Post #18: The Leaders

October 20, 1812

Dear Journal,

Did I ever mention who the head of British forces is before? Well if not, I now know all about him.

Sir Isaac Brock (that’s his name) was born in 1769 in England (of course). When he was old enough, he chose his military career and ten years ago, came to Canada. Just one year ago, he became the head of our British forces. In his first few months, he did not have anything to do because there was no war, but at the beginning of this year, when the war stared he finally had something to do. Back in July, Brock joined forces with Tecumseh to plan an attack on an American fort. Back in August, they went and attacked the American fort. When the American general heard their war cries, he surrendered right away. This victory caused people to believe in Upper Canada. This also made Brock a stronger military leader. Sadly he died earlier this month. Even Without their leader, his troops continued battling and won. As of today, he was made the Knight of Bath.

October 20, 1812

 Dear Journal,

Last time I wrote, I never told you who Tecumseh is. Why don’t I tell you now?

He was born in 1768; he is from the Shawnee Nation. He and his brother, Tenskwatawa built an alliance of first nations encouraged to protect their traditions. He is allied with us against the United States. In return, we promised to support his claim to the western territory. Tecumseh first met Brock back in august the thirteenth I believe, the two leaders immediately became friends. Together they planned the invasion of Detroit.

I believe that Tecumseh troops and our troops together will win this battle and any that are soon to come.

Post #17: Loyalty

September 16, 1812

Dear Journal,

 I just heard about more things that happened-or is happening- in the war. Cameron told me that there is a question of loyalty. We ask the loyalists this question because some people think that some loyalists only came to Upper Canada for the land. We fear that they are helping with the American invasion. When the war started, there were not enough troops to fight because they were fighting Napoleon. Now, some military members are deserting our British forces and are joining the Americans, this is proving themselves disloyal to us. Myself and many other people still think that we can defend our land with the amount of troops we have but I don’t think any officials are going to listen.

September 18, 1812

Dear Journal,

This morning, I was picking up the mail, when I read a letter that was defiantly not supposed to be in my box. I don’t remember all of it, here’s what I remember:

Colonel Baynes,

My problem is serious, but not about the war. My problem is that the population thins that they should surrender. This idea is fatal to every effort that officials have accepted the idea. They are so uncaring that any criminal can commit the unimaginable crimes without interruption… an additional team would do great good in this part of the province. Most people have lost all confidence.

Post #16: Information About the War

August 23, 1812

Dear journal,

I am very sorry that I have not wrote in you for the longest time, but with my old age I almost forgot that I had a journal. Sorry. It might also be that there is a war going on and I am too preoccupied with that. Let me tell you how this started… On July 12 1812, my wife and I were sitting on our front porch, a beautiful day it was, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky… I was thinking how uneventful and peaceful day it was… well I spoke too soon… we were sitting there when all of a sudden around 1500 -2000 troopers walked by.

This morning I learned about some things that happened in this war (yes, it is still going on). I will tell you them:

·         This all started when William Hull of the northwestern army of the United States declared the war.

·         When the war started, Isaac Brook was and is still the major general of Upper Canada.

·         For the longest time he asked our government for a command in Europe because he wanted to help fight Napoleon.

·         It is very obvious that he is concerned about Napoleon by the way he is fighting in this war.

·          He thought that if we were to lose the war, America’s debt can be repaid returning Canada to the French.

Post #15: A Couple War Strategies

January 18, 1794

Dear Journal,

Sadly l had to go to war. This is unexpected considering that I am 55 years old… wow; I didn’t notice how old l was. It feels like just yesterday that I was writing “Dear journal, l had a fun time today. Carter Jones” good times… back to what l really am writing for; l trained with them for a while until they saw my papers and they saw how old l am, and said that l could choose to leave. So I did. But l did learn about some things that they are going to do. One thing is the blockade. As a part of or war strategy, we are using the navy to blockade Europe. This should slow down napoleons war effort. But l think that this will make someone loose a major market for their goods… probably the American economy.

Another thing that they are going to do is have First Nations alliances. After the American Revolution, we encouraged the First Nations to keep a territory to themselves so the Americans can’t expand their territory. Those foolish Americans are accusing us of making the First Nations be hostile towards them- the Americans. They think by doing so we are supporting Tecumseh’s efforts to protect First Nations land.

There is a group called The War Hawks. This group is an American group of politicians. They think that they should expand their borders, and think that we are in their way. They think that they should just take over our territories. But I think not. The war is probably going to start in the next few years.