_The book containing this journal is an ordinary pocket memorandum or
account book measuring 6 x 4 1/4 inches and covered with split calf. The
journal opens the day of the author's capture, and closes on the day he
receives orders at Quebec to prepare to leave for Boston. The author's
name is nowhere to be found in the book, and several pages at the
beginning have been cut out, evidently by the original owner. The
journal was found among the papers of the late J. Gradden, a benevolent
merchant of Quebec who rendered considerable aid to the American
prisoners of war confined there on prison ships. The journal was no
doubt presented to Mr. Gradden by its author as a return for kindnesses.
Mr. Gradden's son, the late Chas. Gradden of Kilmarnock, gave it to Sir
James M. LeMoine, the venerable Historian of Quebec, who in turn
presented it to me with the understanding that I would edit and print
it._
_Although the author's name is not attached to the journal it bears
unmistakable evidence of having been written by Surgeon's Mate James
Reynolds who was deputed by Surgeon General Edwards of Gen. Hull's army
to the charge of the sick on the two vessels that were dispatched from
Maumee to Detroit, but which were captured at Fort Malden (Amherstburg)
by the British. Lossing, in his "Pictorial Field Book of the war of
1812" says that the schooner conveying the sick in charge of Reynolds
escaped and reached Detroit, and that the Dr. Reynolds of this
expedition was killed at the attack on Detroit by a cannon ball. There
is a mistake somewhere as the author of this journal says that HE was in
charge of the Cuyahoga conveying the sick, and that the accompanying
schooner carried the stores, and that both vessels were captured at
Malden. Could it be that there were two Reynolds, one the Surgeon's Mate
and the other the Dr. Reynolds that Lossing refers to as having been
killed, and hence the confusion? I am inclined to this view in the
absence of convincing proof to the contrary. The journal itself is
strongly corroborative of my contention as the weight of evidence is
with the writer whose story is everywhere the simple straightforward one
of the daily chronicler of the events that came under his observation.
It is a very human document and not without historical value. It will
take its place in the Archives of the war of 1812 on the Frontiers._
G. M. FAIRCHILD, JR.,
_Editor_.
NOTE.--_On a blank page in the book I find written in pencil in the
author's handwriting, Sergt. Ord. Reed, Dougherty, Jowlen, Madison,
Printiss, Button, Noble--Emetic (The author had evidently dosed them
all)._