Reviewer's assertion, _that Sir George Prevost attempted to affix a stigma
upon the personal character of General Procter, which he was afterwards
obliged to abandon, with a declaration of regret that it was ever made_,
has been received from the Judge-Advocate who officiated at the above
trial, and who is now resident in Canada. From this information it appears,
that so far from the fifth charge being abandoned, the Judge-Advocate in
his reply, although he adverted to the partial failure of the proof in
support of that charge, still asserted that there came out in evidence
strong grounds for making it. In answer to the Reviewer's
misrepresentations as to the delay in assembling the Court-martial, it
appears from the same information that such delay was unavoidable. General
Procter's letter, in explanation of the retreat of the right division, was
not received until late in November, 1813. It was, of course, transmitted
to England, that His Majesty's Government might judge of the necessity of
an investigation. When General Procter applied for this investigation, he
was told that this was the case; and also, what he must have known, that at
all events, no such investigation could then take place, as the principal
witnesses, both for and against him, were then prisoners in the state of
Kentucky. The first orders of the Government for the assembling of the
Court-martial were not received in Canada until the 28th of May, 1814. They
were immediately notified to General Procter. The officers of the 41st were
still prisoners, though they were shortly to be exchanged, but the
exigencies of the war gave such employment to all the officers of proper
rank to form such a Court-martial, as well as to many material witnesses,
that it was impossible, without sacrificing the interests of the service to
comply with General Procter's applications for the assembling of the Court.
[107] The action was fought on the 11th.
J. M'Creery, Printer,
Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.