It is stated by gentlemen of intelligence at Lewistown, that the government of Canada have in their employment, under pay, about 250 Indians, armed complete: a part of them are mounted.
Brigadier-General William Wadsworth, from Genesee, commands the troops on our frontiers. His aids are Major Adam Hoops and Major W. H. Spencer. His head quarters are now at Lewistown. It is impossible to state the precise number of troops under his command, because the militia ordered on the lines are returning, and the companies composing the regiments under his command have not all arrived; but from what we learn, there are in regular troops, volunteers, and detached militia, above 4,000 stationed at Rock, Lewistown, Youngstown, and Fort Niagara. The troops are in excellent health, in good spirits, and well supplied. They appear quite impatient for want of employment. There has been some firing from the sentries on both sides of the river.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] At this time, the British regular force in the Canadas consisted of the 8th, 41st, 49th, and 100th regiments, a small detachment of artillery, the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion, and the Canadian, Newfoundland, and Glengary Fencibles; amounting, in the whole, to 4,450 men. These were distributed along the different posts from the telegraph station, about 250 miles below Quebec, to St. Joseph's, but so unequally divided, that, in the Upper Province, whose front extends to nearly 1,300, out of the 1,700 miles, there were but 1,450 men.—James' Military Occurrences.
[55] In answer to Major-General Brock's suggestions on the subject, see page [127].
CHAPTER IX.
The American government, in anticipation of its declaration of war, had detached from the state of Ohio to the Michigan territory an army of about 2,500 men, under the command of Brigadier-General Hull, who, said President Madison in his message to congress, "possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, passed into Canada with a prospect of easy and victorious progress." The enemy evidently confided in the very limited defensive means of the Upper Province, and in the impossibility of its receiving early assistance from the mother country. They relied also on the supposed disaffection of many of its inhabitants, and they expected confidently that, weak and divided, it would fall an easy prey to the invaders; but they were soon undeceived. Having crossed over to the Canadian village of Sandwich on the 12th July, Brigadier-General Hull issued on that day the following insidious but able proclamation, which was doubtless written at Washington. It will be seen that the American general was made to say, that he did not ask the assistance of the Canadians, as he had no doubt of eventual success, because he came prepared for every contingency with a force which would look down all opposition, and that that force was but the vanguard of a much greater!
Inhabitants of Canada!—After thirty years of peace and prosperity, the United States have been driven to arms. The injuries and aggressions, the insults and indignities of Great Britain, have once more left them no alternative but manly resistance or unconditional submission.
The army under my command has invaded your country, and the standard of union now waves over the territory of Canada. To the peaceable, unoffending inhabitant, it brings neither danger nor difficulty. I come to find enemies, not to make them. I come to protect, not to injure you.