In March, 1810, Napoleon retaliated the act of congress forbidding the vessels of the United States to enter the ports either of France or her allies, by the decree of Berlin, which ordered all American vessels and cargoes arriving in any of the ports of France, or the countries occupied by French troops, to be seized and condemned. In November, however, of the same year, these hostile decrees were revoked by France, and commercial intercourse was renewed with that country.
But England would revoke nothing, and the feeling between the two countries grew daily more and more hostile, although the ultra-Whigs in England, as the federalists in America, used their utmost to bring about amicable relationships between the two countries. In March, 1811, Pinckney, the American minister, was suddenly recalled from London; and British ships being stationed before the principal harbours of the United States for the purpose of enforcing the British authority, open acts of hostility took place in May of the same year. The British frigate Guerrière, exercising the assumed right of search, carried off three or four natives of the States from some American vessels, whereupon orders came down from Washington to Commodore Rodgers to pursue the British ship and demand their own men. Rodgers sailed from the Chesapeake on the 12th of May, in the President frigate, and not meeting with the offending Guerrière, fell in with a smaller vessel, the Little Belt, towards evening of the 16th of May. The President was a large ship, the Little Belt a small one; the President hailed, and in return, the Americans declared, a shot was fired. The British, on the other hand, declared that the President fired first; however that might be, a severe engagement took place, the guns of the little Belt were silenced, and thirty-two of her men killed and wounded. Through the night the two ships lay at a little distance from each other to repair their damages, the British ship being almost disabled.
This was the muttering of the thunder before the storm; an earnest of that which was approaching. But before we proceed to the actual breaking out of the war, we must turn for a moment to the West, where a hostile confederacy and formidable preparations were discovered among the Indians, fomented by the British in Canada. At the head of this alarming confederacy was the great Shawanese chief, Tecumseh, and his twin brother, Laulewasikaw, who, in order to give to their undertaking a solemn and mysterious character, had assumed the name of the Prophet, and who, pretending to direct communication with the Great Spirit, acquired a powerful influence over the awestruck Indians, who implicitly obeyed his commands.
Tecumseh, who had been always hostile to the whites, and active in the later efforts against them, was a man of powerful mind, and possessed of all those stoic qualities which give a grandeur even to the most savage nature. He was in the battles of the confederated tribes in the late war, and one of those who, in opposition to the advice of the Little Turtle, rejected peace; and when finally peace was made at Greenville, he retired with the Prophet to the Pottawattamies, Wyandots, and other tribes, over whom the two, and especially the latter, gained a powerful ascendency, even to the extent of causing to be put to death some of the oldest and most powerful chiefs of various tribes. Tecumseh and his brother, as we have said, were enemies of the white intruders, and the object of all their endeavours was to be rid of these troublesome guests. For several years, therefore, the frontier inhabitants in the vicinity of the sources of the Mississippi had suffered grievously. At length, in the autumn of 1811, Indian hostilities having assumed an alarming and frightful character, Governor Harrison, of the Indiana territory, was directed by congress to march towards the residence of the prophet on the Wabash, and put a stop to their barbarities. On the 7th of November, having reached the vicinity of the prophet’s town, he was met by a deputation of chiefs, who, in the name of the prophet, offered peace and submission, requesting him to encamp for the night. Suspecting treachery, General Harrison ordered his men to sleep on their arms, and long before dawn the faithless Indians made their attack. A bloody battle ensued, but the Indians were routed; and after totally destroying the prophet’s town, and establishing a strong fort, the American general retired to Vincennes. Tecumseh was not in this fight, but at that time engaged in inciting the more distant tribes. This victory produced peace for a season.
Erskine, the British minister, was replaced by Mr. Foster, who was empowered to make restoration for the damage done to the Chesapeake, to restore the men forcibly taken from her, and offer pecuniary compensation to the families of those seamen who had fallen in the action. Admiral Berkeley had been deprived of command in consequence of his majesty’s displeasure; and, in fact, every possible concession was made, excepting that which America required, viz. to give up the impressment, and to revoke the orders in council. America had just reason to complain; for these orders, now that a free commerce was restored with France, were enforced with greater rigour than ever, and a great number of richly-laden American ships destined for the ports of France had fallen into the hands of British cruisers.
In November, the president recommended that the United States should be put in an attitude of defence, and congress agreeing thereto, provision was made for the increase of the regular army to 35,000, and also for the enlargement of the navy. The president was empowered to borrow eleven millions of dollars; the duties on imported goods were doubled, and taxes laid on domestic manufactures and nearly all descriptions of property. Early in April, 1812, congress passed an act laying an embargo of ninety days on all ships and vessels of the United States. This was intended to lessen the number of trading vessels that would otherwise be at the mercy of England when war was declared, and which, in fact, were comparatively useless in any case, for commercial intercourse had now been so long suspended or intercepted that grass grew on the deserted wharfs of New York and Philadelphia. By the end of May, most of the fast-sailing ships, brigs, and schooners of their merchant service, were fitted out as privateers or men of war. On the 4th of June a bill passed the house of representatives declaring war against Great Britain, and on the 17th the senate, and two days afterwards the president, issued a proclamation of war. This decisive act did not, however, meet with universal approbation. The federalist party, occupying generally the northern and eastern states, and strongly attached to Britain, put forth their solemn protest against the war; and when the news reached Boston, many citizens appeared in mourning, and the church bells were tolled.
Exertions were immediately made to enlist 25,000 men; to raise 50,000 volunteers, and to call out 100,000 militia for the defence of the sea-coast and frontiers. Henry Dearborn, one of the few surviving officers of the revolutionary war, was appointed major-general and commander-in-chief, and his head-quarters were at Greenbush, near Albany, on the Hudson.
At the time of the declaration of war, General Hull, governor of Michigan, was at the head of 2,500 men, well supplied with artillery and ready to march, but waiting then at Detroit, the capital of Michigan, for orders; the intention being to invade Canada. The English were, however, on the alert; and Major-General Brocke, knowing of the gathering of Hull’s forces at Detroit, and believing that war was inevitable, sent discretionary orders to the British officer in charge of Fort St. Joseph to act against the enemy as should appear advisable. Hull, also, had received discretionary orders to invade Canada, “if consistent with the Safety of his own posts.” On the 12th of July, therefore, he crossed the river Detroit and encamped at Sandwich, intending to march upon the British post at Maldon, or Amherstburgh, a stronghold of the British and their Indian allies. From Sandwich, Hull issued a bold proclamation inviting the oppressed citizens of Canada to throw off their allegiance to the British and become citizens of the Republic. Brocke also began to move, and on the 27th of July surprised the American post at Mackinaw, which Hull had left singularly unaware of present circumstances, and the commandant of which received the first knowledge of the declaration of war by being summoned to surrender to a combined British and Indian force, and who not being prepared to defend the place, having but fifty-seven men, surrendered, thinking himself fortunate to obtain for his little band the honours of war. Thus was one of the strongest positions in the United States placed at once in the hands of the British. Nor was this all; Major van Horne, who had been sent by Hull to convey a party bringing up provisions to his camp, was attacked by a united force of British and Indians, headed by Tecumseh, and defeated.
Hull lay inactive for a month in Canada, Amherstburgh in the meantime being reinforced, and then suddenly re-crossed the Detroit on the night of the 7th of August, to the bitter vexation and disappointment of his troops, and encamped under the walls of Detroit. Colonel Procter was despatched after him by Major-General Brocke, and advanced to Sandwich, where batteries were raised, and where he was presently joined by Brocke with reinforcements. On the very day after Hull reached Detroit, having sent 600 of his best troops again to convey provisions, they were attacked in the woods by a British and Indian force, again under the terrible Tecumseh, and a severe fight took place upon the very ground where Van Horne had before been defeated.
On the 16th of August, Major-General Brocke crossed the river a few miles above Detroit without interruption, and immediately marched against the American works with about 700 British troops and 600 Indians. The American troops, advantageously posted and outnumbering the enemy, anxiously awaited the order to fire, when, to their unspeakable astonishment and indignation, they were suddenly ordered to retire within the fort, on the walls of which they beheld a white flag in token of submission. The indignation of the army was so great, that, crowding into the fort without any orders, many it is said wept; others, in stacking their arms, dashed them violently on the ground.