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Actions Along the St. Lawrence River, July to December 1812

At the eastern end of Upper Canada, following the initial foray against the small American flotilla at the outset of the war, the St. Lawrence frontier settled down to a state of relative calm as both sides sought to avoid “rocking the boat” and thereby triggering reprisals. From the British point of view, this was a practical necessity, as the river constituted their main lifeline of supplies and reinforcements up to Kingston, York, and the Niagara and Detroit frontiers. Equally, the residents on the American side had practical reasons for maintaining the peace. Most of the population were Federalist (anti-war) and many farmers and businessmen had lucrative dealings with the British commissariat department on the other side of the river that they were keen not to jeopardize. One prime example of this co-operative, non-belligerent attitude can be seen in the following case. A small flotilla of American boats had been returning upriver to Ogdensburg from Montreal in June, laden with a cargo of merchandise, when news of the declaration of war reached Cornwall. The boats were immediately impounded under the orders of the local garrison’s commanding officer, as enemy goods that were to be seized and sold by the Crown. However, within a matter of days, private negotiations between the interested parties at Prescott and Ogdensburg resulted in a petition being forwarded to General Brock from fourteen of Prescott’s leading citizens, including several who were officers in the Embodied Militias. In this petition the argument was made that as the goods in question were private property, and not military supplies, and the vital commissariat trade with Ogdensburg might suffer if the capture and sale was allowed to stand, that it was in the best interests of the British war effort to let the vessels and their cargo go. General Brock concurred and the vessels were released.[1]

The St. Lawrence frontier.

A detail from a contemporary map of the defences constructed during the war to protect the vital supply depot and shipbuilding centre of Kingston.

Library and Archives Canada, NMC, C-15700.

On the other hand, the potential threat level rose later in the month when the New York State militia officer, Brigadier General Jacob Brown, was sent to Ogdensburg with a detachment of troops and orders to shut down the British river traffic.

An initial attempt by Brown to mount a raid across the river, to capture the British armed schooner Duke of Gloucester, was planned for the night of July 22–23. However, although the boats were prepared, the call for militia volunteers fell flat, with only sixty-six of the requested 120 men stepping forward, forcing Brown to cancel the operation.[2]

On July 30, the American armed schooner Julia and a large gunboat, sailing out of Sackets Harbor, appeared upriver and proceeded to engage the Duke of Gloucester and another Provincial Marine vessel, the Earl of Moria, that were docked at Prescott. After an inconclusive engagement the two sides disengaged, and while the British ships sailed west, to Kingston, the Julia and the gunboat joined the vessels trapped at Ogdensburg.

Little occurred during the month of August, as news arrived from Quebec City that an armistice was to be imposed. This came about following word that the British government had repealed its contentious Orders-in-Council affecting American maritime trading rights with Britain’s wartime enemy, France. Because these issues were cited by the American government as the principal reason and cause of the war being declared, Sir George Provost had written to Major General Henry Dearborn, recommending an armistice until the U.S. government’s position on settling the outstanding issues between the two governments was known. An unofficial regional suspension of hostilities was therefore established. However, this armistice was subsequently rejected by President James Madison and Secretary of War William Eustis, who ordered a recommencement of hostilities to conquer Canada. From the British perspective, while the armistice had resulted in the withdrawal of most of the enemy’s troops from Ogdensburg, it had also seen the unimpeded release of the trapped vessels, which now made their way upriver to Lake Ontario and Sackets Harbor, becoming valuable additions to the American naval flotilla being assembled at that port.[3]

Kingston, Sir E.W. Grier, artist, circa 1896 (after Admiral Henry Bayfield R.N.). A view of the shipyards at Point Frederick (centre) and the town of Kingston (right distant), as it looked at the end of the war from the hillside alongside Fort Henry (left). Toronto Reference Library, JRR 1376.

Kingston, 1815, E.E. Vidal, artist, 1815. This image is a detail taken from a larger painting showing Fort Henry as the Americans would have seen it from their ships.

Courtesy of the Royal Military College, Massey Library, Kingston, Ontario.

Watercolours (artist not known) depicting two of many varieties of gunboat used during the War of 1812, showing how the combination of both sail and oar were required for manoeuvering through the narrow channels and swift currents of the St. Lawrence River near Kingston and the Thousand Islands region.

Toronto Reference Library, T-16944 and T-16948.

The following month, matters started to heat up once again once the official declaration of the ending of the armistice took effect on September 4, 1812.

THE BATTLE OF MATILDA,

SEPTEMBER 16, 1812

On September 16, a flotilla of thirty-three heavily laden bateaux and boats were in the process of sailing for Kingston with a cargo of supplies and passengers, composed principally of the dependents of men from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who had been previously dispatched to Kingston. They had almost reached Prescott when an attempt was made by the Americans to capture the vessels. Led by a strong detachment of troops,*[4] the Americans landed on the small mid-river Toussaint Island,(near present-day Cardinal) after dark on the 15th and took the resident Toussaint family prisoner. They then set up their ambush positions on land, while the boats remained hidden, ready to strike once the trap had been sprung.

The Battle of Matilda (September 16, 1812).

At dawn the following morning, the British flotilla was approaching the position but received a timely warning from Mr. Toussaint, who had escaped to his canoe and, while under fire from the Americans, paddled downriver to deliver his warning.

In response, the flotilla immediately changed course and headed toward the small island of Presqu’ile, to the north of Toussaint Island, only to come under a heavy fire from the Americans. Interestingly, a passenger aboard the British boats, Patrick Finan (the son of the Royal Newfoundland’s regimental quartermaster), documented this event, showing that even in the midst of combat and the face of death, humour can sometimes be found:

We had proceeded up the river … when within a short distance of a narrow passage between an island and the mainland through which we must pass, one of the Captains of the regiment, who was in the foremost batteau, imagined he saw something like a Durham boat … this being a rather suspicious circumstance, he ordered the men to cease from rowing….While waiting for the other bateaux to come up, a Canadian was observed in a canoe … paddling with all his might and crying to us that there were Americans on the island. This confirmed the suspicions; and the boats were ordered to the shore … but when about twenty yards from the edge of the water, the boats grounded and could be brought no nearer….

The balls were flying about us, perforating the sides of the boats, dropping into the water in every direction and threatening immediate destruction to all on board, great confusion prevailed; and as soon as it was observed that the boats could not advance to the shore, our only alternative was to leap into the water and make the best of our way to it…. As our boat was at the upper end of the division, I had a full view of the whole detachment;

… men, women, and children … some up to their knees in water, some driving it before them like ships in full sail; others dashing in and making it fly about them on all sides; women screaming, children bawling, officers commanding; but all endeavouring to get out of the reach of the shot as fast as possible….

There was … a lady, wife of an officer in Kingston … and as she had been in a delicate state of health for some time [translation: approaching the end of her pregnancy] she was unwilling, notwithstanding the imminent danger that surrounded her, to venture into the water if she could possibly avoid it. While hesitating, an officer in the next boat, observing her situation, came to her and requested her to get on his back, in order that he might carry her to the land, which she gladly consented to.

They were both particularly stout, bulky people; and they had not proceeded far until the officer, owing to his heavy burden, sank so deep in the soft mud, that he actually stuck fast, and could not move a step father….[5]

Unable to extricate himself, the officer was forced to apologetically notify his passenger that he had no option but to ask her to step down, which she reluctantly did. Patrick Finian continued:

If the reader can fancy to himself a great fat fellow, in a long red coat and cocked hat, up to his knees in water and leading by the hand, very cordially, but in a great hurry, as fat a lady with flowing garments … sometimes moving on pretty well, at others rather puzzled to get their feet extricated from the mud, and all the while in terrible dread of being shot….[6]

Fortunately the duo, and the remainder of the passengers, all reached land safely. However, during the confusion of this impromptu landing, the American gunboat joined the engagement, firing roundshot and grape toward the troops and civilians alike as they scrambled off the beach and sought cover amongst the island’s trees.

After some ineffectual exchanges of fire between the two islands, the Americans attempted to outflank the British position by sending over the gunboats loaded with a detachment of twenty men led by Lieutenant Goss. In response, Lieutenant Duncan Clark (1st Dundas Militia) led a similar detachment across the island and

immediately fired on them with such effect that they retreated back to Tusaut’s island, a distance of about 100 yards, where they landed and took shelter in the woods, with the loss of one of their boats … which was taken possession of after drifting down the river by a party of the militia….[7]

Neither side could effectively outmanoeuvre or attack the other, and thus the two groups remained in stalemate on the two islands, exchanging shots as targets of opportunity occurred. At the same time, increasing numbers of detachments from the alerted Canadian Militia on the north bank of the river were arriving, increasing the British firing lines:

Captain Ault and Lieutenant Dorin were soon on the field of action with the remainder of the Company, as well as Captain Shaw with the men of the neighbourhood and in a short time, the people of Matilda and many from Williamsburg assembled on Presq’uile Island with Colonel MacDonell commanding the Dundas Militia at the time.

Such was the anxiety of the people to meet their old enemy, the Rebels of “76” that aged … veterans who had served under Sir William and Sir Johnson were foremost in the fight….[8]

This force was further enhanced by the arrival of two companies of the 1st Grenville Militia (Captains Hugh Munroe and Philip Dulmage) as well as a 9-pounder cannon under Lieutenant Richard Fraser (2nd Grenville), “whose well directed shots, together with the fire of musketry kept up by the Dundas Militia, compelled the Americans to retire from their position on Tusait’s Island and make a precipitate retreat to their own side of the St. Lawrence….”[9]

Faced with the prospect of fighting around newly arrived 300 militia infantry, plus artillery, as well as the original detachments from the boats, the Americans quickly broke off the engagement and used their gunboat and surviving Durham boat to ferry their troops back to their own side of the river. No clear account or record of the casualties from this engagement is known to exist, but it appears to have been less than half a dozen killed and wounded for either side.

The final event during the month took place on September 21, when party of around ninety-five U.S. troops, drawn from the First U.S. Rifle Regiment (led by Captain Benjamin Forsyth) and supported by a detachment of around thirty-four volunteer militia (under Captain Samuel McNitt), made a sortie on Gananoque, just to the east of Kingston. Sailing up from Sackets Harbor, the American’s were detected by militia cavalry pickets as they landed around two miles (3.2 kilometres) from the village. Upon their arrival, the Americans found themselves facing an alerted but motley collection of barely trained and poorly armed local militia from the Leeds County Embodied Militia Regiment, dressed in worn-out and cast-off redcoats acquired from Kingston. Believing they were facing regular troops, Forsyth’s men formed line and engaged the defenders. Following a short exchange of gunfire that inflicted around a dozen casualties among the Canadian militiamen, the American regulars advanced and quickly brushed aside the defender’s token resistance. They then occupied the village and ransacked the militia warehouse before burning the building and its contents of over 150 barrels of provisions. They then returned to Sackets Harbor with a haul of twelve prisoners, forty-one muskets, and three barrels of prepared ammunition.[10]

Tensions mounted once again in October, when troops led by General Brown and Captain Forsyth arrived at Ogdensburg, this time to stay. As he had done previously, Brown attempted to cut off the British line of communication and transport by firing his artillery at any British vessel that came in sight.

The British garrison post at Prescott, the first (easternmost) real defensive fortification on the St. Lawrence River in Upper Canada.

Library and Archives Canada, NMC.C-24808.

In response, the garrison at Prescott, under Colonel Robert Lethbridge, attempted to mount an attack against Ogdensburg on Sunday, October 4, 1812. Commencing with an artillery bombardment, some thirty boats, loaded with around 150 Canadian Fencible troops from the Glengarry Light Infantry Regiment and 600 militiamen drawn from the Leeds, Stormont, and Dundas Embodied Militia regiments, set out to land and capture Ogdensburg. As they approached the American shore, however, they came under an increasing level of American artillery and then musket fire from around 1,200 troops, which included Brown and Forsyth’s new arrivals, supported by detachments of local militia. In response, with their vessels being damaged and taking casualties amongst the tightly packed men, one boat after another abandoned the crossing. As a result, the entire flotilla attack collapsed, to the humiliation of the British and the added prestige of the American military commanders. From that point onward, the American presence at Ogdensburg was seen as a growing threat. Within weeks additional companies of riflemen, as well as three companies of artillerymen with three guns, had augmented the American garrison. On the British side of the river, the failure of the expedition led to the rapid replacement of the aging Colonel Lethbridge as Prescott’s garrison commander by a far more experienced combat officer, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Pearson (23rd Regiment). Under Pearson’s demanding and expert hand, the previously lethargic men of the regular forces were soon drilled into a better fighting efficiency, and the militias started a course of instruction to enable them to fight with better coordination and discipline alongside the regulars. Pearson also made detailed plans for the attack and destruction of Ogdensburg. Unfortunately, Prevost’s directives for maintaining a non-aggressive posture left Pearson and his now-ready troops frustrated, to say the least, as 1812 drew to a close.

A view from the 1813 earthen ramparts of Fort Wellington at Prescott. The existing central blockhouse is a postwar construction. The far bank, beyond the St. Lawrence River, is the United States.