Our Jamesons and the War of 1812

In the very early 1800's, ours was still a young and small family, now in it's third generation. Most of the family was still in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, although some had already moved westward into New York state.

At that time, all men between the ages of 18 and 45, were required to belong to their local militias. It was from these, as well as the official United States Army and Navy, were pressed into serving in the War of 1812.

It is hard to determine which of our Jamesons served after they had already migrated to New York state and which were recruited from New Hampshire or Vermont and then stayed in New York after serving. We haven't identified any War of 1812 veterans returning to Vermont or New Hampshire, who then lived out his life there. Furthermore, because of the very nature of Militias, there may have been other Jameson men who saw 1812 War duty, but have never been recognized or recorded.

One of the larger and more important areas of conflict in this war was that of western New York State, then still very much a frontier. From what we know, all of our Jamesons served this war in New York state and almost all of that in far western part of the state, around Buffalo and the Niagara river.

All of western New York state, from what is now Ontario county westward to the Niagara river and Lake Erie, participated in the war effort, with the war itself reaching as far east at least to Batavia, in Genessee County.

The British and their Indian allies, practiced a scotched earth campaign throughout the area burning out almost all homes in towns and settlements of most of western New York state, causing a mass migration of these early frontier settlers eastward into neighboring counties of Ontario, Yates and beyond. Buffalo itself was destroyed and everything leveled.

The American troops, made up mostly from militia members of this area were never a well organized or well trained professional army. They were even expected to provide their own clothing and their own weapons. And they were almost always on foot without any other form of transportation in this not yet developed wilderness. Previsions were sparse at best and resupply of almost everything was non existent.

The Dutch trading company, who were the land sales agents for this entire area, had anticipated the conflict as inevitable and had begun stockpiling munitions for the help in defense of their investments. An important such stockpile was in Batavia, which eventually became a target of advancing British forces.

Because of the structure and the organization at the time, few records of participation and service were kept of these men in this war, particularly in this area of western New York state. Therefore it's been almost impossible to figure out who did what, when and where. We have been able to piece together some information, based on the few records that have survived. Unfortunately these must be considered as only a partial record. It should be noted that dates, where they exist, are often fragments based on a payroll record, or for some allowance, or reimbursement, not necessarily an overall term of service, especially considering those who belonged to a militia (practically everyone), were bound to duty from their entire age of 18 to 45 and expected to be ready and able to serve at all times and at a moments notice.

There were all kinds of battles, skirmishes and maneuvers during the three odd years of War. Including major actions at Fort Niagara in the north and Fort Erie in the south, say nothing of everything between. We know little of what unit served where and even less of how involved each of our Jamesons were. We do however believe that none from our family died as a result of the war. It would however be fair to assume that any of our family members living west of Batavia, at least, would have suffered greatly and not just the soldiers.