The 'Patriotes' of '37: A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion

by Alfred D. DeCelles

The news of this affair spread rapidly through the parishes, and greatly encouraged the Patriotes to resist the arrest of Papineau and his lieutenants. Papineau, Nelson, Brown, and O'Callaghan had all evaded the sheriff's officer, and had taken refuge in the country about the Richelieu, the heart of the revolutionary district. In a day or two word came to Montreal that considerable numbers of armed habitants had gathered at the villages of St Denis and St Charles, evidently with the intention of preventing the arrest of their leaders. The force at St Denis was under the command of Wolfred Nelson, and that at St Charles was under the command of Thomas Storrow Brown. How these self-styled 'generals' came to be appointed is somewhat of a mystery. Brown, at any rate, seems to have been chosen for the position on the spur of the moment. 'A mere accident took me to St Charles,' he wrote afterwards, 'and put me at the head of a revolting force.'

Sir John Colborne, who was in command of the British military forces, immediately determined to disperse these gatherings by force and to arrest their leaders. His plan of campaign was as follows. A force consisting of one regiment of infantry, a troop of the Montreal Volunteer Cavalry, and two light field-guns, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall, had already been dispatched to Chambly by way of the road on which the rescue of Demaray and Davignon had taken place. This force would advance on St Charles. Another force, consisting of five companies of the 24th regiment, with a twelve-pounder, under Colonel Charles Gore, a Waterloo veteran, would proceed by boat to Sorel. There it was to be joined by one company of the 66th regiment, then in garrison at Sorel, and the combined force would march on St Denis. After having dispersed the rebels at St Denis, which was thought not to be strongly held, the little army was to proceed to St Charles, where it would be joined by the force under Wetherall.

At eight o'clock on the evening of November 22, Colonel Gore set out with his men from the barrack-square at Sorel for St Denis. The journey was one of eighteen miles; and in order to avoid St Ours, which was held by the Patriotes, Gore turned away from the main road along the Richelieu to make a detour. This led his troops over very bad roads. The night was dark and rain poured down in torrents. 'I got a lantern,' wrote one of Gore's aides-de-camp afterwards, 'fastened it to the top of a pole, and had it carried in front of the column; but what with horses and men sinking in the mud, harness breaking, wading through water and winding through woods, the little force soon got separated, those in the rear lost sight of the light, and great delays and difficulties were experienced. Towards morning the rain changed to snow, it became very cold, and daybreak found the unfortunate column still floundering in the half-frozen mud four miles from St Denis.'

Meanwhile word had reached the rebels of the coming of the soldiers. At daybreak Dr Wolfred Nelson had ridden out to reconnoitre, and had succeeded in destroying several bridges. As the soldiers approached St Denis they heard the church bells ringing the alarm; and it was not long before they found that the village was strongly defended. After capturing some of the houses on the outskirts of the village, they were halted by a stockade built across the road covered by a large brick house, well fortified on all sides. The commander of the troops brought reinforcements up to the firing line, and the twelve-pounder came into action. But the assailants made very little impression on the defence. Although the engagement lasted for more than five hours, the troops succeeded in capturing nothing more than one of the flanking houses. The ammunition of the British was running low, and the numbers of the insurgents seemed to be increasing. Colonel Gore therefore deemed it advisable to retire. By some strange oversight the British were without any ambulance or transport of any kind; and they were compelled to leave their dead and wounded behind them. Their casualties were six killed and eighteen wounded. The wounded, it is a pleasure to be able to say, were well looked after by the victorious Patriotes.

The British effected their retreat with great steadiness, despite the fact that the men had had no food since the previous day and had been marching all night. They were compelled to abandon their twelve-pounder in the mud; but they reached St Ours that night without further loss. The next day they were back at Sorel.

The number of the insurgents at St Denis has never been accurately ascertained; probably they were considerably in excess of the troops. Their position was one of great strength, and good judgment had been shown in fortifying it. On the other hand, with the exception of a few veterans of Major de Salaberry's Voltigeurs, they were untrained in war; and their muskets and fowling-pieces were much inferior to the rifles of the regulars. Their victory, it must be said, reflected great credit upon them; although their losses had been twice as great as those of the soldiers,[[1]] these peasants in homespun had stood their ground with a courage and steadiness which would have honoured old campaigners. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about some of their leaders. Papineau and O'Callaghan were present in St Denis when the attack began; but before the morning was well advanced, they had departed for St Hyacinthe, whence they later fled to the United States. Papineau always declared that he had taken this action at the solicitation of Wolfred Nelson, who had said to him: 'Do not expose yourself uselessly: you will be of more service to us after the fight than here.' In later days, however, when political differences had arisen between the two men, Nelson denied having given Papineau any such advice. It is very difficult to know the truth. But even if Nelson did advise Papineau to leave, it cannot be said that Papineau consulted his own reputation in accepting the advice. He was not a person without military experience: he had been a major in the militia, and was probably superior in rank to any one in the village. His place was with the brave farmers who had taken up arms on his behalf.

An episode in connection with the attack on St Denis left a dark stain on the Patriote escutcheon and embittered greatly the relations between the two races in Canada. This was the murder, on the morning of the fight, of Lieutenant Weir, a subaltern in the 32nd regiment, who had been sent with dispatches to Sorel by land. He had reached Sorel half an hour after Colonel Gore and his men had departed for St Denis. In attempting to catch up with Gore's column he had taken the direct road to St Denis and had arrived there in advance of the British troops. On approaching the village he was arrested, and by Wolfred Nelson's orders placed in detention. As the British attack developed, it was thought better by those who had him in charge to remove him to St Charles. They bound him tightly and placed him in a wagon. Hardly had they started when he made an attempt to escape. In this emergency his warders seem to have lost their heads. In spite of the fact that Weir was tightly bound and could do no harm, they fell upon him with swords and pistols, and in a short time dispatched him. Then, appalled at what they had done, they attempted to hide the body. When the British troops entered St Denis a week later, they found the body lying, weighted down with stones, in the Richelieu river under about two feet of water. The autopsy disclosed the brutality with which Weir had been murdered; and the sight of the body so infuriated the soldiers that they gave the greater part of the village of St Denis to the flames. In the later phases of the rebellion the slogan of the British soldiers was, 'Remember Jack Weir.'

Another atrocious murder even more unpardonable than that of Weir was perpetrated a few days later. On November 28 some Patriotes near St Johns captured a man by the name of Chartrand, who was enlisted in a loyal volunteer corps of the district. After a mock trial Chartrand was tied to a tree and shot by his own countrymen.

[[1]] According to a report twelve Patriotes lost their lives during the engagement. Among them was Charles Ovide Perrault, member of the Assembly for Vaudreuil, a young barrister of considerable promise. He seems to have been Papineau's closest follower and confidant During the last sessions of the Lower Canada legislature Perrault contributed many letters to La Minerve.