The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock by Ferdinand Brock Tupper

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_Major-General Brock to Colonel Proctor._

FORT GEORGE, August 25, 1812.

I wrote to you yesterday, informing you that a cessation of
hostilities had been agreed upon between Sir George Prevost
and General Dearborn, and requesting you in consequence to
postpone any attempt upon Fort Wayne, or any other post of the
enemy. I consider the present forbearance may lead to such
consequences that I cannot refrain from sending a second
express, to urge you to restrain the Indians likewise in their
predatory excursions: this, however, ought to be done with the
utmost caution, and on grounds foreign from the present
considerations.

Colonel Myers tells me that he forwarded on the 11th instant a
dispatch received from Sir George Prevost to me, in which his
excellency so clearly stated the principles of moderation upon
which he thought it expedient to act, that I fully expect,
should you have received the dispatch and perused his
sentiments, you will forbear from any hostile aggression; in
fact, act completely upon the defensive.

Should every thing remain quiet in the vicinity of Detroit,
you will proceed hither, bringing to Fort Erie the detachments
which Captain Chambers and Lieutenant Bullock took to
Amherstburg. All the spare ordnance is to be transported to
Fort Erie without delay.

I should also think that Lieutenant Troughton and a few of his
men could be spared for some time from the duties at
Amherstburg; in that case, you will have the goodness to order
them to accompany you.

* * * * *

Major-General Brock arrived at Kingston on the 4th of September, and
left it on the 6th for Fort George. During this hasty visit he reviewed
the militia, and expressed his satisfaction at its evolutions and
appearance. He also received a flattering address from the magistrates,
officers of militia, and other inhabitants; and in reply he told them
with much tact, that it was the confidence inspired by the admirable
conduct of the York and Lincoln regiments of militia which had induced
him to undertake the expedition which terminated in the capture of
Detroit, and that from the report of the officers of the garrison at
Kingston, he relied with the same confidence on the bravery and the
discipline of the militia of that district. In the same manner, in an
address a few days before from the inhabitants of York, he said:
"Gentlemen,--I cannot but feel highly gratified by this expression of
your esteem for myself; but, in justice to the brave men at whose head I
marched against the enemy, I must beg leave to direct your attention to
them, as the proper objects of your gratitude. It was a confidence,
founded on their loyalty, zeal, and valour, that determined me to adopt
the plan of operations which led to so fortunate a termination. Allow me
to congratulate you, gentlemen, at having sent out from among yourselves
a large portion of that gallant band; and that at such a period a spirit
had manifested itself, on which you may confidently repose your hopes of
future security. It will be a most pleasing duty for me to report to our
sovereign a conduct so truly meritorious."

_Major-General Brock, to Sir George Prevost._

KINGSTON, September 4, 1812.

Upon my arrival here an hour ago, Captain Fulton delivered me
your excellency's dispatch, dated the 31st ultimo, enclosing a
letter from General Dearborn, in which the president's
disapproval of the armistice is announced. I am in consequence
induced to return without loss of time to Fort George. Captain
Fulton having expressed a wish to accompany me, I have the
more readily consented, as he will be able to give you full
information of our actual state. The enemy was very busy upon
Fort Niagara, and appeared inclined to erect additional
batteries. I may perhaps think it proper to stop their career.

I enclose several documents lately received from Colonel
Proctor, at Detroit. That officer appears to have conducted
himself with much judgment. I likewise transmit a memorial
which I have received from some merchants in the Niagara
district, but of course I cannot judge of its merits.

I shall be obliged to your excellency to direct the remittance
of the L5,000, for which I sent a requisition some time ago,
on account of the civil expenditure of this province, either
in government paper or specie, as you may deem most
convenient. I doubt not the former meeting a ready currency.

The very flattering manner in which your excellency is pleased
to view my services, and your kindness in having represented
them to his majesty's ministers in such favorable light, are
gratifying to my feelings, and call for my grateful
acknowledgments.

_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost._

FORT GEORGE, September 9, 1812.

I have been honored with your excellency's dispatch, dated the
24th ultimo, and have to thank you for ordering a company of
the Glengary regiment to strengthen Colonel Lethbridge at
Prescott, whose force you have been led to believe was
weakened in consequence of my interference, but which, I beg
leave to state, was done without my knowledge, and contrary to
my intention.

The enclosed copies of letters will inform you of the state of
affairs to the westward. It appears evident the enemy
meditates a second attempt on Amherstburg. The greater part of
the troops, which are advancing, marched from Kentucky with an
intention of joining General Hull. How they are to subsist,
even for a short period, in that already exhausted country, is
no easy matter to conceive. This difficulty will probably
decide them on some bold measure, in the hope of shortening
the campaign. If successfully resisted, their fate is
inevitable.

The Indians, it appears by the accompanying documents, were
adverse to retreating without first making a trial of their
strength. Taking, however, every circumstance into
consideration, I am inclined to think that Captain Muir acted
judiciously. Should the Indians continue to afford a willing
co-operation, I entertain not the smallest doubt of the result
that awaits this second attempt to turn my right; but your
excellency will easily perceive that doubts and jealousies
have already seized their minds. The officers of the Indian
department will, I trust, be able to remove all such
impressions. Although, from the daily observations of what is
passing on the opposite shore, a single man can ill be spared
from this line, I have notwithstanding determined to send the
two flank companies of the royal Newfoundland regiment to
Amherstburg. Fresh troops are daily arriving, supposed to
belong to the Pennsylvania quota of 2,000 men, known to be
intended for this frontier. After the whole arrive, an attack,
I imagine, cannot be long delayed. The wretched state of their
quotas, and the raggedness of the troops, will not allow them
to brave the rain and cold, which during the last week have
been so severely felt.

Between 200 and 300 Indians have joined and augmented the
force on the other side. Their brethren here feel certain that
they will not act with any spirit against us--so I imagine, if
we continue to shew a bold front; but in the event of a
disaster, the love of plunder will prevail, and they will then
act in a manner to be the most dreaded by the inhabitants of
this country.

I beg leave to recommend to your excellency's indulgent
consideration, Colonel Proctor's application for an increase
of pay as commanding a district, which I request may commence
from the 16th August last.

_Colonel Baynes to Major-General Brock_.

MONTREAL, September 10, 1812.

Sir George writes to you so fully upon the several subjects to
which your letters refer, that I have little left to
communicate to you. Major Heathcote leaves this to-day, with
all the small description of ordnance stores intended for
Amherstburg, but we have detained the 12-pounders and shot; as
you have helped yourself so amply at Detroit, it is imagined
you do not now want them. I enclose a letter from Captain
Roberts, who was, I suppose, induced to address himself direct
to head quarters, by an opportunity of doing so offering
itself at the moment. The North-West gentlemen are very urgent
in recommending a reinforcement in that quarter; but Sir
George has told them that their representation must be
addressed to you, who will act as you deem proper.

Your friend, Mr. Isaac Todd, is arrived, and looking much
better for his trip; he was suffered to pass by Albany and the
lake. He tells me that Mr. M'Donell is confirmed
attorney-general, and that the governor's salary is increased,
L1,000 a year. I sincerely trust that it will soon be your
own. Sir George has in his official dispatches, after paying
that tribute of praise so justly your due, stated as his
confirmed opinion, that the salvation of the Upper Province
has in a very great measure arisen from the civil and military
authority being combined in able hands. The prisoners, with
their general, arrived here on Sunday night; as they had not
halted since they left Kingston, and were in a very dirty
state, we kept them here on Monday, and they yesterday
proceeded to William Henry, on their way to Quebec; the
officers are to be on parole in Charlesbourg, and the men
confined on board two transports in the river. Sir George has
permitted most of the officers, who have families with them,
to return on their parole; four of them are proposed to be
exchanged for the officers of the Royal Scots, taken by the
Essex frigate. Sir George has also consented to allow General
Hull to return upon his parole: he is loud in his complaints
against the government at Washington, and the general thinks
that his voice, in the general cry, may be attended with
beneficial effects, and has allowed him to return and enter
the lists. General Hull appears to possess less feeling and
sense of shame than any man in his situation could be supposed
to do. He seems to be perfectly satisfied with himself, is
lavish of censure upon his government, but appears to think
that the most scrupulous cannot attach the slightest blame to
his own immediate conduct at Detroit. The grounds upon which
he rests his defence are not, I fancy, well founded, for he
told us that he had not gunpowder at Detroit for the service
of one day. Sir George has since shown him the return of the
large supply found in the fort; it did not create a blush, but
he made no reply. He professes great surprise and admiration
at the zeal and military preparation that he has everywhere
witnessed; that it was entirely unlooked for, and that he has
no doubt that his friend, General Dearborn, will share his
fate, if he has the imprudence to follow his example. Hull
seems cunning and unprincipled: how much reliance is to be
placed on his professions, time will shew.

General Dearborn has certainly left Albany for Skeensborough,
at the head of the lake, where great preparations have been
making in collecting boats and sending the regulars from
Greenbush to the stations in our vicinity. Major Cotton, with
about 300 men, half of the king's regiment, is stationed at
Isle aux Noix,[90] and two gun-boats have been carried into
that river, as the enemy's preparations seem to indicate that
quarter as their point of attack. Colonel Murray commands at
St. John's, and will give them a warm reception. I do not feel
a doubt of Jonathan's complete discomfiture and disgrace if he
make the attempt: we could, I fancy, bring as many men as he
will be able to persuade into the field, and of very superior
stuff, for our militia have really improved beyond all
expectation in discipline, and with it in spirit and
confidence. This town would turn out 2,000 volunteer militia,
a great proportion of whom are clothed and very tolerably
drilled. We have destroyed all the roads of communication in
our front, leaving open the water route only, and these woody
positions will be shortly occupied by the Indians of this
neighbourhood and a corps of volunteer _voyageur_ Canadians.
The enemy's preparations, however, may be a feint to cover
some plans in agitation against your province.

I send you a long letter from Kempt for your perusal, with a
sketch of Badajos, though no longer recent news. I am sure the
interest you take in the success of our arms, and in his share
in particular, will induce you to read it with pleasure.

_Sir George Prevost to Major-General Brock._

MONTREAL, September 14, 1812.

Captain Fulton arrived on the 11th instant with your letter of
the 7th; the intelligence you have communicated by it
convinces me of the necessity of the evacuation of Fort
Detroit, unless the operations of the enemy on the Niagara
frontier bear a character less indicative of determined
hostile measures against your line in their front than they
did when you last reported to me. You will therefore be
pleased, subject to the discretion I have given you under the
circumstances to which I have alluded, to take immediate steps
for evacuating that post, together with the territory of
Michigan; by this measure you will be enabled to withdraw a
greater number of the troops from Amherstburg, instead of
taking them from Colonel Vincent, whose regular force ought
not on any account to be diminished.

I have already afforded you reinforcements to the full extent
of my ability; you must not, therefore, expect a further
supply of men from hence until I shall receive from England a
considerable increase to the present regular force in this
province: the posture of affairs, particularly on this
frontier, requires every soldier who is in the country.

In my last dispatch from Lord Bathurst, dated the 4th of July,
he tells me, "that his majesty's government trusts I will be
enabled to suspend with perfect safety all extraordinary
preparations for defence which I may have been induced to make
in consequence of the precarious state of the relations
between this country and the United States; and that as every
specific requisition for warlike stores and accoutrements
which had been received from me had been complied with, with
the exception of the clothing of the corps proposed to be
raised from the Glengary emigrants, he had not thought it
necessary to direct the preparation of any further supplies."
This will afford you a strong proof of the infatuation of his
majesty's ministers upon the subject of American affairs, and
shew how entirely I have been left to my own resources in the
event which has taken place.

Judging from what you have already effected in Upper Canada,
I do not doubt but that, with your present means of defence,
you will be able to maintain your position at Fort George, and
that the enemy will be again foiled in any further attempts
they may make to invade the province.

I leave to your discretion to decide on the necessity of
sending a reinforcement to Michilimakinack.

_Major-General Brock to Colonel Proctor_.

FORT GEORGE, September 17, 1812.

I have had before me your several communications to the 11th
instant, addressed to myself and to Major-General Sheaffe. I
approve of your having detached a party to aid in the
reduction of Fort Wayne, not only because its destruction will
render your position more secure, but also from the probable
result of saving the garrison from sharing the fate of that of
Chicago; but it must be explicitly understood, that you are
not to resort to offensive warfare for purposes of conquest.
Your operations are to be confined to measures of defence and
security. With this view, if you should have credible
information of the assembling of bodies of troops to march
against you, it may become necessary to destroy the fort at
Sandusky, and the road which runs through it from Cleveland to
the foot of the rapids: the road from the river Raisin to
Detroit is perhaps in too bad a state to offer any aid to the
approach of an enemy, except in the winter; and if a winter
campaign should be contemplated against you, it is probable
that magazines would be formed in Cleveland and its vicinity,
of all which you will of course inform yourself. In carrying
on our operations in your quarter, it is of primary importance
that the confidence and good-will of the Indians should be
preserved, and that whatsoever can tend to produce a contrary
effect should be most carefully avoided. I therefore most
strongly urge and enjoin your acting on those principles on
every occasion that may offer, inculcating them in all those
under your influence, and enforcing them by your example,
whether in your conduct towards the Indians or what may regard
them, or in your language when speaking to, or of, them. I am
aware that they commit irregularities at times, which will
make this a difficult task; but you must endeavour to perform
it--attending at the same time to the means already suggested
to you for preventing, as much as possible, a repetition of
disorderly conduct.

Colonel E---- is a respectable, gentlemanly man, but he by no
means possesses the influence over the Indians which Captain
M'K---- does. I recommend to you to promote, as far as in you
lies, a good understanding with and between them, and to
observe a conciliating deportment and language towards the
latter, that his great influence may be secured and employed
in its fullest extent for the benefit of your district, and
for the general good. In conversation with him, you may take
an opportunity of intimating, that I have not been unmindful
of the interests of the Indians in my communications to
ministers; and I wish you to learn (as if casually the subject
of conversation) what stipulations they would propose for
themselves, or be willing to accede to, in case either of
failure or of success.

I understand that salvage has been demanded from individuals
on several accounts; for property recovered or restored, for
patents, &c. &c. I lament that such a course has been adopted,
for it was my intention, and it is now my wish, that our
conduct in those matters should be governed by the broadest
principles of liberality. You will, therefore, be pleased to
have returned to the several individuals the amount which each
may have paid as salvage on any account.

With respect to calling out the militia, I am particularly
desirous that it should not be resorted to but in case of
urgent necessity, and then only in such numbers as shall be
actually required. It appears to me that the cavalry employed
exceed the number that may be indispensably necessary: if,
without risk or detriment to the public service, any of either
of those corps can be spared, let them be dismissed.

I wish the engineer to proceed immediately in strengthening
Fort Amherstburg, his plan for which I shall be glad to see as
soon as possible.

Of the ordnance stores of every description, you will reserve
such proportions as may be absolutely required for the public
service in your district, and cause the remainder to be
embarked and sent down to Fort Erie with the least possible
delay.

I cannot at present make the change in the distribution of the
41st regiment which you propose, but, whenever circumstances
may permit, I shall be happy to accede to your wishes.

_Major-General S.V. Rensselaer to Major-General Brock_.

Head Quarters, Lewiston, Sept. 17, 1812.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
yesterday evening; an extract of a letter addressed to you on
the 15th instant by Captain Dyson, of the United States
regiment of artillery; also a packet addressed to the
Honorable Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury of the
United States.

Colonel Van Rensselaer will have the honor to deliver this
communication, and I have entrusted him to solicit your
permission for an interview with Captain Dyson, for the
purpose of ascertaining, particularly, the condition of the
prisoners of war under his charge, to the end that they may be
relieved from Fort Niagara, if practicable; and if not, that I
may, without delay, state their condition to the government,
that they may receive from the proper department the earliest
possible supplies.

The women and children, and such other persons as have
accompanied the detachment from Detroit, and ought to be here
received, I will immediately receive at Fort Niagara, or such
other convenient place as you may order them to be landed at.

In a communication which I some time since had the honor of
receiving from Lieut.-Colonel Myers, he assured me that it had
been the constant study of the general officer commanding on
this line to discountenance, by all means in his power, the
warfare of sentinels; yet the frequent recurrence of this
warfare within a few days past, would warrant the presumption
that a different course has been adopted. I wish to be assured
of this fact.

_Major-General Brock to Major-General S.V. Rensselaer._

Head Quarters, Fort George, Sept. 17, 1812.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
this date. Captain Dyson has obtained my permission to cross
on his parole to the United States; he has, however, requested
to remain till to-morrow, to settle with the men of his
detachment. He shall in the mean time have an interview with
Colonel Van Rensselaer.

Measures will be immediately taken to land the women and
children at Fort Niagara.

It has been with the utmost regret that I have perceived
within these few days a very heavy firing from both sides of
the river. I am, however, given to understand, that on all
occasions it commenced on yours; and from the circumstance of
the flag of truce, which I did myself the honor to send over
yesterday, having been repeatedly fired upon, while in the
act of crossing the river, I am inclined to give full credit
to the correctness of the information. Without, however,
recurring to the past, you may rest assured on my repeating my
most positive orders against the continuance of a practice,
which can only be injurious to individuals, without promoting
the object which both our nations may have in view.

* * * * *

We cannot find the dispatch from Sir George Prevost of the 7th of
September, to which the next letter is an answer, but it could not have
been of a very pleasing character, and certainly Major-General Brock's
_implicit_ obedience to _such_ instructions is most creditable to him.

_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost_.

FORT GEORGE, September 18, 1812.

I have been honored with your excellency's dispatch, dated the
7th instant. I have implicitly followed your excellency's
instructions, and abstained, under great temptation and
provocation, from every act of hostility. The information
received from a deserter, and which I had the honor to detail
in my last, is far from correct, and, where credit is to be
given, the facts apply solely to the regular force. The
militia, being selected from the most violent democrats, are
generally inclined to invade this province--provisions are in
tolerable plenty--the only complaint arises from a want of
vegetables. It is currently reported that the enemy's force is
to be increased to 7,000, and that on their arrival an attack
is immediately to be made. I am convinced the militia would
not keep together in their present situation without such a
prospect, nor do I think the attempt can be long deferred.
Sickness prevails in some degree along the line, but
principally at Black Rock.

The flank companies of the royal Newfoundland have joined me.
A sergeant and twenty-five rank and file of the Veterans
arrived at the same time, whom I propose sending to
Michilimakinack.

The enclosed letter from Colonel Proctor will inform your
excellency of a force having been detached, under Captain
Muir, for the reduction of Fort Wayne.[91] I gave orders for
it previous to my leaving Amherstburg, which must have induced
Colonel Proctor to proceed, upon receiving intelligence of the
recommencement of hostilities, without waiting for further
directions. I regret exceedingly that this service should be
undertaken contrary to your excellency's wishes; but I beg
leave to assure you, that the principal object in sending a
British force to Fort Wayne is with the hope of preserving the
lives of the garrison. By the last accounts, the place was
invested by a numerous body of Indians, with very little
prospect of being relieved. The prisoners of war, who know
perfectly the situation of the garrison, rejoiced at the
measure, and give us full credit for our intentions.

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