Battle of Mackinac Island (1812)

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Date	July 17, 1812
Location	Mackinac Island, Michigan
Result	British victory

Combatants

Britain
Native Americans

United States

Commanders

Captain Charles Roberts

Lieutenant Porter Hanks

Strength

about 600

Casualties

61 surrendered

Detroit frontier
Tippecanoe – 1st Mackinac Island – Maguaga – Fort Dearborn – Detroit – Fort Harrison – Fort Wayne – Mississinewa – Frenchtown – Fort Meigs – Fort Stephenson – Lake Erie – Thames – Longwoods – Prairie du Chien – 2nd Mackinac Island – Lake Huron – Malcolm's Mills

The Battle of Mackinac Island (1812) was a British victory in the War of 1812. The British captured the island soon after the outbreak of war between Britain and the United States, causing large numbers of Indians to rally to their support. This led to further British victories during the next year.

1 Background
2 Capture of Mackinac
3 Aftermath
4 Sources

[edit] Background

Mackinac Island was an American trading post in the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and was important for its influence and control over the Native American tribes in the area. The United States Army maintained a small fort on the island. About forty miles (65 km) away was the British military post on St. Joseph Island and the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie.

American Secretary of War William Eustis, apparently preoccupied with financial economies, had sent no communications to Lieutenant Porter Hanks, the commander at Fort Mackinac, for several months. He sent word of the declaration of war (which occurred on June 18) to the commanders in the northwest by ordinary rate post. (The Postmaster at Cleveland, Ohio, realised the importance of the news and hired an express rider to take it to Brigadier General William Hull who was advancing on Detroit, but it was too late to save both Hull and Hanks from being taken by surprise.)

As war between Britain and America appeared increasingly likely from the start of 1812, the British commander in Upper Canada, Major General Isaac Brock, had kept the commander of the post at St. Joseph Island, Captain Charles Roberts, informed of events. As soon as he learned of the outbreak of war, he sent a canoe party (under the noted trader William McKay) to Roberts with the vital news, and orders which allowed Roberts to use his discretion whether to attack or stand on the defensive.

Immediately upon receiving Brock's despatch, Captain Roberts determined to attack Mackinac. He hastily formed a force consisting of three men of the Royal Artillery, 47 British soldiers of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion (described as being "worn down by unconquerable drunkenness"), 150 Canadian fur traders and voyageurs, and 400 Indians, with more Indians joining the expedition as it proceeded. This force was embarked in an armed schooner (the Caledonia, belonging to the North West Company), seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.

[edit] Capture of Mackinac

The American garrison at Fort Mackinac consisted of 61 artillerymen with seven guns. Though he was unaware of events elsewhere, Hanks had heard rumours of unusual activity at St. Joseph Island. He sent a fur trader named Michael Dousman, who carried a commission as officer in the militia, to investigate. Dousman's boat was captured by the advancing British force, and Dousman apparently quickly changed sides.

Having learned from Dousman that the Americans were unaware of the outbreak of war, Robert's force landed on the north end of the island, two miles (3.2 km) away from the fort, early on the morning of July 17, 1812. They quietly removed the village's inhabitants from their homes, dragged two 6-pounder cannon through the woods to a ridge above the fort, and fired a single round before sending a message under a flag of truce, demanding the Americans' surrender.

Hanks's force was surprised and was already at a tactical disadvantage. The flag of truce had been accompanied by three of the villagers, who greatly exaggerated the number of Indians in Roberts's force. Fearing a massacre by the Indians, Hanks capitulated without a fight. The American garrison was taken prisoner but released on giving their parole not to fight for the remainder of the war.

[edit] Aftermath

The island's inhabitants were made to swear an oath of allegiance as subjects of the United Kingdom, or leave within a month. Most took the oath. The British abandoned their own fort at St. Joseph Island and concentrated their forces at Mackinac Island.

The loss of Mackinac resulted in large numbers of Indians rallying to the British cause, which influenced the American surrender at Detroit shortly afterwards. Lieutenant Hanks was killed by a cannon shot at Detroit, while awaiting a court martial for cowardice.