Background
Mackinac Island was an U.S. fur trading post in the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Since the mid-seventeenth century, it had been important for its influence and control over the Indian tribes in the area. British and Canadian traders had resented it being ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War. The United States Army maintained a small fort, named Fort Mackinac, on the island. About 40 miles (64 km) away was the British military post on St. Joseph Island and the (Canadian) North West Company's trading post at Sault Sainte Marie.
The British commander in Upper Canada, Major General Isaac Brock, had kept the commander of the post at St. Joseph Island, Captain Charles Roberts, informed of events as war appeared increasingly likely from the start of 1812. As soon as he learned of the outbreak of war, Brock sent a canoe party led by the noted trader William McKay to Roberts with the vital news, and orders to capture Mackinac.
McKay reached St. Joseph Island on 8 July. With the assistance of the North West Company, Roberts immediately began to collect a force consisting of three men of the Royal Artillery, 47 British soldiers of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion (which Roberts later described as being "debilitated and worn down by unconquerable drunkenness"), 150 Canadian or métis (part-Indian) fur traders and voyageurs, 300 Ojibwa (Chippawa) or Ottawas who were at the island to trade skins, and 110 Sioux, Menominee and Winnebago who had been recruited by Indian agent Robert Dickson from present-day Wisconsin.
As preparations for the expedition proceeded, Roberts received successive orders from Brock to cancel, and then to reinstate, the attack on Mackinac. Colonel Edward Baynes, the Adjutant General for all British forces in Canada, also sent orders for Roberts to concentrate on defending St. Joseph Island. However, on 15 July, Roberts received further orders from Brock which allowed him to use his own discretion. Fearing that the Indians would drift away if they were not allowed to attack, Roberts immediately set out. His force was embarked in the armed schooner Caledonia belonging to the North West Company, seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Fort Mackinac
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