"This day no less than seven of our brave soldiers was buried": In the Garrison at Detroit, 1813.

From the Diary of Captain Stanton Sholes, 2nd Regiment of Artillery: 1813--

Sunday Decr. 12th Commenced with a clear and a cold morning, and so continued through the day, this morning I reced a note from the General (Brig. General Lewis Cass) to this affect-- Capt. Sholes you will give orders to the sentry at the (fort?), to take into custody any soldier bringing into the fort any poles or rails. If they bring anything except wood really cut for them, they must be apprehended & shall be punished. L. Cass. 

This day agreeable to the General's order, the whole of the troops that was of duty & well attended church. At eleven o'clock, at the brick store where we had a very excellent discourse delivered, we then marched off in good orders to their several quarters. --So ends this day--

Monday Decr. 13th Commences with a fine cold morning-- Died this morning of a long and lingering complaint Leut. Col. Robert Morrison of the 27th Regt. Infantry-- In this noble young officer his country has lost, one who was possessed of the most amiable qualities that this country can boast of. He was brave, cool and deliberate, he was kind and humane, his attachment to his country and its cause is seldom exceeded. This evening the General gave orders for Nichols from Westminister, a suspicious person from the British, to be put in confinement which was accordingly done--So ends this day. 

Tuesday December 14th Commences with a fine and pleasant morning, this day Col. Robert Morrison of the 27th Infantry was interred. At two o'clock the corpse was moved on to the place of depot (deposit), with the honors of war, when the President McLensey delivered a very handsome speech to the army on this solemn occasion. This day no less than seven of our brave soldiers was buried. --So ends this day.

(Editor's note: I will come back and link all the named persons to their own pages on my blog, recapitulating what I can find out about them on a searchable webpage.)

 

 

Diary of Captain Stanton Sholes part 3

The HMS Queen Charlotte, which later served in the US Navy.

2nd Regiment of Artillery Captain Sholes’ diary from the summer of 1813 described his service at the village of Cleveland Ohio. As the hospital, gun batteries, and boats for amphibious operations were built on the Cuyahoga, the monotony was broken when British ships threatened the base (I’ve broken up the dated entries for clarity):

On the 7th of June the Queen Charlotte & Lady (Prevost) hove in sight about 9 o’clock and continued in sight till about six in the afternoon, when they hove away to the eastward.
Nothing material happened from this time till the 5th of July this day we was favored with the presence of General Harrison & several other officers who arrived about ten o’clock a.m. when a salute of fifteen guns was fired from a six pounder. General Harrison soon after visited the camp, and gave orders to Captain Wood of the Engineers, to lay out and build a fort for the protection of the public stores at this place. Which was soon commenced by Capt Wood, and by the tenth of August it was in a tolerable state of defense.
On the (illegible: probably a date) Col. Ball for the Light Dragoons arrived at this place, with about one hundred and fifty of his squadron.
July 14th this day General Harrison set out for Lower Sandusky & several other officers, aides to the General, nothing of consequence took place from the departure of the General till the twentieth when Col. Ball received an order from General Harrison to repair immediately with his force to Lower Sandusky, and informing him that Fort Meigs was besieged by the British and Indians. By 9 o’clock his whole force was under way.

Captain Sholes Diary continued

Wherein Captain Stanton Sholes of the 2nd US Regiment of Artillery builds the first hospital in Cleveland… without using a nail or a sawed board.

Thomas Sidney Jesup (1788-1860) was a Major in the 19th Infantry when he commanded American forces at Cleveland. He served at Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, and after the war held the position of Quartermaster General from 1818 until his death at age 72.

On the 12th [May 1813] two day before my receiving my orders I was joined by Lieut. Lewis Morgan of the 2nd R U.S. A. [2nd U.S. Regiment of Rifles, United States Army] with 18 soldiers. On the 15th I took up the line of march from Beaver Town to Cleaveland with between sixty and seventy in my company. The weather being fine, although the roads was bad we arived to our place of distenation on the 22d. of May. At this place I found Governor Meigs & several other officers, and about one hundred of the Ohio Militia. After making some arrangements for the defence of that place the governor set out for the interior of the state, leaving orders with me to commence fortifying that place to the best advantage in my power. But soon after Major Thomas S. Jesup was appointed to the command of that place. The first object in view was a hospital for the sick. I soon received orders from Major Jesup to commence building one as soon as posible. On the 10th of June we commenced building, and in the course of two weeks, had a hospital (nearly forty feet by fifteen) completely finished for the reception of the sick, in a neat stile with out a sawed bord. or a nail. So that the whole expence of this building to the United States was about sixty gills of whiskey. In the mean time we had dayly detached on fatigue, one third of our troops for the building a breast work to prevent the enemy landing, if they should attempt it.

The Diary of Captain Stanton Sholes

Last December I posted an entry from the diary of Captain Stanton Sholes, an officer of the 2nd US Regiment of Artillery during the War of 1812 (one of two regular artillery companies attached to the Northwest Army—if you discount Samuel Price’s Co, US Light Artillery, who fought as infantry). Sholes (1772-1865) missed most of the action during the war. He raised his company early in 1813 (recruiting took most of the preceding campaign season) and marched to Cleveland. After participating in the September 1813 invasion of western Canada, he was stationed in Detroit for the remainder of the war.
The original diary is probably somewhere in the archives of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, though I have yet to discover it in any catalog. The transcription that I have was typed by Richard C. Knopf in 1956 and published by the Ohio Historical Society—but the OHS itself no longer has a copy. The only extant copy of the transcription seems to be at the Wayne Co. Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My version is re-transcribed from a copy of this copy(!).
I’m not sure about copyright issues, but I firmly believe that documents like this belong in the public domain, where people can read them and the memory of men like Stanton Sholes can live on.
Captain Sholes later moved to Columbus, Ohio and became a prominent merchant. His house stood on Rich Street not far from where the Columbus Commons lies today.
I’ll try to post excerpts from the journal in order, in whatever length seems to work for the blog. I have corrected capitalization but retained punctuation and spelling.

Sholes’ gravesite in Greenlawn Cemetery, Columbus Ohio.

A journal kept by Capt. Stanton Sholes of the 2d. Regt U States Artillery. Commenced on the 18th July 1812. The day that I compted my appointment. All tho I was not calld. into service till the 15th of Sept. following when I received orders from Col. George Izard of the 2d Regt of Artillery to repare to Philedelphia for instruction. On the 17th I set out in obediance to his orders, and on the 26th arived to the place of distenation. When I reported my self to Col. Izard who soon informed me, that I should shortly be furnished with money for the recruiting service and that I should have my chois to recruit in any of the countys west of the mountain, accordingly I was furnished with money, and on the 6th of October following set out for home in the Pittsburgh stage, and arived there on the fifteenth. After a few day I opened a randzevouse at Beaver Penna. and Georgetown, but on the account of several officers having been at the same place arecruiting for several months before I made but slow progress. Until the middle of February 1813. At that time I opend. another recruiting rendevous at Greensburg and by the first of May I had enlisted fifty four soldiers into the service of the United States. My success was in a grate measure was owing to the aid I received from the citizens of that county as well as the encouragement given by the general government. On the 14th of May I received orders from Col. Hugh Brady commanding the Western District of Penna. to march immediately to Cleaveland Ohio.

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.