War of 1812 Bicentennial

II

To the victors belong the spoils of the enemy," is an old adage in American politics, but the British conquerors of Michilimackinac wasted no time in taking stock of their loot. In the fort, seven artillery pieces, together with ammunition and ordnance stores, constituted a welcome haul. In the commissary, the Royal Veterans' storekeeper found supplies of flour, pork, vinegar, salt, candles, soap, and two other items that set the old soldiers mouth to watering—357 gallons of "high wines" and 253¼ gallons of whiskey. Down below the fort, in the government factory, thousands of dollars in trade goods and furs fell into the British hands, and shortly after the surrender two ships from Chicago arrived with rich cargoes of furs which Captain Roberts promptly seized as war prizes.

As their reward for helping to capture the island, the Indians were given blankets and other goods and guns, among which were Spanish Fusees that were so poorly made that they exploded in the hands of their users. Roberts' soldiers and the volunteers had to wait two years before "the first dividend of the proceeds of the Prize property Captured from the Enemy at Michilimackinac" was approved at the rate of ten pounds currency to each private. In contrast, the British private's share of the booty in the capture of Detroit in August, 1812, was only three pounds.

The day after Fort Michilimackinac fell, some one quietly passed the word to Roberts that there were several British army deserters in the ranks of the American garrison. Despite the vehement protests of Lieutenant Hanks, Roberts arrested three men and charged them with desertion. Two of the men made such "an excellent drum and fife" that he put them to work, and they served out the war on the island as musicians. Twenty other American solders, a third of the force Hanks commanded, were held by Roberts because, he said, they were British subjects. Nearly all of them took an oath of allegiance to the British and "volunteered" to serve under Roberts—"after much solicitation."

With few exceptions, the civilian population took the oath also, if for no other reason than to avoid being uprooted from their homes. Michael Housman, however, was permitted to remain without officially aligning himself with the British. Subsequently he was allowed to make business trips to Montreal and to return to Michilimackinac, with the only restriction being that he was not to go into American-held territory. Certain other prominent Americans on the island refused to take the oath, and, together with the remnant of the American garrison, they left Mackinac on July 26 aboard two captured American vessels, the Mary and the Selina.

The Americans reached Detroit on August 2, where they learned that several days earlier Governor William Hull, the commander at Detroit, had received news of the fall of Fort Michilimackinac. Although this event could not have been unexpected, it was nonetheless a disheartening blow for Hull. His belief that this defeat had "opened the northern hive of Indians" was one of the major reasons behind his decision on August 16 to surrender Detroit in order to pre­vent a massacre of its civilians. For the second time in a month, the Americans from Michilimackinac found themselves captives of the British. All except Porter Hanks, that is. Earlier on August 16, while a military court was investigating his action in surrendering Fort Michilimackinac, the unfortunate lieutenant was killed by a British cannon ball.

On the same day Detroit fell to British forces led by General Brock, a very discouraged Captain Roberts was writing to his superiors: "The Spark which gave Life to every proceeding at the commencement of our operations seems to have nearly expired." The traders and voyageurs, who had willingly shouldered so much of the burden in the expedition against the Americans, had departed for their regular winter quarters in the west. The traders had done everything that could be expected of them when Roberts asked for assistance. The agents of the North West Company at Fort William, for example, nine days after they received Roberts' urgent call for help, arrived at Michilimackinac, over five hundred miles away, with a large force of men ready to fight. By the time they arrived, however, the island was in British hands, and once the crisis was over they and the other fur traders were anxious to resume their normal activites. Roberts, who was desperate for additional manpower, was unable to persuade the men. to stay. "Private views and individual jealousies," he lamented, "have overcome every other sentiment."

Within a few days after the fall of Michilimackinac, the number of Indians on the island had skyrocketed to around 1,500, as Indians flocked in to share in the rewards of victory. The problem of feeding this multitude and finding presents for all of them was a staggering task. Although it disturbed his sense of correct military procedure, Roberts was forced to authorize "enormous expenses" by John Askin, Jr., and other agents, even though the commander doubted that he had authority to do this. Despite such efforts, supplies of food, gunpowder, and trade goods were dangerously low by the end of July. To relieve the problem, Roberts reported, he was "getting rid of the supernumeraries as fast as possible."

From the British point of view, the best way to get rid of the Indians on Mackinac Island was to send them down to Detroit to fight Hull and the Americans. Dickson's western Indians, however, were anxious to return home after receiving their presents, and Roberts' efforts to persuade them to go to Detroit were unavailing. Other Indians who had come from a distance also gradually drifted away back to their villages or winter quarters. Still others stayed on at Michilimackinac because they were having too good a time. When an appeal came on August 12 for Indian forces to assist in the attack on Detroit, all the Indians on the island, according to Askin, "were as drunk as Ten Thousand Devils." Eventually, Roberts induced two hundred warriors to go to Detroit, and although they arrived too late for the capture of that post, in September they had a part in an abortive raid on Fort Wayne, Indiana.

During July and August, the Ottawa Indians, who lived closest to Michilimackinac, were of little help to the British. Only about thirty Ottawa warriors were with Roberts when he landed on Michilimackinac. After the Americans surrendered, the Ottawa generally accepted the British invitation to come to the island to share in the distribution of presents. A few days later, however, an Ottawa from the St. Clair River arrived and breathlessly reported that American soldiers at Detroit "were as numerous as the Sand," and that they would "exterminate" the English and those who sided with them. The Ottawa leaders, greatly concerned, met in secret council. A Chippewa who was invited to sit in, later reported to Roberts that the Ottawa were "Traitors and Cowards," who talked of going to Detroit and begging the forgiveness of the Americans for whatever help they had given the British. Some even spoke of asking Roberts to restore the fort to the Americans. Most of the Ottawa men returned to their families at L'Arbre Croche, but the chiefs of the tribe later conferred with Roberts. While they told him that they intended to remain neutral for the present, the impression they wanted to leave, Toussaint Pothier felt, was "that the Future possession of the Fort depended upon them."

It was his distrust of "these treacherous Men" that led Roberts to appeal to his superiors in Canada for reinforcements. The weakness of the British garrison was much talked about by the Indians, Roberts declared. A stronger force was necessary to impress the Indians with the military power of Great Britain. Although he needed every man he had on Michilimackinac, Roberts felt obliged to send an officer and six men back to St. Joseph's to protect British property there. This left him with less than forty British soldiers at Fort Michilimackinac, scarcely enough men to take care of the guns in the blockhouses. The eighteen ex-members of the American garrison whom he had pressed into service were "so extremely awkward and ill inclined" that he was almost sorry that he had not shipped them back to the United States. As for his own men, their "infamous conduct... surpasses all precedent." He had tried every punishment in the books to make them toe the line, but it was no use. "One of them," he wrote in mid-August, "is now in Irons for striking an Officer in the execution of his duty."

In his desperate efforts to find a solution to his manpower shortage, Roberts for a time even attempted to organize company of Indian riflemen to serve in the fort during an attack. Another force would be stationed on Bois Blanc Island where it could give advance warning of an enemy approach from Detroit. This plan did not prove practicable, but a somewhat similar measure to augment the military strength of the island was put into effect the following summer when Roberts was authorized to recruit a company called the Michigan Fencibles. A force of about fifty men, mostly voyageurs, was organized. Although these men subsequently proved to be of some help, they were a most un-military-like lot in appearance and were held in low esteem by the regular army men.

Two events in August solved some of Roberts' problems and made the rest of less immediate concern. On August 16, Detroit was surrendered to the British. The previous day, the Americans at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, had abandoned that post, and as they did so were attacked by Indians. All of the Americans were either killed or taken prisoner. Eventually, Captain Nathan Heald, his wife, and some other prisoners were turned over by their captors to the British at Michilimackinac.

By mid-August, therefore, the British were supreme on the upper Great Lakes. The Ottawa "repented of their errors" and most humbly "implored forgiveness" from the British. Late in the fall, a sergeant and twenty-five more men of the 10th Royal Veterans arrived to reinforce the British garrison at Fort Michilimackinac. Some provisions arrived also, but not enough, Roberts feared, to take care of the needs of his men and of those Indians who came in for their winter presents.

In November winter settled down over Michilimackinac. Until the end of January, 1813, the islanders were sealed off from the outside world by floating ice which they could neither go through nor across. The residents hibernated until spring, keeping close to their quarters to avoid the bitingly cold winds blowing off the frozen waters of the Straits. Captain Roberts and his men, however, were dressed for the cold. The previous winter at St. Joseph's, when his men's old army coats had worn out and new ones were unavailable, Roberts had requisitioned from John Askin, Jr., some of the colorful heavy blankets which for centuries were a staple of the Indian trade and today are usually called Hudson's Bay blankets. With coats made from these blankets, the British soldiers were warmly dressed, even though not according to army regulations. Now when the residents of Mackinac Island saw the soldiers parading in their many-colored coats, they began to make similar garments for themselves. And thus it was, so the story goes, that the Mackinaw coat was born.

It was a busy winter for Dr. David Mitchell, who had been surgeon's mate at old Fort Michilimackinac forty years earlier and who was now serving in the same capacity at the fort on Mackinac Island. During the winter a whooping-cough epidemic, an unheard-of occurrence on the island, struck many families and brought death to several children. At the same time, Mitchell began treating his commanding officer for a disorder described as a "great debility of the Stomache & Bowels." Despite the treatments, Roberts' condition grew worse. In May, when the Sieur de Boucherville, aide-de-camp to Sir George Prevost, British commander-inchief in Canada, visited the island he was greatly impressed with Roberts. Although the old veteran's health was very bad, his fighting spirit was undiminished. As de Boucherville embarked for the east, the captain's parting words were: "Assure Sir George, tho' my means are small, still in Case of an attack, that I shall not surrender this Garrison, intrusted to my care, unless I am reduced to the last extremity." A month later, however, Dr. Mitchell certified that Roberts was now "incapable of attending to his duty," and the captain asked to be relieved of his command.

Meanwhile, with spring had come a furious quickening in the tempo of life at Michilimackinac as soldiers and civilians girded themselves for the next phase of the war against the Americans. "Every Indian that can bear arms along L. Michigan and Huron from Saginaw Bay to Matchedash are going to exert themselves in driving away if possible these Scoundrels that have harassed them so long," John Askin, Jr., wrote a friend. Michilimackinac was to be the staging point where the Indians from the north and west would be assembled to aid the British as they pushed southward into Ohio. As soon as the ice began to leave the lakes, provisions and trade goods started to trickle through to Michilimackinac as Roberts and Askin frantically tried to stockpile the materials they needed to handle the anticipated hordes of warriors.

By June, Askin had already outfitted and sent to Detroit two hundred Ottawa tribesmen, who were now willing enough to fight the Americans. A band of sixty Chippewa and Ottawa men was to depart in a day or so, and more Indians from Lake Superior were expected any moment. As the days went by, however, the islanders more and more turned their eyes westward across the waters of the Straits, anxiously awaiting the first glimpse of the western Indians, led by the intrepid Robert Dickson.

The previous fall, that fiery Scotsman had become impatient with Captain Roberts for the latter's refusal to give him the ammunition and other supplies that Dickson wanted for his Indians. He had departed for Montreal, wrathfully charging that he was being shackled and promising his friends that he would "come to a final settlement" with the authorities. In a few weeks he was back in the west with an appointment as "Agent to the Indians of the Western Nations." He plunged into the wilderness beyond Lake Michigan, after reporting from Chicago in March, 1813, that he was collecting a force of Indians which he would bring to Mackinac Island towards the end of May. As soon as possible in the spring, Roberts sent boats loaded with supplies to Green Bay, to await Dickson's arrival at that point. But as the weeks passed and still no word. from Dickson, fears arose that this bold adventurer might have been captured by the Americans.

Then on June 10, Dickson and a howling mob of 623 Indians came out of the west and swarmed from their canoes on to the shores of Michilimackinac. Askin had thought he was ready for Dickson, but in a short time his supplies were exhausted. Roberts then went to the village merchants, got the supplies that were needed, and later asked for permission to take such extraordinary action. After two weeks, Dickson and his men departed.

"Thank God, they are now leaving," Madelaine Askin wrote to her mother-in-law. "They have done much damage here, six or seven cattle killed and several sheep. It is a great loss for those who have had their cows killed, as they sell for forty dollars here." Many British military men shared Mrs. Askin's lack of enthusiasm for the Indians. After talking with Roberts, de Boucherville had decided that it was unwise to place much reliance on these allies. They were quick to lose heart at any setback, he said, and "at best they are but a barbarous ally, respecting neither sex nor age."

Much happened before the end of summer. The Indians came straggling back, discouraged by an unsuccessful campaign in northern Ohio. In September, Captain Roberts was replaced by Captain Richard Bullock of the 41st Regiment, and hard on the heels of his appointment came news of startling American victories news that would change the entire complexion of the war at Michilimackinac.