Guy St-Denis - The True Face of Sir Isaac Brock

2018 Guy St-Denis

University of Calgary Press

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Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2N 1N4

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This book is available as an ebook which is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The publisher should be contacted for any commercial use which falls outside the terms of that license.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

St-Denis, Guy, 1960-, author

The true face of Sir Isaac Brock / Guy St-Denis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77385-020-7 (softcover).ISBN 978-1-77385-021-4 (open access PDF).

ISBN 978-1-77385-022-1 (PDF).ISBN 978-1-77385-023-8 (EPUB).

ISBN 978-1-77385-024-5 (Kindle)

1. Brock, Isaac, Sir, 1769-1812. 2. GeneralsCanadaBiography. 3. Lieutenant

governorsCanadaBiography. 4. CanadaHistory1791-1841. 5. CanadaHistory

War of 1812. I. Title.

FC443.B76S83 2018 971.032092 C2018-904211-7

C2018-904212-5

The University of Calgary Press acknowledges the support of the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund for our publications. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

Cover image Lieutenant George Dunn misidentified as Major General Sir Isaac Brock by J. Hudson, 1816. Royal Ontario Museum.

Copyediting by Kathryn Simpson

Cover design, page design, and typesetting by Melina Cusano

For

Gillian Lenfestey

La Dame du Fief le Comte

Contents

Oddly enough, this book began without my knowing it. A more curious distinction would be difficult to imagine, this I grant. Whereas most historians have some notion of the books they intend to write, I did not (at least, not in this particular instance). The research used here was actually intended for a biography, not an art history. The origins of this latter, inadvertent endeavour can be traced to May of 2001, when the acclaimed British historian John Sugden alerted me to the fact that Major General Sir Isaac Brock was in need of a new biographyby which he meant that I was the right person for the job. It was quite the compliment, but no amount of flattery could persuade me to launch headlong into such an audacious undertaking. Still, Brock was one of my childhood heroes and so the idea did hold a certain appeal. But then I began to fear that I might be out of my depth. While I knew that Brock was the British commander who died defending what is now Ontario during the War of 1812, the rest of his life was a mystery to me. I felt a sudden urge to familiarize myself with the great man, and the authoritative Dictionary of Canadian Biography provided a useful overview.

In 1785, when Brock was just fifteen years old, he entered the British army with the purchase of an ensigns commission in the 8th (or Kings) Regiment. Five years later, he used the same method to become a lieutenant. When the opportunity to raise an independent company presented itself, Brock was rewarded with a captains rank on half-pay (or semi-retirement). It was also in 1790 that he returned to full service by exchanging into the 49th Regiment, which he joined the following year in Barbados. After a near-fatal illness in 1793, Brock resumed his military career by recruiting in England. In 1795, he purchased a majority and two years later a lieutenant colonelcy was attained through similar means. His first taste of battle was in 1799, during the Anglo-Russian expedition to the Netherlands. He next came under fire in 1801, when his regiment participated in the naval operation against Copenhagen. But with the Treaty of Amiens early in 1802, Brocks exploits were abruptly put on hold. It was during this lull in hostilities between Great Britain and the French Republic that the 49th Regiment was ordered to garrison duty in British North America. Despite the seclusion of his postings, first to Lower and then to Upper Canada (Quebec and Ontario), Brocks rise up the chain of command continued unabated.

In 1808, three years after a promotion to full colonel, he was appointed a brigadier general on the staff of Sir James H. Craig at Quebec City. Towards the end of 1811, during a return to the command of Upper Canada, and having been promoted major general, Brock was designated to administer the government of that province in the absence of the lieutenant governor. He was still acting in this capacity when news of the American declaration of war reached him in June of 1812. Less than two months later, he forced the surrender of Detroit. That calculated risk worked in his favour, but a similar gamble the following October backfired with deadly consequences. Brock was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest while leading a charge against American invaders at the village of Queenston, twelve kilometres down river from Niagara Falls.

Because Brock did not achieve great fame until near the end of his life, and since those last few months had already been thoroughly scrutinized by earlier historians, I wondered if yet another biography could be anything more than a repetitious waste of time. Had I not come so highly recommended, I might have abandoned the idea altogether. But with John Sugdens encouragement, I decided to take up the challenge. Although I was still occupied with the writing of Tecumsehs Bones , I began looking into Brocks life whenever time permittedand I soon found my niche. By seeking out previously unexplored archival holdings, I would amass the fresh insights necessary for a new biography.

As my Brock research progressed, it occurred to me that I should also begin gathering illustrations for the upcoming publication. While I was interested in any and all portraits of Brock, one dating to near the time of his heroic death was also the most desirable. And I had good reason to believe there was such a portrait, given all the internet images labelled as such. Most of these claims were clearly false, but I was still cautiously optimistic that an authentic portrait of Brock as a senior officer could be found among all the digital misinformation. My approach to this problem was a very simple one. I simply kept an eye open, and whenever a picture of Brocks portrait came my way, it was copied and filed for future reference. This slap-dash routine seemed to work extremely well, and I congratulated myself for having things well in hand. However, it soon became evident that my system was becoming clogged with paper. Eventually, I had to resign myself to the necessity of a major sorting out. I dreaded the task, but the exercise did allow me to weed out a good number of files on various paintings, drawings, and even a few sculpturesall of which were obviously artists impressions and therefore beyond the scope of my project.

Having thus narrowed down the number of potential Brock portraits, my focus shifted to testing the authenticity of those that remained. A literature search consumed a great deal of time, and produced little to show for it. But delving into primary sources was well worth the efforteven if it seemed to take forever to accomplish the task. After consulting diverse and far-flung manuscript collections for the better part of a decade, I was finally able to reveal the true face of Sir Isaac Brock. In doing so, I developed a better understanding of the circumstances in which it and the other portraits were commissioned and carried out. And while I worried about not having enough material for so much as an appendix to Brocks biography, the envisioned appendix gradually began to look more like an article, then two articles, and finally the manuscript for a bookthis book.