Remember the Raisin
Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Remember the Raisin. Rendezvous of Kentucky Volunteers, Aug. 15, 1812, ordered to relieve Gen. Hull at Detroit. Kentuckians took Frenchtown (Monroe) on Raisin River Jan. 18, 1813. Four days later enemy attacked-killed, massacred, wounded, or captured all but 30. Of 1050 men not half reached home. Ky. counties named for officers: Allen, Ballard, Graves, Hart, Hickman, Edmonson, McCracken, Meade, Simpson. Dedicated August 5, 1962. For more information, see ExploreKYHistory: Remember the Raisin!
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
In August 1812, Georgetown served as the rendezvous for Kentucky volunteers ordered north to relieve General Hull at Detroit. Their advance ended in catastrophe on the River Raisin in January 1813, where after taking Frenchtown the enemy attacked and killed, massacred, wounded, or captured all but thirty—fewer than half of the 1,050 men ever reached home. The rallying cry 'Remember the Raisin!' endured, and nine Kentucky counties bear the names of officers lost in the campaign.
Why it matters
The River Raisin disaster became one of the young nation's defining rallying cries, and its dead are memorialized in the very map of Kentucky's counties.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812, Kentucky answered with a passion that outran nearly every other state. The war's northern frontier lay just across the Ohio River, and Kentuckians saw the fight for the Old Northwest as their own. Volunteers came forward in numbers that filled county courthouses and town squares.
Georgetown, in the heart of the Bluegrass, became one of the places where that enthusiasm took organized shape. In August 1812 it served as a rendezvous — a gathering point where scattered volunteers formed into a marching army bound for the distant frontier at Detroit.
The mood at the outset was confident, even eager. Few of the men assembling here could have guessed that the campaign they were joining would become one of the young nation's great tragedies, and that its name would be carved into memory as both a wound and a rallying cry.
People & events
The orders were clear enough: march north and relieve General William Hull at Detroit. But Hull surrendered that post to the British in August 1812, and the campaign that followed carried the Kentuckians into disaster rather than rescue.
In January 1813 they took Frenchtown, on the River Raisin. The victory was brief. Days later the enemy struck back, and the fighting — followed by the killing of wounded and captured men afterward — devastated the Kentucky force. Of roughly a thousand men, the marker records that fewer than half ever reached home again. The event seared itself into American memory as the River Raisin Massacre.
Kentucky chose to remember its fallen officers in the most permanent way a state can: by writing their names onto its own map. Counties across the commonwealth — among them Allen, Ballard, Graves, Hart, Hickman, Edmonson, McCracken, Meade, and Simpson — carry the names of men lost in this campaign. Every time those county names are spoken, the memorial is renewed.
Its place in the American story
"Remember the Raisin!" became one of the defining cries of the War of 1812, a phrase that turned private grief into public resolve. In the months that followed, it stiffened American determination on the northern frontier and helped drive the campaigns that ultimately secured the Old Northwest for the United States.
The disaster mattered beyond Kentucky. It became a national symbol of sacrifice at a moment when the war was going badly and the country badly needed reasons to persevere. A defeat, remembered rightly, can steel a people as surely as a victory.
What sets this story apart is how the memory was preserved. Many battles fade into textbooks; this one is stitched into the everyday geography of a state. The map of Kentucky is itself a monument to the men who did not come home.
If you visit
Come here knowing that the ground beneath you was once a place of departure — the last gathering before a long march north. The volunteers who assembled at this rendezvous believed they were setting out on a rescue. History had other plans, and that gap between hope and outcome is part of what gives this spot its weight.
As you read the roll of county names on the marker, you may recognize places you have driven through without a second thought. That is the quiet power of this memorial: the men it honors are all around you, named on road signs and courthouse squares across the state.
Georgetown makes an easy stop in the rolling Bluegrass country, and this marker rewards a slow, thoughtful pause. Let the phrase "Remember the Raisin" settle in — it was meant, from the beginning, to be carried away and repeated.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · William Hull
Related events
- · Battle of Frenchtown
- · River Raisin Massacre
Themes & tags
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