Raid on Port Dover

In the spring of 1814, the Americans were preparing to make an attack across the Niagara River. As the Americans held undisputed control of Lake Erie, the troops at Presque Isle on the lake's southern shore were no longer needed to protect the improvised shipyard there, and were ordered to join the main American army at Buffalo, New York. The idea of raiding the Canadian settlements near Long Point and destroying the mills there en route to Buffalo occurred both to Captain Arthur Sinclair, commanding the armed vessels of the United States Navy on Lake Erie, and Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell, commanding the troops at Presque Isle. It took some days to assemble the expedition, in particular to obtain volunteers from the Pennsylvania Militia, and Sinclair later considered that the delay and publicity prevented the raid from achieving surprise. ==Raid==

In the late afternoon of 14 May, the Americans landed near Port Dover. There was a minor skirmish between American militiamen and some Canadian militiamen who were trying to remove goods from a storehouse. The Americans remained where they had disembarked during the night of 14 May. The next day, they marched to the village, where they drew up in formal line of battle, although there was no opposition. On Campbell's orders they then set fire to every building in the settlement: twenty houses, three flour mills, three sawmills, three distilleries, twelve barns and some other buildings. All livestock was shot, and their bodies left to rot. Some of Sinclair's sailors took the hind ends of the slaughtered hogs, but other than these opportune thefts, there was no plundering. Although the local women and children were allowed to remove their personal possessions from their houses before they were set on fire, they were able to remove only small items. Much of the property destroyed had belonged to Robert Nichol, who was noted for his support for the British authorities, at the instigation of Markle, who had been expelled from the local Legislative Assembly by Nichol. ==Aftermath==

presided over the Court of Enquiry against Lt Col John Campbell, after protest prompted the United States Army initiate an inquiry. Sinclair and several other American officers (particularly among the militia) were enraged by Campbell's actions. Campbell insisted, both at the time Cochrane in turn wrote from his station in Bermuda on 18 June to John Wilson Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty: I am most decidedly of opinion that the readiest way to attain this object is to bring home to the supporters of the Government which authorizes this unnatural system of warfare a full share of its dreadful calamities and to this end, I have issued to the commanding officer of H.M. blockading squadron an order, accompanied by a secret memorandum... ORDER FOR RETALIATION No. 1 By the Honorable Alexander Cochrane, K.B. &c, &c, &c. Whereas... it appears that the American troops in Upper Canada have committed the most wanton and unjustifiable outrages on the unoffending inhabitants by burning their mills and houses, and by a general devastation of private property... You are hereby required and directed to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts as you may find assailable. You will hold strictly in view the conduct of the American army towards His Majesty's unoffending Canadian subjects and you will spare merely the lives of the unarmed inhabitants of the United States. In the appended secret memorandum, Cochrane modified these severe orders by instructing his commanders to spare places which furnished supplies to British ships or troops, or to levy contributions in return for forbearance, in proportion to the value of goods and buildings spared. This code of conduct was followed by the British during the Raid on Alexandria. ==Notes==