They Didn't Teach Us This in High School

Why weren't we taught this in high school history class?

First let me be clear; I'm not a Canadianphobe or an anti-Canadianite, in fact, nothing can be further from the truth. I've always viewed Canadians as a soft spoken, friendly and gentle people (and I still do), however years ago, I experienced a new behavior in a small handful of locals that made me scratch my head wonder if all these years my perception had been wrong.

Back in the 80's, my wife and I decided to go on a road trip to Ontario Canada in search of the site where the Battle of the Thames took place and where the Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was killed.

My Johnson Scandinavian ancestors were adventurous Viking sea faring people, I have a genetic propensity for knowing where I am, geographically, at any given time in any given place. My car is equipped with a compass, but I rarely use it and only in extreme situations. Much to my wife's dismay, I also have a gender propensity for never asking for directions. Anyway, once we got to Detroit I knew all I had to do was point my car east. I was wrong and after wandering around the Canadian countryside for more than 3 hours I decided to swallow my Viking pride and asked my wife to look at her paper map and find out where we were. Turns out we were just a few miles from Thamesville.  Sounded right so I swallowed my Viking pride and we headed that direction.

Cold shoulder, indifference or passive-aggression?

Driving into town I pulled over to the curb and asked a passerby if he could tell me how to get to the Thames battlefield. He just stared at me, turned and walked away. My first thought was perhaps he didn't speak English (lots of French people in Canada). I continued on and found another person and asked him the same question. That individual said he didn't know where it was and walked away without saying another word. I thought this was odd because here I was in the town of Thamesville, supposedly located near the famous battlefield yet no one could tell me how to get there.  One would have thought I was asking for directions to some small town in Eastern Ukraine.

Are they hiding something?

Leaving Thamesville as ignorant as when I first arrived, I decided to fend for myself and drove on following the only road heading east out of town.  Turns out the battlefield site was only 2 miles from town.  This was the site of one of the most significant battles of the War of 1812, the site where the great Shawnee chief, Tecumseh had been killed, and  marked began the beginning of the end of British domination in Canada, yet for some reason area residents couldn't OR wouldn't tell me where it was. WHY?  

 

AAAAAHHHH!  Now it's all starting to make sense

One of the things my high school history teachers failed to teach us was tell us that while we were ramping up to fight the British on American soil (again), we were also ramping up to fight them on Canada soil as well.  Hmmm, here all this time I'd thought Canada was just an innocent bystander when in fact, they were actually a target in Americas "crosshairs."  
 

Setting the Stage

Seems England was not getting along with anyone in 1813.   In addition to our outrage  at England for taking American sailors off American ships, England also entering it's 9th year of war with Napoleon in France.   

The British were very much aware that another war with the Americans was possible but also they also knew they couldn’t afford to fight two major wars on two different continents. Sensing England was backed into a corner, President Madison saw this as the opportune time for the United States to rid itself once and for all of English interference, not only on the high seas, but on the entire North American continent as well. Madison's solution; invade Canada and annex it as part of the United States.

The plan 

During March 1812, one month before the U.S. declared war with England,  Madison and his war counsel worked on creating a war plan designed to take advantage of England's preoccupation with the French.  The plan they came up with involved a  three-prong attack into Canada; 

1)  a right prong would advance from Lake Champlain (Vermont) and capture Montreal 

2)  a center prong would march across the Niagara frontier and capture Toronto 

3)  a left prong, already in place at Detroit would cross the Detroit River and seizing the British fort at Amherstburg then advance into the western districts of Canada where they would get support from the large numbers of Americans who had recently been given large land grants there.

The 3-Prong Attack Into Canada

The West Prong Failure

 

The main characters in this drama were American Gen. William Hull and his counterpart, General Isaac Brock of the British Army.

Creating Illusions

Ironically, the British were outnumbered 2 to 1 at the time. Brock learned from reading some of Hulls captured papers that he (Hull) was almost paranoid that if he lost a fight with the British and its Indian allies, all the residents of nearby Detroit would be massacred by Brock's Indian forces. Brock decided that if he could at least create the illusion that his forces were superior in number to Hulls, he might gain an advantage over Hull's troops.

Brock had high embankments built near the river’s edge. Because many of Brock's troops were inexperienced fighters, he had them dressed in the uniform of regulars giving the impression that all his men were battle hardened veterans. He then had his the men march in front of them, so Hull's men could see them. What Hull's men didn't see was that when the men walked behind the embankments, they circled around behind it and walked the same route in front giving the impression that he (Brock) had several hundred more troops than he actually had. At night, Brook had his Indian allies build huge fires along the Detroit River creating the illusion that in addition to his large numbers of "experienced regulars," he also had a very large number of Indians in his force as well.

The "Tour of the Beans"

The "tour of the beans" was another ingenious ploy designed to create the impression that Brooks force was larger than it was. At meal time, the "tour" began with soldiers walking in front of the embankment with their food, walk to the end of then walk behind it where they ate their meal (beans). Once finished, they walked around the front and again encircled the embankment, adding to the illusion that his fighting force was much larger than it actually was.

It Worked

The ploy worked, On August 16, 1812 after a standoff that had lasted several weeks and fearing an Indian massacre Hull surrendered his 2500 men army along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of military equipment. Hulls troops had marched over 200 miles from Dayton to Detroit and their commander surrendered is army WITHOUT FIRING A SINGLE SHOT. The officers were taken to Detroit and the militia troops pardoned to go home after signing a document saying they wouldn't fight again.

Marched over 200 miles, outnumbered the enemy 2 to 1 and surrendered without firing a single shot.

  

Terror in Ohio

 

With no army to protect them, Ohio citizens feared that the British, Canadian and Indian forces would swoop down into Ohio and murder innocent civilians in their beds. Luckily that didn't happen but as a precaution, the Kentucky militia was called up to build forts along the Auglaize (including Fort Amanda) and the rest is history. Hull was eventually courting martialed and sentenced to be hung but because of his Revolutionary War service, he was saved by President Madison. General Brock didn't live long enough to gloat over his victory, he was killed 2 months later Oct. 13th at the Battle of Queenstown.

Why Did The Invasion Plan Fail?

The  3-prong attack looked good on paper but it didn't work for several reasons.

1.   July (West prong) - Hull surrendered at Detroit.
2.   Oct    (Center prong near the Niagara Border) - New England governors claimed that their militia troops were only to be used defensively.
3    Nov. (East prong) - Militiamen refused to cross the Canadian boarder to take Montreal.  Fear was the Federalists opposed to the war and would not come to aid the troops if they needed help.

At the end of the day, America won no Canadian battles and won no territory

Why did the Brits burn our Capital?  We burned theirs first

Wait, there's more. There's something else my history teacher failed to tell us in high school. We were taught that the nasty British soldiers marched into our nations capital in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1814 and burned the White House and several government buildings including buildings were much of the wars military records were kept.  

What they didn't tell us was that  year earlier (April 27, 1813), American troops marched into Canada's capital (York) and set fire to the buildings of the Legislative Assembly, the Printing Office, used for publishing official documents as well as newspapers and looted homes.    The burning of the U S Capital wasn't a random act of war, it was retaliation, pure and simple. 

Two parallel points of view

A few years ago, I was talking with a man from Canada who had just become an American citizen. He was also interested in history, so I asked what they taught Canadian school kids about the War of 1812. He said Canadians teach their school kids that Americans attempted to invade Canada and annex it but failed. He added, "We've only been in 2 wars and both of them with the United States?" I really wanted to ask him if he thought Canada won or lost those wars, but I thought it best not to go there. My lasting impression of him was that he was a "soft spoken, gentle and kind individual" and I'd prefer to leave it that way.

Talking with him reminded me of a similar situation involving my family. Like a lot of people, we had family who fought on both sides during the Civil War, one of ours served with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's army on its famous or infamous "March to the Sea" in 1864. We thought that was pretty cool. When my brother moved his young family to Tennessee years ago, his kids made it known early on that they were proud of their northern heritage and that their granddaddy was not only a Yankee, but a Yankee in Sherman's army. Needless to say, the other kids whose granddaddies fought on the other side weren't quite as impressed and they let the family know that.
I mention this because the Canadians and their view of the American invasion of their country in 1812, are probably no different than the view of Georgians and their thoughts on Sherman's march through their state in 1864. The fact is, when we only look at history from only one point of view and we do it without question, we miss the whole story.   

Conclusion 

While I am sorry that some of my friends to the north are still a little testy about our uh little disagreement 200 years ago, I now understand why.   I am also  happy to learn that the Canadian teachers don't sugar coating the 1812 event and they're telling it like it was. (If only we could get our history teachers to do the same.).    

 

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My book "Fort Amanda -A Historical Redress is an 8" x 10" softcover book with 360 pages of information I've gathered about the fort over a 40 year period. In addition to historical data about the fort, its construction and expansion, it includes 60 pages of biographical / genealogical information of more than 100 men who served there.

If you'd like a signed or personalized copy, send $20 for the book and $4 for shipping ($24 total) to me at:

David Johnson
1100 Little Bear Loo
Lewis Center, Ohio 43035




 

















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