A St. Louis Merchant’s perspective
of the War of 1812
Christian Wilt
18 January 1790 – 27 September 1819
[Image source: https://stlouis-mo.gov/archive/neighborhood-histories-norbury-wayman/cbd/locale7.htm]
Christian Wilt was born 18 January 1790 to Abraham and
Rachel Wilt of Philadelphia. Letters hint that he was welleducated. He was described as “honest, adventuresome,
and enterprising”. [Jennings, 16]
[Image source:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/files/2013/09/phillymap.jpg]
Christian Wilt’s Uncle Joseph Hertzog, who was a
Philadelphia merchant, sponsored his entry into business.
[Image source: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/birch/image09/]
Wilt traveled from Pittsburgh by keelboat down the Ohio River in the
spring of 1810 with $13,841 of inventory composed of groceries from
Hertzog’s Crown Street store, and “dry goods, some bought at auction
for cash and some secured on short credit; and articles from the
Pittsburgh stores which were charged to Hertzog’s account ”. [Jennings, 17-18]
[Images source: https://www.connerprairie.org/site-assets/images/taming/keelboat.aspx]
The St. Louis in which Christian Wilt now
found himself contained, according to the
Census of 1810, fourteen hundred
inhabitants; “one-fifth were Americans and
about four hundred persons of color.” In no
other town of the West was there such a mix
of population; it was composed of the
descendants of the early French colonists,
Canadian voyageurs, Spaniards, Indians,
shrewd Yankee traders, lawyers, Scotch-Irish
from Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
- Jennings, 20
When Christian Wilt settled in St. Louis in 1810, he “had little
experience in business, and none in the manner of life and living
encountered in a frontier settlement in 1810”. [Jennings, 16]
[Image source: http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/84/684c8576-634d-57b7-904a41834007bb38/5307c88fd55e4.preview-620.jpg]
Saint Louis already had twelve general
stores operating by 1810, when Wilt rented
an old building on the NE corner of Main
Street, between the streets now known as Pine
and Chestnut, for his first store. [Jennings, 33 &
42]
[Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stlouis1780.jpeg]
Wilt outfitted the expeditions of the Missouri Fur Company,
as-well-as individual trappers and coureurs-des-bois. He also
provisioned Astor’s Overlanders’ expedition up the Missouri,
headed for the Oregon Country, in the fall of 1810. [Jennings, 44-45]
[Image source: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oldwest/Trading%20with%20the%20American%20Fur%20Company.jpg]
Wilt expanded his business interests,
investing in the lead trade. He also made
plans to open a factory, as-well-as a store, at
Herculaneum in 1811. [Jennings, 86-92]
[Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Herculaneum-mural.jpg]
Wilt proposed opening another store at Ste.
Genevieve, with P. Falconer as the agent [Jennings, 88]
[Image source: http://www.aubuchon-online.com/images/Maps/Kaskaskia-SteGenevieve2.jpg]
“These merchants, as a class, were important, not
only because of their numbers, but because they were
men of intelligence, wealth, and enterprise. They
developed trade, speculated in land, opened and
operated mines, founded manufacturing plants, and
began weaving the fabric of society in the land of the
West.” [Jennings, 41]
[Image source: http://www.nps.gov/bica/historyculture/images/Fur_Traders_on_the_Missouri.jpg]
[Source: http://www.history-map.com/picture/003/Louisiana-with-map-of.htm]
From August
1805 through
April 1806, Army
engineer Zebulon
Pike explored and
mapped the
upper-Mississippi
River to its source
in present-day
Minnesota.
[Source:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/images/ree0102a.jpg]
These maps
were the most
accurate maps
available to
civilian leaders
and military
planners at the
time of the War
of 1812.
[Source:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/images/ree0102b.jpg]
Map of Illinois
by John Melish
(1820)
[Source: http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps5147.html]
Anticipating
hostilities would
erupt during the
summer of 1812,
Territorial
Governor Ninian
Edwards collected
intelligence on the
Indians of Illinois.
[Image source: Ninian Edwards’ Papers, Chicago History Museum]
He was interested
in their location,
number of
warriors, and their
general disposition
towards the United
States of America.
[Image source: Ninian Edwards’ Papers, Chicago History Museum]
Tenskwatawa by George Catlin (1830)
“[I] gained intelligence
that the wampum was
carried
by
British
influence along the banks
of the Missouri and that
all the nations of the great
river were expected to join
the universal confederacy
then setting afoot, of
which the Prophet was the
instrument and British
traders
the
soul.”
- Manuel Lisa to William Clark, as quoted
from the Missouri Gazette, July 5, 1817]
The federal
Congress of the
United States of
America passed
the Militia
Reorganization
Act, 4 June 1812.
[Image source: http://frontierpartisans.com/1886/vengeance-on-the-thames/]
The United States of America formally
declared war on Great Britain 18 June 1812.
Knowledge that war had been declared
reached Saint Louis 9 July 1812.
[Image source: https://stlouis-mo.gov/archive/neighborhood-histories-norbury-wayman/cbd/locale7.htm]
Wilt attempted to supply American troops
during the War of 1812. [Jennings, 36]
[Image source: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/bellefontaine/bellefontaine-map.gif]
Fort Michilimackinac surrendered
to the British 17 July 1812.
[Image source: http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/brock/brock5p2a.jpg]
“. . . it is said that there are two regiments formed in
Canada of Yankees and that 10,000 Indians have
joined the British standard, the Foxes, Sacks, Puants
and several other nations have had a council, most
of them are for the British . . . .”
- Christian Wilt,
St. Louis, July 19, 1812
“It is supposed here that unless Hull is
successful in the taking of Malden, etc., the
Indians will over-run this country. I just
learned that an express arrived in Kentucky
bringing information of Hull’s being
defeated and Detroit and his army entirely
cut to pieces. The person that brings this
information from Kentucky, it is said, may
be relied on.”
- Christian Wilt
St. Louis, July 26, 1812
Wilt enlists
On 15 August 1812, a column of soldiers
accompanying women and children were
attacked as they traversed the dunes along the
shore of Lake Michigan south of Fort Dearborn.
General
William Hull
surrendered
Detroit to
General
Isaac Brock
the next day.
[Image source:
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/1812/pics/971_266_detroit_520.jpg]
“I hear nothing of Philipson’s
adventure to Canada, Cabanne and
Chenir have not returned.”
- Christian Wilt,
St. Louis, August 16, 1812
“ . . . We have news here that Mackinaw has been taken by the British and Indians
which is a thing not impossible, as there was only about twenty-four men stationed
there, chiefly cast-off boatmen (Canadians). If the news proves correct I fear that
British traders may smuggle in goods and then adieu to all our prospects in the rise
of goods and our expectations of gain on ours. It is also to be feared that the Indians
may come upon us here, the Governor has ordered out two volunteer companies to
relieve McNair’s Company of cavalry, who have been out one month. Honey
belongs to one and will have to go. I shall have to shut up his store unless I can find
a young man to take his place. It is a shame to the heads of our war department that
more attention has [not] been paid to putting the frontiers in a state of defense. In
Bellefontaine there is stationed not more than twenty men if that. Fort Mason, about
150 miles up the Mississippi, about the same number, Fort Madison about 50 men.
Lieut. Pryor thinks that if Mackinaw is taken Fort Madison is also as it is much too
large for the number of troops there. Hull marches into Canada with 2500 when he
might just as well have taken 8 or 10 thousand. If Mackinaw is taken it will
encourage the Indians to ravage the frontiers.”
- Christian Wilt,
St. Louis, August 23, 1812
(1) Fort Bellefontaine, U.S.
headquarters
(2) Fort Osage, abandoned 1813
(3) Fort Madison, defeated 1813
(4) Fort Shelby, defeated 1814
(5) Battle of Rock island Rapids,
July 1814 and the Battle of Credit
Island, September 1814
(6) Fort Johnson, abandoned 1814
(7) Fort Cap au Gris and the Battle
of the Sink Hole, May 1815.
[Image source:
http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Missouri_Territory_in_the_War_of_1812]
Spring 1813
August 1813
Fort Madison, near the mouth of the Des Moines River,
was abandoned as untenable in September 1813, as-aresult of intermittent skirmishing and being besieged.
[Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Old_Fort_Madison,_built_in_1808_-_History_of_Iowa.jpg]
An attempt to re-supply Fort Shelby in southwestern
Wisconsin was thwarted at the Battle of Rock Island
Rapids (Campbell’s Island), 19 July 1814.
[Image source: http://www.illinois.gov/ihpa/Experience/Sites/NorthWest/PublishingImages/CampbellsIslandBronzeRelief.png]
A combined-force of Indians and British
captured Fort Shelby, 20 July 1814.
[Image source: http://images.wisconsinhistory.org/700004120249/0412002568-l.jpg]
Major Zachary
Taylor’s attempt to
wrest control of the
upper-Mississippi
River back from the
British was turnedback at the Battle of
Credit Island, 4-5
September 1814.
Fort Johnson
was established
on the Illinoisside of the
Mississippi
River in
September
1814.
[Image source: http://www.callawayfamily.org/images/jamescallawaymap.jpg]
Fort Johnson abandoned (lateOctober 1814)
Battle of the Sink Hole (24 May
1815)
Black Hawk
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The History of Saint Louis Neighborhoods, Missouri Territory in the War of 1812, https://stlouismo.gov/archive/neighborhood-histories-norbury-wayman/cbd/locale7.htm (14 May 2014)
http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Missouri_Territory_in_the_War_of_1812 (14 May 2014)
Ninian Edwards Papers, Folder #3 (1812-1813) of Box #1 (1798-1825), Chicago History Musem
Jennings, Sister Marietta. A Pioneer Merchant of St. Louis, 1810-1820: The Business Career of Christian
Wilt. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 1939.
Teaching American History, Ashbrook Center, 2006-2012
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/map/ (15 May 2014)
Saint Louis in 1800, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/st-louisin/image_684c8576-634d-57b7-904a-41834007bb38.html (15 May 2014)
Historical Narratives of Early Canada, http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/brock/brock5.html (15 May 2014)
Battle of Campbell’s Island
http://www.archive.org/stream/battleofcampbell00mees/battleofcampbell00mees_djvu.txt