The Astonishing General. Wesley B. Turner

      We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

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      Preface

      Isaac Brock is the subject of this book. It tells of his life, his career, and his legacy and of the context within which he lived. Readers interested in the War of 1812 or the British army and navy or American forces, diplomacy, and politics, or in the history of native peoples, will have to look at other works, some of which are listed in the bibliography.

      The literature on the War of 1812 is large and growing and so it is a fair question to ask: why another book about Major-General Sir Isaac Brock? In the most recent study of Brock, M.B. Fryer offers her answer to this query, “Perhaps I have something different to say.”[1] The same question could be asked of this book and my answer is similar. With the approaching bicentenary of the War of 1812, there is growing interest in all aspects of that war, its participants and victims, and its legacies. One of the most enduring legacies on both the United States and Canadian sides was the creation of heroes and heroines. The earliest of those heroic individuals was Major-General Isaac Brock who, in some ways, was the most unlikely of heroes. For one thing, he was admired by his American foes almost as much as by his own people. Even more striking is how a British general whose military role in that two-and-a-half-year war lasted less than five months became the best known hero, and one revered far and wide. I find this outcome to be astonishing and approach the subject from that point of view. This concentration on Brock should not diminish anyone’s admiration of other heroic figures — Tecumseh, John Norton, Oliver H. Perry, Winfield Scott, and Laura Secord, to mention a few. Compared to them, however, the way Brock acted and what he achieved in so short a time were so unexpected that I believe the most appropriate term for them is astonishing. Let me outline, in brief, my thesis.

      Isaac Brock was born into an upper class family on the island of Guernsey. He purchased his ranks in the army, except his captaincy, up to his Lieutenant-Colonelcy when he gained command of a regiment, the 49th Foot. He had only one experience of participating in combat before going to the distant British colony of Canada where he spent ten years in command posts that involved principally administrative duties. It was in the last year of his life that he achieved immortality as a fighting soldier and leader of Upper Canada. Ironically, a majority of the people whom he died defending against an American invasion had been born in the United States. He also surprised in other ways. In spite of his high-class origins and military status he proved to be a commanding officer who understood the feeling and needs of the common soldier. He enforced traditional British army discipline but when necessary allowed sufficient variance that showed his humanitarian concern for his troops. He led the militia (who were essentially civilians) and co-operated easily with native leaders and their followers. He showed remarkable insight into the enemy’s intentions and attitudes and by swift, decisive action he gained a complete victory over his opponent’s stronger forces.

      No person on the British or Canadian side from the War of 1812 became memorialized as immediately and as much as Isaac Brock. His combat record during the war appears unimpressive. As a Major-General, he participated in two battles. He won one almost bloodlessly against a demoralized commander. He died early in a second battle yet he is remembered not as a failed leader but as its victor, thereby displacing Roger Sheaffe, the general who led the forces to victory over the American invaders. Other individuals subsequently received recognition for their contributions to Canada’s defence — Tecumseh, John Norton, Laura Secord, Lieutenant-Colonel de Salaberry, and Sir Gordon Drummond, to name a few. What is astonishing about the glorification of Brock is that it began among the Upper Canadian population immediately upon his death, remained strong during the rest of the war years, and has continued ever since. Even Americans at the time recognized his outstanding quality as a military leader. The elevation of Brock to the status of a great Canadian hero was, in part, a product of the times,[2] but more it was due to how he acted — as I attempt to show in the following pages.

      Brock was a man of his age, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Those times in Europe, North America, and elsewhere were tumultuous. When he was born, 1769, Britain was triumphant as a result of victories in the Seven Years’ War, which had resulted in large territorial additions to her empire. Ten years later the British Empire was fighting a losing war against American colonists who had proclaimed their independence. Isaac’s brother, Ferdinand, was killed in that war during the Spanish siege of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River. Another brother, John, was serving in the 8th Regiment of Foot on the Canadian border.

      A second decade later, revolution had broken out in France and the monarch was being held as a prisoner in Paris. Within a few years, Europe “would be plunged into one of the largest and longest wars of its history …”[3] and Brock was an ensign in the 8th Foot. Whoever decided that his future would lie in military service, he dedicated himself to it. The rest of his life would be determined by the vagaries of war. The context of his early years and his career during his years in Canada need to be described in order