1.
Tecumseh's War
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Tecumsehs War or Tecumsehs Rebellion was a conflict between the United States Army and an American Indian confederacy led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. The two principal adversaries in the conflict, Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison, had both been junior participants in the Battle of Fallen Timbers at the close of the Northwest Indian War in 1794. However, many Indian leaders in the region accepted the Greenville terms, Little Turtle, a war chief of the Miamis, who had also participated in the earlier war and signed the Greenville Treaty, lived in his village on the Eel River. Both Black Hoof and Little Turtle urged cultural adaptation and accommodation with the United States, the tribes of the region participated in several treaties, including the Treaty of Grouseland and the Treaty of Vincennes that gave and recognized American possession of most of southern Indiana. The treaties resulted in an easing of tensions by allowing settlers into Indiana, in May 1805, Lenape Chief Buckongahelas, one of the most important native leaders in the region, died of either smallpox or influenza. The surrounding tribes believed his death was caused by a form of witchcraft, the witch-hunts inspired a nativist religious revival led by Tecumsehs brother Tenskwatawa, who emerged in 1805 as a leader among the witch hunters. He quickly posed a threat to the influence of the accommodationist chiefs, as part of his religious teachings, Tenskwatawa urged Indians to reject European American ways, such as drinking liquor, European-style clothing, and firearms. He also called for the tribes to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States, numerous Indians, who were inclined to cooperate with the United States, were accused of witchcraft, and some were executed by followers of Tenskwatawa. Black Hoof was accused in the witch-hunt, but was not harmed, from his village at Greenville, Tenskwatawa compromised Black Hoofs friendly relationship with the United States, leading to rising tensions with settlers in the region. Black Hoof and other leaders began to put pressure on Tenskwatawa. Little Turtle told the Shawnee that they were there. In 1808, Tecumseh began to be seen as a leader by his community, in 1808, the British in Canada approached him to form an alliance, but he refused. The Americans first took notice of him in 1810, Tecumseh eventually emerged as the leader of the confederation, but it was built upon a foundation established by the religious appeal of his younger brother. Tippecanoe was the largest Native American community in the Great Lakes region and served as important cultural and it was an intertribal, religious stronghold along the Wabash River in Indiana for 3000 Native Americans, it was known as Prophetstown to whites. Led by Tenskwatawa initially, and later jointly with Tecumseh, thousands of Algonquin-speaking Indians gathered at Tippecanoe to gain spiritual strength, meanwhile, in 1800, William Henry Harrison had become the governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory, with the capital at Vincennes. Harrison sought to secure title to Indian lands to allow for American expansion, in particular, Harrison negotiated numerous land cession treaties with American Indians. In 1809, Harrison began to push for the need of another treaty to open land for settlement. The Miami, Wea, and Kickapoo were vehemently opposed to selling any more land around the Wabash River, in September 1809, he invited the Potawatomi, Lenape, Eel Rivers, and the Miami to a meeting in Fort Wayne
2.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
3.
Chatham-Kent
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Chatham-Kent is a single-tier municipality in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mostly rural, its population centres are Chatham, Wallaceburg, Tilbury, Blenheim, Ridgetown, Wheatley, the current Municipality of Chatham-Kent was created in 1998 by the merger of Kent County and its municipalities. The former city of Chatham began as a dockyard in the 1790s. The town was named after the Earl of Chatham, William Pitt and it was built as a naval dockyard, a characteristic shared by Chatham, Kent, England. In England, the name Chatham came from the British root ceto, following the American Revolution and the Gnadenhutten Massacre, a group of Christian Munsee Indians settled in what is now Moraviantown. In the War of 1812, the Battle of the Thames took place between Moraviantown and Thamesville on October 5,1813, during the 19th century, the area was part of the Underground Railroad. As a result, Chatham-Kent is now part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour, uncle Toms Cabin Historic Site is a museum of the Dawn Settlement, established in 1841 by Josiah Henson near Dresden as refuge for the many slaves who escaped to Canada from the United States. John Brown, the abolitionist, planned his raid on the Harpers Ferry Virginia Arsenal in Chatham, the small village of North Buxton, part of the African Canadian Heritage Tour, also played an important role in the Underground Railroad. Kent County consisted of the townships of Camden, Chatham, Dover, Harwich, Howard, Orford, Raleigh, Romney, Tilbury East, in 1998 the County of Kent and the city of Chatham were amalgamated to form the Municipality of Chatham–Kent. Since then, bus service has begun to serve all of Chatham-Kent, starting in 2007, routes were set up to include the former towns of Wallaceburg and Dresden. Before 1998, each town had their own fire department and it then became the Chatham-Kent Fire Department upon amalgamation. The county also had separate police departments until 1998, the city of Chatham, as well as the towns of Wallaceburg, Dresden, and Tilbury, each had their own departments. The Chatham-Kent Police Service was formed on September 1,1998, Chatham Kent has many historic festivals throughout the year such as the Battle of Longwoods reenactment, which takes place on Labour Day weekend at Fairfield Museum on Longwoods road. Chatham Kent is also home to historic buildings which are part of an annual ghost tour offered each year at Halloween. The participants go on a walk of downtown while the guide informs them of various ghost stories tied to the local buildings in which they pass. Chatham Kent was a part of the Underground Railroad and as such hosts the Buxton Homecoming each September. This celebrates the black culture and the roots laid by early black settlers in the Buxton area. At 2,458 square kilometres, Chatham-Kent is the 12th largest municipality by area in Canada, over 44,000 of the 107,000 residents live in the former City of Chatham
4.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
5.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
6.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
7.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
8.
William Henry Harrison
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William Henry Harrison Sr. was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer, and the last president born as a British subject. He was 68 years,23 days old at the time of his inauguration and he died of complications from pneumonia 31 days into his term, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. He was the first president to die in office, and his death sparked a constitutional crisis. He was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, who served as the 23rd United States President from 1889 to 1893, before election as president, Harrison served as the first congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory and the first Governor of Indiana Territory. He gained national fame for leading U. S. forces against Native Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, as a general officer in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable action was in the Battle of the Thames in 1813. This battle resulted in the death of Tecumseh and the dissolution of the Indian coalition which Tecumseh had led, after the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1824, the legislature elected him to the United States Senate. He served a term after being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in May 1828. In Santa Fe de Bogotá, he spoke with president Simón Bolívar, returning to his farm in Ohio, Harrison lived in relative retirement until he was nominated for the presidency as one of several Whig Party candidates in the election of 1836. He received more votes than any other Whig, but was defeated by Democrat Martin Van Buren and he retired again to his farm. Van Buren soon became a target of criticism from the Whigs surrounding economic difficulties following the Panic of 1837. John Tyler of Virginia was selected as his running mate, Harrison and Tyler defeated Van Buren in the 1840 election. However, Harrison died of pneumonia in April 1841, a month after taking office, Tyler then assumed all of the powers and duties of the president, setting a major precedent. Harrison was a member of a prominent political family of entirely English descent, Harrison was also the last U. S. president born as a British subject before American Revolution. Benjamin Harrison V, Williams father, was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, the senior Harrison also served in the Virginia legislature as the fifth governor of Virginia in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Williams older brother, Carter Bassett Harrison, represented Virginia in the U. S. House, Harrison was tutored at home before he entered Hampden–Sydney College, the Presbyterian school in Virginia in 1787 at age 14. He remained at the school until 1790, receiving an education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic. Harrisons Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly because of a revival that was occurring at the school
9.
Battle of Fort Dearborn
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The battle, which occurred during the War of 1812, followed the evacuation of the fort as ordered by William Hull, commander of the United States Army of the Northwest. The battle lasted about 15 minutes and resulted in a victory for the Native Americans. Fort Dearborn was burned down and those soldiers and settlers who survived were taken captive, Fort Dearborn was constructed by United States troops under the command of Captain John Whistler in 1803. It was located on the bank of the main stem of the Chicago River in what is now the Loop community area of downtown Chicago. At the time, the area was seen as wilderness, in the view of later commander, Heald, the fort was named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. It had been commissioned following the Northwest Indian War of 1785–1795, the British Empire had ceded the Northwest Territory—comprising the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—to the United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. However the area had been the subject of dispute between the Native American nations and the United States since the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, the Indian Nations followed Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee prophet and the brother of Tecumseh. Tenskwatawa had a vision of purifying his society by expelling the children of the Evil Spirit, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh formed a confederation of numerous tribes to block American expansion. The British saw the Native American nations as valuable allies and a buffer to its Canadian colonies, attacks on American settlers in the Northwest further aggravated tensions between Britain and the United States. The Confederations raids hindered American access to potentially valuable farmlands, mineral deposits, in 1810, as a result of a long running feud, Captain Whistler and other senior officers at Fort Dearborn were removed. Whistler was replaced by Captain Nathan Heald, who had stationed at Fort Wayne. Heald was dissatisfied with his new posting and immediately applied for a leave of absence to spend the winter in Massachusetts. On his return journey to Chicago, he visited Kentucky, where he married Rebekah Wells, the daughter of Samuel Wells, as the United States and Britain moved towards war, antipathy between the settlers and Native Americans in the Chicago area increased. In the summer of 1811, British emissaries tried to enlist the support of Native Americans in the region, on April 6,1812, a band of Winnebago Indians murdered Liberty White, an American, and John B. Cardin, a French Canadian, at a farm called Hardscrabble that was located on the branch of the Chicago River. News of the murder was carried to Fort Dearborn by a soldier of the garrison named John Kelso, following the murder, some residents of Chicago moved into the fort while the rest fortified themselves in a house that had belonged to Charles Jouett, a Native American agent. Fifteen men from the population were organized into a militia by Captain Heald. On June 18,1812, the United States declared war on the British Empire, Hull also sent a copy of these orders to Fort Wayne with additional instructions to provide Heald with all the information, advice and assistance within their power
10.
Siege of Fort Harrison
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The Siege of Fort Harrison was an engagement that lasted from September 4 to 15,1812. Harrison had long advocated building a fort in the strategic location, the fort protected the armys supply lines, as well as the capital of the Indiana Territory downstream in Vincennes. The site, located in present-day Vigo County, Indiana, at the edge of Terre Haute, was only two miles from the Wea village of Weauteno. It was said to be the location of a battle involving the Illiniwek. Major Joseph Hamilton Daveiss proposed that the stockade be named Fort Harrison in General Harrisons honor, the fort was finished October 28,1811, and had a 150 feet stockade encircling the post. Leaving the fort and a garrison under Colonel James Miller, Harrison led his army to the Tippecanoe battleground. When the army returned, Harrison left Captain Josiah Snelling in command of Fort Harrison, Snelling served as commandant of the fort from November 11,1811 until May 1812. During that winter, the fort was shaken by the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes, Snelling was later transferred to Fort Detroit. After the outbreak of the War of 1812, Captain Zachary Taylor, future President of the United States, was ordered by Harrison to leave Fort Knox and assume command of Fort Harrison. The United States had suffered a series of defeats immediately after war was declared, at the hands of the British, Canadians and these victories helped motivate other native tribes to take up campaigns against remote American outposts. On September 3,1812, a band of Miami arrived and warned Captain Taylor that they would soon be attacked by a force of Native Americans. That evening, shots were heard, but Taylor was hesitant to send a scout party and he only had 50 men in his garrison, and sickness had reduced the number of effective soldiers to only 15. In the morning, a party was dispatched and discovered the bodies of two settlers, the Doyle brothers. The brothers were buried, and the party reported back to Fort Harrison, Captain Taylor, with his 15 able soldiers and about 5 healthy settlers, made ready for the expected attack. Each of the 20 men was issued sixteen rounds to fire and that day, September 4, a force of 600 Potawatomi, Wea, Shawnee, Kickapoo and Winnebago warriors approached Fort Harrison. A party of 40 men under command of Kickapoo Chief Namahtoha approached under a flag of truce, Taylor agreed, and the Indian force retreated to camp for the night. That night, a warrior crawled up and set the blockhouse on fire, when the sentries opened fire on the arsonist, the 600-strong Indian war party attacked the west side of the fort. Taylor ordered the forts surgeon and a handful of defenders to control the fire, the blockhouse, which was attached to the barracks, had a store of whiskey, which soon ignited, and the fire raged out of control
11.
Siege of Fort Meigs
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The Siege of Fort Meigs took place during the War of 1812, in northwestern Ohio. A small British army with support from Indians attempted to capture the recently constructed fort to forestall an American offensive against Detroit, an American sortie and relief attempt failed with heavy casualties, but the British failed to capture the fort and were forced to raise the siege. In the early days of the War of 1812, an American Army under Brigadier General William Hull surrendered following the Siege of Detroit, to recover Detroit, the Americans formed the Army of the Northwest. Brigadier General James Winchester briefly commanded the Army before William Henry Harrison was commissioned Major General in the regular United States Army, Harrisons advance was hampered by bad weather and shortage of supplies. On 22 January 1813, the detachment of his army was defeated at the Battle of Frenchtown. Two of the most important were Fort Meigs on the Maumee River, Harrison descended the Maumee to the site of Fort Meigs with an army which ultimately numbered 4,000 men and began construction of the fort on 1 February 1813. He found the officer he had left in charge, Joel B, leftwich, had left with all his men because the enlistment period of the militia units assigned to the task had expired. Construction had halted, and the wood that had cut was being used as firewood. As the enlistments of Harrisons Ohio and Kentucky militia were also about to expire, Harrison disbanded his force and departed for Cincinnati, Ohio and he left Engineer Major Eleazer D. Wood to complete the construction of the fort. The fort was on the bank of the Maumee, near the Miami Rapids. Across the river were the ruins of the old British Fort Miami, Fort Meigs occupied an area of 8 acres, the largest constructed in North America to that date. The perimeter consisted of a picket fence, linking eight blockhouses. The north face was protected by the Maumee, and the east and west faces by ravines, the south face was cleared of all timber to create an open glacis. The poor weather of early spring prevented a British attack while the fort was still vulnerable, instead, he decided upon an attack on Fort Meigs, to disrupt American preparations for a summer campaign and hopefully capture supplies. Harrison received word of Procters preparations, and hastened down the Maumee with 300 reinforcements and he had persuaded Isaac Shelby, the Governor of Kentucky, to call up a brigade of 1,200 Kentucky militia under Brigadier General Green Clay. Clays brigade followed Harrison down the Maumee, but had not reached the fort before it was besieged, Procters force disembarked at the mouth of the Maumee on 26 April. His force consisted of 31 men of the Royal Artillery,423 men of the 41st Regiment of Foot,63 men of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment,16 men from other units, and 462 Canadian militia. He also had roughly 1,250 Native American warriors led by Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his artillery consisted of two 24-pounder guns which had been captured at Detroit, nine lighter guns and two gunboats mounting 9-pounder guns
12.
Upper Canada
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The new province remained, for the next fifty years of growth and settlement, the colonial government of the territory. Upper Canada existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841, the upper prefix in the name reflects its geographic position being closer to the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River than that of Lower Canada to the northeast. The control the French had over Canada was handed over to Great Britain in 1763 when the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War in America. The territories of modern southern Ontario and southern Quebec were initially maintained as the single Province of Quebec, from 1763 to 1791, the Province of Quebec maintained its French language, cultural behavioural expectations, practices and laws. This region quickly became culturally distinct, while the act addressed some religious issues, it did not appease those used to English law. Upper Canada became an entity on December 26,1791 with the Parliament of Great Britains passage of the Constitutional Act of 1791. The act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, the first lieutenant-governor was John Graves Simcoe. On February 1,1796, the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark to York, which was judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans. Upper Canadas constitution was said to be the image and transcript of the British constitution. The Executive Council of Upper Canada had a function to the Cabinet in England but was not responsible to the Legislative Assembly. They held a position, however, and did not serve in administrative offices as cabinet ministers do. Members of the Executive Council were not necessarily members of the Legislative Assembly but were members of the Legislative Council. The Legislative branch of the government consisted of the parliament comprising legislative council, forces in the War of 1812, rebuilt, then burned again by accident. The site was abandoned for another, to the west. The Legislative Council of Upper Canada was the upper house governing the province of Upper Canada, although modelled after the British House of Lords, Upper Canada had no aristocracy. Members of the Legislative council, appointed for life, formed the core of the group, the Family Compact. The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada functioned as the house in the Parliament of Upper Canada. Its legislative power was subject to veto by the appointed Lieutenant Governor, Executive Council, local government in the Province of Upper Canada was based on districts
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