They were loyal to
Great Britain from lingering resentment to the Americans, and because of
the kindness of the English government.
In 1812, George, Prince of Wales, was really the monarch of Great
Britain, for the court physicians had pronounced his father, George
III., hopelessly insane. Great Britain was waging a tremendous war
against Napoleon, having just formed an alliance with Russia against the
ambitious Corsican. England's naval armament on the American stations,
Halifax, Newfoundland, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands, then consisted
of five ships-of-the-line, nineteen frigates, forty-one brigs and
sixteen schooners and some armed vessels on Lakes Ontario and Erie, with
several others building. The British land forces in the two Canadian
provinces were about seven thousand five hundred, while the number of
Canadian militia did not exceed forty thousand with a frontier of seven
hundred miles to guard.
The governor of Michigan went to Washington City in the winter of 1812
and heard the question of the invasion of western Canada discussed. He
informed the president that the success of such an enterprise depended
on having armed vessels on Lake Erie, with a competent force in the
northwest to protect the American frontier against the Indians. In the
spring, Governor Meigs of Ohio summoned the militia of that State to
rendezvous at Dayton, to meet the impending danger.
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