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38 - Canada- The Empire of the North by Agnes C. Laut · Canada- The Empire of the North

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  Speaker 1: Section number thirty seven of Canada The Empire of the North.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver,
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  Speaker 1: b C. Canada. The Empire of the North by Agnes
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  Speaker 1: cy Lot from eighteen twelve to eighteen twenty, Part four.
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  Speaker 1: The invaders were resting on their arms, snatching at breakfast
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  Speaker 1: of biscuit and cheese about midday, when General Sheef arrived
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  Speaker 1: from Fort George with troops breathless from running. A heart
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  Speaker 1: shattering housa from the village warned the Americans that help
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  Speaker 1: had come and they were to arms in a second.
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  Speaker 1: But Sheaf had round the Heights Indians on one side
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  Speaker 1: of the hill, soldiers on the other, and came on
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  Speaker 1: the surprised Americans as from the rear. There was a
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  Speaker 1: wild whoop, a dash up the hill, pause to fire
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  Speaker 1: when the air was splinted by nine hundred instantaneous shots.
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  Speaker 1: Then through the smoke, the British rushed the Heights at
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  Speaker 1: bayonet point. For three hours, the contest raged in full
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  Speaker 1: sight of Lewistown a hand to hand butchery between chaises,
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  Speaker 1: fresh fighters and the Americans who had been on their
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  Speaker 1: feet since midnight. Indian tomahawk played its part, but it
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  Speaker 1: is a question if the sculping knife did as deadly
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  Speaker 1: work as the grenadier's long bayonets. Cooped up between the
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  Speaker 1: enemy and the precipice, the American sharpshooters waited for the
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  Speaker 1: help that never came. In vain. Van Rossener's officers prayed
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  Speaker 1: and swore and pleaded with the volunteer troops on the
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  Speaker 1: Lewiston side. The men flatly refused to cross, for boat
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  Speaker 1: loads of mangled bodies were brought back at each passage.
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  Speaker 1: Discipline fell to pieces. It was the old story of
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  Speaker 1: volunteers brave enough at a spurt, going to pieces in
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  Speaker 1: panic under hard and continued strain. Driven from Queenston Heights,
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  Speaker 1: the invaders fought their way down the cliff path by
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  Speaker 1: inches to the water side, and there there were no boats.
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  Speaker 1: Pulling off his white necktie, an officer held it up
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  Speaker 1: on the point of his sword as signal of surrender.
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  Speaker 1: It was one of the most gallant fights on both
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  Speaker 1: sides in Canadian history, though officers over on the Lewiston
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  Speaker 1: Shore were crying boys at the sight of nine hundred
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  Speaker 1: Americans surrendering. Truce was then arranged for the burial of
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  Speaker 1: the dead. The bodies of Brock and mac donnell were
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  Speaker 1: laid on a gun wagon and conveyed between lines of
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  Speaker 1: sorrowing soldiers with arms reversed, to the burial place outside
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  Speaker 1: Fort George. As the regimental music rang out the last
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  Speaker 1: march of the two dead officers, minute guns were fired
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  Speaker 1: in sympathy all along the American shore. He would have
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  Speaker 1: done so much for us, said the American officers of
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  Speaker 1: the gallant. Brock van Russler at once resigns. Proclamation Smith,
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  Speaker 1: whose addresses resemble Fourth of July Backwoods oriations, succeeds as
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  Speaker 1: commander of the American Army. But Proclamation Smith makes such
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  Speaker 1: a mess of a raid on Fort Erie, retreating with
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  Speaker 1: a haste, suggestive of Hull at Detroit that he is
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  Speaker 1: mobbed when he returns to the United States shore. But
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  Speaker 1: what the United States lose by land, they retrieve by sea.
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  Speaker 1: England's best ships are engaged in the Great European War.
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  Speaker 1: From June to December. United States vessels sweep the sea.
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  Speaker 1: But this is more a story of the English Navy
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  Speaker 1: than of Canada. The year of eighteen twelve closes with
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  Speaker 1: the cruisers of Lake Ontario chasing each other through many
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  Speaker 1: a wild stowstorm. As the year eighteen twelve proved one
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  Speaker 1: of jubient victory for Canada, so eighteen thirteen was to
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  Speaker 1: be one of black despair. With the exception of four
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  Speaker 1: brilliant victories rested in the very teeth of defeat. The
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  Speaker 1: year passes down to history as one of the darkest
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  Speaker 1: in the annals of the country. The population of the
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  Speaker 1: United States at this time was something over seven million,
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  Speaker 1: and it was not to be thought for one moment
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  Speaker 1: that a nation of this strength would remain beaten off
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  Speaker 1: the field by the little province of Ontario, Upper Canada,
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  Speaker 1: whose population numbered barely ninety thousand. General Harrison hurries north
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  Speaker 1: from the Wabash with from six to eight thousand men
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  Speaker 1: to retrieve the defeat of Detroit at presque Isle. On
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  Speaker 1: Lake Erie, hammer and mallet and forging iron are heard
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  Speaker 1: all winter, preparing the fleet for commodore Perry, that is,
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  Speaker 1: to command Lake Erie and the upper Lakes for the Americans.
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  Speaker 1: At Sackett's Harbor, similar preparations are under way on a
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  Speaker 1: fleet for on sea to sweep the English from Lake
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  Speaker 1: Ontario and all along both sides of the Saint Lawrence.
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  Speaker 1: As winter hedged the waters with ice, lurk scouts, the
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  Speaker 1: Americans for most part uniformed in blue, the Canadians in
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln green with gold braid, watching chance for raid and
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  Speaker 1: counter raid during the winter nights. The story of these
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  Speaker 1: thrilling raids will probably pass into the shadowy realm of
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  Speaker 1: legend handed down from father to son, for few of
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  Speaker 1: them have been embodied in the official reports. For being
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  Speaker 1: hard pressed on the defensive, Canada has suddenly sprung into
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  Speaker 1: the position of jubilant victor. And if Brock had lived,
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  Speaker 1: she would probably have followed up her victories by aggressive
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  Speaker 1: invasion of the enemy's territory. But all effort was literally
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  Speaker 1: paralyzed by the timidity and vacilliation of the Governor General,
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  Speaker 1: Sir George Prevost privosts. One idea seems to have been
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  Speaker 1: that as soon as the obnoxious embargo laws were revoked
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  Speaker 1: by England, the war would stop. When the embargo was
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  Speaker 1: revoked and the Armistice of Midsummer simply terminated in a
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  Speaker 1: resumption of war. This idea seems to have been succeeded
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  Speaker 1: by the single aim to hold off conclusions with the
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  Speaker 1: United States till England could beat Napoleon and come to
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  Speaker 1: the rescue. All winter long, scouts and bold spirits among
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  Speaker 1: the volunteers craved the chance to raid the anchored fleets
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  Speaker 1: of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, but Privost not only
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  Speaker 1: forbade the invasion of the enemy's territory, but before the year,
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  Speaker 1: was actually advocated the abandonment of Ontario. If his advice
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  Speaker 1: had been followed, it is no idle supposition to infear
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  Speaker 1: that the fate of Ontario would have been the same
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  Speaker 1: as the destiny of the Ohio and Michigan. One night
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  Speaker 1: in February the century, at the village of Brockville, named
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  Speaker 1: after the dead hero, was surprised by two hundred American
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  Speaker 1: raiders dashing up from the frozen river bed. Before bugles
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  Speaker 1: could sound to arms, jails had been opened, stores looted,
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  Speaker 1: houses plundered, and the raiders were off and well away,
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  Speaker 1: with fifty two prisoners and a dozen slay loads of provisions,
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  Speaker 1: gathering some five hundred men together from the Kingston region,
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  Speaker 1: McDonnell and Jenkins of the Glengarrys prepared to be revered.
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  Speaker 1: Cannon were hauled out on the river from the little
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  Speaker 1: village of Prescott to cross the ice to Ogdensburg. The
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  Speaker 1: river here is almost two miles wide, and as it
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  Speaker 1: was the twenty third of February, the ice had become
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  Speaker 1: rotten from the sun glare of the coming spring. As
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  Speaker 1: the cannon were drawn to mid river, though it was
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  Speaker 1: seven in the morning, the ice began to heave and crack,
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  Speaker 1: with dire warning. To hesitate was death. To go back
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  Speaker 1: as dangerous as to go forward. With a whoop, the
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  Speaker 1: men broke from quick march to a run, unsheathing musket
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  Speaker 1: and fixing bayonet blades as they dashed ahead, to be
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  Speaker 1: met with a withering cross fire. As they came within
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  Speaker 1: range of the American batteries. In places, the suck of
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  Speaker 1: the water told where the ice had given behind. Then
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  Speaker 1: bullets were peppering the river bed in a rain of fire.
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins and mac donald to the fore, waving their swords.
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  Speaker 1: Then bombs began to ricochet over the ice. If the
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  Speaker 1: range of the Ogdensburg cannon had been longer, the whole
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  Speaker 1: Canadian force might have been sunk in mid river, but
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  Speaker 1: the men were already dashing up the American shore, whooping
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  Speaker 1: like Fiend's incarnate. First a grape shot caught Jenkins's left
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  Speaker 1: arm and it hung in bloody splinters. Then a second
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  Speaker 1: shot took off his right arm. Still he dashed forward,
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  Speaker 1: cheering his men till he dropped in his tracks, faint
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  Speaker 1: from loss of blood. No answer came back to the
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  Speaker 1: summons to surrender, and taking possession of an outer battery,
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  Speaker 1: the Canadians turned earned its cannon full on the village.
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  Speaker 1: Under cover of the battery fire, and their own cannon
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  Speaker 1: now in position, the whole force of Canadians immediately rushed
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  Speaker 1: the town at bayonet point. Now, the bayonet in a
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  Speaker 1: solid flanks of five hundred men is not a pleasant
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  Speaker 1: weapon to stand up against. As the drill sergeant's order,
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  Speaker 1: you not only stick the mayonet into your enemy, but
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  Speaker 1: you turn it round to let the air in, so
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  Speaker 1: he will die. And before the furious onslaught of bayonets,
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  Speaker 1: the defenders of Ogdenburg broke and fled for the woods.
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  Speaker 1: Within an hour, the Canadians had burnt the barracks, set
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  Speaker 1: fire to two schooners, iced up, and come off with
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  Speaker 1: loot of a dozen cannon stores of all sorts, and
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  Speaker 1: with prisoners to the number of seventy four. The ice
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  Speaker 1: had left Lake Ontario early this year, and by mid
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  Speaker 1: April Commander Schantsey slipped out of Sacket's Harbor with sixteen vessels,
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  Speaker 1: having on board seventeen hundred troops. Besides the Creuse, it
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  Speaker 1: will be remembered that the capital of Ontario had been
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  Speaker 1: moved from Niagara Newark to York Toronto. On the north
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  Speaker 1: side of Lake Ontario. Then a thriving village of one
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  Speaker 1: thousand souls on the inner shore of Humber Bay, on
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  Speaker 1: the sand reef known as the Island in front of
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  Speaker 1: the harbor had been constructed a battery with cannon. The
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  Speaker 1: main village lay east of the present City Hall. Westward
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  Speaker 1: less than a mile was Government House on the site
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  Speaker 1: of the president residence. Between Government House and the village
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  Speaker 1: was not a house of any sort, only a wood
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  Speaker 1: road flanking the lake and badly cut up by ravines.
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  Speaker 1: Just west of Government House and close to the water
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  Speaker 1: was a block house or tower used as powder magazine,
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  Speaker 1: mounted with cannon to command the landing from the lake.
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  Speaker 1: Some accounts speak of yet another little outer battery or earthwork.
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  Speaker 1: Farther westward, north of the Government House Road or what
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  Speaker 1: is now King Street, were dense woods. General Sheaf, who
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  Speaker 1: had succeeded Brock at Queenston Heights, chanced to be in
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  Speaker 1: Toronto in April with some six hundred men. Just where
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  Speaker 1: the snug quarters of the Torontel Hunt Club now stand.
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  Speaker 1: You may look out through the green foliage of the
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  Speaker 1: woods fringing the high cliffs of Lake Ontario, and there
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  Speaker 1: lies before your view the pure sky blue surface of
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  Speaker 1: an island sea, washing in waves like a tide, to
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  Speaker 1: the watery edge of the far skyline. Early in the
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  Speaker 1: morning of April twenty seventh, a forest ranger dressed in
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  Speaker 1: the customary Lincoln green was patrolling the forested edge of
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  Speaker 1: the Scarborough Heights above the lake. The trees had not
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  Speaker 1: yet leafed out, but were in that veneral state when
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  Speaker 1: the branches between earth and sky take on the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of an aerial network just budding to light and color,
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  Speaker 1: and in the ravines still lay patches of the winter snow.
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  Speaker 1: The morning was hazy, warm, odoriferous of coming summer, with
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  Speaker 1: not a breath of wind stirring the water. As the
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  Speaker 1: sun came up over the lake. Long lines of fire
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  Speaker 1: shot through the water haze. Suddenly the scout paused on
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  Speaker 1: his parade. Something was advancing shoreward through the mist, advancing
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  Speaker 1: in a circling line like the ranks of wild birds
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  Speaker 1: flying north, with a lap lap lap of water drip
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  Speaker 1: and a rap rap rap of roll locks from a
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  Speaker 1: multitude of sweeps. The next instant, the forest rang to
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  Speaker 1: a musket shot, for the scout had discovered Commodore Chancelly's
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  Speaker 1: fleet of sixteen vessels being towed forward by rollers through
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  Speaker 1: a dead calm. The musket shot was heard by another
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  Speaker 1: scout nearer the fort. The signal was repeated by another
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  Speaker 1: shot and another for the whole twelve miles till General Sheef,
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  Speaker 1: sitting smoking a cigar in Government House, sprang to his
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  Speaker 1: feet and rushed out, followed by his officers, to scan
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  Speaker 1: the harbor of Humber Bay from the top of the
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  Speaker 1: fort bastions. Sure enough, there was the fleet, led by
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  Speaker 1: Chauncey's frigate with twenty four cannon poking from its sides,
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  Speaker 1: a string of row boats in tow behind to land.
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  Speaker 1: The army coming straight across the harbor over water calm
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  Speaker 1: as silk. It has been told how the fleet made
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  Speaker 1: the mistake of passing beyond the landing, but the chances
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  Speaker 1: are the mistake was intentional, for the purpose of avoiding
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  Speaker 1: the cannon of the fort bastions. At all events, the
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  Speaker 1: report may be believed that the most of Toronto's people
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  Speaker 1: forgot to go back to breakfast that morning. A moment later,
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  Speaker 1: officers were on top of the bastion towers, directing battery
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  Speaker 1: men to take range for their cannons. A batillion, variously
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  Speaker 1: given as from fifty to one hundred, along with some Indians,
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  Speaker 1: was at once despatched westward to ambush the American's landing.
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  Speaker 1: Another division was posted at the battery beyond Government House.
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  Speaker 1: Chief saw plainly from the number of men on deck
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  Speaker 1: that he was outnumbered four to one, and the flag
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  Speaker 1: on the commodore's boat probably told him that General Dearborn,
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  Speaker 1: the commander in chief, was himself on board to direct
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  Speaker 1: the land forces. Chief had been bitterly blamed for two things,
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  Speaker 1: for not invading Niagara after the victory on quick Painston Heights,
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  Speaker 1: and for his conduct at Toronto. He now withdrew the
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  Speaker 1: main forces to a ravine east of the fort plainly
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  Speaker 1: preparatory for retreat. Not thus would Brock have acted. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: time had worn on to nine o'clock. The American ships
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  Speaker 1: have anchored, the Canadian cannon are sending the bombs skipping
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  Speaker 1: across the water. The rowboats are transferring the army from
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  Speaker 1: the schooners, and the ambush sharpshooters are picking the blue
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  Speaker 1: coats off as they step from ships to boats by
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  Speaker 1: the powers. Yells Forsyth, an American officer, I can't stand
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  Speaker 1: seeing this any longer. Come on, boys, jump into our boats,
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  Speaker 1: and he bids the bugles blow till the echoes are
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  Speaker 1: dancing over Humber waters. Dearborn and Chancey stay on board.
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  Speaker 1: Pike leads the landing, and Chauncey's cannon sets such grape
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  Speaker 1: and canister flying through the woods as clear out those
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  Speaker 1: ambush shooters, the Indians flying like scared partridges, and the
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  Speaker 1: advance is made along Government House Road at quick March,
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  Speaker 1: just west of the Government House Battery. The marchers halt
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  Speaker 1: to send forward demand for surrender. Firing on both sides ceases.
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  Speaker 1: The smoke clears from the churned up waters of the bay,
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  Speaker 1: and Commander Pike has seated himself on an old cannon.
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  Speaker 1: When before answer can come back to the demand, a
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  Speaker 1: frightful accident occurs that upsets all plans. Waiting for the
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  Speaker 1: signal to begin firing again, a battery man in the
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  Speaker 1: near bastion was holding the lighted fused in his right hand,
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  Speaker 1: ready for the cannon, when something distracted his attention and
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  Speaker 1: he wheeled with the lighted match behind him. It touched
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  Speaker 1: a box of explosives. If any proof were needed that
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  Speaker 1: the tragedy was not designed, it is to be found
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  Speaker 1: in the fact that English officers were still on the
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  Speaker 1: roof of the blockhouse and the apartment below crowded with Canadians.
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  Speaker 1: A roar shook the earth, a cloud of black flame
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  Speaker 1: shot into mid air, and the next minute the ground
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  Speaker 1: for half a mile about was strewn with the remains
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  Speaker 1: mangled to a pulp of more than three hundred men,
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  Speaker 1: ninety of whom were Canadians, two hundred and sixty Americans,
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  Speaker 1: including Brigadier Pike, fatally wounded by a rock striking his head.
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  Speaker 1: In the horror of the next few moments, the defense
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  Speaker 1: was forgotten. Wheelbarrows, trucks, gun wagons were hurriedly forward to
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  Speaker 1: carry wounded and dead to the hospital, leaving his officers
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  Speaker 1: to arrange the terms of surrender. At two p m.
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  Speaker 1: Sheaf retreated a quick march for Kingston, pausing only to
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  Speaker 1: set fire to a half built ship and some naval stores.
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  Speaker 1: Lying on a stretcher on Chauncey's ship, Pike is roused
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  Speaker 1: from unconsciousness by loud huzzahs. What is it? He asks?
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  Speaker 1: They are running up the stars and stripes, Sir. A
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  Speaker 1: smile passed over Pike's face. When the surgeon looked again.
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  Speaker 1: The commander was dead for twenty four hours, the hagel
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  Speaker 1: went on as to terms of capitulation. Within that time,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: two or three things occurred to inflame invading troops. They
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  Speaker 1: learned that Sheaf had slipped away. As the American General's
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  Speaker 1: report put it, they got the shell, but the kernel
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  Speaker 1: of the nut got away. They learned that stores had
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  Speaker 1: been destroyed after the surrender had been granted. Without more restraint,
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  Speaker 1: and in defiance of orders, the American troops gave themselves
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  Speaker 1: up to plunder all that night. In their rumaging through
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  Speaker 1: the Parliament buildings, they found hanging above the Speaker's chair
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: what Canadian records declare was a whig. What American reports
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  Speaker 1: say was a human sculp sent in by some ranger
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: from the West. From what I have read in the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: private papers of fur traders in that period regarding international sculping,
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  Speaker 1: I am inclined to think that Wig may have been
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  Speaker 1: an American scalp. Certainly, the fur traders of Michelmikanac wrapped
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: no excuses round their savagery when the canoes all over
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  Speaker 1: the coasts of Lake Superior, in liew of frags had
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  Speaker 1: American sculps flaunting from their prows at all events, word
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  Speaker 1: went out that an American sculp had been found above
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  Speaker 1: the Speaker's chair. It was night, the troops were drunk
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  Speaker 1: with success and perhaps with the plunder of the wine shops.
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  Speaker 1: All that night and all the next day and night,
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  Speaker 1: the skies were alight, with the flames of Toronto's public
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  Speaker 1: buildings on fire. Also, the army chests, with ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars in gold, which Sheaf had forgotten, was dug up
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  Speaker 1: on pain of the whole town being fired unless money
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  Speaker 1: were delivered. Private houses were untouched, looted provisions which the
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  Speaker 1: fleet cannot carry away. Chancey orders distributed among the poor,
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  Speaker 1: then leaving some four hundred prisoners on parole not to
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  Speaker 1: serve again during the war. Chancey sails away for Niagara
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  Speaker 1: end of Section thirty seven. Recording by Lindamary Nielsen, Vancouver,
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  Speaker 1: b C.