Are Canadians Still Mad at Us?

 

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 however, a few years ago, I experienced a new behavior in a small handful of  Canadian locals that made me question that perception.

Lost in the Back Country

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 in 1813 and where the great Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was killed.

 

 Our quest took place years before smartphones came on the scene so the only thing to guide us was a paper road map, my male instincts and my Viking ancestor direction genes.  I knew once we got to Detroit all I had to do was point the car east and drive east until we came to a town called Thamesville.  I was wrong.  After wandering around the Canadian countryside for more than 3 hours with a wife frustrated with a crumpled paper map, my male instincts in question and my  Viking direction gene pool drained, I decided to swallow my male pride and ask someone for directions to Thamesville.   

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 somewhere near the famous battlefield yet no one could tell me how to get there.  Strange!   

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?  

Are they hiding something?

Leaving town as ignorant as when I first arrived, we decided to fend for ourselves and drove on following the only road heading east out of town.  As it turns out, the battlefield site was only 2 miles from town.  

Ah, It's All Starting to Make Sense Now

One of the things my high school history teachers failed to teach us was that while we were ramping up to fight the British on American soil (again), we were also ramping up to fight them on Canadian soil as well.  Hmmm, here all this time I'd thought Canada was just an innocent bystander in 1812, turns out, they were actually in the crosshairs of the American army.
 

Setting the Stage

Seems England wasn't getting along with anyone in 1813.   In addition to American outrage  at them for taking American sailors off American ships, England also entering its 9th year of war with Napoleon in France.  They suspected  we were up to something, and 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.  His solution; invade Canada and annex it as part of the United States.

The Plan

 The plan was simple; invade Canada at three strategic points; Detroit, Toronto and Montreal.   

 

                        The 3-Prong Attack Into Canada

 

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

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

 3)  The left prong, already in place at Detroit would cross the Detroit River and seize the British fort at Amherstburg>  They would 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 tracts of land by the American government.

 

The Key Players

 

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

Creating Illusions

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. Playing on Hull's fears, 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, who ironically  outnumbered Brooks troops 2 to 1.  

The "Tour of the Beans"

 

The "tour of the beans" was one of Brook's ingenious ploys designed to create the impression that his force was larger than it was. 

Because many of his 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 a high embankment built near the river’s edge in plain view of the Americans. 

 

At mealtime, the "tour" began with soldiers walking in front of the embankment with their food.  They would walk to the end of it circle around behind it and eat their meal (beans). Once finished, they walked around the front of the embankment and again circled it, 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.  The sad irony of all this is Hulls troops had marched over 200 miles, much of it through the treacherous Great Black Swamp and all its dangers.  They had built miles of corduroy roads for supply wagons to travel on and when they finally prepared to engage the British, who they outnumbered the enemy 2 to 1, Hull surrendered 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.

 

 

A section of one of Hull's corduroy roads  

  

Hulls Surrender

Why Did The Invasion Plan Fail?

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

1.  (West prong) - Hull surrendered the Army at Detroit.

2.  (Center prong near the Niagara Border) - New England governors claimed that their militia troops were only to be used defensively.

3    (East prong) - Militiamen refused to cross the Canadian boarder to take Montreal.  They feared the Federalists who were opposed to the war would not come to aid the troops if they needed help.

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.

 Did this Provoke the British Into Burning Washington?

 

 No?  They burnt our capital because we burned theirs first.   Hull surrendered in August 1812 and the following year on April 27, 1813 we burned the British capital in York Canada.  The Brits didn't burn our capital until sixteen months later on August 24, 1814.  Was it a random act of war, I  don't think so, I think it was simply payback time for the Brits.

 

So what do Canadians think about all this?

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.

Is History Repeating Itself?

In 2025 President Trump floated the idea that perhaps Canadia might want to consider becoming a state in the United States. Judging from the responses I heard in the media, my guess is the answer is "NO!"  My suggestion is you not pose that question to the townsfolk in Thamesville, they're already pretty peeved with us.   

Conclusion 

While I am sorry that some of my friends to the north are still a little testy about our 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 some of our history teachers to do the same).    

 

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My first book "Fort Amanda -A Historical Redress” is available on Amazon.
If you'd like a signed or personalized copy, send $20 for the book and $4 for shipping ($24 total) along with your address.   

David Johnson
1100 Little Bear Loo
Lewis Center, Ohio 43035