Another Maritime Adventure on Lake Erie-- Braving a Storm in a Leaky River Barge

Early in 1813 there was a debate between American naval officers whether the US fleet on Lake Erie should be built at Black Rock, near Buffalo New York or at Erie, Pennsylvania. There were disadvantages to both places. Erie was only a small village with no facilities for shipbuilding, and no defenses. A sandbar across the mouth of the sheltered bay there prevented any vessel larger than a gunboat from sailing out into the lake. Black Rock (which is now more or less subsumed into modern urban Buffalo) was the site of the existing US shipyard on Lake Erie, and a brig and several smaller ships had already been gathered there by Lieutenant Jesse Elliot. However, it's disadvantages were even worse: the guns of British batteries on the Canadian side of the Niagara River could range the shipyard, and the strong river current meant that any vessel launched there would have to be towed upstream by teams of oxen--again under the guns of the British forces. And it was within easy reach of any British raiding parties from the opposite shore who could burn up several months work with a surprise attack.

Sailing Master Daniel Dobbins was an early resident of Erie and had sailed there with his schooner Salina before the war. He thought that ships could be built in the sheltered bay and, once ready could be gotten over the bar and into the lake. But to arm them, cannon had to be brought from the naval station at Black Rock, and British ships patrolled the lake. This meant that Dobbins spent the spring of 1813 essentially smuggling large pieces of ordnance over stormy waters past the British ships. Here is one such journey, which probably occurred in May of 1813 (from Captain William W. Dobbins, History of the Battle of Lake Erie, 1876):

As a sample of one of these hazardous trips, he started to bring up two long 32-pounders, weighing 3,600 pounds each. In the way of a craft, he was only able to procure an old "Durham boat", so-called, which had been used to boat salt from (Fort) Schlosser to Fort Erie; and after fitting her up as best he could, with timbers placed lengthwise in her bottom, got the guns on board, tracked up the rapids of Niagara River and started for Erie, having a four-oared boat in company. He kept near the American shore, but dare not show his sail except at night. When off Cattaraugus, in the night, it came on to blow heavily from northwest, and in order to keep her off the beach, they made what sail they could with two planks for leeboards, and, after a struggle, succeeded in getting an offing. But their troubles were not ended: the great steering-oar unshipped, and the boat fell off into the trough of the sea. The heavy rolling soon carried away the step of the mast before they could get the sail down. But the repairs were soon made and they got sail on again, when it was found she was leaking badly, caused by the heavy rolling, with so much weight in her bottom, and likely to founder. As the old maxim has it, "Necessity is the mother of invention," Mr. Dobbins took a coil of rope they had on board, and passing the rope round and round her, from forward to aft, and heaving the turns taut with a gunner's hand spike, thus managing to keep her afloat, with all hands bailing. At daylight they found themselves some ten miles below Erie, with two of the enemy's cruisers in sight in the offing to windward. However, the wind had veered more to the eastward, and they made port with a fair wind--their consort, having parted company with them in the night, safely made port, and reported Mr. Dobbins' boat lost.

 Durham boats are most famous for having been used by George Washington in his crossing of the Delaware River. They were designed for use with heavy cargo, such as the pig iron shipped on the Delaware River from the Durham Ironworks.

Captain Leslie Combs' Ill-fated Canoe Trip

Very few motorists crossing the Maumee River today on the Interstate 475 Bridge may realize, if they glance downriver towards Maumee and Perrysburg and the Buttonwood Recreational Area, that they are looking at the site of a terrifying adventure during the Siege of Fort Meigs. This is an extract from the Narrative of the Life of General Leslie Combs, a veteran of the battle:

When they reached St. Mary's Blockhouse, General Clay divided his brigade, sending Colonel Dudley's regiment across to the Auglaise River, and descending the St. Mary's himself, with Colonel Boswell's, intending to united them again at old Fort Defiance. Captain Combs was attached to the former... It was fifty miles from Fort Defiance, where they expected to meet General Clay, to Fort Meigs; and it was deemed extremely hazardous for any one to attempt to open a communication between the two points, especially as no one present, except Captain Combs, knew the exact position of Fort Meigs, or had any knowledge of the intervening country.... (At a council of officers Captain Combs volunteered) "Colonel Dudley," said he, "General Clay has thought proper to entrust me with an important command, attached to your regiment. When we reach Fort Defiance, if you will furnish me a good canoe, I will carry your dispatches to General Harrison, and return with his orders. I shall only require four or five volunteers from my own company, and one of my Indian guides to accompany me..." 

The troops encamped at Fort Defiance (Fort Winchester) on the afternoon of the first of May. General Clay, meanwhile, had not arrived. Captain Combs immediately prepared for his perilous trip. The two Walkers, Paxton, and Johnson, were to accompany him, as well as the young Shawanee warrior Black Fish. As they pushed off from shore at the mouth of the Auglaise, the bank was covered with their anxious fellow-soldiers; and Major Shelby remarked, looking at his watch, "Remember, Captain Combs, if we never meet, it is exactly six o'clock when we part;" and he had since told Mr. Combs that he never expected to see him again alive.

 Captain Combs would have started some hours earlier, could his frail craft have been gotten ready for he knew it would require hard work, even with the aid of a strong current, to reach Fort Meigs before daylight the next morning. Placing his Shawnee in the stern, with a steering-oar, and two men at the side-oars, alternately relieving each other, the Captain took his position in the bow, to take care of their rifles and direct the course to be pursued; keeping as nearly as possible in the center of the stream, for fear of Indians on either side. By dark they had come within distinct hearing of the distant roar of heavy artillery in their front, and knew that General Harrison's apprehensions of an early assault upon his enfeebled position were verified.... 

It was late in the night when they struck the head of the rapids, and it seemed every moment as if their light canoe would be dashed in pieces. By lying flat on his face, the Captain could from some idea of the course of the deep channel, amid the war of waters which nearly deafened them, by seeming the foaming breakers glistening in the starlight. When they approached Roche debout, where they were informed there was a considerable perpendicular fall in low water, they were forced to land and haul their bark along the margin of the southern bank till they had passed the main obstruction; and daylight dawned upon them before they were again afloat. They were still some seven or eight miles above the fort, and well knew that the surrounding forests were alive with hostile savages...

(The next morning) If he should determine to remain where he was during the day, they would most probably be discovered and tomahawked before night. He therefore resolved resolved instantly to go ahead, desperate as the chances seemed against him, and risk all consequences. Not one of his brave companions demurred to his determination, although he told them they would certainly be compelled to earn their breakfasts before they would have the honor of taking coffee with General Harrison.

 (As they rounded the last bend in the river before Fort Meigs, not knowing if the fort had surrendered...) the first object that met their sight was the British batteries belching forth their iron hail across the river, and the bomb-shells flying in the air; and the next moment they saw the glorious stars and stripes gallantly floating in the breeze. "Oh, it was a grand scene," writes Captain Combs. "We could not suppress a shout; and one of my men, Paxton, has since declared to me, that he then felt as if it would take about a peck of bullets to kill him." Captain Combs had prepared every thing for action, by handing to each man his rifle freshly loaded, and in the mean time, keeping near the middle of the river, which was several hundred yards wide, not knowing from which side they would be first attacked.

He hoped that General Harrison might now and then be taking a look with his spyglass up the river, expecting General Clay, and would see them and send out an escort to bring them in... At first they saw only a solitary Indian in the edge of the woods on the American side, running down the river so as to get in hail of them; and they took him for a friendly Shawanee, of whom they knew General Harrison had several in his service as guides and spies. His steersman himself was for a moment deceived, and exclaimed, in his deep guttural voice, "Shawanee," at the same time turning the bow of the canoe towards him. A moment afterwards, however, when he raised the war-whoop, and they saw the woods full of red devils, running with all their speed to a point on the river below them, so as to cut them off from the fort, or drive them into the mouths of the British cannon, Captain Combs' young warrior exclaimed, "Pottawatomie, God damn!" and instantly turned the boat toward the opposite shore. 

The race between the little water party and the Indians was not long doubtful. The latter had the advantage in distance, and reached the point before the former. Combs still hoped to pass them with little injury, owing to the width of the river and the rapidity of the current, and therefore ordered his men to receive their fire without returning it, as he feared an attack also from the near shore, which would require all their means of resistance to repel. If successful, he should still have time and space enough to recross the river before he got within range of the British batteries, and save his little band from certain destruction. The first gun fired, however, satisfied him of his error, as the ball whistled over the canoe without injury, followed by a volley, which prostrated Johnson, mortally wounded, and also disabled Paxton; not however, before they had all fired at the crowd, and saw several tumbling to the ground. Captain Combs was thus, as a last hope, forced to run his craft ashore, and attempt to make good his way to Fort Meigs on the north side of the river. 

To some extent they succeeded. The two Walkers soon left the party, by the Captain's order, to save themselves; the Indian nobly remained with Paxton, and helped him along for six or seven miles, until he was so exhausted with the loss of blood as to be unable to travel farther. Captain Combs was less fortunate with poor Johnson, who, with all his aid, could barely drag himself half a mile from their place of landing, and both he and Paxton were very soon captured and taken to General Procter's head-quarters. They even reported, as was afterwards learned, that they had killed the Captain, and showed as evidence of the fact his cloth coat, which he had thrown off, putting on in its stead an old hunting-shirt, after he left Johnson, so as to disencumber himself of all surplus weight. 

His woodcraft, learned in the previous campaign, now did him good service as it enabled him to elude his pursuers; and after two days and nights of starvation and suffering, he again met Major Shelby and his other friends, at the mouth of the Auglaize, on the fourth of May, in the morning, after all hope of his return had been given up. The two Walkers were a day ahead of him, and his brave young Indian succeeded in making his way to his native village.

By the time Captain Combs made it to Defiance, a courier from the Fort had also arrived-- Captain William Oliver, who had already made a name for himself by slipping through the Indian lines to deliver a message during the Siege of Fort Wayne (from an anonymous account written by a veteran):

The necessary preparations were made, and at the hour of midnight (a dark & dismal night in Apr. 1813) a young soldier was seen to issue from one of the Gates of Ft. Meigs then closely besieged by a numerous Army of savages,"who environed the Ft. and through whose encampment our young friend had to pass; He moved on with slow, steady, but cautious steps, frequently in his passage through the almost numberless camp fires of his wary foe at the breaking of a stick by his horse tread or any, even the slightest noise, Indian warriors would be seen on every side, springing half up, is listening attentively, to learn from whence the noise had come, Intense indeed must have been the feelings of our friend; thus surrounded by vigilant and deadly foes; He told me, in conversing lately about this interesting moment ""that his horse seemed to feel the responsibility of the situation in which they were placed —and stopped when a twig would crack"soon the Indians would become satisfied & again lie down; when suspicion was lulled he would again proceed - & thus by slow cautious movements this miraculous passage through the Indian encampment was effected, and the dispatches, so important to our Garrison delivered to Genl. Clay, who by the same intrepid messenger, returned an answer to Genl. Harrison; He descended the river in a canoe with muffled oars, accompanied. by Col. David. Trimble of Ky. afterwards, aid to Genl. Harrison, & subsequently a distinguished Member of Congress from Ky. The writer had command of the guard, who were stationed at the center gate of the front line of the Fort and had the pleasure of receiving his friends at a late hour of the night & conducting them to the Genls. headquarters.

Combs was barely recovered from his ordeal when General Clay, having by now arrived with Colonel Boswell's Regiment from the St Mary's River, ordered his troops into 18 flat bottomed boats, to descend through the rapids and land around Fort Meigs. He lay sick in the boat, but when Dudley's Regiment landed on the opposite side of the river, he again took command of the scouts and provided a light infantry screen for the regiment as it captured the British batteries. Subsequently his company was drawn into a fire fight in the woods behind the British batteries by Indians there. Colonel Dudley, unwilling to leave them behind, ordered his disorganized regiment to support them, and was trapped by British and Indian reinforcements in what became known as "Dudley's Massacre". Captain Combs survived the battle, and capture by the British, to return home to Kentucky, where he died in 1881.

Scenes from the Siege of Fort Meigs, April 30 1813

Captain William Sebree's Map of Fort Meigs. Though crude, this is the best contemporary drawing of the fort, showing the traverses, magazines and "bombproof" dugouts made by the men during the siege. "Gratiots Battery" was built between the first and second sieges. Note the box with the dot in the middle situated on the Rear Traverse. This represents a man calling out "shot" or "bomb" to warn the garrison during the bombardment.

On April 28, 1813, a force of British and Canadian soldiers and Native Americans led by General Henry Procter and Tecumseh, respectively, landed on the banks of the Maumee near Fort Meigs and prepared to lay siege to the American camp. According to the history of the war written by Robert B McAfee:

The British had established their main camp about two miles down the river at teh place of their landing; and in the night they had commenced three batteries opposite the fort, on a high bank about 300 yards from the river, the intervening low ground being open and partly covered with water. Two of them were gun batteries with 4 embrasures, and were situated higher up the river than the fort; the other was a bomb battery situated rather below the fort. They had progressed so far in the night that they were now able to work at them in the daylight. A fire however was opened upon them from the fort, which considerably impeded their progress. It was under the directions of Captain Wood, the senior officer of the engineers, Captain Gratiot, being unwell, but able occasionally to take charge of a battery.

The enemy's mode of attack being now thoroughly understood, a plan previously arranged and suggested to the general, to counteract such an attack...was adopted. The whole army was turned out subject to the orders of the engineer...

The main British batteries on top of the river bluff in what is now downtown Maumee, Ohio. 24-pounder, 12-pounder and 5- and 8-inch mortars were emplaced to sweep the American camp.

Over the next two days and nights, the American army raced to build a large traverse, or earthen berm, 12 feet high, 20 feet wide, and 300 yards long to protect the exposed portions of their camp. This was hidden from the British observers by the tents in front of it, so they continued to work on emplacing their heavy cannons and mortars to sweep what they thought was an unprotected camp.


From the Diary of Captain Daniel Cushing, 2nd US Regiment of Artillery:

Thursday, 29th (April 1813)-- This day we are employed in finishing the traverse and making ready for battle, for we have been surrounded by British and Indians for two days. We let loose our cannonade on them yesterday and have kept it up by spells all this day, and shall let loose upon them this evening with an eighteen pounder that is already elevated.

Friday, 30th-- We have been all day employed in traversing through the camp, playing upon their batteries with our eighteen pounders and throwing grape and canister shot at the Indians which are in our rear and on our flanks. We have had one man killed and 6 or 7 wounded by the Indians this day. 

Details from Captain William Sebree's Map of Fort Meigs:

"Procter, Wharburton, and Tecumseh viewing the ground on which to erect their batteries. 3pm 26 April 1813. In two seconds they rode off."

"Col. Wood and Maj. Todd returning from viewing the British fleet under a heavy fire from the Indians."

Levi Johnson, man of enterprise and the War of 1812 on Lake Erie

Another story about the events surrounding the Battle of Lake Erie, this one the story of an enterprising local carpenter named Levi Johnson, who had settled in Cleveland in 1808 (from A History of Cleveland and Its Environs by Elroy McKendree Avery, 1918):

A few days after this battle Levi Johnson and a friend found a large flat boat [probably a batteaux or Schenectady boat, not a river barge] that had been built by General Jessup (Major Thomas Jessup) for the conveyance of troops and had been abandoned. The two men bought a hundred bushels of potatoes and loading them on the flat boat proceeded to the army and navy headquarters at Put-in-Bay, where the potatoes proved a welcome addition to the army fare and brought the partners a handsome profit.* That was the first of Levi Johnson's successful commercial transactions and as much as anything else started him on the road to prosperity. Later he and his companion loaded the flat boat with supplies which were taken to the army at Detroit, and again gave them a large profit. Mr. Johnson entered into a contract with the quartermaster of the Detroit Post to carry a cargo of clothing to the army. It was late in the season and the boat was obstructed by ice, compelling a landing at Huron. Nevertheless the cargo was delivered and those were the initial successes of Capt. Levi Johnson as a contractor and an important figure in the lake transportation business.

 He next proceeded with the construction of a vessel of his own. The keel was laid for a ship of thirty-five tons, named Highland**. Under many difficulties this boat was finally completed and its launching was a big event in the history of Cleveland of that day. The boat was hoisted on wheels, and with much strenuous exertion was finally drawn to the edge of the water by twenty-eight yoke of oxen. This launching occurred on the river at the foot of Superior Street, and an immense crowd, as measured in proportion to the population of Northern Ohio at that time, cheered and applauded the exploit. It was the first boat of any size constructed and launched at Cleveland and marks the beginning of Cleveland's history as a shipping center...

...He made a great success of his first boat, and when it was launched it was requisitioned for army purposes and on it army stores were transported between Buffalo and Detroit. Two loads of soldiers were also taken from Buffalo to the command of Major Camp at Detroit. On the return trip the guns left by Harrison at Maumee (Fort Meigs) were taken to Erie. In this business Mr. Johnson lost $300 as a result of the qaurtermaster absconding. In 1815 he began transporting stores to Malden, making his first trip on March 20th [at that time Fort Malden was still occupied by the United States Army], and when his boat did not stop a shot was fired, the ball passing through the foresail, and after the second shot Mr. Johnson brought his vessel to the shore. The commander of the fort demanded the maiml, but Mr. Johnson declined to give it up and though an attempt was made to detain his vessel he spread sail  and with a favorable wind got away from his pursuers and did not stop until he had delivered the mail safely at the Detroit post office.*** In 1815 Captain Johnson built the schooner Neptune, of sixty-five tons, and after taking it to Buffalo he returned with a cargo of merchandise consigned to Jonathan Williamson. In 1817 this vessel made a trip to Mackinac for the American Fur Company****, and was employed in the fur trade until the fall of 1819. 

In 1824 Captain Johnson and his associates built the first steamer ever constructed at Cleveland. It was known as the Enterprise and was of about 200 tons capacity.

*Not the first time! On June 4, 1813, Captain Daniel Cushing wrote in his diary that "two men arrived from Cleveland with a boat load of potatoes, 150 bushels, sold them all out in a few hours at $2.00 per bushel; they returned this evening."

**According to another source, this was the schooner Pilot. It was built on the site of St. Paul's Church on Euclid Avenue, and Levi Johnson enlisted the aid of 28 pairs of oxen belonging to local farmers to haul his vessel to the water! It's mentioned in a list of  ships built on Lake Erie in 1814--while the war was still on (newspaper clippings found in Maritime History of the Great Lakes).

The following merchant vessels have been built on the south shore of Lake Erie the present season---burthen 35 to 100 tons; viz 
Schooner LADY OF THE LAKE, Hanchett, Cleveland 
      " PILOT, Johnson, Cleveland 
      " EXPERIMENT, Lovejoy, Buffalo 
      " VERMILLION, Austin, Vermillion River 
      " CHAMPION, Scott, Grand River 
      " DILIGENCE, Perry, Erie 
      Buffalo Gazette & Niagara Intelligencer 
      Tuesday, July 19, 1814 [ part of article ] 

***This definitely doesn't sound right, because in March 1815 the United States  and Britain were at peace, and the Americans didn't turn Fort Malden over to the British again until July 1 of that year. Perhaps the answer lies in this account of a run-in that the Brig Union had with British authorities in 1816:

The Hermaphrodite Brig UNION, Jas. Beard, master, left Detroit on the 23rd Ult. and grounded near the head of Gros Island, about 8 miles below Detroit, her own boat being too small, she obtained one from the U.S. Garrison at Gros Island for the purpose of getting her off; which was effected on the morning of the 24th. The wind being ahead she beat down the river nearly abreast of the garrison, to which two men were sent to return the boat -- being in sight of Amherstberg, a boat was seen to leave the latter place at the same time ours left the Brig, and to proceed in the same direction until our boat came near the garrison, she then put about for the UNION, having on board an officer in a Midshipman's uniform and six men, who immediately came on deck. The officer enquired for the master of the Brig, and told him he had come to search his vesseI for deserters. Mr. Beard observed his men were all on deck, except those sent on shore in the boat. The officer then ordered his men into the hold and fore-castle to search. Mr. Beard remonstrated against such unwarrantable proceedings, and forbit it. The officer then replied, that he was ordered to search her peaceably if he could, if not to use force, saying,"your Government allows it, and why should not you?" 
At this time there were two pieces of artillery drawn up on the Canada shore, apparently well manned, and not more than one hundred yards from the UNION. Mr. Beard told the British officer that if he would search the Brig, he must take charge of her; which he did by taking the helm and ordering his men to take in sail and bring her to anchor, which was done. The Brig was then searched, and the officer told Capt. Beard he might resume the command of her. 
On Capt. Beard asking him by what authority he acted, he replied, that his name was Henry Brooks, that he acted under a verbal order from his commanding officer. 
A suitable notice of the above transaction will be forwarded to the head of the proper department at Washington. 
      Buffalo Gazette & Niagara Intelligencer 
      Tuesday, August 6, 1816 

The Union was an odd vessel herself-- being built on Put-in-Bay and finished at Grand River in 1813 or 1814, according to Captain Augustus Walker:

 The brig Union was owned by Jonathan Sidway and commanded by Captain James Beard. As this was the first vessel that I embarked on as a sailor I may be permitted to dwell on some of her peculiarities. She was modeled, built, owned and commanded by a man named Martin, who had been a house carpenter. She was partially built on Put-in-Bay Island, launched and towed to the mouth of Grand River, Ohio, in 1813. It is difficult to give any adequate idea of her construction. Her proportions were unlike those of any other craft then or since on the lakes. She had some good points, one of them her great breadth of beam; that, together with her flat bottom, with but little dead-rise to her floor, enabled her to carry a much larger cargo than other vessels of her tonnage, and when light she could sail safely in all kinds of weather without ballast. The manner of her planking was peculiar. Her garboard-streak followed up the main stem, butting underneath the wales instead of ending against the stem of the ship. Each succeeding streak of plank was gradually tapered or beveled at the forward end, so that the last streak was brought to a wedge-like point terminating some 20 feet from her bows. She was originally schooner-rigged, with two old-fashioned slip-keels. Her lower masts were buttonwood; the bowsprit and jib-boom of the same timber, both made in one spar; her decks were of red cedar and but very little iron was used in her build, she being mostly fastened with wooden trunnels. She was employed at the close of the war by the United States Government as a transport. In 1815 she was sunk in Scajaquada Creek, but was subsequently raised by Stanard & Bidwell and rebuilt into a hermaphrodite brig--removing the slip-keels and substituting a standing one in their stead. By this general overhauling she was made to look much like a sea-going vessel, and when under way, with all her canvas, upper and lower studding sails set to the breeze, her appearance was really quite imposing. In 1816, '17 and '18 she was under the command of Capt. James Beard, the father of the artist, Wm. H. Beard, of this city.

**** Following the War of 1812, the United States barred foreign firms such as the Hudson Bay Company and Northwest Fur Company from trading in its territory, giving John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company a monopoly over the fur trade in American territory.

The Bizarre Afterlife (s) of HMS Detroit

The modern sailing training ship Oliver Hazard Perry, formerly the reconstructed Detroit.

The ship sloop Detroit was the most powerful ship on the Upper Great Lakes when she was launched at the Amherstburg Naval Dockyard in July of 1813, and fitted out on the Detroit river in August. However, from the beginning she had a jinxed life. Built to counter the Americans new 18-gun brigs then being built at Erie, Pennsylvania, she was to mount 20 24-pounder carronades and 4 12-pounder long guns. Because Amherstburg was on the end of a long string of British outposts, some of which were attacked and captured while the Detroit was under construction, getting the vessel fitted out and armed was a major struggle. After her carronades were captured when the capital of Upper Canada, York (modern day Toronto) fell to an American attack, the British had to scrape together a mixed armament of 24-pounders and 12-pounders and other odd long guns, including an 18-pounder on a pivot mount. This still made her a formidable ship but she was captured along with the rest of the British squadron--not before being nearly shot to pieces and losing most of her crew and officers. The damage was so severe that although she was taken into American service as the USS Detroit, the vessel spent the winter of 1813 at Put-in-Bay before being repaired enough, along with her sister Queen Charlotte, to limp back to Erie, Pennsylvania. At the end of the War of 1812 both ships were sunk along with the American brigs to preserve the hulls. If another war with England came, they could be raised and fitted out again.

The Navy sold the submerged hulks off, and in 1836 an Erie merchant raised the Detroit to use as a merchant ship. She again sailed the lakes until 1841, when according to most sources she was bought by a group of Niagara area merchants who planned to send her over the Niagara Falls as a stunt. The vessel grounded somewhere in the rapids above the Falls, and broke up. Probably, there are fittings and timbers scattered through the rapids in the area that belong to the ill-fated Detroit. Ironically, the first HMS Detroit, the US Army Brig Adams captured from the Americans in 1812, then recaptured by Jesse Elliot, ran aground and burned in the Niagara, a few miles upriver of her namesake.

That's not the end of the story, however. In 1998 an Ontario group raised funds to build a steel-hulled replica of the Detroit to be based at Amherstburg, Ontario. They finished the hull, apparently, but after spending 3 million dollars, they had run out of money before they could fit it out and operate it. From 2003 to 2015 the project was stillborn, but at last a group of Rhode Islanders swept in and purchased the hull, had it towed to Oliver Hazard Perry's hometown of Newport, and fitted out as a sail training vessel. In an ironic twist, it was renamed the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry.

"The Ships of War are Coming In." -- To the immense number of vessels navigation Lake Erie, is about to be added a class rendered famous, in former days and the sight of which, engaged in commerce, will be calculated to awaken the patriotic feelings of every American beholder. The vessels composing a part of the glorious fleet of the victor Perry, with a number of the prizes taken from the enemy in the ever memorable battle of the 10th of Sept., 1813, which have since the close of the late war, sunk in this harbor, have lately become the property of Messrs. Miles and Leach of this place, are to be fitted up for Lake trade. The QUEEN CHARLOTTE, (a prize) was raised on Monday last. Her timbers were found to be perfectly sound. She is to be repaired and rigged for a brig this season. The LAWRENCE, (American) and the DETROIT (prize) are to be raised immediately -- the former intended to be converted to a steam boat. ---- Erie Observer 

      Cleveland Weekly Advertiser 

      Thursday, January 20, 1835; 3; 1. 

      PERRY'S FLEET. - Two more of the vessels engaged in the ever memorable action of the 10th. Sept. 1813----the LAWRENCE and the DETROIT---have been raised from their watery bed in this harbor, for the purpose of being brought again into action, not for the destruction of human life as formerly but to be used in the more peaceful and profitable pursuits of commerce. The timbers, like those of the QUEEN CHARLOTTE are found to be perfectly sound, and there is no doubt they will richly reward their present proprietors for their enterprise in bringing them once more to the surface of that water on which they were once so distinguished, and placing them again in a state for public usefulness. 

      The LAWRENCE, which was the flag ship of Commodore Perry, was raised during the firing of a national salute, on the 10th. inst. the anniversary of the action in which her commander was so successfully victorious, just twenty-two years before. - Erie Observer 

      Buffalo Daily Star 

      Thursday, September 17, 1835 

The ship DETROIT, flagship of the British squadron on Lake Erie in 1813, has arrived at Detroit. She was raised by the exertions of Capt. Miles from the basin at Erie, where she has lain sunk since 1814. Her timbers, decks, &c., are perfectly sound. About twenty 32 pound balls were taken from her timbers, during the repairs, and a great number of smaller, from twelves to grape shot. Some are yet remaining in her wales. She is 260 tons burthen, has a gentleman's cabin with 16 berths, ladies' cabin, 8 berths, steerage, 18 berths, and 3 state rooms, sufficient each to accommodate a family. 

      Cleveland Weekly Advertiser 

      Thursday, August 25, 1836 

The British Barge DETROIT - This vessel which was sunk during the last war at Erie, and raised by Capt. Miles, is now lying at the wharf in this city. Very little alteration has been made, her hull, cabins, &c., remain as they were. There is still to be seen on board of this vessel, an eighteen-pound ball, lodged in her starboard side, just under the deck and opposite the foremast, which attracts a good deal of attention. - Cleveland Adv. 

      Detroit Democratic Free Press 

      June 28, 1837 

The barque DETROIT, once a British vessel of war, is now in port. She belonged to the fleet captured by the brave Perry, and was sunk for preservation many years ago, at Presque Isle. She was raised last season and has been fitted up for the trade of the uper (sic) lakes. - Buf. Star. 

      Detroit Democratic Free Press July 13, 1837 

1813: Harrison and Perry's amphibious landing in Canada

A painting of the Battle of Lake Erie done in consultation with Perry shortly after the war--supposedly the vessels are as close as we can get to the appearance of the actual fleet.

One of the most overlooked aspects of "the forgotten" War of 1812 is the experience the American forces gained in landing troops on hostile shores. Few people today realize that the Lake Erie shoreline was, over 200 years ago, the scene of a massive effort to transport men and cannons and conduct a "D-Day" style landing against what the Americans thought would be a defended beachhead. Moreover, throughout the summer of 1813 they had been preparing for these operations by building boats in a yard far, far up the Cuyahoga Valley--in a spot where few people would expect to find a naval installation today; Peninsula, Ohio near Akron. Large, flat bottomed open boats termed Schenectady boats were built, sent down the Cuyahoga River to Cleveland, where the commandant of the area, Major Thomas Jessup, sank them in the river to prevent them from being destroyed or captured by British forces. After the Battle of Lake Erie they were used to transport troops from Cleveland, the Sandusky River, and other points to Marblehead, where the army was ferried in parts to the Lake Erie Islands. Samuel R Brown's account provides a valuable picture of the amphibious operations of General William Henry Harrison's campaign:

...At the same time (as Perry's victory on Lake Erie) the general began to concentrate his forces at the mouth of the Portage River (modern day Port Clinton, Ohio). The greatest activity was visible in camp; in preparing for the descent on Canada--boats were collected--beef jerked--the superfluous baggage secured in block houses and a substantial log fence two miles long, extending from Portage River to Sandusky Bay, was built to secure the horses during the operations of the army.

On the 17th (Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky) with 4000 volunteers, arrived at headquarters. This formidable corps were all mounted; but it was deemed best for them to act as infantry, and leave their horses on the peninsula.  On the 20th (Brigadier General Duncan McArthur)'s brigade, from Fort Meigs, joined the main body, after a very fatiguing march of three days down the lake coast.

Colonel (Richard Johnson)'s mounted regiment remained at Fort Meigs, but had orders to approach Detroit by land and to advance pari passu (side by side) with the commander in chief, who was to move in boats through the islands, to Malden, and of whose progress, the colonel was to be daily informed by a special express.

Everything being now ready, the embarkation of the troops commenced at the dawn of day, on the 21st (of September). For the want of a sufficient number of boats, not more than one third of the army could embark at once.

There is a range of islands extending from the head of the Peninsula, to Malden. These islands render the navigation safe, and afford the army convenient depots for baggage and stores, as well as halting places. (The number of horses left on the Marblehead Peninsula, during the absence of the army in Canada, was upwards of five thousand! For the most part, of the first size and condition.)

Put-in-Bay Island, sixteen miles from Portage, was selected by the general as the first point of rendezvous--the first stage in his passage across the lake. The weather was favorable. As soon as the first division of boats reached the island, men were immediately detached to take back the boats for a fresh load. Such was the eagerness of the men to accelerate the embarkation of the whole army, that they, in most cases, anticipated this regulation by volunteering their services to return with the boats. Every one courted fatigue.

The fleet of commodore Perry, was busily engaged in transporting the baggage of the army. In the course of the 22nd the whole army had gained the island, and encamped on the margin of the bay, which forms nearly a semi circle... 

 ...The army was detained at Put-in-Bay during the 23rd and 24th (of September) by unfavorable winds. On the 24th, a soldier of the regular forces was shot for desertion. He had deserted three times--had been twice before condemned to suffer death, and as often pardoned; he met his fate with stoical indifference, but it made a very sensible impression on the troops. Two platoons fired on him, at a distance of five paces, and perforated his body like a sieve. 

(It is worthy of remark that but two soldiers were shot in the northwestern army; and so unfrequent was desertion, that from the time I joined it, till its departure from Fort George, not a solitary instance occurred; at least none came to my knowledge, although I made frequent inquiries as to the fact. I am not willing to attribute this extraordinary fidelity to the public service, to the superior patriotism of the people of the west, or a nice sense of the force of moral obligations. The cause is evident--the officers are generally, more attentive to their men, than those of the northern army.)

A typical bateau used as a transport on the upper great lakes. The bateaux, Schenectady boat, or Mackinac boat all seem to have been similar designs that were used extensively on the lake for travel and trade.

On the 25th the army again embarked partly in boats and partly on board the fleet, to take a nearer position to the Canadian shore. The flotilla arrived a little before sunset, at a small island called the Eastern Sister, eighteen miles from Malden and seven from the coast. This island does not contain more than three acres, and the men had scarcely room to sit down.

On the 26th the wind blew fresh, it became necessary to haul up the boats, to prevent their staving. The general and commodore in the (US Schooner) Ariel, made a reconnaissance  of the enemy's coast and approached within a short distance of Malden. Captain Johnny was dispatched to apprize Col. Johnson of our progress. (Brigadier General Lewis Cass, Colonel James V. Ball, and Captain John McClelland) were busy in arranging and numbering the boats. At sun set the lake had risen several feet; indeed, such was the violence of the surf that many entertained the serious fears that the greater part of the island would be inundated before morning. However, the wind subsided at twelve and relieved our apprehensions.

On the 27th at nine in the morning the army made its final embarkation. The day was fine, and a propitiious breeze made our passage a most pleasing pastime. It was a sublime and delightful spectacle to behold 16 ships of war and 100 boats filled with men, borne rapidly and majestically to the long sought shores of the enemy. The recollection of this day can never be effaced from my memory. There was something truly grand and animating in the looks of the men. There was an air of confidence in every countenance. The troops panted for an oppertunity to rival their naval brethren in feats of courage and skill; they seemed to envy the good fortune of our brave tars. They were ignorant of the flight of the enemy, and confidently expected a fight; indeed the belief was current among the troops that the enemy were in great force; for it was believed that Dixon's (Robert Dickson, an Indian Department agent who had brought 1400 western Indians to the second siege of Fort Meigs earlier in the year)  Indians as well as Tecumseh's were at Malden.

An early survey of the mouth of the Detroit River, showing the site of the landing and nearby Amherstburg and Fort Malden. 

We landed in perfect order of battle at 4 PM three miles below Malden. The Kentucky volunteers formed the right wing. Ball's legion and the friendly Indians the centre--the regulars on the left. The troops were almost instantly in line and shortly commenced their march, en echelons, for Malden. The troops had been drilled to marching in and out of boats and to forming on the beach. Every man knew his place; and so well were they masters of this very necessary piece of service, that a company would march into a boat, debark and form on the beach in less than one minute, and that too without the least confusion. (This proficiency is applicable only to the regulars and twelve-months volunteers. The militia officers did not attend to it.)

[Read the plan for the amphibious landing in General Harrison's orders here.] 

As we approached Malden, instead of the red coats and the war whoop of the Indians, a group of well dressed ladies advanced to meet us, and to implore mercy and protection. They were met by governor Shelby, who soon quieted their fears by assuring them that we came not to make war on women and children but to protect them.

The army entered Malden by several parallel streets and we marched through the town to the thunder of "Yankee Doodle."

Next: The re-occupation of Detroit and the pursuit of Tecumseh and General Henry Procter to the village of Moraviantown.

Samuel R Brown's Eyewitness Account of the Lake Erie- Thames Campaign 1813

Here are some eyewitness accounts of the aftermath of the Battle of Lake Erie by Samuel R Brown, who at the time was a private in Captain James McClelland's Company of Volunteer Light Dragoons, attached to Major James V Ball's Squadron. When the army of General William Henry Harrison embarked on boats and the fleet of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, they had to leave their mounts behind on the Marblehead Peninsula of Sandusky Bay, and serve as a light infantry corps for the remainder of the campaign. These excerpts are taken from two of Brown's published works: Views of the Campaigns of the Northwest Army, and Views on Lake Erie, both printed in 1814.

The writer of this account, in company with five others, arrived at the head of Put in Bay island on the evening of the 9th, and had a view of the action at the distance of only ten miles. The spectacle was truly grand and awful. The firing was incessant for the space of three hours, and continued at short intervals forty-five minutes longer. In less than one hour after the battle began, most of the vessels of both fleets were enveloped in a cloud of smoke, which rendered the issue of the action uncertain, till the next morning when we visited the fleet in the harbor on the opposite side of the island. The reader will easily judge of our solicitude to learn the result. There is no sentiment more painful than suspense, when it is excited by the uncertain issue of an event like this. 

 ...In the course of the 22nd the whole army had gained the island, and encamped on the margin of the bay, which forms nearly a semi circle. The Lawrence, and the six prize ships, captured from the enemy, were at anchor in the centre of the bay, and in full view. With what ineffable delight did we contemplate this interesting spectacle! The curiosity of the troops was amply indulged; every one was permitted to go on board the prizes to view the effects of the battle. The men were highly pleased with this indulgence of the general and the commodore. The scene was calculated to inflame their military ardor, which was visible in every countenance...

The carnage on board the prizes was prodigious--they must have had 200 killed besides wounded. The sides of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte were shattered from bow to stern; there was scarcely room to place one's hand on their larboard sides without touching the impression of a shot--a great many balls, canister and grape, were found lodged in their bulwarks, which were too thick to be penetrated by our carronades. Their masts were so much shattered that they fell overboard soon after they got into the bay...

(As for the Lawrence) her sides were completely riddled by the shot from the long guns of the British ships. Her deck, the morning after the conflict, when I first went on board, exhibited a scene that defies description--for it was literally covered with blood, which still adhered to the plank in clots--brains, hair and fragments of bones were still sticking to the rigging and sides. The surgeons were still busy with the wounded--enough! horror appalled my senses.

On board of the Detroit, twenty-four hours after her surrender, were found snugly stowed away in the hold, two Indian Chiefs, who had the courage to go on board at Malden, for the purpose of acting as sharp shooters to kill our officers. One had the courage to ascend into the round top and discharged his piece, but the whizzing of shot, splinters, and bits of rigging, soon made the place too warm for him--he descended faster than he went up; at the moment he reached the deck, the fragments of a seaman's head stuck his comrade's face, and covered it with blood and brains. He vociferated the savage interjection "quoh!" and both sought safety below.

The British officers had domesticated a bear at Malden. Bruin accompanied his comrades to battle--was on the deck of the Detroit during the engagement, and escaped unhurt. 

Next up: Brown's account of the  amphibious operations which landed Harrison's Army on the Canadian shores near Fort Malden.

 

Agent "Constant Bacon"

In early 1814, the British forces, having narrowly seen off invading American armies from the Fort George area and along the St. Lawrence River, anxiously awaited a renewed attack as the Americans came out of winter quarters in the spring. A crucial piece of intelligence fell into their lap when an American sutler, or merchant licensed to sell goods such as liquor to US troops, defected to the British headquarters at York (present day Toronto, Ontario). He outlined the American troop deployments, caches of supplies, and plans to attack the Canadian side of the Niagara River. His motive? He had borrowed money to buy whiskey to sell to the troops, but some soldiers had robbed the whiskey, leaving him still owing the money. "Constant Bacon" is pretty obviously a code name: maybe the British gave him some money to pay his creditors and sent him back over the river to act as a secret agent...

From E. A. Cruikshank, The Documentary History of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier, 1896.

Fulton's Submarine, Mute

In the past I have written about various surprising technologies that were developed and sometimes employed as early as the War of 1812, which was otherwise a conflict that revolved around weapons such as cannon and flintlock muskets that had been in use and relatively unchanged since the era of Marlborough at the beginning of the 18th Century. 

One of my major dislikes is Steampunk and its adherents, because in trying to combine make-believe clockwork technology in Victorian era fashion they ignore the truly amazing accomplishments and inventions that were actually in existence, not only during the Age of Steam but during the Georgian period! The submarine is one of these inventions. The famous American Turtle is usually ascribed to a Revolutionary War exploit, but a copy was made in 1813 and actually made an attempt against a British 74-gun warship. Robert Fulton himself devised a strange craft he called the Mute because it had a "silent" drive system, but very little information can be found on it. Presumably it was broken up when he died in 1814 but maybe it lies in the mud off the old Brooklyn Navy Yard or the Brown Brothers shipyard, waiting to be uncovered. Submarine warfare would wait another century and the development of diesel electric propulsion, not to mention screw propellers, to truly come into its own.

This excerpt from Submarine Warfare, Past and Present (published in 1907!) by Herbert C. Fyfe contains about as good a description of the submarines of 1812 as I've found:

James Bentley, a British veteran who fought for the US in the War of 1812

From Find-A-Grave
I was poking around local and genealogical websites looking for clues as to whether Lt. John Anderson of the 19th Infantry in 1812 was related in some way to Colonel John Anderson of the 2nd Michigan Regiment of Militia. Since Lt. Anderson, a West Point graduate whom I featured in my last "people of 1812" post, had settled in the Detroit area before being called back to the flag, I thought it possible he might be the son or nephew of the other Anderson. Such family connections were not uncommon during the war, and formed an important social tapestry underlying many events.

At any rate, I found this entry for a Monroe County veteran, Private James Bentley very interesting. Seems Bentley was a British deserter from the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, who found himself caught up once again in the tides of war in 1812. He is listed as a Private in Captain Richard Smyth's Company of Cavalry, Legionary Corps of Michigan. Part of this unit, under Cornet Isaac Lee, was stationed in Frenchtown (Monroe) Michigan and fled south to Urbana, Ohio instead of surrendering. The distinction between the Legionary Corps and the Militia is important. The Corps was made up of volunteers, and Bentley may well have armed and equipped himself as a cavalryman for the war with Britain out of his own funds.

(From "Veterans Buried in Monroe County" Monroe Evening News, Saturday, April 17, 1951 [contributed to Genealogy Trails by Don King]
 http://habitantheritage.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/War_of_1812_for_website.1642653.pdf accessed 2/7/2017)

James Bentley . Born Nov. 5, 1784 in England, he died Aug. 13, 1864. He married Amanda Barker, born Dec. 12, 1800, on Jan. 31, 1816. She died Apr. 18, 1889, in Monroe. They are buried in St. Paul's Cemetery in Monroetown. Mr. Bentley served as a non-commissioned officer under Gen. James Winchester and his wife was a witness to the war. As a British soldier at the ill-famed Battle of Copenhagen, Mr. Bentley deserted, as did many of his comrades, and in 1803 came to the River Raisin. He joined the militia company here of Capt. Issac Lee. After Winchester was defeated here, Bentley and 16 others from Frenchtown joined Gen. W.H. Harrison's force at Maumee and fought in the two sieges of Ft. Meigs. He frequently ran the gauntlet of British and Indian fire to bring water from the river. Harrison sent him to carry messages from the besieged fort to other posts. After the war he carried the mail from Maumee to Detroit, on horseback or, in wet weather, by canoe. With James Knaggs and Medard Labadie, both of Frenchtown, he was in the Battle of the Thames and all three witnessed the death of Tecumseh at the hands of Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. His wife came to Frenchtown with her stepfather, H. Brooks, and Stephen Downing in 1815. The Bentley and Downing farms adjoined.

Here is the roll of Cornet Lee's troopers. They would have been attached to Major James V. Ball's Squadron of Light Dragoons and fought in most of the engagements and skirmishes of the 1813 campaign in the Northwest.
(From Diane Wolford Sheppard "Michigan Militia Members Serving in the War of 1812 – Part 2" in Michigan’s Habitant Heritage, Vol. 34, #2, April 2013, http://habitantheritage.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Michigan_Militia_-_part_2_-_final.143190925.pdf accessed 2/7/2017)

Detachment of Richard Smith’s Cavalry Troops attached to The Legionary Corps of Michigan Militia commanded by Isaac Lee, p. 62 [This detachment was stationed at River Raisin and fled to Urbana, Ohio, after Hull surrendered Detroit. They participated in the fall expeditions against the Native-American villages in Indiana Territory]
 Isaac Lee, Cornet, 1 May 1812
John Ruland, Corporal, 1 May 1812
James Bently, Private, 1 May 1812 
Scott Robb, Private, 1 May 1812
James Robb, Private, 1 May 1812
Robert Glays, Private, 1 May 1812
Saml Dibble, Private, 1 May 1812
William Hunter, Private, 1 May 1812
John Murphy, Private, 1 May 1812
Michael McDarmid, Private, 1 May 1812
Louis Hunter, Private, 1 May 1812
Samuel Young, Private, 1 May 1812
 Francis Moffett, Private, 1 May 1812
Silas Leviton? Private, 1 May 1812
Orin Roades, Private, 1 May 1812
James Knaggs, Private, 1 May 1812
Louis Drouillard, Private, 1 May 1812 

Lieutenant Hezekiah Johnson, freight officer at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, though a hundred miles or so from the front lines and never directly threatened during the War of 1812, was vital to the war effort. Simply put, it was the "hub" from which supplies and most manufactured goods moved over the mountains separating the United States east coast from the interior of the continent were transshipped from horse-drawn Conestoga wagons and put onto boats to descend the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Most of these boats would have been the versatile and ubiquitous keel boats of Mike Fink fame. Fink himself was active on the Ohio and Miami Rivers about this time.


Fort Fayette in 1795 can be seen at the top right corner of this map of Pittsburgh. Fort Pitt is the large star shaped fort at the point, and the ruins of French Fort Duquesne lie at the very end of the point.

When the War of 1812 began, a torrent of supplies and equipment and even ordnance began moving through Pittsburgh. The iron industry was already in its infancy there, and was given a boost by military contracts for cannonballs and eventually the iron fittings for the squadron building at Erie, PA. The small Army post at Fort Fayette, about a mile from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which had replaced the old British Fort Pitt in 1792, became a center of bustling activity. The responsibility for making sure the supplies got to where they were needed devolved upon a junior officer of the 1st Regiment of Infantry, Hezekiah Johnson. Lt. Johnson seems to have been at odds with both General William Henry Harrison, who depended on him for supplies, and the teamsters who contracted to move the heavy army shipments. He also had to work with Major Amos Stoddard, who was the officer in charge of preparing ordnance and ammunition for the Northwestern Army to replace that lost at Detroit in August 1812. New Orleans and St. Louis were also supplied from this point. Because everything issued to the army in the west and south passed through this point, the surviving records (many of them penned by Lt. Johnson himself) offer a good picture of what kinds of equipment and clothing would have actually been available to the soldiers of 1812.

Fort Fayette was replaced by the Allegheny Arsenal in 1814, which continued to be an active US Army post through the Spanish American War.

Hull's Trace on the 1817 Topographical Engineer Map

This weekend I was able to check out the very long (about 12 feet in two 6-foot sections) survey map of the military road from the Miami Rapids (the present day crossing of the Maumee River between Perrysburg and Maumee) to Detroit. The map itself ends at Spring Wells, the point just south of Detroit where General Isaac Brock landed his troops to capture the town in August 1812. There is a detailed map of the Battle of Maguaga and the nearby Indian village. The 1817 Military Road is significant because it was part of a large Federal public works project (one of the first ever), meant to improve land lines of communication between the remote outposts of the United States Army and its bases of supply, which were so easily jeopardized by British forces during the late war. It's very interesting to note that the contours of the land have changed very little in 200 years, especially along the Maumee Rapids and at the section of corduroy road at the Huron River south of Detroit. While I was not able to visit the site of the corduroy road this time, I hope to go there soon and check on the state of preservation. The timbers of the original road have now been exposed for about 17 years since a decline in water levels in 2000.


Why did Colonel John Anderson, the survey engineer (and very senior Topographical Engineer, include this battle as the only sketched out historical note on the map? Perhaps he was a participant. In August 1812 he was a 1st Lieutenant in the 19th Regiment of Infantry. The 19th was not present for William Hull's campaign on the Detroit River, but perhaps he was detached, since his service record indicates he resigned the service in 1811 at the Michigan Territory... More research, as always, is warranted.


Map of the Battle of Maguagon


The corduroy road crossing at the Huron River as it existed in 1817.


Frenchtown as it was in 1817.


The crossing of the Maumee River.

River Raisin Reenactment in Monroe, Michigan

Once again this year I was able to attend the annual reenactment of the Battle of the River Raisin in Monroe Michigan. It's a unique event for us 1812 reenactors, since it occurs well off the normal season of the hobby and is staged on private land next door to the battlefield National Park (because of the NPS rules against opposing line tactical demonstrations). The reenactors sign in at a hockey rink, and then stage from the rink's parking lot for a brief battle in an empty lot next door, then march to a memorial program at the National Park Service visitor center a block away. It's a small event but I'm proud to be able to honor the men who fought there in this small way.

This year I was part of the British artillery crews. Since the Americans at the historical battle had no artillery with them, when we take our cannon the American artillery switches sides for the event. British Royal Artillery wore a blue coat with red facings and yellow tape, same as the Americans, so we actually look correct from a distance.

Afterwards there was a program given by the NPS ranger from Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial at South Bass Island, covering the naval campaign of 1813 on Lake Erie and the Battle of September 10, 1813. Even I learned new things.



The Monroe County Museum occupies an old post office downtown. I was interested to find a collection of old maps of the area on display, particularly an 1817 engineers survey of the military road between the Maumee River and Spring Wells. You can still visit a section of the corduroy road, as I did a few years ago.








For more information on the Monroe County Museum, check out their website: http://www.co.monroe.mi.us/officials_and_departments/departments/museum/index.php

A French Artillery Officer with the Northwestern Army, 1813

On April 22, 1852 the Nashville, Tennessee Union and American reported that:

On Thursday night about 1 o'clock a fire broke out in the house of J. Longette, on Market street, , near Broad. The upper portion of the house, occupied by the family, was consumed the first story, -occupied as a barroom, partially escaped. The most distressing feature of the calamity was the death of three persons, an old man, named Charles Madiss, and two children of J. Longette, one about ten and the other six years old. They were suffocated before assistance could be rendered them. Mr. Madiss, we understand, was a native of France, "and came to this country in 1800. He fought in the war of 1812, and was, we are told, at the memorable battle of New Orleans. He was about sixty years old. 

Charles Madiss was appointed Conductor of Artillery, a staff ordnance officer equivalent to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, in the Northwest Army under William Henry Harrison on November  He was "an officer of the navy in his native country," "distinguished for his great zeal in our cause, and for his knowledge of all the duties of the artillery service." (Robert B. McAfee, History of the Late War in the Western Country, 248-49).

Harrison selected him for a expedition that was to cross the frozen Lake Erie in February 1813 and burn the British ships laid up for the winter at Amherstburg. Although the expedition turned back at the Lake Erie islands when they found open water in their path, according to Robert B. McAfee  no "more proper person (could) have been selected for firing the vessels than Mr. Madiss, from his intimate acquaintance with every thing relating to them, and his acknowledged bravery which he had displayed in the campaign of general Hull."

It is unknown when he left the NW Army, or for that matter whether he indeed served as interpreter for General Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, as his grave site long suggested.

A Fearful Tornado: weathering an 1814 tornado in a Man-of-War

In Ohio, spring is tornado season. Actually, with the warmer winter weather this year we've already been visited by tornados in this state. In 1814, the British blockading and raiding along the shoreline of the Chesapeake were struck by several. Although Royal Navy officers were used to all kinds of heavy weather, they were apparently not prepared for these powerful storms. The memoirs of Vice Admiral William Stanhope Lovell, who in 1814 was captain of the frigate HMS Brune, record lots of close shaves with bad weather, but none so powerful as a tornado that passed his ship that summer.

Towards the middle of July and the month of August some parts of this coast are subject to tornadoes. We had one of them on the 25th of July, which obliged us, although lying at anchor in a river, to let go a second. The previous day and that morning had been extremely close and sultry. The storm came on from the north-west, with the greatest violence, accompanied by a few claps of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning: such was its force that, although in smooth water, the ship heeled so much over that the main-deck guns nearly touched the water; and a fine schooner of seventy tons burthen, tender to the Severn, with a long 18-pounder on board, at anchor near us, without topmasts, her sails furled and gaffs on deck, was turned bottom upwards in a moment, and one poor fellow drowned. 

Its fury was spent in about ten minutes, but during its continuance we saw immense trees torn up by the roots, barns blown down like card houses of children, and where the strength of the current of wind passed scarcely anything could withstand its violence. Trees and other things continued to be swept by us for sometime, and when the tornado was over we observed, at a turn of the river, so much large timber, lumber, and other articles floating down the tide that my gallant senior officer, Captain Nourse...thought at first it was the American flotilla coming to attack us...

Captain Charles Napier of HMS Euryalus did not believe Captain Lovell until he too was hit by a tornado during the attack on Washington, D.C.:

Charley would not believe that the force of wind could upset a schooner of seventy tons, lying at anchor with all her sails furled... however... he had an opportunity of judging for himself when (part of the tornado passing across the bows of his frigate) he saw in a moment both his bowsprit and fore-topmast broken in two, like twigs.

 --from William Stanhope Lovell, Personal Narrative of Events From 1799 to 1815. (2nd Ed.) London: William Allen and Co., 1879. Pp. 153-155.

A trophy of the Battle of Lake Erie... The lost Cleveland cannon

A while ago I noticed that there was a park near the site of Fort Huntington in Cleveland (which is to say, downtown near the river) that sports a statue of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Once upon a time, one of the cannon that the British took from Fort Amherstburg and mounted on the HMS Detroit also stood on the square, as seen in photos from the 1870s




However, there is only a 30-pounder Parrott naval gun dating from the Civil War period (and mislabeled as a War of 1812 cannon!) sitting at the park now. What happened to the original gun, a priceless trophy of the most decisive naval battle of the War of 1812?



One Internet tip leads me to believe it ended up at the Maritime Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania, the home of the Brig Niagara. There were more guns captured at the battle and scattered at different points throughout the Midwest. Detroit has one or two at their maritime museum. Perhaps your local  town square, city hall or county courthouse is distinguished by such a cannon, its origins long forgotten?