Sketches illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada, relating principally to the Revolutionary War of 1775-83, the War of 1812-14 and the Rebellion of 1837-8, etc

Front matter

SKETCHES ILLUSTRATING THE EARLY SETTLEMENT AND HISTORY OF GLENGARRY IN CANADA RELATING PRINCIPALLY TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR OF 1775-83, THE WAR OF 1812- 14 AND THE REBELLION OF 1837-8, AND THE SERVICES OF THE KINGS ROYAL REGIMENTOF NEW YORK, THE 84th OR ROYAL HIGHLAND EMIGRANT REGIMENT, THE ROYAL CAN- ADIAN VOLUNTEER REGIMENT OF FOOT, THE GLENGARRY FENCIBLE OR BRITISH ' HIGHLAND REGIMENT, THE GLEN- GARRY LIGHT INFANTRY REGI- MENT, AND THE GLENGARRY MILITIA — BY — J. A. MACDONELL [OF GREENFIELD). " I beg to state that the County of Glengarry has on every occasion been distinguished for good conduct, and will on any emergency turn out more fighting men in proportion to its population than any other in Her Majesty's dominions ."' — Extract from a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Carmichael, Particular Service, to Lieuten ant-General Sir James Macdonell, K.C.B., K.C.H., commanding Brigade of Guards and second in command of Her Majesty's Forces in Canada, dated December, 1840.

MONTREAL Wm. Foster, Browh 4. Co. 1893. Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-Three, by John Alexander Macdonell, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. To His Excellency SIR HUGH MACDONELL, K.C.M.G., C.B., H. M. Envoy to the King of Denmark My Dear Aberchalder, It was my intention to have dedicated these little sketches re lating principally to the military services of the Glengarry people in Canada to your brother, General Sir Alexander Macdonell, K.C.B., Colonel-Commandant of the 2nd Battalion P. CO. Rifle Brigade, but poor Sir Aleck's recent death rendered it impossible. His services in the Crimea as A.D.C. to Sir George Brown, when in command of the Light Division, and. where he himself after wards commanded the 2nd Battalion of his distinguished Regiment ; in the Indian Mutiny, where he commanded the 3rd Battalion, as well as in the campaign on the Northwest Frontier of India, and in the Expedition against the iMohmund Tribes, which he led, and the distinctions conferred upon him by his Sovereign, proved his merit as a soldier, and maintained the record of what was once known in Scotland as a fighting name.

Your father was (together with his elder brother, who was the Speaker of the first House of Assembly of this Province) one of the two first members for the County of Glengarry when what was pre viously known as the Upper Country of Canada was erected into a separate Province and Parliamentary Institutions accorded to it. He had been, with his father, his brothers and other kinsmen — all of them holding commissions in the King's Royal Regiment of Nerv York and other Loyalist Corps — one of those who had fought through the Revolutionary War, and who on its termination settled here, a body of men deservedly held in high esteem by following generations of Canadians, known to us in Canada as United Em pire Loyalists. Colonel Simcoe, who was nominated Lieutenant Governor of the Province, appointed him to be the first Adjutant- General of the Militia of Upper Canada, and he was largely instru 1 ntal in laying the foundation of the Militia system which still exists.

Chapter 1

Glengarry in Scotland. — Result of the Disarming, Prosce.ibing and other acts introduced into the scottish Law. — Formation of Highland Regiments and Emigration. A LARGE NUMBER LEAVE GLENGARRY IN SCOTLAND IN 1773 AT THE INSTIGATION OF SlR WlLLIAM JOHNSON AND SETTLE IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY, IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW York. — Death of Sir William in 1774 His Services, Influence and Character. In much that has of recent years been written on the very in teresting subject of the United Empirt Loyalist settlement of this Province, the War of 1812, '13, '14, and the Rebellion of 1837-8, there is but little, if any, mention made of the part which the High landers of Glengarry took in the American Revolutionary War of 1776-83, and the early settlement of the country at the close of the War, its defence in iS 12-14, and the suppression of the rebellion.

Others, the York Volunteers in particular, come in for at least their fair share of credit. Their flags are paraded, and their deeds are made to speak again after a lapse of many years, and the inference is given, with painful reiteration, that to them and theirs among the local forces of the country, is the credit chiefly due on these occa sions ; while, in some instances, individuals who never left their pro vision shops except to take to the woods when York was a second time surrendered, and poor Dr. Strachan left to negotiate with the Americans, would appear to have become of late grent military com manders of those days — the very saviours of their country, in fact, in the hour of its utmost need ! I venture the assertion that the County of Glengarry contained^ at least as many Loyalist settlers who had fought for the Crown \ during the first War as any other of the earliest settled counties, and contributed on both the latter occasions more fighting men for the preservation of the country, its connection with the Mother Land, and the maintenance of our Institutions, than any other part of the Province, and this without wishing to detract in the least from the services of the good burghers of York, or of others, vaunted though they be.

I submit it to the judgment of my readers whether I cannot make that statement good. I shall speak by the record, and shall give my authorities. It is of importance, first, to consider the circumstances under which the County of Glengarry was originally settled, as the settlers for the most part, previous to the War of 1812, came to Canada under circumstances which redound to their credit as loyal and faithful subjects of the British Crown, We are now so far removed from the struggles made in Scotland on behalf of the House of Stuart, that we can recall them dispassion ately. Practically, that race is extinct. If represented at all, it is in the person of our present gracious Sovereign, who, like her immediate predecessors, has no more loyal subjects than the descendants of the men who sought with such chivalry for those they recognized as Kings by the Right Divine.

They were unsuccessful in their efforts, but the history of Great Britain does not contain a more glorious chapter than that which tells of the struggles of the Highland Jacobite Chiefs and Clans, and how they poured out their blood like water for those they called their Kings. The strongest Hanoverian, the staunchest Orangeman, cannot read what notably Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd, Edmonstoun Aytoun, as well as the Scottish ballads, have handed down to us, without admitting — without any abatement of principle — the devotion and heroism of those who risked and lost their all. Conspicuous among the Jacobites were the people of Glengarry. With other Scottish Cavaliers, they had rallied around Montrose, and " throughout his campaigns were one of the mainsprings which kept up the astonishing movements of the chivalrous enterprise ;" (1) they were foremost among the Highland forces under John Grahame of Claverhouse, the Viscount of Dundee, and bore the brunt at Killiecrankie, when that great Leader fell ; in greater number than almost any other Highland Clan they joined the Earl of Mar in 17 15.

(j) Mac Ian's Sketches; title, "Glengarry." On a later occasion their Chief was selected from amongst the High land Chiefs and Noblemen to be the bearer of an address to Prince Charles Stuart signed with their blood (i) In 1745 their leaders were the most trusted adherents of Prince Charles and their men as brave as the bravest of his soldiers ; they paid the penalty like men of valour as they were, some in death, others in expatriation, and all, from the proud Chief to the humblest of the clansmen, in the devastation of their homes. " They stood to the last, and when standing was o'er, All sullen and silent they dropped the claymore, And yielded, indignant, their necks to the blow, Their homes to the flame, and their lands to the foe." But the principle of Monarchy was an innate and cardinal article of their faith, and each succeeding generation has never since failed to prove it to the House of Guelph when there ceased to be any question as to the Dynasty.

The result of the Disarming and Proscribing Acts, the Jurisdic tion Act, and other alterations adopted into the law of Scotland in consequence of the long series of conflicts which culminated in " the '45," together with the introduction of the system of sheep farming in the Highlands, for which its people were unfitted, and the abolition of the feudal system of Clanship, which gave way under the absence of many heads of Clans who were exempted from the Act of Indemnity of 1747, and the impoverishment of others, was to force a large number of the Highland people to emigrate, though many thousands, brought up to the trade of arms, availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the genius of Mr. Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, who was then Prime Minister, and entered the military service of the Crown under the liberal plan devised in 1757, when Letters of Service were issued for raising the Highland Regiments.

Mr. Fullarton, in his "History of the Highland Clans and Regiments," quotes from an anonymous writer, who says : — " This call to arms was responded to by the Clans, and Battalion on Battalion were raised in the remotest parts of the Highlands among those who a few years before were de.oted to, and too long had followed, the Race of Stuart : Frasers. Macdonalds, Camerons, Macleans, Macphersons and others of disaffected names and Clans were enrolled ; their Chiefs and connections obtained commissions, and the clansmen, always ready to follow with eager ness, endeavored who should be first listed." 4i) Burke's Dormant and Kjctinct Peerage ; title. " Lord Macdonell and Aros." With what glory to the Nation they acquitted themselves is matter of history. " To them, under the generalship of Wolfe, is largely due the fact that Canada is to-day a possession of the British Crown ; they battled under Hutchinson and Abercrombie, pushed the French at Aboukir, and bore the brunt of the Turkish cavaliers at Rosetta," says Colonel Coffin in his Chronicle of the War of 1812.

Indeed, wherever Great Britain had any fighting to do they were on hand to do it, and those were days when Britain needed her bravest and her best. In 1776 the Earl of Chatham was able to utter m Parliament his famous eulogy on the Highland Regiments : — ■ " I sought for merit wherever it could be found. It is my boast that I was the first Minister who looked for it and found it in the Mountains of the North. I called it forth, and drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men ; men who left by your jealousy became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the State in the War before last. These men in the last War were brought to combat on your side ; they served with fidelity as they fought with valor, and conquered for you in every quarter of the world."

But at present we have to do with those who emigrated to the Colonies of the Crown in America. Others were left in Glengarry who, as will be seen hereafter, did as other Highlanders, and en rolling themselves under their young Chief, fought as was to be expected when the opportunity was afforded them. The Emigrants had naturally looked for peace, and hoped in the new world to repair the disaster and retrieve the hard fortune of the old, but the time was not far distant when once more they were to fly to arms and across the Atlantic assert the principle of the Monarchy, and, regardless of the Dynasty, fight for George as they had fought for King James ; once more, "for Conscience sake, to leave all aside and still keep true whate'er betide '" — even though for a second time they should have, as eventually they were obliged, to leave behind them their homes, which this time they had made for themselves.

It wa's not long after the last unsuccessful effort had been made in Scotland on behalf of the House of Stuart, that a number of the people of Glengarry and Knoydart, under the leadership of several gentlemen of the Clan, called after the properties of their families in Scotland : Macdonell of Aberchalder, Leek (or Licks, as I see the name is spelt in an old map of Scotland), Collachie and Scotas (or Scothotlse) — emigrated to America, settling in what was then called Tryon County in the Mohawk Valley, in the Province of New York, about thirty miles from Albany. The name of the county was, during the Revolutionary War, in 1784, changed to Montgomery, after the American General,who was killed at the siege of Quebec in December, 1775, the former appellation having fallen into disfavor owing to the fact that William Tryon, who had previously been Governor os the Province of New York, then of Carolina and afterwards of New York again, was one of the most prominent and devoted Loyalists.

The County, as originally formed, embraced all that part of the present State of New York lying west of a line running north and south nearly through the centre of the present County of Schoharie. It was divided into five districts, which were again subdivided into smaller districts or precincts ; the countybuildings being at Johnstown, where was the residence of Sir William Johnson. The settlement of these Highlanders in that part took place at the instigation of Sir William, who had acquired a vast property in the vicinity, and who, having learned the Indian language, studied their methods and conciliated their regard by long and fair dealing with them, was possessed of an influence over the Indians, particularly those of the Six Nations such as no other man had ever enjoyed. In the war which terminated in the conquest of Canada from the French, Sir William had taken a most active part, being entrusted with the command of the provincial troops of New York, and at the same time being Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs of that Province.

In 1759, he commanded the provincial troops under Brigadier-General Prideaux in the expedition against Niagara, and on the death of the latter, succeeded to the command, eventually taking Niagara, when about 600 men were made prisoners of war. This event broke off the communication which the French intended to establish between Canada and Louisiana. When Amherst embarked at Oswego in June, 1760, to proceed on the expedition to Canada, Johnson brought to him at that place 1,000 Indians of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, which, it is alleged, was the largest number of Indians ever seen in arms at one lime in the cause of Britain. For his previous signal services in the cause of the King, His Majesty, on the 27th November, 1755, had been graciously pleased to create him a Baronet of the United Kingdom, and at the same time conferred upon him a large pension.

(1) (0 Morgan's Celebrated Canadians. From the nature of the pursuits in which Sir William Johnson was engaged, the then unsettled state of the country, and the fact that these Highlanders were, like their countrymen of that and preceding generations, trained to arms from their very infancy, accustomed to hardships and as active as the Indians themselves, it can easily be conceived that they would prove the most desirable class of neighbours and allies to Sir William. He did not, however, long survive. The American historian, Stone, states in his life of Brant : — " Sir William Johnson was too observing and sagacious a man not to note the signs of the times " (the reference, of course, being to the impending revolution). " He saw the gathering tempest, and it is believed to have given him great uneasiness.

His sympathies, according to the testimony of those who knew him, were undoubt edly with the people. He was from the body of the people himself, hiving been the architect of his own rank and fortunes ; and those w.io were acquainted with and yet (1832) survive him, represent the struggle in his bosom to have been great between those sympathies and his own straight principles of liberty on the one hand, and his duty to his Sovereign on the other — a Sovereign whom he had served long and faithfully, and who in turn had loaded him with princely benefactions. His domains in the Valley of the Mohawk were ex tensive ; and his influence through a large number of subordinate officers and a number of tenantry, was correspondingly great. To the Indians, not only of the Six Nations, but those far in the West beyond, who had fallen within the circle of his influence after the conquest of Canada and the subjugation of Pontiac, he had been a father and they looked up to him with veneration.

Long association with him and great respect for his character — which for its blunt honesty, frankness and generosity, not altogether void of that rough life incident to a border population, was well calculated to secure the attachment of such people — had also given to his opinions the force of Royal authority among the colonists. The population, aside from the Indians, was chiefly Dutch in the lower part of Mohawk Valley, while in the interesting Vale of the Schoharie and in the upper district of the Mohawk it was composed of the descendants of the German palitinates who had been planted there 50 years before. It was not at that time a very intelligent population ; and the name of Sir William, who had been their friend and companion, in peace, and their leader in war, like that of the King, was a tower of strength.

It was very natural, therefore, that their opinions upon the great political questions then agitating the country, should take their complexion for the most part from those entertained by him. Hence, when the storm of civil war commenced, the Loyalists in that Valley were probably more numerous in proportion to the whole number of the population than in almost any other section of the Northern Colonies. " In connection with the troubles which every man of ordinary sagacity could not but perceive were fermenting. Sir William visited England for the last time in the autumn of 1773, returning in the succeeding spring. He probably came back with his loyal feelings somewhat strengthened. It was not his fortune, however, good or ill, to see the breaking out of the tempest, the near approaches of which he had been watching with an intentness of observation cor responding with the magnitude of his own personal interests, which must necessarily be involved.

He died suddenly, at Johnson Hall, about the 24th June, 1774." He was succeeded in his title and estates by his son, Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet, and in his office of Superintendent General of Indian Affairs by his son-in-law, Colonel Guy Johnson, who had long been in office as Assistant Superintendent, he having for his deputy Colonel Daniel Claus, who had likewise married a daughter of Sir William. Sir John Johnson, on his father's death, became Commandant of the Militia of the Province of New York. They derived great aid in the subsequent administration of affairs, especially amongst the Indians, from the celebrated Joseph Brant (Thayen danegea), who became Secretary to Colonel Guy Johnson, and who had been much in the service of Sir William during the latter years of his life ; as also from his sister, Mary Brant, who was a woman of singular talent and character, and who was the last wife of Sir William Johnson, though I believe their marriage had taken place according to Indian custom only, and may or may not therefore have been legal. Be that as it may, it was largely instrumental in securing their powerful influence to the side of Britain in the long struggle which then ensued.

Chapter 2

Breaking out of the Revolutionary War. — The " Committee of Safety " at Albany Warned against Sir John Johnson, AND NOTIFIED THAT THE SCOTCHMEN WERE ARMING. THE Whigs " daily scandalized, provoked and threatened" ey the Loyal Catholic Highlanders. — Correspondence between Sir John and Governor Tryon; and the latter and Lord George Germaine. — General Schuyler, of the Revolutionary Army, invades Tryon County. — Negotiations between him and Sir John and Mr. Macdonell (Collachie). — Sir John and the Highlanders escape to Canada. — Lady Johnson taken prisoner. — Her letter to General Washington. At the time of the arrival and settlement of the Glengarry people in the Mohawk Valley, affairs in America were, then, in a very unsettled condition. In order to meet the military expenditure therein, the British Parliament had a short time previously imposed a stamp duty on all legal documents.

This was met with a denial on the part of the discontented colonists of the right of the Imperial Legislature to impose taxes upon them without their consent. The Sta np Act was repealed the year following its enactment, but it was contended that the principle of taxation without representation was maintained by a light duty of three pence per pound which was placed on tea — one fourth of that paid in England at the time — and nominal duties on other articles. On the 16th December, 1773, occurred in Boston Harbour that episode which Mr. Erastus Wiman has lately designated as the " Boston tea party," when a number of persons disguised as Indians threw into the harbour from the East India vessels some three hundred and forty chests of tea. The port of Boston was thereupon closed, and troops sent to enforce sub mission.

A " Continental Congress " was then decided upon and convened at Philadelphia in September, 1774, and an effort made to induce the people of Canada, who had but lately passed under British rule, to join in it by sending representatives. " The Quebec Act " which was then in contemplation, however, and the principles of which were known to the King's New Subjects, fully satisfied the French Canadians, guaranteeing to them as it did their own laws, language and customs, and they tacitly declined to participate in the proposed Congress, although some sons of sedition within the Province en deavoured to stir up their fellow countrymen to hostility against the form of government, and went to the expense of translating, printing and circulating the letter sent to them by the promoters of the Continental Congress, (i) In April, 1775, occurred the first collision between the armed Colonists and the soldiers of the King, and throughout the Thirteen Colonies measures Were taken with a view to procuring their ultimate independence.

On the 1 8th of May the Provincial Committee of the Palitinate District or State of New York addressed the " Committee of Safety " at Albany, stating that the Johnsons and their powerful allies in the Mohawk District, had succeeded by threats, intimidation and au array of military strength, in preventing any open adoption of a de claration approving of the proceedings of the Continental Congress. Says the Palitinate Committee : — " This County has for a series of years been ruled by one family, the several branches of which are still strenuous in dissuading the people from coming into Congressional measures, and have, even last week, at a numerous meeting of the Mohawk District, appeared with all their dependents armed, to oppose the people considering of their grievances ; their number being so large and the people unarmed, that they struck terror into most of them, and they dispersed."

Mr. Stone adds that : — " The Committee further notified their friends in Albany that Sir John Johnson was fortifying the Baronial Hall by planting several swivels around it ; and he had paraded part of the Regiment of Militia which he commanded on the day previous for the purpose of intimidation, as it was conjectured. It was likewise reported that the Scotch Highlanders, settled in large numbers in and about Johnstown, who were- Roman Catholics, had armed themselves to the number of 1 Jo, ready to aid in the suppression of any popular outbreak in favour <3f the growing cause of liberty. (2) During the course of the summer, the tension became stronger. (1) Sir Guy'Catleton to Earl Dartmouth, April 6, 1775. (2) Volume 1, page 54. The Dutch or German settlers divided in their allegiance, Mr. Stone stating that the majority of them declared themselves as Whigs, as the American sympathizers were called — the Loyalists being termed by the Revolutionists, Tories.

The first shot in the war West of the Hudson was fired when the Loyalist Sheriff of the County arrested a Whig named John Fonda, at whom he sired when he resisted arrest. It was immediately returned by the discharge of a number of firelocks of the rebels at -the Sheriff, which, however, were not very deadly, as the only effect was a slight wound in his breast. The doors of the house were broken, and an effort made to seize the Sheriff, when a gun was fired at the hall by Sir John. "This was known to be a signal for his retainers and Scotch partisans to rally to arms, and as they would muster 500 men in a very short time, the Whigs thought it more prudent to disperse." (Stone). From this out, the relations of the neigbours to each other became more and more strained. The Loyalists threw every impe diment in the way of the Committee, and no method of embarrassing them was left untried ; they called public meetings themselves, and chose counter-committees, covered the Whig Committees with ridicule, and charged them, most properly, with illegal and tyrannical conduct — the consequence being mutual exasperation between near neigh bours, and the reciprocal engendering of hostile feelings between friends, who ranged themselves under opposing banners.

These incipient neighborhood quarrels occasioned, in the progress of the contest which ensued, some of the most bitter and bloody conflicts that ever marked the annals of Civil War. On the 7th September. 1775, the Whig Committee wrote the Provincial Congress in New York, denouncing the conduct of Sir John Johnson, and that of his associates— particularly the High landers, who, to the number of 200, were said to be gathered about him, and by whom the Whigs " were daily scandalized, provoked and threatened." It appears that from the following correspondence in January, 1776, Sir John and the Highlanders took active preliminary steps towards armed resistance to the Congressional authorities :— GOVERNOR TRYON TO LORD GEORGE GERMAINE. " On board H. M.S. Duchess of Gofdon, ) " New York Harbour, 3rd January, 1776.

( " My Lord, ' " The gentleman who delivered me the enclosed letter from Sir John Johnson, assured me that by Government complying with its contents Sir John could muster five hundred Indians to support the cause of Government, and that these with a body of regulars might retake the forts. If Sir John had the title of Superintendent of In dian Affairs it Would give the greatest weight to His Majesty's Indian affairs, the Indians having the greatest affection for the son of their late benefactor. I wish Your Lordship may think -as favourably of Sir John's proposals as I do. &c, &c." {Enclosure In the above. ] SIR JOHN JOHNSON TO GOVERNOR TRYON. " Sir, " I hope the occasion and intention of this letter may plead my excuse for the liberty I take in introducing to Your Excellency the bearer hereof, Mr. Allan Macdonell, who will inform you of many particulars which cannot at this time be safely communicated in writing.

The distracted and convulsed state that this unhappy country is now worked up to, and the situation that I am in here, together with the many obligations that our family are under to the best of Sovereigns, induce me to fall upon a plan that may, I hope be of service to the country, the propriety of which I entirely submit to Your Excellency's better judgment, depending on the friendship which you have been pleased to honour me with, for your advice on, and representation to, His Majesty, of what I propose. " Having consulted with all my friends in this quarter, among whom are many old and good officers, I have come to the resolution of forming a Battalion, and have named all the officers, most of whom have a good deal of interest in their respective neighborhoods, and have seen a great number of men ready to compleie the plan.

We must, however, not think of stirring until support and supplies of many necessaries to enable us to carry our design into execution are received — of all which Mr. Macdonell will inform Your Excel lency. " I make not the least doubt of the success of this plan should we be supported in time. As to news, I must beg leave to refer you to Mr. Macdonell, who will inform you of everything that has been done in Canada that has come to our knowledge. As I find by the papers you are soon to sail for England, I despair of having the pleasure of paying my respects to you, but most sincerely wish you an agreeable voyage and a happy sight of your family and friends. " I am, Your Excellency's " Most obedient, humble servant, " John Johnson." Doubtless the organization and other preparations indicated in the above letter, some knowledge of which must have transpired, induced Congress in the same month to direct the expedition into Tryon County of General Schuyler of the Revolutionary Army, the forces under his command numbering some 3,000 men.