XXIII.

THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS.

At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United States embraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley to Mexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spain until 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United States. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight million souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south. Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.

The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to the historical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict not only for her own national security but also for the integrity of {317} Europe, then dominated by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It was on the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritime supremacy, she found it necessary, in the course of events, to seize and condemn neutral American vessels whenever there was conclusive evidence that their cargoes were not the produce of the United States, but had been actually bought in an enemy's colony and were on their way to the mother country. But such an interruption of a commerce, which had been carried on for years at a great profit by American merchants, was by no means so serious an affair as the stoppage of American vessels on the high seas, and the forcible abduction and impressment, by British naval officers, of sailors who were claimed as British subjects, even when they had been naturalised in the United States. To such an extent did Great Britain assert her pretensions, that one of her frigates, the _Leopard_, actually fired into the American cruiser _Chesapeake_, off the coast of the bay of the same name, and made prisoners of several men who were claimed as deserters from an English man-of-war--a national outrage for which Great Britain subsequently made an apology and gave a measure of reparation. Then came the British orders in council which forbade American trade with any country from which the British flag was excluded, allowed direct trade from the United States to Sweden only in American products, and permitted American trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touching at English ports and paying duties. Napoleon retaliated with decrees which {318} were practically futile while England was victorious on the ocean, but which nevertheless threw additional difficulties in the way of the commerce of a country like the United States, which possessed such exceptional facilities for its development from its position as a neutral nation, and its great maritime and mercantile enterprise. The British measures meant the ruin of an American commerce which had become very profitable, and the Washington government attempted to retaliate by declaring an embargo in their own ports, which had only the result of still further embarrassing American trade. In place of this injudicious measure a system of non-intercourse with both England and France was substituted as long as either should continue its restrictive measures against the United States. The Democratic governing party practically fell under the influence of France, and believed, or at least professed to believe, that Napoleon had abandoned his repressive system, when, as a matter of fact, as the English ministry declared, it still existed to all intents and purposes. The Democratic leaders, anxious to keep in power, fanned the flame against England, whose naval superiority enabled her to inflict an injury on American commercial interests, which France was entirely powerless to do. The Democrats looked to the South and West for their principal support in holding power. In these sections the interests were exclusively agricultural, while in New England, where the Federalists--the peace party--were in the majority--and the war was very unpopular--the commercial and maritime {319} element largely prevailed. In the West there had been for years an intense feeling against England on account of the fact that after the definitive treaty of peace in 1783, the English Government continued to occupy the Western posts and dependent territory for thirteen years, nominally on the ground of the harsh treatment meted out to the loyalists in violation of its terms, and of the non-payment of debts due to English creditors, but probably also with the view of keeping control of the fur trade. The feeling prevailed among the western frontiersmen that the English secretly instigated Indian attacks on the new settlements, a belief proved by recent investigations to be groundless. Even after the victories of Mayne in 1794, and of Harrison in 1811, when the Indian power was effectively broken, this bitter sentiment still existed in the West against English and Canadians, and had much influence with the politicians who favoured the war.

The Southern leaders, Clay of Kentucky and Calhoun of South Carolina, were most inimical to England, and succeeded in forcing Madison to agree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to the presidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the passage of a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, and the formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. On the previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders in council, but it was too late to induce the war party in the United States to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which were already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard the news of the actual declaration of hostilities.

With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was their duty to assist England with all their might and submit to any sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a country which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, then Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to the end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a great amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however, that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to England.

No doubt the American Government had been led to believe from the utterances of Willcocks in the _Guardian_, as the representative of the discontented element in Upper Canada, that they would find not {321} only sympathy but probably some active co-operation in the western country as soon as the armies of the Republic appeared on Canadian soil and won, as they confidently expected, an easy victory over the small force which could be brought to check invasion and defend the province. General Hull's proclamation, when he crossed the Detroit River at the commencement of hostilities, was so much evidence of the belief that was entertained in the United States with regard to the fealty of the Canadians. Willcocks proved himself a disloyal man, for he eventually joined the American forces and fell fighting against the country which he and a very small disaffected class would willingly have handed to a foreign invader. The forces at the disposal of the Canadian authorities certainly appeared to be inadequate for the defence of a country with so long and exposed a frontier. In the provinces of Canada there were, in 1812, only four thousand five hundred regular troops, and of these hardly one-third were stationed above Montreal. The Canadian militia, however, rallied with extraordinary readiness to the call of the authorities. The majority of the loyal population that had come into the country had been engaged in military services, and even the old settlers, who were exempted from active duty, voluntarily came forward, and exercised, as General Sheaffe, said, "a happy influence on the youth of the militia ranks." The legislative bodies of all the provinces responded liberally to the call of the executive and placed at the disposal of the government all their resources. Army bills were issued to a {322} large amount, and found a most valuable currency throughout the war.

[Illustration: Major-General Brock.]

During the first year of the war, there was a continuous record of success for Canada. The key to the upper lakes, Michillimackinac, was captured and held by a small force of English regulars and Canadian voyageurs. The immediate consequence of this victory was to win the confidence and alliance of the western Indians, then led by Tecumseh, the famous Shawanoese chief, who had been driven from Tippecanoe by General Harrison. Then followed the capitulation of General Hull and his army, who had invaded Canada and were afterwards forced to retreat to Detroit, where they surrendered to General Brock with a much inferior force. By this capitulation, which led to the disgrace and nearly to the execution of Hull on his return to his own country, the whole territory of Michigan, over two thousand five hundred troops, and a large quantity of munitions of war and provisions fell into the possession of the British. The next important event of this memorable year was the defeat of the attempt of Van Rensselaer to occupy Queenston Heights, with the object of establishing there a base of future operations against Upper Canada. The Americans were routed with great loss and many of the men threw themselves down the precipice and were drowned in the deep and rapid river. At the beginning of the battle, General Brock was unhappily slain while leading his men up the heights, and the same fate befell his chivalrous aide-de-camp, Colonel McDonell, the attorney-general of the province. It {324} was left for General Sheaffe to complete the victory, which gave many prisoners to the English force, and drove the remainder of the beaten American army across the beautiful river. General Smyth, a most incompetent man, who succeeded to the command of the American army on the resignation of Van Rensselaer, subsequently attempted to storm and carry Fort Erie, but Colonel Bisshopp successfully held this important post, which controlled the outlet of Lake Erie into the Niagara River. When the campaign closed, in 1812, Canada was free from the invader, chiefly through the energy and sagacity with which the gallant General Brock had made his preparations to repel invasion.

In 1813 the campaign commenced with a signal victory by General Procter, who was in command at Detroit, over a considerable American force at Frenchtown, on the Raisin River, under the command of Brigadier Winchester. Then came a successful attack by Colonel McDonnell on Ogdensburgh (La Présentation of the French régime), in retaliation for raids on Gananoque and Elizabethtown, subsequently named Brockville--now a beautiful city near the Thousand Isles--in honour of the gallant soldier who perished on the heights of Queenston. Commodore Chauncey, in command of a small American fleet organised at Sackett's Harbour, an important base of naval and military operations for the Americans, attacked the little capital of York, now Toronto, which was evacuated by General Sheaffe, then administrator of the government, who retired to Kingston, the strongest position {325} to the west of Montreal. The invaders burnt the legislative and other public buildings. The small library and public records were not even spared by the pillaging troops. No precautions had been taken by Sheaffe to improve defences which at the best were of little strength. During the summer, the American army was so much superior to the English forces that they were able to occupy the whole Niagara frontier from Fort Erie to Fort George, both of which were captured by General Dearborn. Major-General Vincent, the English commander, was compelled to retire to Burlington Heights, overlooking the present city of Hamilton. Sir George Prevost, who proved himself a most irresolute and incapable commander-in-chief, retreated ignominiously from Sackett's Harbour, although Commodore Chauncey and his fleet were absent and the post was defended by only a small garrison. This discreditable failure, which cannot be in any way excused, was soon forgotten when the news came of the success of Colonel Harvey, afterwards a lieutenant-governor of the maritime provinces, at Stoney Creek, quite close to Burlington Bay. With an insignificant detachment from Vincent's main body, Harvey succeeded in surprising at night a large American force, commanded by Brigadiers Chandler and Winder, both of whom, as well as one hundred officers and men, were taken prisoners. This serious disaster and the approach of Admiral Yeo's fleet from the eastward forced the invading army to retire to Fort George, where they concentrated their strength, after abandoning Fort {326} Erie and other posts on the frontier. It was during the campaign of this year that Laura Secord, the courageous daughter of a sturdy loyalist stock which has given the name of Ingersoll to a Canadian town, afforded a memorable example of the devotion which animated Canadian women in these years of trial. General Dearborn had ordered Colonel Boerstler to surprise and attack the Canadian outposts at Twelve Mile Creek, now St. Catharine's, and at De Ceu's farm, close to the present town of Thorold. Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, with a picket of thirty men, was stationed at De Ceu's. A Canadian militiaman, James Secord, who lived at Queenston, heard of the proposed attack, but as he had been severely wounded in the attack on Queenston Heights in the previous October, he was unable to warn Fitzgibbon. His wife, a woman of nearly forty years, volunteered for the hazardous duty, and started at dawn for a journey of twenty miles, through dense woods, where the paths were few and had to be avoided for fear of meeting American marauders or suspicious Indians who might take her for a spy. It took her all day to reach her destination, where she first disturbed an encampment of Indians who received her with yells, which dismayed her for the moment. However, she was taken to the commanding officer, who made his arrangements immediately to surprise Boerstler, who soon made his appearance with five hundred men at least. The Americans were forced to surrender to what they believed was a vastly superior force, so cleverly had Fitzgibbon succeeded in deceiving them. In fact, he had only at first {327} thirty soldiers, and two hundred and forty Indians, and when a captain and twenty troopers of the Chippewa cavalry came up Boerstler was quite ready to surrender.

All the successes in the west, however, were now rendered worthless by the unfortunate defeat at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie of the English flotilla under Captain Barclay, by Commodore Perry, who had command of a large number of vessels, with a superior armament and equipment. The result of this victory was to give the control of Lake Erie and of the State of Michigan to the Americans. Procter retreated from Detroit, and was defeated near Moraviantown, an Indian village, about sixty miles from Sandwich, by General Harrison, who had defeated Tecumseh in the northwest, and now added to his growing fame by his victory over the English army, who were badly generalled on this occasion. Tecumseh, the faithful ally of the Canadians, fell in the battle, and his body was treated with every indignity, his skin, according to report, having been carried off to Kentucky as a trophy. Procter fell into disgrace, and was subsequently replaced by Colonel de Rottenburg. On his return to England, Procter was tried, by court-martial, suspended from his rank for six months, and censured by the commander-in-chief.

Passing by such relatively unimportant affairs as a successful attack on Black Rock, near Buffalo, by Colonel Bisshopp, and a second attack on York by Chauncey, who took some prisoners and a quantity of stores, we have now to state other facts in the {328} history of the campaign of 1813 which compensated Canada for Procter's disasters in the west. The Americans had decided to make an attack on Montreal by two forces--one coming by the St. Lawrence and the other by Lake Champlain--which were to form a junction at Châteauguay on Lake St. Louis. General Wilkinson, with eight thousand men, descended the river from Sackett's Harbour, landed below Prescott, and then proceeded towards Cornwall. Some two thousand five hundred men, under Colonel Boyd, protected the rear of the main body, and was compelled to fight a much inferior force, under Colonel Morrison, on Chrystler's farm, near what is now known as Cook's Point on the north bank of the St. Lawrence. The Americans gave way in all directions, and sustained a heavy loss. Boyd rejoined Wilkinson at the foot of the Long Sault rapids, in the neighbourhood of the present town of Cornwall, and here the news arrived that General Hampton had received a serious repulse. Hampton, leading an army of probably seven thousand men, had been routed near the junction of the Châteauguay and Outarde rivers by an insignificant force of Canadian Fencibles and Voltigeurs under Colonel de Salaberry, a French Canadian in the English military service, with the aid of Colonel McDonnell, in command of seven companies of Lower Canadian militia. These combined forces did not exceed nine hundred men, all French Canadians, with the exception of Colonel McDonnell and several other officers. Three hundred French Canadian Voltigeurs and Fencibles formed the front {329} of the line, and when the former gave way to the onslaught of the four thousand men who advanced against them Salaberry held his ground with a bugler, a mere lad, and made him sound lustily. Colonel McDonnell, with a remarkably keen understanding of the situation, immediately ordered his buglers to play, and to continue doing so while they scattered in the woods. As the woods echoed {330} to the call of the bugles, to the shouts of the soldiers, and to the yells of the Indians, the American force halted as if they were paralysed. Then, believing from the noises that filled the forest in every direction that they were to be attacked in front and rear by an overwhelming force, they broke and fled tumultuously. Salaberry and the Canadians had won a victory that has only a few parallels in warlike annals. Hampton retreated as rapidly as possible to Plattsburg, while Wilkinson found his way to Salmon River. These two victories of Chrystler's farm and Châteauguay were won almost entirely by Canadian prowess and skill, and must be always mentioned among the glorious episodes of Canadian history.

[Illustration: Colonel De Salaberry.]

Before the end of the year, General McClure, in command of the American troops on the Niagara frontier, evacuated Fort George, when he heard of the advance of the English forces under General Murray. McClure committed the cowardly outrage of destroying the town of Newark. All the houses except one were burned, and no pity was shown even to the weak and helpless women, all of whom were driven from their comfortable houses and forced to stand on the snow-clad earth, while they saw the flames ascend from their homes and household treasures. As an act of retribution the British troops destroyed all the posts and settlements from Fort Niagara to Buffalo. When the campaign of 1813 closed, Lake Erie was still in the possession of the Americans, but the Niagara district on both sides of the river had been freed from the American {331} forces, and not an inch of Canadian territory except Amherstburg was in possession of the enemy.

In the following year the campaign commenced by the advance of a large force of American troops under General Wilkinson into Lower Canada, but they did not get beyond Lacolle Mill, not far from Isle aux Noix on the Richelieu, where they met with a most determined resistance from the little garrison under Colonel Handcock. Wilkinson retreated to Plattsburg, and did not again venture upon Canadian territory. Sir Gordon Drummond took Oswego, and succeeded in destroying a large amount of public property, including the barracks. The greatest success of the year was won in the Niagara country, where the English troops under Drummond and Riall had been concentrated with the view of opposing the advance of an American army into Upper Canada. The Americans occupied Fort Erie, and Riall sustained a repulse at Street's Creek--now known as Usher's--near Chippewa, although General Brown, who was in command of a much superior force, did not attempt to follow up his advantage, but allowed the English to retreat to Fort George. Then followed, on the 25th of July, the famous battle of Lundy's Lane, where the English regulars and Canadian militia, led by General Drummond, fought from six in the evening until midnight, a formidable force of American troops, commanded by General Brown and Brigadiers Ripley, Porter, and Scott--the latter the future hero of the Mexican war. The darkness through this hotly contested engagement was intense, and the English {332} more than once seemed on the point of yielding to sheer exhaustion as they contested every foot of ground against overpowering numbers of well handled troops. The undaunted courage and persistence of the British and Canadian soldiery won the battle, as the Americans retired from the field, though with a remarkable perversion of the facts this memorable event is even claimed by some American writers as a success on their side. This was the last great fight of the war, and will be always cited by Canadians as illustrating the mettle of their own militia in old times.

[Illustration: Monument at Lundy's Lane.]

Drummond did not win other successes, and even failed to capture Fort Erie. The American army, however, did not make another advance into the country while he kept it so well guarded. Erie was eventually evacuated, while the Americans concentrated their strength at Buffalo. Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi was captured in this same summer by the English, and the Americans were repulsed in an attempt to seize the fort at Michillimackinac. In eastern Canada there was no such record of victory to show as Drummond and his officers had made in the west. Prevost again gave a signal proof of his incapacity. His fleet sustained a complete defeat on Lake Champlain, and so great was his dismay that he ordered the retreat to Montreal of a splendid force of over ten thousand troops, largely composed of peninsula veterans, though Plattsburg and its garrison must have fallen easily into his hands had he been possessed of the most ordinary resolution. This retreat was confessedly a disgrace to the {334} English army, which Canadian and English writers must always record with a feeling of contempt for Prevost.

It is not necessary to dwell at any length on other features of this war. The American navy, small though it was, won several successes mainly through the superiority of their vessels in tonnage, crew, and armament. The memorable fight between the British frigate _Shannon_, under Captain Broke, and the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, under Captain Lawrence, off Massachusetts Bay, illustrates equally the courage of British and American sailors--of men belonging to the same great stock which has won so many victories on the sea. The two ships were equally matched, and after a sharp contest of a quarter of an hour the _Chesapeake_ was beaten, but not until Captain Lawrence was fatally wounded and his victorious adversary also severely injured. During the war Nova Scotia and the other maritime provinces were somewhat harassed at times by American privateers, but the presence of a large fleet constantly on their coasts--Halifax being the rendezvous of the British navy in American waters--and the hostility of New England to the war saved these sections of British America from invasion. On the other hand, all the important positions on the coast of Maine from the Penobscot to the St. Croix, were attacked and occupied by the English. The whole American coast during the last year of the war was blockaded by the English fleet with the exception of New England ports, which were open to neutral vessels. The public buildings of Washington, {335} the federal capital, were destroyed by an English army, in retaliation for the burning of York, Newark, and Moraviantown. The attempt to take Baltimore failed, and a bold man from Tennessee, Andrew Jackson--in later years President--drove Pakenham from New Orleans. The taking of Mobile by British ships was the closing incident of the war on the Atlantic coast. In fact peace was happily declared by the Treaty of Ghent on the 24th December, 1814, or a fortnight before the defeat of the English at New Orleans. The two nations gladly came to terms. It is questionable if the heart of either was ever deeply enlisted in this unhappy war which should never have been fought between peoples so closely connected by language and race. It was mainly a war of Western and Southern politicians, and when it ended New England, whose interests had been so seriously affected, was showing signs of serious restlessness which had broken out in the Hartford convention, and might have even threatened the integrity of the Union.

Although the war ended without any definite decision on the questions at issue between the United States and Great Britain, the privileges of neutrals were practically admitted, and the extreme pretensions of Great Britain as to the right of search can never again be asserted. One important result of the war, as respects the interests of Canada, was the re-opening of the question of the British American fisheries. Certain privileges extended by the Treaty of 1783 to American fishermen on the coasts of British North America were not again conceded, {336} and the convention of 1818, which followed the peace of 1815, is the basis of the rights which Canadians have always maintained in disputes between themselves and the United States as to the fisheries on their coasts. Looking, however, to its general results, the war gave no special advantages to the Canadian people. When peace was proclaimed not an inch of Canadian territory, except the village of Amherstburg, was held by the American forces. On the other hand, Great Britain occupied the greater part of the sea-board of Maine, and her flag flew over Michillimackinac, the key to the Northwest. Had British statesmen seized this opportunity of settling finally the western boundary of New Brunswick, Canada would have obtained a territory most useful to the commercial development of the present Dominion. England, however, was very desirous of ending the war--perhaps the humiliating affair at Plattsburg had some effect on the peace--and it was fortunate for the provinces that they were allowed in the end to control their most valuable fisheries.

The people of Canada will always hold in grateful recollection the names of those men who did such good service for their country during these momentous years from 1812 to 1815. Brock, Tecumseh, Morrison, Salaberry, McDonnell, Fitzgibbon, and Drummond are among the most honourable names in Canadian history. Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Canadians, Indians, were equally conspicuous in brilliant achievement. A stately monument overlooks the noble river of the Niagara, and recalls {337} the services of the gallant soldiers, Brock and McDonell, whose remains rest beneath. A beautiful village, beyond which stretches historic Lundy's Lane, recalls the name and deeds of Drummond. As the steamers pass up and down the St. Lawrence they see on the northern bank the obelisk which the Canadian Government has raised on the site of the battlefield where Morrison defeated Boyd. On the meadows of Châteauguay, another monument has been erected by the same national spirit in honour of the victory won by a famous representative of the French Canadian race, who proved how courageously French Canadians could fight for the new régime under which they were then, as now, so happy and prosperous.

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