THE WAR OF 1812 MAGAZINE ISSUE 26 December 2016 Appendix I War of 1812 Chronology Compiled by Ralph Eshelman and Donald Hickey Introduction This War of 1812 Chronology includes all the major events related to the conflict beginning with the 1797 Jay Treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the United Kingdom and the United States of America and ending with the United States, Weas and Kickapoos signing of a peace treaty at Fort Harrison, Indiana, June 4, 1816. While the chronology includes items such as treaties, embargos and political events, the focus is on military engagements, both land and sea. It is believed this chronology is the most holistic inventory of War of 1812 military engagements ever assembled into a chronological listing. Don Hickey, in his War of 1812 Chronology, comments that chronologies are marred by errors partly because they draw on faulty sources and because secondary and even primary sources are not always dependable.1 For example, opposing commanders might give different dates for a military action, and occasionally the same commander might even present conflicting data. Jerry Roberts in his book on the British raid on Essex, Connecticut, points out that in a copy of Captain Coot’s report in the Admiralty and Secretariat Papers the date given for the raid is off by one day.2 Similarly, during the bombardment of Fort McHenry a British bomb vessel's log entry date is off by one day.3 Hickey points out that reports compiled by officers at sea or in remote parts of the theaters of war seem to be especially prone to ambiguity and error. Privateering records are often incomplete or unreliable. Sometimes the assumption of a date from a newspaper report is incorrect when the article is reprinted from an earlier published newspaper. Thus a statement such as "Saturday 12th Inst." may actually refer to a previous month or months. Such misreading is common. When possible, chronology entries are based on the most authoritative sources available. But even then dates and locations can be imprecise. Statements such as "during the winter of 1814 on the Mississippi River" or "in early June of 1814 in western New York" don't give enough information to make them useful for a chronology. For a list of the primary sources utilized to compile this chronology see Eshelman 2013a.4 He discusses the difficulties of assembling such a database. For example, many sites have different names and multiple spellings. Not all sections of North America have received the same level of study and therefore events from less studied regions are underrepresented. Eshelman provides all known names and variations of spellings as well as range of dates for a military engagement when there is no consensus. For this chronology, when dates are in conflict the most authoritative or most agreed upon date is given followed by "~" to indicate there are discrepancies. The range of those discrepancies are shown in brackets at the end of the entry. The most common name of the site or event is used. It is understood that battles are often time actually skirmishes. To see alternate names for entries, details of the event and sources of dates see Eshelman 2013b.5 The modern state, province, country or body of water where the event took place is show by abbreviation in parentheses at the end of each entry. For prize captures location information is often lacking but the majority of them occurred in the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes location is inferred based on known location of a vessel shortly before or after an event. When in doubt the abbreviation is usually followed by "?". “British” and “Indian” are used in the chronology because they were the designations usually used during the War of 1812. When the term British appears it is meant to be inclusive of all of British allies, including Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, North American British colonists and Indian allies. This does mean that all these allies were necessarily involved in each action, they rarely were. The term Indian means no disrespect to the native, indigenous, 1 THE WAR OF 1812 MAGAZINE ISSUE 26 December 2016 aboriginal people of North America, also referred to as First Peoples in Canada. Again its use merely reflects the common language of the time. To make this chronology user friendly multiple events under a single date are listed in alphabetical order. Thus British listings appear before US listings for that date. Vessels are listed by type and then alphabetically by name. To keep this chronology as short as possible each entry is limited to a single line of text. A condensed version of this chronology was published in 2016.6 While care has been taken in preparing this chronology, for reasons pointed out above, it undoubtedly has errors. Many sources use different names and dates for the same event making duplicate entries difficult to reconcile. For a listing organized by country, state and province, see “A List of Anglo-American War of 1812 Land Battles, Actions, and Engagements; Naval and Maritime Actions and those Engagements involving Civilians, Native Peoples and Non-Combatants”. Readers are encouraged to suggest additions or corrections by contacting the senior author at [email protected]. Belligerents, countries, states, provinces, oceans and ships are identified by the following abbreviations: AL - Alabama ME - Maine AO - Atlantic Ocean MI – Michigan AU - Austria MI - Mississippi BE – Belgium MN - Minnesota BF – Bay of Fundy MO - Missouri BM – Bermuda NB - New Brunswick BR - British NC - North Carolina CB – Chesapeake Bay NF - Newfoundland CS - Caribbean Sea NH - New Hampshire CT - Connecticut NJ - New Jersey DC - District of Columbia NY - New York DE - Delaware OH - Ohio FI - Falkland Islands ON - Ontario FL - Florida OR - Oregon FR - France PA - Pennsylvania GA – Georgia PM - Provincial Marine BR – Great Britain PO - Pacific Ocean HM - His or Her Majesty's QE - Quebec IA - Iowa RI - Rhode Island IL - Illinois SC - South Carolina IN - Indiana TN - Tennessee IO - Indian Ocean TX - Texas LA - Louisiana UC - Upper Canada LC - Lower Canada US - United States LN – London USRC - US Revenue Cutter LOM – letter of maque VA - Virginia MA - Massachusetts VT - Vermont MD - Maryland WI - Wisconsin 1797 Nov. 19 BR and US sign Jay Treaty (LN) 2 THE WAR OF 1812 MAGAZINE ISSUE 26 December 2016 1798-1801 US and FR in Quasi-War 1803 May 17 BR issues letters of marque and reprisal against FR; Napoleonic Wars begin Oct. 1 Commercial clauses in Jay Treaty expire 1805 May 22 BR issues Essex Decision, which threatens US re-export trade 1806 Apr. 18 US adopts but later suspends partial non-importation law against BR Apr. 25 Leander Affair, HM ship-of-the-line Leander accidentally kills US seaman off NY harbor (AO) May 16 BR issues Order-in-Council proclaiming blockade of northern Europe, suspends Essex Decision Nov. 21 FR issues Berlin Decree proclaiming blockade of BR; Continental System begins Dec. 31 US and BG sign Monroe-Pinkney Treaty (LN) 1807 Jan. 7 BR issues Order-in-Council barring neutral trade between enemy ports Mar. 3 US repudiates Monroe-Pinkney Treaty June 22 Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, HM frigate Leopard fires on US frigate Chesapeake off VA (AO) Oct. 17 BR renounces impressment from neutral warships BR orders impressment of BR seamen found on neutral merchant vessels Nov. 11 BR Orders-in-Council forces neutral trade with French-controlled ports to pass through BR Dec. 14 US activates partial non-importation law of 1806 Dec. 17 FR issues Milan Decree authorizing seizure of neutral ships complying with Orders-in-Council Dec. 22 US adopts embargo prohibiting US ships and goods from leaving port 1808 Apr. 17 FR issues Bayonne Decree, seizing all American ships entering ports controlled by FR 1809 Mar. 1 US adopts non-intercourse law against BR and FR Mar. 4 James Madison inaugurated as president of US in Washington (DC) Apr. 19 US and BR sign Erskine Agreement in Washington (DC) Apr. 26 BR issues Order-in-Council blockading ports under French control May 22 BR repudiates Erskine Agreement 1810 Mar. 23 FR issues Rambouillet Decree sequestering US ships and cargoes entering French-controlled ports May 1 US adopts Macon’s Bill No. 2 reopening trade with BR and FR Aug. 5 FR establishes Trianon Tariff barring most imports FR issues Trianon Decree condemning all US ships and cargoes entering French-controlled ports FR sends Cadore letter to US offering to rescind Continental System Oct. 18 FR issues Fontainebleau Decree imposing penalties for smuggling BR goods to Continent 1811 Indian action, Hills Ferry (Carlyle), Kaskaskia River (IL) Feb. 28 US minister William Pinkney leaves BR 3 THE WAR OF 1812 MAGAZINE ISSUE 26 December 2016 Mar. 2 US adopts non-importation law against BR May Indians raid settlements near Kaskaskia (IL) May 16 President-Little Belt Affair, US frigate President and HM sloop Little Belt clash off Virginia (AO) June 2 Cox family massacre near Pocahontas (IL) June 20 Indians attack ferry, Mississippi River (IL) Indians attack Hunting Spring (IL) July 23 Illinois River Blockhouse incident (IL) Oct. 10 Indians ambush militia foraging party at Fort Harrison (IN) Nov. 4 War Congress convenes in Washington (DC) Nov. 7 US repulses Indian attack at Battle of Tippecanoe (IN) Nov. 8 US burns Prophet's Town (IN) Nov. 12 US and BR settle Chesapeake-Leopard Affair in Washington Dec. 10-Apr. 10 US enacts war preparations Dec. 30 Winnebago kill lead miners near Galena and kill others at nearby Nathan Pryor home (IA) 1812 1812 HM frigate Java captures ship William (AO) HM frigate Spartan destroys three small privateers (BF) Indians murder man at White River (IL) Indians massacre ten men including Lt.