Writing Wings

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/43

S is for Secord

April 22, 2015 by rolandclarke

Laura Secord (née Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. Born in Massachusetts and the daughter of a Revolutionary War patriot, Laura Secord might be an unlikely Canadian icon. But on the evening of June 21, 1813, the 37-year-old wife of a Canadian Loyalist soldier and mother of five learned of secret American plans to ambush a nearby British outpost. But her husband James Secord was bedridden after being seriously wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights. However, Laura hiked across 20 miles (32 km) out of American-occupied territory, through swamps and forests to warn the British, being helped by a group of First Nations men she encountered along the way. She reached Lieutenant James FitzGibbon in the territory that the British still controlled. The information helped the British and their Mohawk warrior allies repel the invading Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams.

Meeting between Laura Secord and Lieutenant FitzGibbon, June 1813 (painting by Lorne Kidd Smith, courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-011053)

The official reports of the victory made no mention of Laura Secord. Laura never revealed how she came to know of the American plan, and while she did take a message to FitzGibbon, it is uncertain if she arrived ahead of Aboriginal scouts who also brought the news. FitzGibbon’s report on the battle noted: “At [John] De Cou’s this morning, about seven o’clock, I received information that . . . the Enemy . . . was advancing towards me . . . .” However, FitzGibbon did provide written testimony in support of the Secords’ later petition to the government for a pension, in 1820 and 1827.

Her action was forgotten until 1860, when the future king Edward VII awarded the impoverished widow £100 for her service. Since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada, taking on mythological overtones. Her tale has been the subject of books, plays, and poetry, often with many embellishments. Since her death, Canada has bestowed honours on her, including schools named after her, monuments, commemorative chocolates, a museum, a memorial stamp and coin, and a statue at the Valiants Memorial in Ottawa.

Further Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Secord

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

Details on my 2015 A to Z theme and a linked list of posts can be found on my A to Z Challenge page, which also has a linked list of my 2014 posts.

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?BioId=37228

R is for Rottenburg

April 21, 2015 by rolandclarke

Baron Francis de Rottenburg (1757–1832) was a Swiss-born officer and colonial administrator who served in the French army 1782-1791, and then joined the British army in 1795. He was promoted to Major General and assumed command of the Montreal district when the War of 1812 broke out. This was an important post because of its location on the St Lawrence River and its close proximity to the American border.

In June 1813, he succeeded Major General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe as military and civil commander in Upper Canada. He was accused of neglecting civil duties and of being unduly cautious in his military decisions. Rottenburg’s main concern was to preserve the army, and he was prepared to withdraw his forces to Kingston, a potential target for an American attack, if Sir James Yeo lost naval control of Lake Ontario. Nevertheless, Rottenburg ordered probing attacks against the American occupiers of Fort George and the town of Niagara as well as raids across the Niagara River. However, his refusal to send reinforcements to Major General Henry Procter, commanding on the Detroit frontier, contributed to the British defeats at the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of Moraviantown.

Colonel Francis de Rottenburg’s 1799 work “Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry, and Instructions for their Conduct in the Field” was widely consulted by officers during the War of 1812.

By early November he knew an American army was proceeding down the St Lawrence River against Montréal and he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Morrison to pursue the invaders. Morrison defeated part of the army at Crysler’s Farm on 11 November 1813.

The partial martial law that Rottenburg imposed in the Eastern and Johnstown districts, to force farmers to sell food and forage to the army, was an unpopular move which his successor repealed but was nevertheless forced to re-impose upon all of Upper Canada.

In December 1813, Rottenburg was succeeded by Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond, and returned to his previous posts in Lower Canada. Later in 1814, when substantial British reinforcements arrived in Canada. Sir George Prevost prepared to invade the United States by way of Lake Champlain. He placed Rottenburg in command of a division of three brigades. However, Prevost personally led the campaign, which was defeated at the Battle of Plattsburgh. However, Rottenburg played no conspicuous part in the battle, with the result that he was not touched by the chorus of criticism that descended on Prevost, in part from the three brigade commanders, all of whom had seen action in the Peninsular War. In fact, Rottenburg served as president of Procter’s court martial.

Rottenburg remained in Lower Canada until July 1815 when he returned to England, where he died in 1832.

Baron Francis de Rottenburg

Further Information:

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/93

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_de_Rottenburg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plattsburgh#Land_battle

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

Details on my 2015 A to Z theme and a linked list of posts can be found on my A to Z Challenge page, which also has a linked list of my 2014 posts.

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/120

Q is for Queenston

April 20, 2015 by rolandclarke

The Battle of Queenston Heights was the first major battle in the War of 1812 and took place on 13 October 1812, near Queenston, in the present-day province of Ontario. It was fought between United States regulars and New York militia forces led by Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, who had been humiliated at Detroit. He faced a smaller defending force of British regulars, York volunteers and Mohawks led by Major General Isaac Brock, ‘The Hero of Upper Canada’ after the victories at Fort Michilimackinac and Detroit.

Part of the American strategy in the early stages of the war was to establish an invasion bridgehead on the Canadian side of the Niagara River before campaigning ended with the onset of winter. Brock had garrisons at vulnerable points and was waiting to concentrate his defenders when American intentions were clear. Although he initially thought the main attack would come at Fort George. When the ferocity of the artillery attacks convinced him that Queenston was the invasion point, Brock took command at Queenston. After the Americans captured a strategic battery on the escarpment, Brock was killed leading a counterattack.

“Push on, brave York Volunteers!” A mortally wounded Brock urges the York Volunteers forward. (Apocryphal reconstruction, oil on canvas).

However, the American troops were pinned down on Queenston Heights by a small detachment of Mohawk and Delaware warriors. British reinforcements led by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe arrived from Fort George, including the Coloured Corps. With many of the American militia in Lewiston unwilling to cross into Upper Canada, the poorly trained and demoralized American army was forced to surrender.

Almost 1000 Americans were taken prisoner, with 300 killed or wounded, while the victors lost only 28 killed and 77 wounded. Unfortunately, one of the losses was irreplaceable – the much-admired Isaac Brock. But his memory inspired Upper Canada to fend off subsequent American invasions.

However, US Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott, who had signaled the surrender, went on to become a Brigadier General and lead troops to victory at Chippewa Creek in 1814. By then American regular forces had evolved into a highly professional army, under his guidance, having modeled and trained his troops using French Revolutionary Army drills and exercises.

Further information:

http://www.history.com/news/how-u-s-forces-failed-to-conquer-canada-200-years-ago

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/15

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Queenston_Heights

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

A is for Anishinaabe ~ B is for Brock ~ C is for Coloured Corps ~ D is for Detroit ~ E is for Erie ~ F is for First Nations ~ G is for Ghent ~ H is for Harrison ~ I is for Impressment ~ J is for Jackson ~ K is for Key ~ L is for Lundy’s ~ M is for Madison ~ N is for New Orleans ~ O is for Ontario ~ P is for Pushmataha

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/

http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/14/pushmataha-choctaw-warrior-diplomat-and-chief

P is for Pushmataha

April 18, 2015 by rolandclarke

Pushmataha (c. 1760s–December 24, 1824; also spelled Pooshawattaha, Pooshamallaha, or Poosha Matthaw), the “Indian General”, was one of the three regional chiefs of the major divisions of the Choctaw in the 19th century. Rejecting the offers of alliance and reconquest proffered by Tecumseh, Pushmataha led the Choctaw to fight on the side of the United States in the War of 1812.

When the neighbouring Creek Indians, then located in present-day Alabama, killed more than 500 Americans at Fort Mims on 30 August 1813, Pushmataha assumed his position as war leader. He quickly organized a Choctaw military force to assist General Andrew Jackson in fighting against the Creeks.

PUSH-MA-TA-HA. Choctaw chief, ca. 1837-1844, Publisher: McKenney and Hall, Copy after Charles Bird King

For that assistance, Jackson was forever grateful, but when the American general returned to Choctaw country in 1820 to negotiate the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, which called for Choctaw removal to lands west of the Mississippi River, Pushmataha resisted. He told Jackson that the lands in the west (present-day Arkansas) were too poor to support agriculture and hunting. In addition, Pushmataha pointed out that white settlers already lived on those lands. He knew that they would not leave voluntarily simply because the U.S. government had decided that those lands now belonged to the Choctaws.

Pushmataha tried to get a promise from Jackson to evict the white settlers, but this issue was never settled and it brought Pushmataha and other chiefs to Washington D.C. in 1824. They sought compensation for those Arkansas lands that they could never settle because of the large numbers of whites already living there. During the 1824 negotiations, his portrait was painted by Charles Bird King. Pushmataha also became sick and died. He was buried with full military honours in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Portrait of Pushmataha unveiled April 1, 2001. It hangs in the Mississippi Hall of Fame, Old Capitol Museum, in Jackson, Mississippi. The portrait was presented by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Portrait by Mississippian Katherine Roche Buchanan. ~ Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Many historians considered him the “greatest of all Choctaw chiefs”. Pushmataha was highly regarded among Native Americans, Europeans, and white Americans, for his skill and cunning in both war and diplomacy.

NOTE: The Memoirs in my novel “Seeking A Knife” are received by a Choctaw journalist, whose ancestors might have fought alongside Pushmataha.

Further Information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushmataha#War_of_1812

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/