page_title: Raid on Port Dover
section_title: British response
hierarchical_section_title: Raid on Port Dover / Aftermath / British response
context_page_description: The Raid on Port Dover was an episode during the War of 1812. American troops crossed Lake Erie to capture or destroy stocks of grain and destroy mills at Port Dover, Ontario, which were used to provide flour for British troops stationed on the Niagara Peninsula. At the instigation of Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell and without sanction from his superiors or the government of the United States, the Americans also destroyed private houses and other property, prompting British commanders to demand reprisals in other theatres of the war. To some degree, the burning of Washington by the British later in the year was influenced by the American actions at Port Dover.
context_section_description: Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of the Canadas and commander in chief of the forces there, wrote on 2 June to Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, commander of the North American Station of the Royal Navy, without noting that Campbell had not acted under orders:
  ...in consequence of the late disgraceful conduct of the American troops in the wanton destruction of private property on the north shores of Lake Erie, in order that if the war with the United States continues you may, should you judge it advisable, assist in inflicting that measure of retaliation which shall deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages.
  Cochrane in turn wrote from his station in Bermuda on 18 June to John Wilson Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty:
  I am most decidedly of opinion that the readiest way to attain this object is to bring home to the supporters of the Government which authorizes this unnatural system of warfare a full share of its dreadful calamities and to this end, I have issued to the commanding officer of H.M. blockading squadron an order, accompanied by a secret memorandum...
  ORDER FOR RETALIATION
  
  No. 1
  
  By the Honorable  [sic] Alexander Cochrane, K.B. &c, &c, &c.
  Whereas... it appears that the American troops in Upper Canada have committed the most wanton and unjustifiable outrages on the unoffending inhabitants by burning their mills and houses, and by a general devastation of private property...
  
  You are hereby required and directed to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts as you may find assailable. You will hold strictly in view the conduct of the American army towards His Majesty's unoffending Canadian subjects and you will spare merely the lives of the unarmed inhabitants of the United States.
  In the appended secret memorandum, Cochrane modified these severe orders by instructing his commanders to spare places which furnished supplies to British ships or troops, or to levy contributions in return for forbearance, in proportion to the value of goods and buildings spared. This code of conduct was followed by the British during the Raid on Alexandria.
caption: After the raid, George Prévost, the Governor General of the Canadas wrote to the commander of the Chesapeake campaign, Alexander Cochrane, advising him to inflict "a measure of retaliation which shall deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages."
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