A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various

A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time - Various


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guard a frontier of a thousand miles;

      Of volunteers what aidance we can draw

      From seventy thousand widely scattered souls.

      A meagre showing ’gainst the enemy’s,

      If numbers be the test. But odds lie not

      In numbers only, but in spirit too—

      Witness the might of England’s little isle!

      And what made England great will keep her so—

      The free soul and the valour of her sons;

      And what exalts her will sustain you now,

      If you contain her courage and her faith.

      So not the odds so much are to be feared

      As private disaffection, treachery—

      Those openers of the door to enemies—

      And the poor crouching spirit that gives way

      Ere it is forced to yield.”

      Brock’s first step on the outbreak of the war was to ask the House of Assembly to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, which they refused to do by a majority of two votes. He therefore prorogued the House and took prompt measures to resist General Hull, who, with an army of two thousand five hundred men, had invaded the province at Sandwich. The militia were called out, a few disaffected people were ordered out of the country, and at the head of a small force of regulars and Canadian volunteers, only seven hundred in all, with a force of nine hundred Indians under the celebrated chieftain, Tecumseh, Brock crossed the Detroit river and captured Detroit with General Hull’s whole force. His movements were wonderfully rapid. He left York on the 6th of August, 1812, embarked at Long Point on the 8th in small boats for Amherstburg, a distance of two hundred miles, where he arrived on the 13th at midnight. On the 14th he moved to Sandwich; on the 15th demanded Hull’s surrender; opened fire from batteries erected that day; crossed the river during the night, and before mid-day on the 16th Hull surrendered with two thousand five hundred men, thirty-three cannon, a brig-of-war, and immense military stores. This prompt and vigorous action of General Brock was the turning point of our Canadian fortunes. The success was so complete, so brilliant, that it produced an electrical effect throughout Canada. It was the first enterprise in which our militia were engaged, and it aroused the enthusiasm of the loyal, inspired the timid, fired the wavering, and over-awed the disaffected. From that moment Brock became the idol of the Canadian people, and on his return to York, which he reached after an absence of only nineteen days, he was received with heartfelt acclamations. Shortly after, Brock went to Fort George, on the Niagara frontier, where a large hostile force was being gathered to invade the province. On the morning of the 13th of October, 1812, the enemy effected a landing at Queenston Heights. Brock hurried at once to the spot with a very small force he had hurriedly gathered, and with that impetuous and indomitable energy which was his most striking characteristic, made a vigorous attack upon the enemy without waiting for the reinforcements which were hurrying up to his support. He was killed while gallantly leading a charge up the heights. Although this for the moment checked the advance, the loss so roused the feelings of his troops that in a few hours a second attack was made, and one of our most glorious victories won, the whole force of the enemy being killed, wounded, or captured. This ended the campaign in the west, and still further encouraged our people and made possible the final result of the war. No man was ever so mourned by the Upper Canadians as General Brock. A handsome monument was erected to his memory on the field where he gave up his life for Canada. This was destroyed by an act of vandalism on the 17th of April, 1840, but has been replaced by a far more imposing and stately monument which was completed in 1859, and now stands one of the most striking features of the Niagara frontier. General Brock was forty-three years old when he died. He was tall, erect, and well proportioned. In height about six feet two inches. His fine and benevolent countenance was a perfect index of his mind, and his manners were courteous, frank, and engaging, although both denoted a fixedness of purpose which could not be mistaken. As an evidence of the high opinion formed of him by the Canadians, the following extract is quoted from a letter of the late Chief Justice Robinson, who knew the general personally, and served under him at Detroit and Queenston:—

      “I do most sincerely believe that no person whom I have ever seen could so instantly have infused, under such discouraging circumstances, into the minds of a whole people the spirit which, though it endured long after his fall, was really caught from him. His honesty, firmness, frankness, benevolence, his earnest warmth of feeling, combined with dignity of manner, and his soldier-like appearance and bearing, all united to give him the ascendancy which he held from the first moment to the last of his command. It seemed to be impressed upon all, and at once, that there could be no hesitation in obeying his call, and that while he lived all was safe. The affection with which the memory of General Brock has ever been regarded in this province is as strong as the feeling of admiration, and these feelings still pervade the whole population.”


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