Sir Isaac Brock

by Hugh S. Eayrs

When Brock arrived at York the joy of the people knew no bounds. They presented him with an address in which they tried to tell him how grateful to and proud of him they were. Brock, always generous, took little credit to himself for the victory, but ascribed it to the confidence he had in the loyalty, zeal, and valor of the Canadian volunteers. His exact words are worth quoting: “I cannot but feel highly gratified by this expression of your esteem for myself; but in justice to the brave men at whose head I marched against the enemy, I must beg leave to direct your attention to them as the proper objects of your gratitude. It was a confidence founded on their loyalty, zeal, and valor, that determined me to adopt the plan of operations which led to so fortunate a termination. Allow me to congratulate you, gentlemen, at having sent out from yourselves a large portion of that gallant band, and that at such a period a spirit had manifested itself on which you may confidently repose your hopes of future security. It will be a most pleasing duty for me to report to our Sovereign conduct so truly meritorious.”

Brock went on to Kingston and employed the time spent on the schooner, which bore him thither, in writing to his brothers. In the letter which appears to have been addressed to his brother William, he says: “They say that the value of the articles will amount to thirty or forty thousand pounds; in that case my portion will be something considerable. If it enabled me to contribute to your comfort and happiness, I shall esteem it my highest reward. When I returned Heaven thanks for my amazing success, I thought of you all; you appeared to me happy—your late sorrows forgotten; and I felt as if you acknowledged that the many benefits which for a series of years I received from you were not unworthily bestowed. Let me know, my dearest brothers, that you are again united. The want of union was nearly losing this province without even a struggle, and be assured it operates in the same degree in regard to families.”

It is well for us that we are able to catch a glimpse of the humanity of this man of action. Neither political success nor failure, neither military advantage nor setback, could exclude from his great heart the thought of the loved ones at home. He joyed in his successes, because they would bring pleasure and possibly more practical gratification to those he loved and who loved him. It was a heavy grief to him that his brothers were estranged. Though he was never to know it they buried their difference. By a strange chance this happened upon the very day of Brock’s glorious death at Queenston. His influence, great in many things, was greater in nothing than in this, the amity and affectionate regard which his brothers came to have for each other.

At Kingston, Brock learned that the armistice arranged by Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn had been refused by President Madison. September 8th saw the renewal of hostilities between the two countries. No doubt Sir George had entered into the armistice thinking he acted for the best. He appears to have been moved by his knowledge that the New England and several other States were opposed to the war and also by the fact that the orders in council, which had been the cause of the trouble between the United States and Britain had been repealed. And he may have believed that in attempting to avoid a conflict in America he was relieving Britain of a minor task which was hampering her in her contest with Napoleon. But to the student and reader of later years the armistice was an utterly foolish move.

When Brock learned that the armistice had come to an end, he proposed to Prevost that he immediately attack Sackett’s Harbor from Kingston. Again the governor-general said him nay, and Brock, disheartened and annoyed, returned to Fort George there to deal, as best he could, with the threatened invasion at Niagara.

Naturally enough the United States forces had made great use of the time granted by the armistice. In very sight of the British supplies of food had been brought up to the American army at Lewiston. Heavy guns had been placed at strategic points on the American shore. Large detachments of troops were sent to the Niagara frontier. Ships which had been held at Ogdensburg, covered by the British guns at Prescott, had been rushed to Sackett’s Harbor. Had there been no armistice, General Brock could have cleared the Fort Niagara district of enemy troops, but now he had, by reason of the delay, to face four times as large an army.

Let us take stock of the situation. On the shores of the Niagara River, there were enough United States troops to have conquered Upper Canada. There were over six thousand men between Black Rock and Fort Niagara, while Brock had only fifteen hundred men, and these distributed at several points between Fort Erie and Fort George. Thus he had about a quarter the number of men of the enemy and while their forces were concentrated his were scattered over a line forty miles long. Again the odds looked against him. Volunteers in Upper Canada, however, had rallied to his standard, and he was able to arm them by the very arms he had captured at Detroit. And once again it should be emphasized that the Canadian forces had much better morale than that of the Americans. They felt that they had indeed “their quarrel just.” Moreover, they were fighting in defence of their homes and families. And they had unbounded confidence in their commander.

It came to Brock’s ears about October 1st that the United States commanders planned their invasion somewhere along the British forty mile line. It later appeared that Queenston was the point decided upon. The plan of attack seems to have been to capture Queenston, and there to collect a large army with which, next year, an attempt would be made to reach Montreal. Luckily for Brock and Canada too many cooks spoil the broth. There was dissension in the American higher command as to the precise point at which the attack should be made.

The British suffered a loss on October 9th. The Americans under Lieutenant Elliott captured two British vessels, the Caledonia and the Detroit. This victory gave a fillip to the now jaded spirits of the United States troops, and General Van Rensselaer, now that his men had cheered up, decided to invade Canada. This seems to have been in disagreement with the views of the other American commander, General Smyth. Van Rensselaer sent a spy into the British camp. The spy returned with the information that Brock had set out, with a large force, for Detroit. The spy, however, did his work but poorly. Brock had left Fort George, but he had gone only to the other end of the line, Fort Erie.

It still remains somewhat of a mystery why Van Rensselaer, who had a large army, did not steal along the shore of Lake Ontario, cross the Niagara at the mouth and try to catch the tail of Brock’s army. Instead of this, on October 10th, he prepared his boats and got his troops ready to cross the Niagara River where it whirls and swirls at the base of Queenston. The British, on the Canadian side, were quite unprepared for the attack. Very early in the morning of October 11th the first boat of American soldiers put out. In this boat was Lieutenant Sims. History does not tell us what happened to Sims. He may have landed on the Canadian side, but it is more likely that he was caught in the current and tried to return to the American shore. Whatever became of him, he had with him the oars for the remaining boats, thus preventing his comrades following him across the river. To attempt his rescue was impossible. They waited till dawn, but were finally driven, sodden by the rain and terror-stricken by the storm, to their camp.