#also mr lorrain that is possibly just hypothermia.

[clove-pinks]

Thinking a lot about two War of 1812 primary sources from Fort Meigs. One is the diary of Captain Daniel Cushing, who died in 1815 attempting to ford a river, and his diary was discovered only in the 20th century. After transcription the original was lost, and we know that Cushing's very Georgian spelling and punctuation was "corrected" by the 20th century transcriber. (It's quite a contrast from the few surviving letters from Cushing which preserve his original style).

Alfred M. Lorrain of the Petersburg Volunteers wrote his own memoir, but it was published in the 1860s at the end of his life. So both Cushing's and Lorrain's narratives have questionable elements of editorial meddling and the vagaries of memory—but they perfectly agree on a striking story about the Petersburg Volunteers being to forced to sleep without tents or supplies on a snowy night on the march to Fort Meigs.

Cushing's diary, dated 24th January 1813:

The Virginia volunteers and the Pennsylvania militia were ordered to encamp out of the lines about forty rods up the Creek, nothing to shelter them but the heavens and some scattering trees. They have neither tents nor camping equipage of any sort, it being all left behind with the ordinance and the traveling becoming so very bad it could not possibly come on. My company was ordered on the right of the whole army but in no better fix than the above troop, but they were invited into tents with the troops that lay there. Myself and lieutenants were very politely invited by Major Harden and Doctor Logan, to take part of their fare as lodging and victualing. This night it began to snow.

One of those Virginia volunteers without shelter was Lorrain, who later wrote:

At a late hour we approached an arena which bore a strong resemblance to terra firma; and scraping away the snow, we spread our blankets under the naked canopy of heaven; for at the time of our departure from Sandusky we had left our tents standing, with all our camp equipage. How long we lay that night in a shivering condition before we fell asleep we could never ascertain; but I awoke in the morning from pleasant dreams and in a profuse perspiration, and, as I thought, under a heavy press of blankets; but when I threw up my arm to take an observation, and to see how the land lay, an avalanche of virgin snow, which had silently ministered to my comfort during the night, tumbled into my bosom, and quickly roused me to a recollection of my proper latitude and true bearings, and I found, by calculation, that I was bounded north, south, east, and west, by the Black Swamp.