citizens, including several who were officers in the Embodied Militias. In this petition the argument was made that as the goods in question were private property, and not military supplies, and the vital commissariat trade with Ogdensburg might suffer if the capture and sale was allowed to stand, that it was in the best interests of the British war effort to let the vessels and their cargo go. General Brock concurred and the vessels were released.[1]
The St. Lawrence frontier.
A detail from a contemporary map of the defences constructed during the war to protect the vital supply depot and shipbuilding centre of Kingston.
Library and Archives Canada, NMC, C-15700.
On the other hand, the potential threat level rose later in the month when the New York State militia officer, Brigadier General Jacob Brown, was sent to Ogdensburg with a detachment of troops and orders to shut down the British river traffic.
An initial attempt by Brown to mount a raid across the river, to capture the British armed schooner Duke of Gloucester, was planned for the night of July 22–23. However, although the boats were prepared, the call for militia volunteers fell flat, with only sixty-six of the requested 120 men stepping forward, forcing Brown to cancel the operation.[2]
On July 30, the American armed schooner Julia and a large gunboat, sailing out of Sackets Harbor, appeared upriver and proceeded to engage the Duke of Gloucester and another Provincial Marine vessel, the Earl of Moria, that were docked at Prescott. After an inconclusive engagement the two sides disengaged, and while the British ships sailed west, to Kingston, the Julia and the gunboat joined the vessels trapped at Ogdensburg.
Little occurred during the month of August, as news arrived from Quebec City that an armistice was to be imposed. This came about following word that the British government had repealed its contentious Orders-in-Council affecting American maritime trading rights with Britain’s wartime enemy, France. Because these issues were cited by the American government as the principal reason and cause of the war being declared, Sir George Provost had written to Major General Henry Dearborn, recommending an armistice until the U.S. government’s position on settling the outstanding issues between the two governments was known. An unofficial regional suspension of hostilities was therefore established. However, this armistice was subsequently rejected by President James Madison and Secretary of War William Eustis, who ordered a recommencement of hostilities to conquer Canada. From the British perspective, while the armistice had resulted in the withdrawal of most of the enemy’s troops from Ogdensburg, it had also seen the unimpeded release of the trapped vessels, which now made their way upriver to Lake Ontario and Sackets Harbor, becoming valuable additions to the American naval flotilla being assembled at that port.[3]
Kingston, Sir E.W. Grier, artist, circa 1896 (after Admiral Henry Bayfield R.N.). A view of the shipyards at Point Frederick (centre) and the town of Kingston (right distant), as it looked at the end of the war from the hillside alongside Fort Henry (left). Toronto Reference Library, JRR 1376.
Kingston, 1815, E.E. Vidal, artist, 1815. This image is a detail taken from a larger painting showing Fort Henry as the Americans would have seen it from their ships.
Courtesy of the Royal Military College, Massey Library, Kingston, Ontario.
Watercolours (artist not known) depicting two of many varieties of gunboat used during the War of 1812, showing how the combination of both sail and oar were required for manoeuvering through the narrow channels and swift currents of the St. Lawrence River near Kingston and the Thousand Islands region.
Toronto Reference Library, T-16944 and T-16948.
The following month, matters started to heat up once again once the official declaration of the ending of the armistice took effect on September 4, 1812.
THE BATTLE OF MATILDA,
SEPTEMBER 16, 1812
On September 16, a flotilla of thirty-three heavily laden bateaux and boats were in the process of sailing for Kingston with a cargo of supplies and passengers, composed principally of the dependents of men from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who had been previously dispatched to Kingston. They had almost reached Prescott when an attempt was made by the Americans to capture the vessels. Led by a strong detachment of troops,*[4] the Americans landed on the small mid-river Toussaint Island,(near present-day Cardinal) after dark on the 15th and took the resident Toussaint family prisoner. They then set up their ambush positions on land, while the boats remained hidden, ready to strike once the trap had been sprung.
The Battle of Matilda (September 16, 1812).
At dawn the following morning, the British flotilla was approaching the position but received a timely warning from Mr. Toussaint, who had escaped to his canoe and, while under fire from the Americans, paddled downriver to deliver his warning.
In response, the flotilla immediately changed course and headed toward the small island of Presqu’ile, to the north of Toussaint Island, only to come under a heavy fire from the Americans. Interestingly, a passenger aboard the British boats, Patrick Finan (the son of the Royal Newfoundland’s regimental quartermaster), documented this event, showing that even in the midst of combat and the face of death, humour can sometimes be found:
We had proceeded up the river … when within a short distance of a narrow passage between an island and the mainland through which we must pass, one of the Captains of the regiment, who was in the foremost batteau, imagined he saw something like a Durham boat … this being a rather suspicious circumstance, he ordered the men to cease from rowing….While waiting for the other bateaux to come up, a Canadian was observed in a canoe … paddling with all his might and crying to us that there were Americans on the island. This confirmed the suspicions; and the boats were ordered to the shore … but when about twenty yards from the edge of the water, the boats grounded and could be brought no nearer….
The balls were flying about us, perforating the sides of the boats, dropping into the water in every direction and threatening immediate destruction to all on board, great confusion prevailed; and as soon as it was observed that the boats could not advance to the shore, our only alternative was to leap into the water and make the best of our way to it…. As our boat was at the upper end of the division, I had a full view of the whole detachment;
… men, women, and children … some up to their knees in water, some driving it before them like ships in full sail; others dashing in and making it fly about
