Such is the story of the Battle of Queenston Heights.
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1812.
After Van Rensselaer resigned his command in favour of Brigadier-General Smyth, the effect of the British victory upon the United States troops at Lewiston was beyond belief. While the British soldiers were, with characteristic indifference, hard at work at Fort George cutting wood and threshing straw, the American soldiers across the river, according to their own historians, were deserting by the hundreds. Of General Tannehill's brigade of 1,414 of all ranks, 1,147 deserted within a few days. Twenty of these were officers.
Had the British been allowed to profit by this demoralization of the enemy and followed up their brilliant successes, they could, as Brock predicted, have swept the frontier from Chippewa to Sackett's Harbour, and probably prevented a continuance of the two years' war. The Sheaffe-Prevost inexcusable thirty days' truce was the very respite the enemy had prayed for. More men and more munitions were hurriedly despatched to all the United States frontier forts, and renewed courage imparted to some of the commanders and their hesitating brigades. The first to waken up after the expiration of this, to the Americans, merciful truce, was General Dearborn, who, with 2,000 men, attacked Odelltown, only to be driven back to Lake Champlain by de Salaberry. This reverse was followed in the last days of November by an attack by General Smyth, with 400 of his 4,300 men, upon a four-gun battery, defended by sixty-five men, above Garden Island, on the Niagara River. Elated with his success, he took for his rallying cry, "The cannon lost at Detroit—or death!" and again crossed the river with thirty-two boats and 900 men, and descended upon Fort Erie. Meanwhile, Colonel Bisshopp had retaken the fort, with its American captors, and with a handful of regulars and militia awaited "annihilation." As Smyth's flotilla advanced, Bisshopp poured in a hot fire, sinking two boats. This reception did not accord with Smyth's views of the ethics of war, and forgetting all about the "lost guns," and disliking, upon reflection, the idea of "death," he at once turned tail. At Buffalo he was publicly pelted by the populace, and for his cowardice was dismissed the service by the United States Senate without the formality of a trial. Dearborn—strange to say—having for the time lost his taste for fighting, went into winter quarters, and Canada, in universal mourning for Brock, but still confident and undaunted, rested on her arms. The year 1812 closed without further incident.
The period thus ended had been a momentous one. Brilliant reputations had been made and lost. The blood of many patriots had flowed freely, but, as regarded Canada, not in vain, for, in the words of the American historian, Schouler, "the war had impressed upon the people of the Republic the fact that Canada could not be carried by dash, nor pierced by an army officered by political generals and the invincibles of peace."
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813.
Though it would be quite natural to suppose that the story of Isaac Brock would end with his death and the victory of Queenston Heights, it is well to remember that the influence of his triumphs only ceased with the close of the war and the Treaty of Ghent, in December, 1814. Hence a résumé of the events that occurred during 1813 and 1814 is necessary, if a just valuation of our hero's achievements is desired.
Between July, 1812 and November 5th, 1814, "twelve distinct invasions of Canada by superior forces of the enemy were defeated." Out of fifty-six military and naval engagements between the British and U.S. forces, thirty-six were won by the British. Though the victories of 1812 were the direct factors that brought about a change in the national destiny of Canada, "Queenston Heights was not the culminating feat of arms." As a result of brooding over these disasters that had befallen the "Grand Army of the West," and the "national disgrace" of overwhelming defeat, the people of the United States, as a whole, independent of politics, "were now"—so write American chroniclers—"compelled to become belligerents."
In consequence of this national thirst for revenge, Generals Harrison and Winchester started to look for trouble in January, 1813, and—were rewarded. Strongly stockaded at Frenchtown, on the Raisin River, with a seasoned army, they invited attack. Colonel Procter, with 500 soldiers and 800 Indians under Roundhead, accepted the challenge, and making a furious attack upon Winchester before daybreak, took the General and 405 of his "Grand Army" prisoners. Brockville was then raided, and fifty-two citizens kidnapped by the U.S. soldiers. During the next two years raids of this nature were of frequent occurrence, first by one belligerent, then by the other, and with varying success. Major Macdonald's capture of Ogdensburg, when he took eleven guns and 500 U.S. soldiers, was the next big win for Canada.