Title

Chapter 5

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=298158

page

66-75

Bibliographic Citation

1812; the war and its moral : a Canadian chronicle / William Foster Coffin.

10167813

1812; the war and its moral : a Canadian chronicle / William Foster Coffin.

Type

Text

extracted text

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

TEMPORIZING POLICY—AMERICAN COMPLACENCY.

As before said he was weak, in face of an enemy superior in numbers, and embarrassed by a crowd of prisoners, whom he had to
guard as well as feed. He expected reinforcements, the safe and
speedy arrival of which would change the aspect of affairs. It is
obvious too, that he acted under unseen pressure, and that, in this
respect, he was not his own master. Temporizing was the government " order of the day ;" Sir George Prevost had imposed it upon
Brock, he in his turn had impressed it upon Proctor in the west,
and Sheaffe, with soldierly subordination, did as he understood.*
Sir George Prevost disapproved of this armistice when reported to
him ; but the British ministry, as Sir George said, had " hampered the contest with strange infatuation," and it cannot be
wondered at, that absorbed in a vast life-and-death struggle in
Europe, they prayed to be ridded, by any concession, of the worriment of a petite guerre in America. On the spot, and in our

critical moment, elated the mind of the government and people,
and imparted an immense impulse to the national energies. The
reluctant good sense of the country was drowned in the general
intoxication. The government urged on with vigour its preparations
for further invasion. Late as the season was, they had calculated
to take Canada at a disadvantage, when hermetically sealed by
winter from extraneous help ; and, to impart to the tragedy, which
had been enacted amid the melodramatic scenery of Niagara, its
due proportion of farce, they appointed one General Smyth to the
command. This gentleman was the Bombastes Furioso of the day.
In proclamations he stands unrivalled. Never was there " a most
noble army " more " bethumped by words,"—but his exploits
appear to have been limited by phrases.

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sown view of our own interests, we see things in a larger and truer
point of view ; and it should be kept in mind that the propriety of
the armistice was never questioned in England.
The Americans were nothing daunted by this reverse. To the
popular eye, the disaster at Queenston heights read as a success.
The authorities, as well as the writers of the day, spoke of the death
of Brock, as they now do of the fall of Stonewall Jackson, as
equivalent to a victory. It has even been contended that the
temporary tenure of the crest of the hill, up to the arrival of
the reinforcements under Sheaffe, was in itself a victory. The
British held the Redan in front of Sebastopol for two hours,
before they retired, and yet it may be doubted if any American
writer would admit this honourable feat of desperate valour to be

}

a success.
But successes of another and unexpected character—successes on the ocean, to be enlarged upon hereafter, had, at this
Life and Correspondence of Brock, Tupper, p.116.

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Leaving General Smyth to apostrophize his " Hearts of War,"
in front of General Sheaffe, we will proceed to the New York frontier of Lower Canada, where General Dearborn had assembled
10,000 men, and from Plattsburg, menaced Montreal. But the French
Canadian militia, like the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, sprang to
arms ; the land bristled with bayonets. Major de Salaberry, in the
infancy of his fame, had the command of the outposts, and, under
his inspiration, these undisciplined levies speedily showed that they
were too much in earnest to be trifled with. After some parade
of demonstration, on the 20th November, an attack was made on a
picket at Lacolle, by a force from Champlain Town. The picket
consisted of frontier militia and a few Indians under Col. McKay,
of the North West Company, who had borne the news of the war to
Mackinac, had returned to Montreal, to throw himself into the field
at the head of his Indians, and who, in 1814, performed services
still more important in the capture of Prairie .du Chien on the
Mississippi.* This gentleman so handled his small force, that the
• Col. William McKay was father of Robert McKay, Esq., an eminent advocate of Montreal.

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CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

enemy, in the dark, fired upon their own people, killing several,
and then, much disconcerted, fell back on Champlain Town, from
whence they came ; and thereupon Dearborn, in deference to the
mandates of climate, retired into winter quarters.
On our way back from the Plattsburg-Montreal section of the
international frontier, we will touch at the Indian village of St.
Regis where the line 45° strikes the St. Lawrence. It is the
westernmost, and extreme point of the frontier between Lower
Canada and the State of New York. The Upper Province on the
north shore of the St. Lawrence and Lakes had been formed into
three military divisions—left, centre, and right—the left extending
upwards from the old French fort of Coteau du Lac, up the line of
the St. Lawrence, included Kingston. The centre embraced York
and the Peninsula of Niagara ; the right comprehended the Detroit
frontier and the Upper coasts of Lake Erie. St. Regis in Lower
Canada, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, opposite to Cornwall, was surprised on the morning of the 23rd October by a force
of 400 men detailed .from Plattsburg. The outpost or picket,
at this point, consisted of twenty men and an officer of Canadian
Voyageurs. Lieut. RotOtte, Sergeant McGillivray, and six men
were killed, the remainder taken prisoners. In a cupboard of the
wigwam of the Indian interpreter, was found a Union Jack, on gala
days the worthy object of Indian adoration. This windfall was
announced to the world as the " capture of a stand of colors,"
" the first colors taken during the war." Dozens of them might
have been obtained, at far less cost, in any American shipyard.
This affront was resented forthwith. On the 23rd November, small
parties of the 49th Foot and Glengarry Light Infantry, supported
by about 70 men of the Cornwall and Glengarry militia, about
140 in all, under Lieut.-Colonel McMillan, crossed the St. Lawrence and pounced on the American fort at Salmon river, opposite
to St. Regis. The enemy took to the block-house, but finding them-

DIVERSITIES OF CLIMATE-COMMODORE EARLE.

69

selves surrounded, surrendered prisoners of war. One captain,
two subalterns and forty-one men were taken, with four batteaux
and fifty-seven stand of arms. No " stand of colors" was captured
with the Americans, as it is not usual to confide standards to the
guardianship of detached parties of forty or fifty men in any service.
But while winter, growing gradually up the river, had already
imposed an icy barrier to all military operations in Eastern Canada
and on the line of the river St. Lawrence, the climate of the Western
Province, the more moderate as it declines westward, admitted, to
a much later period of the year, of naval combinations and of the
movements of troops. At a time when the St. Lawrence, from
Quebec downwards, is barred by thick ribbed ice, and the vast
territory intermediate between the Atlantic and this noble river is
an impassable wilderness of snow ; where the breath freezes in the
very nostrils of men ; the immense tract of country west of, and
among the Lakes, enjoys a climate very like that of England ;somewhat less of humidity, perhaps, and a little more of sun. At
Detroit, the river freezes occasionally, as does the Rhine, and as does
the Thames, and leads to much the same exhibition of jollity, booths
and bonfires, races and roast oxen ; but the vast expanse of the lake
surface moistens and softens the atmosphere—the waters are, for
military purposes, at no period of the season reliably impracticable,
and the West is, during winter, and in ordinary seasons, as pleasant
a country to fight over as any part of Flanders.
Thus, on the 9th of November, 1812, the American fleet from
Sackett's Harbour, consisting of the Oneida brig of 16 guns, and
six heavy schooners, chased the Royal George, commanded by
Commodore Earle, into Kingston. At an earlier period the Commodore had withdrawn from an attempt on the Oneida in Sackett's
Harbour, and much had been said to his disparagement in consequence. We have been reminded significantly, that the Canadian

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CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

SCHOONER SIMCOE—TERMINATION OF ARMISTICE.

Commodore did not belong to the' Royal Navy. The imputation
should have been spared until it had been fully ascertained how
much of his apparent backsliding was ascribable to British mismanagement. What was the strength of his crew ? What the
state of his equipments ? What his orders ? His conduct simply
indicated the character of all the orders of that time. We do not
hesitate to say that the Canadian seaman, on his own waters—man
to man—is as good as the briniest salt that ever trod deck ; and as a
rule, for pluck or conduct, the raw Canadian material is equal to
any found in Yankeedom, or Christendom either, and in proof we
quote the daring escape of the Canadian schooner Simcoe, James
Richardson, commander, by running the gauntlet of the American
flotilla. The story is thus told :
On the 20th November, the Americans had cannonaded the
town of Kingston, and got the worst of it, at long bowls. They
had hauled off, beating out of the channel into the open lake,
under heavy press of sail, when they discovered the Simcoe,
a fine 200-ton schooner, bound from Niagara to Kingston.
She had been employed in the transportation of troops and
stores, and was returning in ballast. The American force,
armed with long heavy guns, intercepted her completely. Richardson, not relishing the idea of capture, and the transfer of so
fine a vessel to the American marine, attempted at first to run
her ashore on Amherst Island, but the wind baffled this design. In
the meantime one of the enemy's schooners got under his lee, and
opened fire, but, attempting to tack, " missed stays." Richardson's nautical blood was up in a moment. He cheered his men.
"Look, lads, at these lubbers ! Stand by me, and we will run past
the whole of them, and get safe into port." The answer was a ready
cheer. The helm was instantly " put up," and spreading all sail,
with a stiff breeze blowing, the daring Simcoe bore down direct on
the harbour, passing a little to the northward of the enemy, who,

ship by ship, delivered their fire of round and grape, and vainly
endeavoured to cross her bows. She shot by them all, with riddled
sides and sails, but not a man hurt, running the gauntlet for
four or five miles. Before reaching port she was struck under
water by a 32-pound shot, filled, and sank, but was easily raised
afterwards, and repaired. As she sank the crew fired their only
piece of ordnance, a solitary musket, with a cheer of defiance,
which was taken up and echoed by the thousands of citizens,
troops, and militia who thronged the shore.*
A few hours after, Commodore Chauncey, in command of the
American squadron, captured a schooner having on board Capt.
Brock, a brother of the deceased General, with plate and effects
of his late relative. Chauncey paroled the captain, and, with
graceful generosity, restored to him all the captured property he
had in charge.
The armistice between Gen. Smyth and Sir Roger Sheaffe ter-.
minated on the 20th November. With Gen. Smyth gasconading
was a gift. He had primed his men with proclamations, but
fired the train with a long lanyard. He had prepared 2500,
men for an invasion of Canada. He presided at the embarkation,,
saw the men off safely, and retired to " organize further."
" The tornado burst on the Canadian shore," to use the words of
the American annalist, j- at the upper end of Grand Isle, between
Fort Erie and Chippewa. It was met by the gallant Col. Bishopp,
who commanded about 600 men,-360 regulars, and 240 militia,
under Major Hatt and Capt. Bostwick. The first demonstration
took place on the 27th November. Small outposts of the British
were temporarily overpowered, guns were spiked ; Lieutenants King,
Lamont and Bartley, of the Royal Artillery, perversely, fighting,
with that stupid indisposition to give in, natural to British youngsters, ,
• Memoranda of the Rev. Dr. Richardson, D.D.
f Nile's Weekly Messenger, quoted by Auchinleck, 119.

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CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

were badly wounded ; but when morning broke, Bishopp and Ormsby
were down upon the invader. The guns were recaptured and unspiked ; a second division of American invaders repulsed with much loss ;
and an aide-de-camp of the American general, with about forty men
and some other officers, were taken prisoners. Smyth, who had
already proclaimed himself victorious, was puzzled. Considering
the disparity of numbers the British ought to have surrendered
long before—he was sure they meant to do so—the case of Hull was
precisely parallel. He would give them an opportunity,—and so
despatched a flag of truce to Fort Erie, politely requesting a surrender—a suggestion which was declined, in the best possible
temper, by the imperturbable Bishopp.
Smyth ordered his men again into the boats, and then, to disembark and dine, and then, to repeat the same manceuvre, until at
length, on the 1st December, he decided to abandon all idea of
crossing and conquest, and to go into winter quarters, which was
done, it must be said, to the intense disgust of his army. Winter
quarters led to military conventions, and to resolutions very disconcerting to the General, who finding himself to be threatened
with tar and feathers, departed forthwith South, was removed in a
summary way from the U. S. service, and subsided finally into a
member of Congress : and thus ended the campaign of the year
1812, not inauspiciously for Canada.
It proved two things—first that the people of the United States
were disunited on the subject of the war, while the people of
Canada were united to a man. The Legislature of Maryland
openly denounced the war. The governments of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island, had refused the quota of militia
-demanded of these States respectively. Such men as Quincey
declared in the House of Representatives at Washington, that
" since the invasion of the Buccaneers, there Was nothing in history more, disgraceful than this war."

SPIRIT IN CANADA-LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC SOCIETY.

73

The voice of Canada was unanimous—in the Upper and in the
Lower Province—French and English—Protestant and Catholic—
men of all parties and all policies—the voices of all were still for
war. They had not sought it,--they had shunned it,—but it had
been forced upon them, and they were ready to fight it out. Recollect, that this was not the sentiment of a vagabond population, but
of the farmers, whose fields were left uncultivated, and families
destitute, while they risked their lives for their national independence.
Nor were these sacrifices, all : let us consider the privations endured. Men were suddenly summoned from their firesides, homely
but plentiful, to encounter a campaign, imperfectly armed, insufficiently clad, uncertainly fed. And yet no complaints were heard
—they suffered and fought on.
But the knowledge of their distress pervaded the community and
touched every heart. First, the people of York originated a subscription, and the young ladies devoted themselves to the work of
preparing flannels for the men. In December 1812, rose the " Loyal
and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada ;" Thomas Scott, Chief
Justice, President, and John Strachan, William Campbell, John
Small, William Chewitt, J. B. Robinson, William Allan, Grant
Powell, and Abel Wood, as Directors. The object of this Society
was provide comforts for the men, support for destitute families,
succour for the wounded, compensation to the plundered, and
assistance to all who required and deserved it. The appeal of this
Society met with an instant and generous response. In London,
under the auspices of the Duke of Kent, was subscribed at once
£5,000 ; in Jamaica, £1,419 ; in Nova Scotia, £2,500 ; in
Montreal, £3,130 ; in Quebec, £1,500 ; in York, £1,868 ; in
Kingston and Eastern Districts, £800. In other places both within
and without the Province other large sums; amounting altogether to
£14 or £15,000. These moneys were employed very judiciously,
to the relief of great distress, leaving at the close of the war a con-

N

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CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

siderable balance in the hands of the Treasurer, but, at the time,
this generous appreciation of their efforts had a grand effect. It
sank deep into the hearts of the people of Canada. Inspired by the
sympathy and enthusiastic support of their fellow-subjects in all
parts of the world, the loyal men of Canada rallied to the flag of
their native land—in utrdque fortund parati with the sentiment
in their hearts which they have handed down to their children,
—

expressed in Praed's Charade—
Fight as your fathers fought,
Fall as your fathers fell :
Thy task is taught—thy shroud is wroughtSo—forward, and farewell.

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CHAPTER VI.
Naval occurrences of the war. Supremacy of England on the ocean. Indifference to
foreign progress. American frigates—Unrivalled in construction—Speed—Equipment
—Power. Naval duels. The Constitution and Guerriere. The Frolic and Wasp. The
United States and Macedonian. The Java and Constitution. Effect of these contests.
Exultation of Europe. England nerved and steeled. The Hornet and Peacock.
Counter-stroke. Shannon and Chesapeake. Moral effect. The balance redressed.
Gallantry on both sides. Effect of these events on the war in Canada.

Not to interrupt, as far as could be avoided, the thread of the
preceding narrative, no mention has been made of those remarkable
naval duels which imparted so much of a bold and startling interest to the American contest, so called, of 1812. The first of
these occurrences, which took place towards the end of that year,
electrified and dazzled America, and blinded the popular vision to the
reverses which had been encountered in Canada, while a series of
well fought engagements, resulting, in rapid succession, to the disadvantage of Great Britain, signalized the opening of the year 1813.
Up to this period of time, England had held dominion of the seas.
The oceans of the globe owned her sway. The Spaniard and the
Frenchman, the Dutchman and the Dane, had confessed her prowess.
From Cadiz to Copenhagen, from Gibraltar to the Nile, she ruled
the main. It was with astonishment, not unmixed with glee, that
those who had suffered discomfiture, now witnessed her disaster.
The haughty lioness had been bearded in her den, by her own seacubs, who proved themselves, in deadly conflict, to be not unworthy
of their origin.
In 1812 Great Britain had one thousand pennants afloat. At