Conversations on the War of 1812

A wide ranging and fascinating discussion on the increasing professionalism of the navies on the Great Lakes through the sailing season of 1813. We will treat the Battle of Lake Erie as a future standalone episode. In this episode we will hear about: The arm races on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie Amphibious landings supporting land actions The sinking of the Hamilton and Scourge on Lake Ontario The p...

Frederick Carsted joins us to discuss the two Swiss Regiments that arrived in Canada in 1813 during the War of 1812. Hear about: The De Meuron Regiment The De Watteville Regiment The night assault on Fort Erie Lord Selkirk and the Red River Settlement Perth Military Settlement The Pemmican Wars Frederick based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba is a retired teacher and a long time reenactor with a variety...

Wedged between a frantic spring of 1813 with a number of major actions and a dramatic autumn, not a lot of attention is spent on the summer of 1813. In the Niagara region of Upper Canada it was actually a busy time! Join us as we have Jim Hill discuss: Laura Secord Lt. James FitzGibbon Battle of Beaver Dams Cecil Bisshop Peter Porter Black Rock Reconnaissance in Force Jim Hill is a long-standing h...

It is June of 1813. In Upper Canada, the town of York has been captured by the Americans. The Americans then attacked and captured Fort George in the community of Niagara. The British Army withdraws from the Niagara to Burlington Heights. The Americans send a large column to eliminate the British. The result is covered in this episode on the Battle of Stoney Creek. We are delighted to have our fri...

Dr. Andrew Lambert joins us to discuss the ship to ship actions on the Atlantic Ocean during the War of 1812 that we are calling the frigate duels! USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere USS Constitution vs. HMS Java USS Chesapeake vs. HMS Shannon USS President vs. HMS Endymion Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, and Directo...

We welcome back Tim Abel! In this episode we are at the end of May 1813. With the American fleet away supporting amphibious assaults on York and and Fort George, the British decided to mount an assault. For a map of the area around Sackets Harbor, please go to: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wcl1ic/x-947/wcl001041 You can also look at our poster! Tim is from Carthage, New York (near Sackets Harbor)....

Alex Watt is a member of the 41st Corp of Drums at Fort George National Historic Site in Niagara-On-The-Lake. He joined us to discuss the May 1813 American attack on the town of Newark, Upper Canada and the capture of Fort George. This episode was recorded on May 6, 2026 https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/on/fortgeorge

Author Tom Taylor who has written a number of War of 1812 themed books joins us to discuss the Battle of York. Tom's website: https://www.tomtaylor.ca/books On April 27, 1813 a major American flotilla arrives off the town and garrison of York (modern day Toronto) and conducted an amphibious assault. Learn more in this episode!

Prominent American Historian and War of 1812 expert, Don Hickey and Program Manager at Fort Meigs, John Thompson join us once again to discuss the construction of Fort Meigs in Ohio during the winter/early spring of 1813 and its immediate siege by the British. This episode will also cover the May 1813 Battle of Fort Meigs. Fort Meigs: https://fortmeigs.org/ Don Hickey: https://hickeyhistory.com/ R...

Prominent American Historian and War of 1812 expert, Don Hickey and Program Manager at Fort Meigs, John Thompson join us to discuss the actions on the River Raisin in the Michigan Territory on January 1813. Battle of Frenchtown Battle of the River Raisin Fort Meigs: https://fortmeigs.org/ Don Hickey: https://hickeyhistory.com/ Recorded on April 19, 2026

As discussed at the opening of the episode, here is a link to the Chronology of the War of 1812: https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/Warof1812/2016/Issue26/Warof1812Chronology.pdf Always happy to have Don join us and to share his knowledge! Don talked about the key events from the first year of the conflict, the year 1812. You can learn more about Don and his books at: https://hickeyhist...

Thomas has previously supported us with a presentation at our 2025 conference in Mississauga, ON where he talked about the British capture, defense and ultimate loss of Mackinac. That video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/live/7lAH7o4Y ... Thomas Malcomson, PhD, was as a professor in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at George Brown College, Toronto, for 32 years. He taught course...

A conversation with Faye Kert around the presence and impact of Privateers during the War of 1812. This topic rarely gets much discussion but was in fact a significant part of the naval activity during the war! Her book can be found at: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/authors/faye-m-kert?srsltid=AfmBOorrVerU9xt4QNqe__JFv6Wr1Zo_0rXZH_l2vfJTs-zfp3ffzC0H Faye Kert graduated from Queen’s with a BA in...

Historian, archivist and author Luc Lepine joined us to discuss Lower Canada and its local militias. The militias in Lower Canada (Quebec) were both English speaking regiments and French speaking regiments. They took the form of: Sedentary Militia Select Embodied Militia Volunteer Full Time Militia (Voltigeurs) Join us to learn about the historic origins of Lower Canada militia, how that changed a...

In the year 1812 we look at the setup and early affairs on the east end of Lake Ontario in both New York and Upper Canada and also down the St. Lawrence River towards Montreal. We welcomed a new voice in Tim Abel from Carthage, New York (near Sackets Harbor). Tim has a PhD in Anthropology. 33 years experience in archaeological field methods. - 30 years experience in laboratory methods. - 30 years...

For this episode, we turn to Jim Hill from the Niagara Parks Commission to talk to us about the nature of affairs in the year of 1812 prior to commencement of the war and then turn his attention to the conflicts along the Niagara River to close the year out including the Battle of Queenston Heights, the death of Major General Sir Isaac Brock and the lesser known Battle of Frenchman's Creek. Jim Hi...

We are so pleased to have another opportunity to talk with Don Hickey. His latest book "Tecumseh's War" serves as a great basis to look at the part of the United States that came to be known as the Old Northwest. Conflicts between the expansionist United States. aggressive settlers and the resident indigenous people created much friction and conflict in the late 18th and early 19th Century that wo...

We feel so fortunate to have these opportunities to talk with prominent War of 1812 historian, Don Hickey. In this episode we come to the year 1812 and conflict begins on the western frontier of Upper Canada and the American Old Northwest. Learn about the capture of Fort Mackinaw, the massacre at Fort Dearborn and the capture of Detroit. Don Hickey is a historian and award-winning author who spent...

We had planned an episode on American Militia asking Don Hickey to join us with Don Graves. Unfortunately Don Graves passed away on November 11, 2025. Don Hickey was extremely gracious to agree to still do the episode. The result was an interesting conversation delving much deeper into a subject not commonly discussed. This episode was recorded on November 26, 2025. Don Hickey is a giant in the st...

We had originally scheduled this date for an interview with the two Dons to discuss the American militia. Regrettably, Don Graves passed away on November 11, 2025. Don Hickey agreed to keep the scheduled time so that we could record a session talking about Don Graves. This session was recorded on November 26, 2025. Don Hickey is also a giant in the study of War of 1812. He is a retired American ac...

We were thrilled to continue to have these conversations with Don. We knew he was seriously ill and we were racing against time to work through the extensive episode list that we had developed with him. This episode recorded on November 6, 2025 would be the last one that we would record with Don shortly before his passing. In this episode we look at Canadian militia regiments and how the militia w...

We were thrilled to continue to have these conversations with Don. This episode was one of two recorded on November 6th, 2025. It would be our last recording session with Don. We knew he was seriously ill and we were racing against time to work through the extensive episode list we had developed with Don. Unfortunately we ran out of time as he passed away shortly after these recordings. This episo...

Our conversations with noted War of 1812 expert Don Graves continue with a look at the British Army. We decided to split this topic into two episodes. 5) a General view of the British Army and its structure 6) the British Army as it was in Canada during the War of 1812. Don was one of the foremost Canadian historians. We knew he was seriously ill and when he agreed to record these episodes with us...

Prominent Canadian Historian, Don Graves joined us once again as we build out this playlist tapping into his encyclopedic knowledge of the War of 1812. In this episode we examine the American Army, Particularly its evolution into a highly professional army. Discussed is the transition from the American Revolutionary War to the frontier conflicts in the American Northwest to the outset of the War....

We welcomed back Don for another conversation around the War of 1812. We looked at a number of the circumstances which impacted the war such as topography, the financial state of the respective countries and the nature of their armies. Don Graves was a prominent Canadian historian with a particular focus on the War of 1812. Up until his passing in November 2025, Don was considered the foremost his...