Video
Guns Across The Lakes: Fort Mackinac- Battle of Mackinac Island
Transcript
Welcome Back to Guns Across the Lakes a Virtual Series of the Old Northwest in the War of 1812. My name is David Harkleroad Interpretation Coordinator here at Fort Mackinac, Mackinac State Historic Parks on Mackinac Island Michigan. Last week our friends at the Erie Maritime Museum and US Brig Niagara discussed the impact of American victories at the Battles of Lake Erie and the Thames on American and British forces on the Great Lakes as well as on the operational planning on both for the onset of the campaign of 1814. In this episode I will be discussing how the American campaign to recapture British held Fort Mackinac unfolded.
Following the decisive American victories at the Battles of Lake Erie and Thames in the Fall of 1813 the American strategic objective shifted north to recapture Fort Mackinac which had been taken by the British at the outset of the War of 1812. The British anticipated this next move by the Americans and prepared for it by building Fort George, named after the king, a fortified block house located about a mile north of Fort Mackinac on the highest point of the island which would secure not only Fort Mackinac's back door but also give a vantage point to see enemy ships coming from any direction. The American fleet would arrive on July the 25th 1814 east of Round Island located behind me. Two days later the naval commander Captain Arthur Sinclair would attempt to bombard Fort Mackinac from the harbor below. Unfortunately for the Americans Sinclair would not be able to elevate the ship's guns high enough to effectively hit targets here on the fort walls. This would force Sinclair and US Army ground force commander Lieutenant Colonel George Croghan to plan a attack on the northwest end of the island and attempt to replay the British success there in 1812. So in the morning of August the 4th the Americans are going to initiate the attack against Mackinac Island using land forces. Around 11 o'clock in the morning they're going to begin with a bombardment of the beachhead from Sinclair's fleet and land over 700 troops on the northwest end of the island about a mile and a half from my location moving inland the British are going to observe this movement and McDouall is going to clear out all of his forces from Fort Mackinac as well as Fort George leaving about 20 odd militiamen there at each of those sites to defend them and march inland. The British are going to take a position here about in the middle of the island on the ridgeline that I'm standing on. Today this is the Wawashkamo Golf Course at the time of the battle would have been the Early Endowsman fields. Mostly would have been open like you see mostly it is today. McDouall will secure his center with two cannon and his two flanks will be secured on the wood lines uh both his left and his right flank. The Americans are going to arrive and the action is going to begin around 3:15 in the afternoon. There will be intermittent cannon and small arms fire from 3:15 to about 3:45 at which point McDouall is going to receive word, faulty reports, that the Americans are landing troops on the south end of the island while he's being distracted here thinking this is a ruse or a faint by the Americans McDouall is going to order most of his troops to disengage and start marching back south towards Fort Mackinac to defend his principal objective. We don't know for sure but likely inspired by this retrograde movement the Americans are going to initiate their own flanking maneuver under the command of Major Andrew Hunter Holmes, second in command, into the right flank wood line of the British position however unbeknownst to Holmes there are indigenous warriors situated inside the fort or inside the wood line. Holmes is going to be killed his second in command is going to be severely wounded and his aborted attack will retreat in disarray and confusion. The Americans ultimately are going to initiate an all-out assault across the field in attempt to drive the British off their position more likely to cover Holmes's retreating survivors. In the meantime McDouall who heard likely heard the increased firing is going to order a retrograde back here to the battlefield he will deploy his men in a flanking maneuver on the American left flank. Which will force the Americans to yield the field retreating back to their ships and leaving the Americans in possession of or leaving the British in possession of the battlefield. While this defeat led Sinclair to withdraw most of the American fleet back to Fort Detroit he left behind two ships the Scorpion and the Tigris to blockade Fort Mackinac into submission however this all this effort ultimately failed as well when Lieutenant Miller Worsley of the Royal Navy led a daring night attack as well as an early morning attack against both ships and capturing them. This ended what was a debacle of a campaign for the Americans and also a proud victory for McDouall who later had a painting commissioned of the two captured American vessels being sailed into Mackinac Harbor here. Ultimately what American arms could not accomplish diplomacy did with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in December of that year. With the signing of that treaty all previous possessions were returned to their original owners including Fort Mackinac leaving McDouall changing his attitude from one of a victorious feeling to one of bitterness where he remarked "as usual our negotiators have been egregiously duped."
While the end of the war had little postwar impact on territorial possessions of either the Americans or the British this would not be true for indigenous peoples the overall impact the War of 1812 on the original inhabitants of the Great Lakes region will be discussed in next week's episode of Guns Across the Lakes with Eric Hemenway the Director of Repatriation Archives and Records with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and we hope you can join us again.
Description
Croghan and Sinclair are getting ready to recapture Fort Mackinac and the island. What will happen? Find out in this episode.
Duration
7 minutes, 42 seconds
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