1 THE AFTERMATH OF THE 1781 CAMPAIGN Shameful, Dastardly Conduct
The surrender of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781 marked the failure of Britain’s strategic effort in the southern provinces and freed the victorious rebels and their French allies to shift their attentions northward for the 1782 campaign. Once again, Canada was seriously threatened by an Allied invasion.
When news of Cornwallis’s defeat was belatedly confirmed in Canada, Governor Frederick Haldimand reacted by making improvements to his province’s defences and tweaking his small army to improve its efficiency. At the same time, he was mindful of his responsibility to assist the main army at New York City by forcing the enemy to keep a body of troops on the northern frontiers.
Conventional wisdom is that, after its stunning victory at Yorktown, the United States enjoyed clear sailing on its path to independence and that the war simply fizzled out like damp priming. The contrary was the case. The rebels were unsure of how the British would react to their defeat, and terror and destruction continued to reign along the northern frontiers. The natives had been unaffected by Yorktown and, as long as the British continued to supply their war parties, the union’s northern and western reaches were vulnerable to attack. As the 1782 campaign unfolded in the Mohawk region, it proved as horrific as ever, while Congress fumbled its attempts to protect those brave inhabitants who clung to their thoroughly ravaged settlements.
Nor would New York’s war of words with Vermont cease. Having become fully aware of the little republic’s treacherous negotiations with the British, the state belaboured Congress with the details. Vermont’s sudden, bold seizure of a large area of New York, which it infuriatingly referred to as its Western Union, deeply rankled the state and, although the military posturing of the fall of 1781 between the two jurisdictions had momentarily quietened, animosity did not.
The news of Yorktown had interrupted Haldimand’s plans for Vermont, but in the new year he reorganized his approach and, in the process, would keep the little republic out of the war.
In addition to Congress’s worries about Canada, the Crown maintained large armies at New York City and Charlestown and, the Royal Navy, despite its failure to save Cornwallis, still dominated the Atlantic seaboard. The British also had large bases in Nova Scotia and Quebec, which were looming presences. To counteract these latter threats, the union had a tiny Continental navy and an underfed, underpaid, and undersupplied Continental Army.
Yet, all of this pertains to the future. To begin this account, it is necessary to step back in time, to immediately before the Yorktown disaster.
Although St. Leger’s expedition on Lake Champlain and Ross’s deep thrust into the Mohawk dominated Canada’s war effort in the northeast at the end of the 1781 campaign season, of course, the province’s other business continued unabated.
Of particular significance to Haldimand’s army, Lieutenant-General Baron Friederich Adolphus Riedesel arrived at Quebec City on September 10. The baron was a soldier of outstanding accomplishments. Although born a Hessian in 1738, the vast majority of his service had been under the Duke of Brunswick. As an ensign, he had spent time in England and become proficient in English and fluent in French. At the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War in 1756, his regiment had been recalled to Germany, where he served as an aide to the Duke of Brunswick. His actions during the momentous battle of Minden in 1759 led the duke to recommend the twenty-one-year-old to his landgrave, who in turn promoted him to a captain of Hessian Hussars; however, the young baron was soon recalled to again serve the duke under whom he performed a great many important services. Two years later, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of Brunswick Hussars and given command of a brigade of cavalry. In 1767, his regiment was disbanded and Riedesel was appointed the adjutant general of the Brunswick army, and five years later, the colonel of a regiment of dragoons.
Lieutenant-General Baron Friederich Adolphus Riedesel, 1738–1800. Haldimand’s trusted friend and confidant. After his return to Canada in September 1781, the baron became the department’s de facto second-in-command until his departure in 1783.
When the Duke of Brunswick signed a treaty in 1776 to supply a large contingent of troops to King George III, Riedesel was given command and promoted to major-general. Upon his arrival in Quebec, he was appointed to command Carleton’s contingent of Brunswick and Hessian troops and, in 1777, he served in the same capacity under Burgoyne and earned widespread approbation. Unlike Burgoyne, who was recalled to England after the surrender to defend the loss of his army, the baron had remained with his men and endured four years of captivity before being exchanged to New York City.1
During Haldimand’s first three years as commander-in-chief of Canada, he had grown very discouraged with the German troops that composed over a third of his army. Except for the Hesse-Hanau Jägers, he judged the other regiments incapable of wilderness campaigning, and he found that even the Hanau Jägers were of marginal use at the frontier posts, as they refused to perform the crucial manual labour expected of British and Provincial troops. Riedesel’s unexpected appearance in September was a blessing and, with substantial relief and high expectations, the governor gave him command of the German contingent. The baron was kept very busy with his new responsibilities and a month passed before he found time to report to Lord George Germain (the British Secretary for the American Colonies) that he had brought to Quebec 970 Brunswick and Hanau troops (like himself, they had been exchanged as part of the Convention Army) and recruits from Anhalt-Zerbst. This body of men landed at the same time as a recruit transport from Hesse-Hanau arrived with men for the Jäger corps and the infantry.
The Riedesels’ house, presently the Maison des Gouverneurs. Purchased by Haldimand for the Riedesel family at Sorel, the governor had several improvements made before their occupation.
In addition to commanding the German troops, Riedesel assumed responsibility for Sorel District. He was headquartered just outside of the town of Sorel, which, after Quebec City and Montreal, had become the third most important centre in the lower province. Haldimand had quickly determined that the baron was a man of keen intellect and dedicated professionalism. He had been instantly charmed upon meeting the general’s wife, Baroness Frederika Riedesel, and her children and had a new spacious