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

F >> Ferdinand Brock Tupper >> The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock




The Indians were likewise looking to us for assistance: they
heard of the armistice with every mark of jealousy, and, had
we refused joining them in the expedition, it is impossible to
calculate the consequences. I have already been asked to
pledge my word that England would enter into no negociation in
which their interests were not included, and, could they be
brought to imagine that we should desert them, the
consequences must be fatal.

I shall be obliged to your excellency to direct L5,000 to be
transmitted to the receiver-general, for the civil expenditure
of this province. Army bills, I make no doubt, will answer
every purpose.

This dispatch is entrusted to Lieut.-Colonel Nichol,
quartermaster-general of this militia, whom I take the liberty
to introduce to your excellency, as perfectly qualified, from
his local knowledge and late return, to afford every
information of the state of affairs in the western district.
He is instructed to make extensive purchases of necessaries
for the use of the militia, and I have to entreat your
excellency to indulge him with the means of a speedy
conveyance back to this place.


_Major-General Brock to his brother Savery_.

FORT GEORGE, September 18, 1812.

You doubtless feel much anxiety on my account. I am really
placed in a most awkward predicament. If I get through my
present difficulties with tolerable success, I cannot but
obtain praise. But I have already surmounted difficulties of
infinitely greater magnitude than any within my view. Were the
Americans of one mind, the opposition I could make would be
unavailing; but I am not without hope that their divisions may
be the saving of this province. A river of about 500 yards
broad divides the troops. My instructions oblige me to adopt
defensive measures, and I have evinced greater forbearance
than was ever practised on any former occasion. It is thought
that, without the aid of the sword, the American people may be
brought to a due sense of their own interests. I firmly
believe I could at this moment sweep every thing before me
between Fort Niagara and Buffalo--but my success would be
transient.

I have now officers in whom I can confide: when the war
commenced, I was really obliged to seek assistance among the
militia. The 41st is an uncommonly fine regiment, but
wretchedly officered. Six companies of the 49th are with me
here, and the remaining four at Kingston, under Vincent.
Although the regiment has been ten years in this country,
drinking rum without bounds, it is still respectable, and
apparently ardent for an opportunity to acquire distinction:
it has five captains in England, and two on the staff in this
country, which leaves it bare of experienced officers. The
U.S. regiments of the line desert over to us frequently, as
the men are tired of the service: opportunities seldom offer,
otherwise I have reason to think the greater part would follow
the example. The militia, being chiefly composed of enraged
democrats, are more ardent and anxious to engage, but they
have neither subordination nor discipline. They die very fast.
You will hear of some decisive action in the course of a
fortnight, or in all probability we shall return to a state of
tranquillity. I say decisive, because if I should be beaten,
the province is inevitably gone; and should I be victorious, I
do not imagine the gentry from the other side will be anxious
to return to the charge.

It is certainly something singular that we should be upwards
of two months in a state of warfare, and that along this
widely extended frontier not a single death, either natural or
by the sword, should have occurred among the troops under my
command, and we have not been altogether idle, nor has a
single desertion taken place.

I am quite anxious for this state of warfare to end, as I wish
much to join Lord Wellington, and to see you all.

Has poor Betsey recovered the loss of my young and dear
friend, John Tupper?


_Sir George Prevost to Major-General Brock._

MONTREAL, September 25, 1812.

It no longer appears, by your letter of the 13th, that you
consider the enemy's operations on the Niagara frontier
indicative of active operations. If the government of America
inclines to defensive measures, I can only ascribe the
determination to two causes: the first is, the expectation of
such overtures from us as will lead to a suspension of
hostilities, preparatory to negociations for peace; the other
arises from having ascertained, by experience, our ability in
the Canadas to resist the attack of a tumultuary force.

In consequence of your having weakened the line of
communication between Cornwall and Kingston, a predatory
warfare is carrying on there very prejudicial to the
intercourse from hence with Upper Canada. I have ordered a
company of the Glengary to Prescott to strengthen Colonel
Lethbridge, and, under present circumstances, you are not to
expect further aid.

I agree in opinion with you, that so wretched is the
organization and discipline of the American army, that at this
moment much might be effected against them; but as the
government at home could derive no substantial advantage from
any disgrace we might inflict on them, whilst the more
important concerns of the country are committed in Europe, I
again request you will steadily pursue that policy which shall
appear to you best calculated to promote the dwindling away
of such a force by its own inefficient means.

I shall receive with much satisfaction Colonel Proctor's
report of having saved the garrison of Fort Wayne from the
inhuman fury of the Indians. I am particularly anxious that
class of beings should be restrained and controlled as much as
possible, whilst there exists a pretence of implicating the
national character in their cruelties.

* * * * *

The following letter not only explains the impolicy of obeying Sir
George Prevost's provisional orders for the evacuation of Detroit and
the Michigan territory, but also ably deprecates any abandonment of our
Indian allies. With such leaders as its author and Tecumseh, what might
not have been done in this war to obtain the security and regeneration
of this much injured people? But alas! these "kindred spirits" lived not
long enough to plead their cause, and in the negociations for peace
their interests were shamefully overlooked or cruelly forgotten;[92]
although, in the first American war, the Indians had also, with few
exceptions, taken part with Great Britain against the colonists in their
contest for independence. It is true that their mode of warfare is
abhorrent to Europeans, as differing from the more _honorable_
slaughter of _civilized_ enemies; but Sir Isaac Brock proved that they
were to be restrained, and Tecumseh was as humane as he was brave.
Moreover, we should not condemn their previous excesses without
remembering the many injuries they had received. They knew from sad
experience that they could place no faith in the whites, who had long
considered them as legal prey, and too often treated them as the brute
animals of the forest. Expelled from the coasts, and dispossessed of
their hunting grounds, they had been gradually driven westward, until
they had too much cause to apprehend that the cupidity of their invaders
would be satisfied only with their utter extermination. "The red men are
melting," to borrow the expressive metaphor of a celebrated Miami chief
of the last century, "like snow before the sun." Indeed, it is
melancholy to reflect, that the aborigines of both continents of America
have, from their first intercourse with Europeans or their descendants,
experienced nothing but fraud, spoliation, cruelty, and ingratitude.


_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost_.

YORK, September 28, 1812.

I have been honored with your excellency's dispatch, dated the
14th instant.[93] I shall suspend, under the latitude left by
your excellency to my discretion, the evacuation of Fort
Detroit. Such a measure would most probably be followed by the
total extinction of the population on that side of the river,
or the Indians, aware of our weakness and inability to carry
on active warfare, would only think of entering into terms
with the enemy. The Indians, since the Miami affair, in 1793,
have been extremely suspicious of our conduct; but the violent
wrongs committed by the Americans on their territory, have
rendered it an act of policy with them to disguise their
sentiments. Could they be persuaded that a peace between the
belligerents would take place, without admitting their claim
to an extensive tract of country, fraudulently usurped from
them, and opposing a frontier to the present unbounded views
of the Americans, I am satisfied in my own mind that they
would immediately compromise with the enemy. I cannot conceive
a connection so likely to lead to more awful consequences.

If we can maintain ourselves at Niagara, and keep the
communication to Montreal open, the Americans can only subdue
the Indians by craft, which we ought to be prepared to see
exerted to the utmost. The enmity of the Indians is now at its
height, and it will require much management and large bribes
to effect a change in their policy; but the moment they are
convinced that we either want the means to prosecute the war
with spirit, or are negociating a separate peace, they will
begin to study in what manner they can most effectually
deceive us.

Should negociations for peace be opened, I cannot be too
earnest with your excellency to represent to the king's
ministers the expediency of including the Indians as allies,
and not leave them exposed to the unrelenting fury of their
enemies.

The enemy has evidently assumed defensive measures along the
strait of Niagara. His force, I apprehend, is not equal to
attempt, with any probability of success, an expedition across
the river. It is, however, currently reported that large
reinforcements are on their march; should they arrive, an
attack cannot be long delayed. The approach of the rainy
season will increase the sickness with which the troops are
already afflicted. Those under my command are in perfect
health and spirits.

I have the honor to transmit the purport of a confidential
communication[94] received in my absence by Brigade-Major
Evans from Colonel Van Rensselaer. As your excellency's
instructions agree with the line of conduct he is anxious I
should follow, nothing of a hostile nature shall be attempted
under existing circumstances.

* * * * *

The unlettered Tecumseh well knew the wrongs of the red men when he
endeavoured, several years before the war, to induce the Osages to unite
in a general Indian confederacy against the continued encroachments of
the Americans, and gave extemporaneous utterance before a large
assemblage to the following simple but faithful narration of their
grievances. The harangue, eloquent as it is, suffers under all the
disadvantages of translation, and is but the shadow of the substance,
because the gestures, and the interests and feelings excited by the
occasion, which constitute the essentials of its character, are
altogether wanting.

Brothers,--We all belong to one family; we are all children of
the Great Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst
at the same spring; and now affairs of the greatest concern
lead us to smoke the pipe around the same council fire!

Brothers,--We are friends; we must assist each other to bear
our burdens. The blood of many of our fathers and brothers has
run like water on the ground, to satisfy the avarice of the
white men. We, ourselves, are threatened with a great evil;
nothing will pacify them but the destruction of all the red
men.

Brothers,--When the white men first set foot on our grounds,
they were hungry; they had no place on which to spread their
blankets, or to kindle their fires. They were feeble; they
could do nothing for themselves. Our fathers commiserated
their distress, and shared freely with them whatever the Great
Spirit had given his red children. They gave them food when
hungry, medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on,
and gave them grounds, that they might hunt and raise
corn.--Brothers, the white people are like poisonous serpents:
when chilled, they are feeble and harmless; but invigorate
them with warmth, and they sting their benefactors to death.

The white people came among us feeble; and now that we have
made them strong, they wish to kill us, or drive us back, as
they would wolves and panthers. Brothers,--The white men are
not friends to the Indians: at first, they only asked for land
sufficient for a wigwam; now, nothing will satisfy them but
the whole of our hunting grounds, from the rising to the
setting sun.

Brothers,--The white men want more than our hunting grounds;
they wish to kill our old men, women, and little ones.

Brothers,--Many winters ago, there was no land; the sun did
not rise and set; all was darkness. The Great Spirit made all
things. He gave the white people a home beyond the great
waters. He supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to
his red children; and he gave them strength and courage to
defend them.

Brothers,--My people wish for peace; the red men all wish for
peace; but where the white people are, there is no peace for
them, except it be on the bosom of our mother.

Brothers,--The white men despise and cheat the Indians; they
abuse and insult them; they do not think the red men
sufficiently good to live.

The red men have borne many and great injuries; they ought to
suffer them no longer. My people will not; they are determined
on vengeance; they have taken up the tomahawk; they will make
it fat with blood; they will drink the blood of the white
people.

Brothers,--My people are brave and numerous; but the white
people are too strong for them alone. I wish you to take up
the tomahawk with them. If we all unite, we will cause the
rivers to stain the great waters with their blood.

Brothers,--If you do not unite with us, they will first
destroy us, and then you will fall an easy prey to them. They
have destroyed many nations of red men, because they were not
united, because they were not friends to each other.

Brothers,--The white people send runners amongst us; they wish
to make us enemies, that they may sweep over and desolate our
hunting grounds, like devastating winds, or rushing waters.

Brothers,--Our Great Father, over the great waters, is angry
with the white people, our enemies. He will send his brave
warriors against them; he will send us rifles, and whatever
else we want--he is our friend, and we are his children.

Brothers,--Who are the white people that we should fear them?
They cannot run fast, and are good marks to shoot at: they are
only men; our fathers have killed many of them: we are not
squaws, and we will stain the earth red with their blood.

Brothers,--The Great Spirit is angry with our enemies; he
speaks in thunder, and the earth swallows up villages, and
drinks up the Mississippi. The great waters will cover their
lowlands; their corn cannot grow; and the Great Spirit will
sweep those who escape to the hills from the earth with his
terrible breath.

Brothers,--We must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we
must fight each other's battles; and, more than all, we must
love the Great Spirit: he is for us; he will destroy our
enemies, and make all his red children happy.

Conclusion of Major-General Brock's general order, Detroit, 16th August,
1812: "The conduct of the Indians under Colonel Elliott, Captain M'Kee,
and the other officers of that department, joined to that of the gallant
and brave chiefs of their respective tribes, has since the commencement
of the war been marked with acts of true heroism, and in nothing can
they testify more strongly their love to the king, their great father,
than in following the dictates of honor and humanity, by which they have
been hitherto actuated. Two fortifications have already been captured
from the enemy, without a drop of blood being shed by the hands of the
Indians: the instant the enemy submitted, his life became sacred."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 86: To the facts and observations above stated I must add the
extraordinary circumstance, that a staff officer was sent, express from
Montreal to Upper Canada, to prevent General Brock from proceeding to
the western district, but which most happily was prevented from taking
effect by the extraordinary rapidity of the movements of that most
zealous and gallant officer, who had arrived thither before the officer
so sent could reach him.--_Letters of Veritas._]

[Footnote 87: See extract from Letters of Veritas on this point.
Appendix A, Section 1, No. 3.]

[Footnote 88: Appendix A, Section 1, No. 4.]

[Footnote 89: This letter was forwarded by Brigade-Major Shekleton with
that of the 12th August (see page 217), from Sir George Prevost, who
doubtless wrote another the following day relative to the armistice, but
we cannot find it among Major-General Brock's papers.]

[Footnote 90: Coteau du Lac and Isle aux Noix are the keys of Lower
Canada; the former completely commands the navigation of the St.
Lawrence between the Upper and Lower Provinces, and the latter had been
so decidedly regarded as the barrier of Lower Canada from the Champlain
frontier, that it excited the particular attention of the French
engineers in the last defence of the country, and was afterwards
fortified at considerable expense by General Haldimand, daring the war
of the American revolution.--_Quarterly Review_.]

[Footnote 91: Fort Wayne is situated at the junction of the St. Mary and
St. Joseph rivers, which form the Miami of the lake, and not more than
twelve miles from the navigable waters of the Wabash. This post is
nearly in the centre of the Indian settlements on this side the
Mississippi. Many Indian villages lay from twelve to sixty miles from
this place.--_Brown's American History_.]

[Footnote 92: "The Indians on this occasion" (the defence of
Michilimakinack, in 1814,) "behaved with exemplary zeal and fidelity in
our cause; and indeed their attachment throughout has been such as to
make me blush for my country, in the dereliction of their interests in
the negotiations at Ghent, after so many promises made them, and so fair
a prospect at the commencement of these negotiations."--_Letters of
Veritas_.]

[Footnote 93: See page 291. We cannot discover a copy of Major-General
Brock's letter of the 7th September, to Sir George Prevost, to which the
latter officer refers in his letter of the 14th.]

[Footnote 94: This communication, of which we have no particulars, is
the more singular, as Colonel Van R---- commanded the advance of the
American attacking party on the 13th of October, when Sir Isaac Brock
lost his life. Colonel Van R---- was severely wounded on that day.]




CHAPTER XIV.


The Americans, burning to wipe away the stain of their discomfiture at
Detroit, and apparently determined to penetrate into Upper Canada at any
risk, concentrated with those views, along the Niagara frontier, an army
consisting, according to their own official returns, of 5,206 men, under
Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the New York militia, exclusive of 300
field and light artillery, 800 of the 6th, 13th, and 23d regiments, at
Fort Niagara; making a total of 6,300 men. Of this powerful force, 1,650
regulars, under the command of Brigadier Smyth, were at Black Rock; 386
militia at the last named place and Buffalo; and 900 regulars and 2,270
militia at Lewistown, distant from Black Rock 28 miles. Thus the enemy
had, along their frontier of 36 miles, 3,650 regulars and 2,650
militia.[95] To oppose this force Major-General Brock, whose head
quarters were at Fort George, had under his immediate orders part of the
41st and 49th regiments, a few companies of militia, amounting to nearly
half these regulars, and from 200 to 300 Indians--in all about 1,500
men--but so dispersed in different posts at and between Fort Erie and
Fort George, (34 miles apart,) that only a small number was quickly
available at any one point. With unwearied diligence the British
commander watched the motions of the enemy; but under these
circumstances it was impossible to prevent the landing of the hostile
troops, especially when their preparations were favored by the obscurity
of the night.

On the 9th of October, the brig Detroit, of 200 tons and 6 guns, (lately
the U.S. brig Adams,) and the North-West Company's brig Caledonia, of
about 100 tons, having arrived the preceding day from Detroit, were
boarded and carried opposite Fort Erie, before the dawn of day, by
Lieutenant Elliott, of the American navy, with 100 seamen and soldiers
in two large boats. This officer was at this time at Black Rock,
superintending the equipment of some schooners, lately purchased for the
service of Lake Erie. But for the _defensive_ measures to which
Major-General Brock was restricted, he would probably have destroyed
these very schooners, for whose equipment, as vessels of war, Lieutenant
Elliott and 50 seamen had been sent from New York. The two British brigs
contained 40 prisoners, some cannon and small arms, captured at Detroit,
exclusive of a valuable quantity of furs belonging to the North-West
Company, in the Caledonia. Joined by the prisoners, the Americans who
boarded numbered 140, and the crews of the two brigs, consisting of
militia and Canadian seamen, amounted to 68. After the capture,
Lieutenant Elliott succeeded in getting the Caledonia close under the
batteries at Black Rock, but he was compelled, by a few well-directed
shots from the Canada shore, to run the Detroit upon Squaw Island. Here
she was boarded by a subaltern's detachment from Fort Erie, and the
Americans soon after completed her destruction by setting her on fire.
Some lives were lost upon this occasion, and among the Americans a Major
Cuyler was killed by a shot from Fort Erie, as he was riding along the
beach on the opposite side of the river.


_Sir Isaac Brock to Sir George Prevost_.

FORT GEORGE, October 11, 1812.

I had scarcely closed my dispatch to your excellency, of the
9th, when I was suddenly called away to Fort Erie, in
consequence of a bold, and, I regret to say, successful attack
by the enemy on his majesty's brig Detroit, and the private
brig Caledonia, which had both arrived the preceding day from
Amherstburg. It appears by every account I have been able to
collect, that a little before day a number of boats full of
men, dropped down with the current unobserved, boarded both
vessels at the same moment, and, cutting their cables, were
proceeding with them to the American shore, when Major Ormsby,
who witnessed the transaction, directed the batteries to open
on them, and soon compelled the enemy to abandon the Detroit,
which grounded about the centre of Squaw Island, a little
more than a mile below Black Rock. She was then boarded by a
party of the 49th regiment; but as no anchor remained, and
being otherwise unprovided with every means by which she could
be hauled off, the officer, throwing her guns over board,
after sustaining a smart fire of musketry, decided to quit
her. A private, who is accused of getting drunk, and a
prisoner of war, who was unable from his wounds to escape,
with about twenty prisoners brought by the Detroit from
Amherstburg, remained however behind; these it became
necessary to remove before the vessel could be destroyed, and
Cornet Pell Major, of the provincial cavalry, offered his
services. Being unfortunately wounded as he was getting on
board, and falling back into the boat, a confusion arose,
during which the boat drifted from the vessel, leaving two of
the 41st, who had previously ascended, on board. In the mean
time the Caledonia was secured by the enemy, and a cargo of
furs, belonging to the North-West Company, landed.

The batteries on both sides were warmly engaged the whole of
the day, but I am happy to say no mischief was sustained by
the enemy's fire. I reached the spot soon after sun-set, and
intended to have renewed the attempt to recover the Detroit,
which I had _every_ prospect of accomplishing, assisted by the
crew of the Lady Prevost, which vessel had anchored a short
time before; but before the necessary arrangements could be
made, the enemy boarded her, and in a few minutes she was
seen in flames.

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