Title

Chapter 1

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=297984

page

1-25

Bibliographic Citation

Recollections of the War of 1812 / William Dunlop.

10168363

Recollections of the War of 1812 / William Dunlop.

Type

Text

extracted text

Recollections
of the

War of 1812
By

DR. WM. DUNLOP
With a Biographical Sketch of the Author by
A. H. U. Colquhoun, LL D
Deputy Minigter of Education, Ontario

SECOND EDITION

00-

1

U. E. 1,
SERIES y
NO. 3

1Y,

-LX'

WILLIAM DUNLOP. M.D.
From original paintiny in the possession 01 Mrs. Thos. MeGaw.

TORONTO :

HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO.
1908.
Si

i

t

I

2
I
I

4

Sketch of

Dr. William Dunlop
Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in
the year nineteen hundred and eight, by the Historical Publishing
Co., at the Department of Agriculture.

PilAGAttA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRAR)

APP 1A fon?
TORONTO:
THE BRYANT PRESS, LIMITED

This reprint of an entertaining little narrative of personal experiences in the War of
1812-14 may be appropriately prefaced by a
short account of the author. Few of the
pioneers of Upper Cnada had careers as
varied and interesting as that of Dr. William Dunlop, and none possessed a personality quite so striking and original as his.
On the Saltfort road s near Goderich, Canada, there is a cairn marking the burial
place of two notable worthies of the Huron
Tract, and upon it is the following inscription:

52 177

viii.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Here lies the body of
ROBERT GRAHAM DUNLOP, ESQ.
Commander Royal Navy, M.P.P.
Who after serving his King and country in
every quarter of the globe, dies at Gairbraid, on the 28th Feby., 1841, in
the 51 year of his age.
Also to the memory of
DR. WILLIAM DUNLOP,
a man of surpassing talent, knowledge,
and benevolence, born in Scotland
in 1792.
He served in the army in Canada and in India
and thereafter distinguished himself
as an author and man of
letters.
He settled in ,Canada permanently in 1825 and
for more than 20 years was actively
engaged in public and philanthropic affairs.
Succeeding his brother, Capt. Dunlop, as Member of the Provincial Parliament and
taking successful interest in
the welfare of Canada,
and died lamented
by many
friends
1848.

lik

•

1X.

The elder of these two brothers, William
Dunlop, was born' at Greenock, Scotland, in
1792, and became, when a stripling of scarce
21 years of age, a surgeon in the famous
88th, or, Connaught Rangers. Being ordered
to Canada, where the war with the United
States was in progress, he made his way to
the fighting line in the Niagara Peninsula, and there, serving first as surgeon and afterwards as a combatant, he gave indubitable
proofs of courage and capacity. When the
"appalling intelligence" of the peace concluded by the Treaty of Ghent reached him,
Dunlop embarked with his regiment for
England, just missing by a few days a share
in the glorious action of Waterloo, and was
ordered to India. While there his restless
activity occupied itself with his medical and
military duties, with the congenial task of
editing a newspaper, and with numerous
tiger hunts. So successful was he as a slayer of tigers that he earned the name of
"Tiger" Dunlop, and in his later Canadian
days was familiarly known as "The Tiger."
An attack of jungle fever drove him back to
England on half-pay, and settling in London
he lived for a few years what has been call-

Xi.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

ed a most miscellaneous life. He wrote articles for the magazines. He edited for a
time a newspaper called the "British Press,"
until he quarrelled with the publisher for
dismissing contemptuously a political upheaval in France in the following brief
"leader": 14' We perceive that there is a
change of ministry in France;—we have
\.
heard of no earthquakes in consequence!"
He edited a work on medical jurisprudence.
He started a Sunday newspaper for AngloIndians called "The Telescope," the history
of which, declared one of his friends, was a
comedy of the drollest kind. He founded a
club,—being of convivial tastes and a prince
of boon companions,—called The Pig
and Whistle. Finally,—and this doubtless led to his returning to Canada,—
he became interested, as secretary, or,
director, in some industrial concerns,
notably a salt works in Cheshire. In
London he made the acquaintance of Mr.
John Galt, and accompanied him to Canada in 1826. He received from the Canada
Company the appointment of Warden of the
Forests, and for twenty years was a leading figure in what we now call Western On-

tario. If one wishes to know "The Tiger" in
this period, he must be sought in the charming pages of the Misses Lizars' book "In the
Days of the Canada Company." There, his
rollicking humour, his broad sympathies,
his eccentric jests are excellently depicted.
Dunlop represented Huron in Parliament,
where he was a veritable "enfant terrible,"
speaking his mind in his slap dash way and
frequently convulsing the House with merriment. The story of his tossing the coin
with his brother to settle which of them
should marry Lou McColl, the Highland
housekeeper and devoted friend, and the
terms of his extraordinary will and testament,—one clause of which (typical of all)
leaves some property to a sister "because
she is married to a minister whom (God
help him) she henpecks" ,—are famous. Dunlop's literary talents were considerable. He
wearied of writing as he did of most things
that demanded continuous application. But
he had an easy style, much shrewd wit, and
undoubted ability. These qualities he displayed in his magazine articles, in his book
"The Backwoodsman," and in the "Recollections," which are here reprinted from

X.

4

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

"The Literary Garland," the Montreal periodical of half a century or more ago. They
were penned long after the events concerned
had occurred and it may be supposed that
he fell into some errors of fact. But as a
picture of the manner in which this haphazard war was conducted it is singularly
vivid and impressive. The unearthing of
manuscripts and official documents about
this war will not throw into dearer relief
than the following pages do, the desperate circumstances under which a mere
handful of French Canadian and Loyalist
colonists emerged from their primitive
villages and log cabins and with Spartan
courage and hardihood drove back the invader again and again and captured large
areas of his territory. There are several
readable sketches of these campaigns, but
none with the freshness and spirit of Dunlop's. In this lies its value and the justification for preserving it. Dunlop retired from
Parliament in 1846, and was appointed Superintendent of the Lachine Canal. He died
in the village of Lachine in the Autumn of
1848, and his body was conveyed to its
resting place at Goderich.
A. H. U. Colquhoun.

I NTRODUCTION
The favourable reception of a small work on
this colony has emboldened me again to come before the public in the character of an author, and
as it is fifteen years since I last obtruded myself
in that capacity, I have at least to boast of the
merit assumed to himself by the sailor in his
prayer, during a hurricane, "Thou knowest it is
seldom that I trouble thee," and I may hope on
the same grounds to be listened to.
It is now upwards of thirty-three years since I
became acquainted with this country, of which
I was eleven years absent. During that time I
visited the other quarters of the globe. My design in this work is to shew the almost incredible improvement that has taken place during
that period. Notwithstanding all that has been
written by tourists, &c., very little indeed is
known of the value and capabilities of Canada,
as a colony, by the people of Great Britain.
I have not arrived at anything like methodical
arrangement further than stating in their chronological order, events and scenes of which I was
a witness, with occasional anecdotes of parties
therein concerned, so that those who do not approve of such a desultory mode of composition,
need not, after this fore-warning, read any further.

INTRODUCTION

My intention, in fact, is not exclusively either to
instruct or amuse, but, if I possibly can accomplish it, to do a little of both. I wish to give an
account of the effect of the changes that have
taken place in my day in the colony, on my own
feelings, rather than to enter into any philosophical enquiry into their causes ; and if in this
attempt I should sometimes degenerate into
what my late lamented friend, the Ettrick Shepherd, would have denominated havers, I hope you
will remember that this is an infirmity to which
even Homer (see Horace,) is liable ; and if, like
hereditary disease, it is a proof of paternity,
every author in verse or prose who has written
since his day, has ample grounds whereon to
found its pretensions to a most ancient and honourable descent.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE
AMERICAN WAR
CHAPTER I.
" My native land, good night."—Byron.

The end of March or the beginning of April,
1813, found me at the Army Depot in the Isle of
Wight. Sir Walter Scott in his Surgeon's Daughter, says that no one who has ever visited that
delightful spot can ever forget it, and I fully
agree with him, but though perfectly susceptible
of the impressions which its numberless beauties
leave on the mind, I must confess that the view
of a fleet of transports rounding St. Helens to
take us to our destination, would have been considered by myself and my comrades, as a pleasanter prospect than all Hampshire could offer to
our admiration.
I shall not stay to describe the state of military society in those days at the Army DepOt at
Parkhurst barracks and the neighbouring town of
Newport. It has been much better done than I
could expect to do, by Major Spencer Muggridge,
in Blackwood's Magazine ; all I can do as a subaltern, is fully to endorse the field officer's statement, and to declare that it is a just, graphic and
by no means over-charged description.

4

RECOLLECTIONS OF

I went once, and only once, to the Garrison
Mess, in company with two or three officers of
my acquaintance, and saw among other novelties
of a mess table, one officer shy a leg of mutton
at another's head, from one end of the table to
the other. This we took as notice to quit ; so we
made our retreat in good order, and never again
returned, or associated with a set of gentlemen
who had such a vivacious mode of expressing a
difference of opinion.
The fact is, all the worse characters in the
army were congregated at the Isle of Wight ;
men who were afraid to join their regiments
from the indifferent estimation they were held in
by their brother officers. These stuck to the
depot, and the arrival of a fleet of transports at
Spithead or the Mother-bank, was a signal for a
general sickness among these worthies. And
this was peculiayly the case with those who were
bound for Canada, for they knew full well if they
could shirk past the month of August, there was
no chance of a call on their services until the
month of April following. And many scamps
took advantage of this. I know one fellow who
managed to avoid joining his regiment abroad for
no less than three years.
I took my departure from this military paradise for the first time, for this country, in the
beginning of August, 1813, in a small, ill-found{,
undermanned, over-crowded transport, as transports in those days were very apt to be ; and
after a long, weary, and tempestuous voyage of
three months, was landed at Quebec in the begin-

THE AMERICAN WAR

5

ring of the following November. Next to the
tedium of a sea voyage, nothing on earth can be
so tiresome as a description of it ; the very incidents which a Journal of such a pilgrimage commemorates shew the dreadful state of vacuum
and ennui which must have existed in the mind of
the patient before such trifles could become of
interest sufficient to be thought worthy of notation. A sail in sight,—a bunch of sea-weed
floating past the ship,—a log of wood covered
with barnacles,—or, better still, one of the numerous tribe of Medusa, with its snake-like feelers
and changeable colours—a gull, or a flock of
Mother Carey's chickens, paddling in the wake,—
are occurrences of sufficient importance to call
upon deck all the passengers, even during dinner.
Or if they are happy enough to fall in with a
shoal of porpoises or dolphins, a flock of flying
fish, or a whale blowing and spouting near the
ship, such a wonder is quite sufficient to furnish
conversation for the happy beholders for the rest
of the voyage. For my own part, being familiar
with, and also seasoned to, all the wonders of
the deep, I make a vow whenever I go on board,
that nothing inferior in rank and dignity to a
sea-serpent shall ever induce me to mount the
companion ladder. On the whole, though it cannot be considered as a very choice bit of reading,
I look upon the log-book as by far the best account of a voyage, for it accurately states all
that is worthy of note in the fewest possible
words. It is the very model of the terse didactic.
Who can fail to admire the Caesar-like brevity in

6

RECOLLECTIONS OF

an American captain's log : "At noon, light
breezes and cloudy weather, wind W.S.W., fell in
with a phenomenon—caught a bucket full of it."
Under all these circumstances, I think it is highly probable that my readers will readily pardon
me for not giving my experience on this subject.
I met with no seas "mountains high," as many
who have gone down unto the sea in ships have
done. Indeed, though I have encountered gales
of wind in all the favorite playgrounds of Oeolus
—the Bay of Biscay—off the Cape of Good Hope
—in the Bay of Bengal—the coast of America,
and the Gulph of St. Lawrence, yet I never saw
a wave high enough to becalm the main-top sail.
So that I must suppose that the original inventor of the phrase was a Cockney, who must have
had Garlic hill or Snow hill, or some of the
other mountainous regions of the metropolis in
his mind's eye when he coined it.
Arrived at Quebec, we reported ourselves, as in
duty bound, to the General Commanding, and by
his orders we left a subaltern to command the
recruits (most of whom, by the way, were mere
boys,) and to strengthen the Garrison of Quebec,
and the venerable–old colonel and myself made
all haste to join our regiment up the country. As
my worthy old commander was a character,
some account of him may not be uninteresting.
Donald McB —was born in the celebrated winter of 1745-46, while his father, an Invernesshire
gentleman, was out with Prince Charles Edward,
who, on the unfortunate issue of that campaign
for the Jacobite interest, was fain to flee to

THE AMERICAN WAR

7

France, where he joined his royal master, and
where, by the Prince's influence, he received a
commission in the Scotch Regiment of Guards,
and in due time retired with a small pension
from the French King, to the town of Dunkirk,
where with his family, he remained the rest of
his days.
Donald, meanwhile, was left with his kindred in
the Highlands, where he grew in all the stinted
quantity of grace that is to be found in that barren region, until his seventh year, when he was
sent to join his family in Dunkirk Here he was
educated, and as his father's military experience
had given him no great love for the profession of
arms, he was in due time bound apprentice to his
brother-in-law, an eminent surgeon of that town,
and might have become a curer instead of inflicter of broken heads, or at least murdered men
more scientifically than with the broadsword ;
but fate ordered it otherwise.
Donald had an objection as strong to the lancet
as his father could possibly have to the sword.
Had the matter been coolly canvassed, it is hard
to say which mode of murder would have obtained the preference, but, always hasty, he did not
go philosophically to work, and an accident decided his fate as it has done that of many greater men.
A young nun of great beauty, who had lately
taken the veil, had the misfortune to break her
leg, and Donald's master, being medical man to
the convent, he very reasonably hoped that he
would assist in the setting of it—attending upon

8

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THB AMERICAN WAR

handsome young nuns might reconcile a man even
to being a surgeon of—; but his brother-in-law
and the abbess both entered their veto. Piqued
at this disappointment, next morning saw him
on the tramp, and the next intelligence that was
heard of him was that he was serving His Most
Christian Majesty in the capacity of a Gentleman
Sentinel, (as the Baron of Bradwardine hath it,)
in a marching regiment.
This settled the point. His father, seeing that
his aversion to the healing art was insuperable,
procured a commission in the Regiment de Dillon
or Irish Brigade of the French Service.
In this he served for several years, until he had
got pretty well up among the lieutenants, and in
due time might have figured among the marshals
of Napoleon; but the American Revolution breaking out, and it being pretty apparent that France
and Great Britain must come into hostile collision, his father, though utterly abhorring the
reigning dynasty, could not bear the idea of a
son of his fighting against his country and clan,
persuaded him to resign his commission in the
French Service, and sent him to Scotland with
letters of recommendation to some of his kindred and friends, officers in the newly raised
Frazer Highlanders (eince the 71st,) whom he
joined in Greenock in the year 1776, and soon
after embarked with them for America in the
capacity of a gentleman volunteer, thus beginning
the world once more at the age of thirty.
After serving in this regiment till he obtained
his ensigncy, he was promoted to be lieutenant

and adjutant in the Cavalry of Tarlton's Legion,
in which he served and was several times wounded, till the end of the war, when he was disbanded with the rest of his regiment, and placed on
half pay. He exchanged into a regiment about
to embark for the West Indies, where in seven or
eight years, the yellow fever standing his friend
by cutting off many of his brother officers, while
it passed o‘ er him, he in progress of seniority,
tontined it up to nearly the head of the lieutenants ; the regiment was ordered home in 179o,
and after a short time, instead of his company,
he received his half-pay as a disbanded lieutenant.
He now, from motives of economy as well as
to be near his surviving relatives, retired to Dunkirk ; but the approaching revolution soon called him out again, and his promotion, which,
though like that of Dugald Dalgetty, it was
"dooms slow at first," did come at last. Now
after thirty-seven years' hard service in the British Army, (to say nothing of fourteen in the
French) in North America, the West Indies,
South America, the Cape of Good Hope, 'Java
and India, he found himself a Lieutenant-Colonel
of a second battalion serving in Canada. Such is
a brief memoir of my old commanding officer.
He was a warm-hearted, hot-tempered, jovial,
gentlemanly old veteran, who enjoyed the present and never repined at the past ; so it may
well be imagined that I was in high good luck
with such a compagnon de voyage.
Hearing that the American Army under General Wilkinson, was stout to make descent on

9

/0

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

Canada somewhere about the lower end of Lake
Ontario, we were determined to push on with all
possible speed.
The roads, however, were declared impracticable, and the only steamboat the Canadas then
rejoiced in, though now they must possess nearly
one hundred, had sailed that day, and was not
expected to return for nearly a week ; so it was
determined we should try our luck in one of the
wretched river craft which in those days enjoyed
the carrying trade between Quebec and Montreal.
Into the small cabin, therefore of one of these
schooners we stowed ourselves. Though the
winds were light, we managed to make some way
as long as we could take advantage of the floodtide, and lay by during the ebb ; but after this
our progress was slow indeed ; not entirely from
the want of a fair wind, but from the cursed dilatory habits of Frenchmen and their Canadian
descendants in all matters connected with business. At every village (and in Lower Canada
there is a village at every three leagues along the
banks of the St. Lawrence) our captain had or
made business—a cask of wine had to be delivered to " le digne Cure" at one place ; a box of
goods to " M. le Gentilhomme de Magasin" at
another ; the captain's "parents " lived within a
league, and he had not seen them for six weeks,
—so off he must go, and no prospect of seeing
him any more for that day. The cottage of the
cabin boy's mother unluckily lay on the bank of
the river, and we must lay to till madame came
off with confitures, cabbages and clean shirts for

his regalement ; then the embracing, and kissing,
and bowing, and taking off red night caps to
each other, and the telling the news and hearing
it, occupied ten times the space that the real
business (if any there was) could possibly require.
And all this was gone through on their part,- as
if it was the natural and necessary consequence
of a voyage up the River Saint Lawrence. Haste
seemed to them quite out of the question and it
is next to impossible to get into a passion and
swear at a Frenchman, as you would at a sulky
John Bull; or a saucy Yankee, under similar circumstances, for he is utterly unconscious all the
time that he is doing anything unworthy ; he is
so polite, complaisant and good humoured withal,
that it is next to impossible to get yourself seriously angry with him. On the fifth day of this
tedious voyage, when we had arrived within
about fifteen miles of Three Rivers, which is midway between the two cities, we perceived the
steamboat passing upwards close under the opposite shore, and we resolved to land, knowing
that it was her custom to stop there all night,
and proceed in the morning ; accordingly we did
so, and in a short time were seated in a caleche
following at all the speed the roads would admit
of—by dint of hard travelling, bribing and coaxing, we managed to get to Three Rivers by
moonlight, about one in the morning. So far so
good, thought we ; but unluckily the moonlight
that served us, served the steamboat also, and
she had proceeded on her voyage before we came
up. As we now, however, had got quite enough

I/

12

RECOLLECTIONS OP

of sailing, we determined to proceed by land to
Montreal.
The French, I suspect, have always been before
us in Colonial policy. An arbitrary government
can do things which a free one may not have the
nerve to attempt, particularly among a people
whose ignorance permits them to see only one
side of the question.
The system of land travelling in Lower Canada
was better, when we became master of it, than
it is now in any part of the North American
Continent. At every three leagues there was a
" Maison de Poste" kept by a functionary who received his license from government, and denominated a "Maitre de Poste." He was bound by his
engagement to find caleches and horses for all
travellers, and he made engagements with his
neighbors to furnish them when his were employed. These were called " Aides de Poste"; and
they received the pay when they performed the
duty, deducting a small commission for the
Maitre. They were bound to travel when the
roads admitted of it, at a rate not less than
seven miles an hour, and were not to exceed
quarter of an hour in changing horses ; and to
prevent imposition, in the parlour of each post
house, (which was also an inn,) was stuck up a
printed paper, giving the distance of each post
from the next, and the sum to be charged for
each horse and caleche employed, as well as other
regulations, with regard to the establishment,
which it was necessary for a traveller to know,
and any well substantiated charge against these

THE AMERICAN WAR

13

people was sure to call down summary punishment.
The roads not being, as already remarked, in
the. best order, we did not arrive at Montreal
till the end of the second day, when we were
congratulated by our more lucky companions
who had left Quebec in the steamboat three days
later, and arrived at Montreal two days before
us ; and we were tantalized by a description of
all the luxuries of that then little known conveyance, as contrasted with the fatigues and desagrêments of our mode of progression. For the
last fifty miles of our route there was not to be
seen throughout the country a single man fit to
carry arms occupied about his farm or workshop;
women, children, or men disabled by age or decrepitude were all that were to be met with.
The news had arrived that the long threatened
invasion had at last taken place, and every available man was hurrying to meet it. We came up
with several regiments of militia on their line of
march. They had all a serviceable effective appearance—had been pretty well drilled, and their
arms being direct from the tower, were in perfectly good order, nor had they the mobbish appearance that such a levy in any other country
would have had. Their capots and trowsers of
home-spun stuff, and their blue toques (night
caps) were all of the same cut and color, which
gave them an air of uniformity that added much
to their military look, for I have always remarked that a body of men's appearance in battalion,
depends much less on the fashion of their indi-

NIAGARA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRAR)
RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

vidual dress and appointments, than on the
whole being in strict uniformity.
They marched merrily along to the music of
their voyageur songs, and as they perceived our
uniform as we came up, they set up the Indian
War-whoop, followed by a shout of Vive le Roi
along the whole line. Such a body of men in
such a temper, and with so perfect a use of their
arms as all of them possessed, if posted on such
ground as would preclude the possibility of regular troops out-manoeuvering them, (and such positions are not hard to find in Canada,) must have
been rather a formidable body to have attacked.
Finding that the enemy were between us and our
regiment, proceeding to join would have been out
of the question. The Colonel therefore requested
that we might be attached to the militia on the
advance. The Commander-in-Chief finding that
the old gentleman had a perfect knowledge of the
French language, (not by any means so common
an accomplishment in the army in those days as
it is now,) gave him command of a large brigade
of militia, and, like other men who rise to greatness, his friends and followers shared his good
fortune, for a subaltern of our regiment who had
come out in another ship and joined us at Montreal, was appointed as his Brigade Major ; and I
was exalted to the dignity of Principal Medical
Officer to his command, and we proceeded to Lachine, the head-quarters of the advance, and
where it had been determined to make the stand,
in order to cover Montreal, the great commercial

emporium of the Canadas, and which, moreover,
was the avowed object of the American attack.
Our force here presented rather a motley appearance ; besides a small number of the line
consisting chiefly of detachments, there was a
considerable body of sailors and marines ; the
former made tolerable Artillery men, and the
latter had, I would say, even a more serviceable
appearance than an equal body of the line, average it throughout the army.
The fact is that during the war the marines
had the best recruits that entered the army. The
reason of this, as explained to me by an intelligent non-commissioned officer of that corps,
was, that whereas a soldier of the line, returning
on furlough to his native village, had barely
enough of money to pay his travelling expenses,
and support him while there, and even that with
a strict attention to economy, the marine, on the
other hand, on returning from a three years'
cruise, had all the surplus pay and prize money
of that period placed in his hands before he started, and this, with his pay going on at the same
tate as that of the soldier of the line, enabled
him to expend in a much more gentlemanly style
of profusion than the other.
The vulgar of all ranks are apt to form their
opinions of things rather from their results than
the causes of them, and hence they jump to the
conclusion that the marine service must be just
so much better than that of the line, as the one
has so much more money to spend on his return
home than the other. And hence, aspiring—or as

1

4

15

16

THE AMERICAN WAR

RECOLLECTIONS OF

our quarter master, Toni Sheridan, used to say
when recruiting sergeant, perspiring—young heroes, who resolve to gain a field marshal's baton
by commencing with a musket, preferred the amphibious path of the jolly to the exclusively terraqueous one of the flat-foot. Besides these and our
friends the country militia, there were two corps
formed of the gentlemen of Montreal, one of artillery and another of sharp-shooters. I think these
were in a perfect state of drill, and in their handsome new uniforms had a most imposing appearance, But if their discipline was commendable,
their commissariat was beyond all praise. Long
lines of carts were to be seen bearing in casks
and hampers of the choicest wines, to say nothing of the venison, turkeys, hams, and all other
esculents necessary to recruit their strength under
the fatigues of war. With them the Indian found
a profitable market for his game, and the fisherman for his fish. There can be little doubt that
a gourmand would greatly prefer the comfort of
dining with a mess of privates of these distinguished corps to the honour and glory of being
half starved (of which he ran no small risk) at
the table of the Governor General himself. Such
a force opposed to an equal number of regulars,
it may be said, was no very hopeful prospect for
defending a country. But there are many things
which, when taken into consideration, will show
that the balance was not so very much against
them as at first sight may appear, Men who are
fighting for their homes and friends, and almost
in sight of their wives and children, have an ad,

17

ditional incentive over those who fight for pay
and glory. Again, the enemy to attack them
had to land from a rapid, a thing which precludes
regularity under any circumstances, and they
would not be rendered more cool by a heavy fire
of artillery while they were yawning and whirling in the current. They must have landed in
confusion, and would be attacked before they
could form, and should they get over all this, there
was a plateau of land in the rear ascended by a
high steep bank, which, in tolerable hands, could
neither be carried nor turned. Add to all this,
that the American regulars, if equal, were not
superior to our troops in drill and discipline, the
great majority of them having been enlisted for
a period too short to form a soldier, under the
most favorable circumstances. And much even
of that short time had been consumed in
long and harassing marches through an_unsettled
country that could not supply the commissariat,
and exposed to fatigue and privation that was
rapidly spreading disease among them ; dispirited
too by recent defeat, with a constantly increasing force hanging on their rear. If they even had
forced us at Lachine, they must have done it at
an enormous loss. In their advance also towards
Montreal, they must have fought every inch of
the way, harrassed in front, flank and in rear,
and their army so diminished that they could not
hold Montreal if they had it. On the whole,
therefore,—any reflections on the conduct of General Wilkinson by those great military critics, the
editors of American newspapers, to the contrary

18 RBCOLLBCTIONS OF

notwithstanding,—every soldier will admit, that
in withdrawing with a comparatively unbroken
army to his intrenchment on Salmon River, the
American commander did the very wisest thing
that under all the circumstances he could have
done. What the event of a battle might have
been it is now impossible to say, for on this
ground it was fated we were to show our devotion to our king and country at a cheaper rate,
for the news of the battle of Chrysler's Farm,
and the subsequent retreat of the Americans
across the river, blighted all our hopes of laurels
for this turn,
This was a very brilliant little affair, Colonel
Morrison of the 89th Regiment, was sent by
General de Rotenburg, with a small corp amounting in all to 82o men, Regulars, Militia and Indians, to watch the motions of the American
army, when it broke up from Grenadier Island,
near Kingston, and to hang on and harass their
rear. This was done so effectually that General
Covington was detached with a body at least
three times our number to drive them back.
Morrison retired till he came to a spot he had
selected on his downward march, and there gave
them battle. Luckily for us, the first volley we
fired, killed General Covington, who must have
been a brave fine fellow ; the officer succeeding
him brought his undisciplined levies too near
our well-drilled troops before he deployed, and
in attempting to do so, got thrown into confusion, thus giving our artillery and gun-boats an
opportunity of committing dreadful slaughter

THB A ➢ BRICAN WAR

19

among their confused and huddled masses. They
rallied, however, again, but were driven off by
the bayonet ; but all this cost us dear, for we
were too much weakened to follow up our victory. They retired therefore in comparative
safety to about seven miles above the village of
Cornwall, where they crossed the river without
loss, save from a body of Highland militia, from
Glengarry, who made a sudden attack on their
cavalry while embarking, and by firing into the
boats by which they were swimming over their
horses, made them let go their bridles, and the
animals swimming to the shore, were seized upon
by Donald, who thus came into action a foot
soldier, and went out of it a dragoon, no doubt,
to peast"
like his countryman, sorely "taight
on his journey home.* The enemy then took up
a position and fortified a camp, where they remained during the winter, and when preparations
were made to drive them out of it in the spring,
they suddenly abandoned their position, leaving ,
behind them their stores and baggage, and retreated, followed by our forces, as far as the village of Malone, in the State of New York. Thus
ended the "partumeius mons" of the only efficient invasion of Canada during the war. The
fact is, the Americans were deceived in all their
schemes of conquest in Canada ; the disaffected
then as now were the loudest in their clamour,
and a belief obtained among the Americans that
they had only to display their colours to have the
whole population flock to them. But the reverse
of this was the case. They found themselves in

20

RECOLLECTIONS OF

a country so decidedly hostile, that their retreating ranks were thinned by the peasantry firing on them from behind fences and stumps; and
it was evident that every man they met was an
enemy. The militia at Lachine, after being duly
thanked for their services, were sent home, and
the regulars went into winter quarters ; the sailors and marines to Kingston—and we, having
enjoyed our newly acquired dignities for a few
days, set off to join our regiment then quartered
at Fort Wellington, a clumsy, ill-constructed unflanked redoubt, close to which now stands the
large and populous village of Prescott, then consisting of five houses, three of which were unfinished. The journey was a most wretched one.
The month of November being far advanced, rain
and sleet poured down in torrents—the roads at
no season good, were now barely fordable, so
that we found it the easiest way to let our
waggon go on with our baggage, and walk
through the fields, and that too, though at every
two hundred yards, or oftener, we had to scramble over a rail fence, six feet high ; sometimes we
got a lift in a boat, sometimes we were dragged
by main force in a waggon through the deep
mud, in which it was hard to say whether the
peril of upsetting or drowning was the most imminent. Sometimes we marched ; but all that
could be said of any mode of travel was, that it
was but a variety of the disagreeable ; so, as
there was no glory to be gained in such a service,
I was anything but sorry when I learned that I
was to halt for some time at a snug, comfort-

THE AMERICAN WAR

21

able, warm, cleanly, Dutch farm house, to take
charge of the wounded who had suffered in the
action of Chrysler's Farm.
Washington Irving is the only describer of your
"American Teutonic Race," and this, my debut
in the New World, put me down in the midst of
that worthy people as unsophisticated as possible. It is refreshing, as his little Lordship of
Craigcrook used to say, in this land where every
man is a philosopher, and talks of government
as if he had been bred at the feet of Machiavel,
to meet with a specimen of genuine simplicity,
perfectly aware of his own ignorance in matters
which in no way concern him. Your Dutchman
is the most unchangeable of all human beings,
" Caelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare
currunt" applies with peculiar force to the Batavian in every clime on the face of the globe.
In America, at the Cape of Good Hope, in the
congenial marshes of Java, in the West Indies,
and at Chinsurhae on the banks of the Ganges,
the transmarine Hollander is always the same
as in his own native mud of the dams and dykes
of Holland,—the same in his house, his dress, his
voracious and omniverous appetite, his thrift and
his cleanliness.
Among these good, kind, simple people, I spent
a month or six weeks very pleasantly. Loyal
and warmly attached to the British Crown, they
followed our standard in the Revolutionary War,
and obtained from government settlements in
Canada when driven from their homes on the
banks of the Hudson. From what I could learn

22

THE AMERICAN WAR

23

RECOLLECTIONS OF

from them, the Americans had persecuted them
and their families with a rancour they displayed
to no other race of mankind When prisoners
were taken in action, while the British were
treated by them with respect, and even with
kindness, the Dutch were deliberately murdered in
cold blood. Men without arms in their hands,
but suspected of favouring the British cause, were
shot before their own doors, or hanged on the
apple trees of their own orchards, in presence of
their wives and families, who without regard to
age or sex, were turned from their homes without remorse or pity. And one old dame told me
that she was for six weeks in the woods between
Utica and Niagara, unaccompanied by any one
but her two infant children, looking for her husband, who she luckily found in the fort of the
latter place ; at one time she and her poor babes
must have perished from hunger, but for some
Mohawk Indians, who came up and delivered
them, and conducted them to the Fort. The
Dutch themselves ascribe this very different
treatment of the two races to the fear of the
Americans that the British would retaliate in
case they were ill used, while the Dutch could
not.
This, however, could not have been the case,
for had the Americans feared vengeance on the
part of the British for the wrongs they inflicted
on their countrymen, they must have equally
feared that they would not quietly submit to
injuries inflicted on men who were their loyal and
faithful fellow subjects. I therefore suspect, that,

so far as their statements were correct, and they
must have been so in the main, for I have the
same stories from the Dutch of the Niagara District, who had no communication whatever with
their compatriots of Williamsburg, and though
we must allow great latitude for exaggeration in
a people who were, no doubt, deeply injured, and
had been brooding over their wrongs for a period
of upwards of thirty years, during all which
time their wrath had gathered force as it went,
and their stories having no one to contradict
them, must have increased with each subsequent
narrator, till they had obtained all the credence
of time-honoured truth—allowing for all this, but
insisting that the stories had a strong foundation in fact, the rigor of their persecution must
be attributed to another feeling, and must have,
I should think, arisen from this, that the Americans considered that a British subject born within the realm, and fighting for what he believed to
be the rights of his country, was only doing
what they themselves were doing ; whereas, a
North American born, whatever his extraction,
fighting against what they considered the rights
of the people of North America, was a traitor
and an apostate, an enemy to the cause of freedom from innate depravity, and therefore, like a
noxious animal, was lawfully to be destroyed,
However this may be, I
" per fas et nefas."
found their hatred to the Americans was deep
rooted and hearty, and their kindness to us and
to our wounded, (for I never trusted them near
the American wounded,) in proportion strong and

Ohm

24

25

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

unceasing ; my only difficulty with them was to
prevent them cramming my patients with all
manner of Dutch dainties, for their ideas of practice being Batavian, they affirmed that there was
infinitely greater danger from inanition then repletion, and that strength must come from nourIshment. "Unless you give de wounded man
plenty to eat and drink it is quite certain he
can never get through."
Killing with kindness is the commonest cause
of death I am aware of, and it is very remiss in
the faculty, that it has never yet found a place
in the periodical mortuary reports which they
publish in great cities in a tabular form—this
ought to be amended.
Au reste—I was very
comfortable, for, while I remained under the hospitable roof of my friend old Cobus,I had an upper
room for my sleeping apartment, and the show
room of the establishment for my sitting parlor,
an honour and preferment which nobody of less
rank them an actual line officer of the "riglars "
could have presumed to aspire to ; to the rest of
mankind it was shut and sealed, saving on high
days and holidays. This sacred chamber was
furnished and decorated in the purest and most
classical style of Dutch taste, the whole woodwork, and that included floor, walls and ceiling,
were sedulously washed once a week with hot
water and soap, vigorously applied with a scrubbing brush. The floor was nicely sanded, and
the walls decorated with a tapestry of innumerable home-spun petticoats, evidently never applied to any other (I won't say meaner) purpose,

declaring at once the wealth and housewifery of
the gude vrow. On the shelf that ran round the
whole room, were exhibited the holiday crockery
of the establishment, bright and shining, interspersed with pewter spoons, which were easily
mistaken for silver from the excessive brightness
of their polish. And to conclude the description
of my comforts, I had for breakfast and dinner a
variety and profusion of meat, fish, eggs, cakes
and preserves, that might have satisfied the grenadier company of the Regiment.
On the Saturday morning (for this was the
grand cleansing day) I never went forth to visit
my hospital without taking my fowling piece in
my hand, and made a point of never returning
until sunset, as during the intervening period no
animal not amphibious could possibly have existed in the domicile ; after leaving them I never
passed their door on the line of march without
passing an hour or two with my old friends, and
on such occasions I used to be honoured with the
chaste salute of the worthy old dame, which was
followed by my going through the same ceremony, to a strapping beauty, her niece, who was
"comely to be seen," and in stature rather exceeded myself, though I stand six feet in my
stocking soles. An irreverent Irish subaltern of
ours impiously likened the decorous and fraternal
salute with which I greeted her, to the "slap of a
wet brogue against a barn door;" and the angel
who in her innocence bestowed that civility on
me, was known by my brother officers, who had



Recollections
of the

War of 1812
By

DR. WM. DUNLOP
With a Biographical Sketch of the Author by
A. H. U. Colquhoun, LL D
Deputy Minigter of Education, Ontario

SECOND EDITION

00-

1

U. E. 1,
SERIES y
NO. 3

1Y,

-LX'

WILLIAM DUNLOP. M.D.
From original paintiny in the possession 01 Mrs. Thos. MeGaw.

TORONTO :

HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO.
1908.
Si

i

t

I

2
I
I

4

Sketch of

Dr. William Dunlop
Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in
the year nineteen hundred and eight, by the Historical Publishing
Co., at the Department of Agriculture.

PilAGAttA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRAR)

APP 1A fon?
TORONTO:
THE BRYANT PRESS, LIMITED

This reprint of an entertaining little narrative of personal experiences in the War of
1812-14 may be appropriately prefaced by a
short account of the author. Few of the
pioneers of Upper Cnada had careers as
varied and interesting as that of Dr. William Dunlop, and none possessed a personality quite so striking and original as his.
On the Saltfort road s near Goderich, Canada, there is a cairn marking the burial
place of two notable worthies of the Huron
Tract, and upon it is the following inscription:

52 177

viii.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Here lies the body of
ROBERT GRAHAM DUNLOP, ESQ.
Commander Royal Navy, M.P.P.
Who after serving his King and country in
every quarter of the globe, dies at Gairbraid, on the 28th Feby., 1841, in
the 51 year of his age.
Also to the memory of
DR. WILLIAM DUNLOP,
a man of surpassing talent, knowledge,
and benevolence, born in Scotland
in 1792.
He served in the army in Canada and in India
and thereafter distinguished himself
as an author and man of
letters.
He settled in ,Canada permanently in 1825 and
for more than 20 years was actively
engaged in public and philanthropic affairs.
Succeeding his brother, Capt. Dunlop, as Member of the Provincial Parliament and
taking successful interest in
the welfare of Canada,
and died lamented
by many
friends
1848.

lik

•

1X.

The elder of these two brothers, William
Dunlop, was born' at Greenock, Scotland, in
1792, and became, when a stripling of scarce
21 years of age, a surgeon in the famous
88th, or, Connaught Rangers. Being ordered
to Canada, where the war with the United
States was in progress, he made his way to
the fighting line in the Niagara Peninsula, and there, serving first as surgeon and afterwards as a combatant, he gave indubitable
proofs of courage and capacity. When the
"appalling intelligence" of the peace concluded by the Treaty of Ghent reached him,
Dunlop embarked with his regiment for
England, just missing by a few days a share
in the glorious action of Waterloo, and was
ordered to India. While there his restless
activity occupied itself with his medical and
military duties, with the congenial task of
editing a newspaper, and with numerous
tiger hunts. So successful was he as a slayer of tigers that he earned the name of
"Tiger" Dunlop, and in his later Canadian
days was familiarly known as "The Tiger."
An attack of jungle fever drove him back to
England on half-pay, and settling in London
he lived for a few years what has been call-

Xi.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

ed a most miscellaneous life. He wrote articles for the magazines. He edited for a
time a newspaper called the "British Press,"
until he quarrelled with the publisher for
dismissing contemptuously a political upheaval in France in the following brief
"leader": 14' We perceive that there is a
change of ministry in France;—we have
\.
heard of no earthquakes in consequence!"
He edited a work on medical jurisprudence.
He started a Sunday newspaper for AngloIndians called "The Telescope," the history
of which, declared one of his friends, was a
comedy of the drollest kind. He founded a
club,—being of convivial tastes and a prince
of boon companions,—called The Pig
and Whistle. Finally,—and this doubtless led to his returning to Canada,—
he became interested, as secretary, or,
director, in some industrial concerns,
notably a salt works in Cheshire. In
London he made the acquaintance of Mr.
John Galt, and accompanied him to Canada in 1826. He received from the Canada
Company the appointment of Warden of the
Forests, and for twenty years was a leading figure in what we now call Western On-

tario. If one wishes to know "The Tiger" in
this period, he must be sought in the charming pages of the Misses Lizars' book "In the
Days of the Canada Company." There, his
rollicking humour, his broad sympathies,
his eccentric jests are excellently depicted.
Dunlop represented Huron in Parliament,
where he was a veritable "enfant terrible,"
speaking his mind in his slap dash way and
frequently convulsing the House with merriment. The story of his tossing the coin
with his brother to settle which of them
should marry Lou McColl, the Highland
housekeeper and devoted friend, and the
terms of his extraordinary will and testament,—one clause of which (typical of all)
leaves some property to a sister "because
she is married to a minister whom (God
help him) she henpecks" ,—are famous. Dunlop's literary talents were considerable. He
wearied of writing as he did of most things
that demanded continuous application. But
he had an easy style, much shrewd wit, and
undoubted ability. These qualities he displayed in his magazine articles, in his book
"The Backwoodsman," and in the "Recollections," which are here reprinted from

X.

4

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

"The Literary Garland," the Montreal periodical of half a century or more ago. They
were penned long after the events concerned
had occurred and it may be supposed that
he fell into some errors of fact. But as a
picture of the manner in which this haphazard war was conducted it is singularly
vivid and impressive. The unearthing of
manuscripts and official documents about
this war will not throw into dearer relief
than the following pages do, the desperate circumstances under which a mere
handful of French Canadian and Loyalist
colonists emerged from their primitive
villages and log cabins and with Spartan
courage and hardihood drove back the invader again and again and captured large
areas of his territory. There are several
readable sketches of these campaigns, but
none with the freshness and spirit of Dunlop's. In this lies its value and the justification for preserving it. Dunlop retired from
Parliament in 1846, and was appointed Superintendent of the Lachine Canal. He died
in the village of Lachine in the Autumn of
1848, and his body was conveyed to its
resting place at Goderich.
A. H. U. Colquhoun.

I NTRODUCTION
The favourable reception of a small work on
this colony has emboldened me again to come before the public in the character of an author, and
as it is fifteen years since I last obtruded myself
in that capacity, I have at least to boast of the
merit assumed to himself by the sailor in his
prayer, during a hurricane, "Thou knowest it is
seldom that I trouble thee," and I may hope on
the same grounds to be listened to.
It is now upwards of thirty-three years since I
became acquainted with this country, of which
I was eleven years absent. During that time I
visited the other quarters of the globe. My design in this work is to shew the almost incredible improvement that has taken place during
that period. Notwithstanding all that has been
written by tourists, &c., very little indeed is
known of the value and capabilities of Canada,
as a colony, by the people of Great Britain.
I have not arrived at anything like methodical
arrangement further than stating in their chronological order, events and scenes of which I was
a witness, with occasional anecdotes of parties
therein concerned, so that those who do not approve of such a desultory mode of composition,
need not, after this fore-warning, read any further.

INTRODUCTION

My intention, in fact, is not exclusively either to
instruct or amuse, but, if I possibly can accomplish it, to do a little of both. I wish to give an
account of the effect of the changes that have
taken place in my day in the colony, on my own
feelings, rather than to enter into any philosophical enquiry into their causes ; and if in this
attempt I should sometimes degenerate into
what my late lamented friend, the Ettrick Shepherd, would have denominated havers, I hope you
will remember that this is an infirmity to which
even Homer (see Horace,) is liable ; and if, like
hereditary disease, it is a proof of paternity,
every author in verse or prose who has written
since his day, has ample grounds whereon to
found its pretensions to a most ancient and honourable descent.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE
AMERICAN WAR
CHAPTER I.
" My native land, good night."—Byron.

The end of March or the beginning of April,
1813, found me at the Army Depot in the Isle of
Wight. Sir Walter Scott in his Surgeon's Daughter, says that no one who has ever visited that
delightful spot can ever forget it, and I fully
agree with him, but though perfectly susceptible
of the impressions which its numberless beauties
leave on the mind, I must confess that the view
of a fleet of transports rounding St. Helens to
take us to our destination, would have been considered by myself and my comrades, as a pleasanter prospect than all Hampshire could offer to
our admiration.
I shall not stay to describe the state of military society in those days at the Army DepOt at
Parkhurst barracks and the neighbouring town of
Newport. It has been much better done than I
could expect to do, by Major Spencer Muggridge,
in Blackwood's Magazine ; all I can do as a subaltern, is fully to endorse the field officer's statement, and to declare that it is a just, graphic and
by no means over-charged description.

4

RECOLLECTIONS OF

I went once, and only once, to the Garrison
Mess, in company with two or three officers of
my acquaintance, and saw among other novelties
of a mess table, one officer shy a leg of mutton
at another's head, from one end of the table to
the other. This we took as notice to quit ; so we
made our retreat in good order, and never again
returned, or associated with a set of gentlemen
who had such a vivacious mode of expressing a
difference of opinion.
The fact is, all the worse characters in the
army were congregated at the Isle of Wight ;
men who were afraid to join their regiments
from the indifferent estimation they were held in
by their brother officers. These stuck to the
depot, and the arrival of a fleet of transports at
Spithead or the Mother-bank, was a signal for a
general sickness among these worthies. And
this was peculiayly the case with those who were
bound for Canada, for they knew full well if they
could shirk past the month of August, there was
no chance of a call on their services until the
month of April following. And many scamps
took advantage of this. I know one fellow who
managed to avoid joining his regiment abroad for
no less than three years.
I took my departure from this military paradise for the first time, for this country, in the
beginning of August, 1813, in a small, ill-found{,
undermanned, over-crowded transport, as transports in those days were very apt to be ; and
after a long, weary, and tempestuous voyage of
three months, was landed at Quebec in the begin-

THE AMERICAN WAR

5

ring of the following November. Next to the
tedium of a sea voyage, nothing on earth can be
so tiresome as a description of it ; the very incidents which a Journal of such a pilgrimage commemorates shew the dreadful state of vacuum
and ennui which must have existed in the mind of
the patient before such trifles could become of
interest sufficient to be thought worthy of notation. A sail in sight,—a bunch of sea-weed
floating past the ship,—a log of wood covered
with barnacles,—or, better still, one of the numerous tribe of Medusa, with its snake-like feelers
and changeable colours—a gull, or a flock of
Mother Carey's chickens, paddling in the wake,—
are occurrences of sufficient importance to call
upon deck all the passengers, even during dinner.
Or if they are happy enough to fall in with a
shoal of porpoises or dolphins, a flock of flying
fish, or a whale blowing and spouting near the
ship, such a wonder is quite sufficient to furnish
conversation for the happy beholders for the rest
of the voyage. For my own part, being familiar
with, and also seasoned to, all the wonders of
the deep, I make a vow whenever I go on board,
that nothing inferior in rank and dignity to a
sea-serpent shall ever induce me to mount the
companion ladder. On the whole, though it cannot be considered as a very choice bit of reading,
I look upon the log-book as by far the best account of a voyage, for it accurately states all
that is worthy of note in the fewest possible
words. It is the very model of the terse didactic.
Who can fail to admire the Caesar-like brevity in

6

RECOLLECTIONS OF

an American captain's log : "At noon, light
breezes and cloudy weather, wind W.S.W., fell in
with a phenomenon—caught a bucket full of it."
Under all these circumstances, I think it is highly probable that my readers will readily pardon
me for not giving my experience on this subject.
I met with no seas "mountains high," as many
who have gone down unto the sea in ships have
done. Indeed, though I have encountered gales
of wind in all the favorite playgrounds of Oeolus
—the Bay of Biscay—off the Cape of Good Hope
—in the Bay of Bengal—the coast of America,
and the Gulph of St. Lawrence, yet I never saw
a wave high enough to becalm the main-top sail.
So that I must suppose that the original inventor of the phrase was a Cockney, who must have
had Garlic hill or Snow hill, or some of the
other mountainous regions of the metropolis in
his mind's eye when he coined it.
Arrived at Quebec, we reported ourselves, as in
duty bound, to the General Commanding, and by
his orders we left a subaltern to command the
recruits (most of whom, by the way, were mere
boys,) and to strengthen the Garrison of Quebec,
and the venerable–old colonel and myself made
all haste to join our regiment up the country. As
my worthy old commander was a character,
some account of him may not be uninteresting.
Donald McB —was born in the celebrated winter of 1745-46, while his father, an Invernesshire
gentleman, was out with Prince Charles Edward,
who, on the unfortunate issue of that campaign
for the Jacobite interest, was fain to flee to

THE AMERICAN WAR

7

France, where he joined his royal master, and
where, by the Prince's influence, he received a
commission in the Scotch Regiment of Guards,
and in due time retired with a small pension
from the French King, to the town of Dunkirk,
where with his family, he remained the rest of
his days.
Donald, meanwhile, was left with his kindred in
the Highlands, where he grew in all the stinted
quantity of grace that is to be found in that barren region, until his seventh year, when he was
sent to join his family in Dunkirk Here he was
educated, and as his father's military experience
had given him no great love for the profession of
arms, he was in due time bound apprentice to his
brother-in-law, an eminent surgeon of that town,
and might have become a curer instead of inflicter of broken heads, or at least murdered men
more scientifically than with the broadsword ;
but fate ordered it otherwise.
Donald had an objection as strong to the lancet
as his father could possibly have to the sword.
Had the matter been coolly canvassed, it is hard
to say which mode of murder would have obtained the preference, but, always hasty, he did not
go philosophically to work, and an accident decided his fate as it has done that of many greater men.
A young nun of great beauty, who had lately
taken the veil, had the misfortune to break her
leg, and Donald's master, being medical man to
the convent, he very reasonably hoped that he
would assist in the setting of it—attending upon

8

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THB AMERICAN WAR

handsome young nuns might reconcile a man even
to being a surgeon of—; but his brother-in-law
and the abbess both entered their veto. Piqued
at this disappointment, next morning saw him
on the tramp, and the next intelligence that was
heard of him was that he was serving His Most
Christian Majesty in the capacity of a Gentleman
Sentinel, (as the Baron of Bradwardine hath it,)
in a marching regiment.
This settled the point. His father, seeing that
his aversion to the healing art was insuperable,
procured a commission in the Regiment de Dillon
or Irish Brigade of the French Service.
In this he served for several years, until he had
got pretty well up among the lieutenants, and in
due time might have figured among the marshals
of Napoleon; but the American Revolution breaking out, and it being pretty apparent that France
and Great Britain must come into hostile collision, his father, though utterly abhorring the
reigning dynasty, could not bear the idea of a
son of his fighting against his country and clan,
persuaded him to resign his commission in the
French Service, and sent him to Scotland with
letters of recommendation to some of his kindred and friends, officers in the newly raised
Frazer Highlanders (eince the 71st,) whom he
joined in Greenock in the year 1776, and soon
after embarked with them for America in the
capacity of a gentleman volunteer, thus beginning
the world once more at the age of thirty.
After serving in this regiment till he obtained
his ensigncy, he was promoted to be lieutenant

and adjutant in the Cavalry of Tarlton's Legion,
in which he served and was several times wounded, till the end of the war, when he was disbanded with the rest of his regiment, and placed on
half pay. He exchanged into a regiment about
to embark for the West Indies, where in seven or
eight years, the yellow fever standing his friend
by cutting off many of his brother officers, while
it passed o‘ er him, he in progress of seniority,
tontined it up to nearly the head of the lieutenants ; the regiment was ordered home in 179o,
and after a short time, instead of his company,
he received his half-pay as a disbanded lieutenant.
He now, from motives of economy as well as
to be near his surviving relatives, retired to Dunkirk ; but the approaching revolution soon called him out again, and his promotion, which,
though like that of Dugald Dalgetty, it was
"dooms slow at first," did come at last. Now
after thirty-seven years' hard service in the British Army, (to say nothing of fourteen in the
French) in North America, the West Indies,
South America, the Cape of Good Hope, 'Java
and India, he found himself a Lieutenant-Colonel
of a second battalion serving in Canada. Such is
a brief memoir of my old commanding officer.
He was a warm-hearted, hot-tempered, jovial,
gentlemanly old veteran, who enjoyed the present and never repined at the past ; so it may
well be imagined that I was in high good luck
with such a compagnon de voyage.
Hearing that the American Army under General Wilkinson, was stout to make descent on

9

/0

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

Canada somewhere about the lower end of Lake
Ontario, we were determined to push on with all
possible speed.
The roads, however, were declared impracticable, and the only steamboat the Canadas then
rejoiced in, though now they must possess nearly
one hundred, had sailed that day, and was not
expected to return for nearly a week ; so it was
determined we should try our luck in one of the
wretched river craft which in those days enjoyed
the carrying trade between Quebec and Montreal.
Into the small cabin, therefore of one of these
schooners we stowed ourselves. Though the
winds were light, we managed to make some way
as long as we could take advantage of the floodtide, and lay by during the ebb ; but after this
our progress was slow indeed ; not entirely from
the want of a fair wind, but from the cursed dilatory habits of Frenchmen and their Canadian
descendants in all matters connected with business. At every village (and in Lower Canada
there is a village at every three leagues along the
banks of the St. Lawrence) our captain had or
made business—a cask of wine had to be delivered to " le digne Cure" at one place ; a box of
goods to " M. le Gentilhomme de Magasin" at
another ; the captain's "parents " lived within a
league, and he had not seen them for six weeks,
—so off he must go, and no prospect of seeing
him any more for that day. The cottage of the
cabin boy's mother unluckily lay on the bank of
the river, and we must lay to till madame came
off with confitures, cabbages and clean shirts for

his regalement ; then the embracing, and kissing,
and bowing, and taking off red night caps to
each other, and the telling the news and hearing
it, occupied ten times the space that the real
business (if any there was) could possibly require.
And all this was gone through on their part,- as
if it was the natural and necessary consequence
of a voyage up the River Saint Lawrence. Haste
seemed to them quite out of the question and it
is next to impossible to get into a passion and
swear at a Frenchman, as you would at a sulky
John Bull; or a saucy Yankee, under similar circumstances, for he is utterly unconscious all the
time that he is doing anything unworthy ; he is
so polite, complaisant and good humoured withal,
that it is next to impossible to get yourself seriously angry with him. On the fifth day of this
tedious voyage, when we had arrived within
about fifteen miles of Three Rivers, which is midway between the two cities, we perceived the
steamboat passing upwards close under the opposite shore, and we resolved to land, knowing
that it was her custom to stop there all night,
and proceed in the morning ; accordingly we did
so, and in a short time were seated in a caleche
following at all the speed the roads would admit
of—by dint of hard travelling, bribing and coaxing, we managed to get to Three Rivers by
moonlight, about one in the morning. So far so
good, thought we ; but unluckily the moonlight
that served us, served the steamboat also, and
she had proceeded on her voyage before we came
up. As we now, however, had got quite enough

I/

12

RECOLLECTIONS OP

of sailing, we determined to proceed by land to
Montreal.
The French, I suspect, have always been before
us in Colonial policy. An arbitrary government
can do things which a free one may not have the
nerve to attempt, particularly among a people
whose ignorance permits them to see only one
side of the question.
The system of land travelling in Lower Canada
was better, when we became master of it, than
it is now in any part of the North American
Continent. At every three leagues there was a
" Maison de Poste" kept by a functionary who received his license from government, and denominated a "Maitre de Poste." He was bound by his
engagement to find caleches and horses for all
travellers, and he made engagements with his
neighbors to furnish them when his were employed. These were called " Aides de Poste"; and
they received the pay when they performed the
duty, deducting a small commission for the
Maitre. They were bound to travel when the
roads admitted of it, at a rate not less than
seven miles an hour, and were not to exceed
quarter of an hour in changing horses ; and to
prevent imposition, in the parlour of each post
house, (which was also an inn,) was stuck up a
printed paper, giving the distance of each post
from the next, and the sum to be charged for
each horse and caleche employed, as well as other
regulations, with regard to the establishment,
which it was necessary for a traveller to know,
and any well substantiated charge against these

THE AMERICAN WAR

13

people was sure to call down summary punishment.
The roads not being, as already remarked, in
the. best order, we did not arrive at Montreal
till the end of the second day, when we were
congratulated by our more lucky companions
who had left Quebec in the steamboat three days
later, and arrived at Montreal two days before
us ; and we were tantalized by a description of
all the luxuries of that then little known conveyance, as contrasted with the fatigues and desagrêments of our mode of progression. For the
last fifty miles of our route there was not to be
seen throughout the country a single man fit to
carry arms occupied about his farm or workshop;
women, children, or men disabled by age or decrepitude were all that were to be met with.
The news had arrived that the long threatened
invasion had at last taken place, and every available man was hurrying to meet it. We came up
with several regiments of militia on their line of
march. They had all a serviceable effective appearance—had been pretty well drilled, and their
arms being direct from the tower, were in perfectly good order, nor had they the mobbish appearance that such a levy in any other country
would have had. Their capots and trowsers of
home-spun stuff, and their blue toques (night
caps) were all of the same cut and color, which
gave them an air of uniformity that added much
to their military look, for I have always remarked that a body of men's appearance in battalion,
depends much less on the fashion of their indi-

NIAGARA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRAR)
RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

vidual dress and appointments, than on the
whole being in strict uniformity.
They marched merrily along to the music of
their voyageur songs, and as they perceived our
uniform as we came up, they set up the Indian
War-whoop, followed by a shout of Vive le Roi
along the whole line. Such a body of men in
such a temper, and with so perfect a use of their
arms as all of them possessed, if posted on such
ground as would preclude the possibility of regular troops out-manoeuvering them, (and such positions are not hard to find in Canada,) must have
been rather a formidable body to have attacked.
Finding that the enemy were between us and our
regiment, proceeding to join would have been out
of the question. The Colonel therefore requested
that we might be attached to the militia on the
advance. The Commander-in-Chief finding that
the old gentleman had a perfect knowledge of the
French language, (not by any means so common
an accomplishment in the army in those days as
it is now,) gave him command of a large brigade
of militia, and, like other men who rise to greatness, his friends and followers shared his good
fortune, for a subaltern of our regiment who had
come out in another ship and joined us at Montreal, was appointed as his Brigade Major ; and I
was exalted to the dignity of Principal Medical
Officer to his command, and we proceeded to Lachine, the head-quarters of the advance, and
where it had been determined to make the stand,
in order to cover Montreal, the great commercial

emporium of the Canadas, and which, moreover,
was the avowed object of the American attack.
Our force here presented rather a motley appearance ; besides a small number of the line
consisting chiefly of detachments, there was a
considerable body of sailors and marines ; the
former made tolerable Artillery men, and the
latter had, I would say, even a more serviceable
appearance than an equal body of the line, average it throughout the army.
The fact is that during the war the marines
had the best recruits that entered the army. The
reason of this, as explained to me by an intelligent non-commissioned officer of that corps,
was, that whereas a soldier of the line, returning
on furlough to his native village, had barely
enough of money to pay his travelling expenses,
and support him while there, and even that with
a strict attention to economy, the marine, on the
other hand, on returning from a three years'
cruise, had all the surplus pay and prize money
of that period placed in his hands before he started, and this, with his pay going on at the same
tate as that of the soldier of the line, enabled
him to expend in a much more gentlemanly style
of profusion than the other.
The vulgar of all ranks are apt to form their
opinions of things rather from their results than
the causes of them, and hence they jump to the
conclusion that the marine service must be just
so much better than that of the line, as the one
has so much more money to spend on his return
home than the other. And hence, aspiring—or as

1

4

15

16

THE AMERICAN WAR

RECOLLECTIONS OF

our quarter master, Toni Sheridan, used to say
when recruiting sergeant, perspiring—young heroes, who resolve to gain a field marshal's baton
by commencing with a musket, preferred the amphibious path of the jolly to the exclusively terraqueous one of the flat-foot. Besides these and our
friends the country militia, there were two corps
formed of the gentlemen of Montreal, one of artillery and another of sharp-shooters. I think these
were in a perfect state of drill, and in their handsome new uniforms had a most imposing appearance, But if their discipline was commendable,
their commissariat was beyond all praise. Long
lines of carts were to be seen bearing in casks
and hampers of the choicest wines, to say nothing of the venison, turkeys, hams, and all other
esculents necessary to recruit their strength under
the fatigues of war. With them the Indian found
a profitable market for his game, and the fisherman for his fish. There can be little doubt that
a gourmand would greatly prefer the comfort of
dining with a mess of privates of these distinguished corps to the honour and glory of being
half starved (of which he ran no small risk) at
the table of the Governor General himself. Such
a force opposed to an equal number of regulars,
it may be said, was no very hopeful prospect for
defending a country. But there are many things
which, when taken into consideration, will show
that the balance was not so very much against
them as at first sight may appear, Men who are
fighting for their homes and friends, and almost
in sight of their wives and children, have an ad,

17

ditional incentive over those who fight for pay
and glory. Again, the enemy to attack them
had to land from a rapid, a thing which precludes
regularity under any circumstances, and they
would not be rendered more cool by a heavy fire
of artillery while they were yawning and whirling in the current. They must have landed in
confusion, and would be attacked before they
could form, and should they get over all this, there
was a plateau of land in the rear ascended by a
high steep bank, which, in tolerable hands, could
neither be carried nor turned. Add to all this,
that the American regulars, if equal, were not
superior to our troops in drill and discipline, the
great majority of them having been enlisted for
a period too short to form a soldier, under the
most favorable circumstances. And much even
of that short time had been consumed in
long and harassing marches through an_unsettled
country that could not supply the commissariat,
and exposed to fatigue and privation that was
rapidly spreading disease among them ; dispirited
too by recent defeat, with a constantly increasing force hanging on their rear. If they even had
forced us at Lachine, they must have done it at
an enormous loss. In their advance also towards
Montreal, they must have fought every inch of
the way, harrassed in front, flank and in rear,
and their army so diminished that they could not
hold Montreal if they had it. On the whole,
therefore,—any reflections on the conduct of General Wilkinson by those great military critics, the
editors of American newspapers, to the contrary

18 RBCOLLBCTIONS OF

notwithstanding,—every soldier will admit, that
in withdrawing with a comparatively unbroken
army to his intrenchment on Salmon River, the
American commander did the very wisest thing
that under all the circumstances he could have
done. What the event of a battle might have
been it is now impossible to say, for on this
ground it was fated we were to show our devotion to our king and country at a cheaper rate,
for the news of the battle of Chrysler's Farm,
and the subsequent retreat of the Americans
across the river, blighted all our hopes of laurels
for this turn,
This was a very brilliant little affair, Colonel
Morrison of the 89th Regiment, was sent by
General de Rotenburg, with a small corp amounting in all to 82o men, Regulars, Militia and Indians, to watch the motions of the American
army, when it broke up from Grenadier Island,
near Kingston, and to hang on and harass their
rear. This was done so effectually that General
Covington was detached with a body at least
three times our number to drive them back.
Morrison retired till he came to a spot he had
selected on his downward march, and there gave
them battle. Luckily for us, the first volley we
fired, killed General Covington, who must have
been a brave fine fellow ; the officer succeeding
him brought his undisciplined levies too near
our well-drilled troops before he deployed, and
in attempting to do so, got thrown into confusion, thus giving our artillery and gun-boats an
opportunity of committing dreadful slaughter

THB A ➢ BRICAN WAR

19

among their confused and huddled masses. They
rallied, however, again, but were driven off by
the bayonet ; but all this cost us dear, for we
were too much weakened to follow up our victory. They retired therefore in comparative
safety to about seven miles above the village of
Cornwall, where they crossed the river without
loss, save from a body of Highland militia, from
Glengarry, who made a sudden attack on their
cavalry while embarking, and by firing into the
boats by which they were swimming over their
horses, made them let go their bridles, and the
animals swimming to the shore, were seized upon
by Donald, who thus came into action a foot
soldier, and went out of it a dragoon, no doubt,
to peast"
like his countryman, sorely "taight
on his journey home.* The enemy then took up
a position and fortified a camp, where they remained during the winter, and when preparations
were made to drive them out of it in the spring,
they suddenly abandoned their position, leaving ,
behind them their stores and baggage, and retreated, followed by our forces, as far as the village of Malone, in the State of New York. Thus
ended the "partumeius mons" of the only efficient invasion of Canada during the war. The
fact is, the Americans were deceived in all their
schemes of conquest in Canada ; the disaffected
then as now were the loudest in their clamour,
and a belief obtained among the Americans that
they had only to display their colours to have the
whole population flock to them. But the reverse
of this was the case. They found themselves in

20

RECOLLECTIONS OF

a country so decidedly hostile, that their retreating ranks were thinned by the peasantry firing on them from behind fences and stumps; and
it was evident that every man they met was an
enemy. The militia at Lachine, after being duly
thanked for their services, were sent home, and
the regulars went into winter quarters ; the sailors and marines to Kingston—and we, having
enjoyed our newly acquired dignities for a few
days, set off to join our regiment then quartered
at Fort Wellington, a clumsy, ill-constructed unflanked redoubt, close to which now stands the
large and populous village of Prescott, then consisting of five houses, three of which were unfinished. The journey was a most wretched one.
The month of November being far advanced, rain
and sleet poured down in torrents—the roads at
no season good, were now barely fordable, so
that we found it the easiest way to let our
waggon go on with our baggage, and walk
through the fields, and that too, though at every
two hundred yards, or oftener, we had to scramble over a rail fence, six feet high ; sometimes we
got a lift in a boat, sometimes we were dragged
by main force in a waggon through the deep
mud, in which it was hard to say whether the
peril of upsetting or drowning was the most imminent. Sometimes we marched ; but all that
could be said of any mode of travel was, that it
was but a variety of the disagreeable ; so, as
there was no glory to be gained in such a service,
I was anything but sorry when I learned that I
was to halt for some time at a snug, comfort-

THE AMERICAN WAR

21

able, warm, cleanly, Dutch farm house, to take
charge of the wounded who had suffered in the
action of Chrysler's Farm.
Washington Irving is the only describer of your
"American Teutonic Race," and this, my debut
in the New World, put me down in the midst of
that worthy people as unsophisticated as possible. It is refreshing, as his little Lordship of
Craigcrook used to say, in this land where every
man is a philosopher, and talks of government
as if he had been bred at the feet of Machiavel,
to meet with a specimen of genuine simplicity,
perfectly aware of his own ignorance in matters
which in no way concern him. Your Dutchman
is the most unchangeable of all human beings,
" Caelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare
currunt" applies with peculiar force to the Batavian in every clime on the face of the globe.
In America, at the Cape of Good Hope, in the
congenial marshes of Java, in the West Indies,
and at Chinsurhae on the banks of the Ganges,
the transmarine Hollander is always the same
as in his own native mud of the dams and dykes
of Holland,—the same in his house, his dress, his
voracious and omniverous appetite, his thrift and
his cleanliness.
Among these good, kind, simple people, I spent
a month or six weeks very pleasantly. Loyal
and warmly attached to the British Crown, they
followed our standard in the Revolutionary War,
and obtained from government settlements in
Canada when driven from their homes on the
banks of the Hudson. From what I could learn

22

THE AMERICAN WAR

23

RECOLLECTIONS OF

from them, the Americans had persecuted them
and their families with a rancour they displayed
to no other race of mankind When prisoners
were taken in action, while the British were
treated by them with respect, and even with
kindness, the Dutch were deliberately murdered in
cold blood. Men without arms in their hands,
but suspected of favouring the British cause, were
shot before their own doors, or hanged on the
apple trees of their own orchards, in presence of
their wives and families, who without regard to
age or sex, were turned from their homes without remorse or pity. And one old dame told me
that she was for six weeks in the woods between
Utica and Niagara, unaccompanied by any one
but her two infant children, looking for her husband, who she luckily found in the fort of the
latter place ; at one time she and her poor babes
must have perished from hunger, but for some
Mohawk Indians, who came up and delivered
them, and conducted them to the Fort. The
Dutch themselves ascribe this very different
treatment of the two races to the fear of the
Americans that the British would retaliate in
case they were ill used, while the Dutch could
not.
This, however, could not have been the case,
for had the Americans feared vengeance on the
part of the British for the wrongs they inflicted
on their countrymen, they must have equally
feared that they would not quietly submit to
injuries inflicted on men who were their loyal and
faithful fellow subjects. I therefore suspect, that,

so far as their statements were correct, and they
must have been so in the main, for I have the
same stories from the Dutch of the Niagara District, who had no communication whatever with
their compatriots of Williamsburg, and though
we must allow great latitude for exaggeration in
a people who were, no doubt, deeply injured, and
had been brooding over their wrongs for a period
of upwards of thirty years, during all which
time their wrath had gathered force as it went,
and their stories having no one to contradict
them, must have increased with each subsequent
narrator, till they had obtained all the credence
of time-honoured truth—allowing for all this, but
insisting that the stories had a strong foundation in fact, the rigor of their persecution must
be attributed to another feeling, and must have,
I should think, arisen from this, that the Americans considered that a British subject born within the realm, and fighting for what he believed to
be the rights of his country, was only doing
what they themselves were doing ; whereas, a
North American born, whatever his extraction,
fighting against what they considered the rights
of the people of North America, was a traitor
and an apostate, an enemy to the cause of freedom from innate depravity, and therefore, like a
noxious animal, was lawfully to be destroyed,
However this may be, I
" per fas et nefas."
found their hatred to the Americans was deep
rooted and hearty, and their kindness to us and
to our wounded, (for I never trusted them near
the American wounded,) in proportion strong and

Ohm

24

25

RECOLLECTIONS OF

THE AMERICAN WAR

unceasing ; my only difficulty with them was to
prevent them cramming my patients with all
manner of Dutch dainties, for their ideas of practice being Batavian, they affirmed that there was
infinitely greater danger from inanition then repletion, and that strength must come from nourIshment. "Unless you give de wounded man
plenty to eat and drink it is quite certain he
can never get through."
Killing with kindness is the commonest cause
of death I am aware of, and it is very remiss in
the faculty, that it has never yet found a place
in the periodical mortuary reports which they
publish in great cities in a tabular form—this
ought to be amended.
Au reste—I was very
comfortable, for, while I remained under the hospitable roof of my friend old Cobus,I had an upper
room for my sleeping apartment, and the show
room of the establishment for my sitting parlor,
an honour and preferment which nobody of less
rank them an actual line officer of the "riglars "
could have presumed to aspire to ; to the rest of
mankind it was shut and sealed, saving on high
days and holidays. This sacred chamber was
furnished and decorated in the purest and most
classical style of Dutch taste, the whole woodwork, and that included floor, walls and ceiling,
were sedulously washed once a week with hot
water and soap, vigorously applied with a scrubbing brush. The floor was nicely sanded, and
the walls decorated with a tapestry of innumerable home-spun petticoats, evidently never applied to any other (I won't say meaner) purpose,

declaring at once the wealth and housewifery of
the gude vrow. On the shelf that ran round the
whole room, were exhibited the holiday crockery
of the establishment, bright and shining, interspersed with pewter spoons, which were easily
mistaken for silver from the excessive brightness
of their polish. And to conclude the description
of my comforts, I had for breakfast and dinner a
variety and profusion of meat, fish, eggs, cakes
and preserves, that might have satisfied the grenadier company of the Regiment.
On the Saturday morning (for this was the
grand cleansing day) I never went forth to visit
my hospital without taking my fowling piece in
my hand, and made a point of never returning
until sunset, as during the intervening period no
animal not amphibious could possibly have existed in the domicile ; after leaving them I never
passed their door on the line of march without
passing an hour or two with my old friends, and
on such occasions I used to be honoured with the
chaste salute of the worthy old dame, which was
followed by my going through the same ceremony, to a strapping beauty, her niece, who was
"comely to be seen," and in stature rather exceeded myself, though I stand six feet in my
stocking soles. An irreverent Irish subaltern of
ours impiously likened the decorous and fraternal
salute with which I greeted her, to the "slap of a
wet brogue against a barn door;" and the angel
who in her innocence bestowed that civility on
me, was known by my brother officers, who had