The Call to Arms
Dedication
This book is offered:
First, as a salute to the memory of all those, on both sides of the lines, who served, sacrificed, and died as they loyally obeyed their country’s call-to-arms in the North American War of 1812–1815.
Second, as a mark of respect to the men and women of Canada’s military services, who today honorably continue that legacy of service and sacrifice at home and across the globe.
Third, as a thank-you to my fellow “Living History” re-enactors, with and against whom I’ve “fought” for so many years.
Finally, as a legacy for my grandsons, Anthony, Lawrence, and Daniel. The treasure of their “Bamp’s” life, “junior” re-enactors, and hope for the future in the preservation and commemoration of our nation’s heritage and history.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would have been impossible to achieve without the support, dedication, and selfless efforts of more people than it is possible to properly credit within this space. Therefore, I must restrict myself to naming but a few, whilst saluting the many.
First, to Diane, my supporting cheerleader, chief-secretary, communications co-ordinator, and long-suffering, understanding, and lonely wife. She who has backed me all the way as I have effectively become a hermit during the course of the years it took to research and write this series. “Sorry, Pet, I promise the next one won’t be so bad,” has been the mantra I have used before on previous single-book projects, but now it needs to be amended to, “Sorry, Pet, here we go again — times six!”
Next, to my friend and fellow historian on the American side of the Niagara River, Pat Kavanagh, who freely and without hesitation gave me unrestricted access to his vast resource collection of American records, official documents, and personal letters on the war. Without his aid and resources, this work could not have been created. I thank you, sir.
Thirdly, I must extend these same thanks to the many dedicated staff members of the numerous museums, archives, and libraries that I visited to undertake the research for this work, who cheerfully assisted my searches to fruition and sometimes revealed previously unknown nuggets of history for me to use.
Penultimately, I cannot fail to acknowledge the guidance and support provided by the whole team at Dundurn Press in turning this idea into a reality.
Finally, I salute the memory of Karen, my friend and guide, who taught me to appreciate Canada’s heritage legacy. Always my harshest editorial and literary critic, she was at the same time a staunch supporter and fiercest proponent of the value of my writings. She may not have lived to see this work completed, but her spirit and love of our history and heritage lives on within it.
PREFACE
A MATTER OF CONVERSION
To the younger generation, the metric system is the international measurement norm that has become the standard for almost all calculations. However, for older individuals like myself, the imperial system, with all its idiosyncrasies and variations, still holds true in our basic mental image of how big or how much something is. As a result, writing a book with measurements calculated in this earlier system requires some kind of conversion method if the younger reader is to “get the picture.” For those wishing to undertake the exercise, there are a host of websites that will provide exact mathematical calculations and conversions. However, for simplicity’s sake, the following tabulations should suffice.
Distance:
1 inch (in.) equals 2.54 centimetres
12 inches (ins.) equal 1 foot (ft.) 0.30 metres
3 feet (ft.) equal 1 yard (yd.) 0.91 metres
1,760 yards (yds.) equal 1 mile 1.60 kilometres
Weight:
1 ounce (oz.) equals 28.35 grams
16 ounces equal 1 pound (lb.) 0.45 kilograms
14 pounds (lbs.) equal 1 stone (st.) 6.35 kilograms
112 pounds equal 1 hundredweight (cwt.) 50.8 kilograms
20 hundredweight / 2,240 lbs. equal 1 ton 1.01 tonnes
Volume:
1 pint (pt.) equals 0.57 millilitres
2 pints (pts.) equal 1 quart (qt.) 1.14 litres
4 quarts (qts.) equal 1 gallon (gal.) 4.55 litres
In the matter of money and pricing, however, things become somewhat more complicated, as one has to not only understand the system of British currency that was used at the time (outlined below), but also the additional fact that the apparent pricing and monetary values given do not equate to the real, or modern purchase values, that the converted sums would represent. Although no absolute can be given, due to the number of variables involved, a multiplication factor of around fifty will come close to assessing 1812 values in terms of their modern equivalents in 2012.
Currency Denominations:
1 farthing (¼ d)
half-penny or ha’pny (½ d) pronounced “hay-p-nee”
penny or pence (d) “pense”
shilling (s)
pound (£)
guinea (G)
Values:
4 farthings to the penny
2 half-pennies to the penny
12 pence to the shilling
20 shillings or 240 pence to the pound
1 pound and 1 shilling to the guinea
Writing monetary values was done in a linear form, with the smallest denomination on the right and progressively moving up through the scale of values to the left, thus:
Two pence 2d
Four pence and a half-penny 4½d
One shilling and no pence 1/-
One shilling and eight pence 1/8
Fifteen shillings, six and a half-pence 15/6½d
One pound £1/-/-
One pound, three shillings,
eleven and a half-pence £1/3/11½d
Eighteen pounds and four pence £18/-/4
To further confound and confuse matters, there
