On Blockhouses

War of 1812 block houses in Mansfield (top) and Fort Meigs (bottom).

From Practical Instructions for Military Officers: Comprehending a Concise System of Military Geometry, Field Fortification and Tactics of Riflemen and Light Infantry . Also the Scheme for Forming a Corps of a Partisan, and Carrying on the Petite Guerre ... to which is Annexed, a New Military Dictionary ... published 1811 by Epaphras Hoyt.

NEXT to an acquaintance with the field exercises and duties of the camp, no part of military- science is of more importance to An officer than for fortification: for without some knowledge of this, how will he be capable of throwing up a work for the defense of a post, or detachment, entrusted to his command when he has not with him an engineer? A thousand instances of this kind will occur in the course of service 4 and an -officer would be extremely mortified, should he be compelled to surrender to an enemy, when a little acquaintance with fortification would have enabled him to construct a temporary redoubt, or other small work sufficient for his defense, till he could be relieved by his general.

Another work with which a post may be fortified* and which affords a formidable defense against musketry, is a block-house. In new countries, where timber is plenty, these are constructed expeditiously.

These houses are usually built two stories high; with hewed logs of sufficient thickness to resist musket shot ; the ends are locked together in the manner of the common log houses in new settlements,- and the upper story is made to project about three feet beyond the walls of the lower story. Loop-holes are made in the projection, to fire on the enemy without, and also in the floor of the upper story, to fire on him should he gain the lower apartment. Loop-holes are also made in the walls of both stories* to annoy the enemy in his approach these should be made 3 or 4 inches wide on the exterior, and 6 or 7 on the interior side ; the length up and down 15 inches, and four and an half feet from the floors, and sufficiently numerous for one half of the men to fire at once. These holes are sometimes made wide on the outside and narrow within, like an embrasure but it is evident, that the shot from the enemy will be much more likely to enter, by glancing on the tides of the aperture, than when the narrow side is outward. 

If the house is furnished with cannon, port-holes must be pierced in the walls,at the angles, sufficient to admit the muzzles of the guns. These, as well as the loop holes, may be stopped with billets of wood fitted to them, but in such a manner that they may be cleared for action without the least delay. The communication between the two apartments may be simply a ladder, pasting through a trap-door in the upper floor. The outer door should be musket proof, and so constructed that it may be firmly fastened on the inside. The building may be furnished with a chimney, and each room with a fire-place for cooking. When other materials cannot be procured, the chimney may be built with small sticks well covered with clay mortar. The roof may be composed of boards and mingles, or when these cannot be procured, bark from the trees in the vicinity may be substituted. A block-house, built in this manner, and well calked, to keep out the air, affords a comfortable- residence in cold weather. It surrounded with palisades, it will make a better defense. Fig. 55, plate 7, is a view of a block-house, the lower room furnished with cannon and port-holes at the angles. The background exhibits a view of a mountainous country, and a river passing near the house ; over the river is a bridge of boats, the house serving as a tete de pont.

 The blockhouse in Hoyt's manual.

221 Years Ago in Ohio-- The Bloody Battle of the Wabash

Yesterday was the 221st anniversary of the Battle of  the Wabash, also known as St. Clair's defeat after the American commander at the battle, Major General Arthur St. Clair. You can read more about the battle here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clair%27s_Defeat.

Of St. Clair's approximately 1,000 men and civilian camp followers, less than 300 survived, and most of those were walking wounded. Some sources (including the wikipedia.org article) give casualties as high as 950 of the 1,000.

How did it happen? Essentially, General St. Clair's troops were marching into the wilderness of western Ohio and stopped for the night on November without fortifying the campsite. A small advance guard of Kentucky volunteers was posted outside the encampment, but they were quickly overrun. St. Clair's best troops, the 1st United States Infantry Regiment, had been sent back to escort food supplies and most of his men were green recruits. The perimeter of the camp was too small, and when the 1,000 Indian warriors under Chief Little Turtle surrounded and began to fire from the cover of the forest, they created havoc in the American camp.

Even though the Americans had brought six field guns with them, they were unable to clear the Indians with canister fire or bayonet charges from the infantry. Instead, artillery crews were cut down by rifle fire, while the Indians simply retreated from the infantry and light dragoon charges before surrounding and cutting down the counter-attacking detachments.

The disaster would have an immense effect on American military thinking. In 1794, General Anthony Wayne's Legion was a sleek combined-arms force, much better trained and coordinated than St. Clair's army had been. They erected a fort on the bone-strewn site of the massacre and called it Fort Recovery.

Wayne's system of warfare was adopted from his experience during the American Revolution, and the legion was meant to move fast, each of its sub-legions included line infantry, light infantry skirmishers, riflemen, light dragoons, and cavalry as organic parts of the order of battle.

The Legion was converted back into a more conventional United States Army and largely disbanded after the Treaty of Greenville. But leaders such as William Henry Harrison (who had arrived in Cincinnati to witness the aftermath of St. Clair's defeat in '91) remembered. Their tactics during the War of 1812 would draw upon these experiences.

General Harrison was surprised at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 in much the same circumstances as St. Clair had been in, with a compact bivouac site lacking fortification (perhaps in order to goad the Indians into attacking him). His infantrymen were able to maintain their perimeter until daylight, when he ordered a decisive counter-attack by mounted dragoons. Later on, he was always careful to order breastworks put up wherever his army stopped to camp.

Another American commander, Brigadier General James Winchester, was not so careful on the eve of the battle of Frenchtown in January 1813. The exposed 17th US Infantry Regiment was cut to pieces while the regiments of Kentucky militia, who had taken shelter behind a wall, were able to hold out much longer. Strangely, at the beginning of his march in the fall of 1812, Winchester had ordered his men to fortify themselves nightly. It was probably the sheer fatigue of their winter campaign that caused Winchester and his officers to repeat the fatal mistake of St. Clair.

V-2 Rocket captured earth on camera

I found this grainy image posted on Neatorama today. It’s a photo taken from a V-2 rocket, of the Earth’s surface from outer space. What I find fascinating is that it was taken in 1946—a year after the end of World War II. By war’s end, the Germans had developed technology that was capable of spaceflight. Not that they weren’t too preoccupied using it to kill people in London, or that they didn’t use slave labor to build them—or that more of their armies relied on horses and bicycles to move around in 1945 than they had in 1939. The fact that German technology was technically able to reach the edge of Earth’s atmosphere is chilling.

It reminds me of the Paris Gun, a gigantic fixed siege cannon that the Germans built during World War I to bombard Paris. The concept of a terror weapon was similar: there was no way for Parisian civilians to hear the gun or its projectile approaching. The shells would hurtle over the horizon—a 210 pound projectile with a range of over 80 miles—and drop out of nowhere on the city. Supposedly, because the shells climbed nearly out of Earth’s atmosphere and traveled so far, special calculations had to be made to account for the lack of wind resistance and the rotation of the earth. The Paris Gun’s projectiles travelled as high as 25 miles—the highest altitude weapon until the V-2s were test fired decades later.

Unlike the V-2 rockets, the Paris Gun was never captured by the allies. It simply disappeared at the end of the Great War—though it is believed to have been destroyed by the German military along with most of the plans in order to prevent this terrible technology from falling into the wrong hands. By contrast, the V-2s provided the United States and the USSR with the basis for both space exploration and the ultimate terror weapons—intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Some Interesting Historical Videos on Youtube

Remember when the History Channel, Discovery Channel, A and E, etc, still played lots of shows that had something to do with history, science, or education? Well, the HistoryFeed youtube channel has a bunch of those old shows, free to watch. Here are some of the most interesting ones.

Sure the opening sounds like some sort of NRA infomercial, but keep watching this one and you’ll learn a lot about the development of gunpowder and firearms, including hand cannons, bombards, wheel locks, and matchlocks.

Believe it or not, there is more to historical documentaries than WWII and American History 101. This BBC Channel 4 documentary is part of a great series on the English Civil War. It’s way better shot than most of the historical documentaries out there, going beyond the hazy lens/ talking heads approach that many filmmakers take.

Everybody loves the Yamato. This documentary follows marine archeologists and survivors of the 3,000 man crew as they search for the wreck. I had no idea how little naval historians actually knew about the greatest white elephant in maritime history (yeah, even greater than SS Great Eastern), even basics like her keel length and the groundbreaking shape of her bow.

Travelling the Old Roads of Ohio

This is a long overdue update for my blog.

 

I’ve been meaning to take some day trips out from Columbus (geographically, near the center of Ohio) to visit some museums and historic sites in the region. When the weather first turned fair after our short winter this year, I set out to find a few such sites by following General Harrison’s military road. One of these roads runs roughly north from Columbus. I followed State Route 23 through Delaware and Upper Sandusky, and then turned onto Route 53 through Tiffin, Fort Seneca, Old Fort, and finally Fremont.

This route corresponds to one of the military roads that General Harrison built in 1812-13 to supply his forces. 200 years ago Delaware was a small settlement, astride the upper Whetstone (Olantangy) River. Upper Sandusky became the army’s main depot. The friendly Wyandot Indians here supported the United States during the war, and were rewarded by the construction of a grist mill—there is still an old water-powered mill on the site.

A scaled down “blockhouse” on the site of Fort Seneca in Old Fort, Ohio.

Tiffin did not exist but a small post called Fort Ball (after James V. Ball of the US Dragoons) was built there to protect the supply convoys. Fort Seneca is a small town that was founded sometime during the 19th century—its neighbor to the north, the even smaller hamlet of Old Fort, Ohio, was the actual site of Fort Seneca. During the late summer of 1813, this was the site of Harrison’s main encampment. Route 53 north of Tiffin runs along the Sandusky River, which eventually empties into a wide muddy bay at the lakeshore. A few miles north, in Fremont Ohio (then called Lower Sandusky), Fort Stephenson was built to guard the fords of the Sandusky, near the highest point that sailing vessels could ascend the river from the lake.

Old Betsy: the iron six pounder with which Major George Croghan defended Fort Stephenson against a British attack in 1813.

The sidewalk here is roughly the same place where Lt. Colonel W.C. Shorrt led the grenadier company of the British  41st Regiment into the ditch surrounding the Fort Stephenson. Croghan used a six pounder loaded with canister or case shot to sweep the ditch, killing the Colonel and many of his men. See an earlier blog entry about the battle.

The site of the fort itself is now a public library.

 

The history along these roads is commemorated by roadside plaques and the names that christen businesses and streets. Tiffin is home to a large Civil War museum (http://www.acwmo.org/). Fremont is the site of President Rutherford B. Hays’ estate, and presidential library (http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/). Deep within the Hays museum there are actually some artifacts from the War of 1812, including a bronze six-pounder that was originally captured from the British during the Revolution—then changed hands when Detroit was captured and retaken during the war. There’s even a small chance that General Henry Procter brought this same piece with him to bombard Fort Stephenson during the August 1813 siege.

The old six pounder—a prize of both the Revolution and the War of 1812.

A DC-3 at the airstrip along Route 53, south of Fremont.

The Hayes museum also contains many relics of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China, captured or looted from Tianjin or Beijing. This bronze cannon is engraved with Mongolian characters.

“Peace and Friendship” an Indian medal exhibited with the Thomas Jefferson artifacts in the Presidential Library. Jefferson sought to create an “empire of liberty” at the expense of tribes who refused to adopt the agrarian lifestyle of the whites. Even tribes that did, like the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, were later forced to move during the Jackson administration.

The Indian Mill near Upper Sandusky. A gift to the Wyandots after the War of 1812, the mill went into private hands after the tribe was forced to relocate beyond the Mississippi during the 1830s. The existing structure dates from later in the 19th century.

One of the artifacts in the Hayes Museum was a silver Indian medal signifying one of the treaties between the United States and the American Indian nations during the Jefferson Administration. It brought me full circle, having passed the site of the Wyandot Reservation in Upper Sandusky and the Seneca Town where Harrison established his fort—two groups of friendly Indians who disappeared from Ohio during the 19th Century.

Captain Shole's Diary: A Trip down the Lake

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, generally because of my being busier with my day jobs, and researching and writing my book. But I have located some interesting primary sources for War of 1812 research, and thought that I might as well post some of the notable passages here.


Today's passage comes from the journal of Captain Stanton Sholes, 2nd Regiment US Artillery (transcribed by Richard C. Knopf, 1956). Sholes spent much of 1813 stationed with his artillery company in Cleveland, Ohio--a tiny village back then. He built the first hospital there (a log cabin constructed without any nails or ironwork), and established a gun battery to protect the flotilla of transport boats being constructed by Major Thomas Jessup (who later went on to bigger things) consisting, apparently of one six-pounder. The passage has been corrected for grammar and spelling except where noted.

A typical bateau or Schenectady boat drawn by Pearson Scott Foresman. An open boat constructed by Major Jessup's boatyard would have been a longer vessel with a mast, rows of oars, and perhaps a small swivel gun mounted in the bow.

Monday Sept. 13th
This day commences with fine weather. The quartermaster give (sic) encouragement to me that I should have a passage in a boat that would sail the next day for the Portage (Portage River in Northwest Ohio, near the Marblehead Peninsula --DW), laden with ammunition for the N.W. Army.

General George Washington: the Myth and the Man

I've recently been reading General George Washington: A Military Life by Edward Lengel. George Washington has sort of a double aura in American history: not only was he one of the founding fathers, and the first President of the United States, but he was also the supreme commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. His portrait hung at revered spots in taverns and public buildings for decades, and he was the almost demi-godlike subject of toasts and legends spun throughout the 19th Century. Many contemporary writers, seeking perhaps a symbol for their own political or moral ideals have written books on GW's leadership style and public career.

Lengel's approach is more tightly focused on Washington's career as a military leader: from his humble beginnings as a district recruiting officer for the slovenly Virginia Militia, to the Revolutionary War and beyond. Perhaps what distinguishes this book from the many others on the subject is how Lengel is unafraid of exploding cherished myths in order to get at the truth behind 18th Century warfare. In an early chapter of the book, for instance, Washington's role as a Major attached to the staff of General Henry Braddock is examined. Traditionally, Braddock's 1755 defeat at the hands of French militia and Indians is portrayed thusly:

The traditional image is of European regulars in bright uniforms standing like robots and being cut to pieces by accurate rifle fire from camouflaged Indians. The American militia who experienced this war supposedly went back home and adopted hit and run tactics to defeat the British during the Revolution. However, contrary to the popular belief, Lengel points out that it was the disorder of the British regulars (accustomed to garrison duty in Ireland), rather than their closed-order style of fighting, that led to the chaotic rout of Braddock's column. The officers could not control their men, who allowed themselves to break ranks, and fight as a mob. Washington, far from suggesting that the Virginians "fight as the Indians do", got swept away in the rout and couldn't help much. As for Braddock, he was mortally wounded a few hours into the action, and carried back along his road on a jolting wagon to the spot where he died.

The problem with fighting like Indians is that you can't hold or take ground. If your enemy is unskilled or audacious, like St. Clair on the Wabash or Tarleton at Cowpens, you can use light infantry tactics to chew up his detachments and finish off the weakened and disordered remainder. But if an opponent in close-order formation holds their ground or concentrates their forces for a bayonet charge, the men fighting behind trees have to make a run for it or get spitted like pigs. Lengel's description of the battle of Long Island in 1776, where the Americans tried to set up another Bunker Hill and were routed, illustrates this principle. Only when the American army adapted to European tactics did it start winning campaigns.

Another myth associated with the Revolution is that the heavy guns captured at Ticonderoga played a decisive role in the British decision to evacuate Boston after the Continentals emplaced them on Dorchester Heights overlooking the town. Actually, General William Howe had long since decided that it was impossible to supply his army by sea at Boston, and that New York would make a better base of operations. When the Ticonderoga cannons, commanded by Henry Knox, opened up on Boston, the American's lax skills at gunnery became apparent. Several mortars and guns exploded, killing or injuring their crews. Other shots went wild, completely missing the British positions.

Lengel's book is a very good work of popular history and biography, because it makes the strategy and problems of the Revolutionary War more accessible to casual readers. Lengel points out that GW was not at all the brilliant commander he is sometimes credited as being. However, without the training and resources that his more conventional and cautious British opponents possessed, this American general's greatest strength was that he was willing to commit seemingly audacious movements (like that towards Yorktown) and fight as if he was winning the war even whilst losing campaigns. I urge anyone who's truly interested in how the Revolutionary war was fought to duck the unoriginal Discovery channel type documentaries and read this book.

Miller's Charge and the Sebree Map

Upon finishing my series of posts on the first siege of Fort Meigs in April-May 1813, I decided to take a look at the William Sebree map. To my surprise, I found a lot of useful details in the map that don't come out in written accounts. The map itself is a work of folk art, combining line drawings and printed symbols and text. While the map is commonly reprinted in secondary works on the War of 1812, the resolution is nowhere near large enough to bring out its rich detail.

After coming back to Kentucky, Captain William Sebree made a large, hand colored map from his notes and sketches of the siege; "To preserve from oblivion the useful events of our history, and the occurances which are characteristic of us, as a nation..."

The Siege of Fort Meigs (part three)

This blog entry may be a bit rambling, but I wanted to finish off my series on the First Siege of Fort Meigs...

The monument at Fort Meigs, erected 1908 by the Grand Army of the Republic (the veterans association of the Union army).

Graffiti, c. 2007 or '8.

 
May 17, 1813. Lt. Colonel George McFeely reported in his diary that both Fort George (held by the British) and Fort Niagara fired salutes to commemorate the siege and battle of Fort Meigs. Both Americans and British felt that they had won victories at the rapids. However, since then, historians' opinion of the battle has ranged from being a tactical defeat for William Henry Harrison to a decisive victory for Henry Procter.

Siege of Fort Meigs, 198th Anniversary

Overview of the May 5th engagements by Benson Lossing. There are a few inaccuracies since he was visiting the site in the 1860s, namely the bridge.

This is the second post of a series on the First Siege of Fort Meigs, which took place 198 years ago this week.

198 years ago yesterday (May 5, 1813), a relief column of Kentucky militiamen descended the Maumee River near modern-day Perrysburg, Ohio to reach Major General William Henry Harrison's besieged garrison at Fort Meigs (see previous post. They arrived at the head of the rapids, five miles up river of the Fort, on the evening of May 4th, and tied their boats to the shoreline. Couriers with instructions from the General crept through picket lines of British and Indians to the militia commander, General Green Clay. Alexander Bourne, then in command of the fort's blockhouse six, described what took place:

Seige of Fort Meigs... 198 Years Ago

A 5.5 inch howitzer at Fort Meigs State Historic Site, Perrysburg Ohio. Three of the forts batteries overlook the lower fords of the Maumee River.

Having just returned from a week-long trip, I've decided to make a series of posts on the Battle of Fort Meigs, the anniversary of which is this week. I'm currently researching a book about the 1813 campaign of General William Henry Harrison to recapture Detroit during the War of 1812.

198 years ago today, Fort Meigs in modern-day Perrysburg Ohio has been under siege by a combined British and Native American force for five days. Beginning on April 28, 1813, forces under General Henry Procter surrounded Maj. General William Henry Harrison's Northwest Army at the fortified camp. Captain Daniel S. Cushing of the Second United States Regiment of Artillery kept a diary of the siege:

Saturday, May First-- At 2 o'clock in the morning the British opened their artillery upon our garrison from their gun-boats, which lay one and one-half miles below us, but it was without effect. At 8 o'clock they hoisted the red flag at their lower battery and commenced firing with 24, 12 and 6 pounders, and eight inch mortars. They fired at us this day 240 shot and shells; did very little damage. They continued firing shells through the night but not often, just enough to keep our camp from rest. We keep up a heavy fire on them all day from different parts of our camp, the Indians are very thick on our flank and in our rear. We have not more than two killed and four wounded today.

Thomas Morgan: 1812 Veteran

After returning to Lebanon Ohio in 1814, Captain Daniel Cushing wrote Morgan a certificate noting his wounds. Cushing drowned in the Auglaize River in 1815. Morgan, like many veterans of the early wars, applied to the government for a pension, but his papers were lost en route. This entry in the official register of the State of Illinois tracks Morgan's efforts in 1844 to have local witnesses vouch that the papers existed, so he could be provided for in his old age.
What makes this passage interesting is that Morgan seems to have seen too many famous aspects of the Northwest campaign (even the Battle of Lake Erie), and suffered wounds which seem out of place for an artilleryman. Cushing's Company of the 2nd United States Artillery Regiment was indeed involved in a close combat skirmish before the Seige of Fort Meigs, but to have been wounded by a tomahawk during Dudley's Massacre on May 5th, 1813, by a falling spar during the Battle of Lake Erie, and finally by an officer's sword during the famous charge of the Kentucky mounted rifles at the Thames, severely tests our credulity. It seems that either Morgan was concocting stories in order to generate more interest in his plight as an aging veteran, or some of the 1812 regular soldiers saw far more action than most sources attest.

Edit: Thomas Morgan was indeed the First Sergeant of Cushing's Company. Whether he was detached from that unit for the variety of missions that his testimony describes is still unclear. I recall McAfee mentioning that Captain Eleazar Wood of the Engineers was involved in the mounted pursuit of some fugitive British officers in the aftermath of the Thames rout, but this doesn't explain how a first sergeant attached to an artillery crew would have gotten into combat with a British officer-- and I haven't seen British documentation of which officers, if any, were killed at the Thames.