by Enid Mallory
In mid-January, Captain Fitz moved upriver to Kingston to join his new regiment, the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles. At the beginning of February, Wilkinson moved from Salmon River; 2,000 of his men went west to Sackets Harbor, under Brigadier-General Brown, and the remainder of his army withdrew to Plattsburgh.
As soon as the January thaw was over and the ice safe, the St. Lawrence came alive with the goings and comings of the army. During February, raiding parties crossed the frozen river to plunder sleighloads of provisions from Salmon River, Malone, and the Four Corners. Some of it was plunder that the Americans had taken from Canadian merchants the previous fall. By far the strangest activity on the river was the Americans bringing of sleighloads of flour and droves of cattle to supply the British Army. By then, Thomas Ridout was deputy assistant commissary-general, stationed at Cornwall:
There are 1,600 troops there to be fed, and my duty will be hard, for the country is so excessively poor that our supplies are all drawn from the American side of the river. They drive droves of cattle from the interior under pretence of supplying the army at Salmon River, and are so allowed to pass the guards, and at night cross them over to our side. I shall also be under the necessity of getting most of my flour from their side.
On March 30, Wilkinson made a half-hearted attack on the British post at Lacolle River, then withdrew from military life. On May 1, 37-year-old Major-General George Izard took over the command at Plattsburgh.
Fort George
After Jay’s Treaty (1796) gave Fort Niagara to the Americans, the British built Fort George on the Canadian side of the Niagara River opposite Fort Niagara. It was completed in 1802.
In May 1813, the Americans bombarded Fort George from Fort Niagara, firing red-hot cannonballs that set the wooden buildings on fire. As troops landed, General Vincent was forced to evacuate the fort and fall back toward Burlington Heights. When the Americans moved in they had to rebuild the fort they had burned.
The British recaptured Fort George in December 1813.
Parks Canada manages the fort today and offers tours of the officer’s quarters, the barracks, blockhouses, the stone powder magazine, earthworks, and palisades. Enactors in the dress of the 41st Regiment talk about life in the fort and demonstrate musket loading and firing. As many as 1,800 Canadian and American scouts meet each year to re-enact the battle of 1813.
Guides at Fort George portray soldiers from the War of 1812.
Gord Mallory.
Early in March, Quebec City cheered in the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Regiment and a detachment of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines who had travelled overland from New Brunswick. The men of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines were bound for Yeo’s ships and continued on foot from Quebec to Kingston. When they reached that place at the end of March, they had been 53 days on the road.
Captain Fitz had a pleasant winter in Kingston, drilling his men to the high standards of fitness that he demanded. The Glengarries were an excellent regiment, as he knew from their record in battle. Previously, Fitz had worked with men who were Irish or British; these men were Canadian-born, mostly Catholic Scots from Glengarry County, east of Cornwall. His association with them would help to make him Canadian too.
Mary Haley was another influence making him Canadian. From Kingston he sometimes had time to travel east to Leeds County, where the Haleys lived, and spend a day with Mary and her family. Mary had knitted him enough socks to last out the coming campaign if he never stopped marching. She had heard too many stories of soldiers going barefoot on the Niagara Peninsula; she could not make shoes but at least she could supply socks.
When navigation opened on the lakes, Fitz had other things to think about. On April 14, he watched Yeo launch two new ships, the HMS Prince Regent and the HMS Princess Charlotte, which would give the British at least temporary superiority over Chauncey. The ships were ready to sail on May 3, and Yeo and Drummond decided on an immediate attack on Oswego, near Sackets Harbor, to capture guns, naval stores, and army provisions. Drummond had wanted to attack Sackets Harbor itself, but Prevost would not spare him enough troops from Lower Canada. He wrote to Drummond that the views of His Majesty’s Government “do not justify my exposing too much on one shake. It is by wary measures and occasional daring enterprises with apparently disproportionate means, that the character of the war has been sustained, and from that policy I am not disposed to depart.”[3]
Yeo had six companies of De Watteville’s regiment, the light company of the Glengarry Infantry Fencibles, the 2nd Battalion of Royal Marines, and detachments of Royal Artillery, Royal Sappers and Miners, and Royal Marine Artillery. They landed at Oswego in the morning, on May 6, and climbed a long, steep hill in the face of enemy fire, the Glengarries on the left flank. The Americans fell back from the fort and the attackers moved in to seize flour, pork, salt, seven long guns, and ordnance stores. The British loss was 18 killed and 73 wounded. But the guns for Chauncey’s new ships, the USS Superior, and a brig under construction were not found. When it was learned that they were still at Oswego Falls, Yeo sailed off to blockade Oswego.
On the night of May 28, one of Chauncey’s commanders attempted to get away with 19 bateaux carrying 21 long 32-pounder guns, 13 smaller guns, and 10 heavy cables. The British captured one bateau and found that 18 others were pulled into Sandy Creek, just 13 kilometres from Sackets Harbor, awaiting a further escort. One of Yeo’s commanders, Stephen Popham, with three gunboats, four smaller craft, and 200 sailors and marines, went up Sandy Creek to attack them but had no idea that 130 American riflemen and 120 Oneida lay in ambush for them. The British were literally “caught up a creek.” After losing 14 killed and 28 wounded, Popham surrendered his 200 men prisoners to the Americans.
The guns for the USS Superior reached Chauncey while Yeo, down-in-the-mouth, sailed back to Kingston. Chauncey’s 62-gun ship would give the Americans command of Lake Ontario. Yeo would have to play mouse to Chauncey’s cat until his own 112-gun ship, St. Lawrence, could be completed.
On April 14, Sir George Prevost, in Montreal, received good news from Lord Bathurst in London. A defeated Napoleon was banished to the Isle of Elba. Troops from Wellington’s army would be available to fight in the Canadas. By June 3, he was writing that the 4th Battalion of the Royal Scots, the Nova Scotia Fencibles, and part of the 6th and 82nd Regiments were already on their way, amounting to 3,127 rank and file. Another 10,000 would be dispatched to the Canadas within the course of the year.
The Americans also got the news and knew how little time they had. After disagreeing all winter whether to attack Kingston in the spring (Armstrong had hoped Prevost would send troops to Lake Erie, thus weakening Kingston, which he could then take “by a coup de main”), it was decided in mid-March to fight again on the Niagara Peninsula. There, at least, they had an American-held Lake Erie behind them. With Fort Niagara in British hands they would use the Buffalo-Fort Erie entrance to Canada and then move on Fort George.
For the first time in the war, the Americans were bringing top-notch commanders and well-trained troops against the British. Major-General Brown, from Sackets Harbor, had come up from the New York Militia to be one of the best American generals. With him at Niagara was Brigadier-General Winfield Scott from Virginia, who was proving himself an able leader in the campaigns of this war. These two knew they had to act quickly.
Brown’s army crossed the river above Niagara Falls early on July 3. Scott’s troops crossed below Fort Erie, while another brigade under Brigadier-General Eleazer Ripley landed above. The two British companies that guarded Fort Erie soon surrendered.
Fort Niagara
A French fortification existed here as early as 1678 and was abandoned a decade later. Then, in 1726, the impressive stone structure known today as the French Castle was built.
An expanded Fort Niagara fell to the British in 1759 and remained British during the Revolutionary War. After the Jay Treaty was signed the fort was given to the Americans. During the War of 1812 the British captured
it again in December 1813. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Ghent gave it back to the Americans again.
When news of the attacks reached Fort George, Major-General Riall reinforced the garrison at Chippawa, six kilometres above the Falls. He was not aware, however, of the fall of Fort Erie, nor did he realize how superbly trained the Americans soldiers were until he took his 1,500 regulars, 300 militia, and Natives against Scott’s advancing army on July 5. Although British and Americans were almost equal in numbers in the Battle of Chippawa, the British suffered severely, losing 148 dead compared to 48 Americans. Riall managed to get his troops back across the Chippawa, and two days later, when the Americans crossed upstream on the Chippawa, he fell back all the way to Fort George.
Captain Fitz and the Glengarries were waiting at York, until the 89th Regiment reached them. The 6th, 82nd, and 90th Regiments, sailing from Europe, were nearing Montreal but it would take considerable time to get them up to Niagara where the situation was desperate. Orders were quickly changed: “The Glengarry Light Infantry to be pushed on to Burlington without waiting for the arrival of the 89th Regiment, leaving all non-effectives at York.”
Meanwhile, Riall had left sparse garrisons at Fort George, Fort Mississauga (built on Mississauga Point from the bricks and rubble of the burned town of Newark), and Fort Niagara, and had moved toward Burlington with close to 900 men. The 103rd Regiment, under Colonel Hercules Scott, was moving from Burlington to meet Riall at Twenty Mile Creek. Together they would attempt to attack the enemy’s rear by the Short Hills and Lundy’s Lane. The 103rd were at Twenty Mile Creek by July 15. Not far behind them was the Glengarry Regiment, marching from York.
Drummond wrote to Prevost from Kingston on July 13: “The enemy have established themselves at Queenston where they have placed guns on Mr. Hamilton’s house and commenced fortifying the heights.” Drummond travelled with the 89th Regiment and reached York on July 22 to assess the desperate situation. Getting men up to Niagara fast enough was one thing — finding provisions to feed them would be another. Two brigs loaded with provisions had reached York safely, and two brigades of bateaux were on their way, “which if they arrive in safety will further relieve us, tho’ even then our supply will be very far from sufficient. I have therefore been under the necessity of ordering all the women and children, of the Troops, to be sent down from Niagara, Burlington, and York, and the families of the Natives to be placed on Half Allowance, with a view of decreasing as much as possible the issues.” It was also becoming impracticable to keep the militia called out because this was harvest time and “the whole produce of the neighbouring country is in the greatest danger of being lost.”[4]
While Drummond was worrying and hurrying to Niagara, General Jacob Brown, sitting with his American Army on Queenston Heights, was equally uncomfortable. Brown had counted on the cooperation of Chauncey’s fleet to take Fort George but each day, as he looked in vain toward Lake Ontario, his exasperation increased. On July 13 he wrote to Chauncey:
I have looked for your fleet with the greatest anxiety since the 10th. I do not doubt my ability to meet the enemy in the field, and to march in any direction over his country — your fleet carrying for me the necessary supplies. We can threaten Forts George and Niagara, and carry that place. For God’s sake let me see you. Sir James will not fight; two of his vessels are now in the Niagara.
If you conclude to meet me at the head of the lake and that immediately, have the goodness to bring the guns and troops that I have ordered from the harbour; at all events have the politeness to let me know what aid I am to expect from the fleet of Lake Ontario.[5]
His 2,600 troops, pressed close against Fort George, were in an extremely vulnerable position, unable to get supplies easily, with no reinforcements available, and harassed continually by the Canadians. Major McFarland of the 23rd U.S. Infantry wrote to his wife, “The whole population is against us; not a foraging party but is fired on, and not unfrequently returns with missing numbers.” Finally, on July 19, the Americans burned every house between the Falls and Queenston, including the village of St. David’s. McFarland wrote:
This was done within three miles of our camp, and my battalion was sent to cover the retreat, as they had been sent to scour the country and it was presumed they might be pursued. My God, what a service! I never witnessed such a scene, and had not the commanding officer of the party, Lieut-Colonel Stone, been disgraced and sent out of the army, I would have resigned.[6]
Women in the War
Although little is heard of them, women were deeply involved in the War of 1812. On both sides of the border they cooked in the camps and the forts, did laundry, and nursed the sick and wounded. At Fort George, 6 percent of the soldiers were allowed to bring wives, who were granted half rations, their children a third of a ration. However, the women could often earn more than their husbands by doing laundry for the men. Unmarried women who were camp followers received no rations. When Native tribes joined the British camps, their wives and children came with them and received rations but sometimes were sent away when provisions were scarce.
A few women became war heroes. Laura Secord is well-known. On the American side, when Fort Niagara bombarded Fort George in 1813, a woman named Fanny Doyle was up on the mess-house roof “manning” the 6-pounder gun that fired red-hot cannon balls at Fort George.
Militia wives left alone to run the farm put in long hours of heavy work and often had to deal with marauding Americans or even hungry British soldiers stealing their hens and raiding their gardens. Some, like Mrs. Kirby and Mrs. Deffield, who helped save FitzGibbon in Lundy’s Lane, actually fought off the enemy and some fought to save their homes from burning.
When American cannon power burned the fort’s wooden buildings in 1813 this stone magazine, built in 1796, was the only structure that survived.
Gord Mallory.
By July 22, Riall had moved his forces up to Twelve Mile Creek. That day he sent Captain FitzGibbon forward with a party to reconnoitre and gain information of the enemy’s intention. It was an old game to Fitz, played on familiar ground.
Fitz took his party up the heights of Queenston without being seen by an American. What he saw below him was the entire American army strung out in a column on the River Road, stretching from DePuisaye’s House, near Newark, almost to Queenston. The wagons and baggage seemed to be halted at Brown’s Point. The column began moving toward St. David’s, and when about a thousand men joined the march in that direction it was again halted. From all appearances, the American army was falling back on Queenston. FitzGibbon had to leave the hill quite suddenly as a body of cavalry and riflemen advanced on him. He and his party escaped through St. David’s, but were pursued by Americans for about a mile. As Fitz pounded through the heat of the July afternoon toward Twelve Mile Creek, he and his men were silent; the oppressive sight of that well-ordered blue army on Canadian soil set heavy in their heads. Each of them knew that hard fighting lay immediately ahead, the Americans desperate and determined to take this frontier before Wellington’s troops could reach it.
Fitz was thinking that the summer of 1814 would be different from the days in 1813 when he and his Green Tigers had made the war a game and tailored it to their own talents. Grinning, Fitz remembered a day when he had doubled over with laughter inside a cave while the blue-coats above him were running in terror from his echo.
The grin faded. For the first time ever, James FitzGibbon was seriously considering the possibility of being killed. He wished he had married Mary Haley before he left Kingston. He was a captain now. If he died and Mary was his wife, she would receive the pension of a captain’s widow. He could have left her at least that much. But how in the world could he marry her now?
He shook the thought of Mary out of his head and yelled at his men to ride harder. By three o’clock he had delivered his report of the American movement to Riall at Twelve Mile Creek. Riall, who had already written to Drummond once that day, hastened another letter off to him.
&nbs
p; Chapter 13
The Battle of Lundy’s Lane
On the evening of the 25th instant, at the Falls of Niagara, we met the enemy and had, I believe, one of the most desperately fought actions ever experienced in America.
— Colonel James Miller, Fort Erie, July 28, 1814[1]
The Battle of Lundy’s Lane was fought within a mile of the Falls of Niagara. The roar of the great waterfall formed a background to the terrible noise and confusion of that horrendous scene. Today, the site is known as Drummond Hill Cemetery and in it Americans, Canadians, and British lie buried together.
The movement FitzGibbon observed on July 22 continued until Brown had reached Chippawa on the 24th. On Monday morning, July 25, Riall threw out the Glengarries and the Incorporated Militia (1,000 in all under Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson) as an advance guard to watch the enemy. They took up a position on a hill where Lundy’s Lane crossed the Portage, or River, Road.
Lieutenant-General Drummond reached Fort George and took over command. On the Canadian side, he sent Colonel Morrison with the 89th to join Riall’s 1,500 men already marching to join Pearson’s advance at Lundy’s Lane. On the American side of the river he ordered 500 soldiers and Natives under Lieutenant-Colonel Tucker to move out from Fort Niagara to attack Lewiston.
The noise of Niagara Falls could be heard during the battle whenever the guns fell silent.
Gord Mallory.
The enemy had moved out of Lewiston before Tucker could attack, so his troops crossed the river at Queenston to meet Morrison and Drummond on their way to Niagara Falls and Lundy’s Lane. Part of the 500 joined Morrison’s march; the rest were sent to defend Fort George.
When the Americans attacked around 6:00 p.m., Drummond had 600 men in line on the north slope of the hill, with two 24-pounder guns at the top. The Glengarry Regiment was positioned on the right. What followed was the fiercest, roughest, wildest fight in the war. British artillerymen were bayoneted in the act of loading their guns. Soon American guns were blasting within a few yards of British guns, while infantrymen were fighting hand to hand for control of guns and hill.