Lot - ACCOUNT OF CAMPBELL’S RAID ON PORT DOVER

ACCOUNT OF CAMPBELL'S RAID ON PORT DOVER
Manuscript document, 4pp. 4to. [n.p., n.d.], a document in relation to the American Court of Inquiry regarding the actions of Col. JOHN B. CAMPBELL (1777-1814) in regards to the Raid on Port Dover, May 15, 1814. Campbell was an officer in the War of 1812 and remembered for his expedition to destroy the Miami Indians' villages along the Mississinewa River, as well as his infamous ordering the destruction of private houses and other property in Dover, Canada, including the stocks of grain and mills and led to his inquest. This exculpatory document reads, in part: ‘…The Court of Inquiry instituted by the authority of the President of the United States…for the purpose of enquiring into the conduct of Colonel Campbell, during his late expedition to Long Point, and particularly as to the burning of the town of Dover, in Upper Canada…the facts of the case to be as follows…That Colonel Campbell sailed from Erie, Pennsylvania, on the 12th May, 1814, on an expedition against the enemy's coast, with about 650 men under his command, including regulars & militia, and with about 30 sailors acting in concert with the land troops; with which forces he…landed in the Long Point settlement U.C. near the town or village of Dover, and after having effected the objects which he had proposed to himself in the expedition, re-embarked his detachment and returned to Erie – having been about seven days. That the said Col. Campbell effected his descent on the enemy's shore in military manner; took up a good position and adopted every other measure whilst in Canada proper for an effectuation of his object, and the safety and good conduct of the troops…That during the expedition the said Col. Campbell caused to be burned, at Dover, and within its vicinity, certain flower-manufacturing-mills, distilleries, saw-mills, and a carding machine, and within the village itself burned in like manner, most of the dwelling houses (about ten in number) & the out-houses appurtenant: the whole property this consumed, amounting in value/according to Col. Campbell's own estimate…about one hundred thousand dollars…That some few of the dwelling-houses & the out-houses appurtenant in the said village were reserved by Col. Campbell, expressly for the accommodation of women and children of the place; and for such heads of families as did not leave it, on the approval of American forces; which said houses and out-houses were unmolested during his stay & left standing at the time of his departure from the enemy's short. It does not appear to the court that altho' many enquiries have been made by witnesses or this head, that any other injury was sustained by the inhabitants of the Province beyond what was already herein noticed; either in their persons or effects, during the said expedition; but it very fully appears from the testimony of many witnesses examined, that the utmost care was used to prevent the waste or destruction of private property (beyond Col. Campbell's original design) which care was evinced in assisting the inhabitants to take out of the houses ordered to be set on fire, their furniture & other movables, and affording guards & sentries for the security of the same. It further appears to the court that the inhabitants of the said village of Dover and the owners of the property destroyed in that neighborhood, were that been during the present war, actively hostile to the interests of the United States, both by acts of open war and acts of aggression towards those in Canada, who were suspected of disaffection to the enemy's government, that some of the inhabitants of the said village held commissions in his military establishments, some of them, half pay officers in the same & other matters, the names of three in evidence, present at the conflagration at Buffalo. Such are the material facts collected by the court and which give a character to the expedition of Col. Campbell now under consideration. The authority that instituted the court of Enquiries by having also required an opinion on the case submitted, the court in the further discharge of its duties unanimously pronounce as follows – that considering the important supplies of bread-stuffs which, from the evidence, it appears the enemy's forces derived from – the flower-manufacturing-mills at and near to Dover – Col. Campbell was warranted in destroying those mills according to the laws & usages of war; and for a like reason the court think him justified in burning the distilleries under the said law & usages. The saw-mills and carding-machine from their contiguity to the other mills, were, as the court concludes, necessarily involved in one & the same burning…'. On late May 14, American troops engaged in a skirmish in Dover with Canadian militiamen who were attempting to remove goods from a warehouse; rather than leave, however, the Americans stayed in the village and, on May 15, lined up as in formal battle and set fire to every building in the settlement: twenty houses, three flour mills, three sawmills, three distilleries, twelve barns and some other buildings. All livestock was shot, and their bodies left to rot. Campbell justified the raid as a retaliatory move for the British burning of the settlements in Chesapeake Bay and Buffalo, mentioned in this document. A formal inquiry followed in the American army's court, presided over by Winfield Scott, on June 20, 1814, and Campbell was found to be justified in his actions. While no disciplinary action was initiated, Campbell would receive his comeuppance in the form of a fatal wound just five weeks later during the Battle of Chippewa. A bit of wrinkling and some text light in spots, overall very good.

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Lot 888

ACCOUNT OF CAMPBELL’S RAID ON PORT DOVER

ACCOUNT OF CAMPBELL’S RAID ON PORT DOVER

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