The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1

by Charles Roger

The result of these operations, in the northwest, so flattered the Americans as to induce the government at Washington to attempt a more effectual invasion of Canada. General Dearborn had been replaced, on account of ill-health, in the chief command of the army of the north, by General Wilkinson. The force intended for the contemplated invasion of Canada amounted to twelve thousand men. There were eight thousand stationed at Niagara and four thousand at Plattsburgh, commanded by Hampton, in addition to which, the forces under Harrison, were expected to arrive in time to furnish important assistance. It was in pursuance of this policy that Harrison suddenly left Fort George for Sackett's Harbour. General Wilkinson was concentrating his forces at Grenadier's Island, which is situated between Sackett's Harbour and Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, and the plan was to descend the St. Lawrence, in batteaux and gun-boats, passing by the forts and forming a junction with Hampton, to proceed to the Island of Montreal. The plan was not by any means an injudicious one, and its failure was almost marvellous. The expeditions were checked, and indeed annihilated by petty skirmishes, and that lack of decision, so fatal to military commanders. Hampton advanced on the 20th of September. At Odelltown he surprised the British picquet, and from thence he took the road leading to L'Acadie. He had, therefore, to pass through a swamp, covered with wood, for upwards of five leagues, before reaching the open country. Colonel DeSalaberry had done his best with the aid of his Voltigeurs to make the road a bad one to travel on. In the preceding campaign he had felled trees and laid them across it, and he had dug holes here and there, which soon contained the desired quantity of swampish water and kept the road as moist as could be wished. It was on the advance of Hampton, guarded by a few of the Frontier Light Infantry and some Indians, under the direction of Captain Mailloux. To strengthen Mailloux, Colonel DeSalaberry with his Voltigeurs and the flank companies of a battalion of militia, under Major Perrault, took up a position on both sides of the road among the trees, after the manner of the Indians. Hampton did not like the general appearance of matters and turned off the road, moving with his whole force towards the head of the river Chateauguay. DeSalaberry, with his Voltigeurs, also moved upon the Chateauguay. He was ordered, by the Commander of the Forces, to proceed to the enemy's camp at Four Corners, at the head of Chateauguay, create an alarm, and, if possible, surprise and dislodge him. He had only with him one hundred and fifty Voltigeurs, the light company of the Canadian Fencibles, and a hundred Indians, in charge of Mr. Gaucher. The Four Corners were reached unobserved. But an alarm was instantly given to the camp by the forwardness of an Indian, who discharged his musket without necessity, and without orders. DeSalaberry could now only close up his men and push forward. In a few minutes his brave band were in the midst of the enemy, numbering about four hundred, whom they drove before them, like sheep. His weakness, in numbers, for only fifty men and a few Indians had come up, was, however, soon apparent, and the enemy came to a halt, and another section of the foe made a movement with the view of out-flanking the assailants. DeSalaberry wisely fell back upon the position, from which he had emerged, upon the camp, at the skirt of the wood, and shortly afterwards the Indians having all fallen back, he retired altogether. The loss was very trifling, but the effect was excellent, both upon the enemy and upon the hitherto untried Voltigeurs. The enemy perceived or supposed that he perceived great preparations made to dispute his advance, inch by inch, while the Voltigeurs perceived that men are hardly aware of how much they are capable of doing until they try. DeSalaberry returned to Chateauguay, breaking up the road in his rear, and having ascertained the road by which Hampton was determined to advance, he judiciously took up a position in a thick wood, on the left bank of the river Chateauguay, two leagues above its confluence with English river. Here, he threw up breastworks of logs, and his front and right flanks were covered by extended abattis. His left rested on the river. In his rear the river being fordable, he covered the ford with a strong breastwork, defended by a guard, and kept a strong picquet of Beauharnois militia in advance on the right bank of the river, lest, by any chance, the enemy should mistake the road which DeSalaberry designed him to take, and crossing the ford, under cover of the forest, should dislodge him from his excellent position. Fortune favors the brave, when judicious. Hampton, having detached Colonel Clarke to devastate Missisquoi Bay, prepared to advance. He sent General Izzard, with the light troops and a regiment of the line, to force a militia picquet at the junction of the rivers Outaite and Chateauguay, and there the main body of the Americans arrived on the 22nd. Two days later the enemy repaired DeSalaberry's road and brought forward his ten pieces of artillery to within seven miles of DeSalaberry's position. He had discovered the ford, and the light brigade, and a strong body of infantry of the line, under Colonel Purdy, were sent forward on the evening of the 25th, to fall upon DeSalaberry's rear, while the main body were to assail in front. Purdy's brigade lost themselves in the woods. But Hampton himself appeared in front, with his brigadier, Izzard, and about 3,500 men. A picquet of twenty-five was driven in, but it only fell back upon a second picquet, when a most resolute stand was made. Colonel DeSalaberry heard the firing and advanced to the rescue. He had with him, Ferguson's company of Fencibles, and Chevalier Duchesnay's and Juchereau Duchesnay's companies of Voltigeurs. He posted the Fencibles, in extended order, every man being at an arm's length from his neighbor, in the night, in front of the abattis, the right touching the adjoining woods in which some Abenaquis Indians had distributed themselves. Chevalier Duchesnay's company, in skirmishing order, in line extended from the left of the Fencibles to Chateauguay, and Juchereau Duchesnay's company, and thirty-five militia, under Captain Longtain, were ranged, in close order, along the margin of the river, to prevent a flank fire from the enemy. The Americans advanced steadily, in sections, to within musket shot, and DeSalaberry commenced the action by discharging his rifle. The greatest possible noise was purposely made by buglers, stationed here and there,—on the wings, in the centre, and in the rear. It was indeed difficult to say whether the noise of the bugles or of the firing was the most terrific. The enemy wheeled into line and began to fire in vollies, but threw away their bullets, as the battalions were not fronting the Voltigeurs or Fencibles, but firing needless vollies into the woods, much to their right where they suspected men to be. So hot was the fire of the Voltigeurs, however, that the enemy soon found out his mistake, and brought his vollies to bear, as well as he could, in the right direction. Now, some of the skirmishers, under DeSalaberry retreated, and the enemy cheered and advanced. Again the buglers sounded the advance, and the sound of martial music echoed through the woods, so that it seemed as if 200,000 men were being marshalled for the fight. It was at this crisis that Colonel McDonell arrived with reinforcements, and the ardour of the enemy was checked. Purdy, long lost in the woods, was now guided towards the ford by the firing and the music. He drove in Captain Brugueire's picquet, which was on the opposite side of the river, and was pushing for the ford. DeSalaberry sent Captain Daly with the light company of the 3rd battalion of the embodied militia to cross the river and take up the ground abandoned by the picquet. He did so gallantly, driving back the American advanced guard, but was afterwards compelled to retreat. The enemy, as Daly retreated, appeared on the verge of the river. DeSalaberry gave the word to Juchereau Duchesnay to up and at them, and his men, rising from their place of concealment, poured in a fire upon Purdy's Americans, which was as unexpected as it was effectual. The Americans reeled back and then turned and ran. Hampton seeing Purdy's discomfiture, slowly withdrew, leaving Colonel DeSalaberry, with less than three hundred Canadians, in possession of his position, and with all the honors of victory. The loss was not great on either side. Of the Americans, forty were found dead. The Canadians lost five killed and twenty wounded. For this nicely managed skirmish DeSalaberry was justly loaded with honors, his officers and men were publicly thanked, and five pairs of colours were presented to the five battalions of Canadian embodied militia, by the Prince Regent.

Hampton retired upon Four Corners, and afterwards retreated to Plattsburgh, instead of co-operating with Wilkinson, as intended.

Simultaneously with Hampton's advance upon Chateauguay, or nearly so, Wilkinson proceeded down the St. Lawrence, with a flotilla of upwards of three hundred boats, protected by a division of gun-boats, until he was within three miles of Prescott, when he landed his troops, and marched down with them, by land, to a cove two miles below Fort Prescott, so as to avoid the British batteries. The boats having past during the night, without suffering any material injury from the cannonading of the fort.

So soon as the American movement was ascertained at Kingston, General DeRottenburg sent the 49th regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Prenderleath, the 89th regiment and some Voltigeurs after them. At Prescott, they were reinforced by a party of Canadian Fencibles, and the whole amounting to about eight hundred rank and file, was commanded by Colonel Morrison, of the 49th regiment, aided by the Deputy Adjutant General. Colonel Harvey, Under the escort of a small division of gun-boats, commanded by Captain Mulcaster, R.N. This corps of observation continued in pursuit of the enemy, and on the 8th of November, came up with them at Point Iroquois. Twelve hundred of the enemy, under Colonel Macomb, had landed on the previous day on the British side of the river to drive off the Canadian militia, who were collecting together in considerable numbers, at the head of the Long Sault. On the 18th, General Browne's brigade, with a body of dragoons, also landed on the British shore; and the remainder of Wilkinson's troops were landed at the head of the Sault, under the command of Brigadier-General Boyd.

Colonel Morrison, of the 8th British regiment, had landed at Hamilton, on the American side, on the 10th, took possession of a quantity of provisions and stores for the American army, and also of two field pieces. Nor was Colonel Harvey idle. He kept close upon the heels of the enemy. Seeing them one evening emerging from a wood, he tried the effect of round shot upon them. They did not at all relish it, and went back again. On the same evening, the opposing gun-boats came into collision and some rounds were fired without any important result. Next day Colonel Morrison pressed the American General Boyd, so closely that he was compelled to stand and give battle. Boyd's brigade consisted of between three and four thousand men, and a regiment of cavalry, Morrison's entire force only numbered eight hundred rank and file. At two in the afternoon, the Americans moving from Chrystler's Point, attacked the British advance. The British retired slowly and orderly upon the position which had been marked out for them. The flank companies of the 49th, the detachment of the Canadian with one field piece, somewhat in advance on the road, were on the right; the companies of the 89th, under Captain Barnes, with a gun formed in echelon, with the advance on its left supporting it; the 49th and the 89th thrown more to the rear, with a gun, formed the main body and reserve, extending to the woods, on the left, which were occupied by Voltigeurs and Indians. In half an hour the battle became general. The artillery behaved nobly. They kept up a most steady and destructive fire, and when the American cavalry attempted to charge, they were literally mowed down and were compelled to wheel about. The infantry charged the enemy's guns and captured one at the point of the bayonet. The Americans had not, apparently, room to act. They were too much cooped up. They attempted to turn the British flank, but the Voltigeurs and Indians, secure behind the trees, poured forth a deadly fire and drove them back. The enemy then concentrated his forces with the view of pushing forward in close column, but the royal artillery, concentrating their fire upon the solid mass, the Americans retreated, leaving the British to pass the night without molestation, on Chrystler's Farm. Indeed, the American infantry, after leaving the field, re-embarked in great haste, while the dragoons trotted after General Browne, who was on his way to Cornwall, entirely unconscious of disaster. At the battle of Chrystler's Farm, the enemy lost in killed, Brigadier-General Carrington, who fell at the head of his men, and three other officers, and ninety-nine men, and they had one hundred and twenty-one men wounded.

On the side of the British, Captain Nairne, of the 49th regiment, Lieutenants Lorimier and Armstrong, and twenty-one men were killed, and eight officers and one hundred and thirty-seven men were wounded, while twelve men were missing.

General Wilkinson proceeded down the Sault and joined Browne, near Cornwall. Hampton was confidently expected. The commander-in-chief had positively instructed his general of division to form a junction with the army from Sackett's Harbour at Cornwall, and he had not come. Wilkinson, sick in body, and not a little mortified by the late defeat, did not know very well what to do. To retreat by the way he came was not quite so easy as to advance. The rapids presented innumerable difficulties in the way of ascent, with an enemy lining the banks of the river. And that which was more annoying forced itself strongly upon his mind—the Canadians were both loyal and brave. His agony was most excruciating when he received a letter from Hampton to the effect that the Plattsburgh-Grand-Junction-Invading-Army was marching as expeditiously as circumstances would allow out of Canada; that, in a word it had been defeated and was in full retreat upon Champlain. An anathema was about to be coupled by the worthy and much irritated commander-in-chief with the name of Hampton, when Wilkinson recollected that he too had been checked in the most extraordinary way, in the very outset of a scheme so well calculated to subdue a country, only occupied by three thousand soldiers, scattered over a frontier of upwards of a thousand miles, and numbers of militia, formidable enough in the woods, but no match for a well disciplined, well provided, and numerous army, in the open field. The British regulars, elated with their late success, were in his rear. A kind of highland glen was not far in advance. He was fairly puzzled, and altogether wanting in that energy and decision so necessary for success in war. He called a council of his officers and communicated to them his fears. It was unanimously resolved that, for the present season, the attack on Montreal should be abandoned and that the army should cross the river to the American side and go into winter quarters. And accordingly the attack was abandoned. The Americans embarked again, and were taken to Salmon River. The boats and batteaux were immediately scuttled; the troops were made comfortable in long log huts or barracks, with astonishing celerity, and the camp, at French Mills, was as speedily as possible entrenched. Thus ended a campaign for which the Americans had made extraordinary preparations, and of the success of which high expectations had consequently been formed. The failures of Hampton and Wilkinson were indeed so disgraceful and so humiliating to the Americans that they were only compensated for, in kind, by the no less stupid, disgraceful, and humiliating failures of the British at Plattsburgh and New Orleans, with which the American war was, for both Americans and British, unfortunately concluded. All chance of invasion, on a grand scale, being now completely gone, the Canadian militia were disbanded for the winter.

In December, Lieutenant-General Drummond assumed the command of Upper Canada. He at once proceeded to the head of Ontario, with the view of regaining possession of Fort George. He ordered Colonel Murray to advance, which the gallant colonel did, and the American General, McClure, prepared to evacuate the fort. McClure set the village of Newark, the ancient capital of Upper Canada, on fire, agreeably to his instructions from the American Secretary at War, with the view of depriving the British army of comfortable winter quarters. He was indeed ordered to lay waste the country as he retreated, if retreat became necessary. It was on the 10th of December, a bleak, cold winter day, that McClure fulfilled his instructions. One hundred and fifty houses, composing the flourishing village of Newark, were reduced to ashes, and four hundred women and children were left to wander in the snow or seek the temporary shelter of some Indian wigwam in the woods. On the 12th of December, the British troops occupied Fort George, there being only five hundred men in all, militia and Indians, and not long afterwards the gratification of revenge presented itself to the British and vengeance was taken accordingly. General Drummond followed up the occupancy of Fort George by an attack upon the American fort at Niagara. On the night of the 18th of December, a detachment of the royal artillery, the grenadier company of the 1st Royals, and the flank companies of the 41st and 100th regiments, under Colonel Murray, crossed the river Niagara, and were very quietly put on shore at the Five Mile Meadows, the name of the landing place indicating the distance from the fort. All was still. Every order was conveyed in a whisper. Neither musket clattered nor sabre clinked. The 100th regiment went off in two divisions, one under Captain Fawcett,[22] and the other, under Lieutenant Dawson, stealthily. They seemed to be creeping past the trees, with the softness of a tiger's tread. The wormlike thread of men wound round picquet after picquet, and throttled the sentries on the glacis, and at the gate. The hearts of the sentries sank within them. They had hardly breath enough left, so terror-stricken were they, to reveal the watch-word, or nerve enough to point out the entrance to the fort. But the watch-word was obtained; the entrance was pointed out; and the 100th regiment were inside of Fort Niagara before a single drum had rolled or a bugle sounded. By the time indeed that the garrison were alarmed the whole British force were in the fort, and, after a show of resistance, the Americans surrendered. Only one officer and five men on the part of the British were killed and two officers and three men were wounded in this adroitly managed assault. The enemy lost in killed two officers and sixty-five men, and twelve rank and file were wounded. Three hundred men were made prisoners. In this affair the colonel of the 100th regiment, Hamilton, behaved with distinguished gallantry.

The rule of General Drummond in Upper Canada had auspiciously commenced. This affair was not only brilliant but well managed. The fort was a prize of no ordinary worth. It contained an immense quantity of commissariat stores, three thousand stand of arms, a number of rifles and several pieces of dismounted ordnance. On the works were twenty-seven heavy guns.

The greatest possible precautions were adopted to secure success. Major-General Riall followed Colonel Murray, with the whole body of Western Indians, stout, athletic, brave men, inured to fighting, the 1st battalion of the Royals, and the 41st regiment to support him, in case of need. Success had been achieved without the general's aid; but instead of resting satisfied with that which had been already accomplished, Riall wisely pushed on before the news of the capture of the fort could be spread about, on Lewiston, where the enemy, in some force, had erected batteries, with the view of destroying Queenston. Seeing Riall coming up in their rear, the enemy were compelled to retreat, and they abandoned their position with such precipitation, that two field pieces, with some small arms and stores fell into the hands of the British. It was now that the burning of Newark was to be revenged. The Indians and the troops were let loose upon the enemy's frontiers and Lewiston, Manchester, and the country around were laid in ruins. Determined to follow up his success, Drummond proceeded to Chippewa. He fixed his head-quarters there on the 28th of December, and on the morning after was within two miles of Fort Erie. Without loss of time, he reconnoitred, and finding the enemy's position at Black Rock assailable, he determined upon a second nocturnal attack. General Riall accordingly crossed the river, with four companies of the King's regiment and the light company of the 89th, under Colonel Ogilvy, and two hundred and fifty men of the 41st regiment, and the grenadiers of the 100th regiment, under Major Frend, together with about fifty militia volunteers and a body of Indians. The landing was effected about midnight. As before the advanced guard proceeded cautiously but were not quite so successful as before in preventing alarm. They surprised a picquet and captured not the whole, but the greater part of it. They did still more. The bridge over the Conguichity Creek was secured in spite of the repeated efforts of the enemy to dislodge the assailants. But all did not yet go well with the British. The boats required to bring over a second division had necessarily to be tracked up the river as high as the foot of the rapids below Fort Erie. Unfortunately they took the ground and could not be got off for a long time. Indeed, morning had dawned before the royals, intended to turn the enemy's position by attacking above Black Rock, while Riall's division attacked below, suffered so severely from the fire of the enemy that a landing was not effected in sufficient time for the full accomplishment of General Drummond's purpose. Riall, nevertheless, moved forward and attacked the Americans. They were strongly posted and in considerable force, but Riall drove them out of their batteries at the point of the bayonet, turning the enemy's one twenty-four, three twelves, and a nine pounder upon the now retreating foe. Riall, following up his successes, pursued the fleeing enemy into Buffalo. There they rallied, but it was only for a moment. They drew out a large body of fresh infantry, exhibited some cavalry, and fired a few rounds from a field piece, unlimbered on a height commanding the road. The British still pushed on and the enemy again gave way. They retreated notwithstanding their reinforcement so hurriedly that the six pounder brass gun on the height, an iron eighteen, and an iron six pounder were left behind. At last they reached the woods and Riall considered that for one day he had done enough, on land. But not yet fully satisfied, he detached Captain Robinson with two companies of the King's regiment to destroy three armed vessels, part of Perry's squadron, and their stores, if it were possible to do so. These vessels were at anchor a short distance below Buffalo, and Captain Robinson did as he was ordered to the letter.