Miller Kathleen Ortman SC

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. Toronto Raptors Basketball NBA Toronto Scotiabank Arena Toronto Ontario Canada Business directory, 9 Record Stratford Ontario Extended Wellington (Wellington County and Guelph) 222,726 History Repairing drinking fountains $2,703. . . On January 13 1813 John Armstrong Jr was appointed United States Secretary of War Having been a serving soldier he quickly appreciated the situation on Lake Ontario and devised a plan by which a force of 7,000 regular soldiers would be concentrated at Sackett's Harbor on April 1 Working together with Chauncey's squadron this force would capture Kingston before the Saint Lawrence River thawed and substantial British reinforcements could arrive in Upper Canada the capture of Kingston and the destruction of the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard together with most of the vessels of the Provincial Marine would make almost every British post west of Kingston vulnerable if not untenable. After Kingston was captured the Americans would then capture the British positions at York and Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara River United States Secretary of War John Armstrong Jr originally planned for an attack on Kingston but later acquiesced to changes that made York the attack's target Armstrong conferred with Major General Henry Dearborn commander of the American Army of the North at Albany New York during February Both Dearborn and Chauncey agreed with Armstrong's plan at this point but they subsequently had second thoughts That month Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost the British Governor General of Canada travelled up the frozen Saint Lawrence to visit Upper Canada This visit was made necessary because Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe who had succeeded Brock as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada was ill and unable to perform his various duties Prevost was accompanied only by a few small detachments of reinforcements which participated in the Battle of Ogdensburg en route Nevertheless both Chauncey and Dearborn believed that Prevost's arrival indicated an imminent attack on Sackett's Harbor and reported that Kingston now had a garrison of 6,000 or more British regulars Even though Prevost soon returned to Lower Canada and deserters and pro-American Canadian civilians reported that the true size of Kingston's garrison was 600 regulars and 1,400 militia, Chauncey and Dearborn chose to accept the earlier inflated figure Furthermore even after two brigades of troops under Brigadier General Zebulon Pike reinforced the troops at Sackett's Harbor after a gruelling winter march from Plattsburgh the number of effective troops available to Dearborn fell far short of the 7,000 planned mainly as a result of sickness and exposure During March Chauncey and Dearborn recommended to Armstrong that when the ice on the lake thawed they should attack the less well-defended town of York instead of Kingston Although York was the Provincial capital of Upper Canada it was far less important than Kingston as a military objective Historians such as John R Elting have pointed out that this change of plan effectively reversed Armstrong's original strategy and by committing the bulk of the American forces at the western end of Lake Ontario it left Sackett's Harbor vulnerable to an attack by British reinforcements arriving from Lower Canada Armstrong by now back in Washington nevertheless acquiesced in this change of plan as Dearborn might well have better local information. Armstrong also believed that an easy victory at York would provide the government with a significant propaganda coup as well as bolster support for the Democratic-Republican Party for the gubernational election in New York The attack was originally planned to commence in early April although a long winter delayed the attack on York by several weeks threatening the political value of such an attack in an attempt to overcome these delays Democratic-Republicans supporters circulated proclamations of victory prior to the battle to the New York electorate the American naval squadron first attempted to depart from Sackets Harbor on April 23 1813 although an incoming storm forced the squadron back to harbour in order to wait out the storm the squadron finally departed on April 24 1813 British preparations. ; .