Involvement of Kentucky in the War of 1812
During the
War of 1812
,
Kentucky
supplied numerous troops and supplies to the war effort.
Because Kentucky did not have to commit manpower to defending fortifications, most Kentucky troops campaigned actively against the enemy. This led to Kentucky seeing more battle casualties than all other states combined.
[1]
War of 1812
[
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]
With the impending onset of hostilities, the governor of the
Indiana Territory
, future
United States President
William Henry Harrison
sought military assistance from neighboring
Kentucky
. After being appointed brigadier general of the Kentucky
militia
on August 22, Harrison went to attain the force in order to defend the Indiana territorial government at
Vincennes, Indiana
.
[2]
Harrison had resigned his military commission in December 1811, but with the help of Kentucky governor
Charles Scott
, he was able to recruit Kentucky citizens to help defend Indiana; citizens in Ohio and Indiana had heard of the lack of camp provisions and chose not to be burdened by such hardships.
[2]
[3]
As a result, most of Kentucky's militia during the war fought in what was the old
Northwest Territory
.
[4]
Militia
[
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]
Some 25,010 Kentuckians served in war, which was about five out of every six men then of military age. Fighting against both the British and their Native Americans allies, Kentucky sent a total of 36
regiments
, four
battalions
, and twelve independent companies to the field, an almost unbelievable accomplishment considering the state's small population at the time.
[5]
John Allen
, a former gubernatorial candidate and Kentucky state legislator, on June 5, 1812, was made colonel of the 1st Kentucky Rifle Regiment, first militia troops raised by the state for the war. Allen was killed while rallying his men at the
Battle of the River Raisin
in Michigan. He was buried in
Frankfort Cemetery
, and Kentucky, Indiana, and
Ohio
would all name counties in his honor.
[7]
Eight other Kentucky officers died in either the battle or the massacre that followed it, and had counties named for them. The River Raisin casualties included about 400 Kentuckians killed in the fighting, plus eighty wounded prisoners who were tomahawked by the Indians as soon as the British departed. The murder of the prisoners led to the Kentuckian's rallying cry for the rest of the war -
Remember the River Raisin!
[6]
Many Kentuckians also took part in Andrew Jackson's defeat of a British force at the
Battle of New Orleans
, which took place (unknown to the participants) after the peace treaty had already been signed.
Kentucky militia service in U.S. Army campaigns
[
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]
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Ontario, Canada
- Louisiana
Isaac Shelby
, Kentucky's 1st and 5th Governor and Revolutionary War hero, helped lead the Kentucky militia in the War of 1812 in the recapture of Fort Detroit from the British when he was in his 60s, leading to its renaming as
Fort Shelby
. Shelby also joined General Harrison in pursuing the retreating British troops led by Major-General
Henry Procter
and the Indian leader
Tecumseh
into Canada, defeating them and killing Tecumseh at the
Battle of the Thames
.
Almost all the American soldiers at the
Battle of Wild Cat Creek
, fought in northern Indiana, were residents of the
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
area in southwestern Kentucky.
[8]
Homefront
[
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]
Kentucky helped supply the war. A major supply depot for the war was at
Newport, Kentucky
. Dubbed
Newport Barracks
, the staging area would later serve as a supply depot for conflicts with Mexico later in the century.
[9]
Saltpeter
was heavily mined in
Carter County
and at the
Great Saltpeter Cave
in
Rockcastle County
.
[10]
But the most notable mining was at
Mammoth Cave
, whose saltpeter, considered exceptional quality, was numbered at 570,000 pounds produced during the war.
[11]
The war also affected the state's economy. Due to the inability to trade with Britain during the war, "rudimentary manufacturing" was spurred during the timeframe.
[12]
To help pay for the war, a distilled spirits
excise tax
was levied during the war, and would not end until 1817. The next such tax would not be levied until the
Civil War
in 1862.
[13]
Future governors
[
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]
The War of 1812 had a lasting effect on Kentucky. One consequence was that the
Shawnee
never again challenged white control of the state.
[14]
Also, a number of Kentucky's future leaders served in the war. Counting Isaac Shelby's second term, which began just after the outbreak of hostilities, six consecutive governors of Kentucky were veterans of the war. Later governors
Charles A. Wickliffe
and
John J. Crittenden
also served as
aides-de-camp
in the war. Twenty-two of
Kentucky's one hundred twenty counties
are named for participants in the War of 1812, including nine that were named after soldiers killed at the Battle of River Raisin.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kleber p.930
- ^
a
b
"Indiana Territory ? Timeline"
. Indiana State Government
. Retrieved
January 15,
2009
.
- ^
Mahon pp.63,64
- ^
Kleber p.506
- ^
Quisenberry, A.C. (1912).
"Kentucky Troops in the War of 1812"
.
The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
10
(30). Kentucky Historical Society
. Retrieved
January 17,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
"Battle of River Raisin ? January 22, 1813"
. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Archived from
the original
on April 8, 2009
. Retrieved
January 17,
2009
.
- ^
Kleber p.15
- ^
Ferguson, Rich (March 3, 2008).
"Indianapolis Tonight"
. WIBC
. Retrieved
January 15,
2009
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
Kleber p.155
- ^
Kleber pp.167,387
- ^
Kleber p.605
- ^
Kleber p.280
- ^
Kleber p.266
- ^
Kleber p.815
Sources
[
edit
]
- Kleber, John E., ed. (1992).
The Kentucky Encyclopedia
. University Press of Kentucky.
ISBN
0-8131-1772-0
.
- Mahon, John K. (1991).
The War of 1812
. Da Capo Press.
ISBN
0-306-80429-8
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- "Causation of the War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
48
(2). April 1950.
- Hall, Ellery L. (October 1930). "Canadian Annexation Sentiment in Kentucky Prior to the War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
28
(85).
- Hammack, James Wallace (1976).
Kentucky and the Second American Revolution: The War of 1812
. The University Press of Kentucky.
ISBN
0-8131-0216-2
.
- Harris, James Russell (Summer 1984). "Kentuckians in the War of 1812: A Note on Numbers, Losses, and Sources".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
82
(3).
- "Imprisonment of British Officers in the
Frankfort Penitentiary
, War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
48
(3). July 1951.
- Kinkead, Elizabeth Shelby (1915). "Chapter IX: The War of 1812".
A History of Kentucky
. American Book Company. pp. 116?126.
ISBN
1-4374-5612-X
. Retrieved
January 17,
2009
.
- Quisenberry, Anderson Chenault (1915).
Kentucky in the War of 1812
. The Kentucky State Historical Society
. Retrieved
January 17,
2009
.
- Quisenberry, Anderson Chenault (January 1914). "Kentucky "Regulars" in the War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
12
(34).
- Quisenberry, Anderson Chenault (September 1912). "Kentucky Troops in the War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
10
(30).
- Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate (1885). "Chapter XII: The War of 1812".
Kentucky: A Pioneer Commonwealth
. Houghton Mifflin. pp.
158
?171
. Retrieved
January 17,
2009
.
- Wilson, Samuel (September 1911). "Kentucky's Part in the War of 1812".
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
.
9
(27).
External links
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