Although American Brigadier-General Winchester’s American forces easily captured Frenchtown on January 18th, they were not prepared for the harsh northern winter and chose to remain there to recuperate and await reinforcement by General Harrison. They also failed to take proper measures to guard against a possible counterattack.
As a result, British troops with strong Indian support were able to counteratack on January 22, 1813 with success.
Painting by Hal Sherman of Englewood, Ohio depicting Winchester’s surrender of the Kentucky Troops at River Raisin. The painting depicts Wyandot Chief Roundhead presenting General Winchester to Proctor.
Sources :
Battle of Frenchtown wikipedia entry
Historical Society of Michigan
River Raisin Battlefield : Remember the Raisin
An Account of the War of 1812 by the Kentucky National Guard.
January 22, 1813 by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
River Raisin markers and article posted on Military Detroit.
“The War of 1812 comes to Michigan”, Detroit Free Press, January 22, 2012.
“Michigan at War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1812-1815,” a documentary produced by the Michigan Commission on the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, has been posted for free access on MI Streamnet through a partnership with Wayne Regional Educational Services Agency.
War of 1812 PBS film DVD on order.
Governor George Romney resigned to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Richard M. Nixon. Lieutenant Governor William G. Milliken of Traverse City served the rest of the term and was subsequently elected in 1970.
Troy based K-Mart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy making it the biggest retailer to ever seek bankruptcy protection. In 2005, Sears would purchase K-Mart. However, 7 years later both K-Mart and Sears are continuing to struggle.
For the full article, see Jaklyn Trop, “Kmart, Sears show their age in fight for survival; Onetime retail giants struggle for relevance 7 years after merger”, Detroit News, January 21, 2012.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
On January 22, 2007, Global pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc. anounced it was closing three research sites in the United States — Ann Arbor, MI, Esperion (also in Ann Arbor) and Kalamazoo, MI, displacing 2100 workers. The University of Michigan would eventually purchase the Ann Arbor Campus, creating a North Campus Research Complex and promising to hire 2-3000 employees over the next ten years.
Source : Nathan Bomey, “5th anniversary of Pfizer gut punch: Ann Arbor leaders recall ‘rallying cry'”, Ann Arbor News, January 22, 2012.
Michigan gained the national spotlight for a month last year with the sex scandal and misuse of taxpayer resources involving Tea Party politicians Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat.
The tale will be told in detail Friday on ABC’s “20/20,” which the network calls its oldest prime-time news program. The episode features former state Reps. Gamrat of Plainwell and Courser of Lapeer and their ex-House aides Keith Allard and Ben Graham, who were fired in July. Detroit News political reporter Chad Livengood is also interviewed for the “20/20” report.
For the full article, see Melody Baetens, “‘20/20’ digs into Michigan political scandal”, The Detroit News, January 21, 2016
Grand Valley State University has selected a woman as the western Michigan school’s president for the first time in its history.
The appointment of Philomena Mantella as the school’s president was unanimously approved Tuesday during a special board meeting at the university’s Allendale campus.
She says in a statement that the school is among those helping to “carry the promise of a degree and a path to prosperity for learners from all backgrounds.”
Mantella is currently senior vice president and chief executive officer of the Lifelong Learning Network at Northeastern University in Boston.
She has a Ph.D. in college and university administration from Michigan State University and degrees in social work from Syracuse University.
She’ll replace Thomas Haas, who earlier announced plans to retire this year as the school’s president.
Grand Valley State University, one of the 100 largest universities in the nation, attracts nearly 25,000 students with high-quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities. Grand Valley is a comprehensive university, serving students from all 83 Michigan counties and dozens of other states and foreign countries. Grand Valley offers 90 undergraduate and 41 graduate degree programs from campuses in Allendale, Grand Rapids and Holland, and from centers in Muskegon, Traverse City and Detroit. The university is dedicated to individual student achievement, going beyond the traditional classroom experience, with research opportunities and business partnerships.
Source: “GVSU appoints fifth president; first woman“, Grand Valley State University News Release, January 22, 2019.
Remember the River Raisin? If you’re talking about the almost 200-year-ago battle between Americans and a combined force of British soldiers and their Indian allies — and not the polluted river that today flows through downtown Monroe and into Lake Erie — then not many folks do. Fought in January 1813 in and around the settlement then known as Frenchtown, it remains the bloodiest battle ever waged on Michigan soil. Of the 934 Americans engaged in the fighting, all but 33 were either killed or forced to lay down their muskets.
What made the Battle of River Raisin unforgettable, at least in its time, was the wholesale massacre of scores of prisoners — most of them Kentucky militiamen — who were too seriously wounded to be moved from Frenchtown. Despite British assurances to the surrendering Americans that these men would not be harmed, the Indians had other thoughts. Once the British left on the following day, the captives were stripped, tomahawked, and in some cases, burned alive in their beds as buildings were put to the torch. There were other brutal acts too gruesome to tell here. The few who were unharmed were ransomed off in Detroit. Some were never seen again.
The Niles Weekly Register called it “the most horrid assassination and cold-blooded butchery ever committed, or suffered to be done, by civilized man.” The atrocities caused avenging Americans throughout the Old Northwest Territory to rally to the cry “Remember the Raisin!” as they defeated the British and killed Chief Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames nine months later.
The British Press had a different view.
A View of Winchester in North America. Dedicated to Mr. President Mad I Son! (London, 1813). Colored, copperplate engraving. Graphics Division.
Britons rejoiced in the American defeats of 1812-1813. A British cartoonist drew on a newspaper account of the battle of the River Raisin to ridicule the capture of General Winchester by his Native American opponents. He was turned over to Colonel Henry Procter (ca. 1763-1822) and sent to Québec as a prisoner of war. The palm tree is an artistic convention identifying the setting as America.
Sources :
Remember the Raisin, American Battlefield Trust.
Richard Bak, “River Raisin’s Bloody Banks”, Hour Detroit, June 2009.
Historical Society of Michigan
Courtesy of the Monroe Public Library
On January 23, 1837, the state’s second oldest newspaper, The Kalamazoo Gazette, hit the streets under its current name. It started as a weekly publication, but became a daily in March 1872. Previously, the newspaper was known as the Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle. Now it’s part of MLive.
Source: Michigan Every Day
Lorinda Anna “Annie” Blair Etheridge (May 3, 1839– January 23, 1913 ) was a Union nurse and vivandière who served during the American Civil War. She was one of only two women to receive the Kearny Cross. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2010.
Deserved Honor: Etheridge, one of only two women so honored, proudly donned her Kearny Cross in this postwar photo.
Anna Etheridge was born Lorinda Anna Blair in 1839 in Wayne County, Michigan. In 1860, Anna married James Etheridge. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Etheridge enlisted in 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving as a nurse and Vivandiere (Daughter of the Regiment). She had wanted to nurse, having cared for her father before his death. Before the war, Etheridge worked in a hospital with a poor reputation for patient care, which she had attempted to improve.
Etheridge was famous for her courageous work under fire. She was noted for removing wounded men from combat. Etheridge embodied the ideal daughter of the union. She was “brave, constant, tender possessed nerves of steel, and willing to join the fight as necessary, encourage[d] the men to greater valor, or remain[ed] in the rear treating wounds” In 1862 all women were ordered out of camp by General George B. McClellan temporarily. “Gentle Annie” then worked for the Hospital Transport Service, a subcommittee of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. Assigned to the Knickerbocker, under Amy M. Bradley, she aided in the transportation of wounded men from the ports of Alexandria, VA to Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington. By early 1863, she had returned to Vivandiere duties in the Army of the Potomac. For her work and courage, she received the Kearny Cross.
After the war she married and worked in the United States Treasury Department, eventually receiving a monthly pension of $25 for her unpaid military service. She died in 1913 and was buried with veteran’s honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Gentle Annie: The True Story of a Civil War Nurse, a children’s book written by Mary Francis Shura, is a “fictionalized biography” of Anna Etheridge. Available through MelCat.
For further reading, see:
- Eggleston, Larry G. (2003). Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others. McFarland. p. 134.
- Hall, Richard (2003). Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War. New York: Paragon House.
- Leonard, Elizabeth D. (1999). All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
- Canon, Jill (2000). Civil War Heroines. Santa Barbara, CA: Bellerophon Books. On order.
Sources:
The price of coffee cream advanced four cents a quart in Lansing Friday, according to announcement of local dairy companies. The advanced price, effective January 22, was approved by the office of price administration to offset increased costs, it was explained. The price is now 12 cents for half-pints and 64(c)cents for quarts.
Source : Lansing State Journal, January 23, 1943