Q is for Queenston

April 20, 2015 by Roland Clarke

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.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/120

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

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.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng

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

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/

O is for Ontario

April 17, 2015 by Roland Clarke

Lake Ontario and the area that became Ontario was a key battleground during the War of 1812. Upper Canada, the predecessor of modern Ontario, was created in 1791 by the division of the old colony of Quebec into Lower Canada in the east and Upper Canada in the west. A wilderness society settled largely by Loyalists and land-hungry farmers moving north from the United States, Upper Canada endured war with America, an armed rebellion, and half a century of economic and political growing pains until it was merged again with its French-speaking counterpart into the Province of Canada.

Upper Canada – The Canadian Encyclopedia

During the War there were three theatres, but varying in significance as well as the fierceness of the encounters.

The most significant ones on land were: Detroit Frontier – the Battle of Fort Michilimackinac (see A is for Anishinaabe); and on the Niagara Frontier – Queenston Heights fought on October 13, 1812 on the Niagara Escarpment (Q will be for Queenston – but see also B is for Brock), and most notably the Battle of York fought on April 27, 1813, in York (present-day Toronto), the capital of the province of Upper Canada (Y will be for York).

A scene on Lake Ontario – United States sloop of war Gen. Pike, Commodore Chauncey, and the British sloop of war Wolfe, Sir James Yeo, preparing for action, September 28, 1813. Published and sold by Shelton & Kennet, Cheshire, Con. November 1st 1813

There were also engagements on Lake Ontario, a prolonged naval contest for control of the lake during the War. Few actions were fought, none of which had decisive results, and the contest essentially became a naval building race, sometimes referred to sarcastically as the “Battle of the Carpenters”. Both sides (especially the British) renamed, re-rigged and re-armed their ships several times during the war. Both sides also possessed several unarmed schooners or other small vessels for use as transports or tenders.

Because neither side had been prepared to risk everything in a decisive attack on the enemy fleet or naval base, the result of all the construction effort on Lake Ontario was an expensive draw. The great demands for men and materials made by both squadrons adversely affected other parts of the war effort in the region.

Blockhouse and Battery in Old Fort, Toronto, 1812, [ca. 1921] C. W. Jefferys Pen and ink drawing on paper 29.2 cm x 36.8 cm (11.5″ x 14.5″) Government of Ontario Art Collection, 621228

During the war, Upper Canada, whose inhabitants were predominantly American in origin, was invaded and partly occupied. American forces were repulsed by British regulars assisted by Canadian militia. The war strengthened the British link, rendered loyalism a hallowed creed, fashioned martyr-heroes such as Sir Isaac Brock and Tecumseh, and appeared to legitimize the political status quo.

The war ended Upper Canada’s isolation. American immigration was formally halted, but Upper Canada received an increased number of British newcomers — some with capital to spend.

Further Information

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

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/upper-canada/

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/1812/index.aspx

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

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

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/

N is for New Orleans

April 16, 2015 by Roland Clarke

The Battle of New Orleans was a series of engagements fought from December 24, 1814 through January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American combatants, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented an invading British Army, commanded by General Edward Pakenham, and Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Alexander Cochrane, from seizing New Orleans as a strategic tool to end the war. New Orleans was a vital seaport considered the gateway to the United States’ newly purchased territory in the West. If it could seize the Crescent City, the British Empire would gain dominion over the Mississippi River and hold the trade of the entire American South under its thumb.

Americans believed that a vastly powerful British fleet and army had sailed for New Orleans (Jackson himself thought 25,000 troops were coming), and most expected the worst. The victory, leading a motley assortment of militia fighters, frontiersmen, slaves, Indians and even pirates came after weathering a frontal assault by a superior British force, and inflicting devastating casualties along the way.

1815 painting of the battle by participant Jean Hyacinthe de Laclotte of the Louisiana Militia based on his memories and sketches made at the site.

New Orleans boosted the reputation of Andrew Jackson and helped to propel him to the White House. The anniversary of the battle was celebrated as a national holiday for many years, and continues to be commemorated in south Louisiana.

The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814 (but was not ratified by the US Government until February 1815), and hostilities would continue in Louisiana until January 18 when all of the British forces had retreated, finally putting an end to the Battle of New Orleans

From December 25, 1814, to January 26, 1815, British casualties during the Louisiana Campaign, apart from the assault on January 8, were 49 killed, 87 wounded and 4 missing. Thus, British casualties for the entire campaign totalled 2,459: 386 killed, 1,521 wounded, and 552 missing. American casualties for the entire campaign totalled 333: 55 killed, 185 wounded, and 93 missing.

Further Information:

http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-new-orleans

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

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

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/

L is for Lundy’s Lane

April 14, 2015 by Roland Clarke

The Battle of Lundy’s Lane (also known as the Battle of Niagara Falls, the fiercest and bloodiest land action during the War of 1812, took place on 25 July 1814, in present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was one of the deadliest battles ever fought in Canada.

The battle took place around the junction of Portage Road and Lundy’s Lane, in what is now the city of Niagara Falls. At the height of the 5-hour-long battle, much of which was fought after dark, about 3,000 British and Canadian soldiers faced some 2,800 American invaders. Casualties were heavy, with both sides losing more than 850 men killed, wounded or missing in action. Tactically, the battle of Lundy’s Lane can be considered to have been a draw, since neither side had been defeated. Strategically, however, it was a British victory since the battle ended the Americans’ Niagara offensive; by early November 1814, they had retreated to the New York side of the Niagara River.

The Battle of Lundy’s Lane, [ca. 1921]
C. W. Jefferys
Pen and Ink Drawing
Government of Ontario Art Collection, 621234

However, the bloody stalemate along Lundy’s Lane followed the decisive American victory near Chippewa Creek. Both battles confirmed that the American regular forces had evolved into a highly professional army. Brigadier General Winfield Scott is widely credited for this progress, having modelled and trained his troops using French Revolutionary Army drills and exercises, although not all the American units present at Lundy’s Lane had benefitted from his personal training. Not only did Scott work to create an American version of European armies, but he also tried to emulate their aristocratic officer corps.

Winfield Scott - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Winfield Scott during War of 1812 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1895, the federal government erected a 12-metre-high granite memorial monument in the Drummond Hill Cemetery, the centre of the battleground. Various plaques and smaller memorials are also on the site. The battleground received formal designation as a national Historic Site from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1937.

Further Information:

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/117

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy%27s_Lane

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

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

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/

K is for Key

April 13, 2015 by Roland Clarke

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States’ national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

During the War of 1812, one of Key’s friends, Dr. William Beanes, was taken prisoner by the British. Key went to Baltimore with British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, and on a British ship negotiated the release of several prisoners. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore.

From aboard a British ship located about eight miles away, Key watched the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry on the night of September 13–14, 1814. After a day, the British were unable to destroy the fort and gave up. Key was relieved to see the enormous American flag still flying proudly over Fort McHenry and reported this to the prisoners below deck. The 30 x 42 feet flag had been pieced together on the floor of a Baltimore brewery, and has been preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

This 1873 image is the first known photograph taken of the Star-Spangled Banner. Taken at the Boston Navy Yard on June 21st, 1873. (Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.)

Back in Baltimore and inspired, Key wrote a poem about his experience, “Defence of Fort M’Henry”. The poem was printed in newspapers and eventually set to the music of a popular English drinking tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven” by composer John Stafford Smith. It was a popular tune Key had already used as a setting for his 1805 song “When the Warrior Returns,” celebrating U.S. heroes of the First Barbary War. (Key used the “star spangled” flag imagery in the earlier song.)

People began referring to the song as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and it became increasingly popular, competing with “Hail, Colombia” (1796) as the de facto national anthem by the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson announced that it should be played at all official events. It was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931.

“Francis Scott Key by Joseph Wood c1825” by attributed to Joseph Wood (1778-1830) – . Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons –

Francis Scott Key died of pleurisy on January 11, 1843. Today, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1914 is housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/starflag.htm

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-story-behind-the-star-spangled-banner-149220970/

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/key-pens-star-spangled-banner

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

http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-war-of-1812.aspx

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS:

Further reading on The War of 1812:

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

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

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/

J is for Jackson

April 11, 2015 by Roland Clarke

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812 and became the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837).

He was born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family of relatively modest means. During the American Revolutionary War Jackson’s family supported the revolutionary cause, and he acted as a courier. He later became a lawyer, and in 1796 he helped found the state of Tennessee. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and then to the U.S. Senate. In 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, which became his political as well as military base.

As a major general in the War of 1812, Jackson commanded U.S. forces in a five-month campaign against the Creek Indians, allies of the British. Aided by other Native American nations such as the Cherokee and Choctaw, the decisive American victory in the Battle of Tohopeka (or Horseshoe Bend) in Alabama in mid-1814 ended the campaign, Jackson then led American forces to victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans (January 1815). The win, which occurred after the War officially ended, but before news of the Treaty of Ghent had reached Washington, elevated Jackson to the status of national war hero.

Jackson in 1824, painting by Thomas Sully

Nominated for president in 1824, Jackson narrowly lost to John Quincy Adams. Jackson’s supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. Nominated again in 1828, Jackson crusaded against Adams and the “corrupt bargain” between Adams and Henry Clay that he said cost him the 1824 election. Building on his base in the West and new support from Virginia and New York, he won by a landslide.

For some, his legacy is tarnished by his role in the forced relocation of Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi. Despite the assistance of nations such as the Cherokee and Choctaw in the Creek Campaign, as President he supported, signed, and enforced the 1830 Indian Removal Act, which relocated a number of native tribes to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

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

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/andrew-jackson

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