On May 14, 1812, Lieutenant Colonel John Campbell, with eight hundred American regulars and Pennsylvania militia, disembarked from six schooners near the mouth of Paterson Creek, and began a destructive raid through Norfolk county. They took possession of Dover, and after carrying off all movable provisions set the town ablaze and then moved on to Port Ryerse, which they also destroyed.
In a deposition made by Mathias Steele, a local citizen, Colonel Campbell, stated that the purpose of the raid was retaliation for the British attacks against Havre de Grace, Maryland and Buffalo, New York. In a letter dated June 16, 1814, and addressed to British major General Riall, Campbell took complete responsibility for the raid. On June 20, 1814, a court martial was held at Buffalo, New York with Brigadier General Scott, Major Wood and Major Jessop attending.
These officers arrived at the conclusion that Campbell was fully justified in burning the mills in the vicinity, since they were a source of supply to the British Army, but they completely disavowed Campbellšs destruction of private property and homes. Campbell later died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Chippawa on July 5, 1814.
Campbellšs raid brought retaliation from the British when Commander-in-Chief Sir George Provost contacted Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane at Halifax. In this communication, he asked the Admiral to retaliate on the east coast of the United States. This policy let to the raid on Stonington, Connecticut, and the raids in Chesapeake Bay. Ultimately, the raids escalated to the point where the public buildings in Washington were burned on August 25, 1814. An Ontario Provincial Plaque, on the outskirts of Port Dover on county road 5, describes the raid. (Collins, Gilbert, Guidebook to the Historic Sites of the War of 1812, 1998, pages 65-66,)
