I left behind my wife and my three children. I’m fighting for them and for my country. I am a plantation owner in Virginia. It is a good job. I love being on that plantation. Working in the soil harvesting tobacco. With all that tobacco I was rich and successful. Now, I am a foot soldier in the war of 1812. I am a part of the War Hawks. We are in the heart of summer and my first mission is to invade Canada to convince them to help us.

I am glad for the repreve from the heat; General William Hull is our commander and will lead us in this mission. Early in the morning, we reached the border to Canada, ready to attack. But the scouts told the General that the Canadians were being led by a Clever British general named Isaac Brock. The Canadians were untrained. But General Brock dressed them up in red coats to make them look like British soldiers. He also made General Hull think Indians were helping the Canadians. It was too much for us. With General Brock’s tactics, he won the battle. We had to retreat. I believe we will return and get control next time. I just got word from home that my younger brother is fighting. I wish he didn’t have to leave home is faunas or put his life in danger. It is now the early fall of 1813. We tried over and over again to try to get into Canada but we never did. I have been promoted and am now a naval officer. It took a lot of hard work, applications and waiting for the right time but I became a navel officer because of my hard work and determation. Our orders were to head to Detroit to flush the British out.

The British attacked our ships. I was on Captain Perry’s ship which was battered by the British. We had no choice but to abandon ship. Captain Perry ordered us to retreat to another ship. We fired on the British again. The British had no chance after being blasted from our battle ships. They had to retreat. We won the battle of Lake Erie. Captain Perry was wounded I made arrangements to transport him to a town in PA for medical care. After the battle of Lake Erie, the British and their allies retreated to Detroit and then to Canada, giving us control of Detroit. That was a very intense battle. But we won, giving us some hope of winning the war. I had trouble hearing after the battle of Lake Erie because there were so many cannons blasting.