Title

Chapter 10

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=298166

page

114-125

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

114

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

on Lake Ontario. Safe of access, secure in its anchorage, and protected from every wind, it was at the same time exposed to this
drawback in a state of warfare — it was open to the fire of both
shores, and was, therefore, useless to either party. The river is
at this point about 800 yards wide. On the eastern shore, where
it joins the lake, stands Fort Niagara. Fort George and its dependency, the town of Newark, stood on the western bank of the
river, somewhat withdrawn from the lake shore. Fort Niagara
commanded the entrance to the river ; Fort George dominated the
harbor, and made it untenable by an enemy. 4..AkuLlio04,
But the town of Newark, on the British side of the river, lay
under the guns of Fort Niagara, opposite ; and though Fort
George, in the event of an attack, might retaliate and punish
aggression, it could, in no way, protect the town. The course of
human events had reversed all human relations; and Fort Niagara,
which, from its foundation, had been to the town a fostering friend
and defender, had, by the provisions of treaties and the fate of
war, been converted into a shape of fear and a standing menace.
The traditions of the spot are as interesting as the site is beautiful. The scene is at once historic and picturesque. Within sound
of the roar of Niagara ; within sight of Queenston Heights ;
surrounded by a country of unrivalled fertility; a tessellated parterre of fruit, flowers, and foliage ; where the grape, and the peach,
and the apple and pear flourish side by side ; in a climate soft and
genial ; under skies as blue as those of Italy, and bathed in an
atmosphere more pure and translucent. Here, on the banks of a
river exulting and abounding, whose winding-way, like that of the
High Street at Oxford, is its main feature of beauty, and just
where its waters blend with the aqua marine of Ontario, rise now
the ramparts of Niagara and the venerable ruins of Fort George,
the Sestos and Abydos of that Golden Horn.
The scene is worthy, at once, of the pencil of Claude and of the

FORT NIAGARA—LA SALLE—BARON DE LONGUEUIL.

115

pen of Froissart, for it teems with memories of the deeds of adventurous men. Here, in 1678, the heroic La Salle, built his first
fort ; a few miles further on, above the cataract, on Navy Island,
opposite to the mouth of Chippeway Creek, he built his first ship.
Men yet living recollect to have seen, in early youth, on this, then,
well-wooded island, the charred remains of burnt ships and other
relics of his extemporaneous dockyard. From hence, in 1679, he
launched his first bark of European structure, on the unknown
water, of the upper lakes. He named her the Griffon, armed her
with seven guns, and with his friend Tonti, and the celebrated
Recollet, Pere Hennepin, dared the watery' wilderneis'of Erie,

threaded the mazes of the Detroit, gave a ;lame to lake St. Clair,
penetrated into lake Huron, visited Michilimacinac, explored Michigan, and closed his great career by discovering the Mississippi
and founding Louisiana.
The trading post at the mouth of the Niagara, erected by
Robert Cavalier de La Salle, was burnt a few years afterwards ;
and, in 1687, was re-established by the Marquis de Denonville,
Governor General of Canada, in a more permanent form, on the
site of the present Fort Niagara. Denonville describes the locality
as " the most beautiful—the most pleasing—the most advantageous site that is on the whole of this lake."
,i•
But the establishment of a French fortress upon the English
side of the river Niagara, aroused at once the jealousy and the
indignation of the Provincials ; and Colonel Dongan, the English
Governor of the province of New York, remonstrated strongly
against the building of a French fort at " Ohniagro ; " and in
1687 he solicited from the board of trade of the province of New
York, an order to build a " campagne fort at Ohniagro."
The works, established by Denonville, were abandoned in 1688,

and so remained until 1725, when the Baron de Longueuil* Com• This Baron de Longueuil must have been the second of the name. He had

116

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.
SIEGE OF 1769—DEATH OF PRIDEADX.

menced a stone cavalier,,und completed it in the next year.
Chaussegros, the French engineer employed, represents that the
work was erected on the spot where an ancient fort had been built
by order of Denonville.
With the fall of French dominion on this continent, came the
fall of Fort Niagara. It had been by degrees enlarged and
strengthened, and in 1759 was held for the French King, by M.
Pouchot, who had under his command some 500 men. It was

served from his youth in the French armies, and died Governor of Montreal.
The third Baron de Longueuil, Charles Jacques Le Moyne, was born atlthe
Chateau de Longueuil, 26th Jan., 1724. He commanded the French troops at
the battle of Monongahela, 9th July, 1755; He was made Chevalier de St.
Montreal. The Marquis de Vaudreuil relates in a
Louis, and Governor of
despatch dated 8th September, 1755, that this distinguished officer, serving under
Baron Dieskau, had disappeared in a skirmish on the shores of Lake George,
-

and was believed to have fallen a victim to Indian treachery, if not to Indian
cruelty. He was then 31 years of age. He left an only daughter to whom the
tarony descended, and who as Baroness de Longueuil married Captain Grant
of the 94th Regt. at Quebec, 7th May, 1781. This noble and exemplary lady, who
was the embodiment of all the graceful and generous and chivalrous qualities
so much prized by the French Canadians, died in 1842 at the advanced age of
85 years, an object of universal respect, as she was to the last, the object of
universal love. Her son, the Hon. Charles Grant, M.L.C., succeeded to the
Barony and title. He had married Caroline; the eldest daughter of the late
General John Coffin of Alwington Manor, New Brunswick, and niece to the
late Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart: This lady still lives with her brother,
Admiral John Townsend Coffin, in Bath, Somerset, England. The late Baron,
who died in 1848, was succeeded by his son, the present Baron de Longueuil, who
resides on the Continent of Europe. The House of Longueuil is connected by
marriage with the Baby, De Beaujeu, Le Moyne, de Montenach, de Lanaudiére;
de Gaspe, de' la Gorgendiêre, d'Eschambault, and' several other or the old
.

-

families in Canada.
And of these old families it is one of the oldest and of the most honourable.
Le Moyne is the patronymic of the maison de Longueuil. They are of Norman

117

besieged by Brigadier- General Prkleaux, at the head of 8200 men
and 600 Indians. IThe place was regularly invested, parallels
opened, and batteries established. LOU the 20th July,' General
Prideaux was killed by the -bursting of a cohorn ; and the command devolved on Sir 'William Johnston, of Mohawk celebrity.
On the 24th July, an attempt was made to relieve Pouchot, by a
French and Indian force from lake Erie. The besiegers obtained
intelligence of the advance, and encountered it by an ambuscade

extraction, descended originally from a,Count of Salagne en Biscaye, who took
part in 1428 with Charles VII. and Joan d'Arc, la Pucelle d'Orleans, against
the English. This Count de Salagne married Margaret de la Tremouille,
daughter of the Count des Guines who was also Grand Chambellan de France,
one of the oldest families of the kingdom. [Taken from a " Chapter on Canadian Nobility" in Maple Leaves, an interesting contribution to Canadian Literature, by .1.41. Lemoizte, Quebec.]
The Barony;de Longueuil in Canada was a creation of the Grand Monarque.
Louis XIV, by royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Versailles, 27th January,
1700, erected the Seignory of Longueuil into a Barony, and rarely indeed have
distinctions been conferred for more distinguished services. In those days it
was the practice ,0
on the face of a patent of honour the honourable
exploits of whioh it was the recompense. The same practice now enhances
-

:

the value of the Victoria Cross. This document, which is recorded in the
,Register of proceedings of the Superior Council of Quebec, recapitulates, first,
The services rendered to us by Charles Le Moyne, Esquire, Seignior of
Longueuil, who left France in 1640 to reside in Canada, where his valour and
fidelity were so often conspicuous in 'the. war against the Iroquois, that our
Governor and Lieutenant Governors in that country employed him, constantly,
in every military expedition, and in every negotiation and treaty of peace, of
all which duties he acquitted himself to their entire satisfaction ; also the
services of his eldest son, Charles Le Moyne delongueuil, who had borne arms
from his youth in the Regiment de St. Laurent, and as: a Captain of a naval
.

detachment in Canada since 1687, who had an arm shot off by the Iroquois in

a

combat at Lachine, wherein seven of his brothers were also engaged—further-Wore of the services of Jacquesliolloyne de. Ste. Helene, another son, Captain

119

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

FAMILY OF LONGURUIL—LE MOYNE D'IBERVILLE.

on the side of Lewiston, under the command of Captain James de
Lancey. The French were surprised, deserted by their Indian
allies, and defeated. Pouchot was informed of the extent of the
disaster by Sir William Johnston, and was offered most honourable
terms, which he accepted, after a defence which entitled him to all
that was offered. Thus on the 25th July, 1759, Fort Niagara fell
into the hands of the English.
The fort remained in British possession up to the year 1783,

when it was surrendered to the Americans, though not practically
abandoned until 1796, under Jay's treaty. During the period of
French possession, a village, in connection with the fort, had grown
up on the western side of the river, being French territory, and,
therefore, more safe. The fort was looked upon as an outpost more
likely to occupy the attention of regular assailants, and deter plunderers ; and the village, secure in its insignificance, reposed under

118

its wing.
•

'

3t

in the Marine, who was killed in defending Quebec against Phipps in 1690—

self as a Chevalier de St. Louis, and Commander General of the Province of

also of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, another son, Captain of a sloop of war,

Louisiana. He states in it, that of eleven brothers only four were then surviving.

who captured Fort Corland in Hudson's Bay, and still commands a frigate.

Baron de Longueuil—himself Bienville—Sevigny, and Chateauguay, and that

Also, of another, Joseph be Moyne de Bienville who was killed by the Iroquois

they had all received the cross of knights of St. Louis. These details were

in an attack on Repentigny ; also of Louis Le Moyne de Chateauguay, who fell

collected in Paris by — Falconer, Esquire, son of the late Dr. Falconer, of

in the taking of Fort Bourbon in Hudson's Bay ; also the services of Paul Le

the Circus, Bath, and brother in law to William Roebuck, Esquire, M. P. for

Moyne de Marricourt, an Ensign in the navy and Captain of a Company in the

Sheffield, England.

naval detachment of marines in service on shore. That for these and other

But the most distinguished of this band of brothers—the one whose name

considerations, equally creditable, but too lengthy to enumerate here, the

will live while the Father of Rivers continues to flow to the sea, was the dis-

most Christian king elevates the Seigniory of Longueuil to the rank, name, title,

coverer of the Mississippi. La Salle, as is stated in the text, ascended the lakes

and dignity of a Barony, in favour of the said Charles be Moyne, his children,

and descended the Mississippi, and was therefore justly entitled to claim the

heirs and descendants. Rarely indeed, on the wider fields of Christendom,

first discovery of the prodigious territory watered by that majestic river and

have there been arrayed worthier titles to knightly distinction.

its affluents ; but the first person of European origin who entered the Mississippi

Long as is the list of those meritorious men contained in this Royal docu-

from the sea—was the born Canadian, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. He was an

ment, it does not enumerate them all nor their services. Charles Le Moyne,

officer of the French marine. He had seen much hard and fierce service in

" who left France in 1640" the leader in the above Letters Patent named, was

Canada and Hudson's Bay. He was made Captain of a frigate in 1692. He

the father of eleven sons. It will be observed that each is distinguished by

visited France in 1695. He left it with three vessels. Entered and ascended

the name of the fief or other property with which he had been invested. Six
are named in the acte of 1700. Besides these, two brothers, Joseph be Moyne

the Mississippi nearly one hundred leagues, established a garrison and returned

de Sevigny and Gabriel Le Moyne d' Assigny, both died in the King's service.

quently made two successful voyages to the same coast ; left settlements, and

to France in 1699. He was decorated with the Croix de St. Louis. He subse-

Antoine Le Moyne died young. Antqine be Moyne de Chateauguay succeeded

in 1720 was promoted to the rank of "Capitaine de vaisseau." In 1706, he was

Louis be Moyne de Chateauguay who was killed in 1694. Jean Baptiste

again despatched to the Mississippi charged with an important command. He

Le Moyne de Bienville succeeded to the Le Moyne de Bienville who was killed

died on his way, at the Havanah, 9th July, 1706. He was born at Montreal.

defending a burning house against the Iroquois.

What Burckhardt and Speke and Grant have done for the Nile—La Salle did for

In a memorial from Jean Baptiste be Moyne de Bienville to the king, dated

the Mississippi, but the mouth and the mysterious delta of the river, and the

New Orleans, Jan. 25, 1723, after setting forth his services, he describes him-

site of the present great city of New Orleans, were discovered by a Canadian,
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.

" ,.CHRONICLE-.,OF THE WAR.

:120

GOVERNOR SIMCOE-n-RIS CAREER.

the French fort became an American out.work,the,.whole aspect of atefrontier:changed. The fortress, which
had afforded protection, *ape a coign of vantage and exposure.
The artillery, which lad provided defence, ,menaced..destruction.
i

i

f

:

In ...the interim, in 17910vas passed the act 31,
divided ,, Qa1;tada into two ,provinces,. and ,conferred a constitution
the judicious . administration of Governor
..which was ,confided
Simcoe. This officer found the military head-quarters of his government at Fort Niagara, and established his miniature capital in
the transfluvial town, to which he gave the name of Newark.
,Qro.yerppr Siplcoe,Nasa rgma*able man, and a becoming companion
„Unlike La Salle,
of the,42-4.matis,persong. of this
did not, in quest of
le was not the creature of his aspirations.
an Eldorado, or of the fountain of perpetual youth, discover a
vastterritory,,but in the steady practical spirit, in the spirit of the
Puritan Pilgrims, he founded in Upper Canada a great English
colony. ,He was .an Englishman ;by birth, had been educated at
Eton and Oxford, and animated by a passion for a military life, at
the age of 19 obtained an Ensigncy in the 35th Regiment. His
first essay in arms was in America. He was distinguished at once
forpilitary knowledge, activity„andonse. ,His earnestness and
Howe appointed
:Simcoe to the command-of the Queen's Rangers, a partisan corps
which performed conspicuous service during the war of the Revolution,
and was finally disbanded after the surrender of Cornwallis at YorkteWn,49th,O ct. 1782. He has left a. Journal, of the operations of
thiseorps,, well worthy of the iperusal of Ahelailitary student. In
the intervals of camp .life, in;;the leisure of winter quarters, Simcoe
had become a student himself, and had trained his mind to the discharge of great duties on a wider _field of usefulness. Colonel
„$iipq.pe 1 .e.tur.4ed to England. ,He had acquired reputation.
w40,elketeCt to :Pgliarnentiixapo. He-, toppli 44..active part in -the
:

;

;

,

.

,

.

2

121

debates on the Bill which divided the Province of Quebec and gave
a Constitution to Upper Canada. He was appointed the first
Lieut.-Governor under that Constitution. He devoted himself to
the judicious settlement of the colony. The present site of London was selected originally by him as the site of the capital of
Upper Canada. But, at that early, period, it was inaccessible—
York received, and retains the honour. Simcoe devoted himself
to surveying the country, improving and peopling it. He invited
the Loyalists from the United -States, and he attracted settlers,
military and others, by a prompt allotment of lands, and a just rule.
He planted the British Constitution in a virgin soil, put it upon
trial, in a fair field without favour, and appealed to results ; and
a trial of seventy years has justified his faith in the success of the
experiment. Heleft behind him, through the land, the marks of
his foot4teps--veatigia nulla retrorsum. In .1794 he was ordered
to St. Domingo. Thence to England, where in 1801 Ile was employed in the western counties in organizing resistance against
expected invasion. He was then a Lieut.-General. In 1806 he
was sent to Portugal—was taken ill on the voyage, and returned
to England to die in the meridian of life, aged 54. Had he lived
he might have shared in the immortality of Wellington. His
energy and talent, and experience were full of promise. He died
unconscious of the fact, that before he reached his native shore,
he had been appointed to succeed Lord Lake in the chief military
command in India.
His residence was in a -log building, - of some pretensions among
log dwellings, situate on the Canadian side of the river, in the town
of Newark, and known as Navy Hall. His council sat in a wooden
shed, and the council-chamber mas, inthose primitive and peaceful
days, used by Catholics and Protestants alternately, as a place
worship—the lion laid down with the lamb in patriarchial quietude.
The first parliament of Canada assembled in 1792 17th Sept.
:

122

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

in a marquee-tent--one remove in the scale of ascending civilization from the aboriginal council-lodge. In 1793 Governor Simcoe
entertained, at Newark, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent,
the father of our beloved Queen. It is recorded, that if the lodging was indifferent, the fare was good. It is related in contemporary
memoranda that the guests were feasted " with game, and all the
dainties the season and the wilderness could produce, such as
white-fish, trout, wild-fowl, roast beef, ale, old port, and Madeira,
of better quality," adds the narrator, in the true spirit of the
laudator temporis aeti, " than can be got in the present year of
grace, 1862."*
His Royal Highness had been conveyed to Niagara in the King's
schooner, Mohawk, commanded by Commodore Bouchette, the grandfather of the present Commissioner of Customs. On landing,
" as soon as horses with saddles and bridles could be mustered,"
the royal party wended their way by the river road, recently opened
by the troops : the portage road, frequented by traffic, had previously been restricted to the eastern, or American, bank of the river
Niagara. The road to the cataract was an Indian path through
the woods ; and an Indian ladder, which consists of a succession of
pine trees, with the branches lopped short as a foot-hold, led down
for 160 feet, to the foot of the Fall. Down this hazardous descent,
in despite of all expostulation, His Royal Highness resolved to
venture, and, with the nerve and physical strength of his race,
accomplished it successfully—returned with a capital appetite, and
in -a log but on the quivering brink of the abyss, " ate what the
house afforded, and enjoyed himself exceedingly."
It is interesting to contrast this royal reception in the back bush,
with the reception of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in

DUKE OF KENT, 1798—PRINCE OF WALES, 1860.

123

the same locality, seventy years afterwards. The endurance of
the grandson was not exposed to trials such as these ; and those
trials which civilization imposes upon princes, were encountered
with a genial grace which reminded the present generation of the
traditionary kindliness of the grandsire. And yet it may be doubted
if the Prince of Wales enjoyed the crowd, and the crush, and the
congratulations, and the cheers, which rose above the roar of the
cataract, with half the zest, with which the Duke of Kent, with the
flush of exhilarating exercise on his cheek, and the perfume of the
pine branches on his hands and garments, partook of the rude cheer
of the forest, in the door-way of a shanty, in full front of the Falls
of Niagara — the sole monarch of all he surveyed — within sight
and sound of the grandest spectacle that ever greeted royal eye.

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* Memoranda of Colonel John Clark, of St. Catherines.
t Mem. Col. John Clark.

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DEFENCES' OP NIAGARA—ATTACKING FORCE.

125

of earth — monuments of an expenditure' of life and treasure,
without result and almost without object.
The uselessness of the fort, in a military point of view, and the
lamentable expense and loss entailed by its occupation, were Mem6rably shown: on the occasion of the hostile descent now tO
related. The whole British force quartered
Fort George and=
cantoned in Newark, on the 27th May, 1813, amounted to 134G
men, with eight field guns, under the command of General Vincent=
Four twenty-four-pounders;-captured from Hull, had been brought
from Detroit; and were mounted on the bastions of Fort George ;"
a fifth was planted en barbette, in a redoubt, lying between Newark'
and the lake:shore. Fort George afforded some defence against:
an enemy descending the river Niagara, in the rear, but-the town
obstructed fire upon an assailant approaching from the lake shore:It is evident that if an enemy, superior in number, had thrown a;
force across the river above the town and Fort George, instructed''
to form a junction with troops to disembark at One-mile Creek",Newark and its defenders would have been cut off, and enelbse&
within a narrow triangle — the river on one side, the lake shore-obi
the other, and the enemy's line the base. It would thus hate"'
been invested by 6,000 * good troops in front; and exposed to they
fire from Fort Niagara in the rear. That this manceuvre had
'

CHAPTER XI.

.

Seat of. Government removed from Newark to York. Fort George still Military lieadQuarters. American attack on Fort George and Newark. General Vincent in command. American forces. British strength. American force on landing. British
retire. Fort George falls. Vincent occupies Beaver Dam. Description.

In 1796 all the forts on the frontier of the United States,—La
Presentation, or Ogdensburg, called also Oswegatchie ; Oswego ;
Niagara ; Fort Miami, were finally transferred in accordance with
Jay's treaty, to the American authorities. At Niagara the change
produced much inconvenience. In the short space during which
Newark had possessed the advantages and the honours of the capital,
it had increased commercially. It had grown under the fostering
influence of centralization ; but it would have been improvident
and unsafe to have left the government and the archives of the
legislature exposed to unpleasant alternatives, and Governor Simcoe, with prompt prudence, removed the seat of government to
Toronto, which in honour of a royal Duke, he had named York.
Newark, however, still retained much of its former importance.
It continued to be the head quarter of the troops ; and the
bastions and curtains of Fort George gradually rose up in grim
rivalry to the more regular and substantial fort on the other side
of the river. Fort Niagara still retains the strong development
and regular aspect imparted to it by scientific French engineers,
before the conquest of Canada. It is now a large, well-constructed
work, faced with stone, ditched and palisaded, fit at any time for
military occupation and service. The defences of Fort George
have, long since, dissolved into huge, unmeaning, inoffensive mounds

,

,

been contemplated is to be inferred fronf the fact that a flotilla of
boats had been assembled at the Five-mile Meadows, about two
miles below Lewiston.- It was also a pet project with the American Secretary of State for wart
itrii it 12413
,

• Ingersoll.
If
t
instead of concentrating- his whole forces, naval and military, on the
water side of the enemy's defences, he had divided the attack; and, crossing the Niagara below Lewiston, had advanced on Fort George by the Queenstown
road, the investment of that place would have been complete, and a retreat of

the Orrison impracticable.—Jirmstrong.