First Edition Published March 29, 2016
Second Edition Published April 15, 2017
Third Edition Published February
5, 2020
Copyright by Fred Blair
Changes and additions are in
blue text.
March 1, 1814
In Stormont County
George Warner, a farmer of Osnabruck
Township, Stormont County, had been impressed to join a sleigh brigade carrying
ordinance from Cornwall to Kingston sometime in March. George’s sleigh was heavily loaded with
cannon shot and witnesses reported that the road was very bad. George’s request to be discharged at
Brockville, because his horse was overworked, was denied. Upon returning home from Kingston his horse
died of fatigue. In 1816, he submitted a
war loss claim for 16 pounds for his lost horse.[1]
March 4, 1814
Battle of Longwoods, Near
Thamesville
The previous day in the Western District, Captain William
Caldwell and his Western Rangers discovered an American camp west of the Twenty
Mile Creek and sent word to the British at Delaware, about twenty miles
away. On this day, Captain James Basden
arrived with about 250 regulars, militia, and Indigenous warriors. They had had to march through 30 centimeters
of snow that had fallen over night.
Captain Caldwell had made an
unsuccessful attempt to draw the Americans outside their defences upon the hill,
then withdrew, and met the British force at Strathburn. Captain Caldwell advised a flanking movement
but Captain Basden ordered a frontal assault up the hill. The slope of the hill was slippery and there
was heavy fire from the Americans. After
an hour of gunfire, most of the British officers were killed or wounded,
leaving Ensign Francis Miles in command to order a retreat. Fifty-two men had been wounded and 16
killed. The Americans suffered 4 wounded
and 5 killed.
Back at Strathburn, Ensign Miles was
met by reinforcements sent from Delaware but the decision was made to continue
the retreat back to Delaware.
The British would later withdraw to
Burford and leave the Thames Valley open to American raids from Detroit.[2]
Captain William Caldwell Sr. had
also served with the same rank in Butler’s Rangers during the American
Revolution. Later in 1814, he left the 1st
Essex Militia to join the Indian Department.[3]
Upper Canadian Wounded
Sergeant William Cu…, Kent
Volunteers
Private Daniel Holmes, Kent
Volunteers
Captain John M…, Kent Volunteers
Private Lauchlin McDougal, Kent
Volunteers
Private … Mitch…, Kent
Volunteers[4]
March 7, 1814
At Quebec
A letter from Headquarters in Quebec
reported that 1500 militia uniforms were to be sent from Kingston as soon as
the waters on the lake were open for shipping.
A report on Major General Riall’s advance towards Amherstburg had been
favourably received. Lieutenant Jomois had
been appointed superintendent of the wagon department.[5]
Lieutenant “Jomois” was probably
Lieutenant Servos who held that post.
March 8, 1814
On the Niagara Frontier
Major General Riall complained that
the Commissariat did not have the funds to promptly pay the Upper Canadians for
the supplies purchased from them. The
local inhabitants were reluctant to sell their goods without immediate payment. Timber and material for defensive works and
labourers could not be obtained for the same reason. Although the troops had recently received
back-pay they were still owed considerably more.[6]
Lieutenant General Drummond
complained that Fort Niagara could not be supplied because of the poor state of
the roads from Burlington and Long Point.
Supplies of salt and flour were particularly low.[7]
March 12, 1814
In Lower Canada
In Lower Canada, the 5th Battalion of the Lower
Canada Selected Embodied Militia was transformed into a light infantry unit
known as the Chasseurs.[8]
March 14, 1814
In the Town of Niagara
Mr. Clench’s house was accidentally burned. It was reported to have been the last house
standing in the town. Furniture,
bedding, and clothes were lost. Mrs.
Clench and Mrs. Stewart had been living in it with their 18 children. They applied to the Loyal and Patriotic
Society for aid.[9]
March 17, 1814
At Montreal
Poughkeesie (Paukeesa), the son of
Tecumseth, and other tribe members arrived in Montreal to meet with Sir George
Prevost with the intention of naming his father’s successor. Poughkeesie was given a medal and other
gifts. The tribal representatives were
given a wampum belt to take home and to symbolize the British intention to
fight along side their native allies and to represent them in any peace
negotiations.[10]
However, when peace negotiations
began, the Americans declared that a peace treaty would not be possible if the
British represented the indigenous people.
The British abandoned their ally’s interests to ensure peace with the
Americans.
March 19, 1814
At York
Six men were summoned to York
because they had failed to send their teams and sleighs when they were ordered
by the authorities. As the constable was
absent, the case was dismissed.[11]
March 20, 1814
Lieutenant General Drummond
regretted that he was unable to defend Upper Canada without the support of the
local militia but that he also needed those men working on their farms to
provision the regular army.[12]
March 21, 1814
In Glengarry County
Private Robert McNaughton of the 1st
Glengarry Militia had an accident and received a pension after the war because
of the resulting disability.[13]
March 22, 1814
In York Township
On March 20, 1814, Cornelius
Anderson’s team of horses was pressed into service in York Township. The Newfoundland Regiment used the team to
carry stores to Lake Simcoe. On the 22nd,
the team fell down a precipice on Jackson’s Hill on Yonge Street and a mare was
killed.[14]
Cornelius had a son with the same name and it was not clear which
man owned the team of horses. Cornelius
Jr. was born on August 17, 1790 in New Brunswick and would have been 23 years
old at this time.[15]
In the spring, Lieut. Gen. Gordon Drummond ordered the area at the
end of the Don River Bridge be cleared so that pickets defending the bridge
could have a clear field of fire.
Unfortunately, this was the location George Playter’s home. His barn, stables, fencing, and orchard and
other trees were taken down within a quarter mile of the end of the
bridge. The pickets appeared to have
been stationed in the house as a number of windows were broken.[16]
George Henry Playter was born in Surrey, England about 1736 and
served as a captain with the British during the American Revolution. He arrived in York in 1793 and received a 2,000-acre
land grant on the Don River in York Township.[17]
March 24, 1814
In the Home and Niagara Districts
Commissioners were appointed to
secure and detain Upper Canadians suspected of treason. In the Home District, the commissioners were
William Allan, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Beasley and Captain William
Applegarth of the 2nd York Militia, Captains Duncan Cameron and
Thomas Ridout of the 3rd York Militia, James Fulton, Major Richard
Hatt and Captain Samuel Hatt of the 5th Lincoln Militia, Samuel
Smith, and Alexander Wood.
The Niagara District commissioners were Lieutenant Colonel Richard
Beasley of the 2nd York Militia, Thomas Clark, William Claus,
William Crooks, Thomas Dickson, Joseph Edwards, Richard Hatt, Samuel Hatt,
Robert Kerr, Abraham Nelles, Robert Nelles, and Samuel Street.[18]
In
Kingston
The Kingston Gazette reported that the Kingston Naval Yard offered
a reward of $100.00 for information leading to the conviction of the person or
persons who had been embezzling the naval stores.[19]
March 25, 1814
In York
Lieutenant Ely Playter of the
3rd York Militia commanded a detachment of 26 men employed on public
service in the town for the militia pay period from March 25th to
April 24th. Other payrolls
sometimes indicated that men were serving as substitutes for other local men
who had been ordered to muster. This
payroll was unique in that 13 of the 24 privates who were serving were there as
substitutes for other men. Only two of
the men were substituting for men with the same surname. They may have been serving because a son,
father, or brother was needed more at home to take care of the family farm or
business. As the other 11 men did not
share the same surname, it was more likely that the substitutes were being paid
to serve by the men they were replacing.[20]
During the previous payroll period
from February 25th to March 24th, Ensign Edward W.
Thomson commanded a detachment of 33 men in the same employment. A number of these men also served with
Lieutenant Playter. Eighteen of these
men were serving as substitutes. Some
were serving for the same absent men while the remainder served for additional
men.[21]
March 27, 1814
On the Niagara Frontier
Private John Emmett of the 2nd
Lincoln Militia was informed that he was illegally occupying the home of the
widow Catherine Sloat on the road between the Ten and Twelve Mile Creeks. Captain William H. Merritt had given John
permission to stay there. Merritt was
reported to have been a traitor for joining the enemy.[22]
March 28, 1814
At York
A
Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery was held at York in the
Home District by Justice Thomas Scott.
Solomon Williams and Pompadore Hart were both found guilty of larceny
and sentenced to be confined for one calendar month and be publicly whipped
once.
Benjamin Lewis was found guilty of larceny and was
sentenced to be confined for one month.
William McCay was found guilty for a cheat and was
sentenced to be confined for one month and to stand in the pillory for one
hour. He was also found guilty of
larceny and received the additional sentence to be confined for three calendar
months in addition to the previous sentence.
Elijah Bently was found guilty of sedition and was
sentenced to be confined for six calendar months and to provided sureties of
his good behaviour for five years.
Emelia Hart was found guilty of a felony and was
sentenced to be banished from the province for seven years and to leave the
province within eight days.[23]
March 30, 1814
Second Battle of Lacolle, Lower
Canada
Major General James Wilkinson lead an American force north from
Champlain, New York and occupied Odelltown before proceeding to the British
outpost at Lacolle. The British garrison
had occupied the mill guarding the crossing on the Lacolle River. Reinforcements arrived from the Canadian
Fencibles and Voltigeurs. The failure to
secure Lacolle and bad weather forced the Americans to retreat.[24]
In York
James Stevens was charged with horse stealing and tried on this
day. The prosecution brought four
witnesses into court to testify. Justus
Sealey spoke in James’ defence and James was found not guilty.
James and Justus both served as
privates in the 3rd York Militia and at times both served in Captain
Samuel Ridout’s Company composed mainly of men from Pickering Township. One of the judges in James’ trial had been
Samuel’s father, Thomas Ridout.
Justus Azel Seeley was the son of
Justus Seeley, a Loyalist who settled first in New Brunswick and served as an
officer in the local militia there. In
1804, Justus Jr. and his wife and child arrived in Upper Canada and were living
in Pickering Township by 1808. In 1832,
Justus made his last of several Upper Canada Land Petitions. Sometime later, he made the long trek to Salt
Lake, Utah where he was baptized into the Church of Latter-Day Saints in
1838. He later became a high priest
there.[25]
March 31, 1814
At Fort George
Lieutenant William MacEwen wrote
from Fort George to his wife in Chippawa to thank her for sending him a ham and
a small basket of eggs. He reported that
food could not be purchased there as the Town of Newark was a ruin where only
burnt chimneys remained. The men were
occupied building defensive works. He
was about to move into the only barracks there.
He asked her to bring some spirits and whatever she would need if she
came to visit him but the roads at the time were in bad shape and barely
passable by carriage or horse.[26]
In Ancaster Township
In March, on Benjamin Smith’s
farm, in Ancaster Township, they were still thrashing and cleaning grain and
delivering it to the mill. Wood was cut
and hauled in, sap was boiled, and hooped barrels, a barrel, and keg were
delivered to the still house,
On the 1st
a doctor visited the farm but Benjamin did not indicate the reason for his
call. Benjamin missed the quarterly
Sunday meeting as he was too lame to travel on the 6th. On the 15th, John Smith came to
help out on the farm as Benjamin was ill.
Benjamin celebrated his birthday on March 26th and drew a
tooth on the 27th, possibly his own.
The writing in the diary was too faded to read after this date.[27]
Upper Canadian Service Deaths
Private Asa Brown, Hastings, disease, March 31, 1814,
orphaned children to Deborah Bower
Private Cyrenus Corbin, Incorporated Militia, illness, March 12,
1814,
Widow Mary Corbin
Teamster Christopher Merkley, Durham, illness, March 15, 1814
Widow Catharine Merkley
Captain Nathaniel White, 2nd Norfolk, illness, March
15, 1814
Sources:
[1] Collections Canada, War
of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1126, pages 1065-1070.
[2] The Battle of
Longwoods, http://battleoflongwoods.ca/,
accessed Feb. 26, 2018.
[3] L. Homfray Irving, Honorary
Librarian, Officers of the British Forces in Canada during the War of 1812-1815,
Canadian Military Institute, Welland Tribune Print, 1908, page 95.
box MU 2192, Ontario Archives, Toronto.
[5] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 219-220, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[6] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 216-217, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[7] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 236-237, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[8] Forces of Lord
Selkirk, Today in History, March 12, 2018, Facebook page.
[9] The Report of the
Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada, with an appendix and a list of subscribers
and benefactors, William Gray, Montreal, 1817, pages 114-115, accessed on Dec.
14, 2018 at https://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/4754
[10] Alan Corbiere, British
Honour – Anishinaabeg in the War of 1812, Part 5, accessed online March 7, 2017
at https://earlycanadianhistory.ca/2017/03/06/british-honour-anishinaabeg-in-the-war-of-1812-part-5/
[11] The Fife and Drum, The
Newsletter of The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common, Volume 17, Number
4, December 2013, page 4.
[12] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 260-261, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[13] Pension Poster –
Casualties, January 1, 1817, Nelles Family Fonds, Ref. Code F 542,
box
MU 2192, Ontario Archives, Toronto.
[14] Collections Canada, War
of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1127, pages 327-334.
[15] Isobelle Finney’s
Anderson Family History, emails from December, 2014.
[16] Collections Canada, War
of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1130, pages 902-912.
[17] Playter Estates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playter_Estates,
accessed April 20, 2014.
[18] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 253 and 255, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[19] Kingston Gazette,
accessed June 12, 2016 at http://vitacollections.ca/digital-kingston/96888/page/1
[20] Collections Canada,
War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns,
Nominal Payrolls and Paylists, Microfilm t-10384, pages 514-516.
[21] Collections Canada,
War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns,
Nominal Payrolls and Paylists, Microfilm t-10384, pages 563-565.
[22] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, page 264, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[23] Linda Corupe, U.E.,
Upper Canada Justice, Early Assize Court Records of Ontario, Vol. 2, 1810-1818,
transcribed and indexed 2008, pages 102-106.
[24] Today in History,
Forces of Lord Selkirk Facebook Group, March 30, 2018.
[25] Justus Azel Seeley, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Seeley-432,
accessed Nov. 6, 2018.
[26] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, page 266, accessed April 27, 2014, at www.ourroots.ca.
[27] Benjamin Smith’s
Diary, Benjamin Smith Fonds F582, Ontario Archives, Toronto, Ontario.
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