On the 4th of October, General Harrison came up with the rear-guard of

the British, and succeeded in capturing the whole of their ammunition

and stores. General Proctor, under this second reverse of fortune, by

which he was left destitute of the means of subsistence or defence,

found himself compelled to stake the fate of the remnant of his small

army on a general engagement. Accordingly he assumed a position on the

right bank of the River Thames, near the Indian village of Moravian

Town--the left resting on the river supported by a field-piece, his

right on a swamp, at a distance of 300 yards from the river, and flanked

by the whole Indian force attached to the division. The intermediate

ground, covered with lofty trees, was dry and somewhat elevated. Here

General Proctor formed his troops into line, to the number of 500 or

600. The Indians under Tecumseh amounted to 1,200. In this position he

awaited the approach of the enemy, who, on the morning of the 5th of

October, passed the river at a rapid twelve miles below the Moravian

village, and came up with the British in the afternoon. General Harrison

drew up his men in two lines, and secured his left flank, which was

opposed to the Indians, by a division thrown back _en potence_; and

without any previous engagement by infantry, ordered his mounted

Kentuckians (accustomed from their boyhood to ride with extraordinary

dexterity through the most embarrassed woods) to charge at full speed

upon (the _open_ line of) the British, which had effected before the

latter had time to discharge their third fire. This cavalry charge of

the enemy on the British line decided the issue of the day. The line

gave way at the charge; the troops, worn down with fatigue and hunger,

dispirited by the unpromising appearance of the campaign, became totally

routed, and for the most part surrendered themselves prisoners, while

General Proctor and his personal staff sought safety in flight.

To the left of the enemy's position, which was opposed to the Indians,

the battle raged with more obstinacy. This part of the enemy's line had

even given way until a column under ex-Governor Shelby was brought up to

its support. These faithful allies continued to carry on the contest

with the left of the American line with furious determination,

encouraged by the presence of Tecumseh, until finding all hopes of

retrieving the day to be in vain--General Proctor and his soldiers

having fled or surrendered--they yielded to the overwhelming numbers of

the enemy, and left the field--upwards of 100 of them having fallen in

battle, and the bodies of 33 of them being found around the dead body of

their famous chief and warrior, Tecumseh; celebrated no less for his

humanity than for his bravery, his eloquence, and his influence among

the Indian allies of the British in the West.

Upwards of 600 of the British, including twenty-five officers, were made

prisoners of war. Those who escaped made the best of their way to

Ancaster, a few miles from Burlington Heights, exposed at an inclement

season to all the horrors of the wilderness, of hunger, and famine. The

number thus escaped to that place amounted to only 246, including the

general and seventeen officers.

This disaster of the British arms in that quarter seems not to have been

palliated by those precautions and that presence of mind which, even in

defeat, reflects lustre on a commander. In rapid retreats from a

pursuing enemy cumbrous and useless baggage is abandoned, and bridges

and roads are destroyed and rendered as impassable as possible, in order

to impede the progress of the pursuers; but General Proctor encumbered

himself with a cumbrous load of baggage, and left the bridges and roads

in his rear entire, to the advantage of his pursuers. Whether this error

and neglect arose from contempt of the enemy, or from disobedience of

the commanding officer's orders, is not well understood; but the defeat

led to the harshest recrimination, and involved in unmerited disgrace

the division of the brave troops that had served with honour in the

Michigan territory; and General Proctor was subjected to a trial by

court-martial for his conduct in the whole affair--censured and deprived

of his pay for six months.

PART XII.

AMERICANS BURN MORAVIAN TOWN, BEFORE RETURNING TO DETROIT--FORM ALLIANCE

WITH INDIANS, WHICH THEY HAD EXCLAIMED SO MUCH AGAINST ON THE PART OF

THE BRITISH--ARE INTOXICATED WITH THEIR SUCCESSES IN THE

WEST--MAGNIFICENT CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1813, AS OF 1812, IN BEHALF OF

CANADIANS, BOTH IN UPPER AND LOWER CANADA--CANADIAN VICTORY OF

ISLE-AUX-NOIS--SPLENDID CANADIAN VICTORIES OF CHATEAUGUAY AND

CHRYSTLER'S FARM--AMERICAN ARMIES RETREAT INTO WINTER QUARTERS.

The American army returned to Detroit after the battle of Moravian Town;

but before doing so, they consigned the town to the flames, assigning as

a justification of the savage act against the unoffending Christian

Moravian Indians, a retaliation for what they called the massacre of

River Raisin.

During General Harrison's absence from Detroit, a few of the Indian

tribes tendered their services to General McArthur, to raise the hatchet

against the British, and their proffered services were readily

accepted--showing that, according to the American rule of judging, the

alliance of the Indians with the United States was quite right, while

with England it was all wrong and barbarous.

The success of the American arms on Lake Erie and its surrounding shores

so intoxicated and bewildered them, that, in their subsequent movements,

they calculated upon nothing but victory and conquest, made no allowance

for failure in any point. "Canada must now be ours" was their exulting

and arrogant language. But they had overlooked the fact that, however

gloomy the prospects of the Western Canadians were in October of the

year 1813, there were remaining elements of strength with them--their

courage and zeal were unabated, and even increased, by the transactions

of the months of disaster; their loyalty to their principles, and their

love of their independence, were intensified rather than enfeebled; they

would not be a _conquered people_; and before the end of the year 1813,

the American armies had to relinquish every inch of Canadian soil both

in Upper and Lower Canada.

But to present a connected and intelligent view of the magnificent close

of the year 1813, as was that of 1812, we must first turn to the

American campaigns against Lower Canada in 1813; and the defeats and

want of success for several months in Upper Canada were more than

compensated by the heroic deeds and splendid success of both the English

and French defenders of Lower Canada, as well as by victories gained in

Upper Canada in the months of November and December.

The Isle-aux-Nois was termed the key of Lower Canada, and its old

fortifications had been repaired, and three gun-boats sent thither from

Quebec. The little garrison was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel

George Taylor, Inspecting General Field Officer (then major of the 100th

Regiment), who, apprehending, from previous private information, a

combined attack from the American naval force on Lake Champlain and the

troops in the neighbourhood of his post, commanded by the

Brigadier-Generals Smyth and Clarke, lost no time in equipping the three

gun-boats lying unemployed for want of seamen; and Lieutenant-Colonel

Taylor having no sailors, he manned the gun-boats from his regiment,

with three artillerymen for each boat, and took the precaution to man

two batteaux with a detachment of soldiers, for the double purpose of

rendering assistance to the gun-boats in the event of their being either

sunk or disabled in the engagement, or to assist in boarding if it

should be found necessary. The enemy, discovered in approaching,

consisted of the sloops of war _Growler_ and _Eagle_, fitted out in the

most complete manner, each carrying eleven guns (eighteens, twelves, and

sixes), long eighteens on pivots, with complements each of fifty-five

men, comprehending a company of marines, which they had received at

Champlain the evening previous to the engagement; the whole under the

command of the United States navy. The admirable execution with their

small arms of the two small detachments of soldiers landed on the east

side of the river, and the well-directed fire from the gun-boats, of

round and grape shot, completely decided the fate of the action, which

the enemy gallantly contested from half-past four to half-past eight in

the morning, and did not surrender until further resistance became

utterly unavailing--one of the vessels being run aground to prevent her

from sinking.

The whole force of the British in this affair was only 108. The men

killed on board the American vessels were thrown overboard by their

surviving comrades; the prisoners amounted to 100 men, of whom many were

wounded. Of the captors, not a man was killed, and only three severely

wounded. The naval force of the enemy on Lake Champlain was, by the

capture of these vessels, almost annihilated, while it afforded the

British immediate and effectual means for offensive operations on that

lake, and checked the invasion meditated on Lower Canada.

The American Government, with a view of conquering Lower Canada, had

been at considerable pains and expense in erecting barracks, hospitals,

and magazines at different points along Lake Champlain, particularly at

Burlington, Plattsburg, Champlain, and Swanton, in the neighbourhood of

the Canadian frontiers--all under the direction of the two American

generals, Moore and Hampton. To counteract these movements, the captured

vessels, _Growler_ and _Eagle_--re-named the _Shannon_ and _Brock_--were

speedily put in commission, and the three gun-boats being put in repair,

the small squadron was placed under the command of Captain Pring. Still

there were no sailors; but, fortunately, at this juncture the _Wasp_

sloop-of-war arrived from England at Quebec, and Captain Everard, her

commander, was ordered to transfer his crew to the _Shannon_ and other

vessels, and take command of the little fleet on Lake Champlain.

On the 29th of July the fleet took 900 regulars from the 13th, 100th,

and 103rd Regiments, with some artillery, and a number of Canadian

militia, who acted as batteaux men, and proceeded up the lake, landing

near Plattsburg on the 31st, without meeting any opposition--the

American general, Moore, with 1,500 men, having retreated at the

approach of the British. Colonel John Murray, who was in command of the

British, took possession of the arsenals, etc., and after having

embarked all the warlike stores, of which a considerable quantity was

found in the arsenal, and having destroyed such as he could not

conveniently take away, set fire to the enemy's arsenal, public

buildings, commissariat stores, and barracks, recently erected, and

capable of accommodating from 4,000 to 5,000 men. While the troops were

thus employed during the whole of the night, Captains Everard and Pring,

in the _Growler_ and _Eagle_, with a gun-boat proceeded to Burlington,

where General Hampton lay encamped with 4,000 men, and threw that place

into the utmost consternation. Having captured and destroyed, within

sight of the American forces, four vessels, Captain Everard returned to

Plattsburg, where the troops were re-embarked, and proceeded to Swanton.

Colonel Murray, while on the way thither, sent a detachment to Champlain

for the purpose of destroying the barracks and block-house at that port.

The main body having visited Swanton, and effected the purpose of the

expedition to the fullest extent of his Excellency the Governor-General's

orders, returned to the Isle-aux-Nois, where they arrived the 4th of

August, without the loss of a man, and having been completely successful.

But these successes were only preliminary to two victories remarkable in

the annals of military warfare, considering the disparity in the number

and means of the parties concerned--known as the battles of

_Chateauguay_ and _Chrystler's Farm_.

General Hampton, after having transported his force across Lake

Champlain, lay encamped some days at Cumberland Head, near Plattsburg.

On the 20th of September he entered Lower Canada at Odletown, at the

lower extremity of Lake Champlain, with upwards of 5,000 men. The road

leading from thence to l'Acadie, and the open country in the

neighbourhood of Montreal, lies through a swamp of about fifteen miles,

which had been cut up and rendered almost impracticable by abatis since

the preceding campaign, by the Voltigeurs under Lieutenant-Colonel De

Salaberry, and guarded by some Voltigeurs and Indians. Deterred by these

obstructions, General Hampton evacuated Odletown on the 22nd of

September, and moved with his whole force westward, toward the head of

Chateauguay river, under pretext of the impracticability of advancing

through the Odletown road for want of water for his cavalry and cattle,

owing to the extraordinary drought of the season. Colonel De Salaberry,

with the Canadian Voltigeurs, on ascertaining the route the enemy had

taken, moved in like manner to Chateauguay, and by his skilful

precautions and arrangements of defence and attack, he gained advantage

in several skirmishes with scouting and advance parties of the

enemy--thus leading his Voltigeurs for the first time into action, and

acquiring a just confidence in the valour of his countrymen, which a few

days afterwards they nobly exemplified under their gallant leader at

Chateauguay. Finally he assumed a judicious position in a thick wood on

the left bank of the Chateauguay river, at a distance of two leagues

above the Turk, or confluence of the English and Chateauguay rivers,

where he threw up temporary breastworks of logs, covering his front and

right flank with extended abatis, while his left was covered by the

river. Here he resolved to await the enemy and maintain his ground with

a Spartan handful of Canadians against the whole strength of the

invading army. In his rear there was a small rapid where the river was

fordable; this he covered with a strong breastwork and guard; keeping at

the same time a strong picquet of the Beauharnois Militia in advance of

the right bank of the river, lest the enemy, approaching under cover of

the forest, might cross the ford and dislodge him from his ground.

The occupancy of this position General Hampton justly considered of the

first importance to the ulterior object of the campaign against

Montreal, as the country from thence to the mouth of the Chateauguay,

being principally open and cultivated, afforded no strong points to

check his progress to the St. Lawrence, and prevent his junction with

General Wilkinson's division; but which in fact was not yet in readiness

to move.

General Hampton, in the meantime, to distract and divide the attention

of the British, directed Colonel Clarke to carry on a petty warfare on

the eastern side of Lake Champlain; and that ruthless depredator

invested the settlements in Missisquoi Bay, where he plundered the

inhabitants in the most wanton manner.

On the 21st of October, General Hampton again entered Lower Canada,

having early in the morning of that day dispatched his light troops and

a regiment of the line, under Brigadier-General Izard, to dislodge a

small picquet of sedentary militia, at the junction of the Outarde and

Chateauguay rivers, where the main body arrived on the 22nd. On the

24th, having opened and completed a large and practicable road from his

position at Four Corners (a distance of twenty-four miles), through

woods and morasses, which Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry, on returning

from the Four Corners, had broken up and embarrassed with abatis,

General Hampton brought forward the whole of his artillery (ten

field-pieces) and stores to his new position--about seven miles from

Lieut.-Colonel De Salaberry's post.

From this point General Hampton dispatched Colonel Purdy with a light

brigade, and a strong body of infantry of the line, at an early hour of

the night of the 25th, with orders to gain the Ford, and fall on the

rear of Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry's position; while the main body

were to commence the attack in front. Purdy's brigade proceeded, but

were misled and bewildered in the woods, and did not gain the point of

attack as directed by the commanding officer. General Hampton, however,

advanced next morning (26th October) under the expectation of having the

intended attack at the Ford, and at ten o'clock made his appearance with

about _three thousand five hundred men_, under General Izard, on the

high road leading to the abatis, and drove in a picket of twenty-five

men, who falling back on a second picket made a resolute stand, and

maintained a smart fire upon the enemy. Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry,

upon hearing the musketry, promptly advanced with the light company of

the Canadian Fencibles, commanded by Captain Ferguson, and two companies

of his Voltigeurs, commanded by Captains Chevalier and Jucheseau

Duchesnay. The first of these companies he posted on the right, in front

of the abatis, in extended order, its right skirting on the adjoining

woods and abatis, among which were distributed a few Abenaqui Indians.

Captains Chevalier and Duchesnay's companies of Voltigeurs, in extended

order, occupied the ground from the left of this company to the River

Chateauguay, and the third company, under Captain L. Jucheseau

Duchesnay, with the sedentary militia, under Captain Lougtain, were

thrown back _en potence_ along the margin of the river for the purpose

of flanking, or preventing a flank fire from the enemy in the event of

his appearing on the opposite side of the river. The enemy in the

meantime advanced with steadiness in open column of sections to within

musket shot, when Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry discharged his rifle

as signal to commence firing, at which a mounted officer was seen to

fall. The bugles sounded, and a quick fire was immediately opened upon

the enemy who wheeled up into line, and commenced a fire in battalion

vollies, which, from the position of their line, was almost totally

thrown to the right of the Canadians, and of no effect whatever. They,

however, soon changed their front parallel to their adversaries, by

facing to the right, and filing up with speed, when the engagement

became general.

The retirement of the few skirmishers, rather advanced in the centre of

the line, being mistaken by the enemy for a flight, an universal shout

ensued, which was re-echoed by the Canadians, and the reinforcements in

reserve under Lieutenant-Colonel M'Donnell, while Lieutenant-Colonel De

Salaberry as a _ruse de guerre_ (like Gideon with his trumpets and 300

men, Judges, vii.), ordered the bugles placed at intervals, in the

abatis, to sound an advance; this had the desired effect, and checked

the ardour of the enemy, who suspected that the Canadians were advancing

in great numbers to circumvent them. The noise of the engagement brought

Colonel Purdy's division on the opposite side of the river, which,

having driven in the picket of the sedentary militia under Captain

Bruguier, were pressing on for the ford at which Lieutenant-Colonel De

Salaberry ordered the light company of the 3rd Battalion embodied

militia, under Captain Daly, to cross and take up the ground abandoned

by the picquet, Captain Daly with his company crossed the ford, and

having advanced fell in with and drove back the advanced guard of the

Americans on the main body, which still pressed forward and compelled

him in his turn to fall back. Having repulsed Captain Daly's company,

they were moving on in overwhelming numbers with eagerness and speed

close to the bank of the river, until opposite to Captain L. Jucheseau

Duchesnay's company, which hitherto lay concealed, and now at the word

of command from Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry, opened so unexpected

and effectual a fire upon the enemy, as to throw him into the utmost

disorder, and to occasion a tumultuous and precipitate retreat.

General Hampton finding his arrangements disconcerted by the total route

of the division on the right bank, withdrew his forces in good order at

half-past two in the afternoon, without having made a single effort to

carry the abatis and entrenchments at the point of the bayonet, leaving

Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry, with scarcely 300 Canadians, masters

of the field of action.

Towards the close of the engagement, Sir George Prevost, with

Major-General De Watteville, arrived on the ground, and witnessed in

person the judicious arrangements and successful exertions of

Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry and his gallant comrades and countrymen,

whose prowess on the occasion called forth the warmest encomiums of the

commander of the forces, and gave them a just claim to the disinterested

and impartial applause of history.

The fatigues and privations experienced by General Hampton's troops,

exposed for several weeks to the inclemency of the season, demoralized

them to the native rawness of new recruits, and rendered them no more

capable of co-operating with General Wilkinson's division in the

combined movement against Montreal. They shortly after fell back on

Plattsburg and retired to winter quarters.

_The Canadian Victory of "Chrystler's Farm."_--The next expedition

against Montreal was to proceed down the St. Lawrence, under the command

of General Wilkinson.[216] The American forces to about 10,000 men

rendezvoused towards the end of October on Grenadier Island, near

Kingston, where General De Rottenburgh confidently expected an attack,

and was prepared for it; but General Wilkinson was not so disposed, and,

after experiencing much foul weather, commenced his movement under cover

of the American fleet, and on the 3rd of November slipt into the St.

Lawrence with a flotilla of upwards of _three hundred_ boats of various

sizes, escorted by a division of gun-boats. He proceeded to within three

miles of Prescott and landed his troops on the American shore, who

proceeded downwards by land to a bay or cove, two miles below

Ogdensburg, in order to avoid the British batteries at Prescott, while

the flotilla passed them in the night of the 6th, with little injury

from the cannonade of the British batteries.

The movements of the flotilla down the St. Lawrence having been

ascertained at Kingston, General De Rottenburgh detached a small force

from that port, consisting of the 49th Regiment, commanded by

Lieutenant-Colonel Plenderleath, of the 89th Regiment, and some

Voltigeurs, which, when reinforced by Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson with a

party of the Canadian Fencibles from Prescott, amounted to about 800

rank and file, the whole commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, of

the 89th Regiment, and accompanied by the Deputy-Adjutant-General.

This corps of observation proceeded under the escort of a small division

of gun-boats, commanded by Captain Mulcaster, R.N., in pursuit of the

enemy; and on the 8th came up with them at Point Iroquois. General

Wilkinson had on the preceding day directed Colonel Macomb to land on

the British shore with 1,200 men, in order to clear the coast to the

head of the Long Sault, of the militia along the shore, from various

parts of the country. On the 18th this division was reinforced by

Brigadier-General Brown's Brigade, with a body of dragoons from the

American shore. On arriving at the head of the Long Sault, the whole of

the effective men, except such as were required to navigate the boats

down the Rapids, were landed under the orders of Brigadier-General Boyd,

who was to proceed down the land in the rear of General Brown's division

to the foot of the Long Sault.

On the 10th Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, with his gun-boats, visited the

American post at Hamilton, where he landed and took possession of a

considerable quantity of provisions and stores belonging to the American

army, with two pieces of ordnance. Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey, in the

meantime, followed up the enemy, who in the evening were observed

advancing from the woods in considerable numbers, with a body of

cavalry; but upon receiving a few rounds from three field-pieces fell

back for the night. (Some smart cannonading took place in the meantime

between the British and American gun-boats.)

_Battle of Chrystler's Farm._--On the ensuing day, Lieutenant-Colonel

Morrison pressed so closely upon the rear of General Boyd's division as

to compel him to concentrate his forces and give battle. The enemy's

force, consisting of two brigades of infantry and a regiment of cavalry,

amounting to _between three and four thousand men_, moved forward about

two o'clock in the afternoon from Chrystler's Point, and attacked the

British advance, which gradually fell back to the position which had

been selected for the detachment to occupy--the right resting on the

river, and the left on a pine wood, between which there were about 700

yards of open ground, the troops on which were thus disposed:

The flank companies of the 49th Regiment, the detachment from the

Canadian regiment, with one field-piece, under Lieutenant-Colonel

Pearson, on the right, a little advanced on the road. Three companies of

the 89th Regiment, under Captain Barnes, with a gun, formed in echelon,

with the advance on its left supporting it. The 49th and the 89th,

thrown more to the rear, with a gun, formed the main body and reserve,

extending to the woods on the left, which were occupied by the

Voltigeurs under Major Herriot, and the Indians under Lieutenant

Anderson.

At about half past two the action became general, and the enemy

endeavoured, by moving forward a brigade from his right, to turn the

British left, but was repulsed by the 89th Regiment forming _en potence_

with the 49th Regiment, and moving forward in that direction, in

echelon, followed by the 89th. When within half musket shot, the line

was formed under a heavy but irregular fire from the enemy. The 49th was

directed to charge the American guns, posted opposite the Canadian guns,

but it became necessary, when within a short distance of them, to check

this forward movement in consequence of a charge from the American

cavalry on the right, lest they should wheel about and fall upon the

rear; but they were received in so gallant a manner by the companies of

the 89th under Captain Barnes, and the well-directed fire of the

artillery, that they quickly retreated; and by a charge from those

companies one gun was gained. The enemy immediately concentrated their

force to check the British advance, but such was the steady continuance

and well-directed fire of the troops and artillery that about half-past

four they gave way at all points from an exceeding strong position,

endeavouring by their light infantry to cover their retreat, who were

soon driven away by a judicious movement made by Lieutenant-Colonel

Pearson.

The British detachment for the night occupied the ground from which the

enemy had been driven.

This (called the Battle of Chrystler's Farm, from the ground on which it

occurred) is, in the estimation of military men, considered the

handsomest affair during the war, from the professional skill displayed

in the course of the action by the adverse commanders; and when we

consider the prodigious preparations of the American Government for that

expedition, with the failure of which their hopes of conquest banished,

the battle of Chrystler's Farm may be classed as an event of the first

importance in the defence of the Canadas.

The American division, after leaving the field, re-embarked in haste,

while the dragoons, with five field-pieces of light artillery, proceeded

down towards Cornwall, in the rear of General Brown's division, who,

unaware of the battle of Chrystler's Farm, had continued his march for

that place.

The loss of the enemy, by their own statements, amounted to three

officers and ninety-nine men killed, and sixteen officers and one

hundred and twenty-one men wounded. The loss of the British amounted to

three officers (Captain Nairne of the 49th Regiment, and Lieutenants

Lorimier and Armstrong), and twenty-one men killed, and one hundred and

thirty-seven wounded, and twelve missing.

General Wilkinson, who, during the action, lay confined to his barge

from a protracted illness, in his official despatch to his Government,

bears strong testimony to the loyalty of the inhabitants on the Canada

side of the St. Lawrence, and to the bravery and discipline of the

troops he had to contend with at Chrystler's Farm.

The day after the engagement, the American flotilla proceeded down the

Long Sault, and joined near Cornwall the division which had moved

towards that place, where General Wilkinson confidently expected to hear

of the arrival of General Hampton on the opposite shore, to whom he had

written on the 6th, to that effect, not being then acquainted with his

late defeat. Here, to his unspeakable mortification and surprise, he

received a letter from General Hampton, informing him that the division

under his command was falling back upon Lake Champlain.[217]

This information, with the countless difficulties momentarily crowding

upon the American army, effectually blasted every prospect of further

success. So circumstanced, the American commander immediately held a

Council of War, in which it was unanimously resolved, "That the attack

upon Montreal should be abandoned for the present season, and that the

army near Cornwall should immediately cross to the American shore, in

order to take up winter quarters," a resolution which was carried into

effect the following day, by their proceeding for Salmon river, where

their boats and batteaux were scuttled, and extensive barracks for the

whole army were erected with extraordinary celerity, surrounded on all

sides by abatis, so as to render a surprise unpracticable.

Every appearance of danger having subsided, the commander of the

Canadian forces dismissed the sedentary militia, by a General Order of

the 17th of November, with acknowledgments of the cheerful alacrity with

which they had repaired to their posts, and the loyalty and zeal they

had manifested at the prospect of encountering the enemy.

With these operations terminated the campaigns of 1813 in Lower Canada;

but new triumphs still awaited the British arms in the Province of

Upper Canada before the end of the year.[218]

PART XIII.

GENERAL DRUMMOND ARRIVES IN UPPER CANADA--COLONEL MURRAY SENT TO ARREST

THE PREDATORY INCURSIONS OF THE BRUTAL GENERAL McCLURE UPON THE

INHABITANTS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF FORT GEORGE--McCLURE'S BARBAROUS

BURNING OF THE TOWN OF NEWARK (NIAGARA), EXPOSING 400 WOMEN AND CHILDREN

TO THE INTENSE COLD OF THE 10TH OF DECEMBER--McCLURE'S FLIGHT TO FORT

NIAGARA ON THE AMERICAN SIDE OF THE RIVER--COLONEL MURRAY, BY SURPRISING

FORT NIAGARA, TAKES THE WHOLE GARRISON PRISONERS, AND SEIZES LARGE

QUANTITIES OF MILITARY STORES--GENERAL RIALL RETALIATES IN THE SAME WAY,

IN REGARD TO LEWISTON, BLACK ROCK, AND BUFFALO--GENERAL DRUMMOND ISSUES

A PROCLAMATION DEPRECATING SUCH SAVAGE POLICY AS INITIALED BY THE

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

Early in December, Major General De Rottenburgh was relieved in the

command of Upper Canada by Lieutenant-General Drummond, who proceeded

from Kingston to York, and from thence to the head of the lake, where

the army again resumed an offensive position. The country along the St.

Lawrence, being freed from the incursions of the enemy, Colonel Murray,

of the 100th Regiment, was ordered to advance from Burlington Heights

towards Fort George, with a view at that time to prevent predatory

incursions of the enemy under General McClure (then in possession of

that fort) on the defenceless inhabitants of the surrounding country.

But General McClure, having heard of the disasters which had befallen

the army destined for Montreal, and conscious that a like fate might

probably await him and his army, with that dastardly cowardice peculiar

to himself and a few of his compatriots and traitors who joined

themselves to his train, and against the very spirit of the law of

nations and of civilized warfare, immersed the flourishing town of

Newark (Niagara) in one continued sheet of flame, and ignobly fled with

his followers into his territory. The historian laments that it is not

in his power to record one magnanimous act of that recreant General, to

rescue his name from that gulf of infamy to which his nefarious conduct

has forever doomed it.[219]

But retaliation was only delayed a week. On the evening of the 18th of

December, preparations were made for taking Fort Niagara from the enemy,

for which service Colonel Murray, of the 100th Regiment, was selected to

take the command; and long before daylight next morning this gallant

officer, at the head of the grenadier company of the Royal Scots, the

grenadier and light companies of the 41st Regiment, and a detachment of

his own corps, crossed the river about two miles above the fort, upon

which they immediately advanced. On approaching the fortress, sentries,

planted on the outer works, were surprised and taken, the countersign

obtained, and in a few minutes the fort was carried at the point of the

bayonet.

The loss on the part of the British in this affair was only six killed

and five wounded: that of the enemy amounted to sixty-five killed and

fourteen wounded (all with the bayonet), and the whole garrison was made

prisoners, consisting of nearly 350. There were in the fort, at the time

of its capture, twenty-seven pieces of ordnance of weighty calibre,

3,000 muskets with apparatus, besides large magazines of camp equipage

and military clothing, which of course fell into the hands of the

victors.

On the same day on which Fort Niagara was captured, the town of

Lewiston, about eight miles above Fort Niagara, was taken possession of

by a British force under Major-General Riall, without opposition; in

which place the public magazines were well filled with provisions and

other military stores.

Towards the latter end of the same month, General Riall crowed the

Niagara river at Black Rock, at the head of a force consisting of about

600 men, detachments from the 8th or the King's Regiment, 41st, 89th,

and 100th Regiments, with a few Militia volunteers, exclusive of six or

seven companies of the Royal Scots, under the command of

Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, who were directed to land between the

villages of Buffalo and Black Rock, about two miles distant from each

other, with a view to divert the garrison of Black Rock, while the other

troops were landing in front of that port; but in consequence of the

severity of the weather, a number of the boats were stranded; by which

means the troops were unable to land in time to effect the object for

which they had been intended; however, the enemy was driven from both

positions in a short time.

The American loss in this affair was upwards of five hundred, 130 of

whom were prisoners of war; the loss of the British was inconsiderable

compared with that of the enemy.

The state of exasperation to which the mind of every British subject had

been wrought by the conduct of McClure in burning the town of Newark,

and exposing all to the inclemency of a Canadian winter, both the

helpless infant and infirm old age, was such that nothing but a similar

retaliation could assuage; the whole line of frontier, from Buffalo to

Fort Niagara, was therefore burnt to ashes.

Ample vengeance having thus been taken for the wanton conflagration and

cruel outrages committed upon the defenceless inhabitants of Newark and

neighbourhood, Lieutenant-General Drummond, on the 12th of January,

1814, issued a proclamation, in which he strongly deprecated the savage

mode of warfare to which the enemy, by a departure from the established

usages of war, had compelled him to resort. He traced with faithful

precision and correctness the conduct that had marked the progress of

the war on the part of the enemy, and concluded by lamenting the

necessity imposed upon him of retaliating upon the subjects of America

the miseries inflicted upon the inhabitants of Newark, but at the same

time declared it not to be his intention further to pursue a system so

revolting to his own feelings, and so little congenial to the British

character, unless he should be compelled by the future measures of the

enemy.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 204: Thompson's History of the War of 1812, Chap. xxii., pp.

179-181.

"Terms of capitulation were agreed upon, by which the whole of General

Winchester's command that had survived the fury of the battle were

surrendered prisoners of war, amounting to upwards of 600. In this

sanguinary engagement, the loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded,

was nearly 500; while that of the British was only twenty-four killed

and 161 wounded."--_Ib._, pp. 176, 177.]

[Footnote 205: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. v., pp. 100,

101.]

[Footnote 206: Tuttle, Chap. xxxviii., p. 396.

"The 104th (or New Brunswick Regiment) marched through from Fredericton

to Upper Canada, several hundreds of miles, with extraordinary celerity,

in the month of March, though their route from Fredericton to the River

St. Lawrence lay through an uninhabited wilderness buried in snow, and

never before traversed by troops." (Christie's History of the War of

1812, p. 103.)]

[Footnote 207: Tuttle, Chap. xxxviii., pp. 396, 397.]

[Footnote 208: "The American troops had been preparing for this

expedition the whole winter; and no pains had been spared in their

discipline."]

[Footnote 209: "The people, hitherto unaccustomed to hear of reverses,

were irritated at this success of the enemy, and, as usual upon such

occasions, clamoured against the General [Sheaffe], who a few weeks

afterwards was succeeded in the administration of the civil government

by Major-General De Rottenburgh, and on his return to the Lower Province

assumed the command of the forces in the district of Montreal. It is not

ascertained whether his removal was the result of the displeasure of the

commander of the forces [Sir George Prevost]; but upon a cool survey of

the battle of York, it must be owned that the honour of the British arms

was strenuously and ably maintained by the small party of men under his

command, who, including regulars, militia, and Indians, did not exceed

600." (Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. v., p. 105.)]

[Footnote 210: Among the killed of the British party was Mr. Allan

MacLean, Clerk of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, who volunteered

his services with a musket.

"The Americans moved forward in three strong brigades, under Generals

Chandler, Winder, and Boyd, with an advance of light troops and

riflemen, under Colonels Scott and Forsyth, the whole commanded by

General Lewis, the next in command to General Dearborn, whose low state

of health compelled him to keep his bed, from whence he issued his

orders." (Thompson's History of the War of 1812, Chap, xxiii., p. 185.)]

[Footnote 211: Thompson's War of 1812, Chap. xxiii.

In General Vincent's official despatch relating to this brilliant and

intrepid action, he gives the credit of it to Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey.

He says: "To Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey, the Deputy-Adjutant-General, my

obligations are particularly due. From the first moment the enemy's

approach was known, he watched his movements, and afforded me the

earliest information. To him, indeed, I am indebted for the suggestion

and plan of operations; nothing could have been more clear than his

arrangements, nor more completely successful in the result." (Christie,

Chap. v.)]

[Footnote 212: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. v.]

[Footnote 213: The following graphic account of the manoeuvres and

conflicts of the two fleets is given by the American historian,

Brackenridge, in his War of 1812:

"On Lake Ontario, a naval armament, which might be termed formidable for

this inland sea, was arrayed on either side; and an interesting contest

ensued between two skilful officers for the superiority. The _General

Pike_, of twenty-two guns, having been launched, and proving to be an

excellent sailer, Commodore Chauncey was now fully equal, in point of

strength, to his antagonist. Sir James Yeo, though somewhat inferior in

force, had the advantage in an important particular: his ships sailed

better in squadron, and he could therefore avoid or come to an

engagement as he thought proper. It being a matter all-important to the

British, to prevent the Americans from becoming masters of the lake, Sir

James prudently avoided a general action; while, on the other hand, to

bring him to action was the great object of Commodore Chauncey. On the

7th of August the two fleets came in sight of each other. Commodore

Chauncey manoeuvred to gain the wind. Having passed to the leeward of

the enemy's line, and being abreast of his warship, the _Wolfe_, he

fired a few guns to ascertain whether he could reach the hostile fleet.

The shot falling short, he wore, and hauled upon a wind to the starboard

tack; the rear of his schooners being six miles astern. Sir James wore

also, and hauled upon a wind on the same tack; but observing that the

American fleet would be able to weather him in the next tack, he tacked

again and made sail to the northward. Commodore Chauncey pursued him. He

continued the chase until night; but the schooners not being able to

keep up, a signal was made to relinquish the pursuit, and to form in

close order. The wind now blew heavily; and at midnight two of the

schooners, the _Scourge_ and the _Hamilton_, were found to have upset in

the squall. Lieutenants Winter and Osgood, two valuable officers, were

lost, and only sixteen men of the crews saved [picked up by the

British]. The next morning, the enemy discovering this misfortune, and

having now the superiority, manifested a disposition to engage the

Americans, and bore up for the purpose. Two schooners were ordered to

engage him; but when they were within a mile and a-half of him, he

attempted to cut them off. Failing in this, he hauled his wind, and hove

to. A squall coming on, Commodore Chauncey was fearful of being

separated from his dull sailing schooners, and ran in towards Niagara

and anchored. Here he received on board, from Fort George, 150 men to

act as marines, and distributed them through his fleet. On the morning

of the 9th he again sailed. At eleven o'clock, after much manoeuvring

on both sides, the rear of the enemy's line opened its fire; and in

fifteen minutes the action became general on both sides. At half-past

eleven, the American weather line bore up and passed to the leeward, the

_Growler_ and _Julia_ excepted, which soon after tacking to the

southward, brought the British between them and the remainder of the

American fleet. Sir James, after exchanging a few shots with the

American commodore's ship, pursued the _Growler_ and _Julia_. A fire

commenced between them, which continued until one o'clock in the morning

of the 10th, when, after a desperate resistance, the two schooners were

compelled to yield. The fleets had lost sight of each other in the

night; but as Sir James, on the next day, when they were again visible,

showed no disposition to renew the action, Commodore Chauncey returned

to Sackett's Harbour. A victory for this affair was claimed for the

British commander." (Brackenridge's History of the War of 1812, etc.,

Chap, viii., pp. 121, 122.)]

[Footnote 214: Christie, Chap, v., pp. 126--130.]

[Footnote 215: It was this episode in Captain Barclay's proceedings

which resulted in the loss of British supremacy on Lake Erie, the loss

of his fleet, his own wounding, the death of most of his officers and

sailors, General Proctor's compulsory evacuation of Detroit and the

Michigan territory, his retreat into Canada, his defeat on the Thames at

the Moravian village, involving the loss of many of his men, with

upwards of 100 Indians, including famous Chief Tecumseh. We do not

desire to dwell upon this dark spot in the life of Captain Barclay; but

the whole mystery is explained in Mrs. Amelia Harris's Memoirs of her

father and the early settlement of Long Point (and her authority cannot

be questioned.) See Chapter XLI. of this History, pp. 254.]

[Footnote 216: "General Wilkinson was called from the South to assume

the command of the American forces in the North, in the room of General

Dearborn, which now with General Hampton's division, amounted to about

18,000, to which General Harrison's division was ordered to be added.

Such were the gigantic and formidable preparations for the capture of

Montreal, where the American soldiers were promised, as an additional

inducement, good winter quarters." (Thompson's History of the War of

1812, Chap. xxvi., p. 209.)]

[Footnote 217: "General Wilkinson had, at an early stage of the

expedition, transmitted an order to General Hampton to join him at St.

Regis; but that officer having learned the low state of General

Wilkinson's supplies of provisions, and considering the state of the

roads, conceived it the most prudent method to disobey the order, and

not to place himself at too great a distance from his own magazines; he

therefore availed himself of the nearest route to Montreal, the

unsuccessful result of which manoeuvre has just been detailed.

"The American army was again ordered to cross the line and take up their

winter quarters in their own territory, after repeatedly suffering

themselves to be defeated under the most mortifying and humiliating

circumstances; with the blame of which the commander-in-chief (General

Wilkinson) charged General Hampton, in consequence of his disobedience

of orders, but with which the American Secretary of War more properly

charged both. However, it had the effect of checking the military zeal

which appeared to manifest itself in the American ranks at a distance

from the theatre of hostile operations, and completely to extinguish the

ardour of the American troops on the lines." (Thompson, Chap. xxvii., p.

215.)]

[Footnote 218: The foregoing account of the transactions in Lower Canada

is chiefly extracted from Mr. Christie's History of the War of 1812, and

mostly in his words. What follows is mostly taken from Thompson's War of

1812.]

[Footnote 219: The barbarous act of General McClure in burning Niagara

is ascribed to directions from the American Secretary at War; but the

many nefarious acts committed by McClure could hardly be owing to

directions from Washington. Mr. Christie says that McClure "having,

pursuant to the directions of the American Secretary at War, most

inhumanly, on the 10th of December, set fire to the flourishing village

of Newark, containing about 150 houses, which Were reduced to ashes,

leaving the wretched and forlorn inhabitants, with upwards of 400 women

and children, exposed to the accumulated horrors of famine and the

inclemency of a Canadian winter."

The British, under the command of Colonel Murray, scarcely amounting to

500 men, including Indians and militia, immediately occupied Fort

George. The barbarous policy of the American Government in destroying

Newark, exasperated the army as well as the inhabitants on the frontier,

of whose impatience for retaliation General Drummond promptly availed

himself after the occupation of Fort George, by adopting the resolution

of carrying the American Fort Niagara by surprise. (Chap. vii., p.

156.)

Mr. Thompson remarks on the conduct of McClure and his soldiers, even

before the burning of the town of Newark: "The American army had no

sooner taken up a position in front of Fort George, than the foraging

parties, or rather marauders, commenced a systematic course of plunder

upon the defenceless inhabitants within the vicinity of their camp, most

of whom, at the time, consisted of women and children; even amongst the

general officers acts of pillage were perpetrated, that, had such

occurred with private soldiers in the British army, would have stamped a

stigma on the character of the British, in the eyes of America, for

which no course of conduct which they could ever after have pursued

would have sufficiently atoned." (War of 1812, Chap. xxix., pp. 227,

228.)]

CHAPTER LVII.

MOVEMENTS AND CAMPAIGNS OF 1814--THE THIRD AND LAST YEAR OF THE WAR.

PART I.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN--REINFORCEMENTS FROM NEW BRUNSWICK--ROYAL

APPROBATION OF CANADIAN LOYALTY AND COURAGE--AMERICAN INVASION OF THE

DISTRICT OF MONTREAL UNDER GENERAL WILKINSON--THE LARGE FORCE OF

AMERICANS DEFEATED AT LE COLLE BY A SMALL FORCE OF CANADIANS--RETURN TO

PLATTSBURG, WHERE GENERAL WILKINSON, DISAPPOINTED AND MORTIFIED, RETIRES

FROM THE ARMY.

The total failure for two years of the expeditions which had been fitted

out at so much expense by the United States Government for the invasion

of Canada, had considerably subdued that ardour for military renown

which, at the commencement of the war--from the defenceless state of

Canada, and the absorption of British strength in the European war--had

promised so rich a harvest of laurels and territory to the United

States. Nevertheless the most active exertions were made on both sides

during the winter for the ensuing campaign. Stores of all descriptions

were forwarded to Kingston from Quebec and Montreal on sleighs, at

prodigious expense. The inhabitants of New Brunswick again evinced their

loyalty and patriotism. Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson, with a regiment,

marched through the woods from Fredericton to the St. Lawrence, in the

month of February. A reinforcement of 220 seamen for the lakes came by

the same route. To expedite the progress of these reinforcements, the

Legislature of New Brunswick voted £300, and the city of St. John gave

a similar sum to defray the expense of conveying the troops and sailors

on sleighs as far as the nature of the roads would permit.

On the 26th of March, His Excellency Sir George Prevost issued a General

Order expressing the approbation of the Prince Regent of the affair of

Chateauguay, and his "peculiar pleasure at finding that His Majesty's

Canadian subjects had at length the opportunity of refuting, by their

own brilliant exertions in defence of their country, the calumnious

charges of disaffection and disloyalty with which the enemy had prefaced

his first invasion of the province, to Lieutenant-Colonel De Salaberry

in particular, and to all the officers and men under his command, the

sense entertained by his Royal Highness of their meritorious and

distinguished services, was made known."

The first movement of the Americans in the neighbourhood of Lake

Champlain which gave room to expect an American invasion of the district

of Montreal, was towards the conclusion of March, 1814, when

Brigadier-General Macomb, with a division of American forces from

Plattsburg, crossed Lake Champlain upon the ice, and entered St. Armand,

where he remained some days, while General Wilkinson prepared for an

attack upon the outposts of Odletown and the Le Colle Mill, which had

been converted into a block-house. On the morning of the 13th of March

(General Macomb having suddenly withdrawn his division from St.

Armand's, and rejoined the main body), the American forces, consisting

of 5,000 men, commanded by General Wilkinson in person, entered

Odletown. The Americans repeated their attacks upon the coveted Le Colle

Mill frontier; and the Canadian Fencibles, Frontier Light Infantry, and

the Voltigeurs, repeated their deeds of bravery and heroism, and

repelled the multitudinous invaders. "The Americans," says Mr. Christie,

"exhausted with cold and fatigue, and finding it impossible to carry the

place without heavy artillery, which, from the state of the roads, could

not be brought forward, withdrew their forces in good order from the

contest, at five o'clock in the afternoon, without being pursued in the

retreat."

The British loss amounted to only ten men killed and four men missing,

and two officers and forty-four men wounded. The American loss, though

considerable, could not be precisely ascertained.

Having failed in the attempt to carry the block-house (Le Colle Mill),

scarcely deserving the appellation of a military post, the enemy fell

back upon Champlain Town, from whence they returned to Plattsburg.

General Wilkinson, after this abortive attempt to retrieve his military

fame, seems to have been removed from his command, or to have sought

voluntary retirement from a service in which he had experienced nothing

but disappointment and reverses.

PART II.

TAKING OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN--DEFENCE OF MACKINAC--SUCCESS IN THE MARITIME

PROVINCES.

Before noticing the military campaign of Upper Canada, we will complete

the summary view of those which relate to the Maritime Provinces and

Lower Canada.

During the occurrences of the taking of the post of _Prairie du Chién_,

on the Mississippi, and the triumphant defence of _Michilimackinac_,

Lieutenant-General Sir John C. Sherbrook, the Lieutenant-Governor of

Nova Scotia, was successful in reducing a very populous and extensive

portion of the enemy's territories adjacent to the Provinces of New

Brunswick. He detached a small force from Halifax under Colonel

Pilkington, while the _Ramilies_, commanded by Sir Thomas Hardie, took

possession, on the 10th of July, of Mosé Island, in Passamaquoddy Bay;

the garrison at Fort Sullivan, consisting of six officers and eighty

men, under the command of Major Putman, surrendering themselves

prisoners of war.

On the 26th of August, Sir John C. Sherbrook, having embarked at Halifax

the whole of his disposable forces on board of ten transports, set sail,

accompanied by a small squadron under Rear-Admiral Griffith, for

Castine, on the Penobscot river, where he arrived on the 1st of

September, and took possession of the batteries at that place; the enemy

finding it impossible to retain the post--having previously blown up the

magazine, and retreated with the field-pieces.

The United States frigate _Adams_ had, some days previous to the arrival

of the British at Castine, run into the Penobscot river, and for

security had gone up as far as Hampden, where her guns had been landed

and a position taken, with a view of protecting her. Captain Barrie, of

the _Dragon_, with a suitable naval force, and 600 picked men under the

command of Colonel John, of the 6th Regiment, were detached up the river

for the purpose of possessing or destroying the _Adams_. The enemy, who

at first offered a spirited resistance, after setting fire to the

frigate, fled in all directions, upon finding the British resolutely

advancing against their positions. Several pieces of ordnance and three

stands of colours fell into the hands of the British, whose loss

amounted to no more than one man killed, and one officer and seven men

wounded.

After the capture of Castine, Lieutenant-Colonel Pilkington was

despatched with a brigade of troops for Madrias, which was taken

possession of on the 11th of September by that officer--the detachment

in Fort O'Brien having, on the approach of the British, precipitately

retreated from the fort, leaving twenty-six pieces of ordnance, with a

quantity of small arms and ammunition.

Lieutenant-Colonel Pilkington was on the point of marching into the

interior of the country when he received a communication from

Lieutenant-General Brewer, commander of the district, engaging that the

militia forces within the County of Washington should not bear arms, or

serve against his Britannic Majesty during the war. This, with a similar

offer made by the civil officers and principal inhabitants of the

county, brought on a cessation of arms.

By these judicious measures a populous extent of territory, stretching

one hundred miles along the sea coast, including a valuable tract of

country partly separating New Brunswick from Lower Canada, passed under

the dominion of the British arms, without effusion of blood or the least

waste of treasure.

PART III.

ENGLAND, FREE FROM THE EUROPEAN WAR, DETERMINES TO PUNISH THE UNITED

STATES FOR THEIR JUNCTION WITH NAPOLEON AND INVASION OF CANADA--SWEEPS

THE AMERICAN COASTS WITH HER FLEET, AND SENDS REINFORCEMENTS OF 16,000

MEN TO CANADA--FAILURE OF SIR GEORGE PREVOST'S ATTACK ON PLATTSBURG--HIS

RECALL, AND SUMMONED TO BE TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL--DIES BEFORE THE

APPOINTED DAY OF TRIAL--ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER.

Hitherto, for more than two years, the colonies had been thrown almost

entirely upon their own prowess and resources, with the assistance of a

few British soldiers, for their own defence against an invading enemy

fifty times more populous than themselves. Up to this time England had

been struggling against Napoleon for the liberties of Europe; but now

the Corsican tiger was chained up in Elba; peace once more reigned in

Europe, and England was now free to throw the whole weight of her

victorious armies and unconquerable navy against the United States,

whose treasury was bankrupt, whose people were disheartened at the

reverses inflicted on their armies by handfuls of British and Canadians

opposed to them, and whose loudest cry now was for peace; but the United

States had refused peace when she could have had it, and Great Britain

was now determined to punish her for her attacks on a peaceful colony,

when the mother country was so thoroughly engaged elsewhere as to be

almost forced to leave it to its own resources. Of the vigorous blockade

of the American seaports, of the capture of Washington and burning of

the capitol, etc., it is not necessary to speak in this place; we have

only to do at present with the operations which took place in Canada

during the summer of 1814.

During the summer about 16,000 British troops arrived at Quebec; but

only 4,000 were sent to Upper Canada, under the command of General

Kempt; and the Governor-General, Prevost, concentrated nearly the whole

of the remainder of the reinforcements in the Richelieu district, with a

view to a descent on the State of New York by way of Lake Champlain, at

Plattsburg. In order to do this, the co-operation of the flotilla on the

lake was considered necessary, and orders were given to put it in an

efficient condition; but the flotilla was defeated and its vessels

taken by the enemy; and the land forces, though they could have easily

taken Plattsburg, did nothing, and were ordered to retreat within the

British lines. The conduct of Sir George Prevost in this

affair--undertaken for his own ambition, and without any public

necessity--lost him all his military prestige; both officers and men

felt the disgrace of retreating before an inferior force of militia; the

valiant Colonel Murray and other officers protested against the retreat,

and some of them indignantly broke their swords, declaring that they

would never serve under him again. He was recalled to England, and under

charges by Commodore Sir James Yeo, was arraigned before a

court-martial, but died a week before the day appointed for his trial.

Though Sir George Prevost was unsuccessful as a military

commander--having disgracefully failed in the only two expeditions which

he planned and personally superintended--the one against Sackett's

Harbour and the other against Plattsburg--he was an excellent civil

governor for Lower Canada, and an amiable and upright man.

It is alleged, however, that the Duke of Wellington and other high

authorities approved of his conduct, and the Prince Regent showed marks

of kindness to his family after his death. His health, which was never

strong, suffered much, not only from mortification and mental anxiety in

regard to his approaching trial (which he demanded at the earliest

possible period), but by a winter's journey across the open country

between the St. Lawrence and St. John, on his way home, that he died on

the 5th of January, 1816, just one week before the court-martial

appointed to examine into his conduct was to have been convened.

Mr. Christie, who was an English member of the Legislative Assembly of

Lower Canada, and the author of an elaborate History of Canada, in six

volumes, beside his excellent "History of the War of 1812," gives the

following estimate of the character and Administration of Sir George

Prevost:

"A warm and unswerving friend of the Canadian population, of French

origin, he confided in and liberally patronized them from the

commencement to the close of his administration; and they, it must be

acknowledged, as generously responded to his confidence in them. No

country or people ever exhibited greater unanimity or patriotism than

did the people of Lower Canada of both origins, in the war of 1812 by

the United States against Great Britain--a stand the more to be

remembered by her Government, as these colonies, almost destitute of

troops, wholly so of money, and scarcely possessing even a sufficiency

of arms and other munitions of defence, owing to the more imperious

calls from other quarters upon the Home Government, were, at the outset

of the war, in a manner left to their own action and resources, and

which they nobly exemplified, single-handed, as it were, throughout the

first two campaigns. The principles of loyalty and duty, no doubt, were

deeply implanted in the bosom of the people; but he it was who exalted

them into enthusiasm and inspired the mass with a confidence in their

own exertions and a reliance upon his wisdom, fitting them for the

emergency, and that bore them successfully through the contest. Whatever

may be the opinion now established of his talents, by the military

world, the impression which the inhabitants of French origin in Lower

Canada universally retain of him, is that of a conciliatory, wise, and

able civil governor, and in all the relations of private life, an

amiable and estimable man."[220]

PART IV.

UPPER CANADA--PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN--THE BRITISH FLEET INFERIOR

ON LAKE ONTARIO--SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION AGAINST OSWEGO--DESTRUCTION OF

FORTIFICATIONS AND SEIZURE OF MUNITIONS OF WAR--BLOCKADES SACKETT'S

HARBOUR--UNSUCCESSFUL ASCENT OF SANDY CREEK.

In Upper Canada the occurrences during the winter of 1814 were

principally confined to incursions reciprocally practised by troops in

advance along the frontiers with various successes, but with no

important results on either side. After the winter's preparations, the

campaign was opened in Upper Canada by Sir Gordon Drummond and Sir James

L. Yeo, under most cheering circumstances. The American forces along the

Lake Champlain, after leaving small garrisons at Plattsburg, Burlington,

and Vergennes, moved early in the spring towards Lake Ontario and the

Niagara frontier, with a view of assuming offensive operations against

Upper Canada, as soon as the fleet in Sackett's Harbour (considerably

augmented during the winter) should be in a state to co-operate with the

land forces. The principal naval stores for the equipment of the fleet

were forwarded to Sackett's Harbour by the way of Oswego; and as the

British naval force at Kingston, strengthened by two additional ships,

the _Prince Regent_ and the _Princess Charlotte_, were ready to appear

on the lake early in the season, it became an object of importance to

intercept the enemy's supplies, and by that means retard his

preparations for invasion. An _expedition against Oswego_ was therefore

determined upon, and General Drummond having embarked a considerable

force, consisting of six companies of De Watteville's Regiment, the

Light Company of Glengarries, the 2nd Battalion of Royal Marines, with a

detachment of Royal Artillery, and two field-pieces, a detachment of the

Rocket Company, with a few Sappers and Miners, set sail from Kingston

the 4th of May, and at noon on the following day made the port of

Oswego, when a heavy gale from the north-west sprung up and obliged the

squadron to gain the offing. On the morning of the 6th, a landing was

effected by about 140 of the troops, under Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher,

and 200 seamen, armed with pikes, under the command of Captain

Mulcaster, R.N., in front of a heavy discharge of round and grape from

the battery, and of musketry from a detachment of about 300 men of the

American army, posted on the brow of the hill, and in the skirts of the

neighbouring wood. The British, on landing, pressed up the hill towards

the enemy's battery, which the Americans (upon finding the British

determined to carry it by storm) relinquished, leaving about sixty men,

principally wounded.

The land and naval commanders having taken possession of the stores

found in the fort and its neighbourhood, and having dismantled the

fortifications and destroyed the barracks, re-embarked on the 7th of

May, and returned to Kingston.

The loss of the British troops amounted to one captain (Holtaway, of the

Marines) and eighteen men killed, and two officers and sixty men

wounded. That of the navy amounted to three men killed, and four

officers and seven men wounded. Captain Mulcaster, while entering the

fort at the head of his men, received a very severe and dangerous

wound. Captain Popham was also severely wounded.

Although the service derived much benefit from this expedition, the main

object contemplated was not accomplished, the principal part of the

naval stores being saved by the enemy, who had taken the precaution of

depositing them at the Falls, some miles from Oswego, up the river.

The British squadron having, for the present, a decided ascendency on

Lake Ontario, blockaded Sackett's Harbour, in order to intercept the

supplies which might, from time to time, be forwarded from Oswego for

the equipment of the American fleet. On the 29th of May, they captured a

boat laden with two twenty-four-pounders, and a large cable for one of

the American ships of war, and, with two gun-boats and five barges,

pursued fifteen other boats, loaded with naval and military stores, and

which took shelter in Sandy Creek; but they were met in the Creek by an

American force, consisting of 150 riflemen, nearly 200 Indians, and a

strong body of militia and cavalry, which overpowered the British party,

of whom eighteen were killed and fifty wounded--the rest being taken

prisoners. Captain Popham, in his official dispatch to Sir James L. Yeo,

on this affair, acknowledged with warmest gratitude the humane exertions

of the American officers of the Rifle Corps, commanded by Major Appling,

in saving the lives of many of the officers and men, whom the American

soldiers and Indians were devoting to slaughter.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 220: History of the War of 1812.]

CHAPTER LVIII.

LAST INVASIONS AND LAST BATTLES OF THE WAR.

PART I.

GENERAL BROWN TAKES FORT ERIE--DEFEATS GENERAL RIALL ON THE PLAINS OF

CHIPPEWA--ADVANCES TO FORT GEORGE--HIS OFFICERS AND ARMY PLUNDER THE

INHABITANTS--RETREATS BACK TO CHIPPEWA--BURNS THE VILLAGE OF ST. DAVID'S

ON THE WAY.

On the Niagara frontier, the American army commanded by General Brown,

and consisting of about 7,000 men, began early in the summer to

concentrate at Buffalo, Black Rock, and other points, and on the 3rd of

July invaded Canada in two brigades, under the command of

Brigadier-Generals Scott and Ripley. They embarked in boats and

batteaux, and effected a landing on the Canada side of the river without

opposition--one brigade landing about a mile above, and the other

brigade a mile below Fort Erie. The fort was under the command of Major

Buck, of the 8th Regiment, with about seventy men of his regiment; it

had been put in a state of defence by that officer, with a view of

causing a temporary check to an invading force, rather than for the

purpose of defending it against a regular siege. But Major Buck was so

careful of himself and his men as to abandon the fort without firing a

shot--an error fatal to the British--for although Fort Erie could not

have been held for any length of time against the overwhelming strength

of the enemy, still a few hours' defence would have enabled General

Riall to concentrate his forces and attack the Americans before they

were firmly established on Canadian soil. The able dispositions which

General Riall had made of the forces under his command along the

Niagara line by the direction of General Drummond, who had anticipated

an invasion at that point where it commenced, were such, that the least

impediment to the progress of the invaders would have enabled General

Riall to have concentrated his troops, and to have fallen upon and

dispersed the enemy before they could have time to be prepared for an

effectual resistance. As it was, the Americans were permitted to occupy

this important post without resistance, and transfer, unmolested, to the

Canadian side all the troops they pleased.

On the following day, General Brown advanced with his whole force, of

over 4,000 men, down the river to the plains of Chippewa, with the

intention of taking possession of the British post at the mouth of the

Chippewa or Welland river. General Riall, having collected what forces

he could, consisting of five companies of the Royal Scots, a part of the

8th or King's Regiment, a part of the 100th Regiment, and the 2nd

Lincoln Militia, amounting in all to about 1,500 men, determined to

check him, until further assistance should arrive. A series of

manoeuvres ensued on both sides, and the most furious battle hitherto

occurring during the war, followed, when General Riall, finding himself

no longer able to sustain the fight against a force so unequal in

universal strength, gave orders to abandon the field--his troops

retiring in the rear of the works at Chippewa and destroying the bridge

across the river, which they had previously repaired.

The loss on both sides is said to have been nearly equal--amounting to

between 400 and 500 on each side.

"The 2nd Lincoln Militia, under Major David Secord, distinguished

themselves in this action by feats of genuine bravery and heroism,

animated by the example of their gallant leader, which are seldom

surpassed even by the most experienced veterans. Their loss was

proportionate with that of the regular army.

"Three or four days subsequent to this sanguinary battle on the plains

of Chippewa were mostly employed in burying their own dead, and in

burning those of the British, after which several ineffectual efforts

were made by General Brown to cross the Chippewa river, contemplating an

advance on Fort George; but at each of his attempts he was promptly met

by picket guards of the British, posted along the margin of the river

for that purpose."

General Riall, however, in a few days gave orders that the remnant of

his army should retire under the shelter of Fort George and Mississagua

until reinforcements could be collected to place him on more equal

ground with the enemy; after which General Brown moved his army towards

those posts within a mile and a half of the British--his army forming a

crescent; his right resting on Niagara river, his left on Lake Ontario.

The American army had no sooner taken up a position in front of Fort

George than their foraging parties, or rather marauders, commenced a

systematic course of plunder upon the defenceless inhabitants within the

vicinity of their camp, most of whom, at the time, consisted of women

and children. Even amongst general officers were acts of pillage

perpetrated, that, had such occurred with private soldiers in the

British army, would have stamped on the character of the British, in the

eyes of America, for which no course of conduct which they could ever

after have pursued, would have sufficiently atoned.

During the interval in which General Riall was receiving reinforcements

from York and other military posts on that side of Lake Ontario, General

Brown also received a strong reinforcement under General Izard, after

which he made a few ineffectual assaults on Fort George; but, finding

all his efforts to carry that fort fruitless, and the British army

receiving fresh acquisitions of strength, all seemed to conspire to

render the case of General Brown hopeless; who, now perceiving the

situation in which he was placed--the forts in his front to him

completely impregnable, and an army in his rear in full flow of spirits,

and every day gathering new strength (though by no means equal to his as

regarded numbers), a Canadian Militia, and unexpectedly to him, fervent

beyond a parallel in the cause of their King and country--began now to

think of a safe retreat, in pursuance of which, on the morning of the

25th of July, he commenced his retrograde movement; he retreated towards

Chippewa, after burning the village of St. David's. Riall pushed on in

pursuit, when the Americans halted at Lundy's Lane (called Bridgewater

by the Americans), where took place the most stubborn fight of the

war--known as _the Battle of Lundy's Lane_--which may be regarded as

terminating the American invasions of Canada, and the last field battle

of the war.

We will here give a brief account of this celebrated battle, from

Thompson's History of the War of 1812, and the events which followed at

Fort Erie, and afterwards we will review the transactions of this

battle, together with the true principles of loyalty, the causes and

character of the war, and the reciprocal relations between Great

Britain, Canada and the United States.

PART II.

BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE--PRELIMINARIES.

"The British army, at the time General Brown commenced his retreat from

Fort George and Queenston to Chippewa, was scattered in small

cantonments over twenty or thirty miles of country; but like a

well-ordered and systematic machine, every part was in a moment

simultaneously in motion, to concentrate their united strength at a

point where they would be likely to intercept the enemy.

"Detachments of the Royal Scots and 41st Regiments, and a small body of

Indians, amounting in all to about 500 men, under the command of Colonel

Tucker (supported on the river by a party of seamen and marines under

the direction of Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy), passed over to the

American side of the River Niagara, with a view to disperse or capture a

body of the enemy stationed at Lewiston. The object of this movement

being accomplished, the troops were again withdrawn at Queenston. The

41st and 100th Regiments, under Colonel Tucker, were sent back to

garrison Fort George, Mississagua, and Niagara; General Drummond moving

on towards the falls, with a force of about 800 strong, consisting of

detachments of the Royal Scots, 89th, and King's, with the light company

of the 41st Regiment, to join General Riall's division of the army as

soon as it could arrive from the several bivouacs at which it had been

stationed.

"As soon as the column of the British army under the command of

Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison had arrived at the rising ground near the

end of Lundy's Lane, on the main road leading from Queenston to

Chippewa, the enemy was just taking possession of that position. Without

a moment's delay, the troops which had arrived on the ground were formed

in line on the north-east side of the height, their left resting on the

Queenston road.

"The troops from the Twelve and Twenty Mile Creeks, together with a

detachment of the King's Regiment, as they arrived, were formed on each

side of Lundy's Lane. This line was supported in front by two

twenty-four-pounders [field-guns], which were covered by a small

squadron of the 19th Light Dragoons and a detachment of the infantry.

"_The battle itself._--The troops of the line being thus disposed,

notwithstanding the superior strength of the enemy, in about ten minutes

dislodged him from the position he had first taken, at the point of the

bayonet.

"The sun was now fast descending towards the western horizon; and

detachments of the 1st and 2nd Lincoln Militia continued to arrive from

the different outposts they had been occupying, who joined in

maintaining the summit of the hill until the whole of General Riall's

division should come up.

"General Drummond, after dislodging the enemy from the partial

possession he had gained on the hill, again formed his line with as much

despatch as existing circumstances would admit, placing his artillery,

which consisted of two twenty-pounders, two six-pounders [brass

field-pieces], and a rocket party, in front of the centre of his

position, near the right side of Lundy's Lane, leading down the hill to

the Queenston road, supported by the 2nd battalion of the 89th Regiment,

under Colonel Morrison. Scarcely had this arrangement been completed

before the position was furiously assailed by General Winfield Scott's

brigade at the point of the bayonet; but the enemy was repulsed with

great slaughter. A tremendous fire was then commenced on the crest of

the British position, by the first brigade of the enemy, stationed near

the copse between Lundy's Lane and the Falls of Niagara, and the 9th and

22nd Regiments and Captain Lawson's brigade of artillery, stationed on

the Queenston road.

"During this stage of the engagement, the Light Company of Royal Scots

arrived on the ground from the Twenty Mile Creek; and a courier was

despatched to countermand the route of the 103rd Regiment, and the

detachment of the King's and 104th Regiments, who had, in a mistake,

taken the road to Queenston from the Beach Woods, and to hasten their

movement to the field of action.

"On the brow of the hill, at the east end of Lundy's Lane, for the

possession of which the armies hitherto had principally contended,

General Drummond had now planted his artillery, as it appeared to form

the key to the position. On this quarter, therefore, the enemy for a

length of time directed his whole efforts; and notwithstanding the

carnage was truly appalling, no visible impression had yet been made.

Still on this part of the field did the whirlwind of the conflict rage

with awful and destructive fury; columns of the enemy, not unlike the

undulating surge of the adjacent cataract, rushed to the charge in close

and impetuous succession.

"In this fearful and tremendous stage of the contest, the British

forces, both regulars and militia, finding themselves pressed by an

overwhelming force, simultaneously closed round the guns, apparently

determined to contest their possession with the last drop of British

blood on the ground, fully assured of their importance to a favourable

termination of the engagement--in short both armies appeared to be

roused to a state of desperation for victory.

"The enemy at length succeeded to make a slight turn on the left of the

British position; at which period, General Riall, who commanded that

division of the army, was severely wounded in the arm, and having passed

to the rear for the purpose of having his wound dressed, on his return

to resume the command, was intercepted by a column of the enemy and made

prisoner of war.

"It was long before this crisis of the engagement that the curtain of

night had enveloped the scene; but instead of this circumstance abating

the fury of war, which had now completely drenched the field with the

blood of the combatants, the rage of battle appeared only to increase as

the night advanced. Still did the enemy continue to direct his strongest

force against the crest of the British position; but his repeated

charges were as often received and repelled by the regular, fencible,

and militia forces engaged, with that intrepid gallantry for which the

British army was ever characterized. Charges were made in such rapid

succession and with such determined vigour that often were the British

artillerymen assailed in the very act of springing and charging their

guns; and often were the muzzles of the guns of the contending armies

hauled up and levelled within a few yards of each other. The havoc of

lives on both sides, under such circumstances, may be better conceived

than described.

"The battle having raged with almost unprecedented fury for upwards of

three hours, both sides appeared for a time mutually to suspend

hostilities; during which the British troops were supplied with fresh

ammunition, and the enemy employed himself actively in bringing up his

reserve columns; after which, the fire was recommenced from the

Queenston road, on the left of the British column; however, it was

discovered that this was only a diversion to mask the intention of a

large body of the enemy's fresh troops, which was actually moving on the

right of the British position, to outflank it. General Drummond

commenced immediately to draw his strength towards this flank of the

army, forming a line in a field of grain, upon which the enemy were seen

to advance in slow and silent pace. The British line formed to repel

this new attack was directed to kneel sufficiently low to prevent being

perceived by the enemy; but scarcely had General Drummond completed this

order of arrangement, before the enemy's column made its appearance and

advanced within a few yards of the British line, when the signal was

made to fire a volley and charge. The effect of that single fire upon

the enemy's ranks was awful in the extreme--those of the enemy who were

able made a precipitate retreat.

"'The enemy's efforts to carry the hill,' says General Drummond, in his

official report, 'were continued until midnight, when he had suffered so

severely from the superior steadiness and discipline of his Majesty's

troops, that he gave up the contest and retreated with great

precipitation to his camp beyond the Chippewa, burning, as he passed the

(Street) flour mills at Bridgewater. On the following day he abandoned

his camp, threw the greatest part of his baggage, camp equipage, and

provisions into the rapids above the falls; and destroying the bridge

at Chippewa, he continued his retreat in great disorder towards Fort

Erie.

"'The loss sustained by the enemy,' adds General Drummond, 'in this

severe action, cannot be estimated at less than 1,500 men, including

several prisoners left in our hands. Generals Brown and Scott were among

the wounded. His whole force, which was never rated at less than 5,000

men, were all engaged.'

"In General Drummond's report of this action, the total number of

killed, wounded, and missing of the British army was 878.

"By the regimental returns of the British army, including those of the

militia, both before and after this engagement, the whole British force

consisted of 2,800; but before the arrival of the troops under Colonel

Scott, of the 103rd Regiment, it did not exceed 1,600.

"Of all the battles (says a writer on this subject) fought in America,

the action of Lundy's Lane was unquestionably the best sustained and by

far the most sanguinary. The rapid charges and real contest with the

bayonet were themselves sufficient to render this engagement

conspicuous. Traits of real bravery and heroic devotion were that night

displayed by those engaged, which would not suffer in comparison with

those exhibited at the storming of St. Sebastian, or the conflict of

Quatre Bras.

"Both the belligerent armies have offered their claims for victory in

this engagement. Upon what grounds the American general could propose

such a claim are best known to himself--General Brown not only abandoned

the plans of operations which he had formed previous to the action at

Lundy's Lane [of advancing to Queenston, Fort George, and Burlington

Heights], but 'retreated in great disorder towards Fort Erie,' where his

egress from the territory might be more easy; and in his way destroyed

the bridge at Chippewa, in order to retard the advance of the British

light troops in his rear."[221]

PART III.

AMERICAN ARMY RETREATS TO FORT ERIE, PURSUED BY GENERAL DRUMMOND, WHO

INVESTS THE FORT--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO STORM IT--SORTIE OF THE WHOLE

AMERICAN FORCE, TWICE THAT OF GENERAL DRUMMOND, BUT DEFEATED--RAIN

COMPELS THE RAISING OF THE SIEGE--GENERAL BROWN EVACUATES THE FORT AND

CROSSES THE RIVER TO THE AMERICAN SIDE, AND THIS ENDS THE THREE YEARS'

INVASIONS OF CANADA, WITHOUT ACQUIRING AN INCH OF ITS TERRITORY.

On the American army reaching Fort Erie, they entrenched and

strengthened the fortifications of the fort. Thither General Drummond

pursued, and immediately invested the fort, although his army was not

half the strength of the American army. General Drummond having

reconnoitred the enemy's position, determined to storm his

entrenchments. On the 13th of August, General Drummond, having completed

his batteries, commenced a brisk cannonade on the position of the enemy,

which, with few interruptions, was continued for two days with great

effect; after which he was determined to carry the fort and outworks by

nocturnal assault. In pursuance of this purpose, he formed his troops

into three divisions: the first, under Lieutenant-Colonel Fischer, of De

Watteville's, consisting of the King's Regiment, the regiment of De

Watteville, and flank companies of the 89th and 100th Regiments,

directed against the enemy's entrenchments at and near Snake Hill; the

second, under Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, of the 104th Regiment,

consisting of the 41st and 104th Regiments, and a body of seamen and

marines under the direction of Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy, against

the fort; and the third, under Colonel Scott, consisting of his own

regiment, supported by two companies of the Royals, against the

entrenchments adjoining the fort.

About two o'clock on the morning of the 15th, the several divisions of

the British army moved towards the enemy's entrenchments; but as soon as

the column against Snake Hill had emerged from the woods, it came in

contact with an abatis within twelve or fifteen yards of the enemy's

entrenchments, defended by a heavy column of infantry, under the command

of Major Wood, and the artillery under Captain Towson. This for a time

completely checked his advance.

However, it was soon announced by a tremendous fire from the guns in the

fort, and from the columns of infantry defending the entrenchments near

the shore of the lake, that the other two columns, under

Lieutenant-Colonels Scott and Drummond, had commenced an assault upon

the enemy's works.

At the first outset of the two last columns, the enemy succeeded in

turning the column on the left, under Colonel Scott; but that under

Colonel Drummond penetrated the enemy's works and charged through his

ranks with such irresistible impetuosity that nothing seemed

sufficiently impregnable to arrest its progress. Lieutenant-Colonel

Scott in the meantime rallied his column, which had been partially

turned on one flank, and the fort was assailed in almost every quarter

by the besiegers; an escalade was effected, the enemy driven from the

ramparts at the point of the bayonet, and the guns of the fort turned

upon the garrison; all of which preludes to victory had actually been

gained a few minutes after the first alarm.

The battle raged with a fury seldom equalled. The British troops, in

pursuance of an order to that effect, having previously divested their

muskets of the flints, every foot of ground was contested at the point

of the bayonet, which rendered the carnage more dreadful and appalling.

Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond (brother of General Drummond), during the

conflict within the fort, performed extraordinary acts of valour. In the

hottest of the battle he presented himself, encouraging his men, both by

example and precept. But at the very moment when victory was declaring

in favour of the British arms, some ammunition which had been placed

under the platform ignited, and a dreadful explosion was the result, by

which the greater part of the British forces, which had entered the

fort, were literally blown into the air.[222] All exertions of the few

British troops who survived the explosion were found ineffectual to

maintain their ground, in the panic of the moment, against such an

unequal force as the enemy was enabled to bring up against them, and the

British forces were compelled to retire.

In this assault the loss of the British was severe. Colonels Scott and

Drummond fell, while storming the works, at the head of their respective

columns. General Drummond reported the killed, wounded, and missing,

officers and men, as 904. The missing were reported at nine officers and

530 men--afterwards ascertained to have been principally killed. The

American statement of their own loss made it 84 in killed, wounded, and

missing.

A day or two after this assault, General Drummond was reinforced by the

arrival of the 6th and 82nd Regiments from Lower Canada; but this

reinforcement was barely sufficient to supply recent losses. He deemed

it unadvisable to attempt a second storming of the fort against a force

twice as numerous as his own; but by continuing the investment, he cut

off all communication of the enemy with the surrounding country, cooped

him up in the fort, compelled him to draw his provisions and other

resources from his own country, and thus rendered his occupation of that

fort for the remainder of the campaign of no service to the invaders.

At about the expiration of a month, General Brown, having recovered of

his wounds, again resumed command of the army on the Niagara frontier,

and brought with him a strong reinforcement, resolving to attempt the

destruction of the British batteries in front of Fort Erie. Pursuant to

this determination, General Brown, on the 17th of September, at about

noon, ordered a sortie of the whole American force, including both

regulars and militia, in three divisions, under Generals Porter, Miller,

and Ripley; and before the ready and reserved columns of the British

could be brought from the camp (about a mile in the rear), the enemy had

succeeded in penetrating the batteries, destroying the works with one

magazine of ammunition, and spiking the guns. But ere he could effect

his retreat, the ready and reserve columns arrived, and immediately

commenced a determined attack upon his columns, and after about half an

hour's desperate fighting, notwithstanding his great superiority of

numbers, he retired before the bayonets of the British line, in great

precipitation, under the cover of his works, after losing nearly 600 of

his force.

The incessant rains which had fallen that season rendered it impossible

for General Drummond to repair his batteries, or, indeed, to keep the

field, on account of the exposure and increased sickness of the troops;

he therefore, on the 21st of September, raised the siege and retired

into winter quarters, in rear of his works at the mouth of the Chippewa.

General Brown affected some inclination to follow on the rear of the

British army; yet, notwithstanding all the efforts which could possibly

be exercised by a general were called into contribution by General

Drummond to bring General Brown into action, it all proved unavailing.

The American general, "as soon as the coast was clear," having blown up

the works, evacuated Fort Erie, and retreated across the river into his

own country.

Thus terminated the campaign of 1814 on the Niagara frontier; and

whatever might have been the object of the American Government when they

sent that last army to invade Canada, it is certain that nothing was

acquired, if we except a fresh proof (if such had been now necessary) of

the loyalty of the Canadian people to their Sovereign, and their

unshaken zeal to defend their country from the grip of its enemy, at

whatever time he might think proper to invade it.[223]

PART IV.

REVIEW.

The author cannot better present a summary review of the true principles

of loyalty, the origin, causes, characteristics, and results of the war

of 1812-15, together with the conduct of the inhabitants of Canada in

respect to it, than in the words of an address which he delivered to the

York Pioneers at Queenston, in July, 1875, on the occasion of the

anniversary celebration of the battle of Lundy's Lane. The address

(which was entirely extemporaneous in the delivery) is here reproduced,

as reported in the newspapers at the time:

"CAUSES OF THE WAR DECLARED BY THE UNITED STATES AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN,

JUNE 18, 1812--CANADIAN DEFENCE--BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, FOUGHT JULY 25,

1814.

"Address delivered by the Rev. Dr. Ryerson before the York Pioneers and

other Associations assembled on Queenston Heights, near Brock's

Monument, met at a pic-nic on Monday, July 26th, 1875, to celebrate the

battle of Lundy's Lane.

"The Chairman, Colonel R. Denison, called upon Dr. Ryerson, who was

warmly received.

"After a few preliminary observations, he said that he felt it a great

privilege to be called on to address a number of those Canadians who had

laid the foundation of our country, who had given Canada a name that was

honoured throughout the world, and whose hearts beat responsive to those

noble principles that made England the glory of all nations, and British

institutions the honour of mankind. (Loud applause.) He thought the York

Pioneers might well be called the Canadian Pioneers--the pioneers of

Canadian industry enterprise, freedom, and civilization. The object of

the Society in giving an intelligent intensity to those principles that

constituted the loyalty of the people of Canada, in preserving the

traditions of the country, and in uniting in one centre the various

elements of scattered light which were connected with the earliest rays

of its opening history, were works well worthy of the defenders of the

liberties of this country. The very foundation of the York Pioneers was

a spirit of loyalty. What was that loyalty itself? It was no other than

an attachment to the institutions and laws of the land in which we live,

and to the history of the nation to which we belong. It was not merely a

sentiment of respect of the country to an individual, or even to the

Sovereign. If it gathered round the person of the Sovereign, it was

because that Sovereign represented the institutions of the people, the

overshadowing laws of the people, the real and essential freedom, and

the noblest development of the spirit of the people. Loyalty in its true

essence and meaning was the principle of respect to our Sovereign, the

freedom of our institutions, and the excellencies of our civilization,

and it was therefore a feeling worthy to be perpetuated by the people.

Shakespeare--that great apostle of human nature--has said:

"'Though _loyalty_, well held, to fools does make

Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer.'

"Loyalty is, therefore, faithful to its own principles, whether the

personal object of it is in prosperity or adversity.

"'Loyalty is still the same,

Whether it win or lose the game;

True as the dial to the sun,

Though it be not shone upon.'

"Hence, says Lord Clarendon, of a statesman of his time, 'He had no

veneration for the Court, but only such loyalty to the King as the law

required.' True loyalty is, therefore, fidelity to the Constitution,

laws, and institutions of the land, and, of course, to the sovereign

power representing them.

"Thus was it with our Loyalist forefathers. There was no class of

inhabitants of the old British-American Colonies more decided and

earnest than they in claiming the rights of British subjects when

invaded; yet when, instead of maintaining the rights of British

subjects, it was proposed to renounce the allegiance of British subjects

and destroy the unity of the empire, or 'the life of the nation' (as our

American neighbours expressed it, in their recent civil war to maintain

the unity of their republic), then were our forefathers true to their

loyalty, and adhered to the unity of the empire at the sacrifice of

property and home, and often of life itself. Of them might be said, what

Milton says of Abdiel, amid the revolting hosts:

"'Abdiel, faithful found;

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept.'

"Our United Empire Loyalist forefathers 'kept their loyalty unshaken,

unseduced, unterrified,' during seven long years of conflicts and

sufferings; and that loyalty, with a courage and enterprise, and under

privations and toils unsurpassed in human history, sought a refuge and

a home in the wilderness of Canada, felled the forests of our country,

and laid the foundation of its institutions, freedom, and prosperity.

(Loud applause.)

"Canadian loyalty is the perpetuation of that British national life

which has constituted the strength and glory of Great Britain since the

morning of the Protestant Reformation, and placed her at the head of the

freedom and civilization of mankind. This loyalty maintains the

characteristic traditions of the nation--the mysterious links of

connection between grandfather and grandson--traditions of strength and

glory for a people, and the violations of which are a source of weakness

and disorganization. Canadian loyalty, therefore, is not a mere

sentiment, or mere affection for the representative or person of the

Sovereign; it is a reverence for, and attachment to, the laws, order,

institutions and freedom of the country. As Christianity is not a mere

attachment to a bishop, or ecclesiastic, or form of church polity, but a

deep love of divine truth; so Canadian loyalty is a firm attachment to

that British Constitution and those British laws, adopted or enacted by

ourselves, which best secure life, liberty, and prosperity, and which

prompt us to Christian and patriotic deeds by linking us with all that

is grand and noble in the traditions of our national history.

"In the war of 1812 to 1815--one of the last and hardest-fought battles

was that of Lundy's Lane, which we meet this day, on this historic

ground, to celebrate--both the loyalty and courage of the Canadian

people were put to the severest test, and both came out of the fiery

ordeal as refined gold. Nothing could be more disgraceful and

unprincipled than the Madison (I will not say American) declaration of

war against Great Britain, which was at that moment employing her utmost

strength and resources in defence of European nations and the liberties

of mankind. That scourge of modern Europe--the heartless tyrant, but

great soldier, Napoleon--had laid prostrate at his feet all the

Governments of Western and Central Europe, England alone excepted. To

destroy British power, he issued decrees first at Berlin, in 1806, and

afterwards at Milan, excluding all British merchandize from French

ports, and prohibiting the use of British commodities throughout France

and her dependencies, under severe penalties; searching neutral vessels

for British goods, and confiscating them when found, with the vessels

carrying them; interdicting all neutral vessels from trading with any

British port; declaring all the ports of Great Britain and of her

dependencies to be in a state of blockade, though at the very moment the

English fleet commanded the seas. These Napoleon decrees violated the

laws of nations, and affected the national rights and independence of

the United States, as well as of the European nations; and had not

President Madison and his war faction been in league with Napoleon, they

would have resented it, instead of silently submitting, and thus

becoming a party to it. In self-defence and retaliation upon the tyrant

Napoleon, Great Britain, in January, 1807, issued Decrees of Council,

declaring all French ports in a state of blockade, and declaring all

vessels of neutrals liable to seizure which should engage in trade with

France; and as the Napoleon decrees had declared all vessels of any

nation liable to seizure which had touched at any British port, the

English Orders of Council, to counteract this decree, declared, on the

other hand, that only such ships as had touched at a British port should

be permitted to sail for a port of France. The American President,

Madison, being in league with the French usurper against Great Britain,

made no remonstrance against the Napoleon decrees of Berlin and Milan,

but raised a great outcry against the counter English Orders in Council,

and made them a pretext for declaring war against Great Britain. But

President Madison not only thus leagued with Napoleon to destroy British

commerce, but also to weaken the British army and navy by seducing some

10,000 British sailors and soldiers to desert on board of American

vessels, where they were claimed as American citizen sailors.

"England had always claimed the right to search and claim her deserting

sailors on board foreign vessels, and that right had never been disputed

by the United States, until now, under the teachings of Napoleon. But

though there was no occasion for the exercise of such a right in a time

of general peace, the exercise of it then was a matter vital to the

existence and strength of the British navy; but, under the promptings of

Napoleon, President Madison made it not only a subject of loud

complaint, but also an additional pretext for war. Yet, to keep up some

appearance of fairness, but in secret intrigue with Napoleon, the

Madison Administration issued a declaration to open commercial relations

with either of the belligerent powers that should first rescind the

prohibitory decrees or orders. In May, 1812, Napoleon rescinded the

Berlin and Milan decrees so far as concerned the United States, but had

the unparalleled meanness to antedate them _thirteen_ months, and even

apply them to 1810, dating them April, 1811, in order to play into the

hands of his American confederates. Within a month after Napoleon had

rescinded the Berlin and Milan decrees--June 23rd, 1812--the British

Government cancelled the Orders in Council so far as related to the

United States; but five days before that, the 18th of June, President

Madison declared war against Britain, and then when, six weeks

afterwards, he was duly informed of the cancelling of these Orders in

Council, on which he had professed to declare war, he refused to ratify

an armistice agreed upon between Sir George Prevost and General

Dearborn, until the British and American Governments could confer with a

view to prevent any further prosecution of the war. Madison and his

faction of British haters and war adventurers naturally supposed, that

as Upper Canada consisted of 70,000 inhabitants, and as the British

troops were all engaged in the deadly war with France, except guards of

regular soldiers in the Canadian garrisons, our country would fall an

easy prey to his ambition; Great Britain would be humbled at the feet of

Napoleon, and France and the United States would then divide the power

and commerce of Europe and America. But British and Canadian loyalty,

patriotism, and courage defeated their dark designs against the

liberties of mankind. Even the patriotic and intellectual part of the

American people denounced this unholy intrigue between their own

President and the bloody ursurper of Europe, and this causeless war

against Great Britain. The Legislative Assemblies of Massachusetts,

Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland condemned the war

policy of President Madison, and some of them declared it to be but a

party proceeding of the President and his minions to keep themselves in

power and subsidize their hungry partizans. Only a small majority of

Congress approved the declaration of war. A convention of the great

State of New York, held at Albany, September, 1812, consisting of

delegates from the several counties of the State, embodied, in

elaborate resolutions, the intelligent American sentiment on the subject

of the war. That convention declared: 'That, without insisting on the

injustice of the present war, taking solely into consideration the time

and circumstances of its declaration, the condition of the country, and

the state of the public mind, we are constrained to consider and feel it

our duty to pronounce it a most rash, unwise and inexpedient measure,

the adoption of which ought forever to deprive its authors of the esteem

and confidence of an enlightened people; because, as the injuries we

have received from France are at least equal in amount to those we have

sustained from England, and have been attended with circumstances of

still greater insult and aggravation; if war were necessary to vindicate

the honour of the country, consistency and impartiality required that

both nations should have been included in the declaration; because, if

it were deemed expedient to exercise our right of selecting our

adversary, prudence and common sense dictated the choice of an enemy

from whose hostility we had nothing to dread. A war with France would

equally have satisfied our insulted honour, and, at the same time,

instead of annihilating, would have revived and extended our commerce;

and even the evils of such a contest would have been mitigated by the

sublime consolation, that by our efforts we were contributing to arrest

the progress of despotism in Europe, and effectually serving the great

interests of freedom and humanity throughout the world.' 'That we

contemplate with abhorrence, even the probability of an alliance with

the present Emperor of France, every action of whose life has

demonstrated, that the attainment, by any means, of universal empire,

and the consequent extinction of every vestige of freedom, are the sole

objects of his incessant, unbounded and remorseless ambition.' 'Whereas

the late revocation of the British Orders in Council has removed the

great and ostensible cause of the present war, and prepared the way for

an immediate accommodation of all existing differences, inasmuch as, by

the confession of the present Secretary of State, satisfactory and

honourable arrangements might easily be made, by which the abuse

resulting from the impressment of our seamen might, in future, be

effectually prevented.'

"Such were the sentiments of the most intelligent and patriotic

American citizens in regard to the war of 1812-15; they had no more

sympathy with the Madison-Napoleon war than with the recent Fenian

invasion of our shores. And when the war was declared, our fathers knew

their duty, and knew the worthlessness of the pompous proclamations and

promises of President Madison's generals and agents. The blood of our

United Empire Loyalist forefathers warmed again in their own bosoms, and

pulsated in the hearts of their sons and grandsons, and in the hearts of

hundreds of others who had adopted Canada, under the flag of British law

and liberty, as their home. Our Legislative Assembly--specially called

together by General Brock, on the declaration of war--struck the keynote

for Canadian loyalty, sacrifice and action, in a calm, expository and

earnest address to the people of Upper Canada, and truly represented the

already roused spirit of the country. Some of the words of that noble

address are as follows:

"'This war, on the part of the United States, includes an alliance with

the French usurper, whose dreadful policy has destroyed all that is

great and grand, venerable and holy, on the continent of Europe. The

government of this bloody tyrant penetrates into everything--it crushes

individuals as well as nations, fetters thoughts as well as motives, and

delights in destroying forever all that is fair and just in opinion and

sentiment. It is evidently this tyrant who now directs the rulers of

America, and they show themselves worthy disciples of such a master.'

"After noting the juncture selected for declaring war, the address

proceeds: 'It is certainly not the least wonderful among the occurrences

of this astonishing age, that we should find a nation descended from

Englishmen, connected still by the same language and laws, by

consanguinity and many similar habits, not merely eulogizing the

implacable enemy of their parent state, but joining him in the war;

while pretending to nourish the purest principles of liberty, bowing the

knee before the foe of all just and rational freedom, and supplicating

his acceptance of tribute and adulation.' After sketching the origin and

sustained loyalty of the first inhabitants of the country, the Assembly

said: 'Already have we the joy to remark, that the spirit of loyalty has

burst forth in all its ancient splendour. The militia in all parts of

the Province have volunteered their services with acclamation, and

displayed a degree of energy worthy of the British name. When men are

called upon to defend everything they hold precious, their wives and

children, their friends and possessions, they ought to be inspired with

the noblest resolutions, and they will not be easily frightened by

menaces, or conquered by force. And beholding, as we do, the flame of

patriotism burning from end to end of the Canadas, we cannot but

entertain the most pleasing anticipations. Our enemies have indeed said,

that they can subdue this country by a proclamation; but it is our part

to prove that they are sadly mistaken.' 'If the real foundations of true

liberty, and consequently of solid happiness, consist in being amenable

only to such laws as we or our representatives ordain, then are we in

possession of that liberty and that happiness, for this principle was

fully recognized in our excellent constitution.' 'It is not necessary

for us to examine the causes alleged by our enemies for this unjust and

unnatural war, because an address from the House of Representatives of

Massachusetts, the most respectable in the Union, proves in the most

satisfactory manner, that it is wanton and unprovoked, and is the climax

of the various outrages previously committed against Great Britain. In

this statement they have been joined by the minority in Congress, whose

expositions of the secret reasons of the war, and the falsehood of those

alleged by the President and his friends, is unanswerable, and must hand

down the promoters of this diabolical measure to the execration of

posterity.' 'Your representatives finished their labours with placing in

the hands of His Honour the President (Sir Isaac Brock), all the public

money they could collect, in order to contribute as much as possible to

the extraordinary expenses which the war renders necessary, and they

have the fullest confidence that it will be most faithfully applied.

Having thus endeavoured, to the best of their abilities, to provide for

the welfare and safety of the Province, your representatives take the

liberty of reminding you that the best laws are useless without the

zealous co-operation of the people. Unless you are prepared to endure

the greatest privations and to make the severest sacrifices, all that

your representatives have done will be of no avail. Be ready, then, at

all times to rally round the Royal Standard, and let those who are not

called into the service assist the families of those who are called into

the field.' 'Remember, when you go forth to the combat, that you fight

not for yourselves alone, but for the whole world. You are defeating the

most formidable conspiracy against the civilization of man that ever was

contrived; a conspiracy threatening a greater barbarism and misery than

followed the downfall of the Roman Empire--that now you have an

opportunity of proving your attachment to the parent State which

contends for the relief of the oppressed nations--the last pillar of

true liberty, and the last refuge of oppressed humanity.'

"Such were the views and spirit with which the 70,000 people of Upper

Canada, and their score of parliamentary representatives, engaged in the

unequal struggle against myriads of invaders--relying simply upon their

principles, their duty, and their God; and, in three months after the

declaration of war, they had, with the aid of a few hundred regular

soldiers and noble officers, driven back three invading armies,

capturing Hull and the territory of Michigan, driving the invaders

commanded by General Van Rensellaer down Queenston Heights, taking

hundreds of prisoners, driving 'proclamation' General Smyth, with his

8,000, from the Canadian side of the Niagara river, near Fort Erie, so

that he had to run away and retire from the army to escape popular

indignation and disgrace. It is not for me to dwell upon the incidents

and progress of the war; raids were made into our country, many battles

were fought, and much property destroyed and much suffering inflicted;

but those raids were severely retaliated, and at the end of three years

not a foot of Canadian territory was in possession of the invader, while

the key of the North-west, Fort Mackinaw, was in the hands of the

British.

"Of all the battles fought during the war, the most sanguinary and

obstinate was that of Lundy's Lane--the battle, the anniversary of which

we are this day assembled to commemorate--the battle fought the last few

months of the war, the 25th of July, 1814. It was the most formidable

and final effort of the American General Brown to get permanent footing

in Canada. The smallest number of American soldiers engaged in the

battle, according to General Brown's report, was upwards of 5,000; and

the largest number of British soldiers and Canadian militia engaged,

according to the British General Drummond's report, was 2,800, although

the greater part of the battle was fought with a force not exceeding

1,600. I shall not attempt to describe the order, or narrate the

incidents of the battle; I will only say, that the high ground, near the

east end of Lundy's Lane, was the centre of interest, and the position

contended for by both parties in deadly strife for several hours. In no

battle during the war did the Americans fight with such heroism and

obstinacy; and in no battle was the courage, steadiness and perseverance

of the British soldiers and Canadian volunteers put to so severe a test.

The enemy was drawn up in order of battle within 600 yards of the

coveted eminence, when General Drummond arrived on the ground, and he

had barely time to plant his artillery on the brow of the hill, when the

enemy concentrated all his power and efforts to obtain the key of the

battle-field. An eye-witness says: 'Columns of the enemy, not unlike the

surge of the adjacent cataract, rushed to the charge in close and

impetuous succession.' The curtain of night soon enveloped the scene,

now drenched with blood; but the darkness seemed to intensify the fury

of the combatants, and the rage of the battle increased as the night

advanced. An eye-witness truly observes, that 'nothing could have been

more awful than this midnight contest. The desperate charges of the

enemy were succeeded by a dead silence, interrupted only by the groans

of the dying, and the dull sounds of the stupendous Falls of Niagara,

while the adverse lines were now and then dimly discerned through the

moonlight, by the dismal gleam of their arms. These anxious pauses were

succeeded by a blaze of musketry along the lines, and by a repetition of

the most desperate charges from the enemy, which the British received

with the most unshaken firmness.' General Drummond, in his official

report of the battle, says:--'In so determined a manner were these

attacks directed against our guns, that our artillerymen were bayoneted

by the enemy in the act of loading, and the muzzles of the enemy's guns

were advanced within a few yards of ours. The darkness of the night,

during this extraordinary conflict, occasioned several uncommon

incidents; our troops having, for a moment, been pushed back, some of

our guns remained for a few minutes in the enemy's hands; they were,

however, not only quickly recovered, but the two pieces, a six-pounder

and a five-and-a-half-inch howitzer, which the enemy had brought up,

were captured by us, together with several tumbrils. About nine o'clock

(the action having commenced at six) there was a short intermission of

firing, during which it appears the enemy was employed in bringing up

the whole of his remaining force; and he shortly afterwards renewed the

attack with fresh troops, but was everywhere repelled with equal

gallantry and success. The enemy's efforts to carry the hill were

continued until about midnight, when he had suffered so severely from

the superior steadiness and discipline of his Majesty's troops, that he

gave up the contest, and retreated with great precipitation to his camp

beyond the Chippewa. On the following day he abandoned his camp, threw

the greatest part of his baggage, camp equipage and provisions into the

Rapids; and having set fire to Street's Mills, and destroyed the bridge

at Chippewa, he continued his retreat in great disorder towards Fort

Erie.'

"In this bloody battle, the Canadian militia fought side by side with

the regular soldiers; and General Drummond said, 'the bravery of the

militia on this occasion could not have been excelled by the most

resolute veterans.'

"Such was the loyalty of our grandfathers and fathers, and such their

self-devotion and courage in the darkest hour of our country's dangers

and sufferings, and though few in number in comparison of their

invaders, they had

"'Hearts resolved and hands prepared

The blessings they enjoyed to guard.'

"There was doubtless as much true courage among the descendants of Great

Britain and Ireland in the United States as in Canada; but the former

fought for the oppressor of Europe, the latter fought for the freedom of

Europe; the former fought to prostrate Great Britain in her death

struggle for the liberties of mankind, and to build up the United States

upon her ruin, the latter fought in the glorious cause of the mother

country, and to maintain our own unity with her; the former fought for

the conquest of Canada, the latter fought in her defence; the fire that

kindled the military ardour of the former was the blown-up embers of old

enmities against Great Britain, the gross misrepresentations of

President Madison, the ambition of adventure, and the lust of booty--the

fire that burned in the hearts of the latter, and animated them to

deeds of death or freedom, was the sacred love of hearth and home, the

patriotic love of liberty, and that hallowed principle of loyalty to

truth, and law, and liberty combined, which have constituted the life,

and development, and traditions, and strength, and unity, and glory of

British institutions, and of the British nation, from the resurrection

morn of the Protestant Reformation to the present day. A great writer

has truly observed: 'The most inviolable attachment to the laws of our

country is everywhere acknowledged a capital virtue;' and that virtue

has been nobly illustrated in the history of our United Empire Loyalist

forefathers, and of their descendants in Canada, and it grows with the

growth and increases with the strength of our country.

"I have said that loyalty, like Christianity itself, is an attachment to

principles and duties emanating from them, irrespective of rulers or

teachers; but if the qualities of our chief rulers were necessary to

give intensity to Canadian loyalty, those qualities we have in the

highest degree in our Sovereign and in her representative in Canada; for

never was a British Sovereign more worthy of our highest respect and

warmest affection than our glorious Queen Victoria--(loud cheers)--and

never was a British Sovereign more nobly represented in Canada than by

the patriotic, the learned, and the eloquent Lord Dufferin. (Loud

cheers.) And at no period were we more free or prosperous than now. The

feelings of his (the speaker's) heart went far beyond anything that his

tongue could express, and the language of his heart that day was, might

loyalty ever be the characteristic trait of the people of Canada, might

freedom ever be our possession, and might we ever have cause and heart

to say 'God save the Queen!'" (Loud cheering.)

_Note_ by the Author.--The Administration of President Madison, and his

Declaration of War against Great Britain, are dark spots in the

brilliant history of the United States of America, and the American

narratives of the war are rather fiction than history--compiled largely

from letters of officers and soldiers, who, in writing to their friends,

sought to magnify their own heroism, even when suffering disgraceful

defeats, and sometimes claiming victory when they were driven from the

field. The usual tales on these occasions were that the Canadian forces

were vastly superior in numbers and equipments, when it was known that

the American armies were ten to one in numbers to those of Canada, and

their invading forces were declared, by themselves, to be irresistible

in strength and equipments.