Many visitors to the Straits of Mackinac know about the events of June 2, 1763, when 400 Ojibwa men captured the British fort of Michilimackinac through a skillful surprise attack. The Ojibwa began their assault by staging a seemingly innocent game of baggatiway in honor of King George III’s birthday. Within minutes, they killed 15 soldiers and took commanding officer Captain George Etherington prisoner. The loss of Michilimackinac undoubtedly marked the lowest point of Etherington’s life. Even so, this resourceful officer went on to enjoy a long British military career that included service in the Caribbean during the American Revolution and, somewhat improbably, the loss of a second garrison to enemy forces.
Born in Delaware around 1733, Etherington entered the British army as an enlisted man before receiving a commission in the 60th, or Royal American, Regiment in 1756. He served with the 60th throughout the Seven Years’ War and earned promotion to captain in 1759. In 1761, the regiment received orders to occupy former French forts around the Great Lakes, and Etherington assumed command of Michilimackinac in 1762. A year later, the Ojibwa caught him and his garrison completely by surprise when they attacked the fort. Etherington and his subaltern, Lieutenant William Leslye, stood outside the fort watching the game and became among the first prisoners. Local Odawa ransomed the captives from the Ojibwa, and the British shipped Etherington and the other survivors to Montreal as prisoners later that summer.
Despite losing his command, Etherington faced few consequences and continued serving with his regiment. He earned promotion to major in 1770. After briefly commanding Fort Niagara in New York, he joined the 60th in the Caribbean. There, in 1773, he helped negotiate a peace treaty between the British and the Indigenous Caribs living on St. Vincent. Lingering tensions with the Carib people, combined with the outbreak of the American Revolution, led British authorities to appoint Etherington as commander of the island’s military forces in 1777. By then a lieutenant colonel, he was chosen in part for his reputation of maintaining good relations with the Caribs.
Etherington’s tenure on St. Vincent suffered from continual disputes with the island’s civil governor, Valentine Morris. These tensions erupted when French forces arrived to attack the island in June 1779. After allying with the rebel Americans the previous year, France expanded the conflict by launching naval operations against British possessions around the globe, transforming the American Revolution into a worldwide war. With only a few soldiers under his command and over Morris’s objections, Etherington surrendered St. Vincent to the French without resistance. Unlike the loss of Michilimackinac, this surrender and Morris’s subsequent complaints triggered an official inquiry into Etherington’s conduct. Yet his court martial fully acquitted him of all charges. He remained with the 60th Regiment, became its colonel in 1782, and retired from the army in 1788 after maintaining a strong reputation despite losing two commands to surprise attack.
Although Etherington’s time at Michilimackinac was brief, his role in the 1763 attack cemented his place in the history of the Straits of Mackinac. Today, a street in Mackinaw City carries his name, and researchers continue to investigate his career before and after the attack.
Further reading:
Colonial Cousins: Arent Depeyster, George Hamilton, and the Schuylers of New York
