CHAPTER XV.
Sir Isaac Brock was succeeded in his civil and military commands in Upper Canada by Major-General Sheaffe, who was created a baronet for the dearly bought victory of Queenstown. After the battle, he paroled General Wadsworth and some of the princ.i.p.al American officers, the remainder proceeding to Quebec. Among the prisoners, 23 were found to be deserters from English regiments, and British born subjects; and they were sent to England for trial as traitors. This caused a retaliation upon British prisoners in the United States, and an equal number were put by the American government into close confinement as hostages for the security of the traitors.
On the 18th of October, General Smyth a.s.sumed the command at Niagara, and applied to the British general for an armistice; and notwithstanding the well-known prejudicial effect of the former one proposed by Sir George Prevost, it was agreed to by Major-General Sheaffe![118] This unaccountable proceeding, as might easily have been foreseen, proved of material detriment to the British on Lake Erie, as the Americans availed themselves of so favorable an occasion to forward their naval stores unmolested from Black Rock to Presqu"ile by water, which they could not otherwise have effected, but with immense trouble and expense by land, and equipped at leisure the fleet which afterwards wrested from us the command of that lake. When the enemy was prepared for a third invasion of Upper Canada, General Smyth did not fail to give the thirty hours notice required for the cessation of the armistice, which terminated on the 20th of November.
"After the surrender of Detroit," said the inhabitants of Niagara in their spirited letter to Sir George Prevost, already quoted (page 279), "the enemy were suffered unmolested to concentrate a large force on the Niagara, at Sackett"s Harbour on Lake Ontario, and at Ogdensburg on the St. Lawrence; they were not interrupted in bringing forward to these places a large quant.i.ty of field and heavy artillery, with the requisite supplies of ammunition, and in equipping a flotilla, to dispute with us the superiority of the lakes. When their preparations were complete--when our regular and militia forces were nearly exhausted with incessant watching and fatigue, occasioned by the movements of the enemy, which kept them constantly on the alert by uncertainty as to the point of attack--they at length, on the 13th of October, attacked our line at Queenstown. The behaviour of both regulars and militia on that memorable occasion is well known to your excellency, and added another wreath to the laurels they had gained at Detroit: the glories of that day were, however, obscured by the death of our beloved and now lamented chief, whose exertions had prepared the means of achieving this great victory. This was another triumph for the militia; they had fairly measured their strength with the enemy, and derived additional confidence from the glorious result. Here was another opportunity that slipped away without being improved: Fort Niagara was abandoned by the enemy, and might have been with the greatest ease destroyed, and its guns brought away by a trifling force. It is neither necessary, nor do we feel inclined to enter into the causes why it was not done; we have, however, the strongest reason to believe that, had General Brock survived, it would have been attempted. In addition to this (as we consider it) capital error, Major Mullaney, and other natural born subjects of his majesty, actually taken in arms as commissioned officers in the service of the United States, were released and allowed to return on parole to that country; and a partial armistice was agreed to, liable to be broken off at thirty hours notice, which could be productive of no real advantage to us, nor give any repose to our hara.s.sed and suffering militia, though it enabled the enemy to recruit his strength and organize at will the means of attacking us anew. He was observed busily and actively employed, throughout a great part of the month of November, collecting boats on the Fort Erie end of the line; and when his preparations were complete, he gave notice of the termination of the armistice on the 20th."
"When General Wilkinson complains," observes the British historian James, "that the executive has not rendered "common justice to the princ.i.p.al actors in this gallant scene,"--not exhibited it to the country "in its true light, and shewn what deeds Americans are still capable of performing,"[119]--who among us can retain his gravity? "It is true," says the general, "complete success did not ultimately crown this enterprise; but two great ends were obtained for the country: it re-established the character of the American arms;"--it did indeed!--"and deprived the enemy, by the death of General Brock, of the best officer that has headed their troops in Canada throughout the war;"--truth undeniable!--"and, with his loss, put an end to their then brilliant career;"--yet the capture of General Wadsworth took place in less than five hours afterwards.
"The instant we know what the Americans expected to gain, a tolerable idea may be formed of what they actually lost by the attack upon Queenstown. General Van Rensselaer, in a letter to Major-General Dearborn, written five days previously, says thus: "Should we succeed, we shall effect a great discomfiture of the enemy, by breaking their line of communication, driving their shipping from the mouth of this river, leaving them no rallying point in this part of the country, appalling the minds of the Canadians, and opening a wide and safe communication for our supplies; we shall save our own land,--wipe away part of the score of our past disgrace,--get excellent barracks and winter quarters, and at least be prepared for an early campaign another year."
"It is often said, that we throw away by the pen what we gain by the sword. Had General Brock been less prodigal of his valuable life, and survived the Queenstown battle, he would have made the 13th of October a still more "memorable" day, by crossing the river and carrying Fort Niagara, which, at that precise time, was nearly stripped of its garrison. Instead of doing this, and thus putting an end to the campaign upon the Niagara frontier, Major-General Sheaffe, General Brock"s successor, allowed himself to be persuaded to sign an armistice."
In November, the Americans were already in command of Lake Ontario,[120]
and their fleet, after chasing the Royal George into Kingston, captured on the 12th the transport sloop Elizabeth, on board of which was Mr.
Brock, paymaster of the 49th. He was paroled by Commodore Chauncey, who, to his credit be it said, immediately restored "the plate and effects belonging to his late ill.u.s.trious relative," which he was conveying from Fort George to Kingston. The box of letters and other papers from which this little work has been princ.i.p.ally compiled, was, we believe, among these effects; and we gladly seize this opportunity to express the obligation of Sir Isaac Brock"s family to the commodore for his generosity on this occasion.
On the 27th April, 1813, York was captured by Major-General Dearborn, with 1,800 American troops, embarked in fourteen sail of armed vessels, that post being occupied by 700 regulars and militia, with from 40 to 50 Indians, the whole under the immediate command of Sir Roger Sheaffe. In resisting the enemy, the grenadier company of the 8th (the king"s) regiment greatly distinguished themselves, losing their captain, M"Neal, and being nearly annihilated. By an explosion of the powder magazine, to which a train had been laid, 260 of the Americans were killed or wounded, including Brigadier Pike among the former; and they were thrown into such confusion, that an immediate and resolute attack would probably have sent them back to their ships.[121] The British general "drew off his regulars and left the rest to capitulate within the town, wherein considerable public stores were lost;"[122] and the Americans, having secured their booty, re-embarked and sailed on the 2d of May for Niagara. The inhabitants of York do not appear to have been satisfied with the conduct of Major-General Sheaffe in this affair; and, although it was not ascertained whether his removal was the result of the displeasure of the Commander-in-chief, he was replaced early in July by Major-General de Rottenburg, and on his arrival in the Lower Province he a.s.sumed the command of the troops in the district of Montreal. A few months after, the Baron de Rottenburg was in his turn succeeded by Lieut.-General Gordon Drummond, who commanded in Upper Canada to the end of the war.
We have alluded (page 278) to the discomfiture of Sir George Prevost before Sackett"s Harbour, that naval a.r.s.enal whose destruction Major-General Brock was so unfortunately prevented from undertaking. The governor-general having proceeded in May from Montreal to Kingston with Sir James Yeo, who had just arrived from England to command the British naval forces on the lakes--the squadron on Lake Ontario now consisting of two ships, a brig, and two schooners--the public was on the tiptoe of expectation for some decisive dash on the enemy"s flotilla on that lake.
An attack upon Sackett"s Harbour, in the absence of their fleet at Niagara, was resolved upon, so as to destroy "the forts, the a.r.s.enals, and the dock-yard, where the Americans had a frigate almost ready for launching, and several other vessels; but when this wavering and spiritless general reconnoitred the place, he would not venture an attack, and returned across the water towards Kingston. Then he changed his mind and went back to Sackett"s Harbour; and (but not without more wavering and loss of time) our troops, about 750 strong, were landed.
The Americans were presently driven at the bayonet"s point into some loop-holed barracks and forts; and so panic-stricken were they that they immediately set fire to their new frigate, their naval barracks and a.r.s.enal, and destroyed a gun-brig and all the stores which had so recently been captured at York. While the a.r.s.enal was in flames, while the Americans were flying through the village, and when the complete success of the a.s.sailants was certain, Sir George Prevost sent a precipitate order for retreat, merely because a momentary resistance was offered by a party of Americans who had taken refuge in the log-barracks! The British troops reluctantly obeyed their general"s order and returned to their boats, men and officers being acutely sensible to his folly, and wondering by what means so incompetent a commander had been placed over them. If Sir George Prevost had studied the history of the war of the American revolution, it could only have been with an eye to copy all the indecisions and blunders of the formalising, badly instructed English generals of that period. But the Howes, Clintons, and Burgoynes, were at least always ready to fight. As soon as the Americans could believe that the English were really abandoning their enterprize at the moment that it was all but completed, they rushed back to stop the conflagration: they were too late to save the stores which had been brought from York, the navy barracks, or the brig, but the frigate on the stocks, being built of green wood, would not easily burn, and was found but little injured. If the destruction at Sackett"s Harbour had been completed, we should have deprived the Americans of every prospect of obtaining the ascendancy on the lake."[123] And, as if to crown this miserable failure, the details were narrated by the adjutant-general, in a dispatch to Sir George Prevost, as if Colonel Baynes had commanded in chief, and the governor-general had been present as a mere spectator![124]
From these humiliating occurrences on Lake Ontario, we turn to the captured post of Detroit, which, it will be remembered, was left by Major-General Brock in charge of Colonel Proctor. No sooner had intelligence of the surrender of Hull reached Washington, than the renewal of the North-Western army for the recovery of the Michigan territory became the anxious object of the American government. That army, which eventually outnumbered the former one, was placed under the command of Major-General Harrison, (who died a few years since while president of the United States,) and in September was in full march for the Miami rapids, the spot a.s.signed as the general rendezvous. In January, 1813, Colonel Proctor received information that a brigade of that army, under Brigadier Winchester, was encamped at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, 40 miles south of Detroit. The British commander, although he had orders not to act on the offensive, promptly determined to attack this brigade before it was reinforced by the main body, a few days march in the rear; and with his disposable force, consisting of 500 regulars, militia, and seamen, he made a resolute a.s.sault, at dawn on the 22d, on the enemy"s camp, which was completely successful. In this affair the Americans lost between 3 and 400 men killed; and Brigadier Winchester, 3 field officers, 9 captains, 20 subalterns, and upwards of 500 men, in prisoners. This gallant exploit secured Detroit from any immediate danger, but the day after it was sadly tarnished by the straggling Indians, who ma.s.sacred such wounded prisoners as were unable to walk, the guard left for their protection deserting their charge on a false alarm of General Harrison"s approach. This success, for which Colonel Proctor was immediately promoted to the rank of Brigadier, together with the spoil obtained at Frenchtown, brought down several warlike tribes of Indians from the river Wabash, and even from the more distant Mississippi, to join the British standard. Towards the end of March, Proctor learnt that General Harrison intended to commence active operations for the recovery of the Michigan territory, on the arrival of considerable reinforcements which he was expecting. Resolved to try the issue of another attack before the enemy, already much superior in numbers, gained a fresh acquisition of strength, Proctor embarked at Amherstburg with 520 regulars and 460 militia, and made for the mouth of the Miami, which falls into Lake Erie. He ascended that river, about 1,200 Indians co-operating with him, and landed his troops, stores, and ordnance, on the 28th of April, near Fort Meigs, mounting eighteen guns, which he cannonaded from both banks of the Miami, On the 5th of May the enemy"s long-expected reinforcements, under Major-General Clay, came suddenly down the river; they were 1,300 strong, but newly-raised militia; and as the boats drew near, Harrison ordered Clay to storm the British batteries on the opposite or north side of the river, while a sortie was made from the fort for the purpose of capturing the three British guns on the southern bank. For a short period the British batteries on both sides were in the hands of the enemy, but they were quickly regained by bayonet charges; and on the north bank Colonel Dudley, after spiking the captured guns, having marched with 400 men to attack the British camp, was drawn into an ambuscade by the Indians, and himself and about half his men were slain. Of the Americans, about 550 men were made prisoners, and their killed and wounded were estimated at nearly as many more. The far-famed Tec.u.mseh buried his tomahawk in the head of a Chippewa chief, whom he found actively engaged in ma.s.sacring some of the prisoners. But as the Indians retired, as is their wont after success, to enjoy their plunder; and as many of the militia were also returning to their homes, Proctor was compelled to raise the siege of Fort Meigs. Having re-embarked his small force of regulars, chiefly of the 41st, and the whole of his ordnance and stores, he proceeded to Sandwich; while General Harrison abandoned all intention of advancing against Detroit until the American squadron had gained the command of Lake Erie.
Major-General Proctor having determined to recommence his attacks against the American North-Western army, whose head quarters were then in the neighbourhood of Sandusky Bay, on Lake Erie, he landed on the 1st of August near the Sandusky river, and soon after invested with 400 regulars and between 3 and 400 Indians, Fort Stephenson, about 20 miles from its mouth. On the 2d, a fire was opened from two 6-pounders and two 5-1/2-inch howitzers against the fort, which appears to have possessed only one masked 6-pounder, and to have been garrisoned by about 180 men, under Major Croghan, but as the fire produced no impression, the place was ordered to be stormed. The a.s.sailants reached the ditch which was raked by the masked gun, and sustained in consequence so severe a loss, that they retreated precipitately, having their leader, Brevet Lieut-Colonel Short, of the 41st, with 3 officers and 52 men, killed or missing, besides 3 officers and 38 men wounded; while the Americans had only 1 killed and 7 slightly wounded. The Indians did not a.s.sist in the a.s.sault, withdrawing to a ravine out of gun shot. Thus foiled, Proctor retired on the 3d, and after abandoning "considerable baggage and a gun-boat laden with cannon ball," he returned to Amherstburg. The attack is said to have been "ill digested,"
and the expedition to have ended with "some disgrace."
Towards the end of August, (1813,) the American squadron, under Commodore Perry, became too powerful for the British, under Captain Barclay, who now remained at Amherstburg to await the equipment of the Detroit, recently launched. The British forces in the neighbourhood falling short of various supplies, for which they depended chiefly upon the fleet, Captain Barclay had no other alternative than to risk a general engagement. With this purpose he sailed on the 9th of September, with his small squadron wretchedly manned, and the next day encountered the enemy. For some time the fate of the battle poised in favor of the British, as the princ.i.p.al American ship, the Lawrence, struck her colours; but a sudden breeze turned the scale against them, and the whole of their squadron was compelled to surrender, after a desperate engagement of upwards of three hours. Captain Barclay was dangerously wounded; Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, killed; and every commander and officer second in command was either killed or wounded.
Major-General Proctor"s army was deprived, by this disastrous defeat, of every prospect of obtaining its necessary supplies through Lake Erie, and a speedy retreat towards the head of Lake Ontario became inevitable.
Stung with grief and indignation, Tec.u.mseh at first refused to agree to the measure, and in a council of war held at Amherstburg on the 18th of September, he thus delivered his sentiments against it:
Father, listen to your children! You have them now all before you.
The war before this, our British father gave the hatchet to his red children, when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war our father was thrown on his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand without our knowledge; and we are afraid that our father will do so again at this time.
The summer before last, when I came forward with my red brethren, and was ready to take up the hatchet in favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry,--that he had not yet determined to fight the Americans.
Listen! When war was declared, our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk, and told us that he was then ready to strike the Americans; that he wanted our a.s.sistance; and that he would certainly get us hack our lands, which the Americans had taken from us.
Listen! You told us, at that time, to bring forward our families to this place, and we did so; and you promised to take care of them, and that they should want for nothing, while the men would go and fight the enemy; that we need not trouble ourselves about the enemy"s garrisons; that we knew nothing about them, and that our father would attend to that part of the contest. You also told your red children that you would take good care of your garrison here, which made our hearts glad.
Listen! When we were last at the Rapids, it is true we gave you little a.s.sistance. It is hard to fight people who live like ground hogs.
Father, listen! Our fleet has gone out; we know they have fought; we have heard the great guns; but we know nothing of what has happened to our father with that arm. Our ships have gone one way, and we are much astonished to see our father tying up every thing and preparing to run away the other, without letting his red children know what his intentions are.
You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands; it made our hearts glad to hear that was your wish. Our great father, the king, is the head, and you represent him. You always told us that you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see you are drawing back, and we are sorry to observe our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father"s conduct to a fat dog, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted, it drops it between its legs and runs off.
Father, listen! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure that they have done so by water: _we therefore wish to remain here and fight our_ _enemy, should they make their appearance_. If they defeat us, we will _then_ retreat with our father.
At the battle of the Rapids, last war, the Americans certainly defeated us; and, when we retreated to our father"s fort in the neighbourhood, the gates were shut against us. We were afraid that it would again be the case; but, instead of closing the gates, we now see our British father preparing to march out of his garrison.
Father! You have got the arms and ammunition which our great father sent for his red children. If you intend to retreat, give them to us, and you may go, and welcome for us. Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be His will, we wish to leave our bones upon them.
General Harrison"s troops were soon transported by the American squadron to _Put-in-Bay_, and they occupied Amherstburg on the 23d of September, Proctor having previously fallen back upon Sandwich, after setting fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores at the former place. The British general, seeing the enemy determined to follow up his first success by an immediate attack upon Detroit, and being unable with his very inferior numbers to dispute the occupancy of that post, evacuated it and Sandwich on the 26th, also destroying the public property at both posts; and commenced his retreat along the river Thames, with between 900 and 1,000 regulars, chiefly of the 41st regiment. In this reverse of fortune, Tec.u.mseh still adhered to the British standard with unswerving fidelity, and with the Indians covered the retreat. On the 2d of October, General Harrison marched in pursuit with rather above 3,000 men, escorted by three gun-boats and a number of bateaux. On the 4th, he came up with the rear guard, and not only made some prisoners, but succeeded in capturing a great part of the ammunition and stores. By this second reverse, the British were left dest.i.tute of the means of subsistence and protracted defence; and their commander being thus compelled to stake the fate of his small army on a general engagement, he took up an excellent position on the right bank of the Thames at the Moravian town, an Indian village 80 miles from Sandwich, his entire force now mustering barely 900 regulars and about 600 Indians. The former were posted in single files in two lines, their left resting on the river, their right on a narrow swamp, beyond which were the Indians, reaching obliquely backwards to a second and much broader swamp, so that neither flank of the allies could be easily turned. The enemy commenced the attack with a regiment of mounted riflemen, the _elite_ of their army, formed into two divisions of 500 men each, one of which charged the regulars with great impetuosity, while the other advanced with a company of foot against the Indians. The regulars, dissatisfied by fancied or real neglect, and dispirited by long continued exposure and privation, made but a very feeble resistance; their ranks were pierced and broken, and being placed between two fires, they immediately surrendered, with the trifling loss of 12 killed and 22 wounded, the British general and a part of the troops seeking safety in flight. But the Indians carried on the contest with the left of the American line with great determination, and did not retreat until the day was irretrievably lost and 33 of their numbers had been slain, including the n.o.ble Tec.u.mseh--a warrior not less celebrated for his courage than for his humanity, his eloquence, and his influence over the different tribes. The Americans returned to Sandwich immediately after the action.
Proctor is accused of leaving entire the bridges and roads in the rear of his retreating army, and of enc.u.mbering it with an unnecessary quant.i.ty of his own personal baggage; and certain it is that his defeat led to the harshest recrimination between Sir George Prevost and himself. The general order of the former on the subject was of unparalleled severity, as he said: "On this disgraceful day upwards of 600 officers and soldiers were taken prisoners almost without a struggle, of whom but very few appeared to have been rescued by an honorable death from the ignominy of pa.s.sing under the American yoke; nor are there many whose wounds plead in mitigation of this reproach."
The fugitives made the best of their way to Ancaster, at the head of Lake Ontario; and on the 17th of October they numbered there 240, including the general and 17 officers. The consequence of these disasters was the relinquishment, by the British, of the Michigan territory, with the exception of Michilimakinack; the abandonment of the posts in Upper Canada to the westward of the Grand River, or Ouse; and the loss of the services of the whole of the north-western Indians, with the exception of 2 or 300, who subsequently joined the centre division of the army.[125]
Fort George was taken in May, 1813, by a large American force, under General Dearborn, which compelled Major-General Vincent to withdraw his troops from Fort Erie and Chippewa, and to retreat to Burlington Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario, the British losing 52 killed, besides upwards of 300 wounded and missing. Immediately after the capture of Fort George, General Dearborn pushed forward a body of 3,000 infantry, with nine field pieces and 250 cavalry, for the purpose of dislodging Major-General Vincent from his position. Lieut.-Colonel Harvey,[126] deputy adjutant-general, proposed a night attack on this body, which was approved, and with the 49th, under Major Plenderleath, and five companies of the 8th, under Major Ogilvie, (the whole only 704 firelocks,) he led the attack in gallant style, and completely succeeded in surprising the enemy, who evinced a highly creditable state of order and discipline in repeatedly forming, though compelled as often to disperse before the resistless energy of the British bayonet. Two brigadiers, (Chandler and Winder,) 7 other officers and 116 men, with three guns and one bra.s.s howitzer, were taken in this intrepid attack, which, as it reduced the Americans from offensive to defensive operations, was of the greatest importance to the salvation of the Upper Province. The enemy, however, occupied Fort George till the month of December, when they were compelled to evacuate it and retreat across the Niagara.[127] In that month, Colonel Murray surprised, and very gallantly captured by a night a.s.sault, Fort Niagara, which was retained by the British till the end of the war.
The recovery of Michilimakinack had long been seriously contemplated by the American government, and would have been attempted in the fall of 1813, but for the lateness of the season, when the expulsion of the British from the banks of the Detroit had opened the pa.s.sage into Lake Huron. On the other hand, the necessity of retaining a post so favorably situated, if in the hands of an enemy, for annoying the British north-western trade, pressed itself on Sir George Prevost; and in April, 1814, a reinforcement of about 90 men, under an active and zealous officer, Lieut.-Colonel M"Douall, was forwarded with military stores and provisions, by a back route to Michilimakinack. They embarked in twenty-four bateaux from Nottawa.s.sega Bay on Lake Huron, distant 260 miles from Michilimakinack, and, after a very tempestuous pa.s.sage of twenty-five days, reached the fort on the 18th of May. On the 26th July, an American expedition from Lake Erie, consisting of three brigs and two schooners of war, under Captain Sinclair, with nearly 800 troops on board, appeared off Michilimakinack, and a landing was effected by them on the 4th of August. The British force on the island amounted to only 190 men, including regulars, militia, and Indians, with which Lieut.-Colonel M"Donall repulsed every effort of the Americans to approach the fort; so that they were glad, to re-embark the same evening in the utmost haste and confusion, leaving 17 dead on the ground, while the garrison had only one Indian killed. Captain Sinclair stated what does not appear to have been known to Lieutenant Hanks, when he surrendered the island in 1812 to Captain Roberts,[128] "that Michilimakinack is by nature a perfect Gibraltar, being a high inaccessible rock on every side,[129] except the west, from which to the heights you have nearly two miles to pa.s.s through a wood so thick, that our men were shot in every direction, and within a few yards of them, without being able to see the Indians who did it." Michilimakinack remained unmolested to the end of the war, when it was restored, by the treaty of peace, to its former possessors.
It has already been mentioned, that among the prisoners taken at the battle of Queenstown, 23 were sent to England for trial as British born subjects and deserters, and that the American government had placed an equal number of British soldiers into close confinement as hostages. In consequence, Sir George Prevost, by a general order of the 27th October, 1813, made known that he had received the commands of the prince regent to put 46 American officers and non-commissioned officers into close confinement as hostages for the 23 soldiers confined by the American government. He at the same time apprized that government, that if any of the British soldiers should suffer death by reason of the guilt and execution of the traitors taken in arms against their country, he was instructed to select out of the American hostages double the number of the British soldiers who might be so unwarrantably put to death, and to cause them to suffer death immediately. The governor-general also notified to the American government, that in the event of their carrying their murderous threat into execution, the commanders of the British forces, by sea and land, were instructed to prosecute the war with unmitigated severity against all the territory and inhabitants of the United States.
On the 10th of December, Sir George Prevost received a communication from Major-General Wilkinson by a flag of truce, stating that the American government, adhering unalterably to their previously declared purpose, had placed 46 British officers into close confinement, there to remain until the same number of American officers and non-commissioned officers were released. In consequence, the governor-general ordered all the American officers, prisoners of war, without exception of rank, to be placed into close confinement as hostages, until the number of 46 was completed over and above those already in confinement. In pursuance of this order, Generals Winder, Chandler, and Winchester, were confined in a private house at Quebec, with as little inconvenience as their security would admit.
On the 15th April, 1814, after some negotiation, opened at the solicitation of the American government, a convention was entered into at Montreal, by which it was agreed to release the hostages and to make an exchange of prisoners, the American government relinquishing its pretensions to retaliate for the prisoners sent to England for legal trial as traitors to their country. This convention was ratified in July, at Champlain, near the lines; but, whether by previous agreement or tacit understanding, the traitors, we believe, escaped the just punishment of their crime.
The remaining events of the war in Canada during the campaigns of 1812, 13 and 14, do not fall within the scope of this memoir. Some we might chronicle with pride, but a few we could not record without shame; and, on the whole, we cannot but think that the same withering influence, which bound the hands and repressed the energies of "him who undoubtedly was the best officer that headed our troops throughout the war,"[130]
was visible to the termination of the contest--a contest in which we are satisfied the result would have been very different, "if a man of military genius, courage, quickness, and decision, had held the supreme command."[131] Indeed, when we reflect upon the management of that eventful war, we are often forcibly reminded, in the fatal loss of Sir Isaac Brock, of the pathetic lament of the gallant highlander, who, contrasting the irresolution of his present general with the deeds of his former chief, the renowned Grahame,[132] Viscount Dundee, mournfully exclaimed:
Oh! for one hour of Dundee!
During the progress of the war, the British government made several overtures for a reconciliation; and at length, when Napoleon"s disasters commenced, and the Eastern States were threatening to dissolve the union, Madison expressed a wish to treat with England, even at the end of 1813. The negotiations were commenced in earnest at Ghent, in August, 1814, at a time when Great Britain, being at peace with the remainder of the world, was in a condition to prosecute the contest with all her energies; but her people wished for repose after the long and arduous struggle in which they had been engaged; and a treaty of peace, signed at Ghent on the 24th of December, was ratified by the two governments, the plenipotentiaries on both sides waiving every question at issue before the war, and restoring every acquisition of territory during its progress. Thus the Americans had only the Canadian and defenceless side of the Detroit to give in exchange for their fortress of Niagara and their key possession of Michilimakinack.
Early in 1815, Sir George Prevost was directed to return to England for the purpose of meeting accusations relative to his conduct at Plattsburg, which had been preferred by Commodore Sir James Yeo, who, after some delay, produced his charges in legal form; and to afford time for the arrival of the necessary witnesses from Canada, the general court martial was postponed to the 12th of January, 1816. In the mean time the health of the late governor-general, naturally of a delicate cast, became seriously affected, partly from anxiety of mind, and he died in London on the 5th of January, exactly a week preceding the day appointed for his trial. Previously to his departure from Lower Canada, the commons, or French party, voted him the sum of 5,000 for the purchase of a service of plate, as a tribute of respect, which vote was approved of by the prince regent; but the legislative council, or English party, refused their a.s.sent to a bill for that purpose.
Sir George Prevost was of slight, diminutive person, and unsoldierlike appearance; his manners are represented as una.s.suming and social, and his temper as placid and forgiving. His public speeches or addresses are said to have partaken of even cla.s.sical elegance, and his dispatches and general orders also afford proofs of his literary acquirements.
Discredit can only be thrown on his character as a general; and indeed his best friends must admit that his defensive policy at the commencement of the war, and his subsequent irresolution and infirmity of purpose, did not tend to raise the glory of England, or to advance his own fame, and that of every enterprizing officer who served under him. And yet soon after his death, notwithstanding that the lamentable failures at Sackett"s Harbour and Plattsburg were fresh in the public recollection, new and honorary armorial bearings, with supporters, were solicited and obtained by his family in seeming approbation of his services in Canada, the supporters being two grenadiers of the 16th foot, of which regiment Sir George was colonel, each bearing a flag, gules; the dexter flag inscribed, "West Indies"--the sinister, "Canada"! If these distinctions were conferred in honor of his civil administration, which we have already eulogized, although _Veritas_, in his well-known letters, stoutly denied him any merit even on this point, they were, we believe, justly bestowed; but if they were intended as an approval of his military conduct during the contest, certain it is that his contemporaries indignantly refused to concede his claim to them, and that no historian has as yet admitted that claim.[133] It was unfortunate for Sir George that he was called upon to wage war against the United States, as his natural and excusable sympathies in favor of a people among whom he had been born, and at least partly educated, may have influenced his judgment without any conscious betrayal of the great charge entrusted to him; and this remark applies with double force to his school-fellow, Sir Roger Sheaffe, whose entire family and connexions were American. In any case, it was hard on Sir Isaac Brock, after being retained in Canada by Sir James Craig, when he was so anxious to serve in the Peninsula, because that officer could not spare him, and after at length obtaining leave to return to Europe for that purpose--it was hard, we repeat, when hostilities did at last break out in America, that his energies should have been so cramped by the pa.s.sive att.i.tude of his superior. Remembering, however, the maxim, _de mortuis nil nisi bonum_, the editor has refrained from transcribing aught reflecting on the memory of that superior when he could do so consistently with truth, although he feels acutely that the death of Sir Isaac Brock--hastened as he believes it was by the defensive policy and mistaken views of Sir George Prevost--was an irreparable loss to his many brothers,[134] who were at that period just rising into manhood, and in consequence required all the interest for their advancement which their uncle would probably have possessed. One especially, who closely resembled him both in appearance and character, and who would have been an ornament to any service, was compelled to embrace the profession of arms, for which he had been educated, under the banners of a foreign and far distant country. In that country, Chile, Colonel Tupper cruelly fell at the early age of twenty-nine years; and if the reader will turn to the memoir of this daring soldier in the Appendix, necessarily brief as it is, he will probably agree with the British consul who wrote, that he had "for many years looked upon his gallant and honorable conduct as reflecting l.u.s.tre upon the English name;" and he will think with the French traveller, who, after highly eulogizing him, said: "N"est-il pas deplorable que de tels hommes en soient reduits a se consacrer a une cause etrangere?"
As Tec.u.mseh was so conspicuous in the annals of this war for his fidelity and devotion to the British crown, and as his name has occurred so often in these pages,[135] a concluding and connected notice of him will surely be deemed but an act of justice to his memory.
This renowned aboriginal chief was a Shawanee, and was born in 1769 or 1770, about the same year as his "brave brother warrior," Sir Isaac Brock. He may be said to have been inured to war from his infancy, as the Indian nations continued in hostility against the United States after their independence was achieved, alleging that they infringed on their territories. In 1790, about which period Tec.u.mseh first gave proofs of that talent and daring which so distinguished his after-life, General Harmer was dispatched with a competent force to punish the predatory incursions of the Indians; but he was glad to return, with the loss of many of his men. In the following year, General St. Clair proceeded with another army to ravage the Miami and Shawanee settlements, and was even more unfortunate than his predecessor, as the Indians boldly advanced to meet him on the way, attacked his encampment, and put his troops to a total rout, in which the greater part were cut off and destroyed. In 1794, however, a much more formidable expedition, under General Wayne, entered the Indian territory; the warriors gradually retired as the Americans advanced, but at length imprudently determined on making a stand. In the battle which ensued, the Indians were so completely discomfited, that, the following year, they agreed to the treaty of Greenville, by which they were compelled to cede a large tract of country as an indemnity for _past injuries_! As Tec.u.mseh had then scarcely completed his twenty-fifth year, and as the Indians pay great deference to age, it is not probable that he had any hand in this treaty, the more especially as, from that period to 1812, he laboured incessantly to unite the numerous aboriginal tribes of the North American continent in one grand confederacy, for the threefold purpose of endeavouring to regain their former possessions as far as the Ohio, of resisting the further encroachments of the whites, and of preventing the future cession of land by any one tribe, without the sanction of all, obtained in a general council. With this object he visited the different nations; and having a.s.sembled the elders, he enforced his disinterested views in strains of such impa.s.sioned and persuasive eloquence, that the greater part promised him their co-operation and a.s.sistance. But, to form a general alliance of so many and such various tribes, required a higher degree of patriotism and civilization than the Indians had attained. From the numbers, however, who ranged themselves with Tec.u.mseh under the British standard; on the breaking out of the war in 1812, it is evident that he had acquired no little influence over them, and that his almost incredible exertions, both of mind and body, had not been altogether thrown away.
About the year 1804, the brother of Tec.u.mseh proclaimed himself a prophet, who had been commanded by the Great Spirit, the Creator of the red, but not of the white, people, to announce to his children, that the misfortunes by which they had been a.s.sailed arose from their having abandoned the mode of life which He had prescribed to them. He declared that they must return to their primitive habits--relinquish the use of ardent spirits--and clothe themselves in skins, and not in woollens. His fame soon spread among the surrounding nations, and his power to perform miracles was generally believed. He was joined by many, and not a few came from a great distance, and cheerfully submitted to much hardship and fatigue, that they might behold the prophet, and then return. He first established himself at Greenville, within the boundary of the United States; but the inhabitants of Ohio becoming alarmed at the immense a.s.semblage of Indians on their frontier, the American authorities insisted on his removal. Accordingly, he proceeded, in 1808, to the Wabash, and fixed his residence on the northern bank of that river, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. Here his popularity declined, but, through the influence of Tec.u.mseh, he was again joined by many among the neighbouring tribes. The prophet"s temporal concerns were conducted by Tec.u.mseh, who adroitly availed himself of his brother"s spiritual power to promote his favourite scheme of a general confederacy.
In 1811, Tec.u.mseh, accompanied by several hundred warriors, encamped near Vincennes, the capital of Indiana, and demanded an interview with the governor of that state, Major-General Harrison, the same officer who, in 1813, commanded the victorious troops at the battle of the Thames, in which Tec.u.mseh lost his life. The interview was agreed to, and the governor inquired whether the Indians intended to come armed to the council. Tec.u.mseh replied that he would be governed by the conduct of the white people; if they came armed, his warriors would be armed also; if not, his followers would come unarmed. The governor informed him that he would be attended by a troop of dragoons, dismounted, with their side arms only, and that the Indians might bring their war clubs and tomahawks. The meeting took place in a large arbour, on one side of which were the dragoons, eighty in number, seated in rows; on the other the Indians. But besides their sabres, the dragoons were armed with pistols. The following incident is said to have occurred at this interview. Tec.u.mseh looked round for a seat, but not finding one provided for him, he betrayed his surprise, and his eyes flashed fire.
The governor, perceiving the cause, instantly ordered a chair. One of the council offered the warrior his chair, and, bowing respectfully, said to him: "Warrior, your father, General Harrison, offers you a seat." "My father!" exclaimed Tec.u.mseh, extending his hand towards the heavens, "the sun is my father, and the earth is my mother; she gives me nourishment, and I will repose on her bosom." He then threw himself on the ground. When the governor, who was seated in front of the dragoons, commenced his address, Tec.u.mseh declared that he could not hear him, and requested him to remove his seat to an open s.p.a.ce near himself, The governor complied, and in his speech complained of the constant depredations and murders which were committed by the Indians of Tippecanoe; of the refusal on their part to give up the criminals; and of the increasing acc.u.mulation of force in that quarter, for the avowed purpose of compelling the United States to relinquish lands, which they had fairly purchased of the rightful owners. Tec.u.mseh, in his answer, denied that he had afforded protection to the guilty, but manfully admitted his design of forming a confederacy of all the red nations of that continent. He observed, that "the system, which the United States pursued of purchasing lands from the Indians, he viewed as a _mighty water_, ready to overflow his people, and that the confederacy which he was forming among the tribes, to prevent any tribe from selling land without the consent of the others, was the _dam_ he was erecting, to resist this mighty water." And he added, "your great father, the president, may sit over the mountains and drink his wine, but if he continue this policy, you and I will have to meet on the battle field."
He also admitted, that he was then on his way to the Creek nation, for the purpose he had just avowed, and he continued his journey two days after, with twelve or fifteen of his warriors. Having visited the Creek and other southern tribes, he crossed the Mississippi, and continued a northern course as far as the river Demoins, whence he returned to the Wabash by land. But a sad reverse of fortune awaited his return; he found his town consumed, his bravest warriors slain, and a large deposit of provisions destroyed. On his departure, the settlement at Tippecanoe was left in charge of his brother, the prophet, with strict injunctions to prevent all hostile incursions, as they might lead to extremities before his plans were matured. The prophet, however, wanted either the inclination or the authority to follow these injunctions; and the Americans a.s.sert, that murder and rapine occurred now so frequently, that they were compelled, in their own defence, to punish the delinquents. Accordingly, General Harrison proceeded with nearly 1,000 men to Tippecanoe, and on his approach, in November, 1811, was met by about 600 warriors; a battle ensued, in which the Indians, deprived by the absence of their chief of his counsel and example, were defeated, but with nearly equal loss on both sides. a.s.sured by the prophet that the American bullets would not injure them, they rushed on the bayonets with their war clubs, and exposed their persons with a fatal fearlessness. But the prophet himself remained during the battle in security on an adjacent eminence; he was chaunting a war song, when information was brought to him that his men were falling. "Let them fight on, for my prediction will soon be verified," was the substance of his reply, and he resumed his song in a louder key!
The hostility of Tec.u.mseh to those whom he had ever considered as the spoilers of his country, was, if possible, redoubled by this severe act of retaliation. General Harrison, in particular, incurred his personal enmity, and he declared openly that he would seek for vengeance. Nor was he backward in putting his threats into execution. Early in 1812, the Indians renewed their hostile incursions, but they were now treated with unusual forbearance, in the hope that they would remain neutral in the war with Great Britain, which the American government well knew was near at hand. On its declaration in June, however, Tec.u.mseh eagerly embraced the opportunity which it afforded, not only to promote his long meditated public views, but to avenge his private injuries; and, hastening with his warriors to Upper Canada, he had soon the gratification of witnessing, at Detroit, the surrender of the 4th U.S.
infantry, (or heroes of Tippecanoe, as they were then denominated,) which regiment claimed the princ.i.p.al merit of having, the preceding year, defeated his followers and destroyed his settlement.
Previously to the battle of the Thames, already noticed, the position chosen to await the attack of the American army, and the disposition of the British force, were approved of by Tec.u.mseh, and his last words to General Proctor were: "Father, tell your young men to be firm, and all will be well." He then repaired to his people, and harangued them before they occupied their post. While the white troops were so quickly overcome, Tec.u.mseh and his warriors almost as rapidly repelled the enemy; and the Indians continued to push their advantage in ignorance of the disaster of their allies, until their heroic chief fell by a rifle bullet, while in the act of advancing to close with Colonel Johnson, who was on horseback commanding his regiment of mounted riflemen.