My Long Walk to Beaver Dams
A ‘slight and delicate’ Canadian woman defied twenty miles of rugged terrain in sweltering heat to warn of an impending attack by American invaders.
1813
King George III 1760-1820
A ‘slight and delicate’ Canadian woman defied twenty miles of rugged terrain in sweltering heat to warn of an impending attack by American invaders.
1813
King George III 1760-1820
In 1813, US President James Madison seized the opportunity afforded by Napoleon’s rampage across Europe to order his troops into the British colony of Upper Canada, where they sacked York (Toronto). Monday 21st June found US General Henry Dearborn in Queenston readying a nasty surprise for Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon, garrisoned in a country home at Beaver Dams near Thorold, Ontario.
I WILL tell you the story in a few words.
After going to St David’s and the recovery of Mr Secord,* we returned again to Queenston, where my courage again was much tried.* It was there I gained the secret plan laid to capture Captain Fitzgibbon and his party. I was determined, if possible, to save them. I had much difficulty in getting through the American guards. They were ten miles out in the country. When I came to a field belonging to a Mr de Cou,* in the neighbourhood of the Beaver Dams, I then had walked nineteen miles. By that time daylight had left me. I yet had a swift stream of water (Twelve-mile Creek) to cross over on an old fallen tree, and to climb a high hill, which fatigued me very much.
* Laura’s husband James Secord was seriously wounded in the Battle of Queenston Heights, a British victory on October 13th the previous year, and had been recuperating under his wife’s care ever since. The couple had married in 1797, and before the war they kept a little shop on the first floor of their home in the village of St Davids, which together with Queenston Heights now forms the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
* On May 27th, 1813, the American army had crossed the Niagara River and captured Fort George, gaining control of Queenston and the Niagara area. As he was not fit to fight, James was not deported to the USA as other men of military age were, but neither he nor Laura was left in peace, as they were moved into Queenston and American soldiers were billeted on them. The popular story goes that it was from the careless talk of these unwanted guests on the evening of June 21st that she learnt of General Dearborn’s plans. She stole out of the house early next morning.
* John DeCew (1766–1855) was a New Englander and British loyalist who emigrated to Canada in 1787 after the establishment of American independence. He founded a mill at DeCew Falls on Beaverdams Creek, a tributary of Twelve-Mile Creek, near Thorold in Ontario, and rapidly became a man of considerable means and influence. He served in the British Army during the War of 1812 but was taken prisoner early on. In the meantime, the British used his house at Beaver Dams as a military headquarters.