33.8 America: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 4/31)

We cannot leave the discussion of British Canada without reverting back to activities connected to the War of 1812 with the United States. As early as 1811 British Canadian officials believed that war was imminent and began to warn Indians who were friendly to them. Chief among those were the Shawnees, who were led at that time by the mystic Prophet Tenskwatawa and the latter mobilized many Ottawas, Potawatomis and Chippewas in the Lake Michigan region. After some preliminary maneuvering actual land warfare began with the British and Indian forces defeating the Americans at the battles of Brownstown, Monguagon and Fort Michilimackinac. On August 16th Governor William Hull surrendered the American Fort Dearborn, just 24 hours after Potawatomis had killed most of the garrison. That winter the Prophet had trouble feeding his people in the Indiana area, however, and as another American expedition approached, he and most of his followers fled to Canada.

Knowing that the American Governor Harrison was preparing to recapture Detroit, the British commander Brigadier General Henry Proctor launched offensive operations. While ships transported the British regular militia and artillery across Lake Erie, the Prophet and his brother, Chief Tecumseh, led almost 1,200 Indians overland to the mouth of the Maumee. The attack failed and a similar one launched July 21, 1813 also failed. Meanwhile on Lake Erie, Capt. Oliver Perry's fleet took on the British under Capt. Robert Barclay and destroyed them in a 3 hour battle at Put-in-Bay. On land, Proctor talkea his Indians into withdrawing and preparing for new battle on the Thames River. In a great battle about 2 miles west of Moraviantown almost all the British soldiers were killed or captured and the Indians scattered through the forests. Tecumseh was shot down and the Indian remnant had only 374 warriors, with about 650 women and children. The natives spent a miserable winter of 1813-1814 camped at the western end of Lake Ontario and the British gave them just enough supplies to keep them from starving.

The war scene then seemed to shift to the Niagra frontier where the Iroquois were British allies. The Shawnees agreed to join with the Iroquois, but they arrived a full day after the decisive Battle of Chippewa had ended. For 2 years the British Indian Department had been hard pressed to feed all the exiles in Canada and they wanted them back in the United States. It was not until the white immigration into upper Canada occurred in the decade after the Treaty of Ghent, however, that the embittered Tenskwatawa severed his ties with the British Indian Department and returned to the United States where, by 1819, he no longer seemed a threat. (Ref. 293 )

The united states

It is not a simple matter to scan the history of the United States in the 19th century in an outline form. The War between the States seems to make a natural break-point, with the situations before and after the war quite different. With this in mind we shall divide this section accordingly.