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Siege of Fort Mackinac
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Siege of Fort Mackinac
45°51′07″N 84°37′03″W / 45.85208°N 84.61747°W
The siege of Fort Mackinac was one of the first engagements of the War of 1812. A British and Native American force captured the island soon after the outbreak of war between Britain and the United States. Encouraged by the easy British victory, more Native Americans rallied to their support. Their cooperation was an important factor in several British victories during the remainder of the war.
Mackinac Island was a U.S. fur trading post in the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Since the mid-seventeenth century, it had been important for its influence and control over the Native tribes in the area. British and Canadian traders had resented the island being ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War. The United States Army maintained a small fort, named Fort Mackinac, on the island.
The fur trade was the most important part of the economy of the large area known as the Northwest. Each spring, large numbers of Native Americans from modern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin gathered at Mackinac or the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie about 50 miles (80 km) distant to exchange furs for trade goods. Since the end of the American Revolutionary War, the British Government's policy had been to maintain friendly relations with the Native tribes, and officers of the Indian Department distributed regular presents to them at the British military post at St. Joseph Island. Many of the Native American tribes from the area were already opposed to the steady western expansion of American settlements and when war came, were eager to join forces with the British and Canadians or mount raids and attacks of their own.
The British commander in Upper Canada, Major General Isaac Brock, had kept the commander of the post at St. Joseph Island, Captain Charles Roberts, informed of events as war appeared increasingly likely from the start of 1812. As soon as he learned of the outbreak of war, Brock sent a canoe party led by the noted trader William McKay to Roberts with the vital news, and orders to capture Mackinac.
McKay reached St. Joseph Island on 8 July. With the assistance of the North West Company, Roberts immediately began to collect a force consisting of three men of the Royal Artillery, 47 British soldiers of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion (which Roberts later described as being "debilitated and worn down by unconquerable drunkenness"), 150 Canadian or métis (part-Indian) fur traders and voyageurs, 300 Ojibwa (Chippewa) or Ottawas who were at the island to trade skins, and 110 Sioux, Menominee and Winnebago who had been recruited from present-day Wisconsin by Indian agent Robert Dickson.
As preparations for the expedition proceeded, Roberts received successive orders from Brock to cancel, and then to reinstate, the attack on Mackinac. Colonel Edward Baynes, the Adjutant General for all British forces in Canada, also sent orders for Roberts to concentrate on defending St. Joseph Island. However, on 15 July, Roberts received further orders from Brock which allowed him to use his own discretion. Fearing that the Native American contingents would drift away if they were not allowed to attack, Roberts immediately set out. His force was embarked in the armed schooner Caledonia belonging to the North West Company, seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.
Fort Mackinac was a stockaded masonry fort sited on a limestone ridge which overlooked the harbour at the south-eastern end of the island. The American garrison consisted of 61 artillerymen under Lieutenant Porter Hanks with seven guns, although only one of these, a 9-pounder, could reach the harbour. There were other weaknesses; the garrison relied for fresh water on a spring outside the fort, and the position was overlooked by a higher ridge less than a mile away.
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Siege of Fort Mackinac
45°51′07″N 84°37′03″W / 45.85208°N 84.61747°W
The siege of Fort Mackinac was one of the first engagements of the War of 1812. A British and Native American force captured the island soon after the outbreak of war between Britain and the United States. Encouraged by the easy British victory, more Native Americans rallied to their support. Their cooperation was an important factor in several British victories during the remainder of the war.
Mackinac Island was a U.S. fur trading post in the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Since the mid-seventeenth century, it had been important for its influence and control over the Native tribes in the area. British and Canadian traders had resented the island being ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War. The United States Army maintained a small fort, named Fort Mackinac, on the island.
The fur trade was the most important part of the economy of the large area known as the Northwest. Each spring, large numbers of Native Americans from modern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin gathered at Mackinac or the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie about 50 miles (80 km) distant to exchange furs for trade goods. Since the end of the American Revolutionary War, the British Government's policy had been to maintain friendly relations with the Native tribes, and officers of the Indian Department distributed regular presents to them at the British military post at St. Joseph Island. Many of the Native American tribes from the area were already opposed to the steady western expansion of American settlements and when war came, were eager to join forces with the British and Canadians or mount raids and attacks of their own.
The British commander in Upper Canada, Major General Isaac Brock, had kept the commander of the post at St. Joseph Island, Captain Charles Roberts, informed of events as war appeared increasingly likely from the start of 1812. As soon as he learned of the outbreak of war, Brock sent a canoe party led by the noted trader William McKay to Roberts with the vital news, and orders to capture Mackinac.
McKay reached St. Joseph Island on 8 July. With the assistance of the North West Company, Roberts immediately began to collect a force consisting of three men of the Royal Artillery, 47 British soldiers of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion (which Roberts later described as being "debilitated and worn down by unconquerable drunkenness"), 150 Canadian or métis (part-Indian) fur traders and voyageurs, 300 Ojibwa (Chippewa) or Ottawas who were at the island to trade skins, and 110 Sioux, Menominee and Winnebago who had been recruited from present-day Wisconsin by Indian agent Robert Dickson.
As preparations for the expedition proceeded, Roberts received successive orders from Brock to cancel, and then to reinstate, the attack on Mackinac. Colonel Edward Baynes, the Adjutant General for all British forces in Canada, also sent orders for Roberts to concentrate on defending St. Joseph Island. However, on 15 July, Roberts received further orders from Brock which allowed him to use his own discretion. Fearing that the Native American contingents would drift away if they were not allowed to attack, Roberts immediately set out. His force was embarked in the armed schooner Caledonia belonging to the North West Company, seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.
Fort Mackinac was a stockaded masonry fort sited on a limestone ridge which overlooked the harbour at the south-eastern end of the island. The American garrison consisted of 61 artillerymen under Lieutenant Porter Hanks with seven guns, although only one of these, a 9-pounder, could reach the harbour. There were other weaknesses; the garrison relied for fresh water on a spring outside the fort, and the position was overlooked by a higher ridge less than a mile away.
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