Authorization and Recruitment
Congress authorized the 14th Infantry in January of 1812 and in March recruiting began in earnest. The 14th Infantry was recruited in four states: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The War Department did not appoint a regimental colonel immediately. However, the Secretary of War appointed Charles G. Boerstler as lieutenant colonel and Timothy Dix as major.
In July, Congress got around to confirming future general William H. Winder as regimental commander. When 300 soldiers had been recruited in early September, Boerstler took these three companies and marched them from camp near Baltimore to the Niagara Frontier. Arriving in mid September, Brigadier General Alexander Smyth took charge of the 14th and initially stationed them with the rest of his brigade of regulars at Buffalo.
In Buffalo, the 14th was inspected and found to be in particularly poor shape. Virtually every soldier was recently recruited and still quite ignorant of soldier skills. Weapons were in bad shape, many of them useless for fighting. The inspector judged them to be more dangerous to themselves than to the enemy. Nonetheless, in October Smyth sent them, under Winder, who had recently arrived, to garrison Fort Niagara. This old fortification stood at the mouth of the river where it entered Lake Ontario. There, the regiment starved as the quartermasters were unable to bring sufficient food to the fort.
The 14th missed the October Battle of Queenston Heights as Smyth all but refused to support militia Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer’s invasion attempt. With the failure of U.S. forces to successfully invade Upper Canada, Van Rensselaer left the Army and Smyth took command of all forces on the Niagara Frontier. The following month, Smyth ordered most of the 14th to march to Buffalo to join in the next attempted invasion of Upper Canada. The 22nd U.S. Infantry replaced the 14th at Fort Niagara although some members of the 14th were in Fort Niagara during the artillery duel with Fort George across the river on 21 November.
As a prelude to Smyth’s first attempted invasion, Boerstler led two hundred of his men across the Niagara where they did some damage before returning to the New York shore. Smyth loaded his boats with regulars and militiamen but refused to give the final order to row for the Canadian shore. Claiming that he had too few troops ready to cross, he ordered his men back to camp. On 1 December, Smyth tried again. By this time, poor food and disease had taken its toll. The 14th Infantry had only 135 men fit for duty. Smyth again called off the invasion crossing and sent his men back to camp and into winter quarters. The 14th wintered in Black Rock until March 1813. In that month, Winder was promoted to brigadier general and Boerstler, still a lieutenant colonel, took command of the 14th.
The 14th moved to Sackett’s Harbor and one company participated in the raid on York in late April. Then, in May, the regiment shipped from Sackett’s Harbor to Four Mile Creek, near Fort Niagara, to participate in the attack on Fort George. The American forces under Major General Henry Dearborn successfully stormed Fort George on 27 May. However, victory was empty as most of the British command successfully escaped capture. The 14th arrived on shore too late to participate in the heavy fighting on the landing beach and inland fields.
Dearborn made two attempts to bring the British forces to battle. In early June he sent two brigades northward to take the British camp at Burlington Heights. Seeing an opportunity, the British attacked the American camp at Stoney Creek at night. The 14th missed that battle. They were a few miles away guarding the American supply boats at the mouth of Stoney Creek on Lake Ontario. The remnants of the American force returned to Fort George. It was after Stoney Creek that Boerstler was promoted to colonel and given official command of the regiment.
14th U.S. Infantry Unit History: War of 1812
Back to Table of Contents -- War of 1812 #4
Back to War of 1812 List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2005 by Rich Barbuto.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com