by James Spurr
Such were the issues of the day as Friends Good Will plied the waters of Lake Erie during her first season of service. Fortunately, documents of commerce left in her wake, surviving to this day, include manifests documenting that Oliver Williams was aboard for one such voyage and placed newspaper advertisements featuring comfortable passenger cabins and competitive cargo rates.
Alexander Grant, the ‘Commodore’, enjoyed a long and prominent career and was highly respected for his distinguished service. He lived, in his later years, on Grosse Isle situated in the Detroit River, which ironically, is now American soil. He was retired just as the war began and died in 1813. Colonel Pye was unique in his understanding of the role ships and the control of the Lakes would play in the coming conflict. While the meeting and conversation between Alexander Grant and Colonel Pye at Kingston is fictional, together with their later presence on Grosse Isle, St. Joseph’s Island, and Detroit, it is likely they at least were acquainted with one another. Kingston is correctly depicted as a center for maritime interests, both merchant and naval. The strategy for the defense of Upper Canada, discussed between historical characters at a fictional meeting, is entirely accurate and the strategy proved more effective in the early months of the war than perhaps even Britain imagined as possible.
The trip up the St. Lawrence River by bateaux manned by watermen depicts an important transportation artery of the day. As suggested, supply routes would play prominently in the outcome of the war, as would the role of native tribes and alliances between them and the Crown. At war’s end, those failed alliances hastened the displacement of tribes to the west as the United States expanded. All significant efforts at uniting the tribes in a ‘Confederation’, despite Tecumseth’s considerable skills, largely evaporated after Tippacanoe.
The Manifest issued to Friends Good Will 19 June, 1812, followed the Declaration of War by the United States upon England by just one day. Had CNN been available to Oliver Williams and Captain Lee, certainly they would have never departed Detroit. The Manifest does include a reference to a ‘chest’ without supplying any detail as to its contents.
Lieutenant Porter Hanks, commander of Fort Mackinaw, did send an agent to determine the state of preparations on St. Joseph Island, although he was captured and unable to ever report back to Mackinaw Island. Ephriam Williams later recalled his father’s federal charter and specified that soldiers accompanied the arms and ammunition to Fort Dearborn.
The attack made by natives against Friends Good Will is fiction, although Robert Dickson, from Green Bay, with his militant attitudes and grudges against American control of Mackinaw Island are factual. He did play a role in the British attack on Mackinaw and brought with him natives, including Winnebago. Hence, Dickson might well have been making his way northeasterly on Lake Michigan as Friends Good Will made her way to ‘Chekagou’. A map predating the war by some decades, housed at the Chicago Historical Society, denotes the settlement as such, well before Fort Dearborn was built.
John Kinzie was one of Chicago’s earliest citizens and was controversial for his sale of liquor to the natives. Fort Dearborn is correctly described as lying along the south bank of the river and, with just a few ranches along the north bank, the European settlers were vastly outnumbered by the natives. Captain Heald was the garrison commander of Fort Dearborn during the summer of 1812.
Captain Roberts led an amphibious assault from the old Northwest Company brig, Caledonia, landing on the north side of Mackinaw Island the night of July 16, 1812. He directed and supervised the placement of cannon upon the heights above the fort. The United States garrison, outnumbered and surprised, surrendered the next morning without firing a shot. The ruse de guerre of flying ‘false colours’ above the ramparts was spectacularly successful, landing British forces Salina, Erie and Friends Good Will as prizes.
The dock at Mackinaw Island was described in a 1913 Detroit newspaper article. Many details throughout the article are well wide of the mark, but perhaps the description of the dock and the stone filled cribs was accurate. The Capitulation Agreement listed the persons aboard Friends Good Will at the time of her capture, including Urastus Richards, James Lee, Jacob Graversa and Mr. Adams. Oliver Williams was captured as well, together with William Lee. William Lee’s escape and the presence of important documents aboard Friends Good Will is fiction.
Those aboard Friends Good Will at the time of her capture sailed to Detroit aboard Salina. Oliver Williams’ actions aboard Salina and James Lee’s escape are fiction.
Detroit fell to Sir Isaac Brock without a fight on August 16, 1812. The British and native maneuvers around the outlying country unnerved General Hull, United States Army, causing him to believe he was vastly outnumbered when in fact the opposite was the case. Tecumseth and the natives under his command were most impressive.
Within sixty days of the United States declaring war, its lack of preparedness and foresight cost it not just Chicago, Mackinaw Island and Detroit, but with those strategic centers fell also the upper Great Lakes and the Northwest Territory.
How Michigan now flies the stars and stripes, the former instrument of a ruse de guerre from the ramparts of Fort Mackinaw is altogether the subject of another exciting story.
~ James Spurr
If you enjoyed this title, be sure to continue the adventures of Oliver, Mary, William and Bemose in Books 2 and 3 of James Spurr’s Great Lakes, Great Guns Historical Series.
Book 2: One Sloop and Slow Match (ebook edition)
Book 3: Reflections in the Wake (ebook edition)