Part 2

Part of De Salaberry's line at the abattis, was a small blockhouse on the river-bank (which, however, is not that which has since been reputed to be the one concerned), and the works there blocked the commencement of the wood and looked out on a broadening plain or level of clearings, across which the enemy would have to pass.

The Glengarry men now came down, under McDonell of Ogdensburgh, famous for his adventurous capture of that place, and whose exploit the Salaberry was about to match. Lieut.-Colonel McDonell--"Red George"--was at Prescott drilling a new force of Canadian Fencibles, made up, some say, chiefly of Scotch and loyalists,[20] others chiefly of French boatmen, when Sir George Prevost asked him how soon he could have his men ready to go down to Châteauguay. "As soon as they have done their dinner!" he responded. Within a few hours he had provided them with _batteaux_, and they were off down the rapids. When Sir George himself, who was on the way, got there, he, to his great surprise found McDonell before him. "Where are your men?" said he. "There," said the Highland Colonel, pointing to his force resting on the ground--"not a man absent."[21]

For nearly three weeks the parties of Canadian workers worked continually upon the plan of De Salaberry, while Hampton was considering, preparing, reviewing his troops, and arranging for a communication with Wilkinson so soon as the latter should have passed Ogdensburg on his way down the St. Lawrence.

On the 21st of October the advance down the Châteauguay commenced. The first move was a rapid march by General Izard with the light-equipped troops and a regiment of the line, who surprised a party of about ten[22] Indians sitting late in the afternoon at their evening meal at the junction of the Outarde and Châteauguay Rivers, and killed one of them. There Izard encamped and proceeded to establish a road of communication with Hampton. Word was soon brought to Major Henry, of the Beauharnois' Militia, commanding on the English River. Henry sent word to General De Watteville at La Fourche, and had Captains Levesque and Debartzch advance immediately with the flank companies of the 5th Battalion of embodied militia and about 200 men of the Beauharnois' division. This was the preliminary move towards the battle.

They advanced about six miles that night up the Châteauguay from La Fourche, when they came to a wood which it would not have been prudent to enter in the dark. Next morning early they were joined by De Salaberry with his Voltigeurs and the light company of Captain Ferguson, an officer who took a front place in the affair. De Salaberry brought all these companies about a league up the bank to the place he had fortified, and there stopped. An American patrol party being observed in front, General De Watteville came over himself, visited the outposts, approved of them, and the work proceeded.[23] That evening the main body of the Americans encamped at Sear's, about twenty-five miles above the Châteauguay's mouth. The engineers had cut a road for the ten cannon, and with great labor and difficulty had dragged them thus far.[24]

Within two days more Hampton's men had opened and completed a large and practicable road, which is still traceable, from his position at Four Corners twenty-four miles through the woods and morasses, and brought up his guns and stores to his new position, about seven miles from De Salaberry's. (About Dewittville?)

From this point he despatched Colonel Purdy with about 1,500 men, composed of a light brigade (the 1st Brigade of the American Army[25]) and a strong body of the infantry of the line, at an early hour in the night of the 25th, across the Châteauguay and down its right bank[26] at a bend adjoining what is now known as the Cross Farm, with orders to gain the ford and fall on the rear of Lieut.-Colonel De Salaberry's position, while the main body, under General Izard, were to commence the attack in front. Purdy's brigade crossed not far above De Salaberry, and proceeded into the woods of the opposite side. A cedar swamp, an unexpected stream in which they floundered, and the ignorance of their guides misled and bewildered them. This was the fault of Hampton, and due to his headstrongness, for the guides had protested that they did not know that side of the Châteauguay; but he had ordered them to proceed. Purdy's command became scattered, were forced to halt in confusion, and had to sleep in the open woods, cold, wet, exhausted, and apprehensive.[27] General Hampton, however, in the morning, fully expected to hear them attacking the ford, advanced, and at ten o'clock his troops appeared in sight of the party of busy woodchoppers, about 3,500 men, with three squadrons of cavalry, marching in column along the high road, commanded by General Izard. Lieut. Guy's picket fired, the workmen dropped work and ran, Guy retired upon Johnson, and both Lieutenants retreated with their men to the completed abattis, where they formed up again and began to fire smartly.

De Salaberry, on hearing the firing, promptly advanced with the light company of the Canadian Fencibles, commanded by Captain Ferguson, "flanked by twenty-two Indians on the right and centre,"[28] and two companies of his Voltigeurs, commanded by Captains Chevalier and Louis Juchereau Duchesnay. Ferguson's companies he posted on the right, in front of the abattis, in extended order, its right skirting on the adjoining woods and abattis, among which were distributed a few Abenaquis Indians. The three officers, Ferguson and the two Duchesnays, executed the movements required of them with the coolness of a day of parade. The Voltigeur company of the oldest of the Duchesnays, known as "the Chevalier," occupied, in extended order, the ground from the left of Ferguson's Company to the Châteauguay, and the company under Captain Louis Juchereau Duchesnay, with about thirty-five[29] Sedentary Militia under Captain Longtin, were thrown back along the margin of the river, hidden among the trees and bushes, so as to flank Colonel Purdy's men, or prevent him from flanking the Canadian position. Between the abattis and the front line were a company of Voltigeurs, Captain Lecuyer commanding, and beyond them on the right a light company (that of the 5th Battalion) of embodied militia with their side pickets, under Captain Debartzch; then, to the right of them, in the woods, the Indians under Captain La Mothe. There were thus in the front only about 240 Canadians. The positions, however, occupied about a mile along the river, and the rest of the troops--some 600--were distributed among the other breastworks, under command of McDonell.[30]

The battle was now on the point of commencing. In the centre of the front stood De Salaberry watching the enemy, whose characteristics he had noted twice before. All waited in suspense. A touching scene was taking place among the Beauharnois Militia further back, where Captain Longtin caused his men to kneel, went through a short prayer with them, and then rising, said: "that now they had fulfilled their duty to their God, they would fulfil that to their King."[31]

Meanwhile, the enemy kept steadily moving along the road in column. A tall mounted American officer rode forward and began a harangue to the Canadians in French. "Brave Canadians," said he, "give yourselves over; we do not wish to do you any harm!"[32] De Salaberry, seeing that his moment was come, sprang upon a stump,[33] discharged his musket as a signal to begin, and brought the American officer off his horse by the shot. The enemy at the time were exposed to being taken on both front and side. The bugles blared, the front companies immediately opened fire, and the battle was begun. Izard's force were in the open plain, while their foes were hidden in a thick wood. The squadrons of cavalry and four cannon which they had brought thus far were found to be useless there. They, however, commenced a spirited[34] fire in battalion volley; but, from the position of the line, it was almost totally thrown to the right of the Canadians, and of no effect whatever. They soon faced to the right, and filing up with speed, changed their front parallel with the lines of breastworks, when the engagement became general, and their fire compelled the retreat, behind the front edge of the breastwork[35] of a few skirmishers near the left, who had been rather advanced in the centre of the line. This retreat being mistaken by the enemy for a flight, a universal shout ensued, which was re-echoed, to their surprise, by the Canadians and the Glengarry men in reserve under Lieut.-Colonel McDonell. Now was the supreme moment of the battle. De Salaberry ordered his bugleman to sound the advance. "This was heard by Lieut-Colonel McDonell, who, thinking the Colonel was in want of support, caused his own bugles to answer, and immediately advanced with two of his companies from the third and fourth lines to the first and second."[36] "All these movements were executed with great rapidity." De Salaberry, at the same time, as a _ruse de guerre_, ordered "ten or twelve buglemen into the adjoining woods with orders to separate and blow with all their might."[37] The enemy, as De Salaberry calculated, suspected that the Canadians were advancing in great numbers to circumvent them. The Colonel, while giving these orders, is said to have done so facing his men, with his back against a tree.[38] The noise of the engagement towards its end brought on Colonel Purdy's division on the opposite side of the river, which, having driven in the picquet of sixty Beauharnois Sedentary Militia under Captain Bruyère, were pressing on for the ford, whereupon De Salaberry ordered Lieut.-Colonel McDonell, who had returned to his position to check the enemy there, and Captain Daly was chosen, with the light company of the 3rd Battalion Embodied Militia, numbering seventy men,[39] to cross and take up the ground abandoned by the picket.

De Salaberry, then seeing that the action was about to become serious on the right, left his position in the centre of the front and placed himself on the left with the troops along the bank, where, standing on a stump.[40] he could see, through his field-glass, Captain Daly with his men crossing the ford. The latter took with him such of the Beauharnois men as had rallied[41] up, and led by him, they advanced along the river-bank and made, in the words of Purdy afterwards, "a furious assault" upon the advanced guard of the Americans, whom they drove back upon themselves. "The bravery of Captain Daly," wrote the Temoin Oculaire--whose account, it is to be remembered, was published a few days afterwards--"who literally led his company into the midst of the enemy, could not be surpassed."

Purdy's main body finally recovered, and charged forward, however, emerging in great force from the wood.

Captain Daly's men, as they had been taught by Lieut.-Colonel McDonell, knelt and fired a volley kneeling. The return volley was fired by tenfold numbers, and but for that precaution would have destroyed nearly the whole of Captain Daly's command. As it was, he received a severe wound, and with his men, several of whom were wounded and himself a second time, was compelled to retreat, which the men did in very good order under Lieut. Benjamin Schiller. The latter distinguished himself greatly. He bore off his wounded captain to a safe place, and returning, took command at request of the men. At one juncture he was engaged, hand to hand, with a very formidable adversary, whose head he cut off with a single blow of his sabre.[42]

Purdy's force eventually were moving on in overwhelming numbers, and for a moment their shouts of victory were heard by the little force lying in suspense behind the barricades on the opposite bank. In coming out of the wood they swarmed down along the bank of the river. Now was the time for Captains Louis Duchesnay and Longtin's companies concealed in the river-side bushes opposite. De Salaberry instantly appears upon the scene, gives the word of command, and the bushes flame out with a hidden and destructive fire. The American shouts of victory turn into cries of confusion. In the utmost disorder they make a tumultuous and precipitate retreat into the woods. Thus, at 2.30 p.m., came the failure of Purdy's flanking movement.

As one may easily imagine, this series of incidents took several hours.

In the front, General Hampton for about an hour kept his soldiers ready in momentary expectation of attack by De Salaberry, and of hearing of Purdy's success. When he heard that the latter had failed, however, he sent him word to withdraw his column to a shoal four or five miles above and cross over, and ordered General Izard to retire his brigade to a position about three miles in the rear, to which place the baggage had been ordered forward. Hampton thus retired, leaving De Salaberry master of the field, with scarcely 300 men in actual action, and no British guns anywhere within seven miles.[43]

Sir George Prevost, with Major-General De Watteville, arrived on the ground at the close of the engagement and overlooked De Salaberry's arrangements, thanked him with great praise, and then immediately wrote an inaccurate despatch to England, in which he claimed the principal credit for _himself_.[44] That evening De Salaberry wrote to his father; "I have won a victory mounted on a wooden horse!"[45]

After the battle was over the American firing did not cease, for no sooner did darkness come on than Purdy's scattered command, moving up the right bank, commenced a most destructive fire on each other, mistaking them for the British, and they continued it the greater part of the night. The final incident took place just as day dawned on the 27th, when about twenty Americans, mistaking some of the Canadian militia on the left bank for their own people, were compelled by them to surrender.

That day at dawn McDonell came up in command of Captain Rouville's Company of Voltigeurs, Captain Levesque's Company of Grenadiers (of the 5th Battalion Incorporated Militia), and sixty men of the Beauharnois Division. De Salaberry turned over to McDonell the defence of the abatis or obstructions in front, and the hero of Ogdensburgh pushed on to two miles further than before. The day passed in expectation of a second attack, but no enemy appeared.

Meanwhile, the straggling order which the nature of the swamp and forest imposed on Purdy's retreat exposed him to rear attacks from the Indians, which were repeated after dark and caused him loss.[46]

A large quantity of muskets, drums, knapsacks, provisions and arms were found on Purdy's shore, especially indicating the confusion just previous to their retreat. Upwards of ninety bodies and graves were found on that bank,[47] among them two or three officers of distinction. On Hampton's field were two dead horses, and the enemy were there seen carrying off several of the wounded in carts.

The Canadian loss was only two killed, sixteen wounded, and four missing. Three missing were by mistake at first included among the killed in the returns.[48]

Time now wore on, another night was passed, and the morning of the 28th arrived, when Captain La Mothe, with about 150 Indians, reconnoitred the enemy, who, according to the report of Captain Hughes, of the Engineers, had abandoned his camp the day before.

A party of the Beauharnois Militia, supported by Captain Debartzch, burnt and destroyed the newly-erected bridges within a mile of the enemy's camp, which was now about one and a half leagues from Piper's Road, _i.e._, about two leagues from his former position. On the same evening the Indians, under Captain La Mothe,[49] proceeded through the woods and came up with the enemy's rear-guard. Here a slight skirmish ensued, in which the Americans lost one killed and seven wounded.

Hampton, having re-occupied his late position, called a council of war, where it was determined to fall back and occupy the former position at Four Corners, to secure their communication with the United States; from thence either to retire to winter quarters or be ready to re-enter Lower Canada.

"On that day or the day previous Captain Debartzch, of the Militia, was sent to the American headquarters with a flag. When he stated the number and description of troops by which General Hampton had been opposed, the latter, scarcely able to keep his temper, insisted that the British force amounted to 7,000 men. On being assured of the contrary, he asked: 'What, then, made the woods ring so with bugles?' Captain Debartzch explained this; but it was apparently to no purpose."[50]

The Americans retired on the 29th. "On the 30th a party of Indian Chasseurs, under Captain Ducharme, reported that the enemy had abandoned his camp at Piper's Road in the greatest disorder, and was on the road to Four Corners." The Canadians followed up and hung upon the rear and embarrassed the retreat. Canada was saved!

General Wilkinson was very severe on his fellow-general. "On the 4th of November," he complains, "the British garrison of Montreal consisted solely of 400 marines and 200 soldiers. What a golden, glorious opportunity has been lost by the caprice of Major-General Hampton!"[51] Poor man, he was to have pretty much the same luck himself just afterwards! Wilkinson's army proceeded on its own course down the river, but was almost as ignominiously defeated at Chrysler's Farm on the 10th of November, where his 3,000 or 4,000 men were matched, partly in open field and partly with the assistance of a ruse as at Châteauguay, against 800 British and thirty Indians, under Colonel Morison, a man equally brave and able with McDonell and De Salaberry.

Mr. Dion, of Chambly, to whom the erection of a fine bronze statue of De Salaberry is due, has related to me a number of particulars from De Salaberry's letters held by his relatives. The hero complains bitterly of Prevost and De Watteville--"those two Swiss"--and that on account of his religion he could get no higher than a Lieut.-Colonel. From the same letters it appears that the "Temoin Oculaire" was a young lawyer named O'Sullivan, later, Judge O'Sullivan, a man partly of Irish family, in person large and handsome, and a great friend of De Salaberry, who ever remained grateful to him for preserving record of his deed in his celebrated letter. It is commonly attributed to D.B. Viger. Another little fact mentioned in the correspondence of De Salaberry is that his men in the battle were barefooted.

The almost unique nature of the victory strikes one. Its keystone was De Salaberry's masterly use of illusion. Of it was the choice of a thick wood to conceal his small force, their entrenchment behind the abatis and in bush positions, the unexpected fire from the left bank upon Purdy, the Indians in the woods, and, more than everything, the ruse of the multiplied bugles. But besides illusion there was the ablest possible disposition, for there seems no doubt but that no spot could have keen chosen along his projected route greater in strength when fortified and guarded just as that was. The enemy could only reach it fatigued, and far from sources of supply, the wood was thick, the ravines occurred happily, the river was free from fords for a long distance, and a frightful swamp occupied the opposite bank. How would De Watteville's small and raw army have acted in the open country had this position not been tried?

Next, how ought the credit of the affair to be apportioned, for it is clear that it is due to a number concerned? De Salaberry is, of course, in every way the leading figure. His courage and spirit were perfect, his intelligence rapid, his labor incessant, and the whole choice of the field and strategy of the battle were, by all the testimony, due to him. On the whole, it almost seems, in its broad lights, like a battle of this one man against the enemy. His task was the greater from the extent and obscurity of the battlefield. On these accounts, some of those holding the positions used afterwards to say there was no battle at all, and one--Lieut. Delisle, who received a pension--that the whole thing was a farce. Frankly--and it may seem at first sight like a discourtesy to say it--it is doubtful whether the Voltigeurs would have stood much real fighting had they been opposed to veterans. On reasonable consideration this objection must disappear. It is well known that recruits away from their homes are utterly unstable in their first battles. For instance, at Bull's Run, in the first two battles of the American Civil War, it was a toss-up which side would run away from the other, and they decided it by one side doing so the first day, and the other side the second. Many of the Upper Canadians were fearful and undecided at the beginning of the War of 1812. It is pretty probable that the promptitude of the few regulars in the country, including such officers as Brock, was its salvation at the outset. Most of De Salaberry's own men had withdrawn a month previous at the attack on the camp at Four Corners, though so disproportionate an enterprise was no fair test of recruits. The Sedentary Militia, when drafted, deserted in great numbers, and the duty assigned to the newly raised Voltigeurs by their commander at Chrysler's Farm just afterwards was that merely of making a temporary display in the woods. De Salaberry probably intended to do more with his division at Châteauguay, and might have succeeded if put to the test, for they were now probably superior to the American force in the very important respect of acquired confidence in a leader, who was even then the hero of the Province. Being of the same stock as Napoleon's men, a long course of fighting under a De Salaberry would have undoubtedly made them into a similar force; but in any case, too much cannot be said for the patriotism and willingness exhibited by these young men in defence of united Canada.

Every man on the field, apparently, did the duty assigned to him. One--Jean Bte. Leclaire, was also one of the heroes of Fort Detroit and afterwards Chrysler's Farm. To the memory of such a man let his country do some honor. To the axemen's force also is due credit for cheerful and dangerous labor in chopping trees and working at the obstructions and defences. The Temoin Oculaire names "Vincent, Pelletier, Vervais, Dubois, Caron," who swam the river and took prisoners those who refused to surrender.