Battle of Mackinac Island
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The Battle of Mackinac Island was a British victory in the War of 1812. Fort Mackinac, was an important American trading post in the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It was important for its influence and control over the Indian tribes in the area, which was sometimes referred to in historical documents as "Michilimackinac". About forty miles away was the British military post on St. Joseph Island and the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie.
Background to the battle
British capture of Mackinac
In June 1812, the British General Isaac Brock sent a canoe party 1200 miles (1900 km) to confirm that a state of war existed. This party returned with an order to attack Fort Mackinac. By contrast, the American Secretary of War, William Eustis, sent word of the declaration of war by ordinary rate post.The American fort's commander, Lieutenant Porter Hanks, while a diligent officer, had received no communication from his superiors for months. His garrison consisted of 61 artillerymen, with seven guns. Hanks did hear rumours of unusual activity at St. Joseph Island and sent a militia officer named Michael Dousman to investigate. Unfortunately, Dousman's boat was captured by the advancing British force.
This was under Captain Charles Roberts, and consisted of seventy war canoes and ten bateaux, containing 47 British soldiers of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion (described as being "worn down by an unconquerable drunkenness"), 150 Canadian traders and voyageurs, and 400 Indians, with more Indians joining the expedition as it proceeded.
Having learned from Dousman that the Americans were unaware of the outbreak of war, Robert's force landed on the north end of the island, 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the fort, early on the morning of July 17, 1812. They quietly removed the village's inhabitants from their homes, dragged two cannon through the woods to a ridge above the fort, and fired a single round before demanding the Americans' surrender.
Fearing a massacre by the Native Americans on the British side, Hanks capitulated without a fight. The American force was taken prisoner and the island's inhabitants were made to swear an oath of allegiance as subjects of the United Kingdom.
The loss of Mackinac resulted in large numbers of Indians rallying to the British cause, which influenced the American surrender at Detroit shortly afterwards.
Winter 1813 - 1814
For the rest of the year and through much of 1813, the British hold on Mackinac was secure since they also held Detroit, which the Americans would have to take before attacking Mackinac. Then on September 10, 1813, the Americans won the Battle of Lake Erie, which allowed them to recover Detroit and win the subsequent Battle of the Thames. Although it was too late in the year to allow them to mount an expedition to Mackinac, they had nevertheless cut the British supply lines to the post. The British garrison were placed on half rations but were suffering severe shortages by the end of the winter.In February, 1814, a British party under Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall of the Glengarry Light Infantry, opened a new supply line from York via Lake Simcoe to the Nottawasaga River on Georgian Bay. On April 19, McDouall began descending the river, and arrived at Mackinac on May 18, with twenty-nine batteaux containing provisions. He took command of the post, and built a stockade and blockhouse on the island's highest point, naming it Fort George.
The battle
In July 1814 the Americans attempted to retake the island as part of a larger campaign designed by Colonel George Croghan and his superior General William Henry Harrison to regain control of the Great Lakes and sever the fur trade alliance between the British and the tribes of the region. The two-pronged campaign included an assault on Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River.On July 26, a squadron of five U.S. ships under Commodore Arthur Sinclair arrived off Mackinac Island carrying a landing force of 700 soldiers under the command of Croghan. The force was made of an ad hoc battalion of regular infantry (made up of detached companies of the 17th, 19th and 24th U.S. Infantry, under Major Andrew Holmes) and a battalion of volunteers from the Ohio Militia, with detachments of artillery.
To his dismay, Croghan discovered that the new British blockhouse stood too high for the naval guns to reach, forcing an unprotected assault on the fort's wall. The Americans shelled the fort for two days, with most of the shells falling harmlessly in vegetable gardens around the fort.
A dense fog forced the Americans back from the island for a week. Upon their return the Americans, led by Holmes, assaulted the north end of the island, near the location of the 1812 British assault. The Americans worked their way to the fort through dense woods which were protected by Native American allies of the British, finally emerging into a clearing below the fort.
McDouall, in the meantime, had placed a force of 140 men of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles and Michigan Fencibles, with 150 Menomonee Indians from the Wisconsin River and two field guns, behind low breastworks at the opposite end of the clearing. A false report of a landing west of the fort caused him to withdraw his redcoated infantry, but when the Americans emerged from the woods into the clearing, they were easy targets for the British guns. The Americans attempted to work through the woods to outflank the guns but were ambushed by the Indians. Thirteen Americans, including Major Holmes and two other officers, were killed, and 51 were wounded. Because of the heavy losses and confusion, Croghan was forced to order his men to retreat back through the woods to the beach. The Americans rowed back to their ships, leaving the fort in the hands of the British until the end of the war.
Aftermath
The United States attempted, unsuccessfully, to blockade the British on Mackinac Island with the gunboats USS Tigress and USS Scorpion. In the Engagement on Lake Huron, both vessels fell into British hands, securing the British hold on the entire region.External links
- http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/batmac1814.html
Sources
- Amateurs to Arms, John R. Elting, Da Capo Press, New York, 1995, ISBN 0306806533
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