The month of September had seen the arrival at Montreal of the wretched prisoners from Detroit. Colonel Baynes wrote that they had reached there in a very miserable state, having travelled without halt. They had been sent to Fort William Henry on their way to Quebec. The officers were to be on parole and the men confined in the transports on the river. General Hull had been allowed to return home on parole, and also most of the officers who had families with them. "General Hull," Colonel Baynes said, "seemed to possess less feeling and sense of shame than any man in his situation could be supposed to have. The grounds on which he rests his defence are not well founded, as he said he had not gunpowder enough for one day. Sir George showed him the return of the large supply found in the fort. It did not create a blush!"

The unfortunate and incapable general was tried by court-martial on his return on parole to the United States. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. His defence was that he had not provisions enough to maintain the siege, that he expected the enemy would be reinforced, and that he knew the savage ferocity of the Indians. His sentence of death was remitted on account of his past services, but his name was struck off the roll of the army, and he passed the remainder of his life in disgrace and obscurity.

Colonel Baynes reported in September that about half of the 8th, or King's Regiment, three hundred men, were at Côteau du Lac and the Isle aux Noix. These two places were the keys of Lower Canada, the former commanding the navigation of the St. Lawrence at its entrance into Lake Francis, the latter, in the Richelieu River, being the barrier of Lower Canada from the Champlain frontier. In the conflict of the eighteenth century these places had been much thought of by French engineers. They were, after the conquest, fortified by General Haldimand. Colonel Baynes was confident, he wrote, that the British could bring as many men into the field as the Americans, and of superior stuff, as the militia had improved so much in discipline, and therefore in spirit and confidence. Montreal, he thought, could turn out two thousand volunteer militia very tolerably drilled.

A naval success on the Atlantic on August 19th, when H.M.S. Guerrière was taken by the Constitution, had gone far to console the Americans for their discomfiture at Detroit, and they were hopefully preparing for another invasion, in this instance on the Niagara frontier, where Major-General Van Rensselaer[[1]] had assembled an army of over six thousand men, with headquarters at the village of Lewiston, opposite Queenston.

Dearborn's command

At Plattsburg there were about five thousand troops, half of them regulars under the immediate command of Major-General Dearborn, who wrote on September 26th to General Van Rensselaer: "At all events we must calculate on possessing Upper Canada before the winter sets in." Ex-President Jefferson wrote: "I fear that Hull's surrender has been more than the mere loss of a year to us. Perhaps, however, the patriotic efforts from Kentucky and Ohio by recalling the British force to its upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to strike a blow below. Effective possession of the river from Montreal to Chaudiere, which is practicable, would give us the upper country at our leisure."

So spoke the generals and politicians. In the meantime, courteous messages were passing from Major-General Van Rensselaer to Major-General Brock as to the disposition of the prisoners of war, and of the women and children who had accompanied them from Detroit. General Brock writes to the American general: "With much regret I have perceived very heavy firing from both sides of the river. I am, however, given to understand that on all occasions it commenced on your side, and from the circumstance of the flag of truce which I did myself the honour to send over yesterday, having been repeatedly fired on while in the act of crossing the river, I am inclined to give full credit to the correctness of the information. You may rest assured on my repeating my most positive orders against the continuance of a practice which can only be injurious to individuals, without promoting the object which both our nations may have in view."

Another letter from John Lovett,—secretary to General Van Rensselaer—to Joseph Alexander, gives an idea of the state of affairs from the American point of view, and indirectly bears testimony to the unceasing labour and watchfulness of the British general:—

Headquarters, Lewiston, September 32nd, 1812. "The enemy appears to be in a state of preparedness to give or receive an attack. Every day or two they make some movement which indicates a disposition to attack us immediately. The night before last every ship they have on Lake Ontario came into the mouth of Niagara. Then, to be sure, we thought it time to look out for breakers. But yesterday, when Colonel Van Rensselaer went over with a flag to Fort George, there was not a ship in sight nor a general officer there; where gone we know not. Notwithstanding the most positive orders on both sides, our sentries have kept up almost a constant warfare for a month past. On the bank of the river musket balls are about as thick as whip-poor-wills on a summer evening. We are promised reinforcements by companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, and I might almost say armies, but not a single man has joined us in some weeks. Besides our men here are getting down very fast. The morning's report of sick was one hundred and forty-nine. Give Mrs. Lovett the inclosed. It contains an impression of General Brock's seal, with his most appropriate motto, 'He who guards never sleeps.'"

The Niagara frontier