Naval action/preparation on the Lakes, 1812
Naval action/preparation on the Lakes, 1812
St. Lawrence River, fall 1812
various inconclusive skirmishes, much like OTL. Does make Prevost realize (even more) that the vital lifeline of the St. Lawrence river is vulnerable.
Preparation on the British side.
On August 19 Captain James Richard Dacres on the Guerrière fought the Constellation, and lost. He was returned to the RN and faced a Court Martial on 6 October 1812 which cleared him of all blame for the loss. (as OTL) Admiral Warren, wanting someone to spearhead the RN effort on the lakes thinks: “If he was a bit rash going up against the bigger US frigate, well that's the RN spirit, and it's a lot better than what I'm hearing from the Provincial Marine currently running the ships on the Lakes. Besides, he really wants and needs a chance to redeem himself.” So Captain Dacres and a couple of junior officers are sent post haste to Kingston on Lake Ontario, the main British naval base.
Warren knows that he needs someone more senior, eventually but a captain will do for now, basically to prepare things for the spring.
British status on the Great Lakes
(All of this will be OTL, unless otherwise noted.)
British ships on the great lakes were run by the Provincial Marine in 1812 (not the RN), a mostly transport service under the Quartermasters dept. The commander on Lake Ontario was the elderly Hugh Earle (who replaced the 75 year old commodore John Steel). He had had several fairly inconclusive skirmishes with the Americans, losing some where he had more guns and not winning any.
While Lake Ontario was not, in any way, a US preserve – the Brits were still able to ferry supplies across the lake, etc. - Earle had basically ceded dominance to the US navy.
American status on the lakes
(All of this will be OTL, unless otherwise noted.)
On 3 September, Captain Isaac Chauncey was appointed by the US to command on the Great Lakes (he had served in the Pseudo-War and at Tripoli, named captain in 1806). His position at the time was commandant of the Naval Yards at NYC, so it was very convenient to arrange supplies He ordered 140 carpenters, 700 seamen/marines, 100 cannon, and tons of supplies (especially ammunition) forwarded from NYC, and ordered the yards to step up production of various sorts of naval supplies.
On his way out to the post, he discovered how very bad the roads were, and ordered that supplies be redirected to Oswego, then coasted to Sackett's. [NB:there is a reasonably good water way – Hudson river to Albany, Mohawk river then some lakes, etc. Basically where the Erie canal (in part) would go later.] Note that Sackett's Harbor is really the only good harbor on the US side of Lake Ontario.
When Chauncey arrived, the US had only a single warship on Lake Ontario, the Oneida (18 guns), but he quickly bought and arranged for the gunning of commercial schooners. Moreover, Lieutenant Woolsey (who had been in command before Chauncey arrived, had managed to keep Earle from destroying 6 schooners (that he were planned to be fitted with cannon) at Ogdensburg on the St. Lawrence. While the schooners weren't destroyed, both it and a recently armed schooner (the Julia) were trapped there. There was a brief truce in September, which allowed all 7 schooners to make it to Sackett's Harbor, where Chauncey could turn some of them into warships. Chauncey arrives at Sackett's on 2 October. When conversion is finished, US now has 10 ships with ~60 guns, while the Brits have 6 ships with 88 (OTL, iTTL 8 ships with 94). Chauncey also orders the construction of a new ship, the Madison, a 24 gun corvette. It went from raw timber to finished ship in 45 days, launching on 26 November, just in time to be laid up for the winter(!)
Action on the Niagara
On Lake Erie, at the beginning of the war, the Brits had 5 ships and the US had none. (Queen Charlotte with 20 32# carronades , General Hunter 10 x 12# long guns, (Lady) Prevost 14x9# , Nancy and Caledonia 8x6#, and the Detroit 14 guns (what size??). ITTL, it's 6 with the last being a gun boat armed with 1 long gun and 2 carronades.)
On 9 October, Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott (the then US commander on Lake Erie), took 100 men (or more) and crossed the river in the middle of the night to Ft. Erie. They boarded Caledonia and Detroit, overpowered the crews and cut the cables, trying to escape with the two ships. British artillery fire disrupts the effort, and the Detroit is grounded. US forces burn her, to deny her to the British, but they do manage make off with the Caledonia, which thus forms the nucleus for the US fleet.
The Brits had not guarded those ships particularly well because there were 40 prisoners of war from Hull's army on board, and the ships were flying a flag to denote that. They believed that that made the ships immune from attack, claimed that the US attack which was therefore a violation of the rules of war. More newspaper headlines in Canada and Britain about the 'dastardly cowardly American treachery'. (all but the newspaper headlines OTL)
Elliott was working on 2 20 gun brigs and 3 'gunboats' at Black Rock (the schooners Somers, Tigress and Ohio and the sloop-rigged Trippe, which had all been purchased by the United States Navy and were being converted into gunboats – possibly that 5th one was being built). Unfortunately for him, the work sites were just within reach of the guns at Ft Erie, and so construction was regularly disrupted. Brock wanted to attack those boats while under construction, but Prevost forbade it. (The 'No attacks onto US soil' policy.) (so far as OTL) Brock might have been willing to push on this, but there were several problems. Firstly, for the weeks immediately following the US attack, vigilance on the US side was heightened as they legitimately expected retaliation. Secondly, Brock was stretched thin enough on this frontier that he really didn't have men to spare for a major attack on a fortified position. Thirdly, by the time the vigilance might have started to die down there was the major attack at the other end of the river against Queenston Heights.
However, when Roulette (Captain of the Caledonia) quietly sounded out Brock, he was given to understand that Brock would turn a blind eye to an unofficial retaliation. [Note: OTL, Roulette was in charge of the watch on the ships. Given his French name and given that the Caledonia was a NorthWest Company ship that had been pressed into service, I am assuming he was here captain. (The North West Company, based out of Montreal, was a competitor to the Hudson Bay Company, and most of her low level employees were Canadien, although the bosses at headquarters were largely Scots, hence “Caledonia”). The ships were also loaded with furs and deer hides. ITTL, the slightly increased manpower means that some of the furs got off-loaded before the attack. Not that that affects the TL one way or another.)] Anyway, Roulette ITTL was sick and off the ship the night of the attack, so is available to lead an attack later. He gathers a group of NWC employees (mostly voyageurs), loads them in canoes, and crosses the river in the middle of the night of December 7 (date chosen relatively at random, but while attention is still focussed at the other end of the river). They don't have enough men to actually take back the ships, but they can do damage and try to burn the ships. One ship burns, another is badly damaged, the others suffer only mild damage. Prevost is angry, but there's nothing he can do – the men involved were not formally in the military. And while he has some very strong suspicion about supplies and other help Brock or his men may have provided, he has no evidence.
Back on Lake Ontario
On 10 November, several American ships trapped the Royal George (the largest British ship on Lake Ontario with 22 guns) in Kingston harbour, and the Oneida (the largest US ship on the lake, with 18 guns) pursued her and attacked her mercilessly. The American fleet believed they had severely damaged the Royal George, but as dusk was falling, had to move out to safe anchorage for the night. The next day, the wind was wrong for a renewed attack, and the Americans returned to Sackett's Harbor. As OTL.
As they travel up the St. Lawrence, they observe the difficulty of shipping matériel up the rapids, and the danger posed by the American shore – the bateaux are quite vulnerable to American attacks.
Dacres and his officers arrive in Kingston on November 12, and are horrified. They quickly devise a plan. 1) they'll repair the Royal George, 2) they'll concentrate the other ships of the flotilla near Kingston, and 3) they'll let slip to spies where the brig Earl of Moira (the Brits' second biggest ship, and a tempting target) would be a few days later, 4) spend the next days practicing gunnery, which the sailors obviously need more skill at.
Dacres also rounds up/convinces some militia to help man the ships as they are somewhat undermanned. When he finds that there are a handful of French settlers who had been sailors and had handled cannon on merchant ships, he was overjoyed.
The trap is set. Chauncey's flotilla sails out to meet the Earl of Moira, and after they're engaged, the Royal George and a couple of schooners appear to upset the fight and are able to approach more closely than expected without being seen due to a snowstorm. After some fighting, Dacres breaks off, and is able to get most of his ships away in the snowstorm. The Brits do capture one schooner, and sink another, for the loss of one of theirs. However, for the first time on the lakes, the Brits have taken on a US force and won.
Winter 1812/3 on the Lakes
The lakes close down for the winter, there is no more naval combat until spring.
Prevost orders the building of 3 new ships, one each at Kingston, York and Amherstburg, and a few smaller gunships. Unfortunately, Amherstburg is at the western end of Lake Erie, and winter means that naval supplies like cannon and shot can't be sailed down the lake, but rather carted or sledged overland for hundreds of miles. This means that the new ship will not be completed come spring, despite everyone's best efforts, and that there's no point in trying to build anything bigger than a 20 gun schooner.
On the American side, they are building another warship at Sackett's Harbor, and a small fleet of ships/gunboats at Presqu'ile (modern Erie PA). Chauncey, in charge of the whole Ontario/Erie theatre visits the Erie site in January and orders 2 of the 4 ships enlarged (it's too late to do that for the other two). Presqu'ile was chosen because it had decent water connections via the Ohio with Pittsburgh and ultimately Philadelphia, so matériel could be sourced from there and not add to the burden on the NYC yards that were supplying Sackett's Harbor. Oliver Hazard Perry requests a position from Chauncey, and is appointed in charge of the Lake Erie construction - and then the flotilla once built, but doesn't arrive until the end of March. Once he inspects the site, he then heads east to discuss manning and resources with Chauncey.
When the British hear about the building activity, they want to attack it and disrupt it. In many ways the best time to attack would be mid winter. Dacres proposes an 'over the ice' attack on Sackett's Harbor, but Prevost turns him down (OTL it was Andrew Grey of the Provincial Marine who requested the attack). Brock and Procter would dearly love to attack Presqu'ile, but the logistics would be incredibly bad (across the lake, or along half of it). And they are somewhat... occupied along the Maumee for much of the winter, anyway. They will have to wait at least until the ice breaks up in the spring.
British Leadership changes
The British government has been watching events in Canada with great interest, and have read the various dispatches they've received. They decide to make some changes. Prevost has been truly excellent at handling the government affairs, interacting with the local parliaments, but his handling of military matters (admittedly following instructions he had received from London), has not been quite as effective as might have been desired. Therefore, they decide to kick him upstairs. They appoint him “Viceroy of all British lands in North America, Governor General over all the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Bermuda, Commander in Chief of all British forces, on land or at sea, ....” etc., and offer him the title “Marquis St. Lawrence” but make it clear that 'commander in chief' means broad suggestions of strategies, not vetoing tactical moves. Brock is appointed Lieutenant General with tactical control of all land forces in the Canadas, and elevated to the baronage as Baron Maumee. Procter receives a knighthood. As a mark of the especial favour, and as a show of the vice-regal powers granted him, Prevost is granted the right and power to preform the ceremonies elevating Brock and Procter (so no one has to travel all the way to London for the King to do it). Prevost is also granted the power to grant simple knighthoods, as seems appropriate, on consultation with the appropriate parliament and military leaders. (This is all very much NOT OTL.) Warren stays as Admiral in charge of North America. Warren is asked to find someone more senior to run the Great Lakes naval operations. No complaints about Dacres, but he's just not senior enough.
Edit: the above paragraph is the sort of conflation of events you sometimes see in history books. The elevation of Prevost to Viceroy and Marquis and Brock to de facto head of the armed forces happened effective 1 March 1813. The elevation of Brock to baron and Procter to knight happens a bit later.
Prevost is also supposed to work with Procter and locals on setting up a governing body for Canada West (as the British controlled parts of Michigan and northern Ohio and Indiana are now being called).
Ya, I know this is a wank, it's not supposed to be fair.