The Story of Isaac Brock: Hero, Defender and Saviour of Upper Canada/13

A President of the United States had breezily declared that the conquest of Canada would be "a mere matter of marching." The final expulsion of England from the American continent he regarded as a matter of course. Cabinet ministers at Washington and rabid politicians looked upon the forcible annexation of Canada as a foregone conclusion.

One Massachusetts general officer, a professional fire-eater, said he "would capture Canada by contract, raise a company of soldiers and take it in six weeks." Henry Clay, another statesman, "verily believed that the militia of Kentucky alone were competent to place Upper Canada at the feet of the Americans." Calhoun, also a "war-hawk," had said that "in four weeks from the time of the declaration of war the whole of Upper and part of Lower Canada would be in possession of the United States." All of this was only the spread-eagle bombast of amateur filibusters, as events proved, but good cause for Brock, who had been appointed janitor of Canada and been given the keys of the country, to ponder deeply.

Canada's entire population was nearly 320,000—about the same as that of Toronto to-day—that of the United States was 8,000,000! To defend her broken frontier Canada had only 1,450 British soldiers and a militia—at that moment—chiefly on paper. If the Indians in[Pg 76] the West were to be impressed with British supremacy—for they were making a stand against 2,000 American soldiers on the banks of the Wabash, in Ohio, where eighteen years before they had been beaten by General Wayne at Miami—then Amherstburg must be greatly strengthened and the Americans deterred from attack. How was Brock to obtain troops, and how were they to be equipped? The stores at Fort York were empty, provisions costly, and no specie to be had. All the frontier posts needed heavier batteries. On Lake Erie the fleet consisted of the Queen Charlotte and the small schooner Hunter. As to the militia, he had been advised that it would not be prudent to arm more than 4,000 of the 11,000 in all Canada prepared to bear arms.

To Brock's citation of thirty pressing wants Sir George Prevost wrote him, "You must not be led into any measure bearing the character of offence, even should war be declared." Prevost had a fluid backbone, while Brock's was of finely tempered steel.

While affairs were in this precarious state His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, Major-General Brock, opened the Legislature at York. With what pride the news was received by the good people at St. Peter's Port can be imagined. To think that this great man, gorgeous in a purple Windsor uniform and slender court sword, with gleaming silk hose and hair aglitter with silver powder, was none other than "Master Isaac," whom the humblest Guernsey fisherman claimed as comrade, seemed past belief! To think that this important gentleman, with frilled waistcoat and cuffs of delicate lace—actually the King's Deputy—before whom, as "Your Excellency," Indian and paleface, gentle and simple, bowed low, was[Pg 77] the small boy who used to play "uprooting the gorse" with the Guernsey fisher-lads—was beyond comprehension. Probably the one least affected by these honours was our hero himself. While it gratified his honest pride, it did not in the least cloud his vision. His speech from the throne proves this.

"It is a glorious contest in which the Empire is engaged," he said, "to secure the independence of Europe, but what can we think of the American Government, which is trying to impede her effort.... The ships of England," he continued, "had been refused shelter in United States harbours, while refuge had been extended to the ships of our inveterate enemies." He reminded the colonists that "insulting threats had been offered to the flag and hostile preparations made." He praised the militia, and, while wishing for peace, declared that "Canada must prepare for war, relying on England's support in her hour of peril." He asked the Legislature to assent to three things of vital importance—the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the passage of a law to regulate the privileges of aliens, and an Act providing for rewards to be paid to the captors of deserters.

It was a house divided against itself, and it turned a deaf ear to Brock's appeal. "To the great influence of American settlers over the members of the Lower House," he attributed this defeat. A court-martial revealed the fact that one of the best known militia regiments was composed almost entirely of native Americans! The United Empire Loyalists thronged to his banner.

Undaunted by the cheap prudence of Prevost, a hostile Legislature, and the difficulties that beset him, Brock took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and all but single-handed[Pg 78]—"off his own bat," as Dobson explained it to an admiring crowd in the barrack-room—wrought like the hero that he was for the salvation of his country. He became a machine, a machine working at high pressure eighteen hours out of twenty-four. He had developed into a very demon for work.

With an empty treasury and no hope of reinforcements—every soldier England could spare was fighting in Spain—he raised flank companies of militia to be attached to the regular regiments. The Glengarry sharpshooters, four hundred strong, were enlisted in three weeks. A new schooner was placed on the stocks. He formed a car-brigade of the young volunteer farmers of York and removed incompetent officers.

Fort George, constructed of earthen ramparts, with honeycombed cedar palisades which a lighted candle could set fire to, with no tower or block-house, and mounting only nine-pound guns, he knew was incapable of resistance. It invited destruction from any battery that might be erected at Youngstown on the American side, while confronting it was Fort Niagara, built of stone, mounting over twenty heavy guns, containing a furnace for heating shot, and formidable with bastions, palisades, pickets and dry ditch. The tension at Niagara was trying. Two officers of the 41st were expelled for killing dull care by dissipation. A Canadian merchant schooner was boarded in mid-lake by an American brig, taken to Sackett's Harbour and stripped. The Americans were pouring rations and munitions of war into Detroit. If Brock's hands were shackled, he knew the art of sitting tight. He made another flying trip to Amherstburg, taking one hundred men of the 41st, in the face of Prevost's standing orders to "exercise the[Pg 79] strictest economy." Handicapped on every side, doing his best and preparing for the worst, he wrote Prevost that his "situation was critical," but he "hoped to avert dire calamity."

The river bank between Fort George and Queenston for seven miles was patrolled night and day. A watch was placed on Mississaga lighthouse from daylight to dusk, and beacon masts, supporting iron baskets filled with birchbark and pitch, were erected on the heights to announce, in event of hostilities, the call to arms.

At this time one of Brock's most intimate friends—his chosen adviser—was Mr. Justice William Dummer Powell, later Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and former Speaker of the House. At the judge's house and at Tordarroch, the log mansion of General Æneas Shaw—another intimate, and Adjutant-General of Militia—Brock was wont to repair for a few hours' rest from official cares. It was at Tordarroch (Oak Hall), on the outskirts of York, that the great Duke of Kent had been a guest. When at Fort George our hero usually lived with Colonel Murray, of the 100th, and "charming Mrs. Murray," as he was fond of calling her, in their "pretty cottage," and if not there he was a constant visitor at the house of Captain John Powell, a son of the judge and son-in-law of General Shaw, between whose daughter, Sophia Shaw, and Isaac Brock there had developed a deep attachment. Here he whiled away spare moments with whist and cribbage, "diversions," he said, "that sharpened a man's wits." He would shoot wild pigeons and spruce partridges in the adjacent bush, or take long gallops, frequently alone, over the plains beyond the Heights of Queenston, ever on the lookout for new bridle-paths and point-to-point trails.