More Battlefields of Canada

By Mary Beacock Fryer

More Battlefields of Canada is a sequel to Mary Beacock Fryers bestselling Battlefields of Canada. Like it’s predecessor, this volume covers nearly three hundred years of history and covers the most significant - as well as some of the most comic and bizarre - Canadian battles. Illustrated with sketches, photographs and detailed maps, the individual chapters begin by setting the context of the battle in terms of the larger struggle. The reader is then taken on to the battlefield with an hour by hour account. A brief conclusion to each chapter assesses the consequences for the victor and the loser, assigning each battle it’s place in Canadian history.

Not all the battles re-created in this volume were fought in Canada. Some took place in the United states, and there is also an account of the Canadian experience in Hong Kong in 1941.

A detailed chronology provides a comprehensive list of every Canadian battle since the 1600’s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Jul 26, 1996
• ISBN: 9781459713444

Mary Beacock Fryer

Mary Beacock Fryer (1929–2017) was a well-known expert on Upper Canadian history. She wrote a trilogy on the Simcoe family: Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe: A Biography, Our Young Soldier: Lieutenant Francis Simcoe, 6 June 1791-6 April 1812, and John Graves Simcoe: 1752-1806, A Biography. Among Fryer's other books are Escape, Beginning Again, and Buckskin Pimpernel.

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More Battlefields

of Canada

More Battlefields

of Canada

Mary Beacock Fryer

Copyright © Mary Beacock Fryer, 1993

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Reprography Collective.

Editor: Carol Anderson

Designer: Shawn Syms

Printed and bound in Canada by Best Gagne Printing Ltd., Louiseville, Quebec.

The publisher wishes to acknowledge the generous assistance and ongoing support of The Canada Council, The Book Publishing Industry Development Program of The Department of Communications, The Ontario Arts Council, The Ontario Publishing Centre of The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation, and The Ontario Heritage Foundation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in the text (including the illustrations). The author and publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any reference or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, Publisher

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Fryer, Mary Beacock, 1929–

More Battlefields of Canada

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-55002-189-3

1. Battles – Canada. 2. Battlefields – Canada.

3. Canada – History, Military. I. Title.

Dundurn Press Limited

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Acadian Civil War: Saint-Étienne de La Tour versus Menou d’Aulnay

2 The First Capture of Quebec, 1629

3 Le Moyne d’Iberville’s Battlegrounds: Hudson Bay and Newfoundland

4 Louisbourg, May–July 1758

5 John Bradstreet’s Attack on Fort Frontenac, August 1758

6 Counterattack: Sainte-Foy, April–May 1760

7 Quebec: Last Siege, 1775–1776

8 The Battle and Occupation of Little York (Toronto), 26 April–8 May 1813

9 Fort Astoria, 1813–1846

10 The Battle of Crysler’s Farm, 11 November 1813

11 The Battle of Moraviantown (The Thames), 5 October 1813

12 The Battle of Lundy’s Lane, 25 July 1814

13 The Battle of Windsor, 4 December 1838

14 The Red River Expedition, 1870

15 Whiskey Fort: A Non-Battle Site, 1874

16 Cut Knife Creek and Hill, 2 May 1885

17 Paardeberg, South Africa, 18–27 February 1900

18 Hong Kong, 1941

Chronology

Recommended Reading

Index

Acknowledgments

The author and publisher wish to thank the following for their informed comments on various chapters: Dr. Robert S. Allen, historian; Dr. Carl Benn, Curator, Military and Marine History, Toronto Historical Board; Mr. Henry Bosveld, Superintendent, Fort Malden National Historic Park, Amherstburg, Ontario; Dr. Ben Greenhous, Directorate of History, National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa; Mr. Stephen Mecredy, Fort Henry, Kingston, Ontario; Dr. Peter MacLeod, historian, Ottawa; Dr. Carman Miller, History Department, McGill University, Montreal; John R. Stroud, Hong Kong Veterans’ Association; General J.L. Summers, Saskatoon; Associate Professor Wesley B. Turner, Department of History, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

Introduction

In 1986, Kirk Howard of Dundurn Press and I published Battlefields of Canada. Because we did not contemplate writing about every battlefield, we selected sixteen sites. We wanted to publish a small volume, a book that would be a lightweight, handy guide for anyone wanting to refer to it while walking around a site. We chose sites for various reasons – importance, special features and aspects, epoch, or regional distribution.

Before I began work on Battlefields of Canada, the editor of one of my earlier books, King’s Men, told me I should not confine myself entirely to sites within Canada’s present boundaries. Several sites, particularly in the United States, are legitimate Canadian battlefields. On the strength of this recommendation, we chose Fort Ticonderoga (Carillon), 1758, so important in the conflict between Britain and France, and a selection that brought an angry response from one American reviewer. For this second volume we chose Fort Astoria, 1812, a site of little historical importance but one that satisfied the desire to include a selection from the West Coast (across the Columbia River from Columbia, land that Britain might have claimed except for American agitation, fifty-four forty or fight!) to annex territory that would render Alaska contiguous with the United States. Britain compromised, sacrificing what became the State of Washington in order to retain the northern portion; hence, the name – British Columbia.

We resolved to go further afield this time. After selecting the Red River Expedition, 1870, and an episode from the 1885 Rebellion, we chose Paardeberg, South Africa. I visited the republic in 1991 and toured several sites there. The temptation to describe kopje and veld was overwhelming especially since so many characters prominent in Canadian events in 1870 and 1885 fought there.

Again, some battlefields chosen are historic sites and so are easy to visit, to see the reconstruction of events; others have vanished. The Battle of York, 1813, was on surroundings vastly different from the present-day reconstruction, but today Fort York commemorates the event. Paardeberg is virtually unaltered. Lundy’s Lane is in a built-up area; a restored Fort Erie beckons. Hardly a trace remains of Fort La Tour, in downtown Saint John, New Brunswick, but Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, is beautifully restored. We made do with a non-battlefield in Alberta because of its bizarre nature. There is a Cree versus Blackfoot site at Lethbridge, but an internecine war there paled beside the performance of native warriors at Cut Knife Hill and Creek.

Rather than neglect Prince Edward Island, we recalled its importance as a source of food to Louisbourg. Red River is hardly a battlefield; the true drama lies in the struggle to reach the two Forts Garry, a route that can still be traversed. And we felt, in view of present interest in the future of Hong Kong and the numbers who visit there, that we should remember the events of 1941 and their sombre aftermath.

We decided to repeat the chronology from Battlefields of Canada, which ends in 1885, in order to fill in gaps between sites we chose from later times, and we again included a list of books for readers who wish to discover more about the sites.

Mary Beacock Fryer

Toronto, 1993

I

Acadian Civil War:

Saint-Étienne de La Tour

versus Menou d’Aulnay

The historic rivalry between England and France in North America is well-known to students of Canadian history. Less well-known are the hostilities that occurred between factions within the French colonial administration. The Acadian civil war was the result of bloody competition between Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour (1593–1666) and Charles de Menou d’Aulnay (1604–1650). Because of mismanagement in France, each man governed a portion of Acadia, with mutual hatred. The quarrel between La Tour and d’Aulnay helped to prevent the evolution of a strong French presence in Acadia. The people who were truly in control, of course, were the Micmacs.

Two sites figure prominently in the La Tour—d’Aulnay battles. Some of the action took place at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) in Nova Scotia, now a popular, restored historic site. The other site, Fort La Tour, is obscure. A marker at Portland Point, in Saint John, New Brunswick, helps identify the spot, which was also the setting of earlier native activity and, later, European settlement. Archaeological diggings were carried out in the 1950s, after which the site was covered. Today, it is little more than a grassy mound among the many port facilities. A toll bridge runs from Portland Point across the harbour, linking the main core of Saint John with West Saint John. For the natives, the French, and the later English settlers, Portland Point commanded a fine overview of the harbour and made a strong defensive position.

Both England and France envisioned that their colonies would become great sources of wealth. The French government wanted to collect taxes on this wealth, but could not afford to finance the establishment of colonies. Instead, merchants and traders established posts at their own expense, and in return they received monopolies over certain areas. In their own ships they brought from France goods to trade with the native people, in exchange, primarily, for furs, but also for salt, fish, and timber. To operate this trade the French created a number of early commercial companies before settling on the Compagnie de la Nouvelle France, with branches in both Canada and Acadia. This company operated until 1627, when Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s chief minister, authorized the Companie des Cent Associés to operate in Canada.

Charles de La Tour represented certain mercantile interests. When he was fourteen, in 1606, Charles and his father Claude sailed with a party from Dieppe to Port Royal, Acadia, to settle in the colony founded by Pierre du Gua de Monts and his assistant Samuel de Champlain. They soon returned to France, however, because de Monts’s trading monopoly was cancelled and he was ordered to evacuate the settlement. In 1610 they sailed with a party to reoccupy Port Royal. After that settlement was destroyed by a force from Virginia in 1613, the La Tours lived with the natives and later rebuilt part of Port Royal. Charles remained in the neighbourhood, but Claude again returned to France. Charles married a native woman and fathered three daughters. By 1623, he was the leader of Acadia, and had shifted his headquarters from Port Royal to the neighbourhood of Cape Sable, an island on the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, and built a post, which he named Fort Lomeron in honour of David Lomeron, an agent in La Rochelle. This post was also known as Fort St. Louis.

In the meantime, England asserted its claim. In 1621, James I (and James VI of Scotland) awarded Acadia to the Scottish poet and courtier Sir William Alexander, and renamed it Nova Scotia. By 1627, after much wavering, Charles de La Tour’s post was the only one in Acadia still in French hands. The following year, Claude de La Tour set out for the colony on a French ship. It was captured, along with three other vessels, by David and Lewis Kirke, brothers who commanded three English warships. Claude was taken to England, where he quickly switched loyalties and was awarded a baronetcy in Nova Scotia. He also accepted a second baronetcy for his son Charles, who did not desire the honour. Charles remained loyal to France, a situation his father failed to understand. In 1630, Claude arrived off Fort Lomeron aboard an English ship and came ashore to insist that Charles change his allegiance, because Acadia was now officially an English (Scottish) colony. His son refused. Claude returned to the ship and began firing on the post. But Charles defended the fort, and Claude was forced to abandon the battle. When Louis XIII heard the news, he rewarded Charles by making him governor of Acadia. Later Claude and Charles reconciled, and Claude made his home in Acadia near Cape Sable.

Of the two French combatants in Acadia, d’Aulnay was the better-connected. He was a nobleman and King’s councillor, and keen to make a fortune through trade. As well, he was a relative of Cardinal Richelieu, the man who controlled France.

In 1632, Acadia was returned to France by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. D’Aulnay arrived as an assistant to Isaac de Razilly, newly appointed governor of Port Royal. Accompanied by 3,200 men, they evicted some Scottish settlers and began another rebuilding of Port Royal. Three years later, in 1635, Charles de La Tour received a grant of land at the mouth of the Saint John River, and began to build a new trading post on Portland Point. He called it Fort Sainte Marie, but it was better known as Fort La Tour. At about the same time, Governor Razilly died at Port Royal and his brother, Claude, succeeded him. Claude de Razilly did not come out to Acadia; instead, he delegated d’Aulnay as governor in his absence. Relations between Governor Razilly and Charles de La Tour had always been harmonious, but the appointment of d’Aulnay initiated a decade of violence. By 1638, the French government tried to solve the problem of two governors sharing the same territory, and had partitioned Acadia. The situation worsened, however, because the French, with their vague notion of the geography of Acadia, had not drawn a clear line of demarcation between the territories of La Tour and d’Aulnay.

The king gave La Tour peninsular Nova Scotia but not Port Royal, the focus of the settlement in that peninsula. He gave d’Aulnay land north of the Bay of Fundy but not Fort La Tour, which stood on that very shore. The governors thus faced each other from fortified positions across the Bay of Fundy, each surrounded by the other’s territory. To complicate matters, the two rivals were expected to cooperate by sharing expenses. In 1640, however, when La Tour sailed across to Port Royal, entered the Annapolis Basin, and landed, d’Aulnay refused to let him enter his habitation. Immediately the two came to blows.

Metro Toronto Reference Library, John Ross Robertson Collection

Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Originally founded by the French as Port Royal, this harbour and settlement changed hands many times.

That same year saw a change in La Tour’s domestic arrangements. He married the heroic Françoise-Marie Jacquelin. Women of the right class were scarce in Acadia; La Tour had had to seek his wife in France. He was unable to go himself because he was fully occupied rendering his fortress impregnable against an attack by d’Aulnay. He sent a colleague in his place to find a suitable bride and arrange to bring her to Acadia. The colleague selected Mademoiselle Jacquelin, and the marriage took place when Françoise-Marie arrived.

Fort La Tour, as it was now generally known, had become the centre of a formidable habitation. Its yellow roof was a notable landmark; the main buildings were surrounded by a palisade. A native village lay to the northwest, an area still called Indiantown, and in between were outbuildings. Three cannon faced the harbour, ready to defend the fort from a sea attack. A deep ditch circled the landward side. There must have been gun platforms, but archaeologists have not found any such remains. The principal bastion was of masonry, the walls two feet thick. It stood at the northwest corner of the gate-house compound, facing the harbour. The single gun had an 8.5-centimetre (3 1/2-inch) bore and could fire four- to six-pound balls. The other emplacements were redans of wood and stone. In this heavily fortified home, Françoise-Marie gave birth to just one child, a son. Life might have been serene if not for d’Aulnay’s schemes.

D’Aulnay went to France, where he arranged to have all shipments of trade goods to La Tour stopped. La Tour then went to Boston to recruit mercenaries to help him defend his habitation. In 1642, d’Aulnay sailed again for France, in order to find a wife, Jeanne Motin, and to complain about La Tour, who was ordered to come home to answer d’Aulnay’s charges. To ensure that her husband could not be imprisoned, Madame La Tour went in his stead. After filing counter-complaints, she received authorization from the Compagnie de la Nouvelle France to send her husband the ship Saint-Clément, which carried soldiers and supplies to Fort La Tour.

When d’Aulnay’s sources reported on the coming ship, he sent three of his own ships to blockade Fort La Tour. Charles de La Tour slipped away, probably in a small boat, reached the Saint Clément, and persuaded the captain to sail to Boston. There he met with the vice-admiral of France, who gave him permission to seek out assistance from firms belonging to the local Puritans. La Tour mortgaged some property, hired four ships, about seventy men, soldiers, and English volunteers, and sailed for his habitation.

When La Tour’s rented fleet hove into view, d’Aulnay hastened to Port Royal, with La Tour’s ships in hot pursuit. La Tour demanded compensation. When d’Aulnay declined to negotiate, La Tour landed with a few of his soldiers and thirty English volunteers and burned the mill in the settlement. D’Aulnay, of course, complained bitterly, and the French government fingered La Tour as the aggressor. Madame La Tour again went to France, no small task at that time, when an Atlantic crossing sometimes took more than two months. She tried to arrange for supplies to be sent to Fort La Tour, but the government rejected the request and denied her permission to leave the country. She resorted to a disguise, escaped to England, and returned home, probably through Boston.

Unfortunately for the La Tours, d’Aulnay had the ear of the King. He hired soldiers in France, bought a warship and reached Port Royal in September 1644. He also signed a peace treaty with the New Englanders at Boston. Both d’Aulnay and La Tour were conducting business with the English in Massachusetts, although the Compagnie de la Nouvelle France supposedly held a monopoly. Boston merchants favoured La Tour – they thought d’Aulnay to be much the more dangerous of the two.

In February 1645, La Tour was in Boston, in search of supplies of food and trade goods. By that time, d’Aulnay had acquired a new sixteen-gun flagship, named, of course, the Grand Cardinal. He attacked Fort La Tour but was held off. By April, he had learned from deserters that La Tour was again in Boston, and so on the 13th he arrived at the fort with his ships and 200 men. This time he sent a party of men ashore with two cannon and orders to set up a battery close to the palisade. When the guns were in place, d’Aulnay sailed the Grand Cardinal in close to the fort and called to the garrison to surrender. The garrison of only forty-seven men, a few of them professional soldiers, responded with cannon shot and jeers. On the principal bastion someone ran up a red flag, the symbol of defiance. Fort La Tour’s garrison was severely outgunned as well as outnumbered. D’Aulnay had smaller guns on his other ships, in addition to the battery that the men had built ashore. The same disparity in the numbers of men applied to the stocks of ammunition – supplies inside the fort were limited, but d’Aulnay had more than enough.

Madame La Tour took command of the defence. Throughout the siege, two surgeons and the apothecary brought the wounded into shelter and tended them. On the afternoon of 16 April, Easter Day, d’Aulnay withdrew, and Madame La Tour allowed the garrison to rest in the now badly damaged fort. An acrid smell, of burnt powder mingled with blood and charred timber, permeated the air. D’Aulnay prepared for a final assault on the weakened position. The advance began an hour before sundown. D’Aulnay’s men were thirsting for a fight and crazed by his promise of pillage. The landing force joined the men at d’Aulnay’s gun battery near the palisade, and soon penetrated the fort through a gaping hole in a parapet.

Madame La Tour and the survivors were not beaten yet. They rushed at the intruders with musket-butt, pike, halberd, and sword. Madame implored them not to give in unless d’Aulnay promised quarter to everyone. The dissembling d’Aulnay gave his word, but reneged as soon as he entered the fort, claiming that he would not have made such a promise had he known how few defenders had held him at bay. What followed was a grisly nightmare for Madame and her brave defenders.

Madame La Tour’s garrison had to be punished for the heavy losses inflicted on d’Aulnay’s men. He exacted a frightful price – eight had been killed and several were wounded. Madame La Tour was bound, a heavy rope was wound round her neck, and she was forced to watch while all but two of her surviving men were murdered by slow strangulation – hanged and strangled, rather than a quick, neck-breaking drop. Of the two who were spared, one was reported to be the executioner, and the other may have been a Swiss mercenary. Among the executed were seven or eight men from Boston who had joined La Tour’s service. D’Aulnay had shown exactly what