To Your Posts! Fort Meigs in the War of 1812 through the Voices of Those Who Fought There recounts the history of Fort Meigs, a U.S. military garrison built on the outermost reaches of Ohio’s northwestern frontier during the War of 1812. Troops commanded by William Henry Harrison erected the fort in the late winter and early spring of 1813. Built at the foot of the Maumee River Rapids, the site of present-day Perrysburg in Wood County, the post successfully withstood two determined sieges by allied British, Canadian, and Native forces later that year. Those victories, resulting in the garrison’s continued American occupation throughout 1815, contributed significantly to the United States’ eventual successes in the Detroit Theater at the end of the war. Using numerous primary sources including letters, diaries, and other documents from the period, many published here for the first time, To Your Posts! tells the story of Fort Meigs through the voices of those who served at the post during the War of 1812.
About the Author :
Larry L. Nelson holds a PhD in American history from Bowling Green State University. He worked for the Ohio Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection) as site director at Fort Meigs Historic Site from 1980 until 2004. Following his retirement, he joined the history faculty at BGSU as an assistant professor. From 2008 until 2015, he was editor for the journal Northwest Ohio History. An authority on Ohio’s frontier and early statehood eras, he is the author of A Man of Distinction among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754–1799 and A History of Jonathan Alder: His Captivity and Life with the Indians, and co-editor (with David C. Skaggs) of The Sixty Years’ War for the Great Lakes, 1754–1814.
Review :
“Larry L. Nelson has painstakingly compiled a fine collection of diverse and much-scattered primary accounts relating to the construction and defense of Fort Meigs, one of the largest wooden forts ever built in North America. The accounts from American, British, ‘Canadian,’ colonial, and Native sources reflect the abysmal conditions under which they toiled, fought, and died in a wilderness setting. An indispensable read for all interested in the Northwest theatre during the War of 1812.”—Sandy Antal, author of A Wampum Denied: Procter’s War of 1812
“Through the words of the many participants, Larry L. Nelson provides a welcome analysis of Fort Meigs, a fortification critical to the opposing campaigns for possession of the Old Northwest. Nelson’s impressive research and keen insights result in new interpretations for scholars and all readers of solid military history. This is a gripping story told in a balanced and thoroughly engaging manner.”—Richard V. Barbuto, author of Niagara 1814 and New York’s War of 1812
“The dramatic events associated with Ohio’s Fort Meigs during the War of 1812 are often overlooked—but important—aspects in the conflict’s history. Senior 1812 scholar Larry L. Nelson has assembled a fascinating collection of skillfully annotated first-hand memoirs and other period documents that detail the fort’s story with an immediacy that will appeal to both specialist and armchair historians.”—Carl Benn, author of Native Memoirs from the War of 1812 and A Mohawk Memoir from the War of 1812
