In Defence of Canada – 1813
By KIM MCINNIS – FCFB
1813 would have been remembered
as a collection of events, a vintage year if you will, for residents living along the St. Lawrence River. It’s not exactly a topic of, or for, every day conversation. (FYI - was fought in January of 1815 - which, by the way, fell outside of the war as the Treaty of Ghent was signed in December of 1814 - restoring US and UK property lines back to pre-1812 boundaries. So, no, the Americans did not win the war.) Not really being able to go in-depth here on the subject, the causes of the war, depend on, of course, the historian telling the tale. The one cause most quoted was the British Navy’s indulgence in commandeering American ships and sailors, their solution to restoring their fleet - the coffers being cleaned out after locking horns with Napoleon. Umm, and there were still a few scabs yet to be picked from the 1784
40 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
thing when they lost the whole colony. The Americans, in retaliation, cast their eyes northward and saw an undefended border... just sitting there largely for the taking. Hundreds of skirmishes occurred on both
sides of the border during wars duration. Settlements and towns were burned to the ground, often in winter, leaving residents to fend on their own. By the time November of 1813 rolled around, the area along the St. Lawrence River, from just west of Iroquois and east towards Cornwall, was subjected to half a dozen confrontations that involved local militias gathered from the counties of Dundas, Grenville, Stormont and Glengarry; the latter also provided a Provincial contingent known as Fencibles. Signage now marks these battle scenes along County Rd 2 and Lakeshore Drive. (Worth the drive on a contiinued on page 67
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