American Revolution and Canada

Because it wasn't their revolution....

No other British colony joined in either.

Yep!

I think it's a bit more than that. What stopped Canada from joining in and booting out the British? Okay loyalty to the Crown and all that is self-evident but what was happening in Canada in 1770 that inhibited them from joining?
Was it that life was quite comfortable under the British? Was it that they were worried if they booted the British out that France would come back for another shot at it? Was it that the British were more benign in their dealings with Canada?

Curiousity is contagious I suppose (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

Well, the American Revolution can be thought of as starting with The Stamp Act, which sparked immiediate protests in the American colonies. Did The Stamp Act include the British?

Now for the real reason that Canada did not join the Revolution. At that time, Canada was looked at as a 14th colony and a stategic necessity by the Revolutionists. In 1775, George Washington sent two armies north to besiege Quebec City and conquer Canada. On December 31, 1775 American generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold launched a desperate assault on Quebec. They were defeated and driven back.

So, Canada did in fact participate in the early goings. The American Revolution is one of Canada's least-known, most important wars.

The Canadian victory at the siege of Quebec in 1775-1776 saved Canada from conquest and incorporation into the new United States.

Loyalist refugees added a significant English-speaking element to the population and led to the creation of the provinces of Upper Canada (Ontario) and New Brunswick. In 1867, the British colonies that rejected the American Revolution came together to form the Dominion of Canada.

So, in fact Canada has won 2 wars against the U.S. 1775 and 1812.

Intrepid - was the siege of Quebec the one in which James Wolfe was involved? Or am I completely off track here?

Didn't Canada sack Washington DC or at least lay it to seige a while back?

General James Wolfe fought the forces of General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. This was part of the French & Indian war.

Yes, that is true. It was during the war of 1812 and I believe that the burning of Washington was sometime in 1814.

Thanks.

Did the canadians not thought of themselves as a seperate colony, unlike the 13 colonies' revolutionaries? And was the American Revolution caused by the intolerable acts, or was it also caused by nationalism?

I know that Nova Scotia had British immigrants that came there and so was still close to Britain, probably needed it also.



Hmm, I've read that the war of 1812 did not really have a victor.



I've heard that that was the reason the White House was painted white, because it was burned in the war and to cover the burnt colours, they repainted it white... probably just a myth maybe.

Hmm, I've read that the war of 1812 did not really have a victor.

I think you might be right:

"By this time, the British public were sick of war, and the ministry was eager to wind it up and conclude peace all round. So, in the end, nothing much was said about anything in the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814."

Samuel Eliot Morrison (1965) The Oxford History of the American People.

In 1775, when Montgomery had marched north under orders from General Schuyler of the New York Militia, and when Benedict Arnold was preparing his expedition to Québec, Canadians were, by and large, of French descent. Only in the Maratimes was there any significant English-speaking population, and that was a thousand miles from the scene of the action.

Montgomery was ailing, and although the Americans occupied Montréal, they were certainly not trusted by the Canadiens, who were sitting the fence. The resentment of English-speakers there is understandable. Then, as now, Montréal has the only large concentration of English-speakers in Québec.

Arnold lead an heroic march through the wilderness of Maine. Moving up the Kennebec river in bateaux (clumsy boats badly built on the shore, largely for transporting supplies and any sick or wounded), they then marched up the Dead River to the Height of Land, and from there, past Lac Mégantic to the Chaudière, then descended to Québec. My sweetiepie and i drove that route through what are still the backwoods of Maine a few years back, going to Ontario from the coast of Maine via Québec. I wouldn't want to have a breakdown there now--Dog only knows how bad it was in the late autumn of 1775.

Montgomery was a good choice. He had served as a regular officer of Foot in what we call the French and Indian War, and had campaigned extensively in Canada, as well as in the Carribean. He arranged to join with Arnold in the assault on Québec. The ragged but still dangerous troops of Arnold crossed the St. Laurent and took the Lower Town. Then Arnold was badly wounded in an assault on a street barricade. Montgomery's New York militia hadn't minded a holiday march to Montréal in spring and summer, but quailed at assaulting a walled city into the teeth of a blizzard (they showed a similar worthlessness in the failed attack on Queenstown, Ontario, in December, 1812). Montgomery was killed and the assault collapsed. At one point, the roughly 150 defenders were withdrawing into the citadel, as the Americans were only blocks apart, but didn't know it. With the death of one commander and the severe wounding of the other, an assault by superior numbers which had very good chances of success in fact failed.

Arnold held on for months, but when the ice began to break up in the St. Laurent, he was forced to withdraw. Although Schuyler and the New Yorkers would some day be staunch allies and supporters of Arnold, at this point, the spring of 1776, the most of them had decamped home. Arnold's remaining force was much reduced by camp sickness, and he was forced to withdraw in a nightmarish race to escape the newly arrived English reinforcements. I cannot recommend too highly the historical novels of Kenneth Roberts, and in particular, A Rabble in Arms, which concerns itself with Arnold's campaigns in New York and New England early in the revolution. Roberts seems to believe that Maine is Gods' country, and that Benedict Arnold was shabbily treated by the Congress. Although the latter is true, Roberts fails to see Arnold's personality problems, and the positive talent he had for alienating those whose support he needed. It would be a much more entertaining read than mere history, which i know is too dry for most people.

The Canadians of 1776 were Canadiens, and they had sat the fence. When the English showed up in large numbers, and the Americans, who had never seemed willing to pay for what they took, retreated, the Canadiens shrugged, muttered tant pis, and went back to the hard but rewarding life of farmers in the river valleys.

Although the English-speaking Canadians grossly overrated their own performance in the War of 1812, they did not in fact ever enter the United States. General Brown and Winfield Scott campaigned extensively in the Niagara penninsula, and although largely a draw, the Americans, once they ditched the largely worthless militia, had fought well against the English regulars, and the Canadians mostly held the English coat.

Packenham's Penninsular War veterans burned portions of Washington in 1814. Several thousand Maryland and Virginia militia had opposed his advance with about 2,000 men at Bladensburg, Maryland, and had run before the English began to advance. A few hundred sailors and just over a hundred Marines then fought the English regulars to a standstill, retreating only after nightfall. The Marines marched away with all of their dead and wounded. One English officer had nothing but high praise for the Navy men, stating in a letter home that: " . . . they served the guns [the artillery which the militia had abandoned] even after all of their officers had been shot down, and we were among them with the bayonet."

America's great founding father humbug, Thomas Jefferson, had decided that we didn't need a professional navy, nor a professional army. He envisioned a gun boat navy and the defense of the homeland with militia. His successor, James Madison, a veteran of the revolution (a small man, he had distinguished himself for his courage in Washington's assault on Trenton, New Jersey in December, 1776) was morally and intellectually Jefferson's superior, but idolized the man nevertheless, and followed his policies once he became President himself. His Secretary of War, Johnson, was criminally incompetent. Fortunately for the United States, a good, professional navy remained from the first class force which Washington and Adams had built up. Time and again, the sailors and Marines would have to abandon the ridiculous scows to which they had been assigned as a part of Jefferson's gunboat navy, and fight on land. When Packenham transferred his regulars to Louisiana, and was defeated by Jackson (Packenham was killed in the failed assault), the sailors and Marines who had been stranded when their gunboats were sunk served the guns which ripped great holes in the ranks of hardened English veterans whose best effort was not good enough to break Jackson's line of Crescent City creole militia and Tennesee volunteers.

While it is true that Packenham burned Washington, the heroic stand by the Navy and Marines on land at Bladensburg had given the government time to evacuate (and, of course, as we were all told in school in the 1950's, little Dolly Madison saved all the paintings in the White House). Given that the Americans had burned York (present day Toronto) three times, i'd say we got the better of that exchange.

Great stuff Setanta, thanks.

Truly written from an American perspective

It is true that the war of 1812 was somewhat of a tie, but a victory in that Canada remained Canada and the Americans were not the victors.

U.S. forces were not ready for war, and American hopes of conquering Canada collapsed in the campaigns of 1812 and 1813. The initial plan called for a three-pronged offensive: from Lake Champlain to Montreal; across the Niagara frontier; and into Upper Canada from Detroit. The attacks were uncoordinated, however, and all failed. In the West, Gen. William HULL surrendered Detroit to the British in August 1812; on the Niagara front, American troops lost the Battle of Queenston Heights in October; and along Lake Champlain the American forces withdrew in late November without seriously engaging the enemy.

Actually, Canadians did enter America in 1814 when about 10,000 British veterans advanced into the United States from Montreal.

On August 19, 1814 British troops under the command of Major General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn landed at Benedict, Maryland on the shores of the Patuxent River. The British fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, had chased U.S. Commodore Joshua Barney's flotilla into the Patuxent River, but their true goal was the capture of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. ?- only a few days march away. At the same time, Vice Admiral Cochrane ordered Captain James Gordon to sail other British warships up the Potomac River towards Washington which was defended only by Fort Warburton (later renamed Fort Washington) on the east bank of the river, twelve miles south of the nation's capital. News of this British onslaught caused panic in Washington and many of its residents fled.

Although the Americans outnumbered the British at Bladensburg, they were no match for the well-disciplined professional soldiers under the command of Major General Ross. On August 24, after thousands of American militiamen had retreated, only a small contingent of flotilla men and marines under Barney's command managed a valiant but futile counterattack. The British troops then continued on to Washington.

Before leaving the city, First Lady Dolley Madison ordered White House possessions be packed and removed from the city ?- silverware, books, clocks, curtains, and most importantly, Gilbert Stuart's full-length portrait of George Washington. President James Madison escaped only hours before the British entered the city. In order to prevent the British from capturing it, the Americans set fire to the Washington Navy Yard. Upon entering the city, the British set fire to the White House, the Capitol, and many of the other public buildings. The Patent Office, however, was saved from destruction by the superintendent of patents, Dr. William Thornton, who convinced the British of the importance of its preservation.

The Battle of Bladensburg and the burning of Washington were humiliating defeats for the United States. Within a few days, however, citizens were able to return to the decimated city. The British left Washington as swiftly as they had entered, moving on to capture the City of Alexandria and lay siege to Baltimore.

The Marimes poplulation quickly grew with Loyalists that fled there after the Revolution.

When peace was established in 1783, many thousands of Loyalists, who were referred to as Tories by their fellow countrymen, left the newly created United States. They started their lives afresh under the British flag in Nova Scotia and in the unsettled lands above the St. Lawrence rapids and north of Lake Ontario.

This huge influx of settlers, who were known in Canada and England as the United Empire Loyalists, marked the first major wave of immigration by English-speaking settlers since the days of New France. Their arrival had two immediate consequences for the British colonies. Both the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia and the inland colony of Quebec had to be reorganized.

The previously unsettled forests to the west of the Bay of Fundy, once part of French Acadia, had been included in Nova Scotia. In 1784 this area was established as a separate colony known as New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island was simultaneously separated from Nova Scotia (a division that was ended in 1820). In all, some 35,000 Loyalist immigrants are believed to have settled in the Maritimes.

The settlement of the more inaccessible lands north and west of Lake Ontario and along the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence proceeded somewhat more slowly. About 5,000 Loyalists came to this area.

It was clear that these United Empire Loyalists who had come to the western wilderness of what was still part of Quebec would not long be satisfied with the limited rights and French laws established by the Quebec Act. Accordingly, in 1791 the British Parliament enacted the Constitutional Act, whereby Quebec was split into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Each of these was to be governed by a legislative council appointed for life and a legislative assembly elected by the people.

The right to be represented in a lawmaking assembly was something new for the French-speaking inhabitants of the lower province. Legislative assemblies had been in existence in Nova Scotia since 1758, in Prince Edward Island since 1773, and in New Brunswick since 1786. Representative government, however, was not responsible government, as was to be demonstrated before another 50 years had passed.

At the time of the revolution roughly a third of the british colonists in the americas supported the revolution, a third were torys, and a third didn't care. When the revolution was over and the colonies were independent life was difficult for the american torys, and a lot went to canada (or back to mother England).

An interesting case is Sir William Johnson, a trader who settled in western NY state who by wit, guile, and honest trading persuaded the Iroquois nations into remaining neutral in the French and Indian Wars. History doesn't American history doesn't remember him well because 10 years later Sir William was loyal to George II and was forced by his patriotic neighbors to move his trading post to Canada.

Rap

The fact remains that Penninsular veterans burning Washington and Canajuns burning Washington are two entirely different things. Your references to the Niagara campaigns are definitely written from a Canajun perspective. It was Isaac Brock who made the difference in thwarting American invasion plans. He buffaloed old General Hull into surrendering to inferior forces at Detroit (such a shame, his nephew, Commodore Hull, was even then making history from the deck of Constitution), and then hurried the length of Upper Canada to meet the anticipated invasion there.

More than anything else, the 1812-1813 American land campaigns against Canada were doomed by the incompetence of Secretary of War Johnson, and the reliance upon militia and political appointments of officers. That damned fool Brock got himself killed at Queenston in December, 1812, and the Canajuns got a big head over a valiant defense of their province which in fact never occurred. When the Americans were finally routed and surrendered at Queenston, it was the appearance of the Mohawks which did it, and certainly had nothing to do with a Canajun militia who milled around and wrung their collective hands after Brock was shot down.

Brock, of course, was raised to the level of Saint, with Brock Ellementary School this and Brock Technical School that, and his name proliferated all across lower Ontario. Bishop Strachan and his famous speech about the Canajuns going it alone and hauling the Brits out of the fire was all hogwash--when campaigning settled down to real warfare, it was English regulars v. American regulars, and the Indians and militia on both sides be damned. The overweeing pride of Canajuns at an heroic militia that never was all went smash when Col. O'Neil and his band of Fenian veterans of the American Civil War humiliated the Canajuns at Ridgeway, very nearly on the same ground where Winfield Scott fought the English to a standstill in the battle of Lundy Lane in 1814.

Plenty of shame and phoney heroes to go around on all sides.

I reflect upon the irony of Queenstown, Lundy Lane and Ridgeway every time i cross from Lewiston to Queenston or back, but nobody is ever interested in talking about it.

Oh, and now i'm waiting to hear about your heroine Laura Secord--are you aware that she was born in Massachusetts, and was an American immigrant? Or is that sort of comment forbidden about genuine national heroines, and namesakes of modest candy sales?

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