Battle of Malcolm's Mills

In October 1814, an invading American force of about 700 mounted infantry under Brigadier General Duncan McArthur advanced rapidly as they left Detroit and raided the Thames Valley. The plan was to devastate the Grand River settlements and the region around the head of Lake Ontario which supplied flour to the British forces on the Niagara frontier. The Canadian militia in the region was caught unaware by this swift raid from the west, and McArthur's force continued east at a fairly rapid pace, arriving first at Oxford, on November 4, and finding no defenders, McArthur advanced to Burford, where the entrenched Canadians and British quickly abandoned their positions and fled into the country-side. The American forces continued on to Brant's Ford on the Grand River on November 5.[1]

Finding himself and his forces over two hundred miles from the American border, and in the midst of hostile country, where the population and militias were seeking them, in addition to hostile Indian tribes, on November 10 McArthur began his withdrawal. They were shadowed by over 1,100 of the combined Canadian forces, following closely behind but not engaging. On November 17 the Americans reached Sandwich, Ontario, across the Detroit River from Detroit. They crossed the river the next day, and the men were honorably discharged to return home to Ohio and Kentucky.[1]

The battle at Malcolm's Mill was the last land battle of the War of 1812 fought in Upper Canada. McArthur's force continued to the Lake Erie shore, then headed north and back to the Thames and along the southern shore of Lake St. Clair, arriving back at Detroit on November 17, 1814. Over 1,100 of the British, including the 19th Light Dragoons, led by Major Peter Chambers, pursued McArthur's force for a large part of their return to Detroit, but they were never able to get within seven miles of the American forces.

McArthur's Raid successfully destroyed the mills that the British forces were dependent upon for flour and bread. Additionally, the Americans killed, wounded or captured over 450 of their enemy, which was accomplished with only the loss of one killed and six wounded. Because of his command of 550 mounted troops the raid has also been known as "Dudley's Raid".[1]

• Anderson Chenault Quisenberry, Kentucky in the War of 1812, first published 1915, Kentucky State Historical Society, Kentucky, USA. Reissued by Genealogical Publishing Co. 1996
• Zig Misiak, Western Hooves of Thunder, McArthurs Raid on the Six Nations, 1814, ISBN 978-0-9811880-3-4, Published 2011, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
• Major R. Cuthbertson Muir, The Early Political and Military History of Burford, La Cie D'Imprimerie Commerciale, 1913.
• Stuart A. Rammage, The Militia Stood Alone - Malcolm's Mills, 6 November 1814, Valley Publishing, 2000.