SOME PEOPLE KNOW OF EXPLORERS MACKENZIE AND LEWIS & CLARK, BUT WHAT ABOUT 
THE  FORGOTTEN  HERO
ZEBULON PIKE - EXPLORER AND HERO-GENERAL 
KILLED IN THE 1813 VICTORY AT YORK, CANADA - now Toronto.

   
  

  
  ZEBULON PIKE  
 

Zebulon Pike should be remembered as one of our "greats."  An explorer, he was one of those who sought the "northwest passage" and "documentation of our wilderness." 

Here is a summary of Pike's life:

He was in a class with these men the following persons -

Cabeza De Vaca, who in the 1520s and 30s sailed from Cuba and Florida and was shipwrecked.  He was a slave to American Indians near Galveston, and treked across Mexico to the Gulf of California - then to the Pacific;

Henry Hudson - who died in 1611 after being set adrift in Hudson Bay by his crew (did he freeze to death?    Did he survive and join with  an American Indian woman and leave children?)

Alexander Mackenzie - who went north to the Arctic Ocean and then west to the Pacific Ocean via the Peace and other Rivers, and back again - in 1793-4 - over 10 years before Lewis and Clark;

Lewis and Clark and crew, who were sent by President Jefferson to explore the northern route along the Missouri River to the Pacific and back again - in 1804, 1805 and 1806;

And, yes, Zebulon Pike, who was born (in either Allamatuck,Somerset County, NJ or Lamberton [now part of Trenton] on January 5, 1779.    

In August 1805, Pike was sent on a slow, rugged and cold trip, with 20 men, to search for the headwaters of the Mississippi River - and to negotiate peace treaties with the natives of the lands covered by the Louisiana Territory purchase.    

Part of his task to American Indians was to tell them of the legal claim of the United States to the area.   They had been trading with and developing close links to British traders, who operated under British flags on United States land;  frontiersmen resented the intrusions. 

[Here are some other causes of the War of 1812:  British port-blockades and British demands to have shipments destined for France, go first through British ports.  Also, there was the issue of British impressment of United States seamen].

Pike recommended military posts and government agents for the fur trade for the area along the upper Mississippi River.

After reaching near the headwaters and returning to St. Louis in 1806, Pike was assigned to be the first to explore and document the routes to the headwaters of the Arkansas River and Red River - far west - into the Rocky Mountains, with 23 men.   

The Red River was near the new and disputed border between Spanish Texas territory and United States territory.    

Read the book, Zebulon Pike: The Life and Times of an Adventurer, for his journeys to Osage camps, Pawnee camps and confrontation with the Spanish on the high plains.

He and some of his men reached the Rocky Mountains.  Pike and others on his team climbed Miller or Cheyenne mountain, but not the mountain named for Pike.  Pike called that mountain "the Grand Peak, now Pike's Peak."  

Men froze, lost bones in their feet - one was murdered.   They discovered the headwaters of the South Platte River and of the Arkansas River, but they paid a high price in suffering and were entrapped in canyons and flirted with death.   Thinking that they were at the Red River they trespassed into the Spanish Territory of the upper Rio Grand River area in the present San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado.  The Spanish asked them to give their excuses for trespassing to the Spanish authorities at Santa Fe.  They were put under a semi-friendly  "house arrest".   Those Santa Fe authorities sent them "way south" into Mexico to plead their innocence.   Pike hid some of his notes on terrain - in gun barrels.    After about a year, on July 1, 1807, he and his men were freed at the Texas-Louisiana border on.   

Pike and General James Wilkinson, the top U.S. General (but also a paid Spanish spy,  who had also been involved in the Conway Cabal against George Washington) - were tried and freed of the accusations for  involvement with Aaron Burr in treasonous activity in the Southwest.

but Zebulon Pike was a hero in the

Battles of the 2nd War of Independence

1812

June 18, 1812, A declaration of war by the United States was voted against Britain.

The United States attempted to invade Canada from Detroit, Niagara and Lake Champlain.  On October 13, 1812, at The Battle of Queenston Heights, Canada on the Niagara River, the British captured of United Stated forces. 

American General William Hull with about 2,000 men were driven from Canada - back into Detroit and were captured by British General Sir Isaac Brock.  Fort Dearborn and Michilimacinac were captured by British and Indians.

Officer Zebulon Pike [who six years before, merely saw the Grand Peak, which was later known as 14,110-foot-high Pike's Peak ]  should be remembered as a hero. 

In November of 1812, Pike and about 600 regular troops marched toward Montreal from Plattsburg, NY.  At La Cole Mill they joined in battle.  

Pike and his men did not realize that other men of the "New York Militia" had already occupied the mill; sadly, about fifty men were injured.    Pike's militia would not continue into Canada to fight at Montreal, he found it necessary to  withdraw to Plattsburg.

Elsewhere: American ships, Essex defeated Alert, Constitution defeated Guerriere - United States vs HMS Macedonia, Wasp, and Hornet vs Peacock won each engagement with superior marksmanship against smaller foes - in a single-ship strategy.

1813 .

The British defeated a United States army near Detroit, at Frenchtown on the Raisin River.

April 27, 1813, at the Battle of York, now Toronto, Canada, newly appointed Brig. General Zebulon Pike saw victory, but a magazine explosion set off by the British, caused a fatal back injury to Pike.  Zeb was carried on board a ship and given the enemy flag before he died a hero.

Old Military Cemetery

Sackets Harbor, NY 13685

It is here that the remains of Brigadier General Zebulon M. Pike, discoverer of Pike's Peak, 
and Frederick Leonard along with other War of 1812 casualties are thought to lie.
The (Old) Military Cemetery was moved from Madison Barracks to this location on Dodge Avenue in 1909. 

Added by: Rande S. Richardson

Zebulon Pike Burial: Sacket's Harbor Military Cemetery Sackets Harbor Jefferson County New York, USA

	He was born in NJ on Jan. 5, 1779 He explored for the Headwaters of the Mississippi River He and his men were early explorers for Thos. Jefferson of the Louisiana Purchase.  Pike's Peak was named for him; he called it the Grand Peak. He discovered the headwaters of the Arkansas and North Platte Rivers. He was a prisoner of the Spanish.  He fought in the 2nd War of Independence. He fought in Canada North of Plattsburgh, NY. He became a Brigadier General in 1813 to lead the over-water attack to York, Canada. He was killed at his victory at Toronto (YORK), Canada  on Apr. 27, 1813 I believe that he should be re-buried at Arlington National Cemetery as a hero!
He was son of Zebulon Pike and Isabella (Brown) Pike, the second of eight children. He married Clarissa Harlow Brown in Cincinnatti, Ohio, March 1801.  His children were Clarissa ( Mrs. John Cleves Symmes Harrison) and                              Lydia (Mrs. Ambrose Crane).

                                                                  

The War of 1812 ties together the stories of hero Zeb Pike , Pikes Peak and Katherine Bates.  A flick of the presidential pen could honor Pike with a post humorous award.  Another flick of the pen could honor Katherine with a naming of her poem (later song) as a second national anthem! 

My nephew, Michael T. Collins  suggested that 
"America the Beautiful." should be a 2nd national anthem.  Here is why:

It was written in 1893 as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates from atop Pike's Peak!  She published it in 1911; it was set to the tune "Materna" written by Samuel Augustus Ward (in 1882).  

Look for a wonderfully illustrated book entitled Purple Mountains Majesties by Barbara Younger.  My grandfather, Alvin Best, who lived with a view of Pike's Peak, had neighbors named Younger, Hmmm !

Both national anthems would, thus relate to the 2nd War of Independence, the War of 1812.

Words of the 2nd National Anthem
"America the Beautiful "
written from the summit of PIKE'S PEAK
By Katherine Lee Bates  ==>

"O beau-ti-ful for spa-cious skies, For am-ber waves of grain; For pur-ple moun-tain maj-es-ties A-bove the fruit-ed plain!
A-mer-i-ca! A-mer-i-ca! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with broth-er-hood From sea to shin-ing sea!

O beau-ti-ful for pil-grim feet, Whose stern, im-pas sioned stress A thor-ough-fare for free-dom beat A-cross the wil-der-ness!
A-mer-ica! A-mer-i-ca! God mend thine ev-'ry flaw, Con-firm thy soul in self-con-trol, Thy lib-er-ty in law!

O beau-ti-ful for he-roes proved In lib-er-at-ing strife, Who more than self their coun-try loved, And mer-cy more than life!
A-mer-i-ca! A-mer-i-ca! May God thy gold re-fine Till all suc-cess be no-ble-ness, And ev-'ry gain di-vine!

O beau-ti-ful for pa-triot dream That sees be-yond the years Thine al-a-bas-ter cit-ies gleam Un-dimmed by hu-man tears!
A-mer-i-ca! A-mer-i-ca! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with broth-er-hood From sea to shin-ing sea! "

 

ART:   The Fruited Plain      Thanks to Ken Turner for the use of the image - Order a Print from the Artist .    [ link to his site changed to ??? ]

ART:   The Ghosts      Thanks to Ken Turner for the use of the image - Order a Print from the Artist .    
[ link to his site changed to ??? ]

ART:   Alabaster Cities     Thanks to Ken Turner for the use of the image - Order a Print from the Artist .
[ link to his site changed to ??? ]

Many people do not know that upon hearing of Zebulon's death, the United States victors burned the Parliament Building and the town of York in Upper Canada - "up the St. Lawrence River," that is.  

Subsequently, on August 14, 1814, the White House, Capitol Building and other government buildings in Washington, DC were burned by the British under their General Ross.

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