American Spies and Sympathizers at Fort Detroit

Located far enough away from American-controlled Kentucky but enough close to the British-allied Native Americans in the Western Great Lakes region, Fort Detroit became the center for British military operations to counter American activities in present-day Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio during the American Revolutionary War. These operations included raids on American settlements as well as attempts to align Native Americans with British war efforts. American political and military leaders soon realized that by gaining of control of the Fort Detroit region they could minimize British influence over the Native Americans over a wide area. Virgina Governor Patrick Henry assigned George Rogers Clark, lieutenant colonel of Virginia troops in Ohio and Kentucky, this responsibility.[1] To gain information on British plans as well as to disrupt those plans, Clark and other Americans recruited inhabitants at Fort Detroit and the surrounding region as American spies and agents.[2]

As the war progressed, the British military became aware of the American spies and sympathizers at Detroit. To deter covert operations and identify real or potential spies, the British commander of Detroit, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, issued orders on August 23, 1777 stating that all strangers entering Detroit, and any suspicious activity, must be reported immediately to military authorities.[3] The British command soon realized, however, that internal threats also existed within the Detroit region.

One obvious group the British military suspected were the region’s French-Canadian residents, called Habitants. Although the British assumed control of Detroit in 1760, the Habitants still comprised the largest European-ethnic group the Detroit settlement. With their participation in the fur trade in the Western Great Lakes region and westward, many Habitants and Native Americans maintained strong relationships with each other. Throughout the war, the British military and Indian Department remained suspicious of these two groups’ relationships and the Habitants’ actual support of the British war cause. The Habitants’ suspected lack of loyalty constantly worried Lieutenant Governor Hamilton. He wrote his commanding officer, Gen. Frederick Haldimand, in mid 1778 that he believed “there is but one in twenty [French habitants], whose oath of allegiance would have force enough to bend him to his duty.”[4] Captain Richard Lernoult, who succeeded Hamilton at Detroit, reported in April 1779 that the habitants refused to assist British efforts.[5] This concern remained true for successive British commanders of Detroit throughout the war.[6] Clark himself even wrote in November 1779 that the “greatest part of the French Gent and Traders among the Indians” at Detroit expressed support in their communications with their counterparts in the Illinois region.[7]

The British also realized that even some British subjects in the Detroit region supported the American cause. Hamilton reported that he had came to suspect some unnamed British traders who “are rebels in their hearts.”[8] In August 1778, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton wrote Lieutenant Governor Hector Theophilus Cramahé that “The disposition of the [British] people at this place requires something more than the shadow of authority to keep them in the Bounds of Duty.”[9] In a latter letter, Hamilton wrote, “as to my knowledge the Enemies of the Crown are suppl’d or have been from this place, proofs of which I am possess’d of.”[10] British military commanders succeeding Hamilton had similar thoughts and concerns, which were not unfounded. For example, George Rogers Clark in 1779 received a report that only “three and not many more” British citizens “were true to the British Cause” at Detroit.[11]