I is for Impressment

April 10, 2015 by Roland Clarke

Impressment, or removing seamen from U.S. merchant vessels and forcing them to serve on behalf of the British, was one of the main causes of the War of 1812, according to most sources. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), the Royal Navy expanded to 175 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. While the Royal Navy could man its ships with volunteers in peacetime, it competed in wartime with merchant shipping and privateers for a small pool of experienced sailors and turned to impressment when it could not operate ships with volunteers alone. Britain did not recognize the right of a British subject to relinquish his status as a British subject, emigrate and transfer his national allegiance as a naturalized citizen to any other country. Thus while the United States recognized British-born sailors on American ships as Americans, Britain did not.

The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become United States citizens. Britain did not recognize naturalized United States citizenship, so in addition to recovering deserters, it considered United States citizens born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the widespread use of forged identity or protection papers by sailors. This made it difficult for the Royal Navy to distinguish Americans from non-Americans and led it to impress some Americans who had never been British. (Some gained freedom on appeal.)] American anger at impressment grew when British frigates were stationed just outside U.S. harbours in view of U.S. shores and searched ships for contraband and impressed men while in U.S. territorial waters. “Free trade and sailors’ rights” was a rallying cry for the United States throughout the conflict.

We Owe Allegiance to No Crown, by John Archibald Woodside. c. 1814. Photograph copyright Nicholas S. West. Photography by Erik Arnesen.

Between 1803 and 1812, approximately 5,000-9,000 American sailors were forced into the Royal Navy with as many as three-quarters being legitimate American citizens. Though the American government repeatedly protested the practice, British Foreign Secretary Lord Harrowby contemptuously wrote in 1804, “The pretention advanced by Mr. [Secretary of State James] Madison that the American flag should protect every individual on board of a merchant ship is too extravagant to require any serious refutation.”

The Royal Navy also used impressment extensively in British North America from 1775 to 1815. Its press gangs sparked resistance, riots, and political turmoil in seaports such as Halifax, St John’s, and Quebec City. In 1805 this led to a prohibition on impressment on shore for much of the Napoleonic Wars. The protest came from a wide swath of the urban community, including elites, rather than just the vulnerable sailors, and had a lasting negative impact on civil–naval relations in what became Canada. The local communities did not encourage their young men to volunteer for the Royal Navy.

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

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/usnavy/08/08a.htm

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1812-a-nation-emerges-opens-at-the-national-portrait-gallery-122555161/?no-ist

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

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behaviour.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, we blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. Please visit other challenge writers.

My theme is ‘The War of 1812’, a military conflict, lasting for two-and-a-half years, fought by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, its North American colonies, and its American Indian allies. The Memoirs of a British naval officer from the war is central to my novel “Seeking A Knife” – part of the Snowdon Shadows series.

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.history.com/topics/war-of-1812

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

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

http://www.shmoop.com/war-1812/

http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/essays/

H is for Harrison

April 9, 2015 by Roland Clarke

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where Harrison’s forces fought off followers of the powerful Shawnee leader Tecumseh (1768-1813). Although the U.S. suffered significant troop losses and the battle’s outcome was inconclusive and did not end Indian resistance, Harrison ultimately emerged with his reputation as an Indian fighter intact, and earned the nickname “Tippecanoe” (or “Old Tippecanoe”). He capitalized on this image during his 1840 presidential campaign, using the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too,”

After a dozen years as governor of the Indiana Territory, Harrison rejoined the Army when the War of 1812 began. He was made a brigadier general and placed in charge of the Army of the Northwest, on September 17, 1812. Promoted to major general, Harrison worked diligently to transform his army from an untrained mob into a disciplined fighting force. Unable to go on the offensive while British ships controlled Lake Erie, Harrison worked to defend American settlements.

In late September 1813, after the American victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, Harrison moved to the attack. Ferried to Detroit by Master Commandant Oliver H. Perry’s victorious squadron, Harrison set off in pursuit British and Native American forces under Major General Henry Proctor and Tecumseh. Catching them on October 5, Harrison won a key victory at the Battle of the Thames which saw Tecumseh killed, the war on the Lake Erie front effectively ended, and the dissolution of the Indian coalition.

William Henry Harrison ~ National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC. ~ Photograph Source: Public Domain

Harrison told US Secretary of War John Armstrong, Jr. that all his casualties were a result of the native warriors, not the British regulars. Unable to sustain or build on his victory, Harrison and his men headed for Detroit, the Americans now in firm control of the North West frontier. Procter would continue to command those who had fought with him, but his poor handling of the retreat and battle would be his undoing. Though a skilled and popular commander, Harrison resigned the following summer after disagreements with Secretary of War John Armstrong.

After the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1824 the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. He served a truncated term after being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in May 1828. In Colombia, he spoke with Simón Bolívar urging his nation to adopt American-style democracy.

Harrison was elected as the ninth President of the United States in 1840, and died on his 32nd day in office of pneumonia in April 1841- the first president to die in office and serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. He was the last President born as a British subject. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but its resolution settled many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until the passage of the 25th Amendment in 1967. He was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, who was the 23rd President from 1889 to 1893.

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

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/29

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/william-henry-harrison

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/1800sarmybiographies/p/whharrison.htm

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

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

http://www.shmoop.com/war-1812/

G is for Ghent

April 8, 2015 by Roland Clarke

The Treaty of Ghent), signed on December 24, 1814, was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. The treaty restored relations between the two nations to status quo before the war — that is, it restored the borders of the two countries to the line before the war started in June 1812. The Treaty was approved by the Prince Regent (the future King George IV). It took a month for news of the peace treaty to reach the United States. American forces under Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. The Treaty of Ghent was not in effect until it was ratified by the U.S. Senate unanimously on February 18, 1815.

The peace discussions began in the neutral city of Ghent in August 1814. As the peace talks opened American diplomats decided not to present President Madison’s demands for the end of impressment and suggestion that Britain turn Canada over to the U.S. They let the British open with their demands, chief of which was the creation of an Indian barrier state in the American Northwest Territory (the area from Ohio to Wisconsin). It was understood the British would sponsor this Indian state. The British strategy for decades had been to create a buffer state to block American expansion. The Americans refused to consider a buffer state and the proposal was dropped. Article IX of the treaty included provisions to restore to Natives “all possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed, or been entitled to in 1811”, but the provisions were unenforceable and in any case Britain ended its practice of supporting or encouraging tribes living in American territory.

In his 1914 painting A Hundred Years Peace, artist Amedee Forestier illustrates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent between Great Britain and the US, 24 December 1814 (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-115678).

After months of negotiations, against the background of changing military victories, defeats and losses, the parties finally realized that their nations wanted peace and there was no real reason to continue the war. Now each side was tired of the war. Export trade was all but paralyzed and after Napoleon fell in 1814 France was no longer an enemy of Britain, so the Royal Navy no longer needed to stop American shipments to France, and it no longer needed more seamen so impressment was not an issue.

Consequently, none of the issues that had caused the war or that had become critical to the conflict were included in the treaty.

The treaty thus made no significant changes to the pre-war boundaries, although the U.S. did gain territory from Spain. Britain promised to return the freed black slaves that they had taken. In actuality, a few years later Britain instead paid the United States $1,204,960 for them. Both nations also promised to work towards an ending of the international slave trade.

Canadian author, Pierre Berton wrote of the treaty, “It was as if no war had been fought, or to put it more bluntly, as if the war that was fought was fought for no good reason. For nothing has changed; everything is as it was in the beginning save for the graves of those who, it now appears, have fought for a trifle:…Lake Erie and Fort McHenry will go into the American history books, Queenston Heights and Crysler’s Farm into the Canadian, but without the gore, the stench, the disease, the terror, the conniving, and the imbecilities that march with every army.”

The Peace Bridge between Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario, opened in 1927 to commemorate more than a century of peace between the United States and Canada.

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

http://www.history.com/topics/treaty-of-ghent

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/55

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

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

http://www.shmoop.com/war-1812/

F is for First Nations

April 7, 2015 by Roland Clarke

The War of 1812 was a turning point for the First Nations, being the last conflict in north-eastern North America in which their participation was important, if not critical.

The peace treaty of 1783, which concluded the American Revolution, saw the ceding of all lands west of the Ohio River to the United States. However, the British still saw the Indian nations as valuable allies and a buffer to its Canadian colonies and they provided them with arms. Attacks on American settlers in the Northwest further aggravated tensions between Britain and the United States, and was one of the causes of the War of 1812.

In 1812 the Shawnee chief Tecumseh gathered 10,000 warriors, hoping to unify First Nations peoples into a confederacy with their own land and government. Tecumseh sided with the British not because he trusted them, but because he saw them as the lesser of two evils.

With the British fighting Napoleon Bonaparte in Europe, their troops in North America were stretched and the participation of native warriors was key to their campaign. However, First Nations warriors preferred to rely on stealth and spontaneous attack. They were puzzled and sometimes appalled by European tactics and by the extreme casualties the Europeans seemed to countenance. And the advocates of European tactics were unable to understand First Nation tactics, although they often turned the tide of battles.

Just prior to the British capture of Fort Detroit, communications across the Detroit River were all-important. Fast canoes manned by loyal First Nations warriors performed this task (Downriver Despatches by Peter Rindlisbacher).

The First Nations were largely responsible for the fall of Michilimackinac on 17 July 1812, and subsequent victories. However, due to the inefficiency of the British commander at Moraviantown, the brunt of the fighting fell to the First Nations and they were routed and Tecumseh was killed. His loss is hard to overestimate and with him went the remains of the nativist movement. Nevertheless, First Nations warriors continued to fight until the end of the war.

During negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent, the British did try to bargain for the establishment of an Indian Territory but the Americans resolutely refused to agree. The most that they would accept was the status quo before the war. But despite all their efforts, the First Nations were unable to recover their lost territory.

Three years after the death of Tecumseh, Indiana became a state and began to remove all First Nations from their traditional lands, a mass eviction that was repeated in state after state. In the South East, the Creek War came to an end, and about half of the Creek territory was ceded to the United States, with no payment made to the Creeks. This was, in theory, invalidated by Article 9 of the Treaty of Ghent, thereby restoring to the Indians “all the possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811.” The British failed to uphold this, and did not take up the First Nations cause as an infringement of an international treaty. Without this support, the Indians’ lack of power was apparent and the stage was set for further incursions of territory by the United States in subsequent decades, such as the forced removal of the Choctaw and Cherokee under the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Indian Removal Act 1830. A tragic time in American history that led to the long forced relocation of Indigenous Americans on what is appropriately called the “Trail of Tears”.

In Canada, the War of 1812 was the end of an era in which the First Nations had been able to keep their positions in return for service in war. Soon, with the growth of Upper Canada, the First Nations were outnumbered in their own lands. It was almost forgotten that if not for their support Upper Canada might very well have fallen into American hands.

In 1992, Georges Erasmus, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said, “You have a phrase called “Golden Age.” We do not want to be depicted the way we were, when we were first discovered in our homeland in North America. We do not want museums to continue to present us as something from the past. We believe we are very, very much here now, and we are going to be very important in the future.”
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/first-nations-in-the-war-of-1812/

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/9

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

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

E is for Erie

April 6, 2015 by Roland Clarke

The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, in Lake Erie off the coast of Ohio during the War of 1812. In the first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history, U.S. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry led nine vessels of the United States Navy to victory, capturing six vessels of the Royal Navy.

However, six of the American vessels were gunboats, small vessels that mounted only a single gun. Only two, the Lawrence and the Niagara, were full-size ships with an armament of two long guns and 18 carronades each.

One of the biggest naval battles of the War, it was closely contested for hours, and early in the battle, the British were taking a heavy toll on the American ships, principally because the British cannons were much more accurate at long distances. Perry’s flagship Lawrence was reduced to a defenceless wreck.

Perry's Victory, painted by William Henry Powell of Cincinnati in 1865, illustrates Oliver Hazard Perry's decisive victory over the British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie (September 10, 1813). This victory ensured American control of the Great Lakes. The painting is currently hanging in the rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse.

Perry’s Victory, painted by William Henry Powell of Cincinnati in 1865, illustrates Oliver Hazard Perry making his way from his severely damaged flagship, the Lawrence , in a rowboat through enemy fire to the Niagara The painting is currently hanging in the rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse.

He then transferred to the Niagara, which before Perry’s arrival had hardly engaged the British fleet. Now, Perry sailed the Niagara directly into the British lines, inflicting heavy cannon fire on the enemy ships. The commander of every British ship was killed or wounded, leaving the British ships under the command of junior officers with limited experience.

Perry took advantage of this situation. The Niagara rammed the British lead ship while the sailors fired rifles at the British seamen. By nightfall, the British had surrendered to Perry, who was only twenty-seven years old. Perry had won a complete victory at the cost of 27 Americans killed and 96 wounded; British casualties were 40 dead and 94 wounded. The surviving British crews, including the wounded, numbered 306.

After the battle, Perry sent a famous dispatch, written in pencil on the back of an old envelope, to U.S. General William Henry Harrison that read, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”

The Battle of Lake Erie cut off the British supply lines and forced the British to abandon Detroit, ensuring U.S. control over Lake Erie and the territorial northwest. It also paved the way for General Harrison’s attack on the British and Native American forces at the Battle of the Thames.

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

http://www.battleoflakeerieart.com/battle.php

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Battle_of_Lake_Erie?rec=476

http://battleoflakeerie-bicentennial.com/history/the-battle/

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS:

A is for Anishinaabe ~ B is for Brock ~ C is for Coloured Corps ~ D is for Detroit

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

Bill Allen: A Great Heart and A Generous Man

April 5, 2015 by Roland Clarke

Bill Allen at Borde Hill Horse Trials ~ Photo by Tony Warr

On Saturday April 4th the sport of eventing lost one of its great supporters and personalities, Bill Allen. My first thought was for his wife Ann, and his family as I know how close they all are.

I couldn’t help it but I cried. For me Bill was special, as a friend and a colleague. Without Bill, I would never have got Borde Hill Horse Trials back onto the calendar. As my co-organiser, Bill taught me everything I know about running a horse trials, and helped assemble a first class team to put on the event. For many Bill was a first-class starter, and the joint-organiser of the successful Purston Horse Trials, but he could turn his hand to almost everything. But most important thing I learnt was that the organiser was responsible for chucking out the rubbish bags.

Bill Allen at Borde Hill Horse Trials with BE Steward Nicky Salmon (centre), Johnny Hill and Roland Clarke (right). Photo by Tony Warr.

There have been so many tributes to him, and they all say, “how helpful and supportive of many events and people he was”. That he was “such a hard working lovely man, always with a joke and a smile and will be SO missed”. We “will miss his cheerful banter and big smile!”

Of course for me Borde Hill Horse Trials wasn’t the beginning as I already knew Bill. He was one of the linchpins at so many events that I attended, initially as a journalist, and then as co-ordinator of the South East Eventers League. In fact the SEEL organisers made sure to honour Bill & Ann for their crucial work ‘behind the scenes’, by presenting them with the Seahorse Achievement Award in 1998. And, of course, Ann was an integral part of the partnership – and of any event she scored or helped at.

The Seahorse Achievement Award

Bill continued to support me as life got harder because of my multiple sclerosis, making sure that provision was always made for my disability. He ensured, with the two main sponsors Johnny Hill and Bill Kear, that I had a mobility scooter to continue going to events. However, MS eventually took its toll and I had to give up as co-organiser at Borde Hill, but although he too stood down, Bill Allen still helped the new team.

As my MS got worse, I went to fewer events, but tried to go to at least one Borde Hill event each year. And one of the first people to greet me was Bill Allen, even if he was busy doing things to keep the event running smoothly. Sadly, 2013 was the last time I went to the Horse Trials at Borde Hill, as we moved to Wales in 2014. So that was the last time that I saw Bill & Ann Allen.

So I wasn’t aware that he had cancer, or that during Tweseldown Horse Trials in March, Ann was visiting him in hospital ever evening, after working at the event.

Eventing has lost a great supporter and friend. I just feel devastated. My love and condolences to Ann and to all his family.

R.I.P Bill Allen, a great heart and a generous man.