Winter 1813/14, western frontier
cameo time!
Winter 1813/14, western frontier
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Relations between Illinois and Missouri[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As noted in the previous post, the uncoordinated and desperately unsuccessful attacks on Fort Gourock very much poisoned the relations between Illinois (led by Edwards), and Missouri (led by Howard). Edwards is so upset that he leaves Illinois 'to visit family' in Kentucky; and the Illinois militia and settlers are very upset, and unwilling to cooperate, with Howard. Similarly, Howard is infuriated by the Illinois position. Thus, defence of the two territories is uncoordinated. Each territory pulls its people back to the core settled areas that can be more easily defended, and each starts furiously building blockhouses and forts. The Illinoisans, while fewer, are more concentrated along the flood plain of the Mississippi, and are relatively compact and can build blockhouses on the hills above the valley to control access to the settled area. The Missourians, while more numerous, are spread out, with settlements along the Missouri as far as OTL's Kansas City. They would really like to build a series of forts on the Illinois side of the river, to stop the British, but that doesn't end up being feasible. They do build a couple right across from St. Louis, which even the Illinoisans end up having to agree is only what's necessary.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Both Missouri and Illinois are very short on manpower. Missouri, for instance, had 3400 militia before the Battle of Gourock, and rather less after. Between conducting patrols, building all these new blockhouses, etc., both territories are very overstretched. The few militia that Kentucky can spare for the western territories are all snapped up by Illinois before they get to Missouri, so Missouri doesn't get even that minimal help.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Since both territories have pulled in on themselves so much, the British are able to build a couple of forts much closer to the American settlements to use as bases, and leave Gourock with just a skeleton force. The British strategy has a couple of prongs. 1) they want to control as large a territory as possible, 2) they want to provision themselves and deny the provisions to the American defenders 3) they want the loyalty (or at least the acquiescence) of anyone remaining in territory they control (which ultimately will be all of it, they hope, or at least all of Missouri), and 4) they want to not only deny provisions to St. Louis and any forts which are holding out, but to herd loyalist Americans there to add to the mouths that need to be fed, and further limit how long the US forces can hold out.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Status of Indian forces[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As already mentioned, a couple hundred Indians from around the Great Lakes had already joined Black Hawk during the summer raids, and for the Battle of Gourock. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]There were also a few Santee Dakota and some Ioways raiding into northern Missouri, enough that isolated farms have been abandoned and people move into one of the fortified places along the Missouri river. There were several small fortified communities, with perceptible numbers of armed defenders, like 64 at Fort Cooper, 112 at Fort Hempstead, 52 at Fort Kinkaid (settlers' forts, not army forts). These places are immune from attack by small groups of Indians, and so they are joined by some of the more isolated farmers. These plains Indians can't do much more than scare settlers at this point, partly because of those forts, and partly because the Osages (the local Indians) are pro-American and the raiding parties have to avoid them as well as the American patrols.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, with the Gathering of the Nations in September, we now have several hundred more Indians from OTL's Canada, northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, even a few from as far as Alberta, while many plains nations from the northern US have met at Prairie du Chien or Saukenuk. These forces have to be moved south and organized, and all that takes some time. Moreover, once the news of the Battle of Gourock spreads, several nations that had previously leaned toward the US (e.g. Yankton and Teton Sioux), relent and let their warriors join the British side. Even the Osages pull back, and are prepared to stop actively supporting the Americans. (And, of course, the pro-US Sauk faction led by Keokuk look like total losers now...)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Attacks on Illinois[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When the first snow falls, the Americans in the West breathe a sigh of relief, because, 'obviously', no one's going conduct a major, long distance military campaign in the winter, so they're 'safe' until spring. Unfortunately for them, that's not true. They do get a break for a month or so in early winter while rivers and creeks freeze over. (When there is enough ice you can't use a boat/canoe, but not enough to walk on safely, that really impedes travel in places without good roads.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So, the first winter raiding parties down into the American bottom are incredibly successful, as there are few look outs or standing response forces. As the winter progresses, more forts are built, more lookouts stationed and a formal system of alerting neighbours is established. A couple of Indian raiding parties get caught, and those raids slack off. Then the raids get more sophisticated. A couple of raids make it down into the bottom lands and when the hue and cry arises and an eager mounted posse chases after the raiders, that posse runs right into an ambush and is largely wiped out. Thereafter, the posses are more careful, which means that, of the raids that happen, many raiders get away, but the level of raids slows down to an annoyance rather than an open wound.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Attacks on Missouri[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The attacks against Missouri are more complicated. The American Bottom of Illinois is easier to defend, is closer to the rest of the United States (although that doesn't matter too much right now), and is further from any British supporting bases. All of which means that Britain really doesn't have a lot of hope of taking that territory AND HOLDING it. Missouri isn't so fortunate.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Different parts of Missouri are treated rather differently. a) St. Louis itself is, by now, well protected with newly built blockhouses and forts, so the town itself is relatively safe. Not that a few raiding parties don't slip in once and a while. b) The area around the town is fairly well populated, but there are limits to how many forts Howard can put up and man, and how many patrols he can run. Moreover, the Brits want to rule the area later, so they are somewhat careful in their approaches. Note that both these areas have a heavy French population from before the Louisiana purchase, and the Brits hope they won't be as fanatical about defending the US. c) the smaller settlements and forts along the Missouri, which are mostly populated by recent American immigrants. These small forts were impervious to the summer probes by the British allied Indian raiding parties.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]General Darroch sends a message to Governor Howard at St. Louis (also another to Governor Edwards, also to each of the commanders of the various forts) asking for their surrender. Terms would be a) British control over the area, b) inhabitants to either swear loyalty to the king or agree to British control and surrender arms c) anyone who refused to do either would be allowed to leave for American controlled territory. The offers are turned down, some politely, some rudely, but no one surrenders at this point.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the area around St. Louis, especially outside the ring of forts, British forces mixed army and Indian approach each farm. The farm is hailed in English and French, and if the farmers will parley, they are offered similar terms – except that they have to agree to sell food and goods only to the British forces, not to the American forces or the town. Any farmer who goes along with that is left alone peaceably. Anyone who refuses basically has to flee to the town or a fort with only the clothes on their backs, and their supplies are confiscated. Farmers who have relatives in town are allowed to bring them out and feed them, as long as they agree to the conditions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Most of the old French settlers are prepared to live with these arrangements, whether they are happy about it or not, and many American farmers do, too, under protest. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Scouts watch the farms, and if the farmer tries to reneg on the agreement, they suffer consequences.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Even within the ring of forts, the British send large groups to visit the farms. While the forts are well manned, they are mostly manned by freshly raised militia who had had no previous training. They may be able to defend the forts OK (as the British discover when they probe them), but they are pretty useless sortieing out to stop the British movements (as the Americans discover when they try). So, as long as the British keep their parties large enough and stay out of cannon shot (or even musket shot) of the forts, they can pretty much roam at will through area. Here, however, there's no point in demanding that the farmers swear loyalty to the King, or that they refrain from supplying the town. What happens instead, is the British forces seize any supplies they find surplus to the needs of the farmer, and take those supplies off to their base. If the farmer cooperates, he gets paid in gold, if not, in scrip redeemable after the war.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One of the most effective leaders of these groups is a militia officer named Étienne Bucheron, who started the campaign as a lieutenant, but was so useful he was quickly promoted to captain. He had a real knack of working with the various Indian groups, respecting their traditions and listening to the elders among them. Thus he had enough respect from them that he was able to convince them to do things the way the British officers wanted. (OK, so it may not have been the METHODS his superiors asked for, but he got the results they wanted.) It became well known around the army that any Indian group he led was 'disciplined', and he was sent on more and more missions. Which meant he had to be promoted again, as the groups he led got larger. (What 'disciplined' means here, to the British, is that no 'atrocities' happened, and that the Indians didn't get drunk and loot and kill and burn. This was not 'discipline' as the British understood it, but rather an appeal to their self-interest (e.g. getting drunk in hostile territory is really stupid), issued by someone whose word held value in the natives' sight, who understood them, and whom they could understand.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The supplies bought from these farms really eases the strain of supporting all the new Indian allies, and it makes the defenders of St. Louis, at best, hungry.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The smaller forts along the Missouri were invulnerable to attack by unsupported small groups of Indians. Now, however, the British send out large groups with a few supporting soldiers and a couple of small cannon. Only the very smallest cannon can be managed through the wilderness, and little in the way of ammunition, but the small forts have NO cannon. First the force cleans out the surrounding farms of any useful food and supplies (although the sensible groups had already moved most of that into the forts), burning anything that the raiding party couldn't use or carry away. Then they approach the fort. One of the soldiers is a sapper named Alex Yaraday, nicknamed by the Indians 'Thundermaker'. He supervises the cannon (for the forts they manage to get a cannon to), and has lots of other tricks. For instance, one fort is taken by placing a satchel charge by the back gate at night and blowing it open when most of the defenders are asleep. Cannon breach the defences of another. One way or another each of the small settler forts is taken, most by swarming Indians pouring through the breach, and loosing mayhem inside. One of the smaller forts does surrender once its walls are breached, and they realize their situation is hopeless.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The survivors are disarmed, and required to swear loyalty to the king or be marched down to St. Louis. The one group that surrendered gets to haul any belongings they can in carts, and take their animals, the others are marched out with just what they can carry on their backs. In any case, they are escorted to St. Louis by a small group of Indians and soldiers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A few settlers do stay on, taking the oath of loyalty, which engenders considerable hard feelings between those that stay and those that go, as you can imagine. The walls of the forts are torn down, but otherwise those remaining are left alone.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Also in the British party is a mapmaker named Brad King (nicknamed by his buddies 'King of kings' or 'northstar' because of his obsession with maps). His job is to accurately map this new land the British want to control. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The only fort on the Missouri that is NOT taken is Fort Osage (near OTL Kansas City). It is well defended, the fortifications are stronger than the settler forts, and it is supplied with cannon, and the small British cannon didn't make it that far. But the fort is cut off from supplies and the rest of the United States, so it is surrounded by a small group of Indians to keep an eye on it and left alone (for now).[/FONT]
