Update: Sandusky Mail Incident

A late-18th century gunboat. Photo By Rémi Kaupp

According to the notebook of Major Peter L. Chambers, General Henry Procter's Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, the Sandusky express mail that I mentioned in a previous post as approaching close enough to the siege of Fort Meigs to see cannon fire, didn't get away unmolested.

"30th I accompanied Lt Colonel Warburton and made a reconnissance on the Enemy's side approached so near to their Fort that the Rifflemen fired several shot at us. I fired one shot at a number I perceived together with my Rifle (one that General Brock presented me with)
Four Ottawa Boys intercepted the Sandusky Mail, it was guarded by three men who fled as soon as the Boys fired, the Eldest Boy was only fourteen years of age. [my underlining]
7 o'clock Pill went on Board the Myers Gun Boat and in company with the Eliza [another small gunboat, perhaps built by the British army that year on the Thames River--DW] ascended the River about half a mile fired a shot from the 9 Pounder every half hour the enemy did not fire a shot at us."

You can read the rest of Major Chambers' report here, pp. 289-91 of Michigan Historical Collections vol. 15. (online at archive.org)