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THE STORY OF
ISAAC BROCK
HERO, DEFENDER AND SAVIOUR OF
UPPER CANADA
1812
BY
WALTER R. NURSEY
"By his unrivalled skill, by great
And veteran service to the state,
By worth adored,
He stood, in high dignity,
The proudest knight of chivalry,
Knight of the Sword."
--_Coplas de Manrique._
TORONTO:
WILLIAM BRIGGS
1908
Copyright, Canada, 1908, by WALTER R. NURSEY.
[Illustration: _Frontispiece_ PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL
SIR ISAAC BROCK]
A WORD TO THE READER
That Isaac Brock is entitled to rank as the foremost defender of the
flag Western Canada has ever seen, is a statement which no one familiar
with history can deny. Brock fought and won out when the odds were all
against him.
At a time when almost every British soldier was busy fighting Napoleon
in Europe, upon General Brock fell the responsibility of upholding
Britain's honour in America. He was "the man behind the gun"--the
undismayed man--when the integrity of British America was threatened by
a determined enemy.
His success can be measured by the fact that it is only since the war of
1812-14 that the British flag has been properly respected in the western
hemisphere. It is also a fact that after the capture of Detroit the
Union Jack became more firmly rooted in the affections of the Canadian
people than ever.
It must not be forgotten that the capture of this stronghold was almost
as far-reaching in its ultimate effect as the victory of Wolfe on the
Plains of Abraham, and was fraught with little, if any, less import to
Canada.
What with the timidity of Prevost, and the tactical blunders of both
himself and Sheaffe, the immediate influence upon the enemy of the
victories at Detroit and Queenston was almost nullified. Had Brock
survived Queenston, or even had his fixed, militant policy been allowed
to prevail from the first, it is safe to say there would have been no
armistice, no placating of a clever, intriguing foe, and no two years'
prolongation of the war. Had the capitulation of Detroit, the crushing
defeat at Queenston, and the wholesale desertion of Wadsworth's cowardly
legions at Lewiston, been followed up by the British with relentless
assault "all along the line"--before the enemy had time to recover his
grip--then our hero's feasible plan, which he had pleaded with Prevost
to permit, namely, to sweep the Niagara frontier and destroy Sackett's
Harbor--the key to American naval supremacy of the lakes--could, there
is no good reason to doubt, have been carried out. The purpose of this
little book is not, however, to deal in surmises.
The story of Sir Isaac Brock's life should convey to the youth of Canada
a significance similar to that which the bugle-call of the trumpeter,
sounding the advance, conveys to the soldier in the ranks. Reiteration
of Brock's deeds should help to develop a better appreciation of his
work, a truer conception of his heroism, a wiser understanding of his
sacrifice.
Many a famous man owes a debt of inspiration to some other great life
that went before him. Not until every boy in Canada is thoroughly
familiar with "Master Isaac's" achievements will he be qualified to
exclaim with the Indian warrior, Tecumseh,
"THIS IS A MAN."
W. R. N.
Toronto, October, 1908.
NOTE.--Of the hundred and more books and documents consulted in a
search for facts I would register my special obligations to Tupper's
"Life of Brock"; Auchinleck's "History of the War of 1812-14";
Cruikshank's "Documentary History," and Richardson's "War of 1812"
(edited by Casselman).
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. OUR HERO'S HOME--GUERNSEY 11
II. SCHOOL AND PASTIMES 16
III. FROM ENSIGN TO COLONEL 21
IV. EGMONT-OP-ZEE AND COPENHAGEN 27
V. BROCK IN CANADA 36
VI. BRIDLE-ROAD, BATTEAU AND CANOE 40
VII. MUTINY AND DESERTION 47
VIII. FRANCE, THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 52
IX. FUR-TRADERS AND HABITANTS 55
X. THE MASSACRE AT MACKINAW 59
XI. LITTLE YORK, NIAGARA, AMHERSTBURG 64
XII. MAJOR-GENERAL BROCK, GOVERNOR OF UPPER CANADA 72
XIII. THE WAR CLOUD 75
XIV. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DECLARES WAR 80
XV. BROCK ACCEPTS HULL'S CHALLENGE 87
XVI. "EN AVANT, DETROIT!" 92
XVII. OUR HERO MEETS TECUMSEH 96
XVIII. AN INDIAN POW-WOW 100
XIX. THE ATTACK ON DETROIT 105
XX. BROCK'S VICTORY 109
XXI. CHAGRIN IN THE UNITED STATES 112
XXII. PREVOST'S ARMISTICE 117
XXIII. "HERO, DEFENDER, SAVIOUR" 121
XXIV. BROCK'S LAST COUNCIL 128
XXV. THE MIDNIGHT GALLOP 135
XXVI. THE ATTACK ON THE REDAN 140
XXVII. VAN RENSSELAER'S CAMP 144
XXVIII. A FOREIGN FLAG FLIES ON THE REDAN 147
XXIX. THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS 152
XXX. THE DEATH OF ISAAC BROCK 156
SUPPLEMENT--
AFTER BROCK'S DEATH 161
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1812 165
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813 167
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814 171
WHAT OF CANADA? 173
APPENDIX 175
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK _Frontispiece_
"VIEW OF ST. PETER'S PORT, GUERNSEY, 18 x 6" 11
NAVY HALL, REMNANT OF THE OLD "RED BARRACKS," NIAGARA, 1797 27
PORTRAIT OF COLONEL JAMES FITZGIBBON 32
VIEW OF QUEENSTON ROAD, ABOUT 1824 40
RUINS OF OLD POWDER MAGAZINE, FORT GEORGE 52
BROCK'S COCKED HAT 64
BUTLER'S BARRACKS (OFFICERS' QUARTERS), NIAGARA COMMON 75
OUR HERO MEETS TECUMSEH. "THIS IS A MAN!" 96
LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHN MACDONELL 109
VIEW OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS AND BROCK'S MONUMENT 117
"PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL BROCK, 18 X 6" 121
POWDER MAGAZINE, FORT GEORGE, NIAGARA 128
BROCK'S MIDNIGHT GALLOP 135
BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS. From an old Print 140
DEATH OF ISAAC BROCK 156
BROCK'S COAT, WORN AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS 159
BATTLE OF QUEENSTON. From an old Sketch 161
PLAN OF BATTLE OF QUEENSTON 163
TAKING OF NIAGARA, MAY 27TH, 1813. From an old Print 170
CENOTAPH, QUEENSTON HEIGHTS 172
BROCK'S MONUMENT 174
NOTE.--For full description of above illustrations, see
Appendix, page 175.
THE STORY OF ISAAC BROCK
[Illustration: "VIEW OF ST. PETER'S PORT, GUERNSEY, 18 x 6"]
CHAPTER I.
OUR HERO'S HOME--GUERNSEY.
Off the coast of Brittany, where the Bay of Biscay fights the white
horses of the North Sea, the Island of Guernsey rides at anchor. Its
black and yellow, red and purple coast-line, summer and winter, is awash
with surf, burying the protecting reefs in a smother of foam. Between
these drowned ridges of despair, which warn the toilers of the sea of an
intention to engulf them, tongues of ocean pierce the grim chasms of the
cliffs.
Between this and the sister island of Alderney the teeth of the Casquets
cradle the skeleton of many a stout ship, while above the level of the
sea the amethyst peaks of Sark rise like phantom bergs. In the sunlight
the rainbow-coloured slopes of Le Gouffre jut upwards a jumble of glory.
Exposed to the full fury of an Atlantic gale, these islands are
well-nigh obliterated in drench. From where the red gables cluster on
the heights of Fort George, which overhang the harbour, to the thickets
of Jerbourg, valley and plain, at the time we write of, were a gorgeous
carpet of anemones, daffodils, primroses and poppies.
These are tumultuous latitudes. Sudden hurricanes, with the
concentrated force of the German Ocean behind them, soon scourge the sea
into a whirlpool and extinguish every landmark in a pall of gray. For
centuries tumult and action have been other names for the Channel
Islands. It is no wonder that the inhabitants partake of the nature of
their surroundings. Contact with the elements produces a love for
combat. As this little book is largely a record of strife, and of one of
Guernsey's greatest fighting sons, it may be well to recall the efforts
that preceded the birth of our hero and influenced his career, and
through which Guernsey retained its liberties.
For centuries Guernsey had been whipped into strife. From the raid upon
her independence by David Bruce, the exiled King of Scotland, early in
1300, on through the centuries up to the seventeenth, piping times of
peace were few and far between. The resources of the island led to
frequent invasions from France, but while fighting and resistance did
not impair the loyalty of the islanders, it nourished a love of freedom,
and of hostility to any enemy who had the effrontery to assail it. As a
rule the sojourn of these invaders was brief. When sore pressed in a
pitched battle on the plateau above St. Peter's Port, the inhabitants
would retreat behind the buttresses of Castle Cornet, when, as in the
invasion by Charles V. of France, the fortress proving impregnable, the
besiegers would collect their belongings and sail away.
In the fourteenth century Henry VI. of England, in consideration of a
red rose as annual rental, conveyed the entire group to the Duke of
Warwick. But strange privileges were from time to time extended to these
audacious people. Queen Elizabeth proclaimed the islands a world's
sanctuary, and threw open the ports as free harbours of refuge in time
of war. She authorized protection to "a distance on the ocean as far as
the eye of man could reach." This act of grace was cancelled by George
the Third, who regarded it as a premium on piracy. In Cromwell's time
Admiral Blake had been instructed to raise the siege of Castle Cornet.
He brought its commander to his senses, but only after nine years of
assault, and not before 30,000 cannon-balls had been hurled into the
town.
Late in the fourteenth century, when the English were driven out of
France, not a few of those deported, who had the fighting propensity
well developed, made haste for the Channel Islands, where rare chances
offered to handle an arquebus for the King. Among those who sought
refuge in Guernsey there landed, not far from the Lion's Rock at Cobo,
an English knight, Sir Hugh Brock, lately the keeper of the Castle of
Derval in Brittany, a man "stout of figure and valiant of heart." This
harbour of refuge was St. Peter's Port.
"Within a long recess there lies a bay,
An island shades it from the rolling sea,
And forms a port."
The islet that broke the Atlantic rollers was Castle Cornet. Sir Hugh
Brock, or Badger in the ancient Saxon time--an apt name for a tenacious
fighter--shook hands with fate. He espied the rocky cape of St.
Jerbourg, and ofttimes from its summit he would shape bold plans for the
future, the maturing of which meant much to those of his race destined
to follow.
The commercial growth of the Channel Islands has been divided into five
periods, those of fishing, knitting (the age of the garments known as
"jerseys" and "guernseys"), privateering, smuggling, and agriculture and
commerce. To the third period belong these records. The prosperity of
the islands was greatest from the middle of the seventeenth century up
to the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo and the close of Canada's
successful fight against invasion in 1815. During this period the
building of ships for the North Atlantic and Newfoundland trade opened
new highways for commerce, but the greatest factor in this development
was the "reputable business" of privateering, which must not be
confounded either with buccaneering or yard-arm piracy. It was only
permitted under regular letters of marque, was ranked as an honorable
occupation, and those bold spirits, the wild "beggars of the sea"--who
preferred the cutlass and a roving commission in high latitudes to
ploughing up the cowslips in the Guernsey valleys, or knitting striped
shirts at home--were recognized as good fighting men and acceptable
enemies.
Trade in the islands, consequent upon the smuggling that followed and
the building of many ships, produced much wealth, creating a class of
newly rich and with it some "social disruption."
Notable in the "exclusive set," not only on account of his athletic
figure and handsome face, but for his winning manners and ability to
dance, though but a boy, was Isaac Brock. Isaac--a distant descendant of
bold Sir Hugh--was the eighth son of John Brock, formerly a midshipman
in the Royal Navy, a man of much talent and, like his son, of great
activity. Brock, the father, did not enjoy the fruit of his industry
long, for in 1777, in his 49th year, he died in Brittany, leaving a
family of fourteen children. Of ten sons, Isaac, destined to become "the
hero and defender of Upper Canada," was then a flaxen-haired boy of
eight.
Anno Domini 1769 will remain a memorable one in the history of the
empire. Napoleon, the conqueror of Europe, and Wellington, the conqueror
of Napoleon, were both sons of 1769. This same year Elizabeth de Lisle,
wife of John Brock, of St. Peter's Port, bore him his eighth son, the
Isaac referred to, also ordained to become "a man of destiny." Isaac's
future domain was that greater, though then but little known, dominion
beyond the seas, Canada--a territory of imperial extent, whose resources
at that time came within the range of few men's understanding. Isaac
Brock, as has been shown, came of good fighting stock, was of clean
repute and connected with most of the families of high degree on the
Island. The de Beauvoirs, Saumarez, de Lisles, Le Marchants, Careys,
Tuppers and many others distinguished in arms or diplomacy, were his
kith and kin. His mind saturated with the stories of the deeds of his
ancestors, and possessed of a spirit of adventure developed by constant
contact with soldiers and sailors, it was but natural that he became
cast in a fighting mould and that "to be a soldier" was the height of
his ambition.
Perhaps Isaac Brock's chief charm, which he retained in a marked degree
in after life--apart from his wonderful thews and sinews, his stature
and athletic skill--was his extreme modesty and gentleness. The fine old
maxim of the child being "father to the man" in his case held good.