Perth Historical Society: The War of 1812 in the Eastern District

Notice for the Perth Historical Society Meeting
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The War of 1812 in the Eastern District
Military Encounters along our Upper St. Lawrence

The May meeting will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, with Major John Grodzinski of the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston. His presentation will focus on the little-known ‘Raids, Skirmishes and Predatory Warfare: The War of 1812 in the Eastern District’.
The story of the War of 1812 along the Upper St. Lawrence frontier is normally reduced to brief accounts of a few raids on the frontier, dwarfed in comparison to the larger battles that stir the popular imagination. This presentation will uncover the range of these military encounters and the development of the defences that withstood them along the Upper St. Lawrence frontier. It will also review how the tenuous connection between Montreal and Kingston overcame the serious challenges and threats it faced, ensuring the almost uninterrupted delivery to Kingston of the provisions, personnel, ordnance and stores required by the forces in Upper Canada. Concern for the future of this military link was a major reason for the later founding of the Rideau Military settlements.

Major Grodzinski, assistant history professor at the Royal Military College (RMC), has an undergraduate degree from McMaster University, and an MA and PhD at the RMC. His interests include the era of North American colonial conflicts and naval warfare in the age of sail. He is editor of the on-line War of 1812 magazine, and leads battlefield studies on the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Oklahoma University Press will publish his study of the leadership of Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, the General and Commander-in-Chief of British North America during the War of 1812. Major Grodzinski is completing another manuscript examining the conduct of the War of 1812 on the Upper St. Lawrence River.

At 7:30 pm at the Perth Museum, at 11 Gore Street E. in Perth, ON. (“Toonie Fee”).