Battle of Mackinac Island (1812)

Infobox Military Conflict


caption=
conflict=Battle of Mackinac Island (1812)
partof=the War of 1812
date=July 17, 1812
place=Mackinac Island, Michigan
result=British victory
combatant1=Britain
Native Americans
combatant2=United States
commander1=Captain Charles Roberts
commander2=Lieutenant Porter Hanks
strength1=about 600
strength2=61
casualties1=none
casualties2=61 surrendered

The Battle of Mackinac Island (1812) was a British victory in the War of 1812 and the first battle of the war. The British captured the island soon after the outbreak of war between Britain and the United States, causing large numbers of Native Americans to rally to their support. Their support and cooperation was important in further British victories during the next year.

Background

Mackinac Island was an American trading post in the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and was important for its influence and control over the Indian tribes in the area. The United States Army maintained a small fort, named Fort Mackinac, on the island. About convert|40|mi|km away was the British military post on St. Joseph Island and the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie.

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 (under the noted trader William McKay) to Roberts with the vital news, and orders to capture Mackinac.

McKay reached St. Joseph Island on July 8. 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 (described as being "worn down by unconquerable drunkenness"Hitsman, p.74] ), 150 Canadian or "métis" (part-Indian) fur traders and voyageurs, 300 Ojibwa (Chippawa) or Ottawas who were at the island to trade skins, and 110 Sioux, Menominee and Winnebago recruited by Indian agent Robert Dickson from present-day Wisconsin.Hitsman, p.72] .

As preparations for the expedition was made, Roberts received orders from Brock to cancel, and then to reinstate, the attack on Mackinac. Colonel Edward Baynes, the Adjutant General for all forces in Canada, also sent orders for Roberts to concentrate on defending St. Joseph Island. However, on July 15, Roberts received further orders from Brock which allowed him to use his own discretion. Fearing that the Indians would drift away if they were not allowed to attackHitsman, p.73] , Roberts immediately set out. His force was embarked in an armed schooner (the "Caledonia", belonging to the North West Company), seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.

Capture of Mackinac

Fort Mackinac was 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.

American Secretary of War William Eustis, apparently preoccupied with financial economies, had sent no communications to Hanks for several months. He sent word of the declaration of war on June 18 to the commanders in the northwest by ordinary rate post. (The Postmaster at Cleveland, Ohio, realised the importance of the news and hired an express rider to take it to Brigadier General William Hull who was advancing on Detroit, but it was too late to save both Hull and Hanks from being taken by surprise.) [Elting, p.27]

Though he was unaware of events elsewhere, Hanks had heard rumours of unusual activity at St. Joseph Island. He sent a fur trader named Michael Dousman, who held a commission as officer in the militia, to investigate. Dousman's boat was captured by the advancing British force, and Dousman apparently quickly changed sides. [Elting, p.29]

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 convert|2|mi|km away from the fort, at a place subsequently named British Landing, early on the morning of July 17. They quietly removed the village's inhabitants from their homes, dragged a 6-pounder cannon through the woods to a ridge above the fort, and fired a single round before sending a message under a flag of truce, demanding the Americans' surrender.Hitsman, p.73]

Hanks's force was surprised and was already at a tactical disadvantage. The flag of truce had been accompanied by three of the villagers, who greatly exaggerated the number of Indians in Roberts's force. Fearing a massacre by the Indians, Hanks capitulated without a fight. The American garrison was taken prisoner but released on giving their parole not to fight for the remainder of the war.

Aftermath

The island's inhabitants were made to swear an oath of allegiance as subjects of the United Kingdom, or leave within a month. Most took the oath. Roberts arrested three deserters from the British Army, and twenty alleged British subjects. There was no looting, although Roberts acquired some property from an American government store and purchased several bullocks to feed the Indians. The British subsequently abandoned their own fort at St. Joseph Island and concentrated their forces at Mackinac Island.

Of the Indians present , the Ottawa contingent had apparently remained aloof from the others. They and most of the Chippawas subsequently dispersed, while the Western Indians proceeded south to join the Siege of Detroit.

The loss of Mackinac resulted in large numbers of Indians who formerly were friendly to the Americans (such as the Wyandots near Detroit [Hitsman, p.75] ) or neutral, rallying to the British cause, which influenced the American surrender at the Siege of Detroit shortly afterwards. Lieutenant Hanks was killed by a cannon shot at Detroit, while awaiting a court martial for cowardice.

Notes

ources

*"Amateurs to Arms", John R. Elting, Da Capo Press, New York, 1995, ISBN 0-306-80653-3
*"The Incredible War of 1812", J. Mackay Hitsman (& Donald E. Graves), Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 1999, ISBN 1-896941-13-3