CHAPTER IX
FORCE MAJEURE
The check administered to Colonel Gore's column at St Denis, in the first engagement of the rebellion, was the only victory which fell to the rebel forces. In the meantime Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall, with several companies of infantry, a troop of volunteer cavalry, and two field-guns, was marching on St Charles. On the evening of November 22 Major Gugy, the leader of the English party in the Assembly, had brought to Wetherall at Chambly instructions to advance down the Richelieu and attack the rebel position at St Charles in the morning. He set out accordingly at about the hour when Gore headed his forces up the river from Sorel. But, while Gore carried out his orders to the letter and reached St Denis on the morning of the 23rd, Wetherall allowed himself some latitude in interpreting his instructions. This was largely due to the advice of Gugy, if we are to believe the account which Gugy has left us. 'In the first place,' it runs, 'not one of the force knew anything of the roads or people, nor do I believe that more than one spoke French.... The storm raged so fearfully, the rain poured in such torrents, and the frost set in afterwards so intensely, that ... men and horses were equally fatigued ... all so exhausted as to be unable to cope, on broken or woody ground, successfully with any resolute enemy.... I learned that we had marched without a dollar, without a loaf of bread, without a commissary, and without a spare cartridge—a pretty predicament in an enemy's country, surrounded by thousands of armed men.' It was apparent to Gugy that Sir John Colborne, in issuing his orders, had greatly underestimated the difficulty of the task he was setting for the troops. After crossing the river above the Chambly Basin, Gugy therefore induced Wetherall to halt until daylight; and, turning himself into a commissary, he billeted the men and horses in the neighbouring houses and stables.
The next day about noon the column reached St Hilaire, some seven miles from St Charles. Here Wetherall obtained information which led him to fear that Gore had met with some kind of check; and he was persuaded to send back to Chambly for a reinforcement of one company which had been left in garrison there. His messenger reached Chambly at four o'clock on the morning of the 24th. Major Warde, the commandant at Chambly, at once embarked his company on a scow and dropped down the river to St Hilaire; but he arrived too late to allow of any further action that day, and it was not until the morning of the 25th that the column moved on St Charles.
Meanwhile, the rebels had been making preparations for defence. They had fortified the manor-house of Debartzch, who had fled to Montreal, and built round it a rampart of earth and tree-trunks—a rampart which, for some mysterious reason, was never completed. They appointed as commander Thomas Storrow Brown, a Montreal iron-merchant, for whose arrest a warrant had been issued and who had fled to St Charles with two or three other Patriote politicians. But Brown had no military experience, and was still suffering so severely from injuries received in the rioting in Montreal that his proper place was a home for convalescents rather than a field of battle. His appointment can only be explained by the non-appearance of the local Patriote leaders. 'The chief men,' Brown testified afterwards, 'were, with two or three exceptions, absent or hiding.' It is evident that the British authorities expected to meet with the strongest opposition at St Charles, since that place had been the scene of the great demonstration earlier in the year. But, as a matter of fact, the rebel forces at St Charles were much less formidable than those at St Denis. Not only were they lacking in proper military leadership; they were also fewer in number and were, moreover, very inadequately armed. If Brown's statements are to be relied upon, there were not in the rebel camp two hundred men. 'Of ammunition,' wrote Brown, 'we had some half dozen kegs of gunpowder and a little lead, which was cast into bullets; but as the fire-arms were of every calibre, the cartridges made were too large for many, which were consequently useless. We had two small rusty field-pieces, but with neither carriages nor appointments they were as useless as two logs. There was one old musket, but not a bayonet. The fire-arms were common flintlocks, in all conditions of dilapidation, some tied together with string, and very many with lock-springs so worn out that they could not be discharged.'
On the 24th Brown made a reconnaissance in the direction of St Hilaire. He destroyed a bridge over a ravine some distance to the south of St Charles, and placed above it an outpost with orders to prevent a reconstruction of the bridge. But when the British troops appeared on the morning of the 25th, this and other outlying pickets fell back without making any resistance. They probably saw that they were so outnumbered that resistance would be hopeless. On the approach of the troops Brown at first assumed an attitude of confidence. A messenger came from Wetherall, 'a respectable old habitant,' to tell the rebels that if they dispersed quietly, they would not be molested. Brown treated the message as a confession of weakness. 'I at once supposed,' he said, 'that, followed in the rear by our friends from above, they were seeking a free passage to Sorel, and determined to send a message, that if they would lay down their arms, they should pass unmolested.' This message does not seem to have reached its destination. And hardly had the engagement opened when Brown quickly changed his tune. 'To go forward was useless, as I could order nothing but a retreat—without it the people commenced retiring. I tried to rally the little squads, my only hope being in keeping together the fowling-pieces we had collected, but finding, after a long trial, my strength and authority insufficient, I considered my command gone, turned my horse, and rode to ... St Denis (seven or eight miles), where ... I arrived about nightfall.'
The engagement lasted less than an hour. The rebels, or at any rate those of them who were armed, seem to have been outnumbered by the soldiers, of whom there were between three and four hundred. But the fighting was apparently brisk while it lasted. The British lost three killed and eighteen wounded. The Patriote losses are not known. The local tradition is that forty-two were killed and many more wounded. We know that thirty were taken prisoners on the field.
The defeat of the rebels at St Charles really terminated the rebellion in the country about the Richelieu. When news of the defeat spread over the countryside, the Patriote forces immediately disbanded, and their leaders sought safety in flight. Papineau and O'Callaghan, who had been at St Hyacinthe, succeeded in getting across the Vermont border; but Wolfred Nelson was not so fortunate. After suffering great privations he was captured by some loyalist militia not far from the frontier, taken to Montreal, and there lodged in prison.