On this day in 1812, British forces captured Fort Mackinac in the first War of 1812 battle on U.S. soil—triggering a swift British takeover of Michigan’s forts.
TRANSCRIPT
On this day in 1812, the British captured Mackinac island from the Americans, during the war of 1812. The British were stationed in Canada and the United States lined up their posts on the perimeter of the northwest territory, just across the waters. John Jacob Astor, who owned the American Fur Company, was near Washington, and he heard about the outbreak of the war in June of 1812, he quickly sent a representative of his company to Fort St. Joseph, just inside Canadian waters, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Mackinac. He sent his representative there to protect his trade goods in case war broke out, but in doing so, he also alerted the British at that post to the outbreak of the war.
They very quickly put together an alliance of regular troops, militia, and indigenous allies and captured Fort Mackinac, which was the first engagement on U.S. territory during the War of 1812. It began the domino effect that eventually led to the capture of Fort Detroit and Fort Dearborn in Chicago, and so within a period of a month in the summer of 1812, the peninsulas of Michigan went from being under U.S. control to British control. Of course Michigan would return to the US, but that is a different Michigan Minute.