The Speares

Living the life in Gravenhurst



Ontario


Give us a Place to Stand



The French Republican Calendar, the Calendrier républicain Français, was created during the French Revolution in an attempt to secularize the existing
calendar (the one we use) which has many religious and various monarchist influences dating back to the time of the Romans. This was part of a broader push by the revolutionaries to sweep away all vestiges of the ancien régime, the ancient feudal and monarchist regime that had been the status quo for centuries in France. The new code of law, the Code civil des Français, is still in use today (with many revisions) amongst many countries who weren't influenced by Britain and its Common Law. The new system of weights and measures became the Metric System, which is in use today in all but three countries of the world. As for the new calendar: it didn't really catch on.


Republican years were numbered starting with the abolishment of the monarchy. So year I is what we might consider to be 1792. The new year began at midnight on the day in which the Autumnal Equinox would fall on the Paris Observatory, somewhere towards the end of what we would consider to be September, and then proceed through the months: Vendémiaire (vintage), Brumaire (mist), Frimaire (frost), Nivôse (snowy), Pluviôse (rainy), Ventôse (windy), Germinal (germination), Floréal (flower), Prairial (meadow), Messidor (harvest), Thermidor (summer heat) and Fructidor (fruit). Each of the twelve months was divided up into 3 décades of 10 days each, with the five or six extra days required by the solar year being considered Sanscullotides (after the sans-culottes, without breeches, the common folk of the lower classes) and they were celebrated as holidays. The ten days of a décade were themselves divided up into 10 hours, which were divided up into 100 minutes, which were themselves divided up into 100 seconds. So a Republican date of, let's say, 18 Brumaire, VIII, would be the date we would consider to be 9 November 1799. Either way, that is the date upon which a bloodless coup saw General Napoléon Bonaparte become the First Consul of France.

Relations between Britain and the new dictator were frosty. Napoléon was clearly taking over all of Europe and had his eye on Russia as well. Due to its naval superiority and the fact that it was an island, Britain was relatively safe from direct confrontation, and attempted a naval blockade to starve France out. But Napoléon was organizing all of Europe into the Continental System, basically threatening anyone who traded with the British, in an attempt to starve them out. So Britain and France (all of Europe) couldn't trade directly. Enter the United States.


The fledgling United States, all 19 of them, were making a killing trading with both France and Britain. Trade volumes almost quadrupled, even though, to circumvent certain treaties, the American merchant marine would often have to unload its cargo at a neutral port, load it up again on the same ship, and then carry on to destination with cargo that was now legitimately from a completely neutral port. With the doubling of its fleet and the additional work involved in playing three card monte with its cargo, the U.S. started attracting British Navy deserters to its merchant marine to help out. They offered better pay and working conditions than the British Navy. The British retaliated by seizing American ships at sea, searching for deserters and contraband, and pressing (kidnapping) useful sailors into service in the Royal Navy. As many as 15,000 of them. This led to several affairs involving skirmishes at sea. Tensions were running high between Britain and her former colonies.

As for relations between the colonies and France, there were tensions to be sure. Just as Britain was interfering with trade to France, France was interfering with trade goods flowing to Britain. As many as 731 American ships were stopped by the one or the other by 1807. But countering any anti French sentiment was the fact that in 1803 Napoléon had sold Louisiana to the Americans. "Louisiana" was roughly 1/3 of the present-day United States, and much of the remainder of New France. But France had only owned Louisiana for three weeks, a little over two décades, when they sold it; the previous owner was Spain, who had taken it from France in the first place. So with a murky deed to Louisiana, one half of the United States at the time, it was felt best not to make strong enemies of the French as long as Spain was a power. Which brings us to Portugal.


Portugal refused to become a part of the Continental System. They had been good friends with the British on and off ever since English crusaders helped kick the Moors out of Lisbon in 1147. Add to that the fact that the Spanish were going through a civil war, and therefore couldn't enforce a trade embargo against Britain, and Napoléon really had no choice but to invade the Iberian Peninsula. 70,000 French troops invaded the peninsula and brutally repressed the Dos de Mayo uprising, Spain's own revolution. As a by-product of unrestrained repression, and the fact that Napoléon made his brother king of Spain, Spain's control over its overseas territories, many of which were in the New World, was gutted. Suddenly, Spanish provinces overseas such as México saw an opportunity to become independent, and also to expand into previously Spanish controlled la Florida (contested), la Louisiana (murky), as well as the Provincias Internas including Tejas, Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California. All of these territories would, over the course of time, be annexed by the growing United States, along with the Oregon Territories, but that would be a story for another day. Were it not for Manifest Destiny.

The term Manifest Destiny wouldn't be coined for a
few years yet, but the sentiments were strong in America. Its core belief was that the United States, that is, the white Anglo-Saxon male population thereof, was destined by God to spread democracy and capitalism throughout all of North America, and towards the end of the 19th century, the rest of the Americas too. Hence the Americans' use of the term "American", where much of the rest of the world was using terms such as estadounidense or états-unien, or some other wording to the effect of a citizen of the United States. That aside, in 1812 the United States was one war with México and another with Britain away from doing God's work across all of North America. Minus Alaska, which is definitely a story for another day. In any event, you should really only enter into one war at a time, and México's turn would come in 1846. First up was Britain.


On 18 June, 1812, "Mr. Madison's War" - the war of 1812 between Britain and the United States, began when the States declared war on Britain. The reasons given were generally maritime grievances, and in particular the impressment of American sailors. The reason not generally given is that Britain was largely tied up across the pond. President Madison specifically maintained that the war was not about the annexation of the Canadas per se, although that would be a necessary first step, and that it may be difficult to relinquish the Great Lakes region once it was taken. Thomas Jefferson was more to the point. He said that at the conclusion of the war, "the cession of Canada must be a sine qua non (done deal) at a treaty of peace." and also "The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent." So off they went to invade Canada.

The invading armies were advised that "You will enter a country that is to become one of the United States. You will arrive among a people who are to become your fellow-citizens." And so conquest was seen more as a quick march north, being hailed as liberators, and drinks all around. This idea had some validity - at the time, three or four out of every five people living in Upper Canada were either American or their children, and that figure was a little higher in the Maritimes. A certain number of those Americans would have been Loyalists, with pretty black-and-white views of Americans invading British soil, but the bulk of them were here simply because there was free land, low taxes and no particular border. It is likely that if the Americans had simply refrained from invading, that all of British North America except Québec would have become American territory all on its own. Instead, an armed invasion forced people to choose sides, and generally, when people come at you with guns, you are against them.

So when the invaders arrived, even if their attack were initially a success, they would generally have to retreat when they encountered a determined underground resistance. In one memorable episode, invaders crossed the Niagara River to attack the British outpost of Beaver Dams, near present-day Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. But enroute they had to stop in American controlled Queenston, Upper Canada, for the night. That is where they ran afoul of Laura Secord, wife to an injured loyalist soldier. She braved a night journey of some distance through swamp and bush to warn the outpost of the next day's surprise attack. Lieutenant James FitzGibbon deployed his First Nations allies in a series of ambushes. The result, according to the Mohawk leader, was "The Caughnawaga got the victory, the Mohawks got the plunder, and FitzGibbon got the credit." The U.S. suffered 25 casualties and 50 wounded amongst 489 prisoners, though the Mohawk had little use for prisoners in general and wounded prisoners in particular so those numbers are only estimates.


But defending the colonies wasn't as easy as all that. With most of Britain's military might blockading the French and fighting on the Iberian Peninsula, there were only a little more than 5,000 troops in all of British North America - Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, St. John's Island, Newfoundland, and the Hudson's Bay Territories. The other side wasn't much better with around 7,000. These numbers would swell to 48,000 to the north and almost 36,000 to the south by war's end, but at least initially, the States would have to satisfy itself with small sorties north of the border and the British would have to deploy pockets of defenders where they could do the most good. So Lieutenant General George Prévost decided to concentrate his troops on the defense of Lower Canada at the expense of the wilds of Upper Canada, which were more vulnerable and would require more resources. Which is not to say that Upper Canada was either unimportant or defenceless. Upper Canada was where the Great Lakes were.

The waterway that was the Great Lakes was vitally important for two reasons: firstly, it made a logical and quite tangible border between the recently independent United States and British North America. Secondly, it was and always had been a major trade route, but more importantly, in times of war, a communications route. So Britain wanted to defend it. And the U.S. wanted to take it. And it would be largely a battle of ships. Except that there weren't all that many of them.

It's 1812. There's an eight mile portage at Montréal to get around the Lachine Rapids and into Lake Ontario. There's also an eight mile portage to get around Niagara Falls and gain entry to Lake Erie. There's actually a lock, compliments of the Northwest Fur Company, getting around the rapids at Sault Ste. Marie. But they will be destroyed by the Americans shortly and then, once again, there's a portage to get into Lake Superior. So any ships on any of the Great Lakes had to be built in situ.

At the commencement of hostilities, the British Provincial Marine was vastly superior to the American Navy on Lake Ontario. They had the naval dockyard at Kingston, and it had been busy making ships. The
Prince Regent had ten 12 pound short range carronades and two long range 6 pounders. The Royal George had twenty short range (but devastating) 32 pounders. The Earl of Moira, Duke of Gloucester, Seneca and Governor Simcoe brought another 38 guns to the Lake Ontario Provincial Marine. Countering them was the solitary US brig Oneida out of Sackett's Harbour with 16 guns.


It was a similar story on Lake Erie, and the British controlled it and also Lake Huron for the early part of the war. Their main fortification and shipbuilding center was at Fort Amherstburg, just this side of the river from Fort Detroit which had been given back to the States in 1796 and then taken back again at the outbreak of war in 1812 without any shots fired.

That story highlights how the early part of the war was to go. Brigadier-General Isaac Brock (British) attacked Fort Detroit and its 2,500 soldiers with an army of 300 regular plus 400 militia, who had recently been farmers, dressed up as soldiers. He also had the Shawnee chief Tecumseh with 600 braves who literally marched around in a circle in front of the fort so that General William Hull (American) thought there were at least 3 times as many.

Hull had been a Lieutenant-Colonel during the revolution when he was a young man and rose to national prominence after many successes. But now he was old and hadn't been a soldier for some time. And he was (rightly) scared to death of Indians generally, and Tecumseh's confederacy in particular. Brock knew this, and sent Hull a letter which said: "Sir; it is far from my inclination to join a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences." Hull surrendered without a fight, was court-martialled for cowardice and sentenced to death (commuted).

Fort Amherstburg, where Brock was stationed, had easy access to both Lake Erie and Huron. What it did not have was easy access to supplies. It took five months to get supplies, such as an anchor, from England. That anchor would cost its weight in silver by the time it arrived. So the British started the war with superiority in Erie and Huron, but quickly lost it when the Americans built a large shipbuilding center in Presqu'ile, Pennsylvania, which had (for its day) easy access to supplies from the south.

That left two more lakes: Lake Superior, with access to the riches of the west, and Lake Michigan, with access to the Mississippi watershed and ultimately Louisiana. At the nexus (more or less) of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, the French, then the British, then the Americans, had a fort called Michilimackinac to support the fur trade, as it had easy access to Huron and Michigan, and was a short paddle to Superior. It also had high ground, commanding the straits of Mackinac and any ships attempting passage. So the British took the fort back, again, with hardly a shot fired.

This story highlights the importance and difficulty of communications at the outset of war: The British knew all about the war, but the Americans at Michilimackinac did not. The fort commander, Lieutenant Porter Hanks, being unaware that his own country had declared war on Britain a month earlier, had not made any preparations for war, and he was taken in what he considered to be a sneak attack. Be that as it may, Britain now commanded the fort and therefore the straits and therefore the entire north west, which was vitally important as a means of stopping the war from spreading.


But there was a logistical problem keeping the fort supplied. The naval war on Lake Erie was not going so well by 1813. The Americans had turned the War of the Great Lakes into the War of the Carpenters, setting thousands of carpenters and shipwrights to the task of naval supremacy on the Great Lakes, and the Battle of Put-In-Bay on Lake Erie saw six British ships captured. Suddenly the Americans controlled that lake, and were starting to gain ground, so to speak, in Huron as well. So a safe supply route was needed between the supplies, which were at Fort York, one day to become Toronto, and Fort Michilimackinac, at the top end of Lake Huron. Such a route existed from the south end of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River. Schooners such as the Nancy would regularly ferry supplies and reinforcements from there to the fort at the Mackinack Straits. Getting supplies to the Nancy was easy enough: you floated them down from Fort Willow, which was on Willow Creek, which flowed into the Nottawasaga River. Getting the supplies to Fort Willow was another matter.

At the time, Yonge Street was little more than a swampy, stumpy and rocky donkey trail extending 35 or so miles from the harbour at York to Holland Landing, on the southernmost extremity of Cook's Bay on Lake Simcoe. From there, goods could be loaded aboard boats to make the journey up Cook's Bay and across Kempenfelt Bay, and thereby arrive at a military depot. This depot was at the start of the Nine Mile Portage, which had been in use for millennia and linked Lake Simcoe to Georgian Bay by way of Willow Creek, some nine miles inland. With the outbreak of war, and the subsequent fall of Lake Erie, this portage became key to the war effort. It was widened; not quite a road but no longer bush, and all of the people and goods necessary to the maintenance of Fort Michilimackinack flowed through this route. And then a funny thing happened.

It was April 1814. The war in Europe was suddenly over. At least for a while, but at the time it seemed it was over for good. Napoléon was captured and made the king of Elba, a single-use non-hereditary monarchy, created solely as a place to keep the dictator while not causing a civil war. Britain suddenly had a large military machine which was looking for something to do. And there was still that thing going on across the Atlantic.

Quite quickly, the Penetanguishene Road north from the Nine Mile Portage to the new naval shipyard at Penetanguishene on Georgian Bay got the green light. Orders were placed with the Royal Military and Naval Foundry at Chatham, England for the hardware necessary in the construction of a brand new 44 gun frigate to be built in Penetanguishene as a first step in retaking Lakes Huron and Erie. The bill of materials for this colossus included a 4,000 pound kedge anchor, which would be the smaller secondary anchor for the ship, and not the main anchor. So this was to be one big boat.

Meanwhile, reinvigorated British troops marched into Washington and burned down the White House and much of Washington in retaliation for the burning of York the previous year. They also brought the Battle of Lundy's Lane to a tragic stalemate - tragic for the British and the Americans, but a resounding win for Canadians. The Americans would not try an invasion through the Niagara region again.


And then the war started happening south of the border, which was not how the war was supposed to have gone. Britain had no intention of taking back the colonies, nor of funding a protracted war across the ocean, but the States of course couldn't know that. They found a whole new level of motivation. The Battle of Lake Champlain, on US waters, was a definite win for the Americans.

All in all, the annexation of Canada wasn't going so great for the one side, and for the other Britain wasn't really interested in continuing the war in any event. So both sides went to the peace talks at Ghent, Belgium, anxious to simply walk away from the war. The final outcome of the war of 1812, on 3 Nivôse XXIII, which some considered to be Christmas Eve, 1814, was status quo ante bellum, which is Latin for bupkes. All territorial conquests on either side were returned, everyone shook hands and went home. The 4,000 pound kedge anchor that would have been part of the Dreadnought of Lake Huron had made it as far as Holland Landing and it is still there today.


And that, then, is how the colony of Upper Canada avoided becoming the State of Canada, instead becoming the Province of Ontario.