There were in Lower Canada 3,000 British troops, supported by a French Canadian militia, to face 21,000 men under Wilkinson and Hampton, bent on the conquest of the province. Upper Canada was considered by the Americans as practically at their mercy, and indeed it was a dark hour for the British. How is the little colony going to keep out of the maw of the Republic? The letters of Mr. Todd, written at this time, show how great was the crisis, and yet how high was the spirit of the young nation.

It has been doubted whether Wilkinson intended to attack Kingston. If he did so intend, 2,000 troops having been thrown into Kingston, his mind was directed into another channel. After he had collected all his forces on Grenadier's Island, between Kingston and Sackett's Harbour, they were embarked on board a flotilla, and began the descent of the St. Lawrence. On the 6th November, they arrived at Williamsburg, where the troops, together with the stores and munitions of war disembarked on the Canadian side of the river. They meant to pass undiscovered during night, the British posts at Prescott and its neighbourhood. They reckoned without their host. A force, small when compared with that of the enemy, consisting of the skeletons of the 49th and 89th regiments, and three companies of Canadian voltigeurs, with a few militia and a couple of gun-boats, in all not more than eight hundred men, under the command of Colonel Morrison, had hovered on the rear of the flotilla. At Prescott their movements were known. The enemy was about to move past the Fort, fondly believing that all was quiet within, when they were assailed on both land and water, by a disconcerting fire of musketry and battery guns. In the morning, a few miles below Prescott, when they were preparing the flotilla to move on towards the rapids of the Long Sault, Colonel Morrison, with his detachment, came up with them. As a considerable proportion of the 800 men were Irish it is not beyond the scope of this book to describe the Battle of Chrysler's Farm, where the fathers of some of our prominent citizens in every town in Canada fought, and where some of them gloriously fell. It was the first battle where the British and American troops met on the open plains. Here there was no shelter for the American riflemen; no rests for their pieces.

BATTLE OF CHRYSLER'S FARM.

229

On the 11th of November, about two o'clock in the afternoon, two brigades of infantry and a regiment of cavalry, amounting to between three and four thousand men under General Boyd, were sent against Morrison's advance. These fell gradually back to the position chosen for the detachment to occupy. The British force exhibited a front of about seven hundred yards. At one end of the seven hundred yards rolled the St. Lawrence; at the other frowned a pine wood. The British right rested on the former; the left on the latter. The right consisted of the flank companies of the 49th, a detachment of the Canadian Fencibles, and one field. piece. These were a little advanced on the road and were supported by three companies of the 89th with a gun, formed in echelon.* The 49th and 89th thrown more to the rear with a gun formed the main body; a reserve extended to the bleak woods on the left, which were occupied by the voltigeurs and a few Indians. An hour after the first gun was fired the action became general. The enemy moved forward a brigade to turn the British left; they were repulsed by the 89th and 49th. The next movement was directed against the right. The 49th hurried in echelon to meet the foe followed by the 89th; the 49th advanced until within half musket shot of the enemy. They were then ordered to form into line which they did under a heavy fire. "Charge!" rang out on the cold November air, and the 49th were told to advance. and take the gun. They moved forward, but, when they were within a short distance of their prize, their ardour was checked by a command to halt. The enemy's cavalry had charged on the right and there was danger if the attempt to take the gun had been persevered in, they might have fallen on the rear of 49th. They were however so well received by the companies of the 89th and the British artillery poured into them so well directed a fire that they quickly retreated. An immediat charge was then made and the gun was taken. The British were now ordered to move forward along the whole line. The Americans concentrated their forces to check this advance. But before the steady

Echelon is a French word and means the step of a ladder. It is figuratively applied to the position of a body of troops arranged in lines or divisions having the right of the one bordering upon but slightly behind the left of the other. To the eye of a person on horseback it looks like a ladder.

valour and well directed fire of the British they gave way at all points. Nearly 4,000 had been in fact beaten by 800, from an exceedingly strong position. They sought to cover their retreat by their light infantry; but they were soon routed. The detachment that night occupied the ground from which the enemy had been driven. His whole infantry fled to the boats and sought the American shore.

Some three weeks earlier Colonel de Salaberry, with a few hundred Canadians, confronted Hampton with a force which must have been near eight thousand, seeking to enter Canada by the Chateauguay River on his march to Montreal. On the 26th of October, Hampton's light troops forming his advance were seen moving up both sides of the Chateauguay. By an admirable disposition of his troops Colonel de Salaberry checked the advance on the left bank of the river, the enemy causing his light troops and the whole main body of the army to retire, while his advance on the right bank of the river was turned by Captain Daly's company of the Third Battalion of embodied militia and Captain Bruyere's company of Chateauguay chasseurs. The enemy made frequent attempts during the day to advance. He was each time repulsed, and under cover of night he retreated across the St. Lawrence. In the general orders of October 27th, special mention is made of Captain Daly's "spirited advance," and we are told that Lieutenant-Colonel de Salaberry experienced the most able support from, amongst others, Adjutant O'Sullivan.

Wilkinson had ordered Hampton to join him at St. Regis. We have seen how Wilkinson himself behaved. When he received a letter from Hampton on the 12th November, the day after he had fled before Morrison's little band, he declared his hopes were blasted. The invasion planned on so large a scale had failed miserably. An American journal said democracy had rolled herself up in weeds and lain down for its last wallowing in the slough of disgrace.* All danger having been removed by the retreat of the two American generals the Sedentary Canadian Militia was dismissed on the 17th November.

General McClure was still in the possession of Fort George, and

* Boston Gazette

his soldiers greatly distressed the neighbourhood. General Murray of the 100th, was sent by Vincent to check the depredations on the farmers. General McClure decamped with haste from Twenty Mile Creek, and hearing of the disastrous termination of Wilkinson's expedition he precipitately abandoned Fort George, having first however, contrary to plighted faith, set fire to Newark. That beautiful peaceful little town which every summer gleams afar over the steely silvery water to the eye of the inhabitants of Toronto going over in " the boat" to the Queen's Royal, or making for the hundredth time the pilgrimage to the Falls, was one mass of flame; those wooded, mirrored shores, which are known best as varied with glaring sunlight and illuminated mist, sweeping away in long links until lost in silver haze, where the lake and sky are one, were then bare of leaf; every tiny limb had its burden of snow; and on receding bay and frozen branch the conflagration cast a glow which had its companion flare in the wintry heavens. The blue wooded heights which form so appropriate a back-ground to the picture, in the month of June, were splendid with the reflection of the flames, and where so much comfort and hospitality and good cheer reigns to-day there was nothing but cold and want and misery. Every house save one was a smoking ruin. Of a valuable library, the property of Counsellor Dickson, and which had cost a vast sum, not a book remained. Dickson was a prisoner. His wife lay on a sick bed. The ruffians who fired her house took her and placed her on the snow before her devoted building. On a December night of an unusually severe winter four hundred helpless women and children were compelled to seek shelter where they might. Colonel Murray now proposed an attack on Fort Niagara and the proposal was approved by General Drummond. A surprise was resolved on. The embarkation commenced on the night of the 18th December. The whole of the troops had landed three miles from the fort early on the following morning. The force was as follows, and consisted as will be seen largely of Irish, fighting happily side by side with their English and Scotch brethren. The order of attack is adhered to, and as the reader cannot fail to observe the Irish 100th was assigned the post of honour: an advance guard, one subaltern and twenty rank and file, grenadiers of the 100th Regt., Royal Artillery with grenadiers, five com

panies of the 100th Regt. under Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, to assault the main gate and escalade the walls adjacent; three companies of the 100th under Captain Martin-an Irishmanto storm the eastern demi-bastion; Captain Bailey with the grenadiers and Royal Scots was directed to attack the salient angle of the fortification, and the flank companies of the 41st Regt. were ordered to support the principal attack. Each party had scaling ladders and axes. The fortress was carried by assault after a short but spirited resistance. Among the officers singled out for distinguished bravery were Captain Martin, who stormed the demi-bastion in the most intrepid manner, and Lieutenant Dawson and Captain Fawcett, both of the 100th. They were respectively in command of the advance and grenadiers, and cut off two of the enemy's piquets, surprised the sentries on the glacis and at the gate, and thus obtained the watchword, "to which," says Colonel Murray, "may be attributed our trifling loss." The exertions of Quarter-master Pilkington, of the 100th, are eulogized, as are those of Captain Kirby,* Lieutenants Ball,

The Resolution of the Honourable the House of Assembly of Upper Canada. Resolved unanimously:-That a sword, value of fifty guineas, be presented to Capt. Jas. Kirby, of the Incorporated Militia, as a memoral of the high sense they entertain of the very important services which he rendered in crossing the troops to the territory of the United States, and the gallantry displayed by him at the capture by assault of Fort Niagara on the 19th of October, 1813.

York, 12th of April, 1815.

(Signed)

GRANT POWELL,
Clerk of Assembly.

:

Inscription upon the Sword :—“ From the House of Assembly of Upper Canada to Captain James Kirby for his judicious and gallant conduct at the assault and reduction of Fort Niagara on the 19th December 1813."

His glorious achievement "which left the Niagara shores free from the enemy and contributed in a high degree to the result of the next campaign," so writes Allan Maclean, speaker of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada in a congratulatory letter dated Kingston, 10th October, 1815.

It seems incredible but I am assured it is true nevertheless that owing to the surprise some American officers were found playing cards in the officers' quarters. James McFarland piloted a party of Irishmen, and as they opened the door on a number of officers who were playing "High, low, Jack and game," the question was asked "What is trumps?" "British bayonets, be-!” cried the foremost of the party. In visiting so me of the battle-fields of 1812-14, I found Mr. Duncan McFarland, of Niagara, an entertaining guide. This gentleman's father was Scotch and his mother Irish--she the daughter of Irish John Wilson who brought a large family into Canada at the close of the war He himself while yet a boy served in the war, first as oxen driver and afterwards as driver of horses. He says he was promoted to drive horses for what was deemed