Orders, Decorations and Medals

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Fort Detroit (James Truckell, 41st Foot) minor nicks and contact marks, therefore very fine £3500-4000

Ex L. Whally Collection 1875, K. Ford sale 1884 and to the Needes Collection in 1913. Only 75 medals to British recipients with the clasp for Fort Detroit, mostly to this regiment.

James Trucknell was born at Stratford, Wiltshire, and enlisted into the 41st Foot on 2 April 1809, joining the regiment in Canada where they had been stationed since 1799. During the War of 1812-14 he was ‘wounded by a musket shot in the right arm near the elbow at French Town twenty second January 1813 & by a musket ball in the left arm near the shoulder at Fort Meigs fifth May 1813.’ Trucknell was transferred to the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion at the end of that year, from which unit he was discharged at Quebec on 19 November 1814, aged 29. Sold with copy discharge papers.

The action at Frenchtown on 22 January 1813 is better known as the battle of River Raisin, after the river by which it was fought. On that morning a joint British and Canadian force of some 600 soldiers, with six cannon and 800 Indians, launched an attack against an American force of about 1000 men and completely routed them afer a short but hard fight. The subsequent retreat became a disastrous flight towards Ohio, and of the 400 Americans who ran nearly 220 were killed and about 147, including General Winchester, were captured. The British withdrew hurriedly on the expectation of American reinforcements, leaving the wounded enemy in the homes of the settlers. On the following morning Indians returned to the River Raisin, plundered homes and the wounded for valuables, and then killed or scalped any Americans who could not walk. Bodies were thrown into burning houses and those able to walk were taken by the Indians to Detroit where they were ransomed. This became known as the River Raisin Massacre, and the battle cry ‘Remember the Raisin’ became a rallying call to Americans eager for revenge. The battle and massacre of the River Raisin accounted for more American casualties than any other single battle during the War of 1812.

At the end of April 1813, the British and Canadian force laid siege to nearby Fort Meigs, which was situated across the river Miami du Lac from the ruins of the old British Fort Miami. On 5 May the Americans made a large sortie from the fort and routed the British gunners, destroying their battery. A British counter-attack quickly restored the situation and the Indians once again engaged in their bloody atrocities. A second American sortie, after initial success, was similarly defeated. The total American loss in this action, known as the battle of the Miami by the British, was 218 killed, 170 wounded and nearly 400 taken prisoner.