War of 1812, Part 14: Command Issues in the American Army

The New Nation
Written By Tom Hand

Henry Dearborn was tasked by President James Madison with conducting the right wing of the American invasion of Canada, but the responsibility was too much for the 62-year-old general who was in poor health and had not seen active military service since the American Revolution. Secretary of War John Armstrong reassigned Dearborn and began searching for a replacement, and he essentially had two choices: Andrew Jackson and James Wilkinson. Armstrong knew Wilkinson and was unfamiliar with Jackson, and, in a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” Armstrong entrusted this command to Wilkinson. Ultimately, Wilkinson decided on a two-prong offensive, leading his command of 7,000 men down the St. Lawrence from Sackett’s Harbor while another 4,000-man army under General Wade Hampton marched north from Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. The two armies would then rendezvous above Montreal, and the combined army under Wilkinson’s command would capture the city.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses how the command issues in the American army impacted the War of 1812, and why it still matters today. 

 

Images courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art, McCord Stewart Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, Yale University Art Gallery, Mount Vernon, Wikimedia. 

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War of 1812, Part 14: Command Issues in the American Army
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Major General Henry Dearborn was tasked by President James Madison with conducting the right wing of the American invasion of Canada. The objective of this thrust was to capture Montreal and close off the Saint Lawrence River, thereby severing the British supply line to Upper Canada. This responsibility would have been formidable for any commander, but it was especially so for a General in his sixty-second year and in poor health who had not seen active military service since the American Revolution.

War of 1812, Part 13: British Retake the Niagara
War of 1812, Part 13: British Retake the Niagara

On July 3, 1814, the American army under General Jacob Brown had invaded Canada, marking the third straight year that American forces tried to gain a foothold on Canadian soil along the Niagara frontier. But following a resounding American victory on July 5 in the Battle of Chippawa and a bloody stalemate at Lundy’s Lane three weeks later, the American army was in no condition to renew the fight and had withdrawn back to Fort Erie.

War of 1812, Part 12: The Battle of Lundy’s Lane
War of 1812, Part 12: The Battle of Lundy’s Lane

A few days after the resounding American victory at Chippawa, General Phineas Riall moved the British Army north along the Niagara River to Fort George and began to gather a force adequate to strike the Americans and push them from Canadian soil. The American commander, General Jacob Brown, meanwhile was imploring Commodore Isaac Chauncey, commander of the Lake Ontario fleet, to come to his assistance and help drive the British from the Niagara peninsula. But as was often the case, the Army and Navy did not see eye to eye on the matter and that would cause a problem in the days ahead.

War of 1812, Part 11: Americans Seize the Offensive
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War of 1812, Part 10: The Battle of Sackett’s Harbor
War of 1812, Part 10: The Battle of Sackett’s Harbor

While General Henry Dearborn was trying to make headway along the Niagara front, the British were busy launching an offensive of their own against Sackett’s Harbor. This was not the first British attack on the American outpost, as the previous summer, on July 19, a British fleet had attempted to destroy Sackett’s Harbor’s critical navy yard, but the British were repulsed in that attack which marked the first armed engagement in the War of 1812.

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In early May 1813, Commodore Isaac Chauncey loaded General Henry Dearborn’s army onto his waiting ships and sailed back across Lake Ontario for the second phase of Dearborn’s campaign, the capture of Fort George. Between the men stationed at Fort Niagara and Dearborn’s contingent, the American force consisted of roughly 4,000 men, with command of the army falling to 26-year-old Colonel Winfield Scott, destined to be one of the great military commanders in American history.

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The man to whom President James Madison and Secretary of War William Eustis gave command of the overall war effort for the War of 1812 was Henry Dearborn from New Hampshire. In addition to the overall command, Dearborn was assigned the right wing of the three-pronged American attack into Canada, up the Lake Champlain corridor to the St. Lawrence River and then onward to Montreal. Arguably, this invasion sector was the most critical, as the St. Lawrence represented the only means of communication between Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

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The center thrust of the three-prong American advance into Canada was along the Niagara River frontier. This thirty-five-mile stretch was the most contested piece of real estate during the War of 1812 and would change hands several times over the course of the war. Secretary of War William Eustis entrusted the command of this sector to Stephen van Rensselaer.

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One of the most prominent grievances that led the United States to declare war on Great Britain in 1812 was the impressment of sailors serving on American merchant ships by the Royal Navy. Although this practice continued until after the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815, it truly reached its ugly climax in the summer of 1807 with the infamous Chesapeake-Leopard affair, a naval encounter that brought the two countries to the brink of war.

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Road to War, Part 1: The Causes of the War of 1812

Many people have called the War of 1812 the “second American Revolution,” and while that phrase has some merit, the facts do not fully support the assertion. It is true that in both cases America’s enemy was Great Britain and the main catalyst that took us to war was American animosity resulting from perceived British wrongs, but the similarities essentially end there.

Tom Hand
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War of 1812, Part 13: British Retake the Niagara