Andrew Jackson, June 15, 1813, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 6.

  151. Senate Journal, 2:355.

  152. Senate Journal, 2:389.

  153. Jeremiah Mason to Jesse Appleton, July 20, 1813, in Hillard, Jeremiah Mason, 62.

  154. AC, 13–1, 149–52.

  155. Speech of Harmanus Bleecker, January 7, 1813, in AC, 12–2, 621.

  156. Speech of Felix Grundy, June 18, 1813, in AC, 13–1, 225–26.

  157. Speeches of Zebulon R. Shipherd, Alexander C. Hanson, and Joseph Pearson, June 18, 1812, in AC, 13–1, 235–36, 254–56, 285–286.

  158. AC, 13–1, 302–3, 308–11.

  159. Report of the Secretary of State, July 12, 1813, in ASP: FR, 3:609–12.

  160. ST to JM, March 5, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15.

  161. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, July 28, 1813, in ASP: F, 2:646–47.

  162. James Breckinridge to Andrew Hamilton, July 4, 1813, in Breckinridge Papers (UVA); J. L. Shevinester (?) to Andrew Jackson, June 18, 1813, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 6.

  163. Quoted in Daniel Webster to Charles March, May 31, [1813], in Charles M. Wiltse et al., eds., The Papers of Daniel Webster: Correspondence, 7 vols. (Hanover, 1974–86), 1:142. See also Charles Cutts to William Plumer, June 8, 1813, in Plumer Papers (LC), reel 3; Artemas Ward to Thomas Ward, June 19, 1813, in Thomas Walter Ward Papers (AAS).

  164. Benjamin Tallmadge to James McHenry, June 10, 1813, in McHenry Papers (LC).

  165. Report of House Ways and Means Committee, June 10, 1813, in AC, 13–1, 149–50. The taxes were supposed to yield $6,365,000, but a proposed tax on foreign tonnage (expected to yield $900,000) was never adopted. This reduced the anticipated yield to $5,465,000. Expenses and losses were expected to reduce the total by an additional $750,000.

  166. The tax laws are printed in AC, 13–1, 2717–73.

  167. ST to President of Senate, December 27, 1809, in ASP: F, 2:388; U.S. Department of the Treasury, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances for the Year 1866 (Washington, DC, 1866), 306.

  168. AC, 13–1, 2759. A state was entitled to a 15 percent discount if it paid its quota by February 10, 1814, and to a 10 percent discount if it paid by May 1, 1814.

  169. Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 1:240.

  170. Report of Rhode Island Assembly, in Hartford Connecticut Courant, March 15, 1814.

  171. ST to William Bibb, July 19, 1813, in ASP: F, 2:644.

  172. AC, 13–1, 78, 477, 2766–68; Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, January 8, 1814, in ASP: F, 2:661–62.

  173. Story’s decision is printed in the New York National Advocate, June 26, 1813. See also Washington National Intelligencer, March 8, 1814; Story, Joseph Story, 1:248; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 2:40.

  174. AC, 13–1, 55, 485, 2777–79. Ships sailing to the United States from Europe, Africa, and the Orient were given a grace period of three to five months before being subject to the law.

  175. JM to Congress, July 20, 1813, in AC, 13–1, 499–500.

  176. AC, 13–1, 98–101, 500–504.

  177. Quoted in Brant, James Madison, 6:197.

  178. AC, 13–1, 38–39, 382, 486–87.

  179. General Order of the Secretary of the Navy, July 29, 1813, in ND (M149), reel 11; Order of the Secretary of War, August 5, 1813, in Niles’ Register 4 (August 14, 1813), 386.

  180. ST to Hugh Nelson, July 21, 1813, in ASP: F, 2:645–46. See also Washington National Intelligencer, August 4, 1813.

  181. AC, 13–1, 81, 479, 2766.

  182. John Lovett to Joseph Alexander, July 17, 1813, in Bonney, Legacy of Historical Gleanings, 1:304.

  183. AC, 13–1, 82, 483, 2773–74.

  184. Dallas to Hannah Gallatin, July 22, 1813, in Gallatin Papers (SR), reel 26; and Dallas, quoted in Brant, James Madison, 6:191. For similar sentiments, see William Jones to Dallas, July 19, 1813, in Dallas Papers (HSP); Worcester National Aegis, November 17, 1813.

  185. Washington National Intelligencer, July 26, 1813; John Lovett to Joseph Alexander, July 27, 1813, in Bonney, Legacy of Historical Gleanings, 1:306.

  186. AC, 13–1, 83; speech of Elbridge Gerry, April 18, 1814, in AC, 13–2, 776–78; Henry B. Larned, “Gerry and the Presidential Succession in 1813,” American Historical Review 22 (October, 1916), 95–97.

  Chapter 6. The Campaign of 1813

  1. William Bradford et al., to U.S. Senate, May 2, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:336; C. Edward Skeen, “Mr. Madison’s Secretary of War,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100 (July, 1976), 345.

  2. Estimates based on figures in J. C. A. Stagg, “Enlisted Men in the United States Army, 1812–1815: A Preliminary Survey,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 43 (October, 1986), 621, and J. Mackay Hitsman, The Incredible War of 1812: A Military History (1965; updated by Donald E. Graves, Toronto, 1999), 295–96.

  3. Edward Skeen, John Armstrong, Jr., 1758–1843: A Biography (Syracuse, 1981), 129.

  4. Pierce Butler to James Monroe, May 2, 1813, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5.

  5. SW to cabinet, February 8, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:439; SW to Henry Dearborn, February 10 and 24, March 29, and April 19, 1813, and to Peter B. Porter, February 23, 1813, in WD (M6), reel 6; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 284–86.

  6. Robert Malcomson, Lords of the Lake: The Naval War on Lake Ontario, 1812–1814 (Annapolis, 1998), 327–28; David Curtis Skaggs and Gerard T. Altoff, A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813 (Annapolis, 1997), 26.

  7. JM to Dearborn, October 7, 1812, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 14; SN to Isaac Chauncey, January 27, 1813, in ND (M149), reel 10. See also SW to William Henry Harrison, April 3, 1813, in WD (M6), reel 6.

  8. Quoted in Mahan, Sea Power, 1:361. See also SN to Chauncey, August 31, 1812, in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:297–300.

  9. Isaac Chauncey to SN, September 3 and 26, October 8, 21, 22 and 27, and November 4 and 5, 1812, in ND (M125), reel 25; Mahan, Sea Power, 1:374–77.

  10. Brock to CG, October 11, 1812,
in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:332.

  11. Report on the Provincial Marine of the Canadas, n.d., A. Gray to CG, January 29, 1812, Appointment of Sir J. L. Yeo, March 19, 1813, and General Order of April 22, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 1:240, 250–51, and 2:77–78, 81–84; speech of Francis Horner, December 1, 1814, in Parliamentary Debates, 29:644; Isaac Chauncey to SN, November 5, 1814, in ND (M125), reel 40; C. P. Stacey, “Another Look at the Battle of Lake Erie,” Canadian Historical Review 39 (March, 1958), 41–51. Most of the equipment for the American squadron on Lake Erie was manufactured in Pittsburgh. See William W. Dobbins, “The Dobbins Papers,” Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society 8 (1905), 313–14.

  12. ST to JM, March 5, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15.

  13. SW to Harrison, March 17, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:386; SW to Harrison, April 4, 1813, in Harrison Papers (LC), reel 1; SW to Harrison, April 27, 1813, in WD (M6), reel 6.

  14. Pittsburgh Gazette, reprinted in Richmond Enquirer, April 13, 1813; Larry Nelson, Fort Meigs: War of 1812 Battleground (Columbus, 1999), 5–6; Sandy Antal, A Wampum Denied: Procter’s War 1812 (Ottawa, 1997), 218–19.

  15. Procter to CG, May 14, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:34; Antal, Wampum Denied, 221–23.

  16. General Orders of May 9, 1813, in Brannan, Official Letters, 156.

  17. William Henry Harrison to SW, May 9 and 13, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 53; Henry Procter to CG, May 14, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:33–37; Diary of the Siege of Fort Meigs, April 25-May 9, 1813, reprinted from Chillicothe Fredonian, in Niles’ Register 4 (June 12, 1813), 242–44; “[Memoir of] Private Nathaniel Vernon, Pittsburgh Blues,” in John C. Fredriksen, ed., The War of 1812 in Person: Fifteen Accounts by United States Army Regulars, Volunteers and Militiamen (Jefferson, 2010), 301–3; McAfee, History of the Late War, 256–77; Gilpin, War of 1812 in the Northwest, 182–89; Antal, Wampum Denied, 226–31.

  18. Croghan to Harrison, [July 30, 1813], in McAfee, History of the Late War, 323. See also Croghan to Cincinnati Liberty Hall, September 14, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:527–29.

  19. Procter to CG, August 9, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:44–47. Quotation from p. 46. See also George Croghan to William Henry Harrison, August 5, 1813, in Brannan, Official Letters, 184–86; McAfee, History of the Late War, 321–28; Gilpin, War of 1812 in the Northwest, 206–7; Antal, Warmpun Denied, 256–61; Bruce Bowlus, “A ‘Signal Victory’: The Battle for Fort Stephenson, August 1–2, 1813,” Northwest Ohio Quarterly 63 (Summer/Autumn, 1991), 43–57.

  20. Elliott to SN, October 9, 1812, in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:328.

  21. Ibid., 328–31; Nathan Towson to J. D. Elliott, July 6, 1843, and Report of British Court of Inquiry, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 4:50–52, 54–57.

  22. Brock to CG, October 11, 1812, in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:332.

  23. Chauncey to Perry, February 1, 1813, in Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The Life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 2 vols. (New York, 1840–41), 1:125. See also Perry to SN, November 28, 1812, in ND (M147), reel 4; Chauncey to SN, January 21, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 26.

  24. Isaac Chauncey to SN, May 29, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 28.

  25. Oliver H. Perry to SN, August 4, 1813, in ND (M147), reel 5; Henry Dearborn to SW, June 8, 1813, and Perry to Isaac Chauncey, June 13, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6:55, and 7:272; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:62–64, 69–73.

  26. Oliver H. Perry to SN, July 23 and 30, 1813, in ND (M147), reel 5.

  27. Perry to SN, August 10, 1813, ibid.

  28. Perry to Isaac Chauncey, July 27, 1813, ibid.

  29. William Henry Harrison to SW, August 22, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:525.

  30. Oliver H. Perry to SN, August 21 and September 2, 1813, in ND (M147), reel 5.

  31. Speech of Tecumseh, September 18, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (November 6, 1813), 174. See also John Sugden, Tecumseh’s Last Stand (Norman, 1985), 19.

  32. Estimates of the broadsides vary because the exact number of guns and their arrangement are unknown. I have used those provided by Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 109.

  33. Robert H. Barclay to James Yeo, September 1, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:268; testimony of Thomas Stokoe, in Charles O. Paullin, ed., The Battle of Lake Erie: A Collection of Documents (Cleveland, 1918), 151.

  34. Narrative of Robert H. Barclay, in Wood, British Documents, 2:303.

  35. Barclay to James Yeo, September 1 and 12, 1813, and narrative of Barclay, ibid., 268, 274, 304. See also Robert Gillmor to Edward Couche, September 5, 1813, ibid., 291.

  36. This banner is now at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. For a facsimile, see Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book, 519.

  37. Barclay to James Yeo, September 12, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:277; Frederick C. Drake, “Artillery and Its Influence on Naval Tactics: Reflections on the Battle of Lake Erie,” in William Jeffrey Welsh and David Curtis Skaggs, eds., War on the Great Lakes: Essays Commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie (Kent, 1991), 17–29.

  38. Perry to SN, September 13, 1813, in ASP: NA, 1:295.

  39. Ibid.; Robert H. Barclay to James Yeo, September 12, 1813, and James Yeo to John B. Warren, October 10, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:274–77, 287–88; Niles’ Register 7 (Supplement), 41; John C. Fredriksen, ed., Surgeon of the Lakes: The Diary of Dr. Usher Parson, 1812–1814 (Erie, 2000) (September 10, 1813), 49; Ernest A. Cruikshank, ”The Contest for the Command of Lake Erie in 1812–13,” in Zaslow, Defended Border, 96–104; Mackenzie, Oliver Hazard Perry, 1:215–61; Skaggs and Altoff, Signal Victory, 118–52.

  40. Perry to Harrison, September 10, 1813. Although the original note has been lost, there is a facsimile in Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book, 530. Perry actually took two ships, two schooners, one brig, and a sloop.

  41. SN to Perry, September 21, 1813, in ND (M149), reel 11. See also Richmond Enquirer, September 28 and October 15, 1813.

  42. AC, 13–2, 2838–39, 2855–56; Samuel Hambleton to SN, May 23, 1814 (filed under June 10, 1814), in ND (M149), reel 11.

  43. Naval Chronicle 30 (July-December, 1813), 431.

  44. Procter to Francis de Rottenburg, September 12, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:273.

  45. Speech of Tecumseh, September 18, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (November 6, 1813), 175.

  46. McAfee, History of the Late War, 338; Shelby to Kentucky militia, July 30, 1813, in Washington National Intelligencer, August 18, 1813.

  47. Shelby to ———, September 10, 1813, in Isaac Shelby Papers (LC).

  48. McAfee, History of the Late War, 331–32; Mahon, War of 1812, 178.

  49. Harrison to SW, October 9, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 8.

  50. Quoted in McAfee, History of the Late War, 396–97.

  51. Quoted in Thomas D. Clark, “Kentucky in the Northwest Campaign,” in Philip P. Mason, ed., After Tippecanoe: Some Aspects of the War of 1812 (East Lansing, 1963), 94. Tecumseh was undoubtedly buried in one of the mass graves on the battlefield, but the myth that his body was carried off and his bones preserved endures to this day. See Guy St-Denis, Tecumseh’s Bones (Montreal, 2005).

  52. William Henry Harrison to SW, October 9, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 8; Richard M. Johnson to SW, November 21, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 54; Harrison to SW, September 27, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:551; Henry Procter to Francis de Rottenburg, October 23 and November 16, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:323–27, 338–41; General Order of September 9, 1815, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 8:160–64; Bennett H. Young, The Battle of the Thames (Louisville, 1903), 29–109; Sugden, Tecumseh’s Last Stand, passim.

  53. William Henry Harrison to SW, October 16, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:579–81.

  54. William Henry Harrison and Lewis Cass to SW, July 17, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 62; Trea
ty of Peace and Friendship, July 22, 1814, in ASP: IA, 1:326; Gilpin, War of 1812 in the Northwest, 240–41; Sugden, Tecumseh’s Last Stand, 182–207.

  55. Harrison to SW, May 11, 1814, in Harrison Papers (LC), reel 2.

  56. Isaac Chauncey to SN, August 13, and October 1 and 6, 1813, in ND (M125), reels 30 and 31; Morgan Lewis to Daniel Tompkins, August 15, 1813, and Buffalo Gazette, August 17, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 7:24, 34.

  57. Malcomson, Lords of the Lake, 197–207; James Elliott, “Mulcaster’s Bravery in 1813 Burlington Races,” Hamilton Spectator, August 31, 1999.

  58. James F. Cooper, ed., Ned Myers; or, A Life before the Mast (1843; reprint, Annapolis, 1989), 56.

  59. Malcomson, Lords of the Lake, 171–73; Daniel A. Nelson, “Hamilton & Scourge: Ghost Ships of the War of 1812,” National Geographic 163 (March, 1983), 289–313.

  60. Isaac Chauncey to SN, March 18, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 27; SW to Henry Dearborn, March 29, 1813, and Dearborn to SW, [early 1813], in ASP: MA, 1:442; SN to Chauncey, April 8, 1813, in NASP: NA, 4:278–81; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:31–34.

  61. Henry Dearborn to SW, April 28, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 52; Isaac Chauncey to SN, April 28, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 28; Roger Sheaffe to CG, May 5, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:89–94; William Chewett et al. to John Strachan et al., May 8, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:192–202; Robert Malcomson, Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 (Montreal, 2008), 167–214.

  62. Malcomson, Capital in Flames, 214–21, 393–98.

  63. Samuel S. Conner to SW, May 4, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 51.

  64. Journal of Dr. William Beaumont, April 27, 1813, in Genevieve Miller, ed., Wm. Beaumont’s Formative Years: Two Early Notebooks, 1811–1821 (New York, 1946), 46.

  65. George Howard to Sarah Howard, May 7, 1813, in George Howard Journal (CHS).

  66. Penelope Beikie, quoted in C. P. Stacey, The Battle of Little York, 3rd printing (Toronto, 1977), 17. See also William Chewett et al. to John Strachan et al., May 8, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:200.