CHARACTERS

Brigadier General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Jr.

Famous before the war as a Western explorer, Pike was promoted to colonel in 1812, serving as deputy quartermaster-general in New Orleans and inspector-general during the War.

Pike was promoted to brigadier general in 1813. Along with General Jacob Brown, Pike departed from Sackets Harbor for an attack upon the capital of Upper Canada, York.

The attack did not go well. One American observer wrote: They were mostly tall, pale-looking Yankees, half dead with sickness and the weather. Things seem to turn Pike's way when an errant match blew up a defending battery, killing numerous defenders.

Pike stopped to interrogate a British sergeant. His spine and chest were crushed by a flying boulder when the retreating British garrison suddenly blew up its ammunition dump without warning. Carried to the USS Madison he lived long enough to be given the British flag, taken from the defenders. He died shortly afterwards.

His body was brought back to Sackets Harbor, where he was buried at the military cemetery.