The Story of Isaac Brock Part 6

This little army had to defend the seven forts of Kingston, York, George, Erie, Chippewa, Amherstburg, and St. Joseph, not one of which was a fortress of strength, to patrol the lakes and protect a most vulnerable frontier. It was the opinion of leading military authorities that Canada could never be held against such an enemy.

Brock was at York when the news reached him. He at once sent part of the 41st to Niagara by lake, crossing himself with his brigade-major, Evans, and Macdonell and Glegg, his aides, and, as usual, in a batteau, with eleven men. At Fort George he bade adieu to some American officers, guests of the mess, and sent them across the river. He was eager to storm Fort Niagara, whose capture might have changed the entire situation, but alas! what of his instructions?

He called out more militia, though he had only a few tents and many of the men were drilling without shoes. One hundred Tuscaroras under Chief Brant answered his summons. He divided his augmented Niagara force into four divisions--at Fort Erie 400 men, at Fort Chippewa 300, at Queenston 300, at Fort George 500. Of these, 900 were militia.

The rattle of the matchlock was as familiar as c.o.c.kcrow. Every man became in fact, if not in deed, a volunteer. If the musket was not strapped to the tail of the plough, it leaned against the snake-fence--loaded. The goose-step, the manual and platoon took the place of the quadrille. Every clearing became a drill-hall, every log cabin an armoury. Many of the militia were crack shots, with all the scouting instincts of the forest ranger. In the barrack-square, in scarlet, white and green, the regulars drilled and went through wondrous evolutions with clock-work precision--fighting machinery with the tenacity of the bull-dog, though lacking the craft of the woods that had taught the volunteer the value of shelter and the wisdom of dwelling on his aim.

Apart, stolid and silent, but interested spectators, lounged the dusky redmen, forever sucking at their _pwoighun-ahsin_ (stone pipes) and making tobacco from the inner bark of red-willow wands, watching and wondering. The foot soldiers carried fire-locks, flints and cartridge boxes. These smooth-bore flint-locks had an effective range of less than 100 yards, and could be discharged only once a minute. Very different to the modern magazine rifle, which can discharge twenty-five shots in a minute and kill at 4,200 yards, while within 2,000 yards it is accurate and deadly. The mounted men were armed with sabres and ponderous pistols.

Our hero addressed the militia. The enemy, he told them, intended to lay waste the country. "Let them be taught," he said, "that Canadians would never bow their necks to a foreign yoke." As the custodian of their rights, he was trying to preserve all they held dear. He looked to them to repel the invaders.

Brock was placed in a most peculiar position, for while the pa.s.sive Prevost was still instructing him--nearly three weeks _after_ the declaration of war--"to take no offensive measures, as none would be taken by the United States Government," General Hull, with a force of 2,500 tried soldiers, was on his way from Ohio through the Michigan forests to occupy Detroit and invade Canada. Hull reached Detroit, and four days later, with his entire command, crossed the river and occupied Sandwich. But the trip was attended with serious mishap to his army, for Lieutenant Roulette, of the British sloop _Hunter_--a brother of the famous fur-trader--in a small batteau, with only six men, captured the United States packet _Cayuga_, with a detachment of five officers and thirty-three soldiers, as she was coming up the river. The _Cayuga's_ treasure consisted not only of valuable stores and baggage, but Hull's official correspondence with the United States Secretary of War. The contents of this decided Brock, though he had no idea Hull's army was so strong, to attempt the reduction of Fort Detroit without a moment's delay.

The very hour he knew that war was declared he had notified the officer at St. Joseph. Our hero, whose root idea of a soldier's craft was "secrecy in conception and vigour in execution," had no taste for Prevost's mad doctrine that the aggressed had to await the convenience of the aggressor. Brock had been taught to regard tolerance in war as an "evil of the first magnitude," and so had already instructed the commander at St. Joseph that if war was proclaimed he was to attack Mackinaw at once, but if attacked, "defend your post to the last."

Prevost at the same time had ordered this officer "in case of necessity to effect his own retreat," never dreaming he would dare attack Mackinaw. What a contrast the despatches of these two men present! The one full of confidence, fight and resistance, the other shrinking from action and suggesting retreat. Brock's despatch was of later date and more palatable to the fighter at St. Joseph. He started at once for Mackinaw, fifty-five miles distant, with 45 of the 10th Royal veterans, 180 Canadians, many of whom were traders and voyageurs, and convoyed by the brig _Caledonia_, owned by the North-West Fur Company.

He landed before daybreak. By noon of that day the Union Jack was floating above the basalt cliffs of the Gibraltar of the north, and also over two of the enemy's vessels laden with furs. It is not on record that Captain Roberts was recommended by General Sir George Prevost for promotion! The Indians at Amherstburg were now ready to support the British. Foremost among these was the great Shawanese warrior, Tec.u.mseh.

General Hull, having meantime billeted himself in Colonel Baby's big brick house at Sandwich, issued a proclamation to the "inhabitants of Canada." As a sample of egotism, bluff and bombast it stands unrivalled.

He told the inhabitants of Canada that he was in possession of their country, that an ocean and wilderness isolated them from England, whose tyranny he knew they felt. His grand army was ready to release them from oppression. They must choose between liberty and security, as offered by the United States, and war and annihilation, the penalty of refusal. He also threatened instant destruction to any Canadian found fighting by the side of an Indian, though General Dearborn, in command of the United States forces at Niagara, had been authorized by the United States Secretary of War "to organize the warriors of the Seneca Indians" _for active service against Canada_.

The United States Secretary of War wrote to Hull, saying his action respecting Canadian Indians "met with the approval of the Government."

Evidently ashamed, upon reflection, of Hull's threat, that same Government later instructed its commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent, when peace was restored, "to disown and disavow" their former Indian policy.

Hull's extraordinary production, which proved a boomerang, was really the work of Colonel Lewis Ca.s.s, his Chief of Staff; but while Hull and Ca.s.s were "unloading their rhetoric at Sandwich," our hero was "loading his guns at Mackinaw."

CHAPTER XV.

BROCK ACCEPTS HULL'S CHALLENGE.

With the country's call for a saviour had arisen the man so sorely needed. Vigilant, sagacious and brave, but with most inadequate forces, Brock, faced by a crisis, hurried to repel the invasion by Hull. If Canada was to be saved, Detroit, as well as Mackinaw, must be reduced.

The confidence also of the savages must be retained. The smallness of his army demanded the neutrality of the redmen, if not their active aid.

The plan of his campaign was laid before his Executive Council and the members of his staff. As they parted at the door of the General's quarters at midnight, preceding the day on which their gallant leader issued his counter reply to Hull, his final words were: "To hold Amherstburg, gentlemen, is of vital importance. It is the western base from which we must resist attack and advance upon Detroit. It must be held in force."

Brock's written answer to Hull's flamboyant address--edited by his wise adviser, Judge Powell--was eloquent and dignified. Hull's invitation to Canadians to seek protection from Britain under the flag of the United States was, he said, "an insult." He cited the advantages of British connection, and warned the colonists that secession meant the rest.i.tution of Canada to the Empire of France. This was the price to be paid by America for the aid given by France to the revolting States during the War of Independence. He reminded them of the constancy of their fathers. "Are you prepared to become slaves to this despot Napoleon, who rules Europe with a rod of iron? If not, arise, repel the invader and give your children no cause to reproach you with sacrificing the richest inheritance of earth, partic.i.p.ation in the name, character and freedom of Britons."

He told them not to be dismayed by the enemy's threat to "refuse them quarter should an Indian appear in their ranks." "Why," he continued, "should the brave bands of Indians which now inhabit this colony be prevented from defending their new homes?" These poor people, he reminded them, had actually been punished for their former fidelity to the United States, by the Government of that country taking from them their old homes in Ohio. The King of England had granted them a refuge and given them superior lands in Canada. Why were they to be denied the right to defend their hearths "from invasion by ferocious foes," who, while utilizing Indians themselves, had condemned the practice in others? The threat to refuse quarter to these defenders of invaded rights would, he said, bring about inevitable reprisal, for "the national character of Britain was not less distinguished for humanity than retributive justice."

The obstacles surrounding Brock would have driven an ordinary man to distraction. It is not possible to recite a fraction of them. The Grand River Indians, having received a specious letter from Hull, refused to join the relief expedition for Moraviantown, on the Thames, on which some of Hull's freebooters were marching. Some of the militia declined to leave their homes, suspicious, they said, of Indian treachery. Some, with blood relations in the States, refused point blank to take up arms.

Others were busy harvesting, while not a few came out openly as traitors and joined the ranks of Hull. Brock had no reinforcements of regular troops, and small chance of getting any, and, what was far worse, he received little moral support even from the Legislature, and none from other sources from which he had a right to expect it. He called an extra session of the House to enact laws to meet the crisis, to invest him with greater authority and to vote money for defence. He closed his Speech from the Throne with a declaration delivered in sonorous, ringing tones that echoed throughout the chamber:

"We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest. By unanimity and vigour we may teach the enemy this lesson, that a country defended by free men, devoted to the cause of their King and const.i.tution, can never be conquered."

Though Brock's speech "inspired the faithful and foiled the designs of some of the faithless," his demands were conceded in part only, and he left for Fort George with heart filled with misgivings. In answer to his request, Prevost declined to define the extent of the authority with which he had himself vested him. Extreme measures, he told him, must be taken at his own risk. Our hero was one of those limited few who had sounded the depths of the truth that it was easier to do one's duty than to know it. His shrewdness and self-reliance came to the rescue. Seeing that the Niagara River would be selected as the point for invasion, he made it his _defensive_ frontier, while the Detroit River was the _offensive_ front of his campaign. These views he outlined to his staff on the night following the prorogation of the House.

Judge Powell, after a long session of Council, the last to depart, was rising to leave. "Then, sir," said Colonel Macdonell, General Brock's new provincial aide, the young and brilliant Attorney-General of Upper Canada--engaged to Mary Powell, the daughter of the judge--"you really believe we can bombard Detroit successfully? The fort has, I understand, parapets twenty feet high, with four bastions, surrounded by palisades, a ditch and a glacis, and is capable of withstanding a long siege; besides which it has 2,500 fighting men to defend it."

"My good Macdonell," responded our hero, interest and deep regard imprinted on his face, "we fortunately know from Hull's own letters that he has as little confidence in his army as they have confidence in him.

I fancy he is merely whistling to keep up his courage. A bold front on our part, with a judicious display of our small force, will give him cause to reflect. Then, provided we enthuse the Indians--and if Mackinaw is fallen, this should not be difficult--Detroit is ours!"

"How about Amherstburg and Sandwich, General?" interjected Justice Powell. "Their safety is essential to your plan."

"As to Amherstburg," said Brock, "it is the pivot point, sir, and must be retained as our base. At Sandwich we already have earthworks completed. If destroyed by Hull they must be rebuilt, for the batteries there must cover our crossing and cannonade the fort while we advance upon it. I have already sent, as you know, a few additional men to Procter--every man I can steal from here. He should be able to hold his own at Amherstburg for a bit longer. The conditions, I admit, are far from satisfactory under the present command, but Chambers is on his way with forty of the 41st, one hundred militia with Merritt, and some of Brant's braves, to put backbone into the garrison."

"General," said Justice Powell, the rays from a waning moon flooding the hall-way as the outer door was opened by Brock for the exit of his councillors, "having implicit confidence in your judgment and military ability, I believe you will overthrow Hull. a.s.suming that you capture old Fort Lernoult and seize Detroit, what then?"

"What then, sir?" said Brock--emphasizing his parting words with a gesture of his hand--"why, Detroit taken, I shall return here, batter Fort Niagara--providing Prevost consents--and then by a sudden movement I could sweep the frontier from Buffalo to Fort Niagara and complete the salvation of Canada by the occupation of Sackett's Harbor. Good-night, gentlemen. _En avant_, Detroit!"

CHAPTER XVI.

"EN AVANT, DETROIT!"

Under an August moon Lake Erie shone as a s.h.i.+eld of silver. Brock, with a fleet of small craft, batteaux and boats of every kind given him by the settlers, had pulled out from Long Point with 40 regulars and 260 militia for the relief of Amherstburg, two hundred miles distant.

The news of the fall of Mackinaw and the official declaration of war had only reached him as Parliament rose. He had proclaimed martial law before leaving York. He had also heard details of the attack by Hull's raiders on the Moravian settlement, sixty miles up the Thames. He knew of the repulse of 300 United States troops in three attempts to cross the Canard River bridge for an attack on Amherstburg, and of their being driven into the open plains, with loss, by Procter's men.

It was in one of these attacks that the first scalp in the war of 1812 was taken--not by one of Brock's terrible Indians, whose expected excesses had been referred to by Hull, but by a captain of Hull's spies.

This officer--one hates to describe him as a white man--wrote his wife, he "had the pleasure of tearing a scalp from the head of a British redskin," and related at length the brutal details of his methods. They were those of a wild beast. "The first stroke of the tomahawk," Hull had stated in his proclamation, "the first attempt with the scalping-knife, will be the signal of a scene of desolation." Yet the first scalp taken in the Detroit campaign was by one of his own officers!

Brock knew that the valorous Hull, dismayed at the advance of the British, had recrossed the river with all but 250 of his men and was hard at work on the defences of Fort Shelby, behind which he had retired. Brock also knew of the affair at Brownstown, where the Indian chief Tec.u.mseh, with twenty-five warriors, had separated himself from Major Muir's detachment, sent to intercept a transport on its way from Ohio to Detroit with supplies for Hull. He had been told of the stratagem by which the great Shawanese warrior had ambushed the 200 American soldiers, near the Raisin River, who had marched from Detroit to escort this convoy and the mails. Seven American officers were killed at the Raisin, twelve of all ranks wounded, and seventy reported missing after the fight. In addition to the provision train, Tec.u.mseh captured what was of much greater importance, another batch of Hull's despondent despatches. It was here that swift justice overtook the scalping Captain McCullough, of Hull's spies, who himself met with the fate of his former victim--the fate he deserved.

Brock also received despatches describing the daring attack by Lieutenant Roulette, of the provincial marine, who in a small boat with a handful of men had boarded and seized in the Detroit River a brigade of eleven batteaux! These, loaded with food, were on their way from Black Rock, and now carried fifty-six wounded American soldiers and two English prisoners. This bold feat of "cutting out" took place under the eyes of an armed escort of 250 American soldiers marching along the river bank.

Messengers from Procter had also informed Brock of the fight at Maguagua, fourteen miles below Detroit. It was here that Muir, with 200 regulars and militia and less than 200 Indians, instead of waiting to be attacked, recklessly a.s.sailed a force of 600 Americans who were halted on the edge of the oak forest, supported by two six-pounder guns.

Fighting without hope against such odds, the British were outflanked, Muir himself wounded, and an officer killed--the second British soldier to fall in the war of 1812. The American loss was eighteen killed and sixty-three wounded. Though the difference in arms and men was greatly in favour of the Americans, the British were enabled to retreat to the river, where they regained their boats. The American force, suffering from greater casualties, did not attempt to follow them.

Apart from the inferior strength of the British, the chief cause of their reverse at Maguagua was the blunder of some men of the 41st, who fired upon a body of Tec.u.mseh's Indians. In rus.h.i.+ng from the woods the redmen were mistaken for the enemy, and falling into a similar error themselves, they returned with interest the fire of the British soldiers. The disorder that followed created a panic. While Tec.u.mseh with his own Indians fought bravely, the seventy Lake Indians under Caldwell suffered from "chill" and fled at the first shot. The most encouraging of these facts, when told to the expedition, aroused in Brock's followers a wild desire to meet Hull's army in battle.

Our hero's trip from Long Point was full of peril and hards.h.i.+p. The lake sh.o.r.e in places was extremely rugged. Precipitous cliffs of red clay and sun-baked sand rose two hundred feet from the boulder-strewn coast.

Scarcely a creek offered shelter. The weather was unusually stormy. A heavy surf boomed on the sh.o.r.e. Flocks of water-fowl were driven before the wind. The men were drenched by torrents of rain. Though thirty miles in twenty-four hours was considered the maximum distance for rowing a batteau, nothing could r.e.t.a.r.d this strange armada or dampen the confidence of the men in their resolute leader, who in an open boat led the way. In this boat, which was "headquarters," were Brock and his two aides. A lighted flambeau at the bow acted as a beacon during the night.

After five days of great vigilance and galley-slave work, the toilers reached Amherstburg. Without the help of these hardy and resourceful men of the Canadian militia this trip could not have been accomplished.

The conduct of these bold frontiersmen aroused Brock's admiration. His own example had again acted as an inspiration. Shortly after leaving Port Talbot, his batteau, pounding in the sea, ran upon a reef that extended far from sh.o.r.e, and despite oars and pike-poles, remained fast.

In the height of the confusion "Master Isaac" sprang overboard, and a moment later voyageur and raw recruit, waist deep in water, following the example of the hero of Castle Cornet, lifted the batteau over the dangerous ledge.

When at midnight the boats pa.s.sed up the Strait--through which the ambitious La Salle and Father Hennepin had pa.s.sed in 1679--and grated on the gravel beach at Amherstburg, Brock was greeted with a volley of musketry by the Indians. This was contrary to his rigid rubric of war.

Such waste of powder must not be tolerated. He turned to the Indian superintendent, "Do pray, Colonel Elliott," said he, "explain my reasons for objecting to the firing and tell the Chiefs I will talk with them to-morrow."

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR HERO MEETS TEc.u.mSEH. "THIS IS A MAN!"]