The War With the United States by William Wood

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Meanwhile Chauncey, after helping to take Fort George,
had started back for Sackett's Harbour; and Dearborn,
left without the fleet, had moved on slowly and
disjointedly, in rear of Vincent, with whom he did not
regain touch for a week. On June 5 the Americans camped
at Stoney Creek, five miles from the site of Hamilton.
The steep zigzagging bank of the creek, which formed
their front, was about twenty feet high. Their right
rested on a mile-wide swamp, which ran down to Lake
Ontario. Their left touched the Heights, which ran from
Burlington to Queenston. They were also in superior
numbers, and ought to have been quite secure. But they
thought so much more of pursuit than of defence that they
were completely taken by surprise when '704 firelocks'
under Colonel Harvey suddenly attacked them just after
midnight. Harvey, chief staff officer to Vincent, was a
first-rate leader for such daring work as this, and his
men were all well disciplined. But the whole enterprise
might have failed, for all that. Some of the men opened
fire too soon, and the nearest Americans began to stand
to their arms. But, while Harvey ran along re-forming
the line, Major Plenderleath, with some of Brock's old
regiment, the 49th, charged straight into the American
centre, took the guns there, and caused so much confusion
that Harvey's following charge carried all before it.
Next morning, June 6, the Americans began a retreat which
was hastened by Yeo's arrival on their lakeward flank,
by the Indians on the Heights, and by Vincent's
reinforcements in their rear. Not till they reached the
shelter of Fort George did they attempt to make a stand.

The two armies now faced each other astride of the
lake-shore road and the Heights. The British left advanced
post, between Ten and Twelve Mile Creeks, was under Major
de Haren of the 104th, a regiment which, in the preceding
winter, had marched on snow-shoes through the woods all
the way from the middle of New Brunswick to Quebec. The
corresponding British post inland, near the Beaver Dams,
was under Lieutenant FitzGibbon of the 49th, a cool,
quick-witted, and adventurous Irishman, who had risen
from the ranks by his own good qualities and Brock's
recommendation. Between him and the Americans at Queenston
and St David's was a picked force of Indian scouts with
a son of the great chief Joseph Brant. These Indians
never gave the Americans a minute's rest. They were up
at all hours, pressing round the flanks, sniping the
sentries, worrying the outposts, and keeping four times
their own numbers on the perpetual alert. What exasperated
the Americans even more was the wonderfully elusive way
in which the Indians would strike their blow and then be
lost to sight and sound the very next moment, if, indeed,
they ever were seen at all. Finally, this endless skirmish
with an invisible foe became so harassing that the
Americans sent out a flying column of six hundred picked
men under Colonel Boerstler on June 24 to break up
FitzGibbon's post at the Beaver Dams and drive the Indians
out of the intervening bush altogether.

But the American commanders had not succeeded in hiding
their preparations from the vigilant eyes of the Indian
scouts or from the equally attentive ears of Laura Secord,
the wife of an ardent U. E. Loyalist, James Secord, who
was still disabled by the wounds he had received when
fighting under Brock's command at Queenston Heights.
Early in the morning of the 23rd, while Laura Secord was
going out to milk the cows, she overheard some Americans
talking about the surprise in store for FitzGibbon next
day. Without giving the slightest sign she quietly drove
the cattle in behind the nearest fence, hid her milk-pail,
and started to thread her perilous way through twenty
miles of bewildering bypaths to the Beaver Dams. Keeping
off the beaten tracks and always in the shadow of the
full-leaved trees, she stole along through the American
lines, crossed the no-man's-land between the two desperate
enemies, and managed to get inside the ever-shifting
fringe of Indian scouts without being seen by friend or
foe. The heat was intense; and the whole forest steamed
with it after the tropical rain. But she held her course
without a pause, over the swollen streams on fallen
tree-trunks, through the dense underbrush, and in and
out of the mazes of the forest, where a bullet might come
from either side without a moment's warning. As she neared
the end of her journey a savage yell told her she was at
last discovered by the Indians. She and they were on the
same side; but she had hard work to persuade them that
she only wished to warn FitzGibbon. Then came what, to
a lesser patriot, would have been a crowning disappointment.
For when, half dead with fatigue, she told him her story,
she found he had already heard it from the scouts. But
just because this forestalment was no real disappointment
to her, it makes her the Anglo-Canadian heroine whose
fame for bravery in war is worthiest of being remembered
with that of her French-Canadian sister, Madeleine de
Vercheres. [Footnote: For Madeleine de Vercheres see
_The fighting Governor_ in this Series.]

Boerstler's six hundred had only ten miles to go in a
straight line. But all the thickets, woods, creeks,
streams, and swamps were closely beset by a body of
expert, persistent Indians, who gradually increased from
two hundred and fifty to four hundred men. The Americans
became discouraged and bewildered; and when FitzGibbon
rode up at the head of his redcoats they were ready to
give in. The British posts were all in excellent touch
with each other; and de Haren arrived in time to receive
the actual surrender. He was closely followed by the 2nd
Lincoln Militia under Colonel Clark, and these again by
Colonel Bisshopp with the whole of the advanced guard.
But it was the Indians alone who won the fight, as
FitzGibbon generously acknowledged: 'Not a shot was fired
on our side by any but the Indians. They beat the American
detachment into a state of terror, and the only share I
claim is taking advantage of a favourable moment to offer
protection from the tomahawk and scalping knife.'

June was a lucky month for the British at sea as well as
on the land; and its 'Glorious First,' so called after
Howe's victory nineteen years before, now became doubly
glorious in a way which has a special interest for Canada.
The American frigate _Chesapeake_ was under orders to
attack British supply-ships entering Canadian waters;
and the victorious British frigate _Shannon_ was taken
out of action and into a Canadian port by a young Canadian
in the Royal Navy.

The _Chesapeake_ had a new captain, Lawrence, with new
young officers. She carried fifty more men than the
British frigate _Shannon_. But many of her ship's company
were new to her, on recommissioning in May; and some were
comparatively untrained for service on board a man-of-war.
The frigates themselves were practically equal in size
and armament. But Captain Broke had been in continuous
command of the _Shannon_ for seven years and had trained
his crew into the utmost perfection of naval gunnery.
The vessels met off Boston in full view of many thousands
of spectators. Not one British shot flew high. Every day
in the Shannon's seven years of preparation told in that
fight of only fifteen minutes; and when Broke led his
boarders over the Chesapeake's side her fate had been
sealed already. The Stars and Stripes were soon replaced
by the Union Jack. Then, with Broke severely wounded and
his first lieutenant killed, the command fell on Lieutenant
Wallis, who sailed both vessels into Halifax. This young
Canadian, afterwards known as Admiral-of-the-Fleet Sir
Provo Wallis, lived to become the longest of all human
links between the past and present of the Navy. He was
by far the last survivor of those officers who were
specially exempted from technical retirement on account
of having held any ship or fleet command during the Great
War that ended on the field of Waterloo. He was born
before Napoleon had been heard of. He went through a
battle before the death of Nelson. He outlived Wellington
by forty years. His name stood on the Active List for
all but the final decade of the nineteenth century. And,
as an honoured centenarian, he is vividly remembered by
many who were still called young a century after the
battle that brought him into fame.

The summer campaign on the Niagara frontier ended with
three minor British successes. Fort Schlosser was surprised
on July 5. On the 11th Bisshopp lost his life in destroying
Black Rock. And on August 24 the Americans were driven
in under the guns of Fort George. After this there was
a lull which lasted throughout the autumn.

Down by the Montreal frontier there were three corresponding
British successes. On June 3 Major Taylor of the 100th
captured two American gunboats, the _Growler_ and the
_Eagle_, which had come to attack Isle-aux-Noix in the
Richelieu river, and renamed them the _Broke_ and the
_Shannon_. Early in August Captains Pring and Everard,
of the Navy, and Colonel Murray with nine hundred soldiers,
raided Lake Champlain. They destroyed the barracks, yard,
and stores at Plattsburg and sent the American militia
flying home. But a still more effective blow was struck
on the opposite side of Lake Champlain, at Burlington,
where General Hampton was preparing the right wing of
his new army of invasion. Stores, equipment, barracks,
and armaments were destroyed to such an extent that
Hampton's preparations were set back till late in the
autumn. The left wing of the same army was at Sackett's
Harbour, under Dearborn's successor, General Wilkinson,
whose plan was to take Kingston, go down the St Lawrence,
meet Hampton, who was to come up from the south, and then
make a joint attack with him on Montreal.

In September the scene of action shifted to the West,
where the British were trying to keep the command of Lake
Erie, while the Americans were trying to wrest it from
them. Captain Oliver Perry, a first-rate American naval
officer of only twenty-eight, was at Presqu'isle (now
Erie) completing his flotilla. He had his troubles, of
course, especially with the militia garrison, who would
not do their proper tour of duty. 'I tell the boys to
go, but the boys won't go,' was the only report forthcoming
from one of several worthless colonels. A still greater
trouble for Perry was getting his vessels over the bar.
This had to be done without any guns on board, and with
the cumbrous aid of 'camels,' which are any kind of
air-tanks made fast to the sides low down, in order to
raise the hull as much as possible. But, luckily for
Perry, his opponent, Captain Barclay of the Royal Navy,
an energetic and capable young officer of thirty-two,
was called upon to face worse troubles still. Barclay
was, indeed, the first to get afloat. But he had to give
up the blockade of Presqu'isle, and so let Perry out,
because he had the rawest of crews, the scantiest of
equipment, and nothing left to eat. Then, when he ran
back to Amherstburg, he found Procter also facing a state
of semi-starvation, while thousands of Indian families
were clamouring for food. Thus there was no other choice
but either to fight or starve; for there was not the
slightest chance of replenishing stores unless the line
of the lake was clear.

So Barclay sailed out with his six little British vessels,
armed by the odds and ends of whatever ordnance could be
spared from Amherstburg and manned by almost any crews
but sailors. Even the flagship _Detroit_ had only ten
real seamen, all told. Ammunition was likewise very
scarce, and so defective that the guns had to be fired
by the flash of a pistol. Perry also had a makeshift
flotilla, partly manned by drafts from Harrison's army.
But, on the whole, the odds in his favour were fairly
shown by the number of vessels in the respective flotillas,
nine American against the British six.

Barclay had only thirty miles to make in a direct
south-easterly line from Amherstburg to reach Perry at
Put-in Bay in the Bass Islands, where, on the morning of
September 10, the opposing forces met. The battle raged
for two hours at the very closest quarters till Perry's
flagship _Lawrence_ struck to Barclay's own _Detroit_.
But Perry had previously left the _Lawrence_ for the
fresh _Niagara_; and he now bore down on the battered
_Detroit_, which had meanwhile fallen foul of the only
other sizable British vessel, the _Queen Charlotte_. This
was fatal for Barclay. The whole British flotilla
surrendered after a desperate resistance and an utterly
disabling loss. From that time on to the end of the war
Lake Erie remained completely under American control.

Procter could hardly help seeing that he was doomed to
give up the whole Lake Erie region. But he lingered and
was lost. While Harrison was advancing with overwhelming
numbers Procter was still trying to decide when and how
to abandon Amherstburg. Then, when he did go, he carried
with him an inordinate amount of baggage; and he retired
so slowly that Harrison caught and crushed him near
Moravian Town, beside the Thames, on the 5th of October.
Harrison had three thousand exultant Americans in action;
Procter had barely a thousand worn-out, dispirited men,
more than half of them Indians under Tecumseh. The
redcoats, spread out in single rank at open order, were
ridden down by Harrison's cavalry, backed by the mass of
his infantry. The Indians on the inland flank stood longer
and fought with great determination against five times
their numbers till Tecumseh fell. Then they broke and
fled. This was their last great fight and Tecumseh was
their last great leader.

The scene now shifts once more to the Montreal frontier,
which was being threatened by the converging forces of
Hampton from the south and Wilkinson from the west. Each
had about seven thousand men; and their common objective
was the island of Montreal. Hampton crossed the line at
Odelltown on September 20. But he presently moved back
again; and it was not till October 21 that he began his
definite attack by advancing down the left bank of the
Chateauguay, after opening communications with Wilkinson,
who was still near Sackett's Harbour. Hampton naturally
expected to brush aside all the opposition that could be
made by the few hundred British between him and the St
Lawrence. But de Salaberry, the commander of the British
advanced posts, determined to check him near La Fourche,
where several little tributaries of the Chateauguay made
a succession of good positions, if strengthened by abattis
and held by trained defenders.

The British force was very small when Hampton began his
slow advance; but 'Red George' Macdonell marched to help
it just in time. Macdonell was commanding a crack corps
of French Canadians, all picked from the best 'Select
Embodied Militia,' and now, at the end of six months of
extra service, as good as a battalion of regulars. He
had hurried to Kingston when Wilkinson had threatened it
from Sackett's Harbour. Now he was urgently needed at
Chateauguay. 'When can you start?' asked Prevost, who
was himself on the point of leaving Kingston for
Chateauguay. 'Directly the men have finished their dinners,
sir!' 'Then follow me as quickly as you can!' said Prevost
as he stepped on board his vessel. There were 210 miles
to go. A day was lost in collecting boats enough for this
sudden emergency. Another day was lost _en route_ by a
gale so terrific that even the French-Canadian voyageurs
were unable to face it. The rapids, where so many of
Amherst's men had been drowned in 1760, were at their
very worst; and the final forty miles had to be made
overland by marching all night through dense forest and
along a particularly difficult trail. Yet Macdonell got
into touch with de Salaberry long before Prevost, to whom
he had the satisfaction of reporting later in the day:
'All correct and present, sir; not one man missing!'

The advanced British forces under de Salaberry were now,
on October 25, the eve of battle, occupying the left, or
north, bank of the Chateauguay, fifteen miles south of
the Cascade Rapids of the St Lawrence, twenty-five miles
south-west of Caughnawaga, and thirty-five miles south-west
of Montreal. Immediately in rear of these men under de
Salaberry stood Macdonell's command; while, in more
distant support, nearer to Montreal, stood various posts
under General de Watteville, with whom Prevost spent that
night and most of the 26th, the day on which the battle
was fought.

As Hampton came on with his cumbrous American thousands
de Salaberry felt justifiable confidence in his own
well-disciplined French-Canadian hundreds. He and his
brothers were officers in the Imperial Army. His Voltigeurs
were regulars. The supporting Fencibles were also regulars,
and of ten years' standing. Macdonell's men were practically
regulars. The so-called 'Select Militia' present had been
permanently embodied for eighteen months; and the only
real militiamen on the scene of action, most of whom
never came under fire at all, had already been twice
embodied for service in the field. The British total
present was 1590, of whom less than a quarter were
militiamen and Indians. But the whole firing line comprised
no more than 460, of whom only 66 were militiamen and
only 22 were Indians. The Indian total was about one-tenth
of the whole. The English-speaking total was about
one-twentieth. It is therefore perfectly right to say
that the battle of Chateauguay was practically fought
and won by French-Canadian regulars against American odds
of four to one.

De Salaberry's position was peculiar. The head of his
little column faced the head of Hampton's big column on
a narrow front, bounded on his own left by the river
Chateauguay and on his own right by woods, into which
Hampton was afraid to send his untrained men. But, crossing
a right-angled bend of the river, beyond de Salaberry's
left front, was a ford, while in rear of de Salaberry's
own column was another ford which Hampton thought he
could easily take with fifteen hundred men under Purdy,
as he had no idea of Macdonell's march and no doubt of
being able to crush de Salaberry's other troops between
his own five thousand attacking from the front and Purdy's
fifteen hundred attacking from the rear. Purdy advanced
overnight, crossed to the right bank of the Chateauguay,
by the ford clear of de Salaberry's front, and made
towards the ford in de Salaberry's rear. But his men lost
their way in the dark and found themselves, not in rear
of, but opposite to, and on the left flank of, de
Salaberry's column in the morning. They drove in two of
de Salaberry's companies, which were protecting his left
flank on the right, or what was now Purdy's, side of the
river; but they were checked by a third, which Macdonell
sent forward, across the rear ford, at the same time that
he occupied this rear ford himself. Purdy and Hampton
had now completely lost touch with one another. Purdy
was astounded to see Macdonell's main body of redcoats
behind the rear ford. He paused, waiting for support from
Hampton, who was still behind the front ford. Hampton
paused, waiting for him to take the rear ford, now occupied
by Macdonell. De Salaberry mounted a huge tree-stump and
at once saw his opportunity. Holding back Hampton's
crowded column with his own front, which fought under
cover of his first abattis, he wheeled the rest of his
men into line to the left and thus took Purdy in flank.
Macdonell was out of range behind the rear ford; but he
played his part by making his buglers sound the advance
from several different quarters, while his men, joined
by de Salaberry's militiamen and by the Indians in the
bush, cheered vociferously and raised the war-whoop. This
was too much for Purdy's fifteen hundred. They broke in
confusion, ran away from the river into the woods under
a storm of bullets, fired into each other, and finally
disappeared. Hampton's attack on de Salaberry's first
abattis then came to a full stop; after which the whole
American army retired beaten from the field.

Ten days after Chateauguay dilatory Wilkinson, tired of
waiting for defeated Hampton, left the original rendezvous
at French Creek, fifty miles below Sackett's Harbour.
Like Dearborn in 1812, he began his campaign just as the
season was closing. But, again like Dearborn, he had the
excuse of being obliged to organize his army in the middle
of the war. Four days later again, on November 9, Brown,
the successful defender of Sackett's Harbour against
Prevost's attack in May, was landed at Williamsburg, on
the Canadian side, with two thousand men, to clear the
twenty miles down to Cornwall, opposite the rendezvous
at St Regis, where Wilkinson expected to find Hampton
ready to join him for the combined attack on Montreal.
But Brown had to reckon with Dennis, the first defender
of Queenston, who now commanded the little garrison of
Cornwall, and who disputed every inch of the way by
breaking the bridges and resisting each successive advance
till Brown was compelled to deploy for attack. Two days
were taken up with these harassing manoeuvres, during
which another two thousand Americans were landed at
Williamsburg under Boyd, who immediately found himself
still more harassed in rear than Brown had been in front.

This new British force in Boyd's rear was only a thousand
strong; but, as it included every human element engaged
in the defence of Canada, it has a quite peculiar interest
of its own. Afloat, it included bluejackets of the Royal
Navy, men of the Provincial Marine, French-Canadian
voyageurs, and Anglo-Canadian boatmen from the
trading-posts, all under a first-rate fighting seaman,
Captain Mulcaster, R.N. Ashore, under a good regimental
leader, Colonel Morrison--whose chief staff officer was
Harvey, of Stoney Creek renown--it included Imperial
regulars, Canadian regulars of both races, French-Canadian
and Anglo-Canadian militiamen, and a party of Indians.

Early on the 11th Brown had arrived at Cornwall with his
two thousand Americans; Wilkinson was starting down from
Williamsburg in boats with three thousand more, and Boyd
was starting down ashore with eighteen hundred. But
Mulcaster's vessels pressed in on Wilkinson's rear, while
Morrison pressed in on Boyd's. Wilkinson then ordered
Boyd to turn about and drive off Morrison, while he
hurried his own men out of reach of Mulcaster, whose
armed vessels could not follow down the rapids. Boyd
thereupon attacked Morrison, and a stubborn fight ensued
at Chrystler's Farm. The field was of the usual type:
woods on one flank, water on the other, and a more or
less flat clearing in the centre. Boyd tried hard to
drive his wedge in between the British and the river.
But Morrison foiled him in manoeuvre; and the eight
hundred British stood fast against their eighteen hundred
enemies all along the line. Boyd then withdrew, having
lost four hundred men; and Morrison's remaining six
hundred effectives slept on their hard-won ground.

Next morning the energetic Morrison resumed his pursuit.
But the campaign against Montreal was already over.
Wilkinson had found that Hampton had started back for
Lake Champlain while the battle was in progress; so he
landed at St Regis, just inside his own country, and went
into winter quarters at French Mills on the Salmon river.

In December the scene of strife changed back again to
the Niagara, where the American commander, McClure,
decided to evacuate Fort George. At dusk on the 10th he
ordered four hundred women and children to be turned out
of their homes at Newark into the biting midwinter cold,
and then burnt the whole settlement down to the ground.
If he had intended to hold the position he might have
been justified in burning Newark, under more humane
conditions, because this village undoubtedly interfered
with the defensive fire of Fort George. But, as he was
giving up Fort George, his act was an entirely wanton
deed of shame.

Meanwhile the new British general, Gordon Drummond, second
in ability to Brock alone, was hurrying to the Niagara
frontier. He was preceded by Colonel Murray, who took
possession of Fort George on the 12th, the day McClure
crossed the Niagara river. Murray at once made a plan to
take the American Fort Niagara opposite; and Drummond at
once approved it for immediate execution. On the night
of the 18th six hundred men were landed on the American
side three miles up the river. At four the next morning
Murray led them down to the fort, rushing the sentries
and pickets by the way with the bayonet in dead silence.
He then told off two hundred men to take a bastion at
the same time that he was to lead the other four hundred
straight through the main gate, which he knew would soon
be opened to let the reliefs pass out. Everything worked
to perfection. When the reliefs came out they were
immediately charged and bayoneted, as were the first
astonished men off duty who ran out of their quarters to
see what the matter was. A stiff hand-to-hand fight
followed. But every American attempt to form was instantly
broken up; and presently the whole place surrendered.
Drummond, who was delighted with such an excellent
beginning, took care to underline the four significant
words referring to the enemy's killed and wounded--_all
with the bayonet_. This was done in no mere vulgar spirit
of bravado, still less in abominable bloody-mindedness.
It was the soldierly recognition of a particularly gallant
feat of arms, carried out with such conspicuously good
discipline that its memory is cherished, even to the
present day, by the 100th, afterwards raised again as
the Royal Canadians, and now known as the Prince of
Wales's Leinster regiment. A facsimile of Drummond's
underlined order is one of the most highly honoured
souvenirs in the officers' mess.

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