They Fired Once More and Proctor Kept a Runnin

Of course the tile is a parody, but like so many parodies, its far closer to the truth than the fairy tales we’ve been fed as it passes for the Canadian History of the War of 1812. And like so many stories written by Canadian history writers passing themselves off as historians they are just that, stories. And more often than not, they are repeated from earlier fairy tales and poorly researched historical vignettes.

Other than the brave effort put forth by major General Sir Isaac Brock, surrounded by Republican fools and sympathizers, in the opening stages of the War of 1812 on the north American continent, the land engagements and what there was of the so called fleet actions on Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, they were largely a string of one-act scenes of military stupidity. Ultimately, any success obtained from the jaws of defeat were obtained by junior Lieutenants, while senior officers were busy obtaining defeat from the hands of the Gods of Victory. One only has to read the notes from the Duke of Wellington on the efforts of senior officers in Upper Canada during the conflict.

The three main officers in question were of course Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay in command of the Lake Erie Squadron under Sir James Lucas Yeo based safely in Kingston, and two subaltern Colonels who weren’t worth their uniforms according to General Brock who subsequent to Brock’s untimely death in 1812 actually fighting in the field, a concept totally unknown to these two twerps, known now by the names of General Henry Proctor and General Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe. Proctor was born in Boston and a Republican sympathizer from well before the war, and Scheaffe, was just a plain old fashion coward. Both of whom were “yanked” by the Duke of Wellington in 1814. In modern parlance these folks especially the later two would be called “dumb and dumber”.

One more point here as we prepare a very short discussion paper on the War of 1812, is the fact that all the commercial trade along the great lakes and well into the interior and beyond was controlled by the either the North West Company under John Richard and John Forsythe and William MacGillivray or their contemporary and at one time partner John Jacob Astor of the now South West Company. In many cases they shared the same trading posts and looked after each others commercial interests. The other factor was that in 1811 the British naval contracted with these companies for the supplies of their forces and to provide transportation from point to point for major personnel including the various Indian leaders. This is another story, but no less interesting in the host of characters that sailed on-board these ships and engagements they were involved in. This ad-hoc group of vessels and men involved were loosely called the Provincial Marine. To be more precise for the purist that reads these things, the Provincial marine was branch of the British Army Quarter-Master General’s department whose main tasks were to transport troops and supplies to various sites and/or engagements. The Provincial Marine was subsequent to the fiasco of Commodore Barclay’s little engagement on Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, absorbed by the Royal Navy.

Hence the executive express schooner of the North West Company known as the NANCY, the largest and fastest schooner on the lakes now became HM Schooner NANCY and one Lt Com Miller Worsley of the Lake Erie fleet, who some how escaped being “paroled” by the Americans subsequent to the loss and capture of the HMS Queen Charlotte, was sent on his way to take over the command of the NANCY. As to how and with whom and led by whom over how long and over which sequence of Indian trails to get to Matchdash Bay to assume command is a story for another time. Rest assured it is not in the rather sophomoric history books of our Canadian schools. There is one other fine point to be made here and that is that the NANCY carried six long four pounders and were also made of bronze. These weighed about a ton each, and because they were bronze could literally be fired all day long as opposed to the their iron versions. These my friends were the original “rifles” of their day, and very accurate at a greater distance than the iron versions. Once again, a story for another time and place and again one not taught in our Canadian history books. Ok so there we have it.

So the War of 1812 started out not too badly, our friend Brock was doing well and even then he had to suspend the right of habeas-corpus due to the large number of Republican sympathizers in his ranks and amongst the new comers to Upper Canada. Such were the times and natures of conflicts as I am more than sure they exist even in today’s environment and even amongst those for the Bi-Centennial efforts to “celebrate” as it were, the events of the original.

So with the untimely death of General Brock 1812 comes a new year and some old and tired faces for his replacements. The first is of course the Republican born Colonel Henry Proctor of Boston, who constantly pissed Brock off by arranging numerous armistices with the Americans on the Niagara frontier while he, Brock, was await attending to other duties. No surprise here. Next comes dear sweet Colonel Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe who is now the idiotic General stationed at Fort York. Last but certainly not least is Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay. Totally uncomfortable on the deck of anything that floats. In their hands rests the fate of Upper Canada. God help us as they say, but then again even God knows when to leave. Even the Grand War Chief Roundhead [Blackbear]of the Ottawa along with Grand War Chief Blackbird of the Ojibwa after the death of Colonel Tecumseth and at the Grand Council on the 7th in the fall of 1813 called all three of these leaders “women among women” and never to be served or acknowledged again.

So what are we celebrating during the Bi-Centennial of the War of 1812 on the Canadian side after the glorious days of 1812. 1813 and 1814 of course. So here we go from east to west.
1. Fort Henry and the Naval Base in Kingston. No problems here other than the fact that the vessels in the “fleet” were the recipients of a multitude of name plates to scare the Americans away. And no engagements of note.
2. Fort York. April 27, 1813. After an embarrassingly brief [and as previously arranged] engagement between General Roger “the Dodger” Scheaffe and the two American Generals Zebulon Pike and Henry Dearborn. Scheaffe was the great coward of the war that we have and after a short skirmish marched a out of Fort York as fast as he could all the way back to Kingston. Even the Americans were totally disgusted with his actions. Fort is burned to the ground and only after 2 days of the American killing a raping everything in sight is it brought to an end by Bishop Strachan. Thank God the North West Company supply warehouse remains in tact thanks to prior arrangements with the Astor family in New York. It should be noted that during the up-coming Bi-Centennial celebrations that the Federal Government will be spending in excess of $4 million to celebrate this wondrous event and make the American feel right at home. After all we do want to keep them happy and have continuous access to their markets for our goods.
3. Fort George. May 25, 1813. What can I say. Brigadier General John Vincent having taken over Brock’s two regiments, the 8th Kings and the 49th merrily proceeds to lose the fort in a much honoured and timely fashion to the more skill full American one General Jacob Brown. Oddly enough the supply base for the NWCo remains in tact.
4. Fort Erie. From January 13, 1813 to June 9 1813 the Americans simply walker over the “border” and took this stone fort. They eventually abandoned it out of boredom. On July 3, 1814 the Americans returned under the command of General Jacob Brown and after no more than 20 minutes the British Commander Major Thomas Buck “surrendered”. The Americans later totally demolished the place. No surprise there. For these last two forts outside of the Lundy’s lane skirmish the Federal Government via Parks Canada is spending in excess of $10 million. There are plenty of military and militia bodies yet to be exhumed and properly buried all along the escarpment, but we don’t honour them with a proper burial. All well documented by others.
5. Fort Amherstburg. This was the largest combined military – naval base west of the Fort Henry complex in Kingston. Major General Sir Isaac Brock’s pride and joy in the wilderness at the western end of Lake Erie and at the base of Lake St Clair. From here Brock controlled the Michigan/Wisconsin territories with nearly 2000 men. This was also the NANCY’s main operational base at Moy outside of her base at Matchdash Bay just to the east of modern day Port McNicoll. Brock was here while Colonel Proctor dallied and dillied with the Americans on the Niagara frontier.
6. So then after September 10th, 1813, General Brock is now long gone and with our friend Commodore Barclay’s defeat on Lake Erie, General Henry Proctor takes over matters as the senior military commander and without so much as “a how do you do” to the American General, one William Henry Harrison, does what comes naturally, he simply abandons the entire well defended military/naval complex and like his close friend and confidant Scheaffe who quick marches out of York to Kingston, Proctor marches/floats up the Thames River Valley. Only God knows where this clown was headed. It certainly wasn’t Fort York. At the battle of the Thames we of course have the disgusting battle involving three American Generals along with Proctor and Tecumseth. Only one ran away and abandoned the battle after only a few minutes. Guess who? You know, the guy born in Boston. After that the Americans simply walked into Fort Amherstburg, which by the way was also named after Lord Amherst just like the village in PEI, the Americans renamed the Fort, Fort Malden. Proctor’s reputation was so bad that the Americans said they wanted nothing to do with him even if they did catch him.
7. Fort St Joseph. This regrettable story actually starts and finishes on July 16, 1812. This Fort lies between Fort Malden just to the west and which is part of the HM Schooner NANCY saga and what was later called Fort Drummond on Drummond island just to the west. All three were situated on an archipelago of individual islands at the western tip of Grand Manitoulin Island all of which belonged to the Grand War Chief and now General Blackbird of the Ojibwa Nations. He was the primary and chief spokesman for the Three Fires Confederacy during the war including the Grand War Chief of the Michigan/Wisconsin Sauk and Potawatoni nations, one Chief Blackhawk. The third Grand war Chief of the Three Fires Confederacy was Chief Blackbear. These were their sacred meeting islands.
In any event, a rather young British commander by the name of Captain Charles Roberts withdraws the entire command at the Fort included his Indian allies, who should have known better, to attack Fort Michlimacquinac on the main land which is just opposite Fort Mackinaw across a short body of water on an island. Roberts was so noisy about his intensions that the Americans knew about it long before he set out and arrived later the following morning and took over an empty Fort St Joseph. At which point the Americans simply torn down the fort and blew up the fortifications and magazine. They also knew that this was a sacred meeting island of the Ojibwa and likewise proceeded to destroy the Indians operational base and sacred cemetery there as well. Hence the unanimous support of the Three Fires Confederacy for the rest of the war all because what happened from July 16 1812 to July 19, 1812. Such is history.

Such is the history of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada. It was all down hill from the fall of 1812 onwards. There were no forts, or “fleets for that matter” west of Fort Henry other than the rubble left behind by the Americans. The only thing left was the very effective North West Company executive schooner NANCY now HM Schooner NANCY, her crew of professional royal navy gunners from the naval base at Fort Amherstburg and her six foot bronze “rifles” and new her new “baker rifles” to replace the old worn out Tower Muskets and all the “non-paroled” men and officers who could make it north in time, and of course her allies with the Three Fires Confederacy.

One point here is that the Indian leaders of the Three Fires Confederacy said that they would never serve with any British officer above that of Lieutenant ever again. But that is another story for another time.

The one and only major story is that of the NANCY, she never lost a running engagement, and more often that not, against a superior enemy force. Any nation worth its salt would be proud to have the NANCY as part of their history. When all the senior officers failed, the junior officers won the day. She served in every major water borne engagement and from Fort Erie to Fort Meigs, Detroit, Amherstburg, Malden, Michlimacquinac, St Mary’s, Fort Joseph and deep into Saginaw Bay, and her Indian allies loved her as their “great and proud war canoe”. She, along with her commander Alexander MacIntosh, her owners Richardson/Astor never failed their Indian allies in nearly 25 years of service and they in return acted as her ears and eyes on land from the Niagara Peninsula all the way to the Saint Mary’s River and her mid-operational base in Matchdash Bay at the east end of Georgian Bay. But that too is another story for another time.

The return of the NANCY was set for the Bi-Centennial in 2012 and we had raised a commitment of $2.9 million from developers in Toronto for her reconstruction. We asked for a small Federal shipbuilding grant of 5% to 15% to unlock our private sponsorship but they, from the Conservative Government Caucus down were unimpressed. In the end we asked to seek approval from the local government appointed Bi-Centennial group who after we called in 2009 never returned our call. As it turns out our project was simply too large and they felt threatened by it. I am sure we are not the only private group to be ignored. The Toronto developer was even less impressed and who may very well have bailed before I was aware of it. However we thank him for his interest while it lasted. It was great fun.

Like major General Sir Isaac Brock and Chief and Colonel [General had he lived] Tecumseth of the great Shawnee Nation, we did what we could. Enjoy the Bi-Centennial for what it will be and for what it won’t be.