Fort Detroit Faces Starvation: Winter of 1813
While Andrew and Simon are busy hatching Plan B, things are going from bad to worse in Fort Shelby (formerly Fort Detroit). In addition to a devastating Cholera outbreak, there is the very real prospect of starvation. British General Proctor burned everything of use to the Americans when he abandoned that fort as well as Fort Amherstburg (renamed Fort Malden), and the town of Sandwich (Windsor). Even the supply center of Fort Meigs was in trouble owing to the difficulty of bringing supplies through the black swamp of Ohio. Consequently, the relatively prosperous farms of Essex and Kent look very inviting to the desperate Americans who had long since over-foraged their own side of the Detroit River. The Thames Valley had therefore become a no-man’s land between Sandwich and the nearest British outpost of Delaware. These farms and settlements became victims not only of marauding American foragers but also of marauding foragers of the Canadian militia and British soldiers! There is a farm on the Old River Road, three miles downstream from Chatham, that dominates this story. It consists of a large, two- storey red-bricked Georgian-style house belonging to Thomas
McCrae and his family. The Americans occupied this house in their quest to forage for supplies, especially cattle pastured on the area’s marshy grasslands. When the British commander at Long Point heard about these cattle, he figured that it was time to round Photo courtesy of Mike Marshall
Page 22 Byron Villager October 2025
To advertise here please contact Barb@villagerpublications.com
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs