The loyalists of America and their times

by Egerton Ryerson

The prisoners were landed at Sandusky, and treated with the greatest humanity by the American commodore, who paroled Captain Barclay, and treated that gallant officer with all the kindness and attention which his unsuccessful bravery deserved.

The British army in possession of the Michigan territory and the neighbourhood of Detroit, by this disastrous defeat, were deprived of every prospect of obtaining future supplies from Kingston by way of Lake Ontario, and a speedy evacuation of Detroit, and a retreat towards the head of that lake became inevitable.

General Harrison having received reinforcements amounting to 7,000 or 8,000 men, including 4,000 volunteers from Kentucky under Samuel Shelby, the ex-governor of that State, and an old revolutionary officer, was conveyed by Commodore Perry, in his flotilla, with all the troops and stores, from the mouth of the Miami to the Canadian shore, except the thousand dragoons who were to advance by land, and so order their march that they might arrive in the neighbourhood of Malden at the same time with the infantry. General Harrison occupied Amherstburg the evening of the 23rd of September, General Proctor having previously abandoned it and fallen back upon Sandwich, after having set fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores at the former place.

General Harrison, on his arrival, having found the different points evacuated, invested General McArthur with the chief command of these garrisons, and prepared to pursue the retreating army up the River Thames, with a force of 3,000 men, including Colonel Johnson's corps of dragoons, consisting of 1,000. General Harrison occupied Sandwich the 27th of September, and on the 2nd of October he marched in pursuit of the shattered remains of the British forces under General Proctor. In this, his reverse of fortune, the Indians, under Colonel Elliot, of the Indian Department, with Tecumseh, still adhered to his standard with unshaken fidelity, and covered his retreat.

On the 4th of October, General Harrison came up with the rear-guard of the British, and succeeded in capturing the whole of their ammunition and stores. General Proctor, under this second reverse of fortune, by which he was left destitute of the means of subsistence or defence, found himself compelled to stake the fate of the remnant of his small army on a general engagement. Accordingly he assumed a position on the right bank of the River Thames, near the Indian village of Moravian Town—the left resting on the river supported by a field-piece, his right on a swamp, at a distance of 300 yards from the river, and flanked by the whole Indian force attached to the division. The intermediate ground, covered with lofty trees, was dry and somewhat elevated. Here General Proctor formed his troops into line, to the number of 500 or 600. The Indians under Tecumseh amounted to 1,200. In this position he awaited the approach of the enemy, who, on the morning of the 5th of October, passed the river at a rapid twelve miles below the Moravian village, and came up with the British in the afternoon. General Harrison drew up his men in two lines, and secured his left flank, which was opposed to the Indians, by a division thrown back en potence; and without any previous engagement by infantry, ordered his mounted Kentuckians (accustomed from their boyhood to ride with extraordinary dexterity through the most embarrassed woods) to charge at full speed upon (the open line of) the British, which had effected before the latter had time to discharge their third fire. This cavalry charge of the enemy on the British line decided the issue of the day. The line gave way at the charge; the troops, worn down with fatigue and hunger, dispirited by the unpromising appearance of the campaign, became totally routed, and for the most part surrendered themselves prisoners, while General Proctor and his personal staff sought safety in flight.

To the left of the enemy's position, which was opposed to the Indians, the battle raged with more obstinacy. This part of the enemy's line had even given way until a column under ex-Governor Shelby was brought up to its support. These faithful allies continued to carry on the contest with the left of the American line with furious determination, encouraged by the presence of Tecumseh, until finding all hopes of retrieving the day to be in vain—General Proctor and his soldiers having fled or surrendered—they yielded to the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and left the field—upwards of 100 of them having fallen in battle, and the bodies of 33 of them being found around the dead body of their famous chief and warrior, Tecumseh; celebrated no less for his humanity than for his bravery, his eloquence, and his influence among the Indian allies of the British in the West.

Upwards of 600 of the British, including twenty-five officers, were made prisoners of war. Those who escaped made the best of their way to Ancaster, a few miles from Burlington Heights, exposed at an inclement season to all the horrors of the wilderness, of hunger, and famine. The number thus escaped to that place amounted to only 246, including the general and seventeen officers.

This disaster of the British arms in that quarter seems not to have been palliated by those precautions and that presence of mind which, even in defeat, reflects lustre on a commander. In rapid retreats from a pursuing enemy cumbrous and useless baggage is abandoned, and bridges and roads are destroyed and rendered as impassable as possible, in order to impede the progress of the pursuers; but General Proctor encumbered himself with a cumbrous load of baggage, and left the bridges and roads in his rear entire, to the advantage of his pursuers. Whether this error and neglect arose from contempt of the enemy, or from disobedience of the commanding officer's orders, is not well understood; but the defeat led to the harshest recrimination, and involved in unmerited disgrace the division of the brave troops that had served with honour in the Michigan territory; and General Proctor was subjected to a trial by court-martial for his conduct in the whole affair—censured and deprived of his pay for six months.

PART XII.

AMERICANS BURN MORAVIAN TOWN, BEFORE RETURNING TO DETROIT—FORM ALLIANCE WITH INDIANS, WHICH THEY HAD EXCLAIMED SO MUCH AGAINST ON THE PART OF THE BRITISH—ARE INTOXICATED WITH THEIR SUCCESSES IN THE WEST—MAGNIFICENT CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1813, AS OF 1812, IN BEHALF OF CANADIANS, BOTH IN UPPER AND LOWER CANADA—CANADIAN VICTORY OF ISLE-AUX-NOIS—SPLENDID CANADIAN VICTORIES OF CHATEAUGUAY AND CHRYSTLER'S FARM—AMERICAN ARMIES RETREAT INTO WINTER QUARTERS.