The War of 1812

by Donald R Hickey

  67. Isaac Chauncey to SN, June 4, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 29; letter to Baltimore Whig, May 7, 1813, E. W. Ripley to William D. Powell, n.d., and Kingston Gazette, August 17, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:171–73, 8:25; Francis de Rottenburg to SSWC, October 25, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:220; Malcomson, Capital in Flames, 228–38.

  68. Malcomson, Capital in Flames, 257.

  69. CG to SSWC, July 20, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6:256. For an assessment of the impact of the fall of York on British operations on Lake Erie, see Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship, 63–65.

  70. William Allan to Edward Baynes, August 3, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:195.

  71. Isaac Chauncey to SN, August 4, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 30; Winfield Scott to John Boyd, August 3, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:450; Grant Powell to CG, August 1, 1813, John Strachan and Grant Powell to Edward Baynes, August 2, 1813, and William Allan to Baynes, August 3, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:189–96; Malcomson, Capital in Flames, 310–11.

  72. E.B. Brenton to Noah Freer, May 30, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:281–82.

  73. Brown to Henry Dearborn, July 25, 1813, in Adams, History, 2:735.

  74. See Jacob Brown to SW, June 1, 1813, in Franklin B. Hough, A History of Jefferson County in the State of New York, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (Albany, 1854), 490–91; Isaac Chauncey to SN, June 2, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 29; Edward Baynes to CG, May 30, 1813, E. B. Brenton to Noah Freer, May 30, 1813, and Brown to Daniel Tompkins, June 1, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier 5:276–87; Patrick A. Wilder, The Battle of Sackett’s Harbour: 1813 (Baltimore, 1994), chs. 5–7; John D. Morris, Sword of the Border: Major General Jacob Jennings Brown, 1775–1828 (Kent, 2000), ch. 3.

  75. Memorandum of J. B. Glegg, May 3 and 5, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:221; Malcomson, Lords of the Lake, 125.

  76. Henry Dearborn to SW, May 27, 1813, and Darby Noon to Daniel Tompkins, May 27, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:246–47, 249; Isaac Chauncey to SN, May 28, 1813, in ND (M125), reel 28; John Vincent to CG, May 28, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:103–7.

  77. Henry Dearborn to SW, May 29, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:266–67.

  78. Stuart Sutherland, ed., “A Desire of Serving and Defending My Country”: The War of 1812 Journals of William Hamilton Merritt (Toronto, 2001), 6.

  79. John Chandler to Henry Dearborn, June 18, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 7; James Burns to Dearborn, n.d., in ASP: MA, 1:447–48; James FitzGibbon to James Somerville, June 7, 1813, and letter to Buffalo Gazette [June, 1813], in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6:12–15, 105–6; John Harvey to [Edward Baynes], June 6, 1813, and John Vincent to CG, June 6, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:139–45; “[Memoir of] Captain Ephraim Shaler, 25th U.S. Infantry,” in Fredriksen, The War of 1812 in Person, 45–49; Herbert F. Wood, “The Many Battles of Stoney Creek,” in Zaslow, Defended Border, 56–60; James E. Elliott, Strange Fatality: The Battle of Stoney Creek, 1813 (Montreal, 2009), 80–157.

  80. Robert Malcomson, Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Lanham, 2006), 82: Taylor, Civil War, 224–25.

  81. Narrative of Charles Boerstler, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6:130–37; James FitzGibbon to Peter de Haren, June 24, 1813, Boerstler to Henry Dearborn, June 25, 1813, Memoir of Laura Secord, February 18, 1861, in Wood, British Documents, 2:159–62, 164–65; Donald E. Graves, ed., Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th Foot, (Ottawa, 1993) (June 24, 1813), 126; Carl F. Klinck and James J. Talman, eds., The Journal of John Norton, 1816 (Toronto, 1970), 330–32; Dianne Graves, In the Midst of Alarms: The Untold Story of Women and the War of 1812 ([Montreal], 2007), 231–34; Carl Benn, The Iroquois in the War of 1812 (Toronto, 1998), 114–21; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:248–50.

  82. FitzGibbon to William J. Kerr, March 30, 1818, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6: 120–21.

  83. Sutherland, War of 1812 Journals of William Hamilton Merritt, 8.

  84. Taylor, Civil War, 227.

  85. Ingersoll to [Alexander Dallas], July 6, 1813, in Ingersoll Papers (HSP). See also SW to Henry Dearborn, July 6, 1813, in WD (M6), reel 7; Dearborn to JM, August 17, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15.

  86. Henry Dearborn to SW, July 6, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 52; Peter B. Porter to Dearborn, July 13, 1813, in Niles’ Register 8 (Supplement), 146–47; Buffalo Gazette, July 13, 1813, statement of James FitzGibbon, and Recollections of James Sloan, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 6:226–31; Thomas Clark to John Harvey, July 5 and 12, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:174–77.

  87. McClure to Daniel Tompkins, December 10, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55.

  88. McClure to SW, December 6, 10, and 13, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55; McClure to Daniel Tompkins, December 6 and 10, 1813, John A. Rogers et al. to Buffalo Gazette, [December, 1813], in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 8:254, 264, 9:10; Sutherland, War of 1812 Journals of William Hamilton Merritt, 16.

  89. George McClure to SW, December 13, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:353–56.

  90. McClure to SW, December 22, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55.

  91. Tompkins to SW, December 24, 1813, in Hastings, Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, 3:407. See also George McClure to SW, December 22 and 25, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55; Lewis Cass to SW, January 12, 1814, in ASP: MA, 1:488; Lt. Driscoll, “The Capture of Fort Niagara,” in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 9:18–20; Gordon Drummond to CG, December 20 and 22, 1813, and General Order of December 19, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:490–92, 494–97.

  92. George McClure to SW, December 22, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55; Phineas Riall to Gordon Drummond, December 19, 1813, and Timothy Hopkins to Daniel Tompkins, December 20, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 9:14, 24.

  93. Letter to Albany Argus, December 26, 1813, ibid., 55. See also Daniel Tompkins to SW, January 2, 1814, in Hastings, Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, 3:408.

  94. McClure to [SW], December 20, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 8.

  95. McClure to Erastus Granger, December 28, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 9:61. See also Timothy Hopkins to Daniel Tompkins, December 20, 1813, McClure to Tompkins, December 20, 1813, and John C. Spencer to Tompkins, December 26, 1813, ibid., 24–25, 53.

  96. Gordon Drummond to CG, December 30, 1813, Phineas Riall to Drummond, January 1, 1814, and Amos Hall to Daniel Tompkins, January 6, 1814, ibid., 67, 70–72, 92–97; Donald E. Graves, “Joseph Willcocks and the Canadian Volunteers: An Account of Political Disaffection in Upper Canada during the War of 1812” (MA thesis, Carleton University, 1982), 68–69; Malcomson, Historical Dictionary, 83.

  97. Cass to SW, January 12, 1814, in ASP: MA, 1:487.

  98. Tompkins to SW, January 2, 1814, in Hastings, Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, 3:408. See also Amos Hall to [Tompkins], December 30, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (February 12, 1814), 394.

  99. Proclamation of George Prevost, January 12, 1814, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 9:115.

  100. Graves, “Joseph Willcocks,” 64–65.

  101. SW to David R. Williams, August 5, 1813, and SW to James Wilkinson, August 8, 1813, in WD (M6), reel 7; SW to Henry Dearborn, April 19, 1813, SW to Wilkinson, September 6 and 22, 1813, Memoranda of Wilkinson and SW, October 5, 1813, and SW to Wilkinson, October 19 and 20, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 5:148–49, 7:106, 163–64, 197–98, and 8:81–82, 85–86; SW to Wade Hampton, October 16, 1812, in ASP: MA, 1:461; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 331–43; Skeen, John Armstrong, 145–63.

  102. Isaac Clark to SW, June 4, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 7; George Taylor to Richard Stovin, June 3, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:221–23; Rodney Macdonough, Life of Commodore Thomas Macdonough, U.S. Navy (Boston, 1909), 115–20.

  103. JM to SW, September 8, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 15.

  104. Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, 2 vols. (New York, 1864), 1:94n; Randolph to Joseph H. Nicholson, June 25, 1807, in Nicholson Papers (LC). See also Charles
W. Elliott, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man (New York, 1937), 32–33.

  105. Allan B. Magruder to [SW], January 16, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 55. See also William H. Crawford to JM, January 15, 1812, and March 3, 1813, in Madison Papers (LC), reels 13 and 15; Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, 344–52.

  106. Mahon, War of 1812, 202–5.

  107. SW to Wade Hampton, October 16, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:461; SW to James Wilkinson, October 19, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 8:81–82.

  108. Donald E. Graves, Field of Glory: The Battle of Crysler’s Farm, 1813 (Toronto, 1999), 55–57.

  109. Wade Hampton to SW, September 25, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 8.

  110. Wade Hampton to SW, November 1, 1813, and Report of L. Thayer [early 1814], in WD (M221), reels 53 and 57; Robert Purdy to James Wilkinson, n.d., in ASP: MA, 1:479–80; Charles de Salaberry to father, October 29, 1813, CG to SSWC, October 30, 1813, and O’Sullivan, “Account of the Battle of Chateauguay,” November 3, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:391–95, 401–12; Graves, Field of Glory, 87–111, 350–54.

  111. Hampton to SW, November 1, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 53.

  112. Wilkinson to SW, October 19, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 9.

  113. Wilkinson to SW, September 16, 1813, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 7:133; Ellery Harrison, ed., The Memoirs of Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift (Worcester, 1890), 116. See also Wilkinson to Henry Dearborn, December 4, 1813, in Dearborn Papers (MeHS).

  114. Graves, Field of Glory, 77–81.

  115. Ibid., 119–58.

  116. John P. Boyd to James Wilkinson, November 12, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (December 18, 1813), 266–67; Wilkinson to SW, November 16, 1813, and Journal of James Wilkinson, October 21-November 12, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:475–78; J. W. Morrison to Francis de Rottenburg, November 12, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 2:441–44 Graves, Field of Glory, 219–72, 360–63.

  117. George Howard to Sarah Howard, December 19, 1813, in George Howard Journal (CHS).

  118. Dr. Lovell, quoted in James Mann, Medical Sketches of the Campaigns of 1812, 13, 14 (Dedham, MA, 1816), 119. See also Journal of James Wilkinson, November 12, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:478; Secret Information from French Mills, February 7, 1814, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 9:168; Mahon, War of 1812, 215–18.

  119. Graves, Field of Glory, 286–90.

  120. Ibid., 285.

  121. James Wilkinson to SW, March 25, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 58.

  122. James Wilkinson to Dr. Bule, March 31, 1814, in Wilkinson Papers (LC); Wilkinson to [SW?], March 31, 1814, in Brannan, Official Letters, 325–26; William Williams to John Vincent, March 31, 1814, in Wood, British Documents, 3:14–16; Albany Register and Middlebury Columbian Patriot, reprinted in Richmond Enquirer, April 16, 1814.

  123. For Britain’s southern Indian policy, see John K. Mahon, “British Strategy and Southern Indians: War of 1812,” Florida Historical Quarterly 54 (April, 1966), 285–98; Frank L. Owsley, “The Role of the South in the British Grand Strategy in the War of 1812,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 31 (Spring, 1972), 22–34; and David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Old Hickory’s War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire (Mechanicsburg, 1996), 38–50.

  124. John R. Swanton, Social Organization and Social Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy (Washington, DC, 1928); Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 2nd ed. (Norman, 1967), 3–71; Michael D. Green, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (Lincoln, 1982), chs. 1–2; J. Leitch Wright, Jr., Creeks & Seminoles: The Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People (Lincoln, 1986), chs. 1–3; Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816 (Cambridge, 1999), chs. 6–8.

  125. Niles’ Register 5 (September 13, 1813), 43.

  126. Quoted in Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. (New York, 1977–84), 1:188.

  127. Mahon, War of 1812, 232.

  128. Benjamin Hawkins to SW, July 20, 1812, in WD (M221), reel 45; Hawkins to SW, September 7, 1812, and William Henry to John J. Henry, June 26, 1812, in ASP: IA, 1:812–13; Shelbyville Tennessee Herald, reprinted in Niles’ Register 2 (June 13, 1812), 256; letter from Creek Agency, July 27, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (September 25, 1813), 56; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:375–79.

  129. Harry Toulmin to Willie Blount, July 28–30, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 50; H. S. Halbert and T. H. Ball, The Creek War of 1813 and 1814 (Chicago, 1895), 125–42; Frank L. Owsley, Jr., Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands: The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, 1812–1815 (Gainesville, 1981), 30–33; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:380–83.

  130. Quoted in John F. H. Claiborne, Life and Times of Gen. Sam. Dale, The Mississippi Partisan (New York, 1860), 128–29.

  131. William Claiborne to Thomas Flournoy, September 2, 1813, in WD (M221), reel 52; Henry Toulmin to Raleigh Register, September 7, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (October 16, 1813), 105–7; Halbert and Ball, Creek War, 147–64; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 35–39.

  132. William Claiborne, quoted in Halbert and Ball, Creek War, 299.

  133. Harry Toulmin to Raleigh Register, September 7, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (October 16, 1813), 105.

  134. Claiborne, Sam. Dale, 119–27; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 45–46; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:400–402.

  135. James White to John Cocke, November 24, 1813, in Richmond Enquirer, December 25, 1813; J. Hoyt to Thomas Pinckney, December 4, 1813, and John Floyd to Thomas Pinckney, January 27, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 56; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 46–60; Quimby, U.S. Army, 1:426–29, 431–34, 456–57.

  136. Quoted in Harry L. Coles, The War of 1812 (Chicago, 1965), 197.

  137. General Orders of November 7, 1813, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 61. See also Remini, Andrew Jackson, 1:191–93.

  138. John Coffee to Andrew Jackson, November 4, 1813, in Brannan, Official Letters, 255–56. See also Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 64–65.

  139. Coffee to Andrew Jackson, November 4, 1813, in Brannan, Official Letters, 256.

  140. Andrew Jackson to Willie Blount, November 11 and 15, 1813, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 61; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 65–66.

  141. Jackson to SW, December 16, 1813, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 7.

  142. Andrew Jackson to John Coffee, December 11, 1813, and to John Floyd, December 26, 1813, and Willie Blount to Jackson, December 22, 1813 (two letters), in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 7; Jackson to Rachel Jackson, December 29, 1813, in Jackson Papers, Supplement (SR), reel 3; Jackson to Floyd, December 27, 1813, in Sam B. Smith et al., eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 7 vols. to date (Knoxville, 1980-), 2:510; statement of J.W. Sittler, in John S. Bassett, ed., Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, 6 vols. (Washington, DC, 1926–33), 1:434.

  143. Andrew Jackson to SW, December 16, 1813, and to Rachel Jackson, January 28, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reels 7 and 8; Jackson to Thomas Pinckney, January 29, 1814, in Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, 1:447–54; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 73–76; Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson & His Indian Wars (New York, 2001), 81.

  144. Jackson to William Lewis, February 21, 1814, in Jackson Papers, Supplement (SR), reel 3.

  145. General Orders of [March 14, 1814], in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 62.

  146. John Reid and John Eaton, The Life of Andrew Jackson (Philadelphia, 1817), 143. See also James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. (New York, 1860), 1:504–12.

  147. Jackson to Rachel Jackson, April 1, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 9.

  148. Andrew Jackson to Willie Blount, March 31, 1814, in Jackson Papers, Supplement (SR), reel 3; Jackson to SW, April 2, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 54; Jackson to Thomas Pinckney, March 28, 1814, and to Blount, April 2, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reels 9 and 10; Jackson to Blount, March 28, 1814, in Brannan, Official Letters, 321–23; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 79–81; Remini, Andrew Jackson & His Indian Wars, 75–79.

  149. Address of Andrew Jackson, April
2, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 10.

  150. Quoted in letter of Anne Royall, December 15, 1817, in Lucille Griffith, ed., Letters from Alabama, 1817–1822, by Anne Royall (University, AL, 1969), 91–92. See also Jackson to Blount, April 18, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 10.

  151. Jackson to [Thomas Pinckney], May 18, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 10.

  152. Articles of Agreement and Capitulation, August 9, 1814, in ASP: IA, 1:326–27; Parton, Andrew Jackson, 1:535; Owsley, Struggle for the Borderlands, 86–94; Remini, Andrew Jackson, 1:225–32.

  153. For more on British naval policy in 1812, see chapter 4: The Campaign of 1812.

  154. Statement of British Naval Force on North American Stations, 1810–1813, in Charles Vane, ed., Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, 12 vols. (London, 1848–53), 8:292; editorial note in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 2:167.

  155. Quoted in Mahan, Sea Power, 2:151. See also FSA to John B. Warren, March 20, 1813, in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 2:75–78.

  156. Thomas Pinckney to SW, October 17, 1812, in WD (M221), reel 48; editorial note in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:561.

  157. [Lord Castlereagh?] to Anthony Baker, February 3, 1813, in Foreign Office Papers 5/88 (PRO); Notice of Foreign Office, December 26, 1812, in Naval Chronicle 28 (July-December 1812), 507; Proclamation of John Borlase Warren, November 16, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (December 18, 1813), 264–65; editorial note in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:561; Mahan, Sea Power, 2:9–10; Wade G. Dudley, Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815 (Annapolis, 2003), 85.

  158. John Hollins to Wilson Cary Nicholas, April 8, 1813, in Nicholas Papers (UVA). A sharp vessel has a broad bow that narrows considerably below the waterline.

  159. Mahan, Sea Power, 2:182.

  160. Macon to Joseph H. Nicholson, March 1, 1813, in Nicholson Papers (LC); John Lovett to Joseph Alexander, May 18, 1813, in Catharina V. R. Bonney, A Legacy of Historical Gleanings, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Albany, 1875), 1:297.

  161. Niles’ Register 5 (September 13, 1813), 41.