Pierre Berton's War of 1812 (2 page)
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Authors: Pierre Berton
Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that word, honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it: honour is a mere scutcheon: and so ends my catechism.
FALSTAFF
in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV, Part 1
,
ACT
5,
SC
. 1
The Invasion of Canada
copyright © 1980 by Pierre Berton Enterprises Ltd.
Flames Across the Border
copyright © 1981 by Pierre Berton Enterprises Ltd. Anchor Canada omnibus edition 2011
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v3.1
ALSO BY PIERRE BERTON
The Royal Family
The Mysterious North Klondike
Just Add Water and Stir
Adventures of a Columnist
Fast Fast Fast Relief
The Big Sell
The Comfortable Pew
The Cool, Crazy, Committed World of the Sixties
The Smug Minority
The National Dream
The Last Spike
Drifting Home
Hollywood’s Canada
My Country
The Dionne Years
The Wild Frontier
The Invasion of Canada
Flames Across the Border
Why We Act Like Canadians
The Promised Land
Vimy
Starting Out
The Arctic Grail
The Great Depression
Niagara: A History of the Falls
My Times: Living with History
1967, The Last Good Year
Picture Books
The New City (with Henri Rossier)
Remember Yesterday
The Great Railway
The Klondike Quest
Pierre Berton’s Picture Book of Niagara Falls
Winter
The Great Lakes
Seacoasts
Pierre Berton’s Canada
Anthologies
Great Canadians
Pierre and Janet Berton’s Canadian Food Guide
Historic Headlines
Farewell to the Twentieth Century
Worth Repeating
Welcome to the Twenty-first Century
Fiction
Masquerade (pseudonym Lisa Kroniuk)
Books for Young Readers
The Golden Trail
The Secret World of Og
Adventures in Canadian History (22 volumes)
Pierre Berton’s
War of 1812
The Invasion of Canada, 1812–1813
Flames Across the Border, 1813–1814
The conquest of Canada is in our power. I trust I shall not be deemed presumptive when I state that I verily believe that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.
HENRY CLAY, TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE, FEBRUARY
22, 1810.
THE
INVASION
OF
CANADA
1812-1813
The Invasion of Canada, 1812-1813
Maps
Cast of Characters
ONE
Prelude to Invasion:
1807–1811
The Road to Tippecanoe
TWO
Prelude to Invasion:
1812
Marching as to War
THREE
Michilimackinac
The Bloodless Victory
FOUR
Detroit
The Disintegration of William Hull
FIVE
Chicago
Horror on Lake Michigan
SIX
Queenston Heights
The End of Isaac Brock
SEVEN
Black Rock
Opéra Bouffe on the Niagara
EIGHT
Frenchtown
Massacre at the River Raisin
Sources and Acknowledgements
Notes
Select Bibliography
Maps
Drawn by Geoffrey Matthews
The Strategic Significance of Michilimackinac
American Invasion Strategy, Summer, 1812
American-Indian Battles, 1790–1794
Brock’s Passage to Amherstburg
The Battle of Queenston Heights
Harrison’s Three-Column Drive to the Maumee Rapids
American Search and Destroy Missions against the Tribes, Autumn, 1812
Cast of Characters
PRELUDE TO INVASION
British and Canadians
Sir James Craig
, Governor General of Canada, 1807–11.
Sir George Prevost
, Governor General of the Canadas and commander of the forces, 1811–15.
Francis Gore
, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, 1806–17. On leave in England, 1811–15.
Major-General Isaac Brock
, Administrator of Upper Canada and commander of the forces in Upper Canada, 1810–12.
William Claus
, Deputy Superintendent, Indian Department, Upper Canada, 1806–26.
Matthew Elliott
, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Amherstburg, 1796–97; 1808–14.
Robert Dickson
(known as
Mascotapah
, the Red-Haired Man), fur trader. Led Menominee, Winnebago, and Sioux in attack on Michilimackinac.
Augustus Foster
, British Minister Plenipotentiary to America, 1811–12.
Americans
Thomas Jefferson
, President, 1801–9.
James Madison
, President, 1809–17.
William Eustis
, Secretary of War, 1809–12.
William Henry Harrison
, Governor, Indiana Territory, 1800–1813. Commander of the Army of the Northwest from September, 1812.
William Hull, Governor
, Michigan Territory, 1805–12. Commander of the Army of the Northwest, April–August, 1812.
Henry Dearborn
, Secretary of War, 1801–9. Senior major-general, U.S. Army, 1812–13.
Henry Clay
, Speaker of the House of Representatives, November, 1811. Leader of the War Hawks.
Indian Leaders
The Prophet
. Born Laulewausika; later Tenskwatawa.
Tecumseh
, the Prophet’s older brother, leader of the Indian Confederacy.
THE DETROIT FRONTIER
Isaac Brock’s Command: Summer, 1812
Thomas Bligh St. George
, Lieutenant-Colonel; commanding officer, Fort Amherstburg.
Henry Procter
, Lieutenant-Colonel; succeeded St. George as commanding officer, Fort Amherstburg.
J.B. Glegg
, Major; Brock’s military aide.
John Macdonell
, Lieutenant-Colonel; Brock’s provincial aide, Acting Attorney-General of Upper Canada.
Adam Muir
, Major, 41st Regiment.
William Hull’s Command: Summer, 1812
Duncan Mc Arthur
, Colonel, 1st Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.
James Findlay
, Colonel, 2nd Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.
Lewis Cass
, Colonel, 3rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.
James Miller
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 4th U.S. Infantry (regular army).
Henry Procter’s Command: Winter, 1812–13
Ebenezer Reynolds
, Major, Essex Militia.
Roundhead
, Wyandot chief.
William Henry Harrison’s Command:
Winter, 1812–13
James Winchester
, Brigadier-General; commander, left wing, Army of the Northwest.
John Allen
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 1st Kentucky Rifles.
William Lewis
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 5th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers.
Samuel Wells
, Lieutenant-Colonel, 17th U.S. Infantry (regular army).
THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
Isaac Brock’s Command: Fall, 1812
Christopher Myers
, Lieutenant-Colonel; commanding officer, Fort George.
Roger Hale Sheaffe
, Major-General; second-in-command to Brock. Commanded British forces on Brock’s death.
Thomas Evans
, Brigade Major, Fort George.
John Dennis
, Captain, 49th Regiment; commander of flank company defending Queenston.
John Williams
, Captain, 49th Regiment.