.dt The Project Gutenberg eBook of SIR ISAAC BROCK
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Transcriber's Note

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When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has
been surrounded by <i>underscores</i>.
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The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
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.sp 4
.nf c
<xl>CANADIAN MEN OF ACTION</xl>

<xl>SIR ISAAC BROCK</xl>
.nf-
.hr 50%
.bn 002.png
.bn 003.png



.sp 4
.h1
SIR ISAAC BROCK

.nf c
BY

HUGH S. EAYRS
.nf-

.nf b
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO :\ \ \ :\ \ \ :\ \ \ :\ \ \ : MCMXVIII
.nf-
.bn 004.png




.sp 4
.nf c
<sc>Copyright, Canada</sc>, 1918,

<sc>By</sc> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
OF CANADA, LTD.
.nf-
.bn 005.png


.sp 4
.nf c
To

<l>My Father,</l>

<l>George Eayrs, F.R. Hist. S.,</l>
.nf-


Whose passion for and services in the
name of history are at once my inspiration
and my pride.
.bn 006.png
.bn 007.png



.sp 4
.h2
PREFACE

.sp 2
<sc>As this</sc> book is published, Canada is celebrating
her fiftieth birthday. The thoughts of all of us
travel back along the line of those fifty years since
Confederation swept away all divisions and
made the people of what is now Canada one in
name, that they might become one in purpose,
ideal, and spirit. We see our country served by
a succession of great men. Their greatness consisted
in trying to weld Canada into this oneness
and in trying to develop our illimitable resources.
For this fifty years and for the fifty before it,
Canada had no war to engage her attention until,
in 1914, she joined with Great Britain in the Great
War that the world might be “made safe for
democracy.”

While we look with pride at the progress our
country has made during this time of peace, we
may well go further back and see some of the
ultimate contributory factors. And as we do this
we shall see that in those troublous days as in
.bn 008.png
the calmer that succeeded them, the history of
Canada gathers itself round two or three men.
One of these is Major-General Sir Isaac Brock.

Brock is called “The hero of Upper Canada.”
That he undoubtedly was, but he was more.
He was the hero of Canada, for while his efforts
both as soldier and statesman were peculiarly for
one province, their effect was felt by Canadians
of later days from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Indeed it is not too much to say that Brock’s
part in the War of 1812-14 made fast and sure
what is now the Dominion of Canada for the
British Empire. This makes him at once the
primal hero of Canada. We have our other heroes.
The names of Frontenac, Wolfe, Montcalm,
Carleton, and others stand out from Canada’s
“storied page” and deservedly so, but not one of
them served our country in a way eventually so
signal as did Brock. Wolfe conquered the French;
Carleton defended Canada against invasion in
1776; but their work had not the crucial quality
of Brock’s.

He was certainly a man of action, and his
biography is fittingly the first title in a series of
<cite>Canadian Men of Action</cite>. The older nations of
the world have their great ones. France has
its Joan of Arc, Italy its Garibaldi, Russia its
.bn 009.png
Peter, and Britain its Arthur and its Alfred. In
ten short years in Canada, Brock accomplished
much, for while he lost his life but four months
after war was declared, it was his action and,
after, his spirit which animated the defence of his
adopted country against invasion. In considering
him and the noble part he played we may well
contrast this man of action with another, who
drew his sword three years ago not that he might
help to establish peace, but for his own selfish
end of vainglory. Brock, like thousands of
Canadians to-day, fought for honor and that his
country might be free. The spirit of Brock
animates Canada to-day, and “the brave live on.”
.bn 010.png
.bn 011.png



.sp 4
.h2
CONTENTS


.ta lr
#CHAPTER I:ch01#
               |        <sc>Page</sc>
<sc>Early Years</sc>   |   1


#CHAPTER II:ch02#

<sc>Egmont-op-Zee and Copenhagen</sc>    |    12


#CHAPTER III:ch03#

<sc>Canada: Mutiny in the 49th</sc>    |     21


#CHAPTER IV:ch04#

<sc>Rumors of War</sc>    |     32


#CHAPTER V:ch05#

<sc>Moved to Upper Canada</sc>    |    44


#CHAPTER VI:ch06#

<sc>A Foolish Boast</sc>     |   54
.bn 012.png


#CHAPTER VII:ch07#

<sc>Detroit Taken</sc>    |     65


#CHAPTER VIII:ch08#

<sc>His Hands are Tied</sc>     |    74


#CHAPTER IX:ch09#

<sc>Queenston Heights</sc>   |     87


#CHAPTER X:ch10#

<sc>Conclusion</sc>      |    99


#<sc>Appendix</sc>:ch11#     |    103

#<sc>General Hull’s Proclamation</sc>:hull#    |      103

#<sc>Brock’s Proclamation</sc>:brock#   |    105
.ta-
.bn 013.png



.sp 4
.ce
<l>SIR ISAAC BROCK</l>



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch01
CHAPTER I||<sc>Early Years</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>The</sc> year 1769 was an important one for
Europe. In it were born two men who were
destined between them to change the face of that
continent. These were Wellington and Napoleon.
There was another man who first saw the light
in that year. His name was Isaac Brock, and
while his life and work were hardly comparable in
their effect and result to those of the two great
Europeans, they were nevertheless an important
factor in shaping the destiny of Canada. It
may, perhaps, be laying undue stress on the work
he did to call General Brock the Wellington of
Canada. Necessarily he left less mark on the
times in which he lived than did the Iron Duke,
for his task was less monumental and his sphere
less wide. Yet, in relative degree, Brock’s work
was immensely important. We are beginning to
.bn 014.png
realize, a hundred years after his death, just
how directly he affected Canada and indirectly
Europe. It would be interesting, however, to
speculate on just what would have been the
result had he remained in Europe. It might,—who
knows?—have been his as much as Wellington’s
to save the world from the ambitious schemes
of Napoleon, but in the part he played, Brock
admittedly did a very great deal to make the
bounds of Empire “wide and wider yet.”

Isaac was born on October 6th, 1769, and was
the eighth son of John Brock. Of his father we
know little. He was a sailor, had been a midshipman
in the navy, and his duty had carried
him far afield, to India and other outposts. Isaac’s
birthplace was Guernsey, an island in the English
Channel, which is one of the beauty spots of the
world. There could have been no more fitting
cradle for a child who was to become indeed a
man of action than this rugged little island, with
its rocky weather-beaten coast, stern and bold
in outline. The heavy seas of the Channel beat
upon it in vain, and it is possible that in after-life,
when he was buffeted by circumstances, his
thoughts may have gone back to his island home,
a small but hardy defence against thundering
waves and shrill winds and raging tempest.
.bn 015.png

He had good blood in his veins, for, far back,
there was a Sir Hugh Brock, a valiant knight of
Edward III. Sir Hugh lived in Brittany, just
across the Channel from England and at that
time an English duchy. The French, however,
bitterly mindful of Crecy and Poitiers, bided their
time, and when Edward was old and enfeebled,
rose and drove the English out of Northern France.
Brittany again became French, and, when the
English were expelled, it is thought that Sir Hugh’s
family came to the Channel Islands, which was
like a half-way house between France and Britain,
and there settled.

There were other Brocks in nearer relationship
who had won their spurs both in battle by land
and sea and in journeyings afar. As has been
said, Isaac’s father, John Brock, was a midshipman
and had travelled to India, in those days a
great distance away. Another relative was the
famous Lord de Saumarez, also a Guernsey man,
who had distinguished himself at St. Vincent and
at the Nile. Brock’s mother was Elizabeth de
Lisle, daughter of the lieutenant-bailiff of Guernsey,
a position which corresponded to that now
held by our lieutenant-governors, an office the
duties of which, as we shall see, Isaac Brock
himself, in later years, discharged in Upper Canada.
.bn 016.png

It was not, however, in family tradition and
example alone that young Brock found inspiration
for heroic and valorous deeds. He could not but
be imbued with love of adventure. This island
home of crag and headland was the vault of many
a memory of heroic deeds, the past scene of many
a stirring exploit of the hardy seafaring folk who
had been its dwellers as long as ever dwellers had
been there. Young Brock learned numberless
stories

.nf b
“Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach.”
.nf-

Long, long years before, the Druids had their
caves and catacombs tucked away in quaint
hiding-places, and to the young adventurer these
haunts and the tales told of them furnished idea
and scope for many an escapade. Stories of
Cromwellian and Stuart days, when Cavalier and
Roundhead in turn found refuge in this land of
his birth, and evidences of the resolute defence
which the Islanders had offered to the maraudings
and attackings of the French, fostered in Brock an
ambition to emulate the Guernsey folk who were
dead and gone.

So, in boyhood days, he played for a while with
the things of nature. He became strong and
.bn 017.png
robust. He was, like his seven brothers, tall
and manly, a precocious boy, a better boxer, a
stronger and bolder swimmer than any of his
companions. He would scale jagged headland, or
sighting Castle Cornet, a landmark half a mile
from the shore, would brest the swiftly-running
tide, meeting and overcoming

.nf b
“\ \ \ \ every wave with dimpled face
That leaped upon the air.”
.nf-

He did not entirely neglect his studies, but gave
some time to reading, particularly along historical
lines. There seems to be no doubt, however, that,
like many another boy, his prowess in games was
gained at the expense of his education. At the
age of ten he was sent to school at Southampton,
and later was at Rotterdam, where his tutor was a
French pastor. Neither his parents nor himself
would be aware, at that time, of the use that the
knowledge of French he there acquired would be
to him when he came to Canada later on.

He chose his profession early in life. For him
there could be only two careers, the navy or the
army. Guernsey men, from time immemorial,
had favored the services as a means of earning
their living, for the love of adventure was ingrained
in the people. Besides, Brock had two
brothers in the army.
.bn 018.png

One brother, Ferdinand, had been in the 60th
Regiment, and when Isaac was a lad of ten, had
given his life at the defence of Baton Rouge, on
the Mississippi, fighting against the colonial
revolutionists. The other, John Brock, was a
captain in the 8th, known as the King’s Regiment,
and probably with the idea of being near his
brother, Isaac in 1785 purchased a commission as
ensign in the 8th. Thus he had in John a hand
and mind steadied and practised by reason of ten
years’ service to guide and help him in the career
he had chosen.

Isaac was keenly enthusiastic about this new
life, and his brother’s example spurred in him the
ambition to be a distinguished soldier. His love
for history and his liking for serious reading stood
him in good stead. He had had, perhaps, too
much sport and too little study in those Guernsey
days. He allotted his time differently now, and
sedulously spent some hours each day locked in
with his books. He was wise enough to know
that he was not too well-equipped for his work.
These were the years when his mind was receptive
and plastic, and he used them well. He served
five years and purchased his lieutenancy in 1790,
when he was twenty-one. These were uneventful
and quiet days, but they were days of preparation.
.bn 019.png
Barrack-room and camp taught him the essential
elements of soldierliness. He returned to Guernsey,
for he had been quartered in England, and
raised an independent company. This he commanded
with the rank of captain, being placed on
half-pay. The quietness and sameness of soldiering
in England palled on him, however, and in the
next year he arranged a transfer to the 49th
Regiment, then quartered in the Barbadoes.
These were the men whom he was to learn to love,
and many of whom fought with him when, some
years later, he received his death wound.

Joining his regiment in Barbadoes, he served
there and later in Jamaica. There is a story told
of him at this time which shows that the courage
of the boy who had been the hero of a hundred
daring escapades was his distinguishing mark in
young manhood. A captain in the 49th, who was
a crack shot, was the bully of the mess. Brock, who
treated him with indifference, was singled out as
a mark for his insult and was involved in a duel.
The braggart was a little man, but Brock was six
feet two—not a difficult target. Brock had the
right, as he had been challenged, to name the
conditions of the duel. When the party reached
the grounds where the duel was to take place,
Brock drew out his handkerchief and insisted that
.bn 020.png
he and his opponent should fight their duel across
it. This would minimize the disadvantage of his
own great height. The bully, recognizing that for
once he was fighting with equal chance to kill or be
killed, refused the condition and fled. His brother
officers declared that Brock had won a moral if
not an actual victory, and they and he compelled
the expulsion of the bully from the regiment.

Shortly after this incident the 49th moved to
Jamaica. Though he enjoyed the more eventful
life there, Brock was a product of a hardier clime
and could not stand the enervating air of the
tropics. He fell a victim to fever and indeed
nearly died of it. His man, Dobson, tended and
restored him, and Brock, big-hearted and kindly
then as later, never forgot what he owed to his
trusty servant. Dobson remained with him till
his death, which took place a short time before
Brock set out on the expedition against Detroit.

In 1793 Brock returned to England on sick
leave and re-visited his old home, there to regain
his health and strength. Subsequently, until the
return of his regiment from Jamaica, he was
engaged in the recruiting service. While employed
in this most important work he kept up his hours of
study, fitting himself for the greater things to
come.
.bn 021.png

In 1795, he purchased his majority, and in
1797, at the age of twenty-eight and after only
twelve years service, was gazetted lieutenant-colonel
of his regiment, soon afterwards becoming
the senior officer.

As commander of the 49th he had no easy
position. The <i><lang='fr'>morale</lang></i> of his men on their return
from abroad was bad. The former commander
was a poor disciplinarian, and his men had been
allowed to get out of hand.

These were queer days in the services. The men
in the navy were in a perpetual state of mutiny.
There had been cases where the seamen had risen
and murdered their officers. There had been a
lack of actual naval fighting for some time, and the
consequent dullness, added to the poor pay, made
the navy a somewhat ragged and discontented
unit. The seamen usually took the lead in revolt,
and the soldiers sympathized with them. In the
army there was additional reason. The officers
were often bullies. Different ideas of discipline
were held from those we know to-day. The
average British officer terrorized over his men.
He punished them heavily for the slightest offence.
It was considered the proper thing to give a man
fifty lashes or so for a mild misdemeanor, such as
having dirty boots on parade, and on that scale
.bn 022.png
the punishment was allowed to over-fit the crime.
Bad barrack-room conditions and little leave
were other reasons for growing discontent which
smouldered, and then broke out in mutiny.

So far as his own regiment was concerned,
Brock showed his ability to solve this problem of
lax discipline. He was indefatigable in his efforts
to familiarize himself with what was wrong, and
unwearying in the task of setting it right. As we
have already seen, he was thorough in whatever
he did. It was so now. He never relaxed vigilance
and rested little either day or night. When
he slept, it was with pistols ready to his hand.
Daily he would make the round of the barracks.
Whatever displeased him he ordered changed and
frequently he would tear down insurgent notices
from the walls with his own hand. He tempered
justice with kindliness. He was aware that
former regimental rulers had tried the patience of
the men a good deal, and he made generous
allowance for this in his own treatment. By so
doing he won them over to himself, and they
learned to respect and love him. The men knew
that he would insist on rigid discipline and orderliness,
but they knew too that on their side they
might count on justice, not unmixed with generosity
and affectionate regard. Brock made a
.bn 023.png
great change in the temper and behavior of the
49th. When the Duke of York inspected the
regiment, therefore, he put himself on record that
the 49th, under Brock’s direction, had become
instead of one of the worst regiments in the service,
one of the best.
.bn 024.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch02
CHAPTER II||EGMONT-OP-ZEE AND COPENHAGEN

.sp 2
<sc>Brock</sc> was soon to realize his dream of active
service. Europe was in a turmoil. Bonaparte’s
ambition was insatiable, and unless effective
opposition was offered quickly, he was in a fair
way to over-run the Continent. England, under
Pitt, was averse to participation in the Continental
wars, but the prime minister saw that to keep
out meant real danger. In 1798 Pitt agreed with
Russia that an army should be sent to Holland,
which was at that time occupied by France under
the name of the Batavian Republic. The ultimate
aim of the allies was to seize Northern France,
and thus hold Bonaparte in check. Of the 25,000
men which England agreed to send, the 49th,
Brock’s regiment, was a part.

In early August of 1799 the first detachment of
this invading army, 10,000 men, left England, under
command of Sir Ralph Abercromby. He was to
pave the way for the larger allied force under the
Duke of York, which would leave as soon as the
.bn 025.png
advance guard had landed in Holland. Brock took
his men with Sir Ralph. The 49th was part of the
brigade commanded by Major-General John Moore,
who, later, fell at Corunna in Spain.

Nearly two hundred vessels were needed to
convey Abercromby’s division. Ships were different
in those days from the great transports
that have carried our own Canadians to France.
The expedition set off in fair enough weather,
but hardly had they set sail before they encountered
real opposition in the heavy seas and strong
winds of the North Sea. It was not till two
weeks later, towards the end of August, that they
were able to anchor off the Dutch coast. While
the army landed, the fleet fired heavy volleys on
the enemy’s position on the low sand hills which
fringed the shore. A few hours later the British
occupied the Helder Peninsula, though it cost
them hours of stern fighting and the loss of a
thousand men.

The weather continued against the invaders.
The British had no protection from the heavy rains
and bitter winds, and they could do nothing but
await reinforcements. Meanwhile they had several
short and sharp, but minor engagements. In a
few days the Duke of York arrived with the
remainder of the British forces, about 7,000, and
.bn 026.png
was joined shortly afterwards by 10,000 Russians.
Much time was taken up by the landings and the
adjusting of the forces, during which the enemy,
protected from the storms, made stronger his
position. On September 19th the Duke ordered
an attack on Bergen, but the Russians, who were
impetuous and unused to military discipline,
blundered badly, and the attack failed.

On October 2nd a more determined attack was
made upon Bergen, during which Moore’s brigade
led the advance along the sand to Egmont-op-Zee.
This was Brock’s first real battle. The enemy,
concealed in the sand-dunes, offered heavy opposition.
The 49th, with the rest of the 4th Brigade,
were the advance guard for a column of 10,000
men under Sir Ralph Abercromby, and moved
along the low-lying coast line for five or six miles
before they were halted by what Brock described
as gunfire comparable to “a sea in a heavy storm.”
General Moore ordered the 25th and then the
79th to charge. The 49th came up on the left of
the 79th, and while they were held ready, Brock,
disregarding personal safety, rode out to view the
position. He returned, and taking six companies,
which left Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe, his regimental
second in command, in charge of the other four,
covering his left, cried “Charge!”
.bn 027.png

The men crashed forward, in sorry array from
the point of view of order, but with such daring
and boldness that the enemy fled before them.
This was Brock’s first victory, and a real victory
it was, though it cost him over a hundred men
and several officers. Brock, describing the action,
wrote to his home that “nothing could exceed the
gallantry of my men in the charge.” He himself
had a narrow escape. He was looking over the
ground he had taken when a bullet struck him,
and, says his brother Savery, who was an aide to
General Moore, and present, “the violence of the
blow was so great as to stun and dismount him,
and his holsters were also shot through.” Luckily
he was wearing a thick muffler over his cravat,
and the bullet did not penetrate to his neck.

Savery Brock shared his brother’s indomitable
courage. He was paymaster to the 49th, but
anxious to be in at the fighting. He disregarded his
brother’s instructions and was in the thick of it.
“By the Lord Harry, Master Savery,” said Brock,
“did I not order you, unless you remained with the
general, to stay with your iron chest? Go back,
sir, immediately.” But Savery detected the pride
as well as the rebuke in Isaac’s tone and answered
cheerfully: “Mind your regiment, Master Isaac!
You surely would not have me quit the field now?”
.bn 028.png

But though Abercromby’s column was successful
at Egmont-op-Zee, the operation against Bergen
was a failure through the defeat of the other
columns. The allies retreated. They were in an
unenviable position. A winter campaign was out
of the question, and food and supplies could be
had only from the ships at anchor, since Holland
was so uncertain a quantity. So the expedition
fitted out at great expense and very hopeful of
success, ended in the shameful abandonment of
Holland to the French. The British returned to
England, while the Russians wintered in the
Channel Islands. Brock learned much from
Egmont-op-Zee, and if on the whole the campaign
was inglorious, his own part had been a worthy
one and the experience was invaluable.

Brock’s regiment on its return from Holland was
quartered in Jersey, where it remained until early
in 1801. By this time Britain found herself forced
to fight a multiplicity of foes. Even Russia had
gone over to the enemy, whose forces daily grew
larger and who were spending time and money in
preparation. The line-up looked unequal. On
the one side was Britain. On the other was France,
Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia. Denmark
and Russia had a large fleet in the Baltic.
If the fleets of these two nations should combine
.bn 029.png
with that of France, British supremacy on the
sea would be endangered. As long as she ruled
the waves she was safe from the schemings of
Napoleon. Although war had not been declared,
a naval expedition against Denmark as the pivotal
foe was decided upon.

Meanwhile there was more trouble in Brock’s
regiment. His second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel
Sheaffe was a brave soldier, but he laid too
much stress on the necessity for rigid and even harsh
rule. The men were sick of this unnecessarily
stern disciplinarian who, unlike Brock, did not
temper justice with kindliness, and were daily
growing more resentful. On one occasion, when
Brock returned after a temporary absence, his
men on parade cheered him wildly. He sensed in
a moment the situation. He knew that Sheaffe
was needlessly autocratic, and he could see that
the men had grown more and more dissatisfied.
Still the display of rejoicing at his return was a
flagrant breach of army discipline. Unwillingly
enough, he ordered his men to be confined to
barracks for a week. We can appreciate what it
cost him, under these circumstances, to be stern.

When the fleet was ready for action it was
despatched to the Baltic under the command of
Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson as second
.bn 030.png
in command. With the fleet went a land force
under the command of Colonel William Stewart, a
fine soldierly man, who had the virtues of initiative
and action; Brock with the 49th accompanied
Colonel Stewart, to whom he stood next in <target id='senor'>seniority.
When the expedition reached its destination
it was decided to attack Copenhagen at once with
a portion of the fleet and the land forces, all under
the command of Lord Nelson.

Brock, who with a part of his regiment had his
station on the <i>Ganges</i>, had instructions to lead in
the storming of the Trekoner batteries. The
attack, however, did not take place. The Danes
offered such a spirited resistance that the British
infantry never got a chance to do their part. In
fact, they remained inactive through the engagement.
They could only wait and watch, quartered
for the moment on the decks of British vessels,
and suffer heavy fusillade from the Danish batteries
and ships. The Danes pounded the British squadron
hard. Brock, on the deck, had several narrow
escapes, while his brother Savery, again to be
found where the bullets were thickest, was firing a
gun. Savery was momentarily stunned by grape
shot, and Isaac rushing to him, cried: “Ah, poor
Savery is dead.” But Savery was far from dead
and proved it by leaping to his feet with his
.bn 031.png
usual <target id='non'>nonchalant smile, and continued behind
his gun.

Towards the end of the battle, Brock, accompanied
Captain Freemantle of the <i>Ganges</i> to the
<i>Elephant</i>, Nelson’s flagship. He saw Nelson write
his celebrated message to the Crown Prince of
Denmark, which ran, “Lord Nelson has directions
to spare Denmark, when no longer resisting; but
if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark,
Lord Nelson will be obliged to set on fire the floating
batteries he has taken, without having the
power to save the brave Danes who have defended
them.” The Danes were compelled to bow to
Nelson’s ultimatum, and surrender. Thus the
courage of Nelson had saved Britain from attack.
The defeat of the Danes, followed as it was by the
death of the Czar of Russia, broke up the coalition.
Britain was no longer in danger.

Brock himself learned much from the Battle of
the Baltic. He took heed of Nelson’s wise and
bold action in continuing the engagement in the
face of definite orders from Sir Hyde Parker to
retire, and pigeon-holed the occurrence in his
mind. Eleven years later he himself was to take
a similarly bold and strong course when he sent
his message to General Hull commanding the
American forces at Detroit, even though his
.bn 032.png
commander-in-chief had instructed him not to
attack the enemy. But Brock, after Copenhagen,
knew that it sometimes paid to risk all and say:
“What men dare, I dare!”
.bn 033.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch03
CHAPTER III||<sc>Canada: Mutiny in the 49th</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>Brock</sc> collected his men and returned to
England. At Copenhagen it will be remembered
that he had part of the regiment with him on
the <i>Ganges</i>, but others had been on different
vessels. In August of 1801 he reviewed the 49th
at Colchester, to which place they were ordered.
They were now experienced, in some sort, in battle
and had shown themselves to be brave soldiers.
Brock could look with pride on the men he had
trained.

In the spring of the next year the 49th Regiment
was ordered to Canada. Probably Brock received
his orders regretfully. It meant leaving Europe
when in England war was daily imminent, and
Brock, as a man of action, loved action. So did
his men. America, at this time, was peaceable
enough, and even had Canada been attractive in
other ways, the commander and men of the 49th
would rather have stayed where there was a
prospect of fighting. Moreover, Canada was
.bn 034.png
deemed, at that time, a land of hard weather and
few attractions. It was little known and supposed
to be even less livable. The journey over
the Atlantic was feared by some, far more than the
fire of the enemy in battle. The 49th had no very
pleasant memories of garrison duty, and this was
all there was to look forward to.

We can imagine a not very cheerful regiment
crossing the uncertain and treacherous ocean under
conditions much less agreeable than exist to-day.

One wonders what must have been Brock’s
thoughts when he first saw the St. Lawrence. He
was seaborn, and the salt and the breeze were his
inheritance. He must have been greatly impressed
as the ship sailed up the stately river, its shores
heavily wooded and all the wonder of its rolling
might stretched out in front of him. He came in
time to Quebec, and no doubt as his eyes rested
on those defences which had withstood siege after
siege, his thoughts often turned to Wolfe and
Montcalm and how, within this area on which he
now gazed, they had made history. He was by
now a man of grave and serious character and, as
many another in lowlier state has done since, he
may have asked himself what this vast unknown
country held for him. It was to hold much, and
he for it.
.bn 035.png

We may try and think, for a moment, what the
Canada of those early years looked like to this
new-comer from the Mother country. There
were not more than three hundred thousand people
in this country of ours whose people now number
over eight million. More than half were in
Lower Canada. Brock was a military man and he
early noticed how badly protected were the supposedly
fortified posts. York, the capital of Upper
Canada, had no defences. Montreal, the greatest
city then as now, had little to repel attack.
Kingston had fairly good fortifications, and
Quebec was in a position stubbornly to resist an
enemy. These things Brock came soon to see.

Perhaps even more portentous to Brock was
the state of mind of the average soldier in Canada.
These men had come from Britain where the
garrison life was pleasant and full of incident and
where the cities offered excitement and amusement.
Canada was a great contrast. It was
sparsely populated. There were no cities, as
these British soldiers understood the term, and the
sameness of the life aroused unrest and discontent.
The United States offered an easy refuge for deserters.
There was to be had across the border
the daily eventfulness and excitement which
soldiers wanted. Desertions were frequent, and
.bn 036.png
becoming more so, and Brock saw the danger for
his men of the 49th. He did all he could to make
their lot, under not very accommodating circumstances,
a happy one, but the spirit of the regiment
was not the cheerful one it had been a year or so
before.

Brock had not been long in Canada before
trouble began in the regiment. He had an idea
that one of his men, Carr by name, was waiting
his chance to desert. He questioned him closely,
but the man was sullen. “Tell me the truth like
a man,” said Brock. “You know I have always
treated you kindly.” The man broke down at the
words and tone of his commander and confessed
that he and others were planning to desert to the
United States. Here we see that Brock was a
man who knew human nature. He decided to
cure by kindness, and he ordered Carr to tell his
companions of what had happened. “Tell them
that, notwithstanding what you have told me, I
shall still treat you all kindly,” he said. “Let
them desert me if they please.” Wise Isaac
Brock! He knew the value of placing a man on
his honor.

After a short stay at Quebec, Brock and his men
began their journey to York, the small but important
town that was later to become the great
.bn 037.png
city of Toronto. The 49th journeyed by water,
for there were no trains. A schooner took the men
up to Montreal, where, after resting, they took
boats up the St. Lawrence. Picture what it meant
to brave the wildness and storm of our great
river, to these voyagers a waterway quite unknown,
in small and open boats. They had a new experience
in portaging their boats where the rapids
were too strong for them. They plied their oars
through the exquisite loveliness of the Thousand
Islands, and Brock, remembering the fairyland
of Guernsey, must have marvelled at this country
which, in one place, had a thousand islands, some
of them almost as big as Sark. Eventually the
49th arrived at Kingston, the second stage. They
made the rest of the journey over Lake Ontario in
another swiftly sailing schooner.

By the time the whole trip was completed
Brock had been afforded much food for thought.
He saw a country whose resources were barely
touched. Where we now have thriving communities,
he saw settlements where the people might
be counted by handfuls. In the long journey up
the St. Lawrence the abundance of fish and game
and the vast sources of wealth contained in the
land alone must have amazed him. He came from
a country across which the stage coach could travel
.bn 038.png
in two or three days. But his journey across but
a section of Canada took him weeks. In England
the lakes were not a twentieth of the size of the
one upon which York stood. The meadows and
lanes of England were a far cry from the densely
timbered stretches of Canada. The contrast
between his country and ours is sharp enough to-day.
It must have been infinitely more so when
Brock made his first Canadian journey.

It was not long after the pardoning of Carr that
Brock had again to face a similar trouble. Part
of his men had gone on to Fort George, while the
others remained with him at York. Brock’s kind
treatment of Carr had had a salutary effect upon
most of the regiment, but there were still a few
malcontents. The next summer six of these, at
the instigation of a corporal in another regiment
stationed near, deserted, and in a military batteau—a
big flat-bottomed boat, forty feet in length—which
they had stolen, started for Niagara. Brock,
the man of action, thought quickly. He took his
servant, Dobson, and manning two boats, started
in pursuit. It was midnight and Lake Ontario
was to Brock an unknown quantity, but the boy
who had played with the English Channel in all
its moods was unafraid. After a hard row the
pursuers reached Fort George in the morning, and
.bn 039.png
search parties were organized. The deserters were
secured and made prisoners at Fort George.
Brock was as stern this time as he had been kind
before, and his prompt action and personal pursuit
put an end to desertions when he himself was
commanding the regiment. It is said that the
commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General Hunter,
who was then at York, was very much annoyed
with Brock for risking his life by going in person
to seek the deserters and read him a severe lecture
on his conduct.

Brock spent a good deal of time familiarizing
himself with the Canadas, or Lower Canada and
Upper Canada as they then were. He made
many journeys to Montreal and Kingston by stage
and by boat. From Quebec to Montreal was sixty
leagues, and horses must be changed twenty-four
times on the journey which took three days.
Brock did a good deal of sailing too, for he had to
get from York to Kingston and Montreal. Canoe
and horse-ferry were often employed. The former
was certainly new to Brock, and even more novel
were the Indians who often manned it. Packman and
<i><lang='fr'>voyageur</lang></i> excited Brock’s eager interest, and from
them he learned much that was to be valuable in
years to come. He got to know the French-Canadian
intimately too; saw him in his native
.bn 040.png
habitat and spent time in studying him as he did
the folk of Ontario. Nothing escaped his quick
eye and quicker mentality. He believed in
acquainting himself with the people with whom he
had to deal, and his detailed knowledge of them
placed him in a position accurately to estimate the
help they could give him if ever Canada should be
attacked. He could not be unmindful of the way
in which thousands of American settlers were
coming into his adopted country. The people
across the border recognized the wonderful resources
of Canada, and as land was cheap they
flocked over to possess it. Even in these early
days Brock must have seen signs of the very real
menace which ultimately was to come from the
United States.

Meanwhile there was a serious disturbance at
Fort George. Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe was commanding
that part of the 49th which was stationed
there, and we have seen that he was too harsh a
disciplinarian ever to command a contented as well
as an efficient body of men. For the slightest
offence he punished his men very heavily. These
were the days of heavy punishment alike in civilian
and military misdemeanours. Where the soldier
to-day would merit a rebuke, in Brock’s day he was
supposed to deserve and got a flogging. Sentences
.bn 041.png
like 999 lashes from the “Cat”, which was often
steeped in brine to heighten the pain, were
frequently carried out, and that for such small
sins as quitting barracks without permission or
being deficient in a detail of parade dress. The
cells, too, were constantly occupied. Lieutenant-Colonel
Sheaffe seems to have delighted in inflicting
these punishments. His methods were a
direct contrast to those of his senior, Brock.
Small wonder, then, that his men were resentful,
and finally so hot in their anger that their plans
included wholesale mutiny, the murder of Sheaffe,
and the imprisonment of the rest of the officers.
The ringleader was a certain Sergeant Clarke.

When <target id='clark'>Clarke had his plans all ready an accidental
word was dropped by a soldier in the 49th. A
hurried meeting of the officers discussed the
situation, and word was quickly sent to Brock,
it is said without the knowledge of Sheaffe. The
soldier who bore the message had a bad reputation
in the regiment, and Brock at once jumped to the
conclusion that the man himself was implicated in
the plot. Under stern questioning and threats of
severe punishment the soldier broke down and
told the whole story, together with the names of
the ringleaders. Accompanied by Sergeant-Major
FitzGibbon, Brock set sail that very hour and
.bn 042.png
landed at Fort George long before he was expected
by the waiting officers. The guard at the east
gate of the fort was headed by Sergeant Clarke
himself, and Brock ordered him to lay down his
pike and take off sword and sash. When this was
done, O’Brien, next in command, was ordered to
handcuff the sergeant, and a third soldier, in turn,
to manacle O’Brien. Almost before the officers
who had asked his assistance knew that he had
arrived, Brock had the twelve leaders of the plot
in irons, and, they, with the seven deserters
already mentioned, were sent to York under
guard.

We have read the story of Carr’s intended
mutiny, and we have seen that Brock could be
kind and indeed cure by kindness. He knew when
to punish and when to stay his hand. In the case
of Clarke he saw that an example must be made,
so that his authority over his men might be seen
by them to be a thing not lightly to be set aside.
This time he showed no mercy.

The affair was now one for the commander-in-chief
of the forces, Lieutenant-General Hunter.
The men were sent to Quebec, and there tried.
Four of the conspirators and three of the deserters
were sentenced to death, and on March 2nd, 1804,
the sentence was carried out, greatly to Brock’s
.bn 043.png
grief. He was big-hearted and clear-headed enough
to know that Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe had been
to a large extent responsible in arousing the evil
passions which had resulted in the conspiracy,
and while he recognized that the punishment was
just he could not help but think that the delinquents
were more foolish than criminal. When at
York, he got news of the execution, he addressed
a full parade of his men. He thought of the
fate of the men who had been with him in Holland,
and he was grave and bitterly sorry when he said:
“Since I have had the honor to wear the British
uniform, I have never felt grief like this. It pains
me to the heart to think that any members of my
regiment should have engaged in a conspiracy
which has led to their being shot like so many
dogs.”
.bn 044.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch04
CHAPTER IV||<sc>Rumors of War</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>Brock</sc>, in 1805, was made full colonel. After
the incident of the mutiny he had taken over the
active command at Fort George as well as at
York, and at the former, as at the latter, a new
and kindlier order of discipline was worked out.
In this, Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe seems to have
helped. No doubt he was influenced by reflecting
on the trouble he had helped to cause. Later on,
in reporting the excellent discipline of the 49th,
Brock gave a good deal of the credit to Sheaffe.
Desertions were in bad odor, for the commanding
officer gave his men no reason for leaving him.

In October Brock went to England on leave.
While he was glad to see his old friends again, he
made business his first consideration and discussed
with the British commander-in-chief, the Duke of
York, the military situation in the Canadas. He
proposed the establishment of veteran battalions.
He instanced the attractiveness of desertion to
the soldier quartered near the United States
.bn 045.png
border and pointed out that the immigration from
the United States to Canada of undesirable settlers—undesirable
since they owed no allegiance to the
British flag—might possibly counterbalance the
devotion of the United Empire Loyalists. He
suggested that these veterans should serve a certain
time and that they should then be given an
opportunity to settle on the land. The Duke
warmly thanked Brock, and later on the plan was
adopted.

Brock turned his steps Guernsey-wards, but
after a few days there news of real trouble with the
United States made it imperative that he should
return to his command. Shortening his leave, he
set sail on June 26th, 1806, and never returned to
England.

When he arrived in Quebec he found himself the
senior officer of military rank in the Canadas and,
as such, at once assumed the command of all the
forces.

The war cloud was gathering. Although Nelson’s
victory at Trafalgar had finally shattered
Napoleon’s dream of invading England, he still
hoped to cripple her by destroying her commerce
and cutting off her food supply. Rapidly he subjugated
Austria and Prussia, and when these two
countries were at his feet, from the capital of
.bn 046.png
Prussia he issued the famous Berlin Decree. This
decree forbade France or any of her allies to trade
with Britain and declared that <em>any</em> ship engaged in
such trade might be lawfully seized as a prize of
war. Britain did not meekly submit, but by
various orders in council forbade the ships of
any nation to trade with France or any of her
allies. Both the Berlin Decree and the orders
in council were very high handed proceedings
and bore with special severity on the neutral
nations.

At this time the relations between the United
States and Great Britain were very strained. In
order to maintain her navy at its full strength,
Britain had revived her ancient “right of search.”
She claimed and exercised the right to search the
ships of neutral nations to find if they were carrying
British subjects who were deserters from the
British navy. The United States protested
strongly against this action of Great Britain,
holding that once a British seaman had crossed
the decks of an American ship he was an American,
and, moreover, she declined to acknowledge any
right of Great Britain to hold up and to search
her ships on the chance of finding deserters. And
now came the British orders in council as a further
source of irritation.
.bn 047.png

It is true that the commerce of the United
States with foreign nations had practically ceased
as a result of the actions of the warring powers in
Europe, but for this the Berlin Decrees were as
much to blame as the orders in council. In fact
at this time the United States suffered innumerable
humiliations at the hands of the French. But in
spite of this the whole anger of the United States
seemed to be directed against Great Britain.
The bitterness produced by the Revolutionary
War had not yet died down, and there was a strong
party in the country who made it its business to
increase the flame of hatred. This party looked
with covetous eyes on Canada, and desired to
incorporate it into the United States. Without
question that was the underlying reason for the
War of 1812-14.

President Jefferson was a bitter enemy of
Great Britain. While Brock was still in England,
the president addressed Congress and said that
“the impressment of American seamen by British
cruisers, not at all checked by the remonstrances
of the American Government, was a growing
source of irritation and complaint.... She
[Britain] plainly showed a disposition to narrow
the limits of the commerce of neutrals by denying
to them the right of carrying on a trade with
.bn 048.png
belligerents which she did not interdict with her
own subjects.” Britain’s view was that as she was
trying to beat the man who was doing his best to
conquer Europe, the United States should see that
if extreme measures were necessary they must be
borne with, even though they hurt for the
moment.

At the end of 1805 President Jefferson went
further. He came out flatly and said that “the
foreign relations of the United States had been
materially changed since the preceding session.”
He charged <target id='britain'>Britain with piracy and infesting the
American coast with private armed vessels, “which
had perpetrated acts beyond their commission.”
And he said: “It is due to ourselves to provide
effective opposition to a doctrine which is as
infamous as it is unwarranted.”

Brock recognized the veiled threat in the words
“effective opposition” and was convinced that
Jefferson and that section of the United States
for which he stood wanted war. Hence his quick
return to Canada. He knew that Jefferson’s
first act in the event of war would be to try and get
control of the lakes and rivers and to capture the
fortified posts. Brock realized better than any
man how weak was the resistance that could be
offered unless the defences of the Canadas were
.bn 049.png
immediately strengthened. As soon as he had
taken up his new command he set about preparing
the defence Canada was to offer. In this he was
hampered rather than helped by the civil authorities.
The governor-general of the Canadas at this
time, Sir Robert Prescott, does not seem to have
taken his position very seriously, and Thomas
Dunn, president of the Executive Council, the
man with whom Brock had directly to deal, appears
to have been of one mind with Prescott.

Early in 1807, Brock was greatly heartened by
proposals from Colonel John Macdonell, who was
lieutenant of the county of Glengarry and had
been for four years commanding officer of the
Glengarry Militia Regiment, for forming a company
of Highland Fencibles. Brock forwarded
the scheme to the war office in London and backed
it up. It would be, he said, “essentially useful in
checking any seditious disposition which the
wavering sentiments of a large population in the
Montreal district might at any time manifest.”
This is an indication that Brock was by no means
sure which way the <i><lang='fr'>habitant</lang></i> would go in case of
war.

Brock thought he had ground for his suspicions,
and he decided to get to know the folk of Lower
Canada better. When Sir James Craig arrived in
.bn 050.png
Quebec, Brock’s tenure of the office of commander-in-chief
ended. Sir James became that and
governor-general in one, but he appointed Brock
as acting brigadier-general. This was confirmed
in London. Brock was sent to Montreal in command
of the troops there and quartered in the old
Chateau de Ramesay at Montreal, then a rich
centre and the only city of pleasure and gaiety in
Canada.

In Montreal he managed to see a good deal of
the fur lords and great business men of the place.
He entered into their social life, and the French-Canadian
then, as now, knew how <target id='to'>to be hospitable.
This gave the brigadier a chance to judge
somewhat as to where French-Canada stood, and he
had even better facilities when, in September, 1808,
he was superseded in the Montreal command by
General Drummond and was moved back to Quebec.
Here he had many friends and he entertained and
was entertained. All sorts of regattas and land
sports were held by the officers of the garrison
and, here, as in Montreal, he found a good deal of
pleasure in social affairs. He writes of “a vast
assemblage of all descriptions”—an occasion when
he entertained Lieutenant-Governor Gore, of
Upper Canada, and his wife at a dinner and ball.
During these days he unquestionably became
.bn 051.png
reassured as to the loyalty of the people of Lower
Canada.

He had perhaps been unduly suspicious. The
people of Lower Canada, of course, were almost
entirely of French descent. They spoke French,
and Brock feared that in a Franco-America alliance,
French Canada would remember its descent and
support Napoleon. There were signs of leaning
France-wards. The French Canadians publicly
rejoiced when news of a fresh victory for Napoleon
reached them, and Brock at first certainly deemed
them disloyal. He so expressed himself in his
letters again and again. He could not understand
why they should be, for they were much freer and
happier under British rule than they had been
when Bigot and others, during the French regime,
had governed them. Yet even in the early days,
Brock was in two minds about them for he wrote:
“It may appear surprising that men petted as they
have been and indulged in everything they could
desire should wish for a change, but so it is, and I
am inclined to think that were Englishmen placed
in the same situation they would show even more
impatience to escape from French rule.”

But, on the whole, Brock need not have feared.
The French Canadians did not want another rule.
Their priests and men in high authority were
.bn 052.png
loyal to Britain, and they represented the mass of
opinion more than the Napoleonic or American
agent who was to be found here and there in
Lower Canada.

In these days, Brock was not particularly happy.
He was worried by the possibility of war, and
taking it on the whole he was not in love with
Canada. Perhaps he was homesick. He heard of
former comrades winning their spurs on the battlefields
of Europe, and he compared their lot to his
in a “remote, inactive corner” as he dubbed
Canada in a letter to England. And we know
that he had enlisted his brother Savery’s efforts
to have him transferred. It was natural. He
was a man of action and had as keen a desire as
any soldier for risk and fame.

Brock’s first measure in strengthening the
defences of Canada was to make Quebec attack-proof.
Sir Guy Carleton, in 1775-1776, had
defended Quebec against American forces under
General Montgomery. There might soon be
another attack, and Brock wanted to have Quebec
in such shape that it could repel invasion. He
appealed to the council for a thousand men and
sufficient carts for six months to strengthen the
walls. But the civil government of Lower Canada
thought his move was a political one and gave
.bn 053.png
little or no aid. They told him he must do the
work himself, and he did. In a letter to the
president of the council he scouts the suspicions of
the civil government and states that his “sole
object was to state the assistance required by the
military to remedy a glaring defect in the fortifications
of Quebec, should his Honor conceive that
preparatory measures were necessary to be adopted
in consequence ... of the ... aggressive
proceedings in the proclamation of the
American Government.”

He went ahead and erected a battery mounting
eight thirty-six pounders in the centre of the citadel
at Quebec, commanding the heights opposite. This
was first christened “Brock’s Battery,” but when
the newly-arrived governor-general, Sir James
Craig, saw it, he thought, says Brock, “that anything
so pre-eminent should be distinguished by the
most exalted name.” It was therefore called “The
King’s Battery,” and, wrote Brock, “this is the greatest
compliment that he could pay to my judgment.”

Altogether, at great expense, the fortifications of
Quebec were greatly improved. Proper drill
grounds were made and a good hospital created.
Quartermasters at Amherstburg and Kingston were
appointed to take charge of new fleets of schooners
and military batteaux which he had constructed.
.bn 054.png

He was not a moment too soon with his work.
The international situation was rapidly complicating.
Mention has been made of Britain’s stopping
and searching American vessels for British deserters.
This continued and became more general,
and there does not seem to be room for doubt that,
in some cases, British commanders were very
autocratic. They gave the United States legitimate
cause for complaint by sometimes carrying
off seamen whom they pretended were British,
but who were really American citizens. The case
of the <i>Chesapeake</i> brought matters to a head. It
was suspected by Admiral Berkeley, stationed at
Halifax, that some sailors, whose offence was
particularly flagrant, had deserted from the British
sloop <i>Halifax</i> and had found refuge on the <i>Chesapeake</i>.
The Admiral ordered Captain Humphreys
of the frigate <i>Leopard</i> to insist on the return of
these deserters. Commodore Barron commanding
the <i>Chesapeake</i> refused point blank to surrender the
men in question, and Humphreys fired on the
United States frigate, which did not return the
fire. She was seized, and the deserters secured by
the British commander. Naturally the United
States threatened war. This was answered by an
honorable apology from Britain, however, and the
war cloud passed for the moment. But Brock
.bn 055.png
thought it could not long be delayed. The
heart of the trouble was still there, and sooner or
later the irritation which each nation felt at the
other was bound to find outlet in actual conflict.
Hence Brock’s rush to make preparations for
adequate defence.
.bn 056.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch05
CHAPTER V||<sc>Moved to Upper Canada</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>In</sc> 1809 Brock learned that Brigadier-General
Baron de Rottenberg was coming to Canada. He
knew that as the Baron was his senior in the service
he would probably be the appointee of Sir James
Craig to the commanding position. About this
time he wrote to his sister-in-law, Mrs. W. Brock:
“The spirit of insubordination lately manifested
by the French Canadian population of this colony
naturally called for precautionary measures, and our
worthy chief (Sir James) is induced, in consequence,
to retain in this country those on whom he can best
confide. I am highly flattered in being reckoned
among the number, whatever inward disappointment
I may feel. Some unpleasant events have
likewise happened in the upper country which
have occasioned my receiving intimation to proceed
thither, whether as a permanent station, or
merely as a temporary visit, Sir James Craig has
not determined.” Evidently Brock still had at
the back of his mind an idea that the French in
.bn 057.png
Lower Canada would welcome again the suzerainty
of France.

In July Sir James, when Rottenberg came, sent
Brock to Upper Canada and, in September, with
his goods and chattels, chiefly consisting of books
which, we have seen, he learned to love as a boy,
he moved to Fort George, Niagara. He had not
been there a month before he again felt restless and
anxious to get back to some post where he might
see service, for he expressed a desire to serve with
the British forces who were then in Spain and
Portugal. The adjutant-general, Colonel Baynes,
however, replied that Sir James Craig informed
him that he did not think the state of the public
service would warrant his relieving Brock from
duty in Upper Canada.

Brock busied himself with the duties attendant
on his position and seems to have spent a good
deal of time, as he had done in Quebec, in trying
to gain the confidence of the people. He early
saw that the upper province was by no means
restful and his suspicions of a few years ago that
the American immigrants were unsettling the
province were thus confirmed.

In June, 1811, he was promoted to the rank of
major-general. Sir James Craig, with the excuse
of ill-health, resigned the position of governor-general
.bn 058.png
and left for England. Sir James was ill,
but he had incensed Lower Canada so much that
his departure at this time was the best service he
could render the country. Before he went he
begged Brock to remain in Canada. “Your presence
is needed here,” he said. And a little later,
as an earnest of what the governor-general thought
of him, Brock received a letter from Colonel
Baynes in which he said: “He (Sir James) requests
that you will do him the favor to accept as a
legacy and mark of his very sincere regard his
favorite horse Alfred, and he is induced to send
him to you, not only from wishing to secure for his
old favorite a kind and careful master, but from
the conviction that the whole continent of America
could not furnish you with so safe and excellent an
horse?”

Three months later Sir George Prevost, who
was the new governor-general of and commander
of the forces in Canada, appointed Brock president
and administrator of the government of Upper
Canada, in place of the lieutenant-governor who
had obtained leave to visit England. Upper
Canada needed him, and Sir George Prevost made
a wise move in this appointment. Bad feeling
between Britain generally and the United States
had developed in connection with the Canadas.
.bn 059.png

Before Craig left for England, amongst the
matters he had discussed with Brock was that of
possible trouble between the Indians in Canada
and United States border citizens. Sir James
Craig’s policy is outlined in a letter to Brock:
“Upon every principle of policy our interests
should lead us to use all our endeavors to prevent
a rupture between the Indians and the subjects
of the United States.” Brock appreciated the
wisdom of this and followed it out. He instructed
those under him, who had charge of territory
inhabited by these Indians, to keep a tight rein on
their maraudings and pillagings and did all he
could to discourage border crime. But, doubtless
to his amazement, in the summer of 1811, the
government of the United States accused British
officers in Canada of actually aiding and abetting
the Indians in their lawlessness. Brock, naturally,
had a hard enough row to hoe, for though he must
deprecate the cruelty of the Indians, he was
anxious to preserve friendliness with them, since,
should war come, he desired them as allies, or at
any rate, did not want them as enemies. His
position was difficult.

This was but one of the perplexities which the
new administrator of Upper Canada had to face.
Just about this time, domestic trouble caused him
.bn 060.png
great anxiety. He had two brothers in London,
William and Irving. They were partners in a
private bank. Serious financial troubles had been
caused by the wars in Europe, and in New York
failures had been many. Brock, in a letter to his
brother Irving, reporting these, prophesied a financial
crash in London. He hoped they had “withheld
their confidence in public stock.” Unfortunately,
they had not, and owing to the depredations
of Napoleon’s privateers upon the boats belonging
to his banker-brothers, the latter had had to close
their house. When the books were examined
there was an item of £3,000, which appeared as a
debt owed to the bank by Isaac Brock. This was
really a personal loan by William Brock to Isaac,
but as the transaction appeared in the books,
Brock deemed himself liable. That was a small
matter, however, compared to the trouble which
the bank’s affairs had made between William and
Irving. Irving blamed his brother William for
the smash.

Brock wrote from Canada to Irving imploring
his kindliness to William. “Hang the world! It
is not worth a thought,” he wrote. “Be generous,
and find silent comfort in being so.” Brock knew
how his brother William, who had been so kind to
him, was suffering. “Why refuse him consolation”?
.bn 061.png
his letter to Irving read. “Could tears
restore him he would soon be happy.... My
thoughts are fixed on you all and the last thing
that gives me any concern is the call which Savery
prepared me to expect from the creditors.”

Great hearted Brock! It meant much to him
just now to find £3,000, but the suffering of William
and the breach between the brothers meant far
more.

He felt that, with an effort he could wipe out
his own debt. To Irving he offered his salary as
acting lieutenant-governor, which was about $5,000
a year. He might, had he been any but the just
and honorable man he was, have paid his debt by
money made unfairly out of his office; but, unlike
many public men in Canada before and since, he
refused to be a profiteer. Speaking of his opportunities
for finding the money, he wrote to Irving
Brock: “Be satisfied that even your stern honesty
shall have no just cause to censure one of my
actions.”

Brock was a great soldier, but he was also a
great public servant, and greater in nothing than
his rugged and immaculate honesty. Canada to-day
would be better for more Isaac Brocks!

We are coming to an important time alike for
Brock and Canada and some description of his
.bn 062.png
appearance will be interesting. A lionlike head
crowned a splendidly tall body. It was said that
he did not find it easy to get a hat in Canada to fit
him. He was fair-headed and of a ruddy complexion.
The gray-blue eyes, added to his fairness,
made him more Anglo-Saxon than Norman in
type. He was bluffly handsome, and his genial
smile was the index to a pervading and unceasing
kindliness. He was indeed a gentle man, and so a
gentleman. Somebody might aptly have said of
him, in Martin Tupper’s words: “Yet is that giant
very gentleness.”

We have touched, before this, on the abundant
largeness of his heart. He had nothing petty
about him. He was glad to praise others when
they deserved it, and he was too big a man to
steal the credit that belonged to subordinates.
He was a man of example as well as of precept, and
he knew the greater worth of the example. He
was essentially humane and therefore human.
And he had the saving grace of a sense of humor.

He was a man of real lovingkindness—with all
that that grand old word means—towards his
fellows. Once a certain Hogan deserted from the
49th. Describing this he said: “A fair damsel
persuaded him to this act of madness, for the poor
fellow cannot possibly gain his bread by labor, as
.bn 063.png
he has half killed himself by excessive drinking,
and we know he cannot live upon love alone.”
Brock was not angry; he was compassionate. He
was always sensible of difficulties and never
underestimated them. But he never appraised them
too highly. FitzGibbon, afterwards the hero of
Beaver Dam, tells an experience which shows this.
At the time FitzGibbon was a sergeant-major.
Brock ordered him to do something which was
admittedly difficult. FitzGibbon said he was
sorry, but it was impossible. “By the Lord
Harry,” cried Brock, “don’t tell me it is impossible.
Nothing should be impossible to a soldier.
The word 'impossible’ should not be in a soldier’s
dictionary.” FitzGibbon never forgot that and
often quoted it to the men under him, when they
were downhearted and inclined to deem things
impossible of attainment.

Brock’s outstanding characteristic was his white
humanity. His men loved him because, though
far removed from them in position and station, he
was one with them and one for them.

His headquarters were now at York. He was
sure and surer of war with the United States, and
even in December of 1811, he told Sir George
Prevost that, in case of war, he thought Canada
should seize Mackinaw and Detroit immediately.
.bn 064.png
This, he submitted, would impress the Indians,
and also hold up an invading army. Acting on
his advice, Sir George Prevost ordered two armed
schooners, the <i>Prince Regent</i> and the <i>Lady Prevost</i>
to be equipped, one for each of the two lakes,
Ontario and Erie.

Early next year, Brock declined a command in
Spain which the home government offered him,
requesting to stay in Canada. He had a great deal
on hand. He had a frontier of 1,300 miles to defend,
and that needed many men and much material. He
was greatly concerned about securing these.

In his first address to the House of Assembly at
York in February, 1812, Brock gave striking evidence
that he was thoroughly master of the
political situation in Upper Canada. He had in
his ears the shrill bombast of the political leaders
in the United States and knew just how to estimate
it. A president had recently declared that the
capture of Canada was a “mere matter of marching.”
A Massachusetts officer offered to “capture
Canada by contract, raise a company, and take it
in six weeks.” Henry Clay “verily believed that
the militia of Kentucky alone were competent to
place Canada at the feet of Americans.” Said
Brock: “We wish and hope for peace, but it is
nevertheless our duty to be prepared for war.”
.bn 065.png

He received the support of the Assembly, and,
that spring, was more soldier than governor. He
got to know the Six Nations Indians on the Grand
River. He raised companies of militia. He set
about the additional defence of the Niagara frontier
and saw that through. He had only 1,450
British regulars,—and just how far it was safe
to arm Canada’s dozen thousand men who were
said to be ready to bear arms, he did not know.

Meanwhile war was almost upon him. May saw
large detachments of United States soldiers sent
to Detroit and Niagara. At the latter border
they were drilling busily, and this and kindred
signs of war seems to have got on Brock’s nerves.
Since war was to come, he was impatient at delay.
He wanted to take the two posts he had mentioned
in the first sharp attack, and thus hearten his
people. He knew the value to be placed upon
<i><lang='fr'>morale</lang></i>. On June 18th, 1812, war against Great
Britain was declared by President Madison, with
the consent of the Congress of the United States of
America. The president placed an embargo on
shipping. He raised a public subscription fund
and issued a call for a hundred thousand volunteers.
.bn 066.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch06
CHAPTER VI||<sc>A Foolish Boast</sc>

.sp 2
“<sc>A house</sc> divided against itself cannot stand.”
The United States was not a union—for war.
While Henry Clay and ex-President Jefferson were
breathing out their threatenings and slaughter,
New England refused to concur in the country’s
wisdom in declaring war, and Boston flew its flags
at half-mast. And if the United States was not
whole in spirit, she was certainly not in material
things. Her soldiers though many, were raw.
Her treasury was empty.

Canada, however, was even worse off. Prevost
was of the opinion that Quebec was about the only
place that could be held against the enemy. Certainly
950 regulars and marines and 550 militia had
a gigantic task in the defending of seven forts,
from Kingston to Fort St. Joseph, in covering a
straggling and wretchedly protected frontier, and
in patrolling the huge sheets of water which are our
lake district. Even Brock, outwardly optimistic,
fully expected that he would be able to do little at
.bn 067.png
first. He had to deal with a governor-general who
apparently had no perception and no sense of
proportion. Brock at York had received word
of war from the House of Astor in New York,
earlier even than some of the United States commanders
were apprised of it. He was a man of
action, and he was for action, and that at once.
He believed that often the best defence is attack,
and he chafed under the restraint, anything but
wise under these circumstances, of Sir George
Prevost, who daily adjured him not to strike the
first blow. This continued for three weeks after
war was declared. Meanwhile General Hull was
marching through Ohio and Michigan to Detroit,
from thence to attack Canada!

Brock saw what Prevost did not see, the significance
to the Indians of an initial victory. If
Canada won the first battle, the border Indians
would rally to the Union Jack. They were a considerable
factor and had been canvassed by
American agents for many months in the endeavor
to persuade them, in the event of war, to join
with the United States. But Prevost fiddled while
Brock burned with indignation!

Almost his first act, when war was declared, was
to issue instructions to Captain Charles Roberts,
who commanded at Fort St. Joseph, to take
.bn 068.png
Mackinaw Island. In Robert’s command were
150 French-Canadians. Though this was contrary
to the orders of Sir George Prevost, Roberts did
as Brock told him. The fall of Mackinaw meant
the capture of much ammunition, many guns,
and a rich stock of furs. It also meant a favorable
impression on the Indians, which Brock knew to
be of first importance, and an impression which at
once made itself felt.

By July 5th, General Hull with his men had
reached Detroit. Seven days later he crossed the
river to Sandwich, losing on his way prisoners, baggage,
stores, and private war-papers to Lieutenant
Roulette of the British sloop <i>Hunter</i>. This
capture was of the utmost importance, as it was
the information gained from the seized papers that
decided Brock to march directly against Hull.
From Sandwich, the American general issued his
famous proclamation, in which he promised
“peace, liberty, and security” to the people of the
province he had invaded, if they made no resistance,
but “war, slavery, and destruction,” if they were
hostile!

Some of the people at Sandwich had welcomed
the United States troops with open arms, but
Amherstburg, Hull’s original goal, abandoned by
him because of the presence of British ships and
.bn 069.png
the strength of Fort Malden nearby, was not so
openly treacherous. Desertions from the British
troops were, however, becoming common, and
indeed the effect of Hull’s proclamation on a
certain part of the population was sufficient to
cause alarm. Brock at once countered by the
issue of a proclamation in which he pointed out
that Great Britain was ready and willing to
defend her subjects, whether white or Indian, at
all time and places and further urged the folly
of trusting to the promises of Hull. This proclamation,
couched in plain but stirring language,
had the desired effect in recalling the people to
their senses! All this time Hull and his troops
were spending their time plundering and pillaging
the surrounding country.

In the meantime Brock had called the Legislature
to meet in extra session at York on July 27th.
In opening the House he said: “When invaded by
an enemy whose avowed object is the entire
conquest of the province, the voice of loyalty, as
well as of interest, calls aloud to every person in
the sphere in which he is placed, to defend his
country. Our militia have heard the voice and
have obeyed it. They have evinced by the
promptitude and loyalty of their conduct that
they are worthy of the King whom they serve,
.bn 070.png
and of the constitution which they enjoy; and it
affords me particular satisfaction, that, while I
address you as legislators, I speak to men who,
in the day of danger, will be ready to assist not
only with their counsel, but with their arms.”
He concluded his address with the ringing words:
“We are engaged in an awful and eventful conflict.
By unanimity and despatch in our Councils, and
by vigor in our operations, we may teach the
enemy this lesson, that a country defended by
<em>free</em> men, enthusiastically devoted to the cause of
their King and constitution, cannot be conquered.”

But all the members were not loyal. There was
in the Assembly a strong minority who was more
than friendly to the United States. This faction,
indeed, succeeded in preventing the passage of
certain measures which Brock regarded as essential
to the safety of the country. In fact, so dangerous
did the opposition become, and so much comfort
did it give to the enemy, that nine days after the
session opened Brock, after consultation with his
Council, dissolved the Assembly. But before this the
loyal members had rallied to Brock, had passed the
bills which he wished, and issued a ringing appeal
to the loyalty of the people of Upper Canada.

Before calling the extra session of the Legislature
Brock had made up his mind to lead his men in
.bn 071.png
person against the invaders. The loyal volunteers
gathered round him. Chief among these were the
United Empire Loyalists and their descendants,
men who had not forgotten the treatment they or
their fathers had received from the nation that
was now again threatening their lives and their
liberty. But even with this loyal support Brock
had his troubles. It meant sacrifice for the
farmers to drop their scythes and enlist, for harvest
time was at hand, and they could not afford to
lose their crops. Many, having enrolled, begged
for permission to return and harvest the wheat,
which permission Brock felt he had unwillingly to
give. His great fear was of desertions which
would certainly multiply unless he could forestall
complaints by action. He wrote impatiently, but
justifiably so, to Prevost, pointing out that he had
wretchedly poor supplies of ammunition and even
clothing.

On August 5th, his volunteer army reinforced by
the handful of regulars set out for Detroit. They
went by Burlington Bay and Lake Erie, and so
passed the Mohawk settlement. This gave him
an opportunity to ascertain the attitude of the
Indians. What he found did not cheer him. The
work of the United States agents had had its effect.
The Indians were distrustful and sulky. Sixty of
.bn 072.png
them gave a sort of promise to follow him, but Brock
now knew beyond peradventure, that unless he
had the initial success, he would have to fight the
Indians as well as the Americans.

Long Point was reached on August 8th, and
here Brock, with a force of three hundred, embarked.
After a stormy voyage lasting five days
they reached Amherstburg. It was lucky that
Brock was a seabred man as well as a soldier. That
voyage would have disheartened many a brave
man.

News of Brock’s expedition had reached General
Hull who had turned tail and recrossed the river
with his men. Captain Dixon, who entered
Sandwich in pursuit of the departing Hull, took
the opportunity of strengthening the defences of
the town and placed five guns in position covering
Fort Detroit.

There now comes into the story of how Brock
saved Canada, a romantic figure, Tecumseh.
Tecumseh was a Shawanese chief and a brave man.
When the choice had to be made as to whom he and
his should serve, he decided that his loyalty should
be to Britain. “I have more confidence” he said
to his tribesmen, “in the word of a Briton than in
the word of a Big Knife!” Tecumseh’s decision
was a very important factor in the War of 1812.
.bn 073.png
Having set his hand to the plough he lost no time.
He and all the Indians had been greatly impressed
with Brock’s occupation of Sandwich and Hull’s
fear and retreat. This was as Brock had surmised.
By a clever trap Tecumseh ambushed a force
under an American officer, Major Van Horne,
which was bringing supplies from the Raisin River
to Detroit. He had not yet met Brock.

Arrived at Fort Malden, Brock received from
Colonel Proctor there a number of papers captured
by Tecumseh in his brief engagement with
Van Horne. They turned out to be General
Hull’s further instructions from his government
and Hull’s replies. These latter revealed the fact
that the braggart quality of Hull had gone. He
was very much down in the mouth. Sickness was
prevalent in his camp. His constant maraudings
were his only source of food and supplies, it appeared,
and as his communications had been cut off,
starvation faced him and his men.

Brock, like the great commander he was, saw
that the real significance of the captured correspondence
was its demonstration of the lowered
<i><lang='fr'>morale</lang></i> of Hull’s men even more than their dwindling
supplies. He decided to act. He knew that
it would not be easy to conquer a force of 2,500,
but he remembered Nelson’s threat at Copenhagen
.bn 074.png
and that it was successful. The old Greeks had
a saying which might very well have been running
through Brock’s mind at this time, “They did it
because they thought they could do it.” He was
not overwhelmingly confident, but he knew he
could not afford to be unsure of himself. He sent
his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell,
and Captain Glegg, under a flag of truce,
to General Hull with this message: “The force
at my disposal authorizes me to require of you the
surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my
inclination to join in a war of extermination, but
you must be aware that the numerous body of
Indians, who have attached themselves to my
troops, will be beyond my control the moment the
contest commences.”

Hull was caught between the devil of his own
self-contempt and the deep sea of this supposed
force of Indians. He longed to hand Brock his
sword, but he dared not give in without some
attempt at resistance. He had boasted so much
that he was compelled to make some sort of
showing. He said he was ready to meet the
British forces.

The rest of the day was occupied in planning the
attack, while the guns at Sandwich were pouring
forth a desultory fire to which Fort Detroit replied.
.bn 075.png
Brock wanted to lead his army across the river.
Nearly all his staff opposed him, but he had two
brave men who agreed with him. One was his
quartermaster-general, Colonel Nichol, and the
other was Tecumseh.

Brock had confidence in Tecumseh and he in
Brock. On the occasion of their meeting, Brock,
though it was past midnight, was busy at his table
with his plans and despatches. In the dimly
lighted room these two warriors looked at each
other. Brock saw an Indian brave. Tecumseh
saw a brave Briton. He turned to his followers,
and almost in the words of Brutus describing
Antony long ago, he said: “<em>This is a man.</em>”
Brock reciprocated this high regard. Of the Indian
warrior he wrote: “A more sagacious or a
more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist.
He was the admiration of every one who conversed
with him.”

Brock discussed his plans of attack with Tecumseh
and asked the chief if he could give him
definite information. Tecumseh, who had an
intimate knowledge of the district which Brock
planned to make the scene of his first engagement,
took a piece of birch bark and, laying it on
the ground, made a military map, showing all the
natural features of the district. Brock and Colonel
.bn 076.png
Nichol examined the map, and the former advised
with his staff no more. His decision was made
and needed no further deliberating. He would cross
the Detroit River in the morning, though Prevost
and the War Office had said him “Nay!”
.bn 077.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch07
CHAPTER VII||<sc>Detroit Taken</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>August</sc> 16th, then, sees Major-General Isaac
Brock and his men embarked for the American
shore. Tecumseh had not waited for the main
body, but with Colonel Elliott and six hundred
Indians had crossed the night before, as an advance
guard to hold the enemy should they attempt to
hinder Brock.

We can picture the crossing of this comparative
handful of men—382 British regulars, 362 Canadian
militiamen, and the remainder of the Indians.
They set out to the accompaniment of the booming
of the guns from the <i>Hunter</i> and the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>,
which were in the river just above what is
now the city of Windsor. Many of Brock’s men
were quite new to the idea of conflict, and doubtless
the thoughts of men before battle then were much
the same as they are now. But the sun rose high
in the heavens, and the hearts of the men rose
with it. The glint of the sun’s rays caught the
bayonets which moved to and fro as the
.bn 078.png
batteaux and canoes made swiftly across stream.
Blue-shirts of sailors and red-coats of soldiers
colored the scene, which took on a quaint and
awesome quality when the Indians’ gaudy feathers
and brilliant paint began to be discernible as the
expedition neared the opposite bank and finally
landed at Springwells, three miles below the fort.
The whoops and strange cries of the Indians did
not tend to hearten the enemy.

Brock surveyed the situation. Here was he,
against his superior’s orders, on enemy ground,
taking the offensive. He had little better than
half the men his opponent had, and, what is more,
his men were for the most part green and untried,
while General Hull’s, though not actually experienced,
were far more highly trained. Above him,
as he looked, rose not far away the heavy walls of
a strong fort, with all that that implied of gunfire
and destruction. But Brock knew that if in
material he did not equal Hull, the spirit of his
men was unbreakable, while the braggart who
opposed him secretly feared the issue.

His plan was to split Hull’s army. He knew
that Hull dare not leave the fortress unprotected
and that that fact would lessen the number who
would give him direct battle. He planned to lure
Hull into the open, and he relied on his few regulars
.bn 079.png
and the inveterate fighters he had in the Indians
to hearten the raw recruits, if they needed any
spur other than that of defending their families
and homes. But here a factor was introduced
which would not allow him time for strategy.

He suddenly learned that about 350 men—this
number was exaggerated to him—were away from
Hull’s main body, bringing supplies. Hull, aware
of Brock’s approach, had sent peremptory orders
to this detachment to return immediately. They
were only a short distance away, and Brock saw
that he must strike at once. This man of action
decided to assault the fort itself. Seldom has there
been a more splendidly foolhardy plan. He drew
up his 1,400 men, roughly, half Indian and half
white, and prepared to attack the fort.

It must have looked a hard obstacle to conquer.
It has been described as being constructed in the
form of a parallelogram. At each corner was a
strong bastion and all round stretched a moat,
twelve feet wide and eight feet deep. There were
palisades of hardwood, ten feet in height, inclining
from the base of the rampart at an angle of forty
degrees, and sharpened at the top. The ramparts
were twenty-two feet high, and breaches for cannon
occurred at regular intervals. There was a portcullis,
well provided for small-arm firing, and a
.bn 080.png
drawbridge. And perhaps the most important
thing from the defenders’ point of view was that
the fort commanded quite open country, so that
the attacking army would find it very difficult
to remain undiscovered for long. The fortress,
Brock told himself, was going to be hard to take,
but it was worth a determined struggle, not only
for the intrinsic gain but also for what a victory
signified. The fort held a great deal of ammunition,
as well as more than thirty guns.

Brock personally led his army in the attack.
Colonel Nichol, the gallant Scottish-Canadian
merchant whom Brock had made quartermaster-general
of militia, protested against this. He reined
up by the side of the commander who was riding up
and down in front of his army, heartening them for
the attack, and said: “General, I cannot forbear
entreating you not to expose yourself. If we lose
you, we lose all.” But Brock, who had always
believed in the inspiration of personal example,
turned to his officer and said: “Master Nichol, I
duly appreciate the advice you give, but I feel that
in addition to their sense of loyalty and duty, many
here follow me from personal regard, and I will never
ask them to go where I do not lead them.”

Brock believed in co-operation, and while he
advanced down the long, narrow road the battery
.bn 081.png
at Sandwich, commanded by Captain Hall, and the
guns on the deck of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i> poured
heavy fire into the fort. This had its effect, for
just at the time Brock’s column was nearing its
destination a shot from Captain Hall’s guns found
its billet in one of the rooms at the fort, wounding
and killing several officers and men. Meanwhile,
Lieutenant Bullock was leading the advance guard
for Brock. He had three six pounders and two
three pounders. It was a case of David and
Goliath over again, for this sort of weapon was
hardly fitted to the great task in front of Brock.
He was leading his men down the country road,
in the very face of a battery of two twenty-four
pounders, two twelve-pounders, and two six-pounders.

General Hull was feeling subdued enough by
now. Brock had uniformed the militiamen he
had with him in the old tunics of the 41st, and
Hull therefore imagined that Brock had more
regulars than he had at first supposed. And he
was sure too of the presence of the Indians.
He conjured up visions of innumerable scalpings.
His last ounce of courage faded when Captain
Hall’s effective shots fell within the fort and he
despatched messengers with a flag of truce to
the Captain. Hall, however, returned word that
.bn 082.png
Major-General Isaac Brock alone could accept
surrender.

Not far away the Indians were coming
through the woods, shrieking their war-cries,
terrifying all who heard. Already the York
volunteers had had some desultory fighting,
and they were now only a mile or so from
the battery of heavy guns. But to the
American soldiers manning them, as to the
men in the fort, there came no order to fire.
Presumably, Hull expected that the white flag
he had despatched precluded any opposition.
Brock, of course, knew nothing of the offer of
surrender.

The British advanced to within three-quarters of
a mile of the fort and called a halt to reconnoitre.
Brock was amazed to find that the American
gunners had fled to the fort, and that, approaching
him was one of Hull’s staff officers bearing a flag
of truce. An hour or two later Brock led his men
into the fort! The way which had seemed so
difficult had become miraculously easy.

It was next day, Monday, August 17th, that
Brock formally took possession of the fort, which
implied the surrender of the whole of surrounding
Michigan. There were many prisoners of war, but
even more to be desired, 40 cannon, 2,500 muskets,
.bn 083.png
60 barrels of gunpowder, 200 tons of cannon ball,
and large stores of other ammunition fell into the
hands of the British. Looking around, the men
found horses and sheep and cattle in abundance.
These had been stolen from Canadian
farmers by the marauding Americans. Food
too was discovered. The fort had evidently
prepared for a long siege. There was one
other prize, a brig called the <i>Adams</i>. With this
Hull had hoped to make himself master of the
lakes. Brock converted it into the British Brig
<i>Detroit</i>.

The fickle population who had welcomed
Hull with open arms now shouted just as
hard for Brock. There were great rejoicings,
and everywhere the Union Jack was hoisted.
In the fort there were some captured British
cannon which had been taken from the British
in the Revolutionary War. These fired salutes
in honor of Brock’s victory, and the guns
of the <i>Queen Charlotte</i> replied heartily.

Brock’s first act, almost, after entering the
captured fort, was characteristic of the man. He
ordered that Private Dean, who a few days previously
had distinguished himself at the Canard
River and had been taken prisoner by the Americans,
should be brought before him, and in the
.bn 084.png
presence of the assembled troops warmly congratulated
him on his heroic conduct.[1]

The capture of Detroit was a very real victory.
Had the day gone otherwise, Hull might have
made his boasted march to Quebec, and that as a
conqueror. But his march now was as a prisoner
of war. Brock had dared what looked impossible
and by a stroke of fortune had won out. His
victory was an imposingly public one. It cheered
his men. It made those Canadian inhabitants
who were hesitating declare definitely for the
British, while those with leanings towards the
United States kept silent. It saved Canada
from invasion at a moment when, owing to the
shortsightedness of her rulers, she was particularly
vulnerable.
.bn 085.png

Brock apprised Sir George Prevost, modestly
enough, of his victory and wrote to his brothers:
“Rejoice at my good fortune, and join me in
prayers to Heaven. I send you a copy of my
hasty note to Sir George. Let me know that you
are all united and happy.”

.fn 1
In the general order issued by the commander-in-chief
at Quebec on August 6th, 1812, the conduct of the 41st
Regiment is specially praised. The order goes on to say:
“In justice to that corps, His Excellency wishes particularly
to call the attention of the troops to the heroism and self-devotion
displayed by two privates, who, being left as
sentinels when the party to which they belonged had retired,
continued to maintain their station against the whole of
the enemy’s force, until they both fell, when one of them,
whose arm was broken, again raising himself, opposed with
his bayonet those advancing against him, until overwhelmed
by numbers.” The names of the two privates of the 41st
were Hancock and Dean.
.fn-
.bn 086.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch08
CHAPTER VIII||<sc>His Hands Are Tied</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>Brock’s</sc> spectacular capture of Fort Detroit
brought all Canada to his feet. Foremost in
admiration was Sir George Prevost. Had Brock
failed, Sir George no doubt, would have been as
brusque in condemnation as, now that Brock had
conquered, he was fulsome in praise. He had
done his best to hamper Brock, and indeed at the
last minute had sent a staff officer commanding
him not to undertake the proposed Detroit expedition,
but the messenger, happily alike for Canada
and Brock, had failed to arrive in time. Provincial
authorities and friends rained their congratulations,
while Lord Bathurst, the British Secretary for
War and the Colonies, commended him for his
“firmness, skill, and bravery.” Bathurst’s case
was similar to Prevost’s, for he had adjured the
governor-general by repeated messages not to
assume the offensive lest the Americans become
unduly aggravated and thus possibly have some
genuine cause of complaint. Nothing could better
.bn 087.png
show the smallmindedness of the class of officialdom
to which Bathurst and Prevost belonged than
their willingness, now that victory was achieved, to
share in the credit <target id='there'>therefore. Bathurst wrote to
Brock that “the Prince Regent had honored him
for his services by making him an extra Knight of
the Bath.” Unhappily, the man whom the Prince
thus delighted to honor and who, one likes to
think, would have honored the order by accepting
it, died before he received word.

Brock’s victory did something to offset the
misfortunes which had piled upon the British in
Europe. Just before the news of the capture of
Fort Detroit was received in London, Britain had
been beaten in a naval duel. The American ship
<i>Constitution</i> had thrashed the British battleship
<i>Guerriere</i>. The shame which Britain felt on this
account was deepened by the knowledge that she
had been beaten on her own element by what was
once a colony of hers. News of Brock’s victory,
therefore, was opportune, and the British government
was able to point out to the people that, if
America had won a victory on the sea, she had
more than lost it by the surrender of Detroit.

October 6th was Brock’s birthday, the day on
which the news of the victory at Detroit reached
London. Brock’s brother William and his wife
.bn 088.png
happened to be walking in a London park, and
Mrs. Brock asked the reason of the flag-waving and
the firing. “Do you not know,” said William,
“that it is Isaac’s birthday? It is in honor of
him.” What William said in jest turned out to
be the very truth.

If Brock’s victory had a happy effect on the
people of Britain the opposite was the case in the
United States. The Jeffersons, the Clays, and
the Hulls of the United States had led the people
to believe that their northerly neighbor could
very easily be conquered. It was a sad blow to
American self-esteem when it became known that
Detroit and Michigan had fallen to a country
which they had been taught to regard as an enemy
hardly worth considering. Gloom and discouragement
were everywhere evident, and President
Madison ordered the churches throughout the
country to hold services of prayer that success
might come to American arms.

Between Black Rock and Fort Niagara part of
the American army was camped. It did nothing
to hearten them for the task that lay before them
to see the men whom Brock had taken prisoners
at Detroit, and who had come by boat to Fort
Erie, march along the Niagara River to Fort
George. From there the prisoners were sent down
.bn 089.png
the St. Lawrence to Montreal, and in some cases,
to Quebec. Some Canadian cities, therefore, had
an opportunity of seeing that when Brock bared his
arm it was not for nothing. They might indeed
feel hopeful under such a leader. On the other
hand, the American army, badly disciplined, ill in
health, and surprisingly inexperienced were gloomy
and morose.

Brock, having left the arrangements for the
future government of Detroit in the hands of
Colonel Procter, left for Fort Erie. Hardly had
his schooner passed Amherstburg when it was
hailed by the <i>Lady Prevost</i> coming up the lake.
The commander gave Brock the news that an
armistice had been concluded between Sir George
Prevost and the American commander-in-chief,
General Dearborn, and until President Madison had
ratified or discountenanced this armistice, all
actual warfare must cease.

Brock was dumbfounded. Instead of being
allowed to finish the task he had got so well under
way, that of clearing the borders of American
troops, he found his hands tied.

General Brock’s plans were all laid. Procter,
whom Brock had left at Detroit, was marching
against Fort Wayne in the Miami country with
some regulars and some Indians, and there was little
.bn 090.png
doubt of his success. As the fort contained supplies,
its capture would seriously hamper American
operations. Its defenders were few and were in
deadly fear of a horde of Indians who, intoxicated
with their success at Detroit, desired only further
chance to display their prowess. Brock knew that
they would show the garrison at Fort Wayne no
quarter, and it was as much to save the lives of the
men of this garrison as to secure the fort that he
had despatched Procter. Now, of course, he had
to countermand his instructions. His plans for
raiding Sackett’s Harbor were likewise spoiled,
though the capture of that port would have given
the British complete power over Lake Ontario.

A personal incident in Brock’s voyage to Fort
Erie showed how mentally distraught he was at
this time. His schooner, the <i>Chippewa</i>, ran into
a fog. The commander lost his bearings and,
when the mist lifted, found himself very near to
the American shore. No doubt news of the armistice
had not reached as far down the shore as this,
and had the Americans known of the proximity of
the victorious British general, they certainly
would have made an effort to capture the schooner.
Brock, who was vexed and heart-broken, instantly
suspected treachery and cried to the captain of
the <i>Chippewa</i>: “You scoundrel! you have betrayed
.bn 091.png
me. Let but one shot be fired from that shore
and,” pointing aloft, “I will run you up on the
instant to that yard-arm.”

There does not seem room for doubt that the
captain was quite innocent, and loyal to Brock.
Luckily the <i>Queen Charlotte</i>, which had preceded
the <i>Chippewa</i> by several days, heard a shot which
was fired from the latter and bore down on the
vessel which held the commanding general. Ultimately
she towed the <i>Chippewa</i> to safety.

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,
.bn 092.png
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.”
.bn 093.png

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
.bn 094.png
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.
.bn 095.png

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
<i><lang='fr'>morale</lang></i> 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
.bn 096.png
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 <i>Caledonia</i> and the <i>Detroit</i>.
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
.bn 097.png
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.

Next day a Major Evans, of the British forces,
presented a flag of truce to Van Rensselaer, which
truce was for the purpose of exchange of prisoners.
While this was under way, Evans’s sharp eye
noticed that preparations were being made for
what could not be other than an attack on
Queenston. He returned to Queenston and
warned Captain Dennis, commanding the men
there, that large boats were concealed on the other
side ready, he thought, for an attack. Brock,
at Fort George, must also be given news at once,
.bn 098.png
thought Evans, and he hastened away to acquaint
the commander with what was afoot.

Evans was right. The fate of the October 11th
expedition did not deter Van Rensselaer from
another attempt. This was to be made before
dawn next day.
.bn 099.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch09
CHAPTER IX||<sc>Queenston Heights</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>It</sc> has been pointed out that the forces under
Brock were widely scattered. His main body
was at Fort George, seven miles from Queenston.
At Brown’s Point, three miles away, there was a
battery, and a single gun was mounted at Vrooman’s
Point, a mile distant. In the village of
Queenston Captain Dennis commanded the grenadier
company of the 49th Regiment; Captain
Chisholm was stationed there with a company of
the second York; Captain Hall’s company of the
5th Lincoln Militia brought the whole force at
Queenston to about three hundred men. At a
vantage point on the height itself was stationed
Captain Williams with a light company of the
49th, supporting the crew of a redan battery of
one eighteen-pounder gun.

Van Rensselaer was confident of victory. He
deputed the attack to his cousin, Colonel Solomon
Van Rensselaer, an officer of the regular army,
and to Lieutenant-Colonel Christie, who between
.bn 100.png
them commanded six hundred men, half militia
and half regular. The first of these men embarked
at three o’clock in the morning, when the landscape
was dark and dismal and rain was falling, in a
boat from the Lewiston landing. Their oars were
muffled, but the sentries upon the heights on the
other side detected their approach. They fired
into the boat, and the noise brought Captain Dennis
and his men at a run. More firing ensued.
Colonel Van Rensselaer, who was in the leading
boat, was badly wounded. The invasion was
checked for the moment, and such Americans as
had effected a landing were compelled to hide in
the brush overhanging the bank. Lieutenant-Colonel
Christie’s boats were less fortunate. A
current carried them down stream, and they had
to return to Lewiston, to set out again. Under
Colonel Fenwick a force of regulars followed the
advance party, but their boat was swept below
Queenston and beached there. The defenders on
the height had it at their mercy and fired, wounding
Fenwick and eventually compelling the surrender
of the whole boatful. Another boat which landed
at Vrooman’s Point met the same fate.

The defenders’ guns, while they warned the
Canadians also warned those American soldiers
still at Lewiston of the opposition to the invading
.bn 101.png
force. The gunners at Lewiston opened fire on
Queenston Heights, in an endeavor to cover the
landing of the attacking troops, while the Canadian
batteries kept on with their grim work of firing
volleys into the boats in midstream. Meanwhile
Brock at Fort George was uneasy. He had sat
up most of the night of October 12th making his
plans and writing despatches. He seems to have
expected an engagement almost immediately, for
he wrote a letter to his brother about it in which
he said: “If I should be beaten the province is
inevitably gone.” He had hardly gone to sleep on
the night of October 12th when the sentry, who
had heard the firing at Queenston, aroused him.
So it had come! He wasted no time, but was soon
galloping, unattended, under darkling skies and
pouring rain, to Queenston.

Captain Cameron was at Brown’s Point with a
body of men, watching the battle anxiously. A
messenger came to him and urged that immediate
word be sent to General Brock. Lieutenant
Jarvis put spurs to his horse and galloped away,
intent on getting to Fort George in the shortest
possible time. He had not gone very far before,
through the darkness and mist, he discerned the
general. Brock was riding hard, anxiety on his
face, index to the fear he felt for Canada. He did not
.bn 102.png
even stop but, motioning to Jarvis to turn his
horse and follow, kept on in his grim journey.
Jarvis caught up to the general, and, as they were
galloping, he gave Brock his portentous news.
Dawn was just breaking when Brock told Jarvis
to hasten to Fort George with instructions to Major-General
Sheaffe to bring his whole reserves to
Queenston. He also ordered Jarvis to tell the
Indians at Fort George to occupy the wood on
the right when Sheaffe’s troops came on. Brock
wasted no time in getting to Brown’s Point. On
the way he passed a company of the York Volunteers
and instructed Captain Cameron, commanding
them, to follow him immediately. He sped
on past Vrooman’s Point, hastily acquainting
Captain Heward with what had happened, and
was very soon at Queenston. He climbed the
Heights to the point where the redan battery was
stationed, so that from there he could command a
view of the stream.

In the village of Queenston Captains Chisholm,
Dennis, and Hall were making a brave fight of it
against superior forces. Brock, seeing their predicament,
detached Captain Williams and his men and
sent them to help. This left him unprotected,
except for eight artillerymen. Day had dawned
and turning his head, Brock saw above him, on
.bn 103.png
the summit of the heights, a detachment of about
sixty American soldiers. The odds were too
great, and the general, with his artillerymen and the
crew of the eighteen-pounder gun, returned to the
village, leaving the gun behind. The British
had made one mistake. They had left a path
leading up the bank of the river to the heights
unguarded. They had deemed it too difficult for
an attacking force to climb, but this underestimation
of the courage of the enemy cost them
dearly. Captain Wool, a United States regular
army officer, reached the summit, and it was he
and his sixty men that Brock saw.

Meanwhile, the battery and the infantry in
Queenston village were keeping the invaders at
bay with great difficulty. The eighteen-pounder
had been left behind, and Brock, who as we have
seen, knew the inspiration of personal example,
decided himself to win the gun back. With two
companies of the 49th and a hundred militiamen
he set out for the Heights, crying: “Follow me
boys.” At the base of the hill he rested his men.
A little later he dismounted, climbed over a low
stone wall, and, his sword flashing, charged up
the hill in front of his men.

Captain Wool had been reinforced and now had
four hundred men under his command. One of
.bn 104.png
these men stepped in front of the rest and shot
down General Brock. The bullet struck him in
the right breast near the heart. The wound was
fatal, and the death of their commander, more
perhaps than the continuous fire poured upon
them from the heights, forced the British to retire.
The underestimation of the enemy had indeed
been costly.

Some discrepancy exists as to what were Brock’s
last words. According to Lieutenant Jarvis, who
was immediately at his side when he fell, with the
question: “Are you hurt, Sir?” Brock did not
reply, but, pressing his hand to his chest, “slowly
sank down.” This is the most probable version,
as it is likely that he was wounded too severely
to say anything at all. Others have it, however,
that, just before he died Brock cried: “Push on,
brave York Volunteers!” This story probably
has its origin in the early shout to Captain Cameron,
to bring up his men. Captain Glegg, who
acquainted William Brock the next day with the
news of the General’s death, said that, as he fell
Brock whispered: “My fall must not be noticed or
impede my brave companions from advancing to
victory.” It is not likely, however, that a plain
man like Brock would have struck an attitude so
dramatic. The story of Lieutenant Jarvis seems
.bn 105.png
most nearly to fit the case. Whatever he said or
did not say, this man of action died as he had lived,
bravely and as a man.

Brock’s death filled his men with a just rage, and
before night the cry, “Revenge the General!” was
heard from one end of the forty mile line to the
other. His spirit breathed “an inextinguishable
flame,” and the soldiers at Fort George drove the
Americans out with little trouble. At Fort Erie,
the men behind the guns, saddened and awed by
the death of their beloved leader, redoubled their
efforts on the Americans at Black Rock.

The force which Brock himself had been leading
had to retreat, leaving behind the gun which had
cost them their leader’s life. With them they
bore his body to Queenston. When his men
looked at his corpse they might say as Antony
did of Caesar’s body, “Here is himself, marr’d,”
and the sight of this “bleeding piece of earth”
spurred them on in his name and for his sake.

His men tried again, after his death, to take
that fateful gun. Vrooman’s Point and Brown’s
Point furnished their quotas of York Volunteers
to reinforce the troops from Queenston, as Brock
had commanded, and about ten o’clock, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell, Brock’s aide-de camp,
another attack was made on the Americans
.bn 106.png
on Queenston Heights. This too was unsuccessful.
Again the troops had to retreat, while their leader
was mortally wounded.

The Americans were sure that they had won a
great victory. Messengers were despatched to
Albany with the tidings of the death of Brock
and Macdonell, and the city gave itself up to
rejoicings. But the joy was premature.

It became apparent to Van Rensselaer, who
with Lieutenant-Colonel Christie had seen, from
the captured redan battery, a long line of Canadians
marching to Queenston, that another battle was
inevitable. These were the reinforcements moving
to the front under the command of Major-General
Sheaffe. Van Rensselaer crossed the river, but was
met with a flat refusal from his men to cross the
stream to the Canadian side. The New York
militia, who by this time had seen their dead and
wounded and had heard, justly enough, of the
bravery of the “Green Tigers”—this was the
name given to the men of the 49th because of the
green in their uniforms—were terror-stricken.
While Van Rensselaer was alternately persuading
and threatening, a force of Indians, commanded by
Brant and a young Scotsman, Chief Norton, who
had been made an Indian Chief, had quietly left
Fort George, climbed the Heights, and showed
.bn 107.png
themselves on the left of the Americans. There
were not enough of them to do very much real
harm, but they appear to have stricken fear into
the heart of the enemy by their wild cries and to
have caught a number of them and punished them
pretty severely.

Major-General Sheaffe commanded about seven
hundred men. When he had looked over the
situation, he decided that the best attack could be
made from the rear. He therefore placed some
artillery under Lieutenant Holcroft in a courtyard
in the village of Queenston, to check any attempt
the foe made to cross. Along the Chippewa road
near the Niagara river troops were advancing to
join Sheaffe. About one hundred and fifty Indians
had moved eastwards from the little town of St.
David’s and were lying in ambush in the woods on
the enemy’s right front. Sheaffe himself advanced
with forces now numbering about a thousand.
The enemy were therefore in a position to be
attacked from all sides.

The conflict began again at three o’clock, and
the opening shot seems to have been fired by the
troops in Queenston who trained their guns on the
river. At the same time the men on the British
left attacked the enemy’s front. They were
guided by Indians, who knew every inch of the
.bn 108.png
ground on the west of the hill. These guides led
Sheaffe’s men through the heavy woods, so that
they might attack on this flank. This would be
quite unexpected by the enemy. The Niagara
militia with two guns and a company from the
41st Regiment, were on the right. The York and
Lincoln militia, backed up by the 49th, were in
the middle. A company of negroes, refugees
from the United States, gave material assistance to
the British. The six hundred American soldiers
on Queenston Heights were surprised. Instead of
an attack from down-stream they had to face
one from the left. They were caught like rats in
a trap, but fought valiantly. They saw that
escape was impossible, for the swift current flowed
behind them and they had no boats to take them
back to the American shore. Besides, they faced
almost double the number of men. Lieutenant-Colonel
Winfield Scott of the regular army was
their commander, and he was a brave man. His
men fired on the advancing Canadians, but Scott
knew he was outnumbered. To the accompaniment
of the savage cries of the Indians, Sheaffe’s
men came on in a determined bayonet charge.
The Americans broke in disorder. They had
many dead and dying already, and the rest turned
tail and ran to the edge of the precipice. Half
.bn 109.png
crazed, many threw themselves over. The rest
made for the river bank, but there were no boats,
and their only way of escape was by way of swimming.
Few were able to breast the current, and
many perished in the cruel stream. The Americans
were badly beaten, and Scott, having made a
brave fight, surrendered all his men then on the
Canadian side to General Sheaffe. It is ten
thousand pities that the gallant Brock was not
there to see the result of the work of his hands.

The British took nearly a thousand prisoners,
among whom was General Wadsworth and about
seventy other officers. The British on their side
had lost eleven killed and something like sixty
wounded. The Indians, no less gallant, had
losses of five killed and nine wounded. History
differs as to the American casualties. There were
probably nearly a hundred killed and about two
hundred wounded. So the inextinguishable flame
of Brock’s spirit had blazed the way to victory, for
Queenston Heights was a great victory. Canada,
however, grieved so much at the death of Brock,
that not even the feat of arms of his successor
mitigated her sorrow.

To the Americans the death of Brock was
“equivalent to a victory.” President Madison, in
his next message to Congress, said: “Our loss at
.bn 110.png
Queenston has been considerable and is to be
deeply lamented. The enemy’s loss, less ascertained,
will be the more felt for it includes among
the killed their commanding general.”

After the battle Brock’s body was taken from
Queenston to Fort George. It was buried under
one of the bastions of the fort, and beside it was
laid the body of Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell.
During the burial of Canada’s great general,
Lieutenant-Colonel Winfield Scott, now a prisoner,
sent a request to the officer commanding the
United States troops that the flag at Fort Niagara
be flown at half-mast as was the Canadian flag at
Fort George, and when the Canadian guns boomed
out their respect for the dead general the American
guns responded.
.bn 111.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch10
CHAPTER X||<sc>Conclusion</sc>

.sp 2
<sc>If</sc> Brock’s prowess at Detroit called forth
universal admiration, his death was the occasion of
a wonderful outpouring of affectionate regard and
regret. When the news reached England Earl
Bathurst wrote to Sir George Prevost: “His
Majesty has lost in him not only an able and
meritorious officer, but one who displayed qualities
admirably adapted to dismay the disloyal, to
reconcile the wavering, and to animate the great
mass of the inhabitants against successive attempts
of the enemy to invade the province.” Nor was
British gratitude a matter of words only. On
July 20th, 1813, the House of Commons voted a
monument to Brock in appreciation of what he
had done. The monument, at a cost of £1,575,
was erected in St. Paul’s cathedral. Each of
Brock’s four brothers was granted twelve thousand
acres of land in Upper Canada, and a pension of
£200 a year for life. A memorial coin was struck
in Brock’s honor. Thus Great Britain tried to
.bn 112.png
show how much she thought of the man who had
held his life so lightly beside the safety and honor
of the Empire.

In Canada the sorrow was just as great and
more immediate. Colonel Nichol, Brock’s militia
quarter-master, wrote of his death: “Our situation
has materially changed for the worse. Confidence
seems to have vanished, and gloom and despondency
seem to have taken its place.” “His
moderation and impartiality had united all parties
in pronouncing him the only man worthy to be at
the head of affairs” was the tribute of Lieutenant
Ridout, who himself fought bravely at Queenston
Heights. The newspapers of Canada were genuinely
sorrowful, and the Quebec <cite>Gazette</cite> declared
his death was received as “a public calamity.”

A lasting mark of Canada’s esteem was to be
found in a fine monument erected on Queenston
Heights. This column which was 135 feet high,
and stood 485 feet above the river, covered a vault
to which, on October 13th, 1824—just twelve
years after his death—Brock’s remains and
those of his gallant aide were removed. On
the occasion of this transference, a great crowd,
in which were almost as many Americans as
Canadians, gathered to honor the memory of
Canada’s great general.
.bn 113.png

This monument unhappily was entirely ruined
through the agency of a man named Lett who, on
April 17th, 1840, exploded gunpowder under it.
This man was one of the rebels of 1837 who fled to
the United States when his sedition was discovered.
The motives that animated him were petty and
spiteful, but if he thought that by destroying the
outward and visible sign of Brock’s wonderful work,
he was besmirching the memory of a great man,
he was very wrong. Canadians flocked to Queenston,
and at a public meeting there it was decided
to build a monument even more imposing than
the one so meanly destroyed. The foundation
stone for this new monument was laid in 1853
and it was completed three years later. The
formal inauguration took place on October 13th,
1859. From its base to its summit, a splendid
image of Brock, the monument is 190 feet in height.

So this man of action has been honored, but
the greatest monument to his deed and his memory
is in the hearts of the Canadian people. Canada
may well be proud of him, for he saved our country
in a very real and vital sense. He managed to
crowd the few short years he was in Canada full
of earnest and devoted service to the country he
had adopted and had come to love. The splendor
of his achievement shines out as a beacon, at once
.bn 114.png
drawing attention to itself as a proof that Canada
had its great ones a hundred years ago, and imposing
on all Canadians the same high privilege
of doing something to make glorious and keep
stainless the fair name of their country.

Reuben Butchart, a Canadian poet of power, has
written a sonnet in commemoration of Brock, and
this little book could not leave a better message
with its readers than the beautiful words and even
more beautiful thoughts that this poet gives us:

.nf b
On Queenston’s hill we reared thy lofty shrine,
  Where sleeps thy fiery heart, our gallant Brock.
  Our many-voiced acclaim shall here unlock
Time’s chest of honors, proffering what is thine.
Thy name is with the glorious names that shine
  O’er War’s red flood, a beacon on a rock.
  Thy soul, which bore its hour’s consummate shock.
All valorous thou did’st to fame consign.

Sheathed be the blade, nor seek through blood a name
  Our foes are of our household; mingled rife
  Through hourly needs there rings the vital strife
With doubt and sin, the lust of honor, shame:
O soul, live greatly; thy self-conquering life
  Shall breathe an inextinguishable flame.
.nf-
.bn 115.png



.sp 4
.h2 id=ch11
APPENDIX

.sp 2
.h3 id=hull
GENERAL HULL’S PROCLAMATION

“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 <em>find</em> enemies,
not to <em>make</em> them. I come to protect, not to injure you.

“Separated by an immense ocean and an extensive wilderness
from Great Britain, you have no participation in her
councils, no interest in her conduct. You have felt her
tyranny, you have seen her injustice, but I do not ask you
to avenge the one or redress the other. The United States
are sufficiently powerful to afford you every security
consistent with their rights and your expectations. I tender
you the invaluable blessings of civil, political, and religious
liberty, and their necessary result, individual and general
prosperity—that liberty which gave decision to our councils
and energy to our struggle for independence, and which
conducted us safely and triumphantly through the stormy
period of the revolution; that liberty which has raised us
to an elevated rank among the nations of the world, and
.bn 116.png
which has afforded us a greater measure of peace and security,
of wealth and improvement, than ever yet fell to the lot of
any people.

“In the name of my country, and by the authority of my
government, I promise protection to your persons, property,
and rights. Remain at your homes, pursue your peaceful
and customary avocations, raise not your hands against
your brethren. Many of your fathers fought for the freedom
and independence which we now enjoy. Being children,
therefore, of the same family with us, and heirs to the same
heritage, the arrival of an army of friends must be hailed
by you with a cordial welcome. You will be emancipated
from tyranny and oppression and restored to the dignified
station of freemen. Had I any doubt of eventual success
I might ask your assistance, but I do not. I come prepared
for every contingency. I have a force which will look down
all opposition, and that force is but the vanguard of a much
greater. If, contrary to your own interests and the just
expectation of my country, you should take part in the
approaching contest, you will be considered and treated as
enemies, and the horrors and calamities of war will stalk
before you. If the barbarous and savage policy of Great
Britain be pursued, and the savages be let loose to murder
our citizens and butcher our women and children, this war
will be a war of extermination. The first stroke of the
tomahawk, the first attempt with the scalping-knife, will be
the signal of one indiscriminate scene of desolation. No
white man found fighting by the side of an Indian will be
taken prisoner; instant destruction will be his lot. If the
dictates of reason, duty, justice, and humanity cannot prevent
the employment of a force which respects no rights and
knows no wrong, it will be prevented by a severe and relentless
system of retaliation.

“I doubt not your courage and firmness. I will not
doubt your attachment to liberty. If you tender your
.bn 117.png
services voluntarily, they will be accepted readily. The
United States offer you peace, liberty, and security. Your
choice lies between these and war, slavery, and destruction.
Choose then, but choose wisely, and may He who knows
the justice of our cause, and who holds in His hands the
fate of nations guide you to a result the most compatible
with your rights and interests, your peace and prosperity.

.nf b
“By the General,

               “W. HULL,

               “A. F. HULL,

“Captain 13th Regiment U.S. Infantry and Aide-de-Camp.”

“Headquarters, Sandwich, 12th July, 1812.”
.nf-

.sp 2
.h3 id=brock
BROCK’S PROCLAMATION

“The unprovoked declaration of war by the United States
of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland and its dependencies has been followed by the
actual invasion of this province, in a remote frontier of the
western district, by a detachment of the armed force of the
United States.

“The officer commanding that detachment has thought
proper to invite His Majesty’s subjects, not merely to a quiet
and unresisting submission, but insults them with a call to
seek voluntarily the protection of his government.

“Without condescending to repeat the illiberal epithets
bestowed in this appeal of the American commander to the
people of Upper Canada, on the administration of His
Majesty, every honest inhabitant of the province is desired
.bn 118.png
to seek the confutation of such indecent slander in the review
of his own particular circumstances. Where is the Canadian
subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been
injured by the government in his person, his property, or
his liberty? Where is to be found, in any part of the world,
a growth so rapid in prosperity and wealth as this colony
exhibits? Settled not thirty years by a band of veterans
exiled from their former possessions on account of their
loyalty, not a descendant of these brave people is to be found
who, under the fostering liberality of their sovereign, has not
acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to
what were possessed by their ancestors. This unequalled
prosperity would not have been attained by the utmost
liberality of the government, or the persevering industry
of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother
country secured to its colonists a safe access to every market
where the produce of their labor was in request. The unavoidable
and immediate consequences of a separation from
Great Britain must be the loss of this inestimable advantage;
and what is offered you in exchange? To become a territory
of the United States, and share with them that exclusion
from the ocean which the policy of their government enforces;
you are not even flattered with a participation of their boasted
independence, and it is but too obvious that, once estranged
from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you
must be re-annexed to the dominion of France, from which
the provinces of Canada were wrested by the arms of Great
Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, from no
other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from
the oppression of a cruel neighbor. This restitution of
Canada to the empire of France was the stipulated reward
for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United
States. The debt is still due, and there can be no doubt
that the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial
advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation of
.bn 119.png
the tyranny of France over the commercial world. Are
you prepared, inhabitants of Canada, to become willing
subjects—or rather slaves—to the despot who rules the
nations of continental Europe with a rod of iron? If not,
arise in a body, exert your energies, co-operate cordially
with the king’s regular forces to repel the invader, and do
not give cause to your children, when groaning under the
oppression of a foreign master, to reproach you with having
so easily parted with the richest inheritance of this earth—a
participation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons.

“The same spirit of justice, which will make every reasonable
allowance for the unsuccessful efforts of zeal and loyalty,
will not fail to punish the defalcation of principle. Every
Canadian freeholder is, by deliberate choice, bound by the
most solemn oaths to defend the monarchy as well as his
own property. To shrink from that engagement is a treason
not to be forgiven. Let no man suppose that if, in this
unexpected struggle, His Majesty’s arms should be compelled
to yield to an overwhelming force, the province will
be eventually abandoned; the endeared relation of its first
settlers, the intrinsic value of its commerce, and the pretension
of its powerful rival to repossess the Canadas, are
pledges that no peace will be established between the United
States and Great Britain and Ireland, of which the restoration
of these provinces does not make the most prominent condition.
Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the
commander of the enemy’s forces to refuse quarter should
an Indian appear in the ranks. The brave band of aborigines
who inhabit this colony were, like His Majesty’s other subjects,
punished for their zeal and fidelity by the loss of their
possessions in the late colonies, and rewarded by His
Majesty with lands of superior value in this province. The
faith of the British government has never yet been violated;
the Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and
their posterity protected from the base arts so frequently
.bn 120.png
devised to over-reach their simplicity. By what new principle
are they to be prohibited from defending their property?
If their warfare, from being different to that of the white
people, be more terrific to the enemy, let him retrace his
steps. They seek him not, and he cannot expect to find
women and children in an invading army. But they are
men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend
themselves and their property when invaded, more especially
when they find in the enemy’s camp a ferocious and
mortal foe using the same warfare which the American
commander affects to reprobate. The inconsistent and
unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter, for such a cause as
being found in arms with a brother sufferer in defence of
invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance
of retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in
this part of the king’s dominions, but in every quarter of
the globe; for the national character of Britain is not less
distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice,
which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as
deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending
power must make expiation.”

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T. H. BEST PRINTING CO. LIMITED. TORONTO

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Transcriber's Note

The following changes have been made to the original text:

.nf b
p. #18:senor# senority -> seniority
p. #19:non# monchalant -> nonchalant
p. #29:clark# Clark -> Clarke
p. #36:britain# Britan -> Britain
p. #38:to# to to be -> to be
p. #75:there# therefor -> therefore
.nf-
.dv-