Battle of Mackinac Island

Battle of Mackinac Island
Part of the War of 1812
Fort Mackinac, Michigan
Date July 26 – August 4, 1814 Location Mackinac Island, Michigan Result British victory
Combatants
British Empire, Native Americans	United States
Commanders
Robert McDouall	George Croghan, Andrew Holmes†
Strength
about 300	700
Casualties
1 dead, 1 wounded	13 dead, 51 wounded

The Battle of Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw), was a British victory in the War of 1812. Fort Mackinac was an important American trading post in the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It was important for its influence and control over the Native American tribes in the area, which was sometimes referred to in historical documents as "Michilimackinac".

Background

On July 18, 1812, a British force captured the island from its American defenders in the first Battle of Mackinac Island, before they knew that war had been declared. As a result of this success, many Indians rallied to the British cause, contributing to several more British victories over the next year. The British meanwhile abandoned their own defences at St. Joseph Island and concentrated their forces at Mackinac Island.

For the rest of the year and through much of 1813, the British hold on Mackinac was secure since they also held Detroit, which the Americans would have to take before attacking Mackinac. Then on September 10, 1813, the Americans won the Battle of Lake Erie, which allowed them to recover Detroit and win the subsequent Battle of the Thames. Although it was too late in the year to allow them to mount an expedition to Mackinac, they had nevertheless cut the British supply lines to the post. The British garrison were placed on half rations but were suffering severe shortages by the end of the winter.

In February 1814, a British party under Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDouall of the Glengarry Light Infantry opened a new supply line from York via Lake Simcoe to the Nottawasaga River on Georgian Bay. On April 19, McDouall began descending the river; he arrived at Mackinac on May 18, with twenty-nine batteaux containing provisions. He took command of the post and built a stockade and blockhouse on the island's highest point, naming it Fort George.

Battle

In July 1814, the Americans attempted to retake the island as part of a larger campaign designed by Lieutenant Colonel George Croghan and his superior General William Henry Harrison to regain control of the Great Lakes and sever the fur trade alliance between the British and the tribes of the region. The two-pronged campaign included an assault on Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River.

On July 26, a squadron of five U.S. ships under Commodore Arthur Sinclair arrived off Mackinac Island carrying a landing force of 700 soldiers under the command of Croghan. The force was made of an ad hoc battalion of regular infantry (made up of detached companies of the 17th, 19th and 24th U.S. Infantry, under Major Andrew Holmes) and a battalion of volunteers from the Ohio militia, with detachments of artillery.

Croghan discovered that the new British blockhouse stood too high for the naval guns to reach, forcing an unprotected assault on the fort's wall. The Americans shelled the fort for two days, with most of the shells falling harmlessly in vegetable gardens around the fort.

A dense fog forced the Americans back from the island for a week. Upon their return the Americans, led by Holmes, assaulted the north end of the island, near the location of the 1812 British assault. The Americans worked their way to the fort through dense woods which were protected by Native American allies of the British, finally emerging into a clearing below the fort.

McDouall, in the meantime, had placed a force of 140 men of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles and Michigan Fencibles, with 150 Menominee Indians from the Wisconsin River and two field guns, behind low breastworks at the opposite end of the clearing. A false report of a landing west of the fort caused him to withdraw his redcoated infantry, but when the Americans emerged from the woods into the clearing, they were easy targets for the British guns. The Americans attempted to work through the woods to flank the guns but were ambushed by the Indians. Thirteen Americans, including Major Holmes and two other officers, were killed, and 51 were wounded. Because of the heavy losses and confusion, Croghan was forced to order his men to retreat back through the woods to the beach. The Americans rowed back to their ships, leaving the fort in the hands of the British until the end of the war.

Aftermath

The United States attempted, unsuccessfully, to blockade the British on Mackinac Island with the gunboats USS Tigress and USS Scorpion. In the Engagement on Lake Huron, both vessels fell into British hands, securing the British hold on the entire region.

References

• Amateurs to Arms, John R. Elting, Da Capo Press, New York, 1995, ISBN 0-306-80653-3

External links

• http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/batmac1814.html

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