The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, K.B Part 21

_Major-General Brock to Colonel Proctor._

FORT GEORGE, August 25, 1812.

I wrote to you yesterday, informing you that a cessation of hostilities had been agreed upon between Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn, and requesting you in consequence to postpone any attempt upon Fort Wayne, or any other post of the enemy. I consider the present forbearance may lead to such consequences that I cannot refrain from sending a second express, to urge you to restrain the Indians likewise in their predatory excursions: this, however, ought to be done with the utmost caution, and on grounds foreign from the present considerations.

Colonel Myers tells me that he forwarded on the 11th instant a dispatch received from Sir George Prevost to me, in which his excellency so clearly stated the principles of moderation upon which he thought it expedient to act, that I fully expect, should you have received the dispatch and perused his sentiments, you will forbear from any hostile aggression; in fact, act completely upon the defensive.

Should every thing remain quiet in the vicinity of Detroit, you will proceed hither, bringing to Fort Erie the detachments which Captain Chambers and Lieutenant Bullock took to Amherstburg. All the spare ordnance is to be transported to Fort Erie without delay.

I should also think that Lieutenant Troughton and a few of his men could be spared for some time from the duties at Amherstburg; in that case, you will have the goodness to order them to accompany you.

Major-General Brock arrived at Kingston on the 4th of September, and left it on the 6th for Fort George. During this hasty visit he reviewed the militia, and expressed his satisfaction at its evolutions and appearance. He also received a flattering address from the magistrates, officers of militia, and other inhabitants; and in reply he told them with much tact, that it was the confidence inspired by the admirable conduct of the York and Lincoln regiments of militia which had induced him to undertake the expedition which terminated in the capture of Detroit, and that from the report of the officers of the garrison at Kingston, he relied with the same confidence on the bravery and the discipline of the militia of that district. In the same manner, in an address a few days before from the inhabitants of York, he said: "Gentlemen,--I cannot but feel highly gratified by this expression of your esteem for myself; but, in justice to the brave men at whose head I marched against the enemy, I must beg leave to direct your attention to them, as the proper objects of your grat.i.tude. It was a confidence, founded on their loyalty, zeal, and valour, that determined me to adopt the plan of operations which led to so fortunate a termination. Allow me to congratulate you, gentlemen, at having sent out from among yourselves a large portion of that gallant band; and that at such a period a spirit had manifested itself, on which you may confidently repose your hopes of future security. It will be a most pleasing duty for me to report to our sovereign a conduct so truly meritorious."

_Major-General Brock, to Sir George Prevost._

KINGSTON, September 4, 1812.

Upon my arrival here an hour ago, Captain Fulton delivered me your excellency's dispatch, dated the 31st ultimo, enclosing a letter from General Dearborn, in which the president's disapproval of the armistice is announced. I am in consequence induced to return without loss of time to Fort George. Captain Fulton having expressed a wish to accompany me, I have the more readily consented, as he will be able to give you full information of our actual state. The enemy was very busy upon Fort Niagara, and appeared inclined to erect additional batteries. I may perhaps think it proper to stop their career.

I enclose several doc.u.ments lately received from Colonel Proctor, at Detroit. That officer appears to have conducted himself with much judgment. I likewise transmit a memorial which I have received from some merchants in the Niagara district, but of course I cannot judge of its merits.

I shall be obliged to your excellency to direct the remittance of the 5,000, for which I sent a requisition some time ago, on account of the civil expenditure of this province, either in government paper or specie, as you may deem most convenient. I doubt not the former meeting a ready currency.

The very flattering manner in which your excellency is pleased to view my services, and your kindness in having represented them to his majesty's ministers in such favorable light, are gratifying to my feelings, and call for my grateful acknowledgments.

_Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost._

FORT GEORGE, September 9, 1812.

I have been honored with your excellency's dispatch, dated the 24th ultimo, and have to thank you for ordering a company of the Glengary regiment to strengthen Colonel Lethbridge at Prescott, whose force you have been led to believe was weakened in consequence of my interference, but which, I beg leave to state, was done without my knowledge, and contrary to my intention.

The enclosed copies of letters will inform you of the state of affairs to the westward. It appears evident the enemy meditates a second attempt on Amherstburg. The greater part of the troops, which are advancing, marched from Kentucky with an intention of joining General Hull. How they are to subsist, even for a short period, in that already exhausted country, is no easy matter to conceive. This difficulty will probably decide them on some bold measure, in the hope of shortening the campaign. If successfully resisted, their fate is inevitable.

The Indians, it appears by the accompanying doc.u.ments, were adverse to retreating without first making a trial of their strength. Taking, however, every circ.u.mstance into consideration, I am inclined to think that Captain Muir acted judiciously. Should the Indians continue to afford a willing co-operation, I entertain not the smallest doubt of the result that awaits this second attempt to turn my right; but your excellency will easily perceive that doubts and jealousies have already seized their minds. The officers of the Indian department will, I trust, be able to remove all such impressions. Although, from the daily observations of what is pa.s.sing on the opposite sh.o.r.e, a single man can ill be spared from this line, I have notwithstanding determined to send the two flank companies of the royal Newfoundland regiment to Amherstburg. Fresh troops are daily arriving, supposed to belong to the Pennsylvania quota of 2,000 men, known to be intended for this frontier. After the whole arrive, an attack, I imagine, cannot be long delayed. The wretched state of their quotas, and the raggedness of the troops, will not allow them to brave the rain and cold, which during the last week have been so severely felt.

Between 200 and 300 Indians have joined and augmented the force on the other side. Their brethren here feel certain that they will not act with any spirit against us--so I imagine, if we continue to shew a bold front; but in the event of a disaster, the love of plunder will prevail, and they will then act in a manner to be the most dreaded by the inhabitants of this country.

I beg leave to recommend to your excellency's indulgent consideration, Colonel Proctor's application for an increase of pay as commanding a district, which I request may commence from the 16th August last.

_Colonel Baynes to Major-General Brock_.

MONTREAL, September 10, 1812.

Sir George writes to you so fully upon the several subjects to which your letters refer, that I have little left to communicate to you. Major Heathcote leaves this to-day, with all the small description of ordnance stores intended for Amherstburg, but we have detained the 12-pounders and shot; as you have helped yourself so amply at Detroit, it is imagined you do not now want them. I enclose a letter from Captain Roberts, who was, I suppose, induced to address himself direct to head quarters, by an opportunity of doing so offering itself at the moment. The North-West gentlemen are very urgent in recommending a reinforcement in that quarter; but Sir George has told them that their representation must be addressed to you, who will act as you deem proper.

Your friend, Mr. Isaac Todd, is arrived, and looking much better for his trip; he was suffered to pa.s.s by Albany and the lake. He tells me that Mr. M'Donell is confirmed attorney-general, and that the governor's salary is increased, 1,000 a year. I sincerely trust that it will soon be your own. Sir George has in his official dispatches, after paying that tribute of praise so justly your due, stated as his confirmed opinion, that the salvation of the Upper Province has in a very great measure arisen from the civil and military authority being combined in able hands. The prisoners, with their general, arrived here on Sunday night; as they had not halted since they left Kingston, and were in a very dirty state, we kept them here on Monday, and they yesterday proceeded to William Henry, on their way to Quebec; the officers are to be on parole in Charlesbourg, and the men confined on board two transports in the river. Sir George has permitted most of the officers, who have families with them, to return on their parole; four of them are proposed to be exchanged for the officers of the Royal Scots, taken by the Ess.e.x frigate. Sir George has also consented to allow General Hull to return upon his parole: he is loud in his complaints against the government at Washington, and the general thinks that his voice, in the general cry, may be attended with beneficial effects, and has allowed him to return and enter the lists. General Hull appears to possess less feeling and sense of shame than any man in his situation could be supposed to do. He seems to be perfectly satisfied with himself, is lavish of censure upon his government, but appears to think that the most scrupulous cannot attach the slightest blame to his own immediate conduct at Detroit. The grounds upon which he rests his defence are not, I fancy, well founded, for he told us that he had not gunpowder at Detroit for the service of one day. Sir George has since shown him the return of the large supply found in the fort; it did not create a blush, but he made no reply. He professes great surprise and admiration at the zeal and military preparation that he has everywhere witnessed; that it was entirely unlooked for, and that he has no doubt that his friend, General Dearborn, will share his fate, if he has the imprudence to follow his example. Hull seems cunning and unprincipled: how much reliance is to be placed on his professions, time will shew.

General Dearborn has certainly left Albany for Skeensborough, at the head of the lake, where great preparations have been making in collecting boats and sending the regulars from Greenbush to the stations in our vicinity. Major Cotton, with about 300 men, half of the king's regiment, is stationed at Isle aux Noix,[90] and two gun-boats have been carried into that river, as the enemy's preparations seem to indicate that quarter as their point of attack. Colonel Murray commands at St. John's, and will give them a warm reception. I do not feel a doubt of Jonathan's complete discomfiture and disgrace if he make the attempt: we could, I fancy, bring as many men as he will be able to persuade into the field, and of very superior stuff, for our militia have really improved beyond all expectation in discipline, and with it in spirit and confidence. This town would turn out 2,000 volunteer militia, a great proportion of whom are clothed and very tolerably drilled. We have destroyed all the roads of communication in our front, leaving open the water route only, and these woody positions will be shortly occupied by the Indians of this neighbourhood and a corps of volunteer _voyageur_ Canadians.

The enemy's preparations, however, may be a feint to cover some plans in agitation against your province.

I send you a long letter from Kempt for your perusal, with a sketch of Badajos, though no longer recent news. I am sure the interest you take in the success of our arms, and in his share in particular, will induce you to read it with pleasure.

_Sir George Prevost to Major-General Brock._

MONTREAL, September 14, 1812.

Captain Fulton arrived on the 11th instant with your letter of the 7th; the intelligence you have communicated by it convinces me of the necessity of the evacuation of Fort Detroit, unless the operations of the enemy on the Niagara frontier bear a character less indicative of determined hostile measures against your line in their front than they did when you last reported to me. You will therefore be pleased, subject to the discretion I have given you under the circ.u.mstances to which I have alluded, to take immediate steps for evacuating that post, together with the territory of Michigan; by this measure you will be enabled to withdraw a greater number of the troops from Amherstburg, instead of taking them from Colonel Vincent, whose regular force ought not on any account to be diminished.

I have already afforded you reinforcements to the full extent of my ability; you must not, therefore, expect a further supply of men from hence until I shall receive from England a considerable increase to the present regular force in this province: the posture of affairs, particularly on this frontier, requires every soldier who is in the country.

In my last dispatch from Lord Bathurst, dated the 4th of July, he tells me, "that his majesty's government trusts I will be enabled to suspend with perfect safety all extraordinary preparations for defence which I may have been induced to make in consequence of the precarious state of the relations between this country and the United States; and that as every specific requisition for warlike stores and accoutrements which had been received from me had been complied with, with the exception of the clothing of the corps proposed to be raised from the Glengary emigrants, he had not thought it necessary to direct the preparation of any further supplies."

This will afford you a strong proof of the infatuation of his majesty's ministers upon the subject of American affairs, and shew how entirely I have been left to my own resources in the event which has taken place.

Judging from what you have already effected in Upper Canada, I do not doubt but that, with your present means of defence, you will be able to maintain your position at Fort George, and that the enemy will be again foiled in any further attempts they may make to invade the province.

I leave to your discretion to decide on the necessity of sending a reinforcement to Michilimakinack.

_Major-General Brock to Colonel Proctor_.

FORT GEORGE, September 17, 1812.

I have had before me your several communications to the 11th instant, addressed to myself and to Major-General Sheaffe. I approve of your having detached a party to aid in the reduction of Fort Wayne, not only because its destruction will render your position more secure, but also from the probable result of saving the garrison from sharing the fate of that of Chicago; but it must be explicitly understood, that you are not to resort to offensive warfare for purposes of conquest.

Your operations are to be confined to measures of defence and security. With this view, if you should have credible information of the a.s.sembling of bodies of troops to march against you, it may become necessary to destroy the fort at Sandusky, and the road which runs through it from Cleveland to the foot of the rapids: the road from the river Raisin to Detroit is perhaps in too bad a state to offer any aid to the approach of an enemy, except in the winter; and if a winter campaign should be contemplated against you, it is probable that magazines would be formed in Cleveland and its vicinity, of all which you will of course inform yourself. In carrying on our operations in your quarter, it is of primary importance that the confidence and good-will of the Indians should be preserved, and that whatsoever can tend to produce a contrary effect should be most carefully avoided. I therefore most strongly urge and enjoin your acting on those principles on every occasion that may offer, inculcating them in all those under your influence, and enforcing them by your example, whether in your conduct towards the Indians or what may regard them, or in your language when speaking to, or of, them. I am aware that they commit irregularities at times, which will make this a difficult task; but you must endeavour to perform it--attending at the same time to the means already suggested to you for preventing, as much as possible, a repet.i.tion of disorderly conduct.

Colonel E---- is a respectable, gentlemanly man, but he by no means possesses the influence over the Indians which Captain M'K---- does. I recommend to you to promote, as far as in you lies, a good understanding with and between them, and to observe a conciliating deportment and language towards the latter, that his great influence may be secured and employed in its fullest extent for the benefit of your district, and for the general good. In conversation with him, you may take an opportunity of intimating, that I have not been unmindful of the interests of the Indians in my communications to ministers; and I wish you to learn (as if casually the subject of conversation) what stipulations they would propose for themselves, or be willing to accede to, in case either of failure or of success.

I understand that salvage has been demanded from individuals on several accounts; for property recovered or restored, for patents, &c. &c. I lament that such a course has been adopted, for it was my intention, and it is now my wish, that our conduct in those matters should be governed by the broadest principles of liberality. You will, therefore, be pleased to have returned to the several individuals the amount which each may have paid as salvage on any account.

With respect to calling out the militia, I am particularly desirous that it should not be resorted to but in case of urgent necessity, and then only in such numbers as shall be actually required. It appears to me that the cavalry employed exceed the number that may be indispensably necessary: if, without risk or detriment to the public service, any of either of those corps can be spared, let them be dismissed.

I wish the engineer to proceed immediately in strengthening Fort Amherstburg, his plan for which I shall be glad to see as soon as possible.

Of the ordnance stores of every description, you will reserve such proportions as may be absolutely required for the public service in your district, and cause the remainder to be embarked and sent down to Fort Erie with the least possible delay.

I cannot at present make the change in the distribution of the 41st regiment which you propose, but, whenever circ.u.mstances may permit, I shall be happy to accede to your wishes.

_Major-General S.V. Rensselaer to Major-General Brock_.

Head Quarters, Lewiston, Sept. 17, 1812.