Tecumseh and Brock

by James Laxer

  But the Americans did not limit their forays north of the border to Upper Canada. In late September 1813, a few weeks before Tecumseh died at Moraviantown, Sir George Prevost transferred his headquarters from Kingston to Montreal on receipt of the news that U.S. Major General Wade Hampton — a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a fierce defender of states’ rights8 — had led a force north up the shore of Lake Champlain, crossing the border into Lower Canada near Odelltown. That placed the Americans just off the northwest corner of Lake Champlain and about seventy-five kilometres due south of Montreal. U.S. attacks on Upper Canada, particularly west of Kingston, posed a threat, but nothing like the threat that a descent on Montreal would represent. If the Americans could take Montreal and choke off British access to the St. Lawrence River, all points west under British control would eventually fall into their hands.

  On October 8, Prevost wrote to Lord Bathurst, the secretary of state for war and the colonies, that after receiving news of the American buildup on the frontier, he had moved his headquarters to Montreal, where he had learned that General Hampton’s force numbered about five thousand regulars. He informed Bathurst that after crossing the border near Odelltown, Hampton had led his troops westward and was now encamped near the Chateauguay River. The U.S. force assembled for the invasion of the province, said Prevost, was greater than any other so far mounted during the war.9

  Hampton’s drive on Montreal was undertaken in conjunction with a related push up the St. Lawrence from Sackets Harbor. In the opinion of military historian Donald E. Graves, the “offensive was possibly the largest military operation mounted by the United States before 1861.”10

  The second American pincer, the one driving north from Sackets Harbor, was led by Major General James Wilkinson, one of the most notorious characters to command a U.S. force during the war. Wilkinson was associated with multiple scandals during his long career. After serving in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, he was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1805. By then he had exchanged communications with Aaron Burr, who had been vice president of the United States during Thomas Jefferson’s first term; some observers believed Wilkinson was associated with Burr’s conspiracy to establish a state in the west, independent of the U.S. A megalomaniac given to hatching geopolitical schemes, Burr was eventually charged with treason. After he was acquitted, he lived for a time in Europe before returning to spend the latter years of his life in the U.S. Decades after Wilkinson’s death, documents were unearthed that exposed him as having been a paid agent of the Spanish Crown.

  If Wilkinson’s reputation was not shady enough, there was the additional problem that Wilkinson and Hampton hated each other. Their enmity predated the war; Hampton was one of many officers who had long distrusted Wilkinson. When Hampton became a general in 1808 during an expansion of the U.S. Army, the officer corps was divided between those supporting Wilkinson — the larger group — and those backing Hampton.

  In 1811, Hampton believed his problems with Wilkinson would be resolved by a court martial President Madison convened, to consider charges against Wilkinson for conspiring with Aaron Burr against the United States and for being on the payroll of the Spanish government. Although the court discovered questionable transactions on the general’s part, he was found not guilty on all charges and was restored to his command.11

  In addition to his personal antagonism toward Hampton, Wilkinson did not favour giving first priority to the attack on Montreal. He preferred an attack on Kingston, which would be launched if Commodore Chauncey could establish clear U.S. naval superiority on Lake Ontario. His second choice was to redouble efforts near the Niagara Frontier, an offensive he believed would have the secondary advantage of striking a blow at the native peoples allied against the United States. In the end, the Americans implemented the double-pronged assault on Montreal from Lake Champlain and Sackets Harbor, with Secretary of War Armstrong hoping that Wilkinson and Hampton could coordinate their efforts at critical points.

  With the Americans marching north, Prevost rallied his forces to defend Lower Canada. Under Prevost’s orders, Lieutenant Colonel “Red George” Macdonell led his 1st Light Infantry Battalion from Kingston to Montreal. Roger Sheaffe, having been redeployed in Lower Canada, had already mobilized three thousand members of the Lower Canada sedentary militia. Prevost called up five thousand more militiamen.

  During his journey by road from Montreal to Upper Canada to join the 89th Regiment of Foot, Dr. William Dunlop saw several units of Lower Canada’s French-speaking militia and wrote of them: “They had all a serviceable effective appearance — had been pretty well drilled, and their arms being direct from the tower [of London], were in perfectly good order, nor had they the mobbish appearance that such a levy in any other country would have had. Their capots and trowsers [sic] of home-spun stuff, and their blue tuques (night caps) were all of the same cut and color, which gave them an air of uniformity that added much to their military look.

  “They marched merrily to the music of their voyageur songs, and as they perceived our [scarlet] uniform as we came up, they set up the Indian War-whoop, followed by a shout of Vive le Roi along the whole line. Such a body of men in such a temper, and with so perfect a use of their arms as all of them possessed, if posted on such ground as would preclude the possibility of regular troops out-maneuvering them, and such positions are not hard to find in Canada, must have been rather a formidable body to have attacked.”12

  Delayed by defenders in outposts and by a dearth of drinking water for both men and horses during a dry summer, the Americans decided to take a roundabout route toward Montreal, along the Chateauguay River, where they would have plenty of water. Hampton received approval for his altered route from the U.S. secretary of war, along with his request for additional soldiers. He led his force back into New York State and then in a northeasterly direction along the Chateauguay River and again into Canada.

  On October 8, in a letter to Bathurst, Prevost outlined his decision to concentrate more forces on the defence of Montreal, making the point that the city had to be held, not least because of the need to guard the supply route and the men marching westward to Upper Canada. He noted that “His Majesty’s [French-]Canadian Subjects have a second time answered the call to arms in defence of their Country with a zeal and alacrity beyond all praise.”13 The British defence of the region was the responsibility of the Swiss-born Major General Louis de Watteville, who had led his own foreign-raised regiment to Lower Canada the previous spring.

  When Hampton’s forces crossed the border back into Lower Canada on October 21, they numbered four thousand infantry and two hundred dragoons, and they were outfitted with ten field guns. The two brigade columns moved slowly — they included a large number of farm wagons and had to cross small streams where the bridges had been destroyed.

  Two units of active militia from the Canadian Fencibles (a regiment with Scottish origins, consisting mostly of Scottish commissioned and non-commissioned officers and French-Canadian rank and file) and the Canadian Voltigeurs (a light infantry unit raised in Lower Canada), as well as sedentary militia and a small number of native warriors, were in place to meet the attackers. Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry, a French-Canadian officer in the regular British army, commanded the force. The thirty-five-year-old de Salaberry was the son of the seigneur of Beauport. His grandfather, Michel de Salaberry, had fought on the side of France in the war against Britain that resulted in the conquest of Canada. At the age of fourteen, Charles de Salaberry joined the British army and served in the West Indies, Sicily, and Ireland before returning to Canada in 1810, after an absence of sixteen years.

  De Salaberry set up his defences at a sharp bend in the Chateauguay River. The men prepared a line of breastworks and abatis (created by cutting down trees and crossing them over one another to block the progress of the enemy) at the
edge of the forest and constructed a blockhouse. De Salaberry deployed his force, totalling just over three hundred men, in two places. About half of them were posted behind the erected defences and the other half were placed on the other side of the river, near a shallow ford where U.S. troops could cross. About two and a half kilometres to the rear was a further force commanded by “Red George” Macdonell, consisting of about 300 Canadian Voltigeurs, 480 men from the 2nd Battalion, additional militia, and about 150 native warriors.

  On the afternoon of October 25, an American patrol informed Hampton that the defensive position ahead of the U.S. troops was lightly held, and mostly by militia. The U.S. commander ordered about fifteen hundred men, under the direction of Colonel Robert Purdy, to march forward at night through dense forest and surprise the enemy. The idea was to march down the river past the defences, then cross at the ford and take the defenders from the rear. Many of the Americans got lost in the woods, and by the time they reached the point across the river from de Salaberry’s defences, it was broad daylight.

  De Salaberry’s troops opened fire. When an advance unit of Purdy’s force finally approached the ford, it too came under fire, from the three Canadian militia companies on the right bank of the river. The members of the U.S. force discovered that covering the rear of de Salaberry’s men was Macdonell’s contingent. Their flanking attack was about to be flanked in turn. The Americans gave up the fight and withdrew in good order.14 Hampton led his men back across the border to the village of Chateauguay, New York.

  The Battle of Chateauguay was a political as much as a military triumph. It sent a clear message that the French Canadians would not be enticed to side with this latest invasion from the south.

  On November 1, General Hampton wrote an extensive letter to U.S. Secretary of War Armstrong to explain why the American forces had broken off their attack at Chateauguay and retired. To reinforce the decision to retreat, Hampton informed Armstrong that he had polled the commanding officers of brigades, regiments, and corps, and the heads of the general staff, and they had unanimously agreed that the U.S. force should “immediately return by orderly marches to such a position as will secure our communications with the United States.” The letter combined apologia with bravado, making it appear that Hampton’s army was ready either to retire into winter quarters or to return to the attack if ordered to do so.15 In fact, Hampton had already made the decision by crossing the border into New York State.

  Less than three weeks later, another deadly engagement was fought on Canadian soil. This time, British regulars and Canadian militia countered the American invasion on the St. Lawrence River, in the eastern reaches of Upper Canada. The Battle of Crysler’s Farm on November 11, 1813, was supposed to be coordinated with the advance of Hampton’s troops up the St. Lawrence from Sackets Harbor, the push that failed at the Battle of Chateauguay. On the night of October 17, Major General James Wilkinson led an army of between seven and eight thousand men from Sackets Harbor. The plan was to proceed down the St. Lawrence and attack Montreal.

  Wilkinson’s considerable force consisted of fourteen infantry regiments, two regiments of dragoons, and three artillery regiments, as well as a contingent of riflemen to lead the advance. Three hundred bateaux, as well as twelve gunboats and some smaller vessels, had been mobilized to transport the army. Hampered by gales and snowstorms, Wilkinson’s force was held up in the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence until November 5, when more clement weather allowed them to move forward.16

  By the time Wilkinson’s men were able to resume their advance, Hampton had already been rebuffed at Chateauguay and had pulled his troops back to New York State. In addition, U.S. Secretary of War John Armstrong had by then concluded, without informing Wilkinson, that with winter coming on, it was too late to attack Montreal. On October 16, Armstrong dispatched an order that the U.S. force should establish winter quarters on Canadian territory upriver from Montreal.17

  As the Americans advanced, their commander was often giddy with ague and fever. To deal with the ailment, he took large doses of laudanum, a compound laced with opium. A friend of Wilkinson’s concluded that the major general was often high, which would account for his erratic judgement, his delusions about the enemy, and the completely unrealistic strategic suggestions he frequently made.18

  When the British at Kingston learned that the Americans were on the move, General Francis de Rottenburg sent the 49th and 89th Regiments in pursuit, as he had been instructed to do by Prevost in the event of an American attack down the river. Leading the force was Lieutenant Colonel Joseph W. Morrison of the 89th. His force, numbering only 680 soldiers and a few artillerymen with two 6-pounder field guns, embarked on two schooners, seven gunboats, and a few bateaux.19

  Canadian farmers took potshots at the Americans on the river. As Morrison’s force pursued them, the Americans had to work their way around British artillery housed in Fort Wellington, at Prescott. On the morning of November 9, Morrison’s men landed at Prescott, where they were reinforced by a detachment of 240 soldiers, made up of two flank companies of the 49th Foot, some men from the Canadian Fencibles, three companies of Canadian Voltigeurs, a few artillerymen in charge of a 6-pounder gun, and a few Provincial Dragoons, who acted as couriers. This brought Morrison’s numbers up to about nine hundred.20

  As rain and sleet pelted the men in both armies, the American force advanced close to the Long Sault Rapids on the St. Lawrence with the British close behind them. On the night of November 10, Morrison picked a farmhouse belonging to John Crysler, a businessman and politician in Upper Canada who served in the local militia, as his headquarters. He calculated that he was well positioned, with his advance force established with its flank against the river and his main units just over five hundred metres behind them. If the Americans decided to turn and attack his men, thought Morrison, this was good ground on which to fight.

  After a native warrior fired at an American reconnaissance patrol on the morning of November 11, Wilkinson decided it was time to assault the pursuers. He ordered Brigadier General John P. Boyd to advance on the enemy with his two thousand regulars arrayed in three columns. The Americans easily pushed back the thin skirmish line of Canadian Voltigeurs, but when they came upon the main British force, they were stopped in their tracks by volleys fired by the men of the 49th and 89th. A U.S. attempt to turn Morrison’s left flank was successfully parried when the British commander turned the companies of the 89th nearly ninety degrees. The experienced British soldiers stood their ground as the Americans attacked, then countered with devastating volleys and well-directed cannon fire. The Americans broke and ran, some of them deeply distressed when they learned that the opponents in grey greatcoats were not militia but the men of the famed 49th.21

  The Americans lost 102 men. They managed to retreat with 237 of their wounded but had to leave the more seriously injured behind. It was a stunning defeat for an American force that outnumbered its opponent.22

  Behind Wilkinson were Morrison’s troops, who had won the fight at Crysler’s Farm, and looming ahead of him were the forces of General Prevost, who were mobilizing to block any attack on Montreal. On November 12, after his men had succeeded in getting past the Long Sault Rapids, Wilkinson received a letter from Major General Hampton stating that he could not press on to Montreal and would not lead his men to St. Regis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence just downstream from Cornwall, to join forces with Wilkinson’s men.23

  In his letter in reply, Wilkinson made Hampton’s refusal to march on Montreal a reason for breaking off the campaign. “Such resolution defeats the grand objects of the campaign in this quarter,” Wilkinson wrote rather grandly, “which, before the receipt of your letter, were thought to be completely within our power, no suspicion being entertained that you would decline the junction directed, it will oblige us to take post at French Mills, on Salmon River, or in their vicinity for the winter.”24

  Had the
Americans proceeded to carry out an attack on Montreal, they would have encountered a well-appointed enemy force of about six thousand men that had been put into place by Prevost. Instead, the contending parties went their separate ways into winter quarters. Morrison’s men retired to Prescott or Kingston. Wilkinson’s men wintered at French Mills, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, just three kilometres inside U.S. territory. In this miserable location, named Fort Covington after the war, the U.S. troops suffered through the winter months. Rations were in short supply, and some regiments had no bread for up to four days. Medical care for the sick was very poor. Many soldiers suffered from pneumonia, diarrhea, typhus, and dysentery.25 At Crysler’s Farm as at Chateauguay, American armies were beaten by superior generalship on the British side.

  For the rest of the war, Lower Canada was safe from American occupation. In Upper Canada, however, U.S. troops occupied the southwest and much of the territory on the Canadian side of the Niagara Frontier. The occupation provoked treason on the part of some, reprisals on the part of others, and ugly incidents against settlements on both sides of the border.

  Just prior to the outbreak of the war and in its early days, Brock had expressed concerns about the loyalty of many of the recent American immigrants to Upper Canada. A number of these new arrivals did indeed go over to the American side, some of them taking up arms. The most notorious turncoat was not an American, however. Irish-born Joseph Willcocks, who had led the vocal opposition to Brock in the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly before the war, supported the British in the early days of the conflict but later switched sides.

  Anxious to control Willcocks and to keep him on side, Brock enlisted him to generate support for the British cause among the Six Nations natives. At the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812, where Brock fell, Willcocks fought as a gentleman volunteer in a contingent of Six Nations warriors. While still a member of the assembly, Willcocks grew deeply disturbed by Upper Canadian measures against those who expressed disloyal views in the wake of the 1813 U.S. invasions. Had Willcocks been born a couple of decades later, he would have fought on the side of the failed rebellions against British rule led by William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau in the 1830s. In July 1813, he went over to the American side, where he was given the rank of major and assigned the task of recruiting a Company of Canadian Volunteers to fight under the Stars and Stripes.