Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812 Part 39

"Now was our turn to cheer; and we plied the enemy in a style so quick and accurate that we silenced all their guns just as a third dragoon came galloping up to us, shouting 'Victory! Victory!' Then again we cheered l.u.s.tily, but no response came from the other side. Night now hid the enemy from our sight.

"The commissariat made its appearance with biscuit, pork, rum and potatoes, and we broke our fast for that day about nine p.m.

"How strange and unaccountable are the feelings induced by war! Here were men of two nations, but of a common origin, speaking the same language, of the same creed, intent on mutual destruction, rejoicing with fiendish pleasure at their address in perpetrating murder by wholesale, shouting for joy as disasters propagated by the chance of war hurled death and agonizing wounds into the ranks of their opponents! And yet the very same men, when chance gave them the opportunity, would readily exchange, in their own peculiar way, all the amenities of social life, extending to one another a draw of the pipe, a quid or gla.s.s; obtaining and exchanging information from one and the other of their respective services, as to pay, rations, etc., the victors with delicacy abstaining from any mention of the victorious day. Though the vanquished would allude to their disaster, the victors never named their triumphs.

"Such is the character of acts and words between British and American soldiers, which I have witnessed, as officer commanding a guard over American prisoners.

"JAMES DRISCOLL,

"_Of the 100th Regiment_."

APPENDIX NO. 3.

[Lieutenant-Colonel Bishopp was a son of Sir Cecil Bishopp, Bart., afterwards Lord de la Zouche. He was an accomplished gentleman. He had served in the Guards. Had represented Newport, in the Isle of Wight, in Parliament. Had been attached to a Russian emba.s.sy. Had served with distinction in Flanders, in Spain, in Portugal and died full of hope and promise in Canada, gallantly "doing his duty," and not without avail, for his example still lives.]

"At two a.m. on the morning of the 11th July, 1813, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Clark, and Lieutenant James c.u.mmings (both of the Lincoln Militia), backed by about 240 men--200 being regulars, and forty of the 2nd and 3rd Lincoln Militia, Bishopp swooped down upon Black Rock, the American naval depot on the River Niagara.

"The a.s.sault was a success; the work of destruction of the naval stores, chiefly by sinking them in the river, was complete. But Porter's force was aroused, and a speedy retreat on the part of Bishopp necessary. The men re-embarked unmolested, and Bishopp was the last to retire. Scarcely had they left the bank when the Indians who had crawled to the top commenced to fire. Part of Bishopp's men were landed and drove the enemy back into the woods.... Bishopp was everywhere commanding, directing, getting his men off. In the confusion of the moment some of the oars of his own boat were lost, and she drifted helplessly down stream exposed to an ever-increasing fire. Here Bishopp received his death-wound. He was borne back to his quarters, where, in a few days he expired at the early age of twenty-seven. 'Never was any officer, save always the lamented Brock, regretted more than he was.' His remains lie beneath a modest monument erected to his memory by the pious care of his sisters, the Baroness de la Zouche and Mrs. Pechall, in the churchyard at Lundy's Lane."--_Coffin's Chronicles_.

A tablet to his memory is also to be seen at the family burial-place, Parham, Suss.e.x, England, with the following epitaph:--

"His pillow--not of st.u.r.dy oak; His shroud--a simple soldier's cloak; His dirge will sound till Time's no more-- Niagara's loud and solemn roar.

There Cecil lies--say where the grave More worthy of a Briton brave?"

[Lieutenant-Colonel (afterwards General) Evans, Brigade Major, was one of the most valuable officers of the War of 1812. His cool head, sound judgment, energy, and capability in administration made him a tower of strength to his superiors, all of whom at various times, took an opportunity of testifying to his merits.]

On the 17th August, 1812, the day after the surrender of Detroit, General Brock wrote to him:--

"Dear Evans,--Detroit is ours, and with it the whole Michigan Territory, the American Army Prisoners of War. The force you so skilfully prepared and forwarded at so much risk, met me at "Point au Pins" in high spirits and most effective state. Your thought of clothing the militia in the 41st cast-off clothing proved a most happy one, it having more than doubled our own regular force in the enemy's eye. I am not without anxiety about the Niagara with your scanty means for its defence, notwithstanding my confidence in your vigilance and admirable address in keeping the enemy so long in ignorance of my absence and movements, etc.

(Signed) I. BROCK."

There is no need here to allude to the events of the 13th October, 1812, at Fort George, since they are given in Lieut.-Col. Evans' own account of that day, to be found at Appendix No. 1, and show that his Generals had good reason for the esteem in which they held him. Suffice it to say that in the despatches of General Sheaffe from Queenstown; of General Vincent from Burlington Heights; of Deputy Adjutant-General Harvey, Burlington Heights, with reference to the successful attack on Forty-mile Creek by a wing of the 8th or King's Regiment under Lieut-Col. Evans; of General Riall, after Chippawa, Fort Erie, and Lundy's Lane; and of General Drummond, after Lundy's Lane, Lieut.-Col.

Evans is always mentioned with special approbation. And the same feeling is evident in the public prints of the day, notably the London _Gazette_, the official organ, as well as in histories of the war.

Previous to his removal to Canada with his regiment, Lieut.-Col. Evans had been officially connected with the Government of Gibraltar in 1802, at the time that the Duke of Kent, as Governor, was trying to introduce some much-needed reforms, by doing which he brought a hornet's nest about his ears. In this affair the Royal Duke was ably backed by his subordinate, and in 1826, when Lieut.-Col. Evans was applying for a staff situation in Canada, his Royal Highness gratefully supported his request.

Brigade-Major Evans' local rank throughout the War of 1812 was that of Lieutenant-Colonel.

General Evans was an Englishman of Welsh ancestry. He married a daughter of Mr. Chief Justice Ogden, of Three Rivers, and after occupying several important appointments, returned to Canada, dying in Quebec in February, 1863, and was buried with military honours. His body was afterwards removed to Three Rivers, and lies by the side of his wife.

Major R. J. Evans, now resident in Toronto, to whom I am indebted for the above particulars, as also for the valuable paper to be found elsewhere, is a son of General Evans.

APPENDIX NO. 4.

Guests from the 'Royal' stroll frequently to the gra.s.sy ramparts of old Fort George, whose irregular outlines are still to be traced in the open plains which now surround it. Here landed in 1783-84, ten thousand United Empire Loyalists who, to keep inviolate their oaths of allegiance to the King, quitted their freeholds and positions of trust and honour in the States to begin life anew in the unbroken wilds of Upper Canada.

"History has made us somewhat familiar with the settlement of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the expatriated Loyalists. Little has been written of the sufferings and privations endured by 'the makers' of Upper Canada.

"With the present revival of interest in American history, it is singular that writers do not awaken a curiosity about the Loyalists of the Revolution. Students and specialists who have investigated the story of a flight, equalled only by that of the Huguenots after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, have been led to admire the spirit of unselfish patriotism which led over one hundred thousand fugitives to self-exile.

While the Pilgrim Fathers came to America leisurely, bringing their household goods and their charters with them, the United Empire Loyalists, it has been well said, 'bleeding with the wounds of seven years of war, left ungathered the crops of their rich farms on the Mohawk and in New Jersey, and, stripped of every earthly possession, braved the terrors of the unbroken wilderness from the Mohawk to Lake Ontario.'"--_Jane Meade Welsh, in Harper's New Monthly for August_, 1887.

"1812--like the characters on the labarum of Constantine--is a sign of solemn import to the people of Canada. It carries with it the virtue of an incantation. Like the magic numerals of the Arabian sage, these words, in their utterance, quicken the pulse, and vibrate through the frame, summoning from the pregnant past memories of suffering and endurance and of honourable exertion. They are inscribed on the banner and stamped on the hearts of the Canadian people--a watchword rather than a war cry. With these words upon his lips, the loyal Canadian, as a vigilant sentinel, locks forth into the gloom, ready with his challenge, hopeful for a friendly response but prepared for any other. The people of Canada are proud of the men, and of the deeds, and of the recollections of those days. They feel that the War of 1812 is an episode in the story of a young people, glorious, in itself and full of promise. They believe that the infant which, in its very cradle, could strangle invasion, struggle and endure bravely and without repining, is capable of a n.o.bler development, if G.o.d wills further trial."--_Coffin's Chronicles of the War, Chapter I., preamble_.

APPENDIX NO. 5.

[Mr. Le Moine, in "Quebec Past and Present," states that slavery was finally abolished in Canada in 1803.] "Near Fort George, less than a century ago, stood the first Parliament House of Upper Canada--a building rude in comparison with the ma.s.sive pile, the Bishop's Palace, used for a similar purpose at Quebec--but memorable for one at least of the many liberal laws its homespun representatives enacted. Here, seventy years before President Lincoln's Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, the first United Empire Loyalist Parliament, like the embattled farmers at Concord, 'fired a shot heard round the world.' For one of the first measures of the exiled patricians was to pa.s.s an act forbidding slavery.

Few readers know that at Newark--now Niagara, Ontario--was enacted that law by which Canada became, not only the first country in the world to abolish slavery, but as such, a safe refuge for the fugitive slaves from the Southern States."--_Jane Meade Welsh, in Harper's New Monthly, August_, 1887.

APPENDIX NO. 6.

[The Twenty-fourth or Second Warwicks.h.i.+re Regiment, now the South Wales Borderers, is of ancient and gallant fame. On its colours are inscribed "Egypt," "Cape of Good Hope," "Talavera," "Fuentes d'Onor," "Salamanca,"

"Vittoria," "Pyrenees," "Nivelle," "Orthes," "Peninsula"--a goodly show.]

To us, perhaps, the claims of the Regiment upon our admiration are eclipsed by those upon our pity when we remember the terrible disaster of Isandula in 1879, when six companies of the Regiment were cut to pieces, and as it was at first feared, the colours lost. But it was not so; several companies of the 1st Battalion had fought in the victorious affair of Rorke's Drift the day before, and "Lieutenant Bromhead" says the _Daily News_ of Feb. 21, 1879: "1st Battalion, 24th Regiment, and Lieutenant Chard, R.E., left in charge of the Drift with a company of the 24th Regiment, first received intimation of the disaster [at Isandula] from fugitives making for the Drift. Lieutenant Coghill with others rode away to communicate with Helgmakaar, and were killed by Zulus in crossing the river."

With Lieutenant Coghill was Lieutenant Melville carrying the colours.

The company holding the Drift was annihilated by the on-rus.h.i.+ng savages, and no tidings of the colours could be gained until some days after when, behind a mound, were found the bodies of the two brave Lieutenants, one of whom grasped the pole with hands stiffened in death and around the other the precious flag was wound, "safe on the heart of a soldier."

The following touching lines will be welcome to the lover of n.o.ble deeds; it is to be regretted that the name of the poet cannot also be given:--

THE LOST COLOURS.

Who said we had lost the Colours?

Who carried the tale away.

And whispered it low in England, With the deeds of that awful day?

The story was washed, they tell us, Freed from a touch of shame-- Washed in the blood of those who died.

Told in their sacred name.

But they said we had lost the Colours, And the Colours were safe, you see; While the story was told in England, Over the restless sea.

They had not the heart to blame us.

When they knew what the day had cost; But we felt the shame of the silence laid On the Colours they thought were lost.

And now to its farthest limit They will listen and hear our cry; How could the Colours be lost, I say, While one was left to die?

Safe on the heart of a soldier, Where else could the Colours be!

I do not say they were found again, For they never were lost, you see.