Pierre Berton's War of 1812 (2 page)

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that word, honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it: honour is a mere scutcheon: and so ends my catechism.

FALSTAFF
in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV, Part 1
,
ACT
5,
SC
. 1

The Invasion of Canada
copyright © 1980 by Pierre Berton Enterprises Ltd.
Flames Across the Border
copyright © 1981 by Pierre Berton Enterprises Ltd. Anchor Canada omnibus edition 2011

This edition contains the complete texts of the original works.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

Anchor Canada and colophon are trademarks.

LIBRARY OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
is available upon request

eISBN: 978-0-385-67650-2

Published in Canada by Anchor Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited

Visit Random House of Canada Limited’s website:
www.randomhouse.ca

v3.1

ALSO BY PIERRE BERTON

The Royal Family

The Mysterious North Klondike

Just Add Water and Stir

Adventures of a Columnist

Fast Fast Fast Relief

The Big Sell

The Comfortable Pew

The Cool, Crazy, Committed World of the Sixties

The Smug Minority

The National Dream

The Last Spike

Drifting Home

Hollywood’s Canada

My Country

The Dionne Years

The Wild Frontier

The Invasion of Canada

Flames Across the Border

Why We Act Like Canadians

The Promised Land

Vimy

Starting Out

The Arctic Grail

The Great Depression

Niagara: A History of the Falls

My Times: Living with History

1967, The Last Good Year

Picture Books

The New City (with Henri Rossier)

Remember Yesterday

The Great Railway

The Klondike Quest

Pierre Berton’s Picture Book of Niagara Falls

Winter

The Great Lakes

Seacoasts

Pierre Berton’s Canada

Anthologies

Great Canadians

Pierre and Janet Berton’s Canadian Food Guide

Historic Headlines

Farewell to the Twentieth Century

Worth Repeating

Welcome to the Twenty-first Century

Fiction

Masquerade (pseudonym Lisa Kroniuk)

Books for Young Readers

The Golden Trail

The Secret World of Og

Adventures in Canadian History (22 volumes)

Pierre Berton’s
War of 1812

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Other Books by This Author

The Invasion of Canada, 1812–1813

Flames Across the Border, 1813–1814

The conquest of Canada is in our power. I trust I shall not be deemed presumptive when I state that I verily believe that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.

HENRY CLAY, TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE, FEBRUARY
22, 1810.

THE
INVASION
OF
CANADA
1812-1813

The Invasion of Canada, 1812-1813

Maps

Cast of Characters

PREVIEW
        
Porter Hanks’s War

OVERVIEW
      
The War of 1812

ONE
              
Prelude to Invasion:
1807–1811
                   The Road to Tippecanoe

TWO
             
Prelude to Invasion:
1812
                   Marching as to War

THREE
           
Michilimackinac
                   The Bloodless Victory

FOUR
             
Detroit
                   The Disintegration of William Hull

FIVE
              
Chicago
                   Horror on Lake Michigan

SIX
               
Queenston Heights
                   The End of Isaac Brock

SEVEN
            
Black Rock
                   Opéra Bouffe on the Niagara

EIGHT
            
Frenchtown
                   Massacre at the River Raisin

AFTERVIEW
    
The New War

CODA
            
William Atherton’s War

Sources and Acknowledgements

Notes

Select Bibliography

Maps

Drawn by Geoffrey Matthews

The Strategic Significance of Michilimackinac

American Invasion Strategy, Summer, 1812

The Theatre of War

American-Indian Battles, 1790–1794

Harrison’s Purchase

Tecumseh’s Frontier

The Wabash

The Battle of Tippecanoe

Hull’s March to Detroit

The Wisconsin-Fox Portage

Michilimackinac Island

The Detroit Frontier

Baynes’s Journey to Albany

Brock’s Passage to Amherstburg

The Capture of Detroit

Mrs. Simmons’s Trek

The Niagara Frontier

The Battle of Queenston Heights

Harrison’s Three-Column Drive to the Maumee Rapids

American Search and Destroy Missions against the Tribes, Autumn, 1812

The Battle of Frenchtown

Cast of Characters

PRELUDE TO INVASION

British and Canadians

Sir James Craig
, Governor General of Canada, 1807–11.

Sir George Prevost
, Governor General of the Canadas and commander of the forces, 1811–15.

Francis Gore
, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, 1806–17. On leave in England, 1811–15.

Major-General Isaac Brock
, Administrator of Upper Canada and commander of the forces in Upper Canada, 1810–12.

William Claus
, Deputy Superintendent, Indian Department, Upper Canada, 1806–26.

Matthew Elliott
, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Amherstburg, 1796–97; 1808–14.

Robert Dickson
(known as
Mascotapah
, the Red-Haired Man), fur trader. Led Menominee, Winnebago, and Sioux in attack on Michilimackinac.

Augustus Foster
, British Minister Plenipotentiary to America, 1811–12.

Americans

Thomas Jefferson
, President, 1801–9.

James Madison
, President, 1809–17.

William Eustis
, Secretary of War, 1809–12.

William Henry Harrison
, Governor, Indiana Territory, 1800–1813. Commander of the Army of the Northwest from September, 1812.

William Hull, Governor
, Michigan Territory, 1805–12. Commander of the Army of the Northwest, April–August, 1812.

Henry Dearborn
, Secretary of War, 1801–9. Senior major-general, U.S. Army, 1812–13.

Henry Clay
, Speaker of the House of Representatives, November, 1811. Leader of the War Hawks.

Indian Leaders

The Prophet
. Born Laulewausika; later Tenskwatawa.

Tecumseh
, the Prophet’s older brother, leader of the Indian Confederacy.

THE DETROIT FRONTIER

Isaac Brock’s Command: Summer, 1812

Thomas Bligh St. George
, Lieutenant-Colonel; commanding officer, Fort Amherstburg.

Henry Procter
, Lieutenant-Colonel; succeeded St. George as commanding officer, Fort Amherstburg.

J.B. Glegg
, Major; Brock’s military aide.

John Macdonell
, Lieutenant-Colonel; Brock’s provincial aide, Acting Attorney-General of Upper Canada.

Adam Muir
, Major, 41st Regiment.

William Hull’s Command: Summer, 1812

Duncan Mc Arthur
, Colonel, 1st Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.

James Findlay
, Colonel, 2nd Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.

Lewis Cass
, Colonel, 3rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.

James Miller
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 4th U.S. Infantry (regular army).

Henry Procter’s Command: Winter, 1812–13

Ebenezer Reynolds
, Major, Essex Militia.

Roundhead
, Wyandot chief.

William Henry Harrison’s Command:
Winter, 1812–13

James Winchester
, Brigadier-General; commander, left wing, Army of the Northwest.

John Allen
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 1st Kentucky Rifles.

William Lewis
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 5th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers.

Samuel Wells
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 17th U.S. Infantry (regular army).

THE NIAGARA FRONTIER

Isaac Brock’s Command: Fall, 1812

Christopher Myers
, Lieutenant-Colonel; commanding officer, Fort George.

Roger Hale Sheaffe
, Major-General; second-in-command to Brock. Commanded British forces on Brock’s death.

Thomas Evans
, Brigade Major, Fort George.

John Dennis
, Captain, 49th Regiment; commander of flank company defending Queenston.

John Williams
, Captain, 49th Regiment.