Title

Chapter 1

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=298192

page

5-8

Bibliographic Citation

The origin and official history of the Thirteenth Battalion of Infantry and a description of the work of the early militia of the Niagara Peninsula in the War of 1812 and the Rebellion of 1837 / by Ernest A. Cruikshank.

10165325

The origin and official history of the Thirteenth Battalion of Infantry and a description of the work of the early militia of the Niagara Peninsula in the War of 1812 and the Rebellion of 1837 / by Ernest A. Cruikshank.

Type

Text

extracted text

FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT TO
THE WAR OF 1812

A PROVINCE that has been largely settled from first to
last by soldiers and the sons of soldiers, it is but natural
that a militia force should have been formed spontaner ously and almost without an effort on the part of the
Government, and too often, it must be added, with scant
encouragement on its part.
As early as the summer of 1782 a few discharged soldiers from
Lieut.-Colonel John Butler's corps of Rangers began a settlement on
the west bank of the River Niagara, near the site of the present town
of that name. Next year they were joined by others, and in 1784
the entire regiment was disbanded and officers and men were assigned lands
in the twenty townships which were shortly afterwards surveyed for the purpose
on the Niagara Peninsula, and composed the original County of Lincoln,
bounded to westward by the tract of land along the Grand River, granted to
the Indians of the Six Nations. The two battalions of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, the King's Rangers, the Loyal Rangers and fragments
of other American loyalist corps, with some men from regular British and Ger.

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man regiments, forming a body of nearly four thousand men were at the same
ti me similarly settled on Crown lands bordering on the Bay of Quinte and
River St. Lawrence.
That these men were excellent soldiers there can be no question. Majo r
Potts, of the 8th or King's Regiment, who had been appointed to inspect
Butler's Rangers before their disbandment reported that "two thirds of the privates were as fine fellows as he ever saw collected together." These men were
inured to every hardship. By their enemies they were naturally hated and
accused of being cruel and merciless, for they had carried fire and sword for
seven years with tireless energy along the border of the revolting provinces
from Vermont to Kentucky, and the flower of the American frontiersmen had
gone down before their onset at Oraskany, Wyoming, Minniesink, Sandusky,
the Blue Licks and many another desperate encounter in the forest, from which
few of the defeated party had escaped to tell the story of their disaster.
Of these men and their sons the first militia regiments of the province
were formed.
The first official enrollment of the militia was accomplished in 1788 and
showed an aggregate of 1,525 of all ranks in the district of Lunenburg, 1,141
in Mecklenburg, 600 in Nassau or Niagara, and 721 French-Canadian and
226 British in Hesse or Detroit.
At its second session in 1793, the Legislature of the newly formed Province
of Upper Canada passed a Militia Act. All militiamen were thereby required
to provide themselves not only with suitable clothing but with arms, accoutrements and a stated quantity of ammunition. But Lieut.-Governor Simcoe
recommended that a request from the MacDonnells of Glengarry to be supplied
with broadswords from the Government store should be granted, and that
muskets should be provided for the whole of the militia. By amendments to
this act the next year militiamen were rendered liable to service in manning
vessels on the lakes.
A considerable quantity of arms was distributed, and as war with the
United States for some time seemed almost inevitable, the militia of the province
was formally enrolled and organized into companies and regiments. On the
17th of February, 1794, Lord Dorchester, the Governor-General of Canada, after
referring to General Wayne's projected movement upon Detroit, instructed
Lieut.-Governor Simcoe to take steps towards occupying the most advantageous
positions with a view to resisting Gen. Wayne's attack should he attempt by
force to take possession of the country.
Simcoe proceeded to carry out these instructions by forming a military
post at the rapids of the Miami and another on an island in the mouth of that
river. Two hundred militia were called out for the defence of Detroit and
double that number were embodied in the Niagara settlement, which he termed

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MAJOR-GENERAL E. T. H. HUT1ON, C. B., A. D. C. TO THE QUEEN
COMMANDING THE MILITIA OF CANADA

" the bulwark of Upper Canada." The treaty concluded by Mr. Jay put an
end to this period of alarm, but efforts continued to be made to improve the
organization of the militia, as it was decided to withdraw all the regiments of
the regular army then stationed in Upper Canada, for they were sorely needed
elsewhere. In 1796 a second battalion of the Royal Canadian Volunteer Regiment of Foot, consisting of nine companies, was enlisted in the province and
the command was given to that gallant officer, Lieut.-Colonel John MacDonnell, late of the 84th Regiment. It was distinctly a local corps, and for the next
six years, in conjunction with the Queen's Rangers, formed the sole garrison
of the province.
An official return of the enrolled militia for the year 1805 shows an aggregate of 652 officers and 7,947 non-commissioned officers and privates. Of the
whole number only 200 had received any military training for several years.
The unsatisfactory state of relations between Great Britain and the United
States had then again begun to excite alarm. As the regular force in the
province did not exceed 400 men, the militia were once more ordered to hold
themselves in readiness for service and about 4,000 stands of arms were distributed among them. A comprehensive militia act was framed and passed into
law providing for a much better organization than any former act, and enabling
the Governor to march the militia out of the province to the assistance of the
province of Lower Canada when actually invaded or in a state of insurrection, or
in pursuit of " an enemy who may have invaded this province and also for the
destruction of any vessel or vessels built or building, or any depot or magazine
formed or forming, or for the attack of any enemy who may be embodying or
marching for the purpose of invading this province, or for the attack of any
fortification now erected or which may be hereafter erected to cover the invasion
thereof." Lieut.-Governor Gore was evidently very well satisfied with this act,
but General Brock indicated the weak point in the act by the remark that it contained " many wise and salutary provisions but few means of enforcing them."
Meanwhile the population continued to increase rapidly, chiefly, however,
by the arrival of emigrants from the United States, many of them with
strong revolutionary proclivities which they were little inclined to conceal.
These men settled in great numbers in the Western, London, Home and Newcastle Districts, where they formed centres of disaffection, and began to plot the
overthrow of the Government and the annexation of the province to the
United States. Their representations unquestionably led the American Government to believe that the country could be practically conquered by a proclamation calling upon the people to rise and join a small invading army.

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