Decisions at Sandwich: William Henry Harrison and the Pursuit to the Thames

Abstract

106 The Michigan Historical Review The Detroit River frontier in 1812 [Source: Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1869), 266.] THE MICHIGAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 38:1 (Spring 2012): 107-28©2012 by Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved. Decisions at Sandwich: William Henry Harrison and the Pursuit to the Thames by David Curtis Skaggs Early on the morning October 1, 1813, Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison, commander of the Northwestern Army of the United States, had a private meeting in Sandwich, Upper Canada (now Windsor, Ontario) with Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky concerning the pursuit of the British forces retreating from their Detroit River outposts. The American objective seemed simple, destroy the right wing of the British army that had recently evacuated its positions at Fort Malden and Detroit and begun withdrawing its troops. His Majesty’s Indian Department officials, Native American allies, equipment, and all their wives, children, and baggage moved eastward along the southern shore of Lake St. Clair and the Thames River toward British forces on the Niagara frontier. According to Capt. Robert McAfee of the Kentucky Volunteers, Harrison and Shelby concluded that British Maj. Gen. Henry Procter’s troops “might be overtaken in three or four days of hard marching; and it was determined not to lose a moment in preparing for the pursuit.”1 The key to Captain McAfee’s 1816 recounting of the meeting between the general and the governor was that it was done privately outside the hearing of either Harrison’s aides or of any senior officers. Shortly thereafter Harrison convened a meeting of the general officers of his command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry, commander of the United States Navy’s Lake Erie Squadron, to consider the next operational move. Despite the success of the American campaign that followed, the decisions made at the Sandwich meeting remained controversial for years thereafter. This essay focuses on the decisions regarding whether to pursue the British by land or water, on the allocation of American forces subsequent to determination for ground pursuit, and on the impact of these resolutions upon the 1 Robert B. McAfee, History of the Late War in the Western Country (1816; repr., Bowling Green, Ohio: Historical Publications, 1919), 411. 108 The Michigan Historical Review William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) [Rembrandt Peale portrait, c. 1814, courtesy of Grouseland Foundation, Vincennes, Indiana, http://www.grouselandfoundation.org/Grouseland/Home.html.] subsequent campaign and battle at the Thames River. Finally, it analyzes the consequences of these actions upon the subsequent career of General Harrison. The options facing these senior officers during their meeting were twofold. Most importantly, the delay in Procter’s departure from Sandwich on the evening of September 30 meant that the American advance would be only two days behind its foes if its forces departed the Decisions at Sandwich 109 same town on the morning of October 2.2 Should the American forces pursue the enemy by land or by water? The water option was particularly inviting. They could land forces around Long Point on northeastern Lake Erie (opposite Erie, Pennsylvania) and make a short march northward to cut off the retreating British-Native American forces before they reached the Niagara-Burlington Heights area and joined up with other British forces. The water option contained a number of positive elements: it maximized American naval dominance of the lake, it used the American fleet and the dozens of Schenectady boats that had brought most of Harrison’s army across Lake Erie to a landing near the mouth of the Detroit River, and it promised to annihilate the retreating enemy, which would be moving at a slower pace than a waterborne operation. Moreover, the regular army forces under Harrison’s command would then be located near the area of critical operations in the Lake Ontario coastal region. Secretary of War John Armstrong wanted most of his regulars there as he considered it a crucial sector of the American war effort. In addition, American logistical support to the army by way of Lake Erie could be more easily accomplished via supply points at Erie and Cleveland than by means of...