” The trampled earth returns a sound of fear, A hollow sound as if I walked on tombs, And lights that tell of cheerful homes appear Far of, and die like hope amid the glooms, A mournful wind acroes the landscape flies, And the wide atmosphere is full of sighs.”
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the colony of Canada, and the new born nation lying at its door were to test the strength of their martial forces.
The people of Canada ought one and all to become acquainted with the causes and progress of that struggle which carried its horrors to even so distant a point as Sault Sainte Marie.
The intrigues of Napoleon whose diplomats, by flattery, were able so easily to work upon the too evident conceit of the new people, the attitude of insolence and braggadacio assumed to the Motherland so lately repudiated and the ill-mannered denial of Britain’s rights on the high seas, all wrought together to bring about the ultimate results, and like heaped up fuel added to the burning.
As early as 1807 preparations were being rapidly pushed forward in such centres as Detroit, then was and the hungry eagerness of the Americans omened not well for future peace. But not until five years later did the flame shoot out and spread throughout the continent.
On June 18th, 1812, the following declaration of war was enthusiastically received by the United States’ Congress :
” An act declaring war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the U nited States of America and their territories.”
” Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that war be and is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United States of America and their territories, and that the President of the United States be and is hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval forces of the United States to carry the same into effect and to issue to private armed vessels of the United States commissions or letters of marque and general reprisal in such form as he shall think proper and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods and effects of the Government of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the subjects thereof.”
” (Sgd.) JAMES MADISON. “June 18th, 1812.”
Fiercely from the first did the battle rage along the frontier, especially about Niagara, where the soldiers of the King won for themselves undying glory, and the enemy was beaten at his own game.
The quiet little village by the Rapids was filled with excitement and speculation as to the probability of the war being carried to its doors, but for some time the people remained undisturbed.
At the beginning of hostilities the community consisted of about fifteen white families on either side of the river, all British in sympathy, presided over by Mr. Johnston and the Canadian Factor. The rest of the people were half-breeds and Indians.
The question arises born whence came these white men and half-breed children other than from French and Indian parents ?
Joachim Biron still living in the Sault (1903) at a very advanced age, relates how Scotsmen, travelling from the Hudson’s Bay posts in the North back to civilization through the forests and over the rivers, tarried for a time and finally settled in Sault Sainte Marie, stamping the impress of their nationality upon the settlement, and so it came about that most of the music at the happy Little dancing parties was decidedly Scotch in character, and many a bright haired half-breed child, like the famous Namgay Dhoola of Kipling fame bore a name that savored of another land.
But to return : It is a remarkable fact that three days before the news of war was received at Michilimacinac, word had been conveyed to St. Joseph’s Island, the sturdy remains of whose old fortress may still be seen overgrown by the tangled ivy, and Captain Roberts, the commandant there, immediately set out for the American post with a few regulars and about two hundred voyageurs, the latter under the command of M. Toussaint Pothier, and accomplished the seizure sans coup ferir, the astonished Americans not being aware that war had been declared.
Such a feat would naturally turn the eyes of the belligerents westward and with attention did the Americans regard the hamlet at the Sault, which, small in numbers, was yet large in patriotism and full of menace to the enemy of Britain.
In 1814 Colonel Croghan with a fleet of five ships, the Niagara, Caledonia, Tigris, Scorpion and St. Lawrence, set sail to retake the captured post at Mackinac.
On board these vessels was a land force of over woo men made up of 500 regulars, 25o militia men and a regiment of Ohio volunteers. But their coming was suspected, and Colonel R. Mc-Douall ” who was then in command at Mackinac, sent a hurried request to Mr. Johnston at the Sault for immediate aid.
Loyally did Johnston at once respond.
Gathering from all the vicinity, the voyageurs and engages to the number of one hundred, he armed and fitted them out at his own expense and, embarking them in bateaux, led the way down the river.
Croghan, the American, had evidently been warned to watch for reinforcements going from St. Mary’s River, and in order that they might be intercepted, he despatched two vessels under Major Holmes to stop the party and capture their stores. Johnston, however, had thought out his plans most thoroughly, and while the two gun-boats were sailing slowly through the North Channel, the bateaux were guided silently through what is known as the False Detour Passage and so arrived safely and in time at their destination. But they were really not needed, for after ” laying off” from the Fort for three days without attempting more than a feeble assault, Colonel Croghan, whose sword was afterward stolen by the Indians, sent an officer to demand Colonel McDouall’s surrender. On receiving the bluff officer’s curt reply the blockading fleet directed a faint attack and finally got under way and disappeared. In the attack, however, Major Holmes, whe had joined the squadron by this time, was killed together with fourteen men.
At Sault Sainte Marie the patriots fared much worse than those at the island fort.
Holmes, having failed in his principal undertaking of intercepting Johnston, pushed on to the Sault to wreak his vengeance on the people left behind, but they had anticipated his advent and had made what preparation the time allowed.
Caches were made in the woods where the most valuable portable possessions were hidden. In one of these, Armitinger, the trader, buried twenty bundles of furs, but ere the work was completed the American boats were sighted.
One hundred and fifty soldiers were soon swarming the two shores, looting and destroying, as the inclination swayed them,
On the approach of the vessels Mrs. Johnston and her children had fled to the woods and from their point of vantage they saw the destruction of their home.
On the north shore, the North West Company’s post was gutted and the saw millwhich boasted two sawsthe only saw mill in the whole Great West, was burned to the water’s edge.
A schooner belonging to the company lay at the upper end of the old portage road spoken of in the preceding chapter. This was set on fire and turned adrift. It dashed down the rapids and the blackened hulk was afterward discovered foundered on the island whereon now stands the International Dock.
Armitinger, the independent trader, seems to have been the only man who stayed on the scene to witness the end.
He was seized, as a matter of course, and was brought before Major Holmes who demanded of him whether he were a patriot, meaning thereby an American, or a Britisher.
The prisoner thought from the form of the question that he .had a right to appear mystified and would make no statement, save that ” he was an honest man, endeavouring to make a living and minding his own business, upon which, it is said, he was given his freedom.
The caches remained undiscovered, and the Americans having stolen as much as they could carry away, among the rest, much of Mr. Johns-ton’s goods, re-embarked and sailed gallantly away to join with the rest of the squadron in the ineffectual attack on Michilimacinac.
It is related in the Canadian Archives how Mr. McGillivray. who seems to have been the Factor here, with a certain Captain McCargo, a lake officer, and his crew, escaped in a North West Company’s boat from the head of the rapids and made for Michipicoten.*
There, on the 26th of July, they met Gabriel Franchere at the east end of the Michipicoten Bay and with him turned back to view the scene of destruction.
As far as the company’s stores were concerned,. the ruin was complete. The post site was changed to the east bank, of what is popularly known as the Fort Creek where the foundations of the Bourgeois’ house, of the magazine and barn may still (1903) be easily traced. t
Not until the next year, 1815, did Mr. Johnston and his brave comrades return permanently to their homes. Peace was then declared and busy hands at once began the work of reconstruction and repair.
Three years afterward, in 1818, Mr. Armitinger, a free trader, erected the house which still remains in part at the east corner of Queen and Pilgrim streets, and four years later he erected what is known as the Carney block, or stone house, on Queen street, almost opposite his former cottage. There was now no saw mill in the district and all the timbers which would likely be exposed were sawn and made ready in Montreal and shipped by schooner to the Sault.
Until 182o both sides of the river had been virtually British, but in that year the final change took place.
A detachment of soldiers of the United States under General Cass arrived upon the scene and the south ashore once more saw the flying of a hitherto unknown flag.
With bowed heads and sorrowful hearts did the Johnstons and their fellow townsmen with the assembled Indians watch the fluttering down of the loved ensign, and to the utmost height of the jealous flagpole’s top did they see hauled a banner which to them was without meaning, associations or traditions. But Time, the file that wears and makes no noise, has smoothed away the asperities. To the descendents of those loyal subjects of the King have the ” Stars and Stripes,” becomes very dear for they stand as the emblem of their great and wonderful country and rightly do they doff their caps to its waving glory as their brothers on the north shore reverently raise theirs to the older ” Union Jack.”