Canada’s Success in Far West

Early in 1813 hostilities recommenced with a Canadian success in the Far West.

Continuing Canada Versus USA 1812-1814,
with a selection from The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 15 by Agnes M. Machar published in 1905. This selection is presented in 7 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Canada Versus USA 1812-1814.

By an admirable arrangement of his forces General Sheaffe out flanked the enemy and surrounded them in their dangerous position, from which a determined and successful onset forced them to a headlong and fearful retreat —- many being dashed to pieces in descending the precipitous rocks or drowned in attempting to cross the river. The surviving remnant of the invading force, which had numbered about one thousand five hundred, to eight hundred on the British side, mustered on the brink of the river, and surrendered themselves unconditionally, with their General, Wadsworth, as prisoners of war.

The day had been won, indeed, and won gallantly, but the sacrifice of Brock’s valuable life took away all the exultation from the victory and turned gratulation into mourning. It was a blow which the enemy might well consider almost a fatal one to the Canadian people and which gave some color of truth to the American representation of the battle of Queenston Heights as “a success.” Three days after the engagement the deceased General was interred —- temporarily, at Fort George —-in a bastion just finished under his own superintendence, amid the tears of his soldiers, the mourning of the nation, while the minute-guns of the American Fort Niagara fired shot for shot with those of Fort George, “as a mark of respect due to a brave enemy.” He died “Sir” Isaac Brock, though he knew it not, having been knighted in England for his brilliant services at Detroit. But he had a higher tribute in the love and mourning of the Canadian people, who have gratefully preserved and done honor to his memory as one of the heroes of its history. Queenston Heights, where his death occurred, and where his memorial column stands, is, no less than the Plains of Abraham, one of Canada’s sacred places, where memories akin to those of Thermopylae and Marathon may well move every Canadian who has a heart to feel them.

The American navy had been so wonderfully improved during the last few years that, though still of course vastly smaller than the British, its first-class men-of-war were individually much better equipped. In the naval engagements of 1812 this was speedily seen. The British frigates Guerriere and Macedonian and the sloop-of-war Frolic were successively attacked and taken by the American Constitution, United States, and Wasp, of equal nominal, but much greater actual, strength. Then the guns of the Constitution took a second prize in the Java, a fine frigate commanded by a promising officer, Captain Lambert, who fell, with most of her crew. And, as the final disaster of the year, the “American Hornet,” as Colonel Coffin has it, “stung to death the British Peacock.” The tide was not turned till the following June, when Captain Broke, of the Shannon, took a splendid prize in the Chesapeake, of unfortunate memory. In the meantime, of course, these successes kept up the warlike spirit of the Americans.

Early in 1813 hostilities recommenced with a Canadian success in the Far West. There General Harrison, who had succeeded Hull, still threatened Proctor with a formidable army of sturdy Kentucky forest rangers and Ohio sharpshooters, and sent on Winchester with a brigade of his army to drive the British and Indians from Frenchtown, one of their outposts. The latter had to retire upon Brownstown, but Proctor pushed forward, attacked Winchester, and, with the assistance of his Indian allies, completely routed him and captured all his surviving force, with stores and ammunition. For this success —- securing Detroit for the present —- Proctor was made a brigadier-general and also received the thanks of the Legislature.

In the St. Lawrence, while the ice still held the river, a brilliant demonstration was made at Ogdensburg, or Oswegatchie, against Fort La Presentation, by the gallant Highland Glengarries, under Colonel Macdonnell. They took the enemy by surprise, drove them from each successive position, stormed and carried the battery, burned four armed vessels in the harbor, and captured eleven pieces of cannon and a large amount of military stores. The achievement was an important one, putting a stop to border forays from the American side on that frontier during the rest of the winter.

Hardly any reinforcements had as yet been received from the mother-country, a deficiency, however, made up by the gallant conduct of the militia, worthy of the best regular troops. A formidable campaign was now opening before them. The American plan of operations was, that Harrison and his army should recover Michigan and threaten the West; that Commodore Chauncey, aided by General Pike’s land force, should invest York and the Niagara frontier; and that, after succeeding in Western Canada, the two armies should combine with the large force under Dearborn, and make a descent upon Kingston and Montreal.

Sir George Prevost had in the meantime arrived at Kingston and was endeavoring to hasten the equipment of two vessels in preparation there and at York, but men and stores were lacking; Sir James Yeo and his English seamen not arriving until May. Before anything of importance could be done, Chauncey had made his memorable descent upon York, now Toronto —- then, as now, the capital of the Upper Province —- with only too much success. The attack was not unexpected, but the town was defenseless so far as military works were concerned, owing, it is said, to the negligence of Sheaffe. On the evening of April 26th the ominous sound of the alarm-gun was heard, startling the citizens with the dreaded signal of the enemy’s approach. Such defense as could be made was made. Sheaffe was there on his way from Newark [Niagara] to Kingston with two companies of the Eighth; and the enemy, on landing a little west of the town, met with a brave but ineffectual resistance from both regulars and volunteers.

Agnes M. Machar begins here. David Ramsay begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

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