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effect on our Military Operations in the provinces. The whole country would be driven to a state of desperation and satisfy them beyond doubt that we had no intention of holding the provinces.” He therefore decided his best course was to make a widespread offer of paroles to Canadians. A parole was a promise by a man “not to bear arms or act in any military capacity against the United States during the present war” until officially exchanged for an American parolee. Dearborn issued a proclamation that all Canadians who came forth voluntarily to give their paroles “shall have their property and persons secured to them inviolate.” So many men took advantage of this offer that the Buffalo Gazette reported that Canadians “appear to be well suited in the recent change of affairs” as “nearly all the militia from Chippawa to Point Abino have come in and received their parole from Colonel Preston at Fort Erie” and from Dearborn at Fort George. Many of those Canadians who sought paroles were not American sympathizers but loyal subjects who wished only to protect their property. It appears that requesting a parole was not “there have been always voluntary, as American shameful acts detachments visited farmsteads throughout the peninsula, forcing committed on men to take a parole; those who inhabitants” refused were threatened with arrest and imprisonment in the United States. The invaders cast their net very wide – Hamilton Merritt, the young Canadian cavalry commander, sarcastically remarked that they “paroled all males from 14 to 100 years of age.” Whether voluntary or extorted, American records indicate that 1,193 men were paroled after the loss of Fort George. To counter this erosion of strength, Lieutenant-General George Prevost, the governor-general and commander of the forces, issued a proclamation on June 14 that called on all “loyal and well disposed in this Province, who are not under the immediate control or within the power of the enemy, to use every possible effort in repelling the foe and driving him from our soil.” After his subsequent withdrawal to Fort George, Dearborn’s attitude toward Canadians again began to change. Beginning on June 19, he carried out a mass arrest of about a hundred civilians in and around Newark. Among them were the local magistrates whom Dearborn had earlier retained in their offices to oversee “due administration of the laws for the suppression of offences against Society.” Many of those arrested were militia officers who had given their paroles. Some of these prisoners were moved across the river to Fort Niagara. An American officer at Fort George noted that Dearborn had taken “some precautionary measures respecting violent British partisans,” with “the most conspicuous” being “sent over the river to be kept in the United States as hostages.” This same witness also recalled that there was daily skirmishing but that the invaders were seldom successful because “the enemy is best acquainted with the paths, bye-roads, swamps and the country in general.” The British and Canadians also had the assistance of numbers of warriors, not only from the Grand River but also from Lower Canada and the Upper Lakes. They
effect on our Military Operations in the provinces. The whole country would be driven to a state of desperation and satisfy them beyond doubt that we had no intention of holding the provinces.” He therefore decided his best course was to make a widespread offer of paroles to Canadians. A parole was a promise by a man “not to bear arms or act in any military capacity against the United States during the present war” until officially exchanged for an American parolee. Dearborn issued a proclamation that all Canadians who came forth voluntarily to give their paroles “shall have their property and persons secured to them inviolate.” So many men took advantage of this offer that the Buffalo Gazette reported that Canadians “appear to be well suited in the recent change of affairs” as “nearly all the militia from Chippawa to Point Abino have come in and received their parole from Colonel Preston at Fort Erie” and from Dearborn at Fort George. Many of those Canadians who sought paroles were not American sympathizers but loyal subjects who wished only to protect their property. It appears that requesting a parole was not “there have been always voluntary, as American shameful acts detachments visited farmsteads throughout the peninsula, forcing committed on men to take a parole; those who inhabitants” refused were threatened with arrest and imprisonment in the United States. The invaders cast their net very wide – Hamilton Merritt, the young Canadian cavalry commander, sarcastically remarked that they “paroled all males from 14 to 100 years of age.” Whether voluntary or extorted, American records indicate that 1,193 men were paroled after the loss of Fort George. To counter this erosion of strength, Lieutenant-General George Prevost, the governor-general and commander of the forces, issued a proclamation on June 14 that called on all “loyal and well disposed in this Province, who are not under the immediate control or within the power of the enemy, to use every possible effort in repelling the foe and driving him from our soil.” After his subsequent withdrawal to Fort George, Dearborn’s attitude toward Canadians again began to change. Beginning on June 19, he carried out a mass arrest of about a hundred civilians in and around Newark. Among them were the local magistrates whom Dearborn had earlier retained in their offices to oversee “due administration of the laws for the suppression of offences against Society.” Many of those arrested were militia officers who had given their paroles. Some of these prisoners were moved across the river to Fort Niagara. An American officer at Fort George noted that Dearborn had taken “some precautionary measures respecting violent British partisans,” with “the most conspicuous” being “sent over the river to be kept in the United States as hostages.” This same witness also recalled that there was daily skirmishing but that the invaders were seldom successful because “the enemy is best acquainted with the paths, bye-roads, swamps and the country in general.” The British and Canadians also had the assistance of numbers of warriors, not only from the Grand River but also from Lower Canada and the Upper Lakes. They
8 The Fife and Drum October 2020
ensured that the cordon around Newark was kept tight. On July 10, the American lack of local knowledge was remedied when Joseph Willcocks – the prewar government opponent – appeared at Dearborn’s headquarters and offered to form a “corps of volunteers” to fight alongside the American army in the Niagara. Dearborn gladly accepted this offer and, within a week, the newly appointed Major Joseph Willcocks had mustered a company of 54 all ranks. They wore a white cockade and a green silk ribbon around their hats. The Canadian Volunteers, as they were called, were soon guiding enemy patrols and gathering information from American sympathizers. They also gained a reputation for acquiring the private property of loyal Canadians – one American officer described them as “cowboys” because of their propensity for thieving cattle. Willcocks’ Volunteers were not the only irregular unit in the American forces with such a reputation. Dr. Cyrenius Chapin of Buffalo led a small mounted volunteer unit whose conduct was so bad that American regulars nicknamed them “Dr. Chapin and his Forty Thieves.” the most The depredations of these two of rapacity groups and others were well known and many in Dearborn’s army were the innocent disgusted by their conduct. An American observer commented on the lawlessness of the occupied area: After Fort George was taken by our troops, a system of plunder and outrage was adopted and commenced to an extent almost unequalled in the annals of French warfare. Citizens, while peaceably attending to their business, were seized and sent across the river, and almost at the same time, their property was destroyed. Those who were paroled and promised protection, on suspicion of their possessing moveable property were arrested and their property pillaged. The notorious Traitor, Willcocks, was commissioned to raise a body of marauders expressly to plunder, burn and destroy. Another American reported that “since the capture of Fort George there have been the most shameful acts of rapacity committed on the innocent inhabitants” of Upper Canada. He added that he was hearing “every day of quantities of plate and other valuable articles being brought from there and sold by the marauders at a small price” and officers “are ashamed to record the commission of acts which stain our national character with such foul disgrace.” On July 15, Dearborn was removed as commander of the American army and temporarily succeeded by Brigadier-General John Boyd, who was in turn replaced in early September by Major-General James Wilkinson. Wilkinson was under orders to transfer most of the regular units at Fort George east to Sacket’s Harbor to participate in an offensive against Montreal. Although it took him time to get moving, by the first days of October the only American regulars on the Canadian side of the Niagara was Colonel Winfield Scott’s Second Artillery Regiment. Although he had orders to remain at Fort George, Scott, a very ambitious officer, convinced himself that it would be better
Newark before and after the war is seen in these two maps drawn for the British Army. Above is the bustling town in 1810, drawn on two sheets and here fused together. Fort George is a large enclosure of ditch, berm and palisade anchored by six earth-and-timber bastions. The town has no other significant defences. The lighthouse is in the top left corner. Below is Newark in 1815, showing the effects of two years of peace and three more of war: less forest, fewer houses and more fortification. But already some two dozen buildings (of the 80 burned) have been rebuilt. Work began early in 1814 and many homes were raised on their original stone foundations. Fort George has been reshaped into a more compact, more defensible form (today’s reproduction is the earlier fort – note the magazine). The lighthouse has been torn down and Fort Mississauga built in its place, while Butler’s Barracks (bottom centre) continue to grow.
Newark before and after the war is seen in these two maps drawn for the British Army. Above is the bustling town in 1810, drawn on two sheets and here fused together. Fort George is a large enclosure of ditch, berm and palisade anchored by six earth-and-timber bastions. The town has no other significant defences. The lighthouse is in the top left corner. Below is Newark in 1815, showing the effects of two years of peace and three more of war: less forest, fewer houses and more fortification. But already some two dozen buildings (of the 80 burned) have been rebuilt. Work began early in 1814 and many homes were raised on their original stone foundations. Fort George has been reshaped into a more compact, more defensible form (today’s reproduction is the earlier fort – note the magazine). The lighthouse has been torn down and Fort Mississauga built in its place, while Butler’s Barracks (bottom centre) continue to grow.
Images are details of “No.V, Upper Canada, Plan of Niagara” by A. Gray, 1810, coloured manuscript in two halves, 51½” x 33¾” fused (LAC 4135172) and “Plan of the mouth of the Niagara River …” from an original by Lt. Philpotts, R.E., on June 3, 1815; map 28 ¾” 15 ¾” (LAC 4512345)
Sources & Further Reading
250 Fort York Blvd, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3K9 info@fortyork.ca www.fortyork.ca The Fife and Drum 9
Willcocks was able to move freely throughout much of the peninsula because of British troop movements. Many of Vincent’s men were sent to Kingston to match the movement of Wilkinson’s army to Sacket’s Harbor. Matters took a bad turn in early October when Vincent learned of the disastrous British defeat at the battle of the Thames on the 5th of that month. Reports that the victorious American army was advancing concerned him so much that he decided to withdraw from the cordon around Fort George and pull back to Burlington Bay.
the Canadian renegade unleashed a miniature reign of terror
The withdrawal was conducted with unseemly haste and large quantities of provisions were abandoned. Many civilians had to be left behind and Merritt recalled that there “was not a dry cheek to be seen in parting with the good people, as they were all confident” that they “must be at the Mercy of the Enemy, this being the second time” they had been abandoned. By this time Merritt’s opinion of British generals was at a low ebb. He said of Major-General Francis de Rottenburg, then commanding in Upper Canada, that “We expected he would have performed wonders, in fact he had done nothing but eat, drink, snuff and snuffle.” The Americans took advantage of the British withdrawal to freely plunder the helpless civilians and McClure proved unable to discipline his troops, who looted as they pleased. In desperation, he issued an address to the “Inhabitants of the Upper Province 10 The Fife and Drum October 2020
of Canada” in which he admitted that “illegal, unauthorized and forbidden pillage had been committed by a few who are lost to all honour and insensible of the obligations of a soldier.” Nonetheless, McClure urged Canadians to “abstain from communications with the British army” under threat of the “penalties of rigorous martial law.” He beseeched Secretary of War John Armstrong for reinforcements, confessing that the violence his men had directed against the Canadians might induce the British to retaliate and “visit upon our defence-less inhabitants the whole force of their indignation.” By December 1813, McClure was desperate. The enlistment terms of his brigade had expired and he only had about a hundred men under command. On December 10 Willcocks informed him that a British force had moved forward from Burlington Bay to the Twenty-Mile Creek and its advance guard was at the Twelve-Mile Creek (modern St. Catharines). Knowing it was impossible to hold Fort George with the few men he had, McClure convened a meeting of his senior officers. He showed them orders from Secretary of War John Armstrong, which read: Understanding that the defence of the post committed to your charge may render it proper to destroy the town of Newark, You are hereby directed to apprise its inhabitants of this circumstance and invite them to remove themselves and their effects to some place of greater safety. McClure asked his subordinates’ opinion. They told him that Newark ought to be destroyed because, even if this destruction was not necessary for the defence of Fort George, it would become necessary for the defence of Fort Niagara opposite if Fort George were abandoned. They reasoned it would deprive the British of winter quarters in the area, forcing them to stay away from the Niagara River. This seems to have been the answer McClure was looking for and he decided both to withdraw from Fort George and burn Newark. The destruction was carried out during the evening of December 10, 1813, in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. The inhabitants were given twelve hours’ notice to take themselves and their property away and then Newark was put to the torch by Willcocks and his Canadian Volunteers, some of whom were former residents of the village. An appalled witness to the conflagration was Cyrenius Chapin, the irregular unit leader, who had strongly opposed the destruction, knowing that it would result in retaliation against the American side of the river. Chapin described what Willcocks and his men did on that snowy December evening in 1813: Women and children were turned out of doors in a cold and stormy night; the cries of the infants, the decrepitude of age, the debility of sickness, had no impression on this monster in human shape; they were consigned to that house whose canopy was the heavens and whose walls
were as boundless as the wide world. In the destruction of this town he [McClure] was aided by the most active exertions of Joseph Wilcox [sic] who had for a number of years resided in this pleasant village and … actually led a banditti through the town, setting fire to his neighbours’ dwellings and applying the epithet of tory to everyone who disapproved of this flagrant act of barbarity. “retributive justice McClure complained that Chapin a speedy retaliation “drew his pistol” at Willcocks, “swearing he would dispatch the opposite shore first man who dared put this order into execution.” But Willcocks did not stop and when a British and Canadian force entered Newark on the following morning, Merritt recalled that nothing remained of the town “but heaps of coal and heaps of furniture that the Inhabitants were fortunate enough to get out of their houses.” Except for two structures, the little community of 80 buildings, valued at £30,250 (about $8,530,000 in modern Canadian dollars), had been completely destroyed. Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond, who had just replaced De Rottenburg as commander in Upper Canada, was infuriated by the destruction. He immediately queried McClure “whether this atrocious act had been committed by the authority of the American government, or is the unauthorized act of any individual.” McClure replied that he was “only accountable to his own government for any act or procedure of his while commanding.” But both Secretary of War Armstrong and New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins were appalled by McClure’s deed and Armstrong ordered Wilkinson, the senior American commander on the northern frontier, to publicly disavow the burning of Newark. Writing to Prevost, Wilkinson referred not only to the destruction of private property at Newark but throughout the Canadian side of the Niagara, which presented “the aspect rather of vindictive fury than just retribution; yet they are reputed more to personal feelings, than any settled form of policy deliberately weighed and adopted.” This did not mollify Drummond, who coldly considered that “retributive justice demanded of me a speedy retaliation on the opposite shore of America.” That retribution was not long in coming. Drummond ordered Colonel John Murray to cross the river and attack Fort Niagara. It took a few days to assemble enough boats but after dark on December 18, the assault force, about 500 all ranks, crossed the Niagara. They landed a few miles south of the fort and moved quickly and stealthily in three columns A young private of the 100th toward it. The American sentries were during the attack on Fort overpowered at about 4:30, permitting Greg Legge (author’s collection).
were as boundless as the wide world. In the destruction of this town he [McClure] was aided by the most active exertions of Joseph Wilcox [sic] who had for a number of years resided in this pleasant village and … actually led a banditti through the town, setting fire to his neighbours’ dwellings and applying the epithet of tory to everyone who disapproved of this flagrant act of barbarity. “retributive justice McClure complained that Chapin a speedy retaliation “drew his pistol” at Willcocks, “swearing he would dispatch the opposite shore first man who dared put this order into execution.” But Willcocks did not stop and when a British and Canadian force entered Newark on the following morning, Merritt recalled that nothing remained of the town “but heaps of coal and heaps of furniture that the Inhabitants were fortunate enough to get out of their houses.” Except for two structures, the little community of 80 buildings, valued at £30,250 (about $8,530,000 in modern Canadian dollars), had been completely destroyed. Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond, who had just replaced De Rottenburg as commander in Upper Canada, was infuriated by the destruction. He immediately queried McClure “whether this atrocious act had been committed by the authority of the American government, or is the unauthorized act of any individual.” McClure replied that he was “only accountable to his own government for any act or procedure of his while commanding.” But both Secretary of War Armstrong and New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins were appalled by McClure’s deed and Armstrong ordered Wilkinson, the senior American commander on the northern frontier, to publicly disavow the burning of Newark. Writing to Prevost, Wilkinson referred not only to the destruction of private property at Newark but throughout the Canadian side of the Niagara, which presented “the aspect rather of vindictive fury than just retribution; yet they are reputed more to personal feelings, than any settled form of policy deliberately weighed and adopted.” This did not mollify Drummond, who coldly considered that “retributive justice demanded of me a speedy retaliation on the opposite shore of America.” That retribution was not long in coming. Drummond ordered Colonel John Murray to cross the river and attack Fort Niagara. It took a few days to assemble enough boats but after dark on December 18, the assault force, about 500 all ranks, crossed the Niagara. They landed a few miles south of the fort and moved quickly and stealthily in three columns A young private of the 100th toward it. The American sentries were during the attack on Fort overpowered at about 4:30, permitting Greg Legge (author’s collection). 250 Fort York Blvd, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3K9 info@fortyork.ca www.fortyork.ca
the attackers to gain entry to the fort. Drummond had advised Murray that the bayonet “is the weapon on which the success of the attack must depend” and, in the bloody and confusing fight that followed, it was clear that the assault troops took this advice to heart. The British, one American eyewitness recalled, “bayoneted the Americans notwithstanding their crying out for quarter.” That this statement demanded of me is no exaggeration is borne out by on the the American casualty figures of 65 killed and 14 wounded – a reverse of America” of the usual proportion of killed to wounded. At the cost of six dead and five wounded, Murray’s men captured the fort, 344 prisoners, 27 pieces of artillery, 4,000 muskets and vast quantities of military equipment. The large American garrison flag was hauled down and presented to Drummond as a trophy of the victory. This triumph was only the beginning of Drummond’s campaign of fire and sword. The same day Fort Niagara fell, MajorGeneral Phineas Riall, his subordinate, crossed the river with a force of regulars embarked on boats manned by militia volunteers and, over the following three days, burned every building on the American side of the Niagara from Lake Ontario to Schlosser, across the river from Chippawa. There was now a few days’ respite while Riall prepared for the next stage of his punitive campaign: the capture and destruction of Black Rock and Buffalo. Again, it took some time to assemble the necessary boats. They were brought to Queenston and then placed on sleighs and hauled up the escarpment and then south along the Portage Road to Chippawa, where they were refloated. During the night of December 29 and the following morning, Riall crossed the Niagara. Once on shore he advanced rapidly and, after brushing aside a large force of New York Militia, occupied Buffalo. This village and Black Rock were put to the torch and, before he withdrew to Canada on January 3, 1814, Riall sent detachments to burn every structure between Buffalo and Schlosser. Between Lakes Ontario and Erie, the American side of the Niagara was now a desolate wasteland over which lay “a gloomy stillness” so profound that “the gaunt wolf, usually stealthy and prowling,” roamed about in broad daylight. On January 12, 1814, Lieutenant-General Prevost issued a proclamation stating that “it had been an imperious duty” for Britain “to retaliate on America the miseries which the unfortunate inhabitants of Newark had been made to Regiment of Foot suffer.” This being the case, he stressed Niagara, as imagined by that British troops would refrain from
The Fife and Drum 11
![were as boundless as the wide world. In the destruction of this town he [McClure] was aided by the most active exertions of Joseph Wilcox [sic] who had for a number of years resided in this pleasant village and ... actually led a banditti through the town, setting fire to his neighbours’ dwellings and applying the epithet of tory to everyone who disapproved of this flagrant act of barbarity. “retributive justice McClure complained that Chapin a speedy retaliation “drew his pistol” at Willcocks, “swearing he would dispatch the opposite shore first man who dared put this order into execution.” But Willcocks did not stop and when a British and Canadian force entered Newark on the following morning, Merritt recalled that nothing remained of the town “but heaps of coal and heaps of furniture that the Inhabitants were fortunate enough to get out of their houses.” Except for two structures, the little community of 80 buildings, valued at £30,250 (about $8,530,000 in modern Canadian dollars), had been completely destroyed. Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond, who had just replaced De Rottenburg as commander in Upper Canada, was infuriated by the destruction. He immediately queried McClure “whether this atrocious act had been committed by the authority of the American government, or is the unauthorized act of any individual.” McClure replied that he was “only accountable to his own government for any act or procedure of his while commanding.” But both Secretary of War Armstrong and New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins were appalled by McClure’s deed and Armstrong ordered Wilkinson, the senior American commander on the northern frontier, to publicly disavow the burning of Newark. Writing to Prevost, Wilkinson referred not only to the destruction of private property at Newark but throughout the Canadian side of the Niagara, which presented “the aspect rather of vindictive fury than just retribution; yet they are reputed more to personal feelings, than any settled form of policy deliberately weighed and adopted.” This did not mollify Drummond, who coldly considered that “retributive justice demanded of me a speedy retaliation on the opposite shore of America.” That retribution was not long in coming. Drummond ordered Colonel John Murray to cross the river and attack Fort Niagara. It took a few days to assemble enough boats but after dark on December 18, the assault force, about 500 all ranks, crossed the Niagara. They landed a few miles south of the fort and moved quickly and stealthily in three columns A young private of the 100th toward it. The American sentries were during the attack on Fort overpowered at about 4:30, permitting Greg Legge (author’s collection).](IMG_PLACEHOLDER_p11_18.jpg)
such acts in the future unless “measures of the enemy should compel him again to resort to it.” If so, Prevost threatened that “prompt and signal vengeance will be taken for every fresh departure of the enemy from that system of warfare which ought to subsist between enlightened and civilized nations.” And so ended 1813, the hardest year of war for the people of the Niagara – on both sides of the rivert.
Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading any volumes of original documents from the War of 1812 M have been published and most of these collections are now online. Endlessly entertaining to read, they are the most accesssible of the necessary primary sources. The Library of Congress has the enemy’s side of the story in its American State Papers series; scroll down to Military Affairs, Vol.1, 1789-1819, for a searchable text database. E.A. Cruikshank comprehensively edited the massive (and slighly chaotic) nine-volume Documentary History of the Campaigns on the Niagara Frontier more than 100 years ago and it remains the definitive collection. With a good library card they can be found in Canadiana Online (which also provides searchable text). The Champlain Society’s four-volume selection of similar documents, edited by William Wood in the 1920s, provides the helpful introduction that Cruikshank does not. Also helpful are the “Proceedings and Reports of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada” – the committee concerned with post-war pensions for widows and orphans – which are in the Archives of Ontario and available online as well as on microform at the Toronto Public Library. General McClure published his excuses for the burning of Newark as Causes of the Destruction of the American Towns on the Niagara Frontier, and Failure of the Campaign of the Fall of 1813, printed by his friend Benjamin Smead at Bath, NY, in 1817. A
Sources & Further Reading
more moderate but still candid account by a Canadian militiaman is “A desire of serving and defending my country”— The War of 1812 Journals of William Hamilton Merritt, recently edited by Stuart Sutherland. An account by a personable junior officer of the British Army is Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War of 104th 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, Foot, edited by Donald E. Graves for Robin Brass Studio. Le Couteur, however, left Niagara for Kingston at the end of September. An equivalent American account is First Campaign of an ADC: The War of 1812 Memoir of Lieutenant William Jenkins Worth, United States Army (Old Fort Niagara, 2012), also edited by Graves. Worth left Niagara for Sacket’s Harbor at the same time as Le Couteur. Many other first-person accounts are sampled in “Reminiscences of the American Occupation of the Niagara,” in Niagara Historical Society Publications, Vol.11 (1904). The most important unpublished documents on the campaigns in Niagara are found in Library & Archives Canada, Colonial Office 42, “Correspondence of the Governor-General” and Record Group 81, “British Military Records.” In the United States National Archives, find Record Group 107, “Correspondence of the Secretary of War.” The few secondary accounts that focus on the nastier events of the campaign are rather obscure. Look for Paul Couture, “A Study of the Non-Regular Forces on the Niagara Frontier, 1812-1814” (1985) Parks Canada, Microfiche Report Series 193, or Graves, “Lawless Banditti: Joseph Willcocks, his Canadian Volunteers and the Mutual Destruction on the Niagara during the Winter of 1813” (Old Fort Niagara, 2007). Cruikshank wrote “Blockade of Fort George, 1813” for the Niagara Historical Society Records, Vol. 3 (1897). For a thorough discussion of the consequences of burning and looting in the War of 1812, see Graves, “Why the White House Was Burned: An Investigation into the British Destruction of Public Buildings at Washington in August 1814,” Journal of Military History, Vol.76 (Oct 2012), or a summary in The Fife and Drum, April 2020. Insights into how the irregular campaigning especially affected women are scattered throughout Dianne Graves, In the Midst of Alarms: The untold story of women and the War of 1812 (Robin Brass, 2007).
Memorial (finished only in the spring of 1939) as they were added to countless cenotaphs across the country. While Americans and the British wrote of their war, and encouraged discussion through movies and documentaries, the Second World War was buried in Canada for 25 years. The war’s memories here were kept alive almost exclusively by the veterans and their families and especially by those who had lost someone dear in the fighting. With the 1970s, new stirrings showed signs that the memory had not entirely disappeared. But what emerged was not honour or glory, but rather recriminations. Campaigns were mounted to honour and bring repair to Japanese Canadians and others who had lost homes, livelihoods and dignity in the Second World War. Cook analyses the various “apology campaigns” not to show that they were intrinsically wrong, but because they somehow obfuscated the memory of the soldiers who had volunteered, fought and
died for a just cause, and with ultimate The Canadian government failed its duty to remember but society has hardly done success. No equivalent compensation was better. It is striking to recognize how the sought from Japan for the tortured lives Canadian effort of the Second World War of Canadians who pained in its wartime has not penetrated the Canadian psyche, death camps. as did the Great War so deeply. In English The broadcast in early 1992 on the Canada, there are no great novels, plays or CBC of The Valour and the Horror, a movies of the second private production, war with Germany. marked the low point the Canadian A few very good, in this saga of selfgovernment failed its privately produced flagellation, shame duty to remember documentaries have and denigration. Its been shown, and three episodes focused also there are some on the disaster at excellent memoirs. Hong Kong, the bombing of Germany Ironically, there is nothing of the cultural and the single worst day of the Normandy importance of René Delacroix and Gratien campaign. Cook devotes a chapter to the Gélinas’s film Tit-Coq, Marcel Dubé’s play controversy the series engendered and then Un Simple Soldat or Roch Carrier’s novel examines the campaign to restore nothing La guerre, Yes Sir!, all products of Quebec less than honour to an entire generation. It artists. Their works are hardly supportive was led by a handful of politicians, historians, of war, but their treatments of soldiers are and concerned members of the veterans sympathetic and tender. At least they have community. not forgotten what happened between 1939 The coda is the story of a new Canadian and 1945, and their works have been taught War Museum in Ottawa, an impressive in schools for generations. undertaking that married artifact and The Second World War appears only in scholarship and prompted a new wave of some secondary-school history curricula, research and publication. There were also and most provinces do not even require other signs of hope, but not every hope a Canadian History credit. A Canadian was realized. The government of Canada must travel to France and especially the still could not be convinced to build and Netherlands to be reminded of what operate a museum near Juno Beach – where the “greatest generation” accomplished – thousands of Canadians had stormed ashore liberating literally millions of people from – so a group of activists and entrepreneurs Nazi rule – and what it cost. took on the task of rectifying the Canadian The Fight for History, making creative absence from D-Day. use of a broad range of literary and popular In the end a non-profit organization accounts, adds a stellar volume to the managed to secure funds and build a growing literature on how Canadians have museum, with the government ultimately remembered war. It’s one that surely ranks providing substantial funding. Cook is as a stinging critique of a nation hopelessly sparing in his judgments of this centre, but gripped by amnesia. There might be some I won’t be. I was there in 2018, expecting solace in the fact that even in the United something dignified, educative and as States, a country that routinely celebrates sobering as the American museum at the effort and impact of the Second World Omaha Beach. What I found was a museum War, a national memorial was built on “celebrating” Canadian multi-culturalism, Washington’s Mall only in 2004. Can a notion hardly present in the minds of Canada be that far behind? the kids who fought their way ashore on June 6, 1944. Dr. Patrice Dutil is a Professor in the Canadian veterans, in Cook’s work, are Department of Politics and Public shown as constantly having to argue in Administration at Ryerson University, a favour of a suitable recognition of the prolific author in Canadian political history, sacrifices of the 1939-1945 war. The Juno and co-host of the Champlain Society’s lively Beach Centre tells me that their campaign podcast Witness to Yesterday. must not end. Canadians everywhere need to take up this fight for history.
died for a just cause, and with ultimate The Canadian government failed its duty to remember but society has hardly done success. No equivalent compensation was better. It is striking to recognize how the sought from Japan for the tortured lives Canadian effort of the Second World War of Canadians who pained in its wartime has not penetrated the Canadian psyche, death camps. as did the Great War so deeply. In English The broadcast in early 1992 on the Canada, there are no great novels, plays or CBC of The Valour and the Horror, a movies of the second private production, war with Germany. marked the low point the Canadian A few very good, in this saga of selfgovernment failed its privately produced flagellation, shame duty to remember documentaries have and denigration. Its been shown, and three episodes focused also there are some on the disaster at excellent memoirs. Hong Kong, the bombing of Germany Ironically, there is nothing of the cultural and the single worst day of the Normandy importance of René Delacroix and Gratien campaign. Cook devotes a chapter to the Gélinas’s film Tit-Coq, Marcel Dubé’s play controversy the series engendered and then Un Simple Soldat or Roch Carrier’s novel examines the campaign to restore nothing La guerre, Yes Sir!, all products of Quebec less than honour to an entire generation. It artists. Their works are hardly supportive was led by a handful of politicians, historians, of war, but their treatments of soldiers are and concerned members of the veterans sympathetic and tender. At least they have community. not forgotten what happened between 1939 The coda is the story of a new Canadian and 1945, and their works have been taught War Museum in Ottawa, an impressive in schools for generations. undertaking that married artifact and The Second World War appears only in scholarship and prompted a new wave of some secondary-school history curricula, research and publication. There were also and most provinces do not even require other signs of hope, but not every hope a Canadian History credit. A Canadian was realized. The government of Canada must travel to France and especially the still could not be convinced to build and Netherlands to be reminded of what operate a museum near Juno Beach – where the “greatest generation” accomplished – thousands of Canadians had stormed ashore liberating literally millions of people from – so a group of activists and entrepreneurs Nazi rule – and what it cost. took on the task of rectifying the Canadian The Fight for History, making creative absence from D-Day. use of a broad range of literary and popular In the end a non-profit organization accounts, adds a stellar volume to the managed to secure funds and build a growing literature on how Canadians have museum, with the government ultimately remembered war. It’s one that surely ranks providing substantial funding. Cook is as a stinging critique of a nation hopelessly sparing in his judgments of this centre, but gripped by amnesia. There might be some I won’t be. I was there in 2018, expecting solace in the fact that even in the United something dignified, educative and as States, a country that routinely celebrates sobering as the American museum at the effort and impact of the Second World Omaha Beach. What I found was a museum War, a national memorial was built on “celebrating” Canadian multi-culturalism, Washington’s Mall only in 2004. Can a notion hardly present in the minds of Canada be that far behind? the kids who fought their way ashore on June 6, 1944. Dr. Patrice Dutil is a Professor in the Canadian veterans, in Cook’s work, are Department of Politics and Public shown as constantly having to argue in Administration at Ryerson University, a favour of a suitable recognition of the prolific author in Canadian political history, sacrifices of the 1939-1945 war. The Juno and co-host of the Champlain Society’s lively Beach Centre tells me that their campaign podcast Witness to Yesterday. must not end. Canadians everywhere need to take up this fight for history.
Original printed pages
